This is my weekly reminder to tune-in to Sinking with Sylvia (and Sometimes Todd) on Little Radio Thursday from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM PST. Tomorrow they’ll be doing an 7” show. Hopefully that means they’ll be playing some rare gems. They’ll also have Deerhoof tickets to give away. Also on Little Radio, Scott Ford’s holding a contest for unsigned bands on his show. The winner gets some recording time at Little Village and music released on a Capitol Records compilation.
On October 25, Sylvia conveniently forgot to play my track (at least it helps me catch up a little). But on November 1st (download the podcast) the theme of the show was music from the 1990s. I was in high school and college in the 1990s, so obviously there’s a ton of music I could have chosen. In the early days of this blog (November 2005), I did a countdown of my top 20 albums from the 1990s (11-20 Here & 1-10 Here). Looking back on it, I still agree with it in principle. I’ve gotten so disinterested in what Beck and the Flaming Lips are doing these days, I’d probably push Wilco, Elliott Smith and Belle & Sebastian above them. Anyway, I didn’t pick anything from that list on November 1st, opting instead for something more obscure.
I did my undergraduate degree in Lawrence, Kansas. The mid-1990s was a fairly fertile time for the music scene in Lawrence and Kansas City. Major labels were still on the hunt for grunge soundalikes and/or the next Seattle. Paw might have been the most successful band of that time & place (at least on the national scene). They got signed to A&M and had a minor MTV hit with Jessie (a grungey tune about a dog that also had a weird pedal steel solo). Another band that got a major label deal (Arista) was Stick. I may have made it into a mosh pit or two at their shows. One of my favorite local artists at the time was Kill Creek. They were signed to Mammoth Records which was a pretty big indie at the time (before getting gobbled up by Disney/Hollywood/Buena Vista). Their crunchy, power pop still holds up pretty well. There was also a fairly active early Emo (post Sunny Day Real Estate, pre-Hot Topic) scene. Some of the stars of that scene were Vitreous Humor (who were signed to Crank! – an LA based label), Boy’s Life (also on Crank! for an album) and Giant’s Chair. There were a couple of other heavy bands that I went to see about every other week (Shiner, Season to Risk (Columbia) and Tenderloin (Warner Bros.) spring to mind).
There are really only two bands from that place/era that I still listen to today: Butterglory and Zoom. Butterglory was a lo-fi indie band on Merge who were constantly compared to Pavement. While Butterglory maybe never quite put measured up to that, they did release some minor gems that hold up for the genre. Lead singer, Matt Suggs, continues to record for Merge. He has released two albums under his own name, and is currently records under the name White Whale.
Which, at long last, brings us to the song I picked on 11/1/07… Zoom’s “Balboa’s Cannon.” After all that buildup, I’m too tired to write anything else. There’s a good review of the album (written by an old friend from Lawrence) on the All Music Guide. I will say that I still really dig the guitar sound on the record. It’s like a mix of surf guitar and Polvo. The record was produced by underground legend, Greg Sage of the Wipers. Here’s a download of “Balboa’s Cannon” (via Built On a Weak Spot). One of the guitarists on the record was Jeremy Sidener who went on to play in Panel Donor (another good Lawrence band) and now plays bass in the Danny Pound Band (the new band from the lead singer of Vitreous Humor). Sidener recently toured with Pink Nasty as well.
On October 25, Sylvia conveniently forgot to play my track (at least it helps me catch up a little). But on November 1st (download the podcast) the theme of the show was music from the 1990s. I was in high school and college in the 1990s, so obviously there’s a ton of music I could have chosen. In the early days of this blog (November 2005), I did a countdown of my top 20 albums from the 1990s (11-20 Here & 1-10 Here). Looking back on it, I still agree with it in principle. I’ve gotten so disinterested in what Beck and the Flaming Lips are doing these days, I’d probably push Wilco, Elliott Smith and Belle & Sebastian above them. Anyway, I didn’t pick anything from that list on November 1st, opting instead for something more obscure.
I did my undergraduate degree in Lawrence, Kansas. The mid-1990s was a fairly fertile time for the music scene in Lawrence and Kansas City. Major labels were still on the hunt for grunge soundalikes and/or the next Seattle. Paw might have been the most successful band of that time & place (at least on the national scene). They got signed to A&M and had a minor MTV hit with Jessie (a grungey tune about a dog that also had a weird pedal steel solo). Another band that got a major label deal (Arista) was Stick. I may have made it into a mosh pit or two at their shows. One of my favorite local artists at the time was Kill Creek. They were signed to Mammoth Records which was a pretty big indie at the time (before getting gobbled up by Disney/Hollywood/Buena Vista). Their crunchy, power pop still holds up pretty well. There was also a fairly active early Emo (post Sunny Day Real Estate, pre-Hot Topic) scene. Some of the stars of that scene were Vitreous Humor (who were signed to Crank! – an LA based label), Boy’s Life (also on Crank! for an album) and Giant’s Chair. There were a couple of other heavy bands that I went to see about every other week (Shiner, Season to Risk (Columbia) and Tenderloin (Warner Bros.) spring to mind).
There are really only two bands from that place/era that I still listen to today: Butterglory and Zoom. Butterglory was a lo-fi indie band on Merge who were constantly compared to Pavement. While Butterglory maybe never quite put measured up to that, they did release some minor gems that hold up for the genre. Lead singer, Matt Suggs, continues to record for Merge. He has released two albums under his own name, and is currently records under the name White Whale.
Which, at long last, brings us to the song I picked on 11/1/07… Zoom’s “Balboa’s Cannon.” After all that buildup, I’m too tired to write anything else. There’s a good review of the album (written by an old friend from Lawrence) on the All Music Guide. I will say that I still really dig the guitar sound on the record. It’s like a mix of surf guitar and Polvo. The record was produced by underground legend, Greg Sage of the Wipers. Here’s a download of “Balboa’s Cannon” (via Built On a Weak Spot). One of the guitarists on the record was Jeremy Sidener who went on to play in Panel Donor (another good Lawrence band) and now plays bass in the Danny Pound Band (the new band from the lead singer of Vitreous Humor). Sidener recently toured with Pink Nasty as well.
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