The Triffids

Cannot remember how I came across this band in '87 but I bought the album "Calenture" and it was amazing.

-Jimmy-

Biography by Jason Ankeny

Australian folk-pop band the Triffids was formed in Perth in 1980 by singer/songwriter David McComb, his guitarist/violinist brother Robert, and drummer Alsy MacDonald. Although chiefly influenced by the Velvet Underground, McComb's songs also drew heavily on the stark desolation of his rural upbringing, incorporating elements of country and blues to paint haunting portraits of isolation and longing.Various members passed through the lineup during the Triffids' early years, although the core trio remained intact throughout. Shortly after the additions of Martyn Casey and keyboardist Jill Birt, the band recorded their 1983 debut, Treeless Plain, for the Hot label, followed a year later by the EP Raining Pleasure. Heralding the arrival of steel guitarist Evil Graham Lee, 1986's Born Sandy Devotional was the Triffids' creative breakthrough, and after recording the low-budget follow-up, In the Pines, in a wool-shearing shed in the Australian outback, the group signed to major label Island to issue their 1987 masterpiece Calenture, their first recording with guitarist Adam Peters.Unfortunately, commercial expectations for 1989's Stephen Street-produced The Black Swan weren't met, and the Triffids disbanded soon after, with the live Stockholm appearing posthumously the following year. David McComb went on to work with the Blackeyed Susans before mounting a solo career with 1994's Love of Will. Three days after a car accident, McComb died of unknown causes on February 2, 1999.

New Fast Automatic Daffodils

Their best song by far was "Partial". Look it up and download it NOW!

-Jimmy-

Biography by Ron DePasquale

While grunge reigned in the early '90s, New Fast Automatic Daffodils made its mark on the indie rock scene in Manchester, England. Bassist Justin Crawford, guitarist Dolan Hewison, and drummer Perry Saunders got together in 1988, and singer Andy Spearpoint joined soon after. Spearpoint's obscure lyrics spoken over repetitive riffs and beats gave NFAD's music a dream-like quality. While many bands of that era were preoccupied with displaying their angst on the world stage, NFAD was concerned with creating groovy, spacy music you could dance to. And they made plenty of it: three full-lengths, five EPs, and ten singles all in roughly four years.

Mudhoney

Sub Pop Records. Does anything else really need to be said here?

-Jimmy-
Biography by Mark Deming

Nirvana may have been the band that put an entire generation in flannel, and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden both sold a lot more records, but Mudhoney were truly the band that made the '90s grunge rock movement possible. Mudhoney were the first real success story for Sub Pop Records; their indie-scene success laid the groundwork for the movement that would (briefly) make Seattle, WA, the new capital of the rock & roll universe; and they took the sweat-soaked and beer-fueled mixture of heavy metal muscle, punk attitude, and garage rock primitivism that would become known as "grunge" to the hipster audience for the first time, who would in turn sell it to a mass audience ready for something new. Though Mudhoney never scored the big payday some of their old-running buddies did, their importance on the Seattle scene cannot be underestimated, and their body of work — big, loud, purposefully sloppy, a little bit menacing, and even more funny — has stood the test of time better than their well-known colleagues.Mudhoney's time line begins in 1980, when teenaged Mark McLaughlin (who would soon adopt the punk handle Mark Arm) formed the band Mr. Epp and the Calculations with some high-school friends from the Seattle suburb of Bellevue; none of whom actually knew how to play at the time. More interested in goofing off, breaking things, and posting flyers for shows that were never scheduled than actually making music, Mr. Epp didn't get around to playing a show until late 1981, opening for a band called Student Nurse. Despite their legendary ineptitude (they were described as "the worst band in the world" on more than one occasion), Mr. Epp began to develop a following, and released a 7" EP in 1982. In 1983, in a bid to sound more like a real band, the group added a second guitarist, Steve Turner, who had previously played in a garage band called the Ducky Boys. That same year they released their Live as All Get Out cassette, but things began to peter out for the group, and they played their final show in February 1984. In 1981, Arm and Turner, who'd become fast friends, also began playing in another joke-punk band, the Limp Richerds, and briefly placed their focus on that group until the Richerds also broke up near the end of 1984.Eager to start playing again, Arm and Turner teamed up with drummer Alex Vincent, who had played with Turner in a short-lived band called Spluii Numa, and bassist Jeff Ament, who had recently arrived in the Northwest from Montana. When Arm decided he wanted to put down his guitar and concentrate on vocals, Turner asked former-Ducky Boys guitarist Stone Gossard to join the group, and Green River was born. Along with fellow Washingtonians the Melvins, Green River were pioneers of a new Northwest rock sound, merging the snot-nosed sneer of punk with the minor-key thud of heavy metal. It didn't take long for Green River to get noticed on the Seattle rock scene, and in 1985 the band released its first EP, Come on Down. By the time the record hit the streets, Turner had left the band to return to college (he was also growing disenchanted with the harder rock direction the band was following), and with new guitarist Bruce Fairweather, the band set out on a nationwide tour that was little short of disastrous, in large part because a delay in the record's release had the band supporting an album that hadn't come out yet. The band survived to make a second EP, Dry as a Bone, for a new Seattle label, Sub Pop Records, in 1987 — but by the time its first full-length album, Rehab Doll, was released in the summer of 1988, tensions between members of the band caused Green River to split up. Ament and Gossard formed a new band called Mother Love Bone, Fairweather joined Love Battery, and Vincent went to law school.Arm and Turner, meanwhile, had formed a side project while in Green River called the Thrown Ups, featuring graphic artist Ed Fotheringham on vocals. Essentially a more extreme example of the sort of goofy onslaught Arm and Turner had let loose with Mr. Epp, the Thrown Ups brought the two friends back together again, but Turner expressed a desire to form a new band that actually rehearsed songs before playing them in front of an audience. In his spare time, Turner began working up new material with Arm and drummer Dan Peters, who had played in Bundle of Hiss and Feast. Needing a bassist, the three hooked up with Matt Lukin, who had recently left the Melvins shortly before they left Washington for California. Naming themselves Mudhoney, after a Russ Meyer film none of them had actually seen, the new foursome took the punk metal formula of Green River and the Melvins, added a dollop of '60s garage rock swagger and a large portion of Fun House-era Stooges, and ran it all through the cheap stomp boxes Arm and Turner so cherished. Turner initially expected the band to last about six months.In 1988, Sub Pop released the band's first single, "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More" b/w "Touch Me I'm Sick," with the EP Superfuzz Bigmuff following a few months later. The timing proved fortuitous. The indie circuit success of the Replacements and Big Black had created a demand at college radio and the underground club circuit for harder and heavier bands, and Sub Pop's homegrown but earnest media blitz was helping to make "the Seattle Sound" — soon to be dubbed "grunge" — the next big thing, with Mudhoney the chief beneficiary. While the band's first American tour was nothing to write home about, the Sub Pop hype machine had already begun to take hold overseas, and the band scored a European tour — mostly dates in Germany — in early 1989. A few months later, Sonic Youth, who'd been big fans of Green River, invited Turner and Arm's new band to join them for a British tour, and soon Mudhoney found themselves the talk of the U.K. rock press. Superfuzz Bigmuff landed on the British indie charts and stayed there for the better part of a year, and the band wasted no time returning for a headlining tour, complete with massive press coverage and riotous shows. Word of the band's rep in Europe quickly crossed the pond, and Mudhoney were the new heroes of underground rock by the time their first full-length album, simply called Mudhoney, came out in late 1989.In the wake of Mudhoney's success, a number of other Sub Pop acts began making big noise on college radio and the indie club circuit, including Soundgarden, Tad, the Fluid, and a trio of Melvins fans from Aberdeen, WA, called Nirvana. However, while Sub Pop was doing a fine job of creating the Next Big Thing, they weren't making much money at it just yet, and the label's financial status was one reason Mudhoney's second full-length album, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge — which found them upping the garage punk quotient in their formula — didn't hit stores until 1991. By the end of the year, Mudhoney were shopping for a new label, and they could have hardly chosen a better time; Nirvana had already taken the major-label bait in 1990, and by December of 1991, Nevermind had made them the biggest and most talked-about rock band in America. Soon, seemingly every band in Seattle was being offered a major-label contract, and Mudhoney signed a deal with Reprise/Warner Bros. Their first major-label album, Piece of Cake, made it clear that Mudhoney's new corporate sponsorship wasn't going to change their musical approach — but their presence on a major label seemed to alienate old fans, while the mass audience that had embraced Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam (featuring Arm and Turner's old Green River bandmates Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament) found Mudhoney's work too eccentric for comfort. While Mudhoney remained a potent live draw, their record sales during their tenure with Reprise were disappointing, though they recorded two of their finest albums for the label: My Brother the Cow and Tomorrow Hit Today.In 1999, after an extensive tour supporting Tomorrow Hit Today, Reprise announced that they had dropped Mudhoney from their roster, and shortly after that, the band announced that Matt Lukin had turned in his resignation, citing his dislike of touring. With the release of March to Fuzz, a comprehensive career-retrospective compilation, many observers assumed that Mudhoney had called it a day, but in 2001 the band began playing a few live dates around the Northwest, with Steve Dukich (formerly with Steel Wool) sitting in on bass. The shows went well enough that Mudhoney decided to take another stab at their career, and Guy Maddison — who'd been a member of Bloodloss, one of Arm's many part-time bands — signed on as Mudhoney's new official bassist. Arm and Turner also found time to record and tour with a side project, the garage-blues band Monkeywrench. When they came back together, they recorded Since We've Become Translucent and released it in the summer of 2002. The angry political and social commentary Under a Billion Suns appeared in 2006, followed by the deliberately raw, return to their aggressive roots The Lucky Ones in 2008.

Suede

Something different for the early nineties! This band was introduced to me on a mixed tape from my buddy Traie. Make sure you check out his blog on the right. The man knows his comics and music.

-Jimmy-

Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Suede kick started the Britpop revolution of the '90s, bringing English indie pop/rock music away from the swirling layers of shoegazing and dance-pop fusions of Madchester, and reinstating such conventions of British pop as mystique and the three-minute single. Before the band had even released a single, the U.K. weekly music press was proclaiming them as the "Best New Band in Britain," but Suede managed to survive their heavy hype due to the songwriting team of vocalist Brett Anderson and guitarist Bernard Butler. Equally inspired by the glam crunch of David Bowie and the romantic bed-sit pop of the Smiths, Anderson and Butler developed a sweeping, guitar-heavy sound that was darkly sensual, sexually ambiguous, melodic, and unabashedly ambitious. At the time of the release of their first single, "The Drowners," in 1992, few of their contemporaries -- whether it was British shoegazers or American grunge rockers -- had any ambitions to be old-fashioned, self-consciously controversial pop stars and the British press and public fell hard for Suede, making their 1993 debut the fastest-selling first album in U.K. history. Though they had rocketed to the top in the U.K., Suede were plagued with problems, the least of which was an inability to get themselves heard in America. Anderson and Butler's relationship became antagonistic during the recording of their second album, Dog Man Star, and the guitarist left the band before its fall release, which inevitably hurt its sales. Instead of breaking up, the band soldiered on, adding new guitarist Richard Oakes and a keyboardist before returning in 1996 with Coming Up, an album that returned them to the top of the British charts.Through all of Suede's incarnations, vocalist/lyricist Brett Anderson and bassist Mat Osman remained at the band's core. The son of a cab driver, Anderson formed the Smiths-inspired Geoff in 1985 with his schoolmate Osman and drummer Danny Wilder. Anderson was the group's guitarist; Gareth Perry was the band's vocalist. Geoff recorded two demos before splitting up in 1986, as Anderson and Osman left to attend university in London. A few years later, the pair formed Suave & Elegant, which lasted only a few months. By the end of 1989, the pair had placed an advertisement in New Musical Express, asking for a "non-muso" guitarist. Bernard Butler responded, and the trio began recording songs, primarily written by Anderson and Butler, with the support of a drum machine. Taking the name Suede after Morrissey's "Suedehead" single, the trio sent a demo tape, Specially Suede, to compete in Demo Clash, a radio show on GLR run by DJ Gary Crowley. "Wonderful Sometimes" won Demo Clash for five Sundays in a row during 1990, leading to a record contract with the Brighton-based indie label RML. By the time the band signed with RML, Anderson's girlfriend Justine Frischmann had joined as a second guitarist.Suede placed an advertisement for a drummer, and former Smiths member Mike Joyce responded. Joyce appeared on the group's debut single for RML, "Be My God"/"Art." Scheduled to be released on a 12" in the fall of 1990, the single was scrapped shortly before its release, due a fight between the band and the label. Throughout 1991, the group rehearsed and recorded demos, eventually adding drummer Simon Gilbert. Frischmann left Suede in early 1992 to form Elastica; she was not replaced. A few months later, Suede signed a two-single deal with the indie label Nude Records. Shortly afterward, the band appeared on the cover of Melody Maker, without having released any material. The weekly newspaper declared them the Best New Band in Britain."The Drowners," the band's first single, appeared shortly after the Melody Maker cover, and it became a moderate hit, debuting at number 49 due to strong reviews and word of mouth. "Metal Mickey," released in the fall, became their breakthrough hit, reaching number 17 on the U.K. charts after a suggestive, controversial performance on Top of the Pops. Anderson soon became notorious for causing controversy, and his infamous comment that he was "a bisexual man who never had a homosexual experience" was indicative of how the group both courted controversy and a sexually ambiguous, alienated audience.A short tour before the spring release of their eponymous debut album was very successful, setting the stage for "Animal Nitrate" debuting at number seven. Shortly afterward, Suede entered the charts at number one, registering the biggest initial sales of a debut since Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Welcome to the Pleasuredome. By the summer, Suede had become the most popular band in Britain -- winning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for Best Album that fall -- and they attempted to make headway into the United States. Their progress was halted when Butler's father died in the fall, forcing the cancellation of their second tour; they had already begun to be upstaged by their opening act, the Cranberries, who received the support from MTV that Suede lacked. Shortly afterward, the band was forced to change its name to the London Suede in America, due to a lawsuit from an obscure lounge singer performing under the name Suede. Tensions had begun to develop between Bernard Butler and the rest of the band during the group's 1993 tours, and they peaked when they re-entered the studio to record a new single in late 1993. Butler conceived the song "Stay Together" as a sweeping epic partially in tribute to his father, and while it was a success upon its February 1994 release, debuting at number three, the recording was not easy. As they were working on Suede's second album, Anderson and Butler began to fight frequently, with the guitarist claiming in a rare interview that the singer worked too slowly and that his partner was too concerned with rock stardom, often at the expense of the music. Butler left the band toward the end of the sessions for the second album, and the group finished the record with Anderson playing guitar. Bernard's departure launched a flurry of speculation about Suede's future, and Dog Man Star didn't answer any of those questions. A grandiose, ambitious, and heavily orchestrated double album, Dog Man Star was greeted with enthusiastic reviews but muted commercial response. As Suede were working on their second album, their remarkable commercial success was eclipsed by that of Blur and Oasis, whose lighter, more accessible music brought the groups blockbuster success in the wake of Suede.While Dog Man Star sold nearly as much as Suede, the impression in the press was the group was rapidly falling apart, and the band didn't help matters when they replaced Butler with Richard Oakes, a 17-year-old amateur guitarist, in September. Suede embarked on a long, grueling international tour during late 1994 and the spring of 1995, before disappearing to work on their third album. During the interim, Butler had a Top Ten single with vocalist David McAlmont, and Gilbert, the only homosexual member of Suede, was attacked in a hate crime in the fall. At a fanclub gig in January of 1996, the group debuted several new songs, as well as their new keyboardist, Neil Codling, the cousin of Gilbert. Suede returned as a five-piece in September of 1996 with Coming Up. A lighter, band-oriented affair than either of the group's two previous albums, Coming Up was an unexpected hit, entering the charts at number one and generating a remarkable string of five Top Ten hits -- "Trash," "Beautiful Ones," "Saturday Night," "Lazy," and "Filmstar." Coming Up was a hit throughout Europe, Canada, and Asia, but it wasn't released in the U.S. until the spring of 1997. Coming Up never did win an audience in America, partially because it appeared nearly a year after its initial release and partially because Suede only supported it with a three-city tour. Nevertheless, the record was their most successful release to date, setting expectations high for the follow-up. Upon their return to the studio in the fall of 1998, the band decided to ditch their longtime producer, Ed Buller, choosing to work with Steve Osborne, who had previously produced New Order and Happy Mondays. The resulting album, Head Music, was released in May of 1999; an American release followed in June.

Spacemen 3

Came across this band from a friend (Brendan) while deejaying at the University radio staion. One of my top ten for sure!!

-Jimmy-

Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Spacemen 3 were psychedelic in the loosest sense of the word; their guitar explorations were colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s. Instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia, relying on heavily distorted guitars to clash and produce their own harmonic overtones; frequently, they would lead up to walls of distortion with overamplified acoustic guitars and synths. Often the band would jam on one chord or play a series of songs, all in the same tempo and key. Though this approach was challenging, often bordering on the avant-garde, Spacemen 3 nevertheless gained a dedicated cult following. After releasing several albums in the late '80s, the band fell apart after in 1991.In 1982, Sonic Boom (guitar, organ, vocals; born Pete Kember on November 19, 1965) and Jason Pierce (guitar, organ, vocals; also born November 19, 1965) formed Spacemen 3 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Sonic Boom and Pierce added a rhythm section comprised of Pete Baines and Rosco, and spent the next four years rehearsing and jamming. In 1986, the group released its debut album, Sound of Confusion, on Glass Records. At first the band sounded a bit like a punked-up garage rock band, but their music quickly evolved into their signature trance-like neo-psychedelia. Spacemen 3's second album, 1987's The Perfect Prescription, was the first to capture the group's distinctive style.Following 1989's Playing With Fire, Baines and Rosco left the group to form their own band, the Darkside. They were replaced by Will Carruthers and Jon Mattock. Despite the addition of new blood to its lineup, the band was beginning to fray because of in-fighting between Sonic Boom and Pierce, as well as the former's increasing drug dependency. The new lineup struggled through a final album, 1991's Recurring, which featured Boom's songs on side one and Pierce's on side two. By the time of the release of Recurring, Pierce was performing with Carruthers and Mattock in a new band called Spiritualized. Shortly after the release of Recurring, Spacemen 3 split, and Spiritualized became Pierce's full-time band, eventually earning a cult following of its own.

The Swingers

I came across this band when my friend next door's mother went to the UK. She came back with a bunch of cassettes and these guys were one of them. His voice when I heard it for the first time sounded unique. Years later when Janes Addiction came out I thought it was the guy from the Swingers singing.

-Jimmy-

Biography by Chris Woodstra

Phil Judd was a founding member and major creative force behind the early incarnation of Split Enz. Judd left the band in February of 1977, rejoining a year later, only to leave shortly after, finding himself unable to fit into the new direction of the band. In June of 1978, he joined the New Zealand punk band Suburban Reptiles as a part-time member. When the band broke up a couple of months later, he had a short stint with the legendary Enemy (who later became Toy Love). Obviously inspired by the punk movement, Judd left behind all of the art excesses he had become know for in Split Enz and formed Swingers in late 1978, a no-frills, no-image, straightforward power trio, with Dwayne "Bones" Hillman (bass) and Buster Stiggs (drums) — both formerly of Suburban Reptiles. After five months of constant rehearsals without gigs, the band made their live debut with an opening spot for Split Enz. Afterward, they switched to smaller venues as headliners, where they built a strong following throughout 1979. In April of 1980, they recorded a single for Ripper Records, "One Good Reason" — the single eventually broke the New Zealand Top 40. The band set off for Australia on an opening slot for the Sports. While in Australia, they teamed up with David Tickle (who had just finished working with Split Enz) to re-record "One Good Reason" as well as the infectious "Counting the Beat." Judd and Stiggs had a falling out when Judd decided to take a stronger leadership of the band (previously the band was a democracy with all songwriting credited to Swingers). Stiggs left to join the Models in December of 1980 and was replaced by Ian "Killjoy" Gillroy. The new recording of "Counting the Beat" was an instant smash in Australia, hitting number one in February of 1981. The follow-up, "It Ain't What You Dance," failed to chart though. In July, the band recorded several songs for the soundtrack to the film Starstruck (Judd would also write additional incidental music and the band made several appearances in the film). The following month, their full-length debut, Practical Jokers, was released by Mushroom Records. Resequenced and edited, the album saw an American release under the title Counting the Beat in 1982 on Backstreet Records. The title track, "It Ain't What You Dance," and the newly added single, "One Good Reason (Gimme Love)," seemed to fit perfectly into the new wave and found a fair amount of exposure on the then-infant MTV. Starstruck also found a cult following in the U.S., giving the band a real chance for a breakthrough in the States, but momentum was running out for the band. Their Australian following was dwindling and, in response, they added a new frontman, Andrew McLennan, formerly of Pop Mechanix. The new lineup released one single, the wonderfully catchy "Punch and Judy," in early 1982. The single failed, and Judd dissolved the unit in May the same year to pursue a solo career. Hillman later found success as a member of Midnight Oil. Judd released one poorly received solo album (1983's Private Lives) and two more with ex-Split Enz bandmates as Schnell Fenster; he kept a low profile through the '90s, dividing his time between artistic pursuits and composing music for films, but returned with a solo album in 2006.

Wire Train

First saw this band on the "Alan Thicke Show" and they played "Chamber of Hellos". This is an all around good first album!

-Jimmy-

Biography by William Ruhlmann

Wire Train was formed as the Renegades in April 1983 in San Francisco by San Francisco State University students and guitarists Kevin Hunter and Kurt Herr with the rhythm section of Anders Rundblad (bass) and Frederico Gil-Sola (drums). The group signed to the local 415 label, also home to acts like Romeo Void and Translator, all of which found themselves with national distribution when 415 entered into a deal with Columbia Records. Wire Train's first album, ...In a Chamber, made the national charts in 1984, but the group began to suffer personnel changes. Gil-Sola was replaced by Brian Macleod for the second album, Between Two Words, after which Herr left, to be replaced by Jeffrey Trott. A third album, Ten Women, charted in 1987. The group's last two albums, Wire Train (1990) and No Soul No Strain (1992), appeared on MCA.

Kissing the Pink

Very influentual band in my teenage life. Naked was by far their best album. The track "Martin" very dark and brooding song for that era in New Wave.
-Jimmy-

Biography by Michael Sutton

If Kissing the Pink's name sounds like sexual innuendo, it's because it is. The band eventually changed their appellation to the modest KTP. Often chastised by the U.K. press in the '80s, Kissing the Pink's music is not as suggestive as their name. The group's hybrid of soul, electronic experimentation, and synth-pop should've landed them hits when that sound was in flavor, but the band merely flirted with the Top 40 in England and was virtually unknown in America except for new wave diehards. Kissing the Pink was formed in 1980 at the Royal College of Music in London, England. All of the members lived together in the same house in North London. Comprised of Nick Whitecross (vocals, guitars), Jon Kingsley Hall (keyboards, vocals), Peter Barnett (bass, violin, vocals), Simon Aldridge (guitars, vocals), Stephen Cusack (drums, vocals), George Stewart (keyboards, vocals), and Josephine Wells (saxophone, vocals), Kissing the Pink released their first album, Naked, in 1983. By 1986, Kissing the Pink had shortened their name to KTP and recorded their most successful LP, Certain Things Are Likely. More commercial than any of their previous efforts, Certain Things Are Likely was Kissing the Pink's concession to their label Magnet's demand for a chart smash. The hits never really came, except that the title track reached number one on the Billboard dance charts; moreover, the single "One Step" went to number one in Italy. In 1988, KTP became Kissing the Pink once again. The group released Sugarland in 1993. After that, the band cut their roster to Whitecross, Hall, and Stewart, doing mainly production work for other artists. In 1999, Hall recorded Moving Into One, a trance CD, for his wife. Kissing the Pink collaborated with Steve Balsamo that year on a number of songs, but they were rejected by Sony and shelved.