Back in the day, you couldn’t just stream new music on the internet or download mp3s. If you wanted to get into some new shit that was good, you had to read reviews (in mainstream or underground press), or listen to college radio, or sample new records at local record shops. New CDs were nominally priced at $12 to $18, same as now, but it was a lot more expensive back then.

I was always keen to find a label compilation where you could sample a bunch of upcoming releases for a low promotional price. To announce their 1998 slate of fall releases, SubPop put out Sound:CHECK, a double disc collection featuring two songs from each artist. I can’t remember what I paid, but it was for sure less than $10, and I might have gotten it for free. 

As a Screaming Trees fan, I was mostly interested in hearing the new Mark Lanegan tracks. But I ended up falling in love with songs from Pernice Brothers and The Spinanes instead. The Spinanes’ Arches and Aisles and the Pernice Brothers' Overcome By Happiness would become two of my all time favorite albums. It also has standout songs from Damon and Naomi ("The Turn of the Century”), Elevator to Hell (“To Breath”), and one of my favorites from The Jesus and Mary Chain ("Degenerate”). 

The Pernice Brothers is the second band from Joe Pernice following his earlier alt-country group, Scud Mountain Boys. They’ve put out a ton of good records since, but this first album is still their best. It’s maudlin and overwrought in a few spots, but when their orchestral pop isn’t being whiny and slow, it’s a graceful Elvis Costello-ish pop wonder, and it’s one of the great albums about transitioning into adulthood. My favorite Tracks: “Overcome By Happiness,” “Clear Spot,” “Monkey Suit” and “Shoes and Clothes.” 

The Spinanes began as a duo featuring songwriter and singer Rebecca Gates and drummer Scott Plouf, and put out well-received records in 1993 and 1996. But Plouf left the band in 1997 to play full time with his other band, Built to Spill. Gates then recruited Joanna Bolme (Quasi, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks) and Jerry Busher (future Fugazi roadie and percussionist) to play on a new record produced by John McEntire and recorded at Easley Studios in Memphis, where Pavement's Wowee Zowee was recorded (see my 1995 essay about Pavement, "Father to a Sister of a Thought”).

The Spinanes’ Arches and Aisles came out in September 1998, and it is the last and best of the band’s three albums. Plouf's departure freed up Gates to build a richer, more melodic and textured record than had been possible as a duo. It's the spiritual sequel to Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville that we never really got from Phair herself. It's more grown up and musically sophisticated, with post-college lyrics about office politics, business casual sex, and men who fail upward and are failing as lovers. As a dude, it can sometimes sound like you're eavesdropping and overhearing things you'd rather not hear.

But you can’t stop listening. These songs are so great. “Greetings From the Sugar Lick” is a towering, woozy hangover that culminates in pity sex, withering insults, and two brief, fuzzed out guitar solos that somehow say more than the words do. My other favorite songs: “72-74,” “Love, the Lazee,” “Reach V. Speed,” and “Den Trawler.” 

Side Note 1: John McEntire’s work on this last Spinanes record was my gateway into the producer’s other musics and bands, including Tortoise, Sea and Cake, and Gastr del Sol. I would then go further down the post-rock rabbit hole with Bedhead, Jessamine, and Mogwai.

Side Note 2: My rock band was able to open for Pernice Brothers twice when they came through Houston. Nearly got to open a third show, but city officials showed up and locked the venue down before we could play because Walter’s on Washington allegedly hadn’t paid their taxes. I’m probably leaving out part of that story (correct me in the comments). We also got to do a show with Rebecca Gates once at Rudyard’s. Fewer than 10 people were at that show, and Gates didn’t seem at all happy to be there either. But some shows are like that.

Favorite lyrics:

You say she needs it, do you think she needs it? The trouble with you is you just can't see the truth We'll meet at your house, have it all out Pull your clothes off, let's get this over with

Compilation Blues:

I wanted to finish by listing some of my favorite label comps and the bands/songs I got into because of them:

Heck on Wheels Volume 3: This Warner Brothers comp featured Belly’s “Gepetto” and The Flaming Lips "She Don't Use Jelly,” but I remember it because this is how I first heard Uncle Tupelo. Their classic single “New Madrid" from Anodyne is on here.

DGC Rarities, Vol 1: This compilation had a bunch of throw away songs from a bunch of awesome 90s bands who were otherwise (with the exception of Nirvana—Kurt Cobain had just died) at the very tops of their games in July of 1994. Most of these songs are middling to terrible afterthoughts. But the Counting Crows must have misunderstood the assignment, because their included song is the career highlight and fan favorite “Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman).” Trivia: both the Nirvana and Beck tracks begin with the lines “Monkey See…” Curiously, there never was a Volume 2. Not surprisingly, given the overall quality, there never was a Volume 2.

What’s Up Matador?: This 1997 comp was kind of a greatest hits for Matador Records, which had become the most visible and critically successful indie rock label of the 90s. For me anyway, if a record came out on Matador I knew it was gonna be good. I felt the same way about Merge and K Records too. Favorite tracks included Silkworm's “Couldn't You Wait?” and Tobin Sprout's "Small Parade,” which is easily my favorite song from Robert Pollard's early Guided By Voices sidekick.

Gimme Indie Rock, Volume 1: This 2000 compilation came from K-Tel records, which you may know as the ultra-cheesy, as-seen-on-TV purveyors of “major hits from the original artists!” K-Tel were the “Now that’s What I Call Music” of the 60s/70s/80s. The surprise is that this compilation is actually a decent survey of 80s college rock. It's missing giants like Sonic Youth and Camper van Beethoven. The comp is named after a Sebadoh song, and Sebadoh isn't here either. But it does include a lot of bands I'd not heard of at the time I bought it. It’s the first place I heard the Mekons’ sublime “Ghosts of American Astronauts.” There never was a Volume 2 for this comp either.

Exposed Roots - The Best of Alt.Country: Also from K-Tel, this 1999 comp tackled alternative country music or, “No Depression.” As with Gimme Indie Rock, K-Tel weren't able to license the most obvious champion and namesake, Uncle Tupelo. But the collection includes almost everyone else who mattered at the time. This comp introduced me to the Handsome Family, a band I am eternally falling for.

International Pop Underground Convention Various Artists 1992, K Records

My entrée to basically every art scene I’ve ever been involved in was basically just going to whatever extremely DIY festival that scene threw in my city and hoping. You see what seems like an unfathomable number of artists good and terrible (and very occasionally great), hit most of the venues, bars, and spaces worth knowing about, and sometimes even strike up some conversations with people who eventually become your friends. 1991’s International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia, organized by Candice Pedersen and Calvin Johnson of K Records, was the indie model for these fests as I’ve known them, and so it’s as directly responsible for a lot of the good stuff in my life as any musical event I can think of. Everything I’ve heard about it sounds like absolute paradise—the platonic ideal of all the times I’ve picked through mountains of sick screenprinted t-shirts by bands I’ve never heard of, eaten some weird and great food by a tattooed baker, and then ridden my bike on shrooms to catch bits of four shows on the same night, all on a dime.

The lineup on this double-live compilation is all over the place musically, but it does a beautiful job of summarizing the thing indie/alternative music of the era shared despite its sonic diversity: a sense that the music you liked and what it represented could be a space of legitimate opposition to corporatism; that there was something worthwhile in wearing that belief on your sleeveless t-shirt; that the notion of “selling out” had some real conceptual worth; that we’re in this thing together. So, the International Pop Underground Convention LP serves up first-wave riot grrl (Mecca Normal, Bratmobile); DC post-hardcore (Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi); twee indie pop (Beat Happening; Spinanes); noise rock (Melvins; Unwound); grunge-y stuff, primitive singer-songwriter folk, surf rock, plunderphonic DJ sets, and more and more besides, all recorded live and kinda badly but “real.” As individual performances, few are essential, but collectively they are a powerful document of the alternative scene as it existed in the moment right before Nevermind changed everything.

I always think about how crazy it must be for someone like Nikki McClure, an Olympia visual artist who designed a bunch of early K Records sleeves and released a handful of EPs on the label, to have a performance preserved on the same disc as all these icons. On the one hand, it's not like she sits around in awe of like Beat Happening in the same way a fan would—they were friends and part of the same community, and probably still are to this day. But on the other hand, I’m sure when she comes across a copy of this LP there’s sometimes a dazed moment when it seems like that young Nikki singing her funny little a cappella song must be someone else entirely, the record itself an object manifested from a dream. But the International Pop Underground Conventional was real, and in its way, it carries on to this day.

10/5/20.

Finally...a band I to which I often refer, buick, has reissued their only release in all of its glory.  Originally released in 1992, this band was certainly a product of it’s time, but ahead as well.  Yes, there are obvious (as the band concedes) nods to Sonic Youth.  But there is so much more here.  This was recorded well before the “formation of Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky”.   To me, this sounds as vital today as it was back in the early 1990s.  In fact,  Scott’s mentioned that his “favorite reference to possible influence[s] came from Thin White Rope's Guy Kyser when he stated after one of our shows, "You sound like Dick Dale with his brains knocked out." This is made all the more funny since I didn't know who Dick Dale was at the time.”

buick was Scott Lawrimore (guitar) and Jeff Clark (drums).  While a drum-guitar duo isn’t weird today (Japandroids or No Age come to mind), in 1992 there wasn’t a band like them (maybe Spinanes...but not really).

Generally speaking, the band wasn’t entirely happy with the original mix - both felt it missed their quiet/loud arrangements.  So, Scott enlisted John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake) to remix.

But, only a guitar, and drums?  How do you get this much out of two instruments.  I asked Scott Lawrimore to comment:

How did you get the sound you did (on guitar)?Most cuts only have one guitar —like in our live performances—recorded in one take on two tracks. One mic was on a Fender Twin Reverb (made in the same year I was, 1970) in a large gym-sized room, and one mic was simultaneously capturing a 4x12 speaker cabinet in a small tiled bathroom. The bass and mids were turned waaaaay up, and the treble ratcheted down on the Twin to counter the jagged, jangling highs produced by the humbucker pickups on the Rickenbackers I used for most songs. Since we were just guitar and drums, all songs use open tunings and those bass-heavy amplifier settings to flesh out a ringing wall of sound behind the main guitar phrasing. I'm sure the tunings have official musical nomenclature, but I discovered them on my own through trial and error.  As a self-taught, unconventional guitarist, open tunings helped me to 'find my sound' while also cutting me slack for not being anywhere near a virtuoso. There were four different guitars used for the album: a 1990 solid-body Rickenbacker 610 (for Lucy Conrad, Excellent Liar); a 1980 hollow-body Rickenbacker 330 (for Homage to Lucien Freud, Badhead, The Moon is Not a Yellow Sow, and Immortality); a 1970 Fender Jaguar (for Phrenology, and Brown Blackstars); and my first guitar, a sweet $100 pawn shop Les Paul copy (for Graves). The hollow-body Ric was my preferred guitar because it produced the most controllable 'voiced' feedback (a ridiculous amount, actually). Typically this would not be sought after, or embraced, but everytime you hear feedback on the album, it's intentional and coming from that 330. I always loved showing up to gigs with that guitar and the audience assuming we were going to whip out some Byrds or R.E.M. jangle, and then SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!—that first ear-piercing feedback driving half the audience out of the room...

Did Jeff just get to create his own sound?  

Origin Story:[Scene opens on the crunchy, tabouli-stained Coffee House of UC Davis just before the summer break of 1990; Scott is behind a cash register wearing a t-shirt he recently spray-painted with the word "Hectic" under a smelly thrift store suit jacket three sizes too big; Jeff approaches wearing an On-The-Waterfront-leather-jacket over a 10,000 Maniacs t-shirt, his grease-slick-black hair partially hidden by a Stanford baseball cap.] Jeff [apropos of nothing in particular]: Wanna start a band? Scott [thrown off by 10,000 Maniacs shirt]: What do you play?J [confidently]: Nothing yet, but I'm going to teach myself to play the drums this summer.S [skeptically and expecting to maybe never see Jeff again]: Ok. Let's try to get together when you get back... Not-such-a-spoiler Alert: Jeff taught himself to play the drums that summer. Apparently he holed himself up in an unused bedroom of a house he was taking care of in southern California and tried to play along with the first two Throwing Muses albums that he had on constant repeat. Funny in hindsight that that is the band he chose considering what we ended up sounding like, but if you listen carefully to their songs like Call Me or Juno, you hear a lot of what was to become Jeff's rumbling tom work and syncopated fill sensibilities. In terms of whether I had a hand in Jeff's sound for our songs, the short answer is "no." When we played together for the first time, I had figured out all the parts for precisely one song—we called it First Song for a long time before naming it Homage to Lucien Freud for the original CD. For the opening chord progression, and just to get us started, I asked Jeff if he could play the drums of Sonic Youth's Tunic (Song for Karen) from the Goo album that had been released that summer. Of course he could. Perfectly. We played that six-chord progression three or four times through like we had been playing together forever when someone banged on the door yelling for us to "turn it fucking down." That was the abrupt end of our first session, but set the tone for everything that was to come... The fact that Homage to Lucien Freud now begins with Jeff's rumbling toms and bears little resemblance to Tunic is a testament to how all of our songs tended to evolve collaboratively. I would have a number of 'parts' or quiet/loud 'moments' or remedial-math-rock 'transitions' that I would play for Jeff and then he would figure out all the drum details for those sections. I had an ear and desire for song dynamics, but it was Jeff that perfectly filled and requited them. Learning those transitions and moments was key, but many songs had sections that we never played the same way twice—the call-and-response section starting at the 1:38 mark of Graves, for example, or the harmonics-to-mayhem-chord section starting at 1:54 mark of Badhead. When we played live, I would simply indicate to Jeff that a change was coming and he would be there with something amazing.

♀️☌ ☊ Is Stanley ‘Thunderstruck?’ ‘Thunderstruck’ is one of my favorite people. I remember he stopped posting for several weeks and I missed him. I write him sometimes, just to let him know how much I appreciate his contributions to the art community I follow. Stanley was wearing an Indiana Jones hat. I loved that too. In real life I am sort of like Perry, the mad homeless professor and Lydia, the shy accountant, hiding in her cubicle with a romance novel, from: ‘The Fisher King.’ I guess the dual roles symbolize my masculine side (♑️🌝) and my feminine side (♋️🌞); which are already in a divine relationship. That is what makes me a whole person. I rarely read romance novels actually, but I LOVE to keep a copy of Juxtapoz at my desk and stare at art while I work. I sometimes imagine moving to England and working for Stanley. I would LOVE to interview artists for a living. I think I would be good at it. I think I LOVE Stanley’s smile. It went straight to my heart, like a lightening bolt. I suppose I am a little ‘Thunderstruck’ by him. He edifies me. I wish he was my best friend in real life…or my boss. I might boss him around, too. I am such a flirt. I’m always falling in love with someone 💖

🌘 ☸︎ ♂ Who is slinging mud around? Let’s not resort to mud wrestling, like pigs. Someone might get hurt. What have you become, Elon? The best thing about Elon is his emerald mine and I NEVER see him wear emeralds. Elon, you are no wizard of Oz, without wearing an emerald. Why defund meals on wheels? WTF happened to your heart? Maybe if you wore an emerald you would grow one back. Are you are a wizard or a Tin Man, Elon?

🌘 ☸︎ ♄︎ I don’t have much more debris left in my back to remove. I guess all my hard work has paid off. I still have my mind, body and spirit. I might actually be able to start working again and start building my life back up. How about you? No one can make you complete, but we can certainly make each other better people, by caring about each other; rather than trying to tear one another apart.

🌘 ☌ ♅︎ I was thinking about ‘Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.’ The scene where the shaman is tearing out people’s hearts is terrifying. What an asshole. Take care of your own heart. Don’t take love away from someone out of jealousy. Love should inspire more love, not less.

🌘 < 🌞 I used to sleep with a large Shiva Lingam stone. Remember, I’ve slept alone for decades longer than I have ever slept with someone. Shiva Lingam’s are very comforting and protective for single people. Not only did the evil Shaman in ‘Temple of Doom’ steal individual’s hearts, he also stole Shiva Lingams which were the heart of a community. The evil shaman also took children and made them servants, completely ignoring child labor laws. It feels like all the love and comfort in our communities, in real life, are being stolen. Where is Indiana Jones, when we need him? I suppose it might take more than one person to save Americans from ourselves. Why do we have to fight for love? No one wins.

🌘 ☸︎ ☿︎ I should write more love letters.

🌘 ☸︎ ♆︎ I should give out more compliments. How about this: Lon Milo Duquette, I LOVE your YouTube lectures. I know the Solomon lecture was for me. Thank you for being you. You remind me of me sometimes. I suppose it is because we are both Queens of Cups.

🌘 ☍︎ 🦚 We live in an ugly world. I suppose that is why I love looking at art.

🌘🔺 ♇︎ I’ve never been to Hawaii. I think it might be cursed. People are always telling me to travel there. Apparently that is some code for becoming a half whore bot person, to complete another half whore bot person. Two halves don’t make a human. Some people need to fucking remember that.

The Spinanes - Hawaiian Baby

🌔 ☍🦚 I’m sorry I cld you a 🖕🐷, Mascis. I am sorry every time I harass someone. It doesn’t make me feel good to insult people. Especially people I really want to like. I just don’t know what to do and then I lash out to try and get attention for my plight. I would rather leave this country than stay here and live under the oppression of a corrupt government. How can I fight against this 🤡💩alone?

🌔 ☌ ☊ Inger Asper, is my cousin in Norway. The family dairy farm is one of the oldest running farms in Norway. I need my Viking family to help us. Christy, Marty, Debbie and my father Pete have ALL gone CRAZY. The older generations are most susceptible to brainwashing & propaganda used against our citizens. Bruce is smart and so is Bonnie, I tried to tell them, but I wasn’t sure if they ignored me for their own safety. Kevin Conrad is my friend in Sweden. He has a brother named Kelsey whom maybe living with him there. Kevin Conrad is an artist. He was my friend in HS. We were in German class together for three years. If anyone could ask Kevin or Kelsey to talk to my cousin Inger, that would be awesome.

🌔▪️🌽 Most of my friends and family are sick, dead or crazy. I am desperate for assistance. I have been poisoned multiple times, kidnapped, assaulted and tortured. The local courts are corrupted and civilians in America are being murdered or sold into slavery through the jail system. Everyone is enabling this corruption, by being silent or being silenced.

🌔 < ☿︎ I’ve been waiting for someone to speak to me like an adult for a long time. Now I realize there are no adults. If I am speaking to you in simple terms, it is because I KNOW you are a simpleton. That is particularly directed to all the doctors, lawyers, police officers and politicians I have contacted for assistance.

🌔 < 🎸 I think my heart might be the missing piece to your rock n’ roll puzzle. Will you finally sit down with me and put the whole thing back together? What if it ends up not fitting? Who goes in the lost and found then? The puzzle or the piece?

🌔 < ♅︎ The MT Goddess Pele, wishes to pour lava up Oprah’s wormy asshole. Oprah, along with Bill Gates and other billionaires invested in Hawaii, paid to have Israeli soldiers murder and burn down indigenous communities in Maui, so they can buy their land. Yes, it is sick. Corporations are murdering civilians and getting away with it in America.

🌞 Λ ♇︎ My longtime stalkers, understand the legal situation our country is in, but others may just be catching on. Let me explain this yet again, especially for my cousin Inger, if she was possibly contacted and aware of my blog. Inger, it’s worse than you can possibly imagine. I have had a difficult time facing the reality, because the truth is well hidden, in legal corruption within our judicial system. I am going to update my blog later, so please check back in a few hours. Explaining how America turned into a murdering machine for international corporate psychopaths is a long complicated story.

To be continued…

Yeah, continued tomorrow.

I have been processing a lot of Mantra energy. It is good for speed healing, but sometimes I have to stop and catch up to my own progress. If that makes sense to those who understand HARD CORE meditations, which last 8-12 hrs a day. That is my current work.

🌔 < 🦺If you kidnap me, I am sure I can make some money to earn my keep. I’ll do roadside reiki for donation. That’s about as close to prostitution as I get, because I am a hippie, NOT a hoe.

🌔 < 🌞He loves me🌼He wants to turn me into a corpse bot🤖He loves me🌼He wants to turn me into a corpse bot🤖He loves…me? 🌼or someone pretending to be me🤡?

♀️▪️ ♂️I really love Mascis, in my own fantasy sci-fi romance novel, starring ⭐️Mascis. I cast Mascis in all my imaginary Lifetime Movies for Wonen. However, I am a bit nervous about being possibly kidnapped by Mascis. When fantasy meets reality, it’s not always a compatible situation. I am not interested in being gang raped and murdered. FYI.

Spinanes - Hawaiian Baby

Currently listening to the 25th anniversary edition of The Spinanes’ Manos. The record sounds as fresh and immediate as it did when I first heard it—after special ordering the CD from my local Sound Warehouse in the spring of 1994. 

The photo above was used in Spin magazine’s “new artist” piece on Rebecca and Scott’s music, and I have to admit the picture (along with the cred carried by being released on Sub Pop in the early 90s) was 40% responsible for me placing the special order.

The remaining 60% was the music video for “Noel, Jonah, and Me”, which I saw on 120 Minutes. It still amazes me that I now live a short distance from the traffic circle where the bulk of the video was filmed, and have become acquainted with several of the extras seen pedaling around. It’s a small world, indeed.

This is how us kids in medium-sized communities got hip to the cool sounds in the pre-world wide web era—a magazine blurb, a video broadcast between 10:00pm and 12:00am on MTV’s best music-oriented program, and a big yellow music catalog at a chain record store.

There are a few albums from my adolescence I hold dear to this day. Not because of nostalgia. Well, not exclusively so. Albums that retain their power over my psyche. Manos is in the top 5.