Sound of My Own Voice Where's Tommy (1990) Led by guitarist/vocalist Jamie Trecker, Sound of My Own Voice (SOMOV) formed in 1988 and released three hard-to-find cassettes and a single before breaking up sometime around 1990. The single, "Where's Tommy," occasionally turns up around New York and is a fine example of the sort of Feelies/REM inspired college rock of the day. However, the band's repertoire was far deeper than that as evidenced from cassettes such [...]
Honda Bruce Jenner (1993) Incense and Peppermints (1993) Ask any music lover from Pensacola, Florida, about early '90s bands, and Honda will inevitably come up. Singer and songwriter Rusty Dungan was older than most of the other kids in bands, and many looked up to him as a father figure—a [...]
The Embarrassing Fruits Long Distance Breakup Summer (2010) These three kids from Chapel Hill sound like the last fifteen years hasn't even happened. If you have a soft spot for Archers of Loaf, or miss the kind of records Merge used to put out in the '90s, you can't do much better than this. Good lyrics too! Trekky Records will release their second album, Frontier Justice, on September 21st. I'll go back [...]
The Multiple Cat Savior in a Plaid Coat (1998) For all intents and purposes, Davenport, Iowa's Patrick Stolley was the Multiple Cat. He wrote or co-wrote all the band's material, played most of the instruments, sang lead vocals, and recorded the songs in his home studio. Orbiting around Stolley was an amorphous cast of talented friends and musicians. [...]
Sardina He's on Drugs Again (1995) The college town of Bloomington, Indiana, was a breeding ground for countless indie bands in the '90s. (See Jeb Banner's amazing Musical Family Tree site for proof). Unlike other cities in the Midwest, punk never established a dominant foothold there and many of the area's bands leaned more towards the pop and rock end of the spectrum. Sardina is no exception, and their sole album Presents is one of [...]
Sam Elwitt Way Up High (1997) Sam Elwitt may be Nutley, New Jersey's most prolific musician. His long list of projects includes a lounge band (Nutley Brass), a punk band (Sea Monkeys), an AC/DC cover band (The Dirt Cheap) and an old timey country outfit (the Small Potatoes), to just name a few. However, my favorite project of his are the psych-pop home recordings that he initally released as the Hazeltones and later under his own name. Elwitt's brother [...]
Shimmer Kids Whistle While You Weep (1999) In my mind, the San Francisco indie sound of the '90s tended to be overly arty and hard to love, sort of like the city itself. And yet, the scene was big enough to include Green Day and Third Eye Blind (both with Top 40 hits) and Thinking Fellers Union Local 242 and Caroliner (easily two of the strangest bands ever to make a mark on the indie scene). [...]
Last chance to donate! Tiny Idols Vol. 1 on vinyl! T As some of you know, I also release Tiny Idols compilations featuring the best obscure and out-of-print tracks from the '90s. So far I've done two CD's and am readying the third volume for release in July. Right now I am raising money to release vol.1 on vinyl and today is the final day to donate. If you'd like to help out, go here to read more! http://www.kickstarter.com/pro jects/1319714100/tiny-idols-on -vinyl-nuggets-from-the-90-us- indie-s
Michelene Cherie Razor Wind (1990) "Razor Wind" is a rare find from the '90s four-track scene, a well-produced pop song that actually sounds huge and timeless, almost like Neko Case or something. I got in touch with Michelene Cherie, who now works as a wardrobe and pop stylist in LA, to find out more about the song which I found on the B-side of her only single "Sincerely." "[The single] [...]
Trick and the Heartstrings Music U Want 2 Dance 2 (2003) Alexander Gedeon, Leif Young Huckman, and Peter Hale first met at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU. There, they chain smoked cigarettes, talked endlessly about their favorite albums by the Police and the Talking Heads, and occasionally jammed. After graduation, they agreed to form a band. Gedeon, the band's singer and guitarist recalls, "I was envisioning a name, [...]
Christmas This is Not a Test (1989) Christmas was a true anomaly. With their dadaist sense of humor and restless musical exploration, they never fit into any scene comfortably and were hard to take seriously. And yet, the talent of main members Michael Cudahy and Liz Cox was undeniable, even on the early singles and compilation appearances. As a part of the Boston scene in the mid'80s, Christmas easily stood out from the packs [...]
Trotsky Icepick Dante's Flame (1988) Trotsky Icepick were an interesting band from LA who were probably a little too smart for their own good. They had many of the ingredients for success: a hip label (SST), standout lyrics, and generally excellent songwriting. And yet, revisiting their discography now makes it clear that the band was perhaps too unfocused and odd to achieve anything more than cult appeal. Formed [...]
Bacon Ray Diane Court (1999) Bacon Ray was a part of Tallahassee, Florida's incredibly rich indie scene in the late '90s that also included Nel Aspinal, Frankenfinger, Flanders, the New You and bazillions more. The band's origins start with Merlin Mann, a huge fan of Mike Coleman's prior bands the Singing Spoons and Ultraboy. When the latter broke up [...]
Look Blue Go Purple - Cactus Cat 1986 In 1993, I cut out a review of a Tiger Trap album which I still have today. The review was noteworthy, if only for the role call of comparable bands. They all had such wonderful names and I had never heard a single one: the Shop Assistants, the Flatmates, Girls at Our Best, and Look Blue Go Purple (many of the same bands name-checked when the Vivian Girls started getting press). I did end up checking out all the bands, but I [...]
The Cat Heads Sister Tabitha (1988) When the Cat Heads got their first gig in 1985, three of the four members didn't even know they were in the band. According to guitarist/vocalist Mark Zanandrea, "A manager I knew was [...]
The Cat Heads Sister Tabitha (1988) When the Cat Heads got their first gig in 1985, three of the four members didn't even know they were in the band. According to guitarist/vocalist Mark Zanandrea, "A manager I knew was booking a show for his band, but he needed an opening act. He asked me if I had a band. I lied [...]
The Low Numbers - Josef Albers 1997 In 1996, Gerhardt Koerner formed the Low Numbers while in college at the University of Pittsburgh. Along with his sister Karola on bass, girlfriend Kara Crombie on guitar, and Jon Vital on drums, Koerner began putting together a set of new wave influenced art pop and playing out in Pittsburgh. As the band lineup changed over the years, Koerner continued to tinker with the band's sound, writing far more songs than they actually played or recorded. In 1997, The Low Numbers released their debut [...]
Majosha - Get that Bug Outta Your System 1989 I sure could have used the Internet in 1990. It was around then that I first heard the song "Get That Bug Outta Your System" by Majosha, a curiously named band that absolutely no one seemed to know about. I had discovered them on the late night Jacksonville radio show "Dangerous Exposure" and immediately went out searching for their cassette. However, every record store clerk I asked gave me the same answer: "Never heard of them." Eventually, I just gave up. Luckily, I [...]
Twin Sister - All Around and Away We Go 2010 My blog is never about hyping new bands, but more about discovering and appreciating forgotten ones. However, I am making an exception for Twin Sister, a promising band from Brooklyn who I've been listening to repeatedly for months. Although I see them more as a studio band, tinkering over every piano chord and bass note, they are also excellent live and seem to be drawing bigger crowds lately. I don't know too much about them, except that they all grew up on Long Island [...]
Weeping in Fits and Starts - You Do Everything But Heal Me 1998 Although times have changed now, indie-rockers tended to shun self-promotion in the '90s. In hindsight, this can partially be seen as a reaction against the overt commercialism of the '80s, but it was also ingrained into the ethos of DIY. Wanting it too badly was a faux pas; the music was supposed to stand on its own. Greg Jacobs, the main songwriter behind Boston band Weeping in Fits and Starts, is a classic example of a talented musician who [...]
Tiny Idols
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
iamamiwhoami: kin - Teaser
