Special Low Frequency Version (1993, Sub Pop)

Extra-Capsular Extraction (1991, Sub Pop)

Dylan Carlson, Earth’s sole static member since the band formed in 1989, carries an extremely unfortunate distinction outside of the avant-metal/drone-rock world, where his band now flourishes: he was the close friend and confidant of Kurt Cobain who purchased the shotgun that was found in the Nirvana singer/ guitarist’s death-grip in April 1994.

During Earth’s troubled first phase (1989–1997), the band was basically Carlson and whoever would join up in studio or on stage—except for the solid lineup featured on the band’s final Sub Pop album, 1996’s Pentastar: In the Style of Demons. The players on the band’s official debut on Sub Pop in 1991 were Carlson on guitars, Joe Preston (then bassist for the Melvins and founder and sole member of Thrones) on bass and drums, Dave Harwell also on bass, and Cobain providing vocals, along with Kelly Canary, then of the all-girl band Dickless and a future member of the Teen Angels. (She’s now a lawyer in Seattle.) With a running time of more than thirty-two minutes, Extra-Capsular

Extraction more than qualifies as a full-length, but it is sold and

marketed as an EP because the original release only featured three (loooonnng) tracks (a situation corrected by a 2010 reissue/ compilation). Later a revelatory mix that would influence an entire subgenre of underground metal, Earth’s first album took the ambient experiments of Brian Eno and added doom metal riffing at a slower pace than any band had ever attempted. The afterthought of percussion on this album helped to make it a heavy touchstone for bands like Sunn O))) and the highly developed Neurosis of the mid-’90s and beyond.

EARTH

Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version (1993, Sub Pop)

Doing away with percussion, the double-length sophomore album by Earth drew from U.K. experimenters like Main and Skullflower and, as the title suggests, the very lowest of frequencies for an immersive listen that the underground wouldn’t catch up to for a few years. If any of the early Earth albums perfected the marriage of Eno’s ambient works and the almighty power of the doom metal riff, this was it.

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EARTH

Pentastar: In the Style of Demons (1996, Sub Pop)

The first studio album by Earth to benefit, start to finish, from the proper rhythm section assembled behind guitarist/ singer/founder/ringleader Dylan Carlson features, perhaps unsurprisingly, a brand-new and relatively traditional sound that nonetheless left a huge mark on the same emerging stoner-rock/ metal subset that drew inspiration from Carlson and his cohorts’ four structurally challenged previous albums. Pentastar: In the

Style of Demons would be Earth’s last studio outing before the

band was dropped by the label, sparking a long hiatus, during which Carlson dealt with drug and legal issues that had mounted over the years.

Pentastar is slow to mid-tempo throughout, heavy but

conspicuously devoid of grunge trappings, with mostly minimal arrangements that create a haunting, ominous atmosphere. Album track “Tallahassee” turned out to be highly effective on the soundtrack of the 1998 documentary Kurt and Courtney, Nick Broomfield’s look into the circumstances surrounding Kurt Cobain’s death. (Courtney Love blocked any Nirvana music from making it into the movie.) This was also the first Earth title to have what could be called real guitar solos, though they do not dominate the album in any sense. The cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Peace In Mississippi” is a nice addition to this moody achievement.

EGGS

Exploder (1994, Teenbeat)

Eggs was formed by singer/guitarist Andrew Beaujon in the early ’90s and hailed from Washington, D.C. The Teenbeat/Simple Machine label axis supported that town’s more pop-oriented artists while Dischord Records covered the noisier/heavier/ faster post-hardcore end of the scene’s indie spectrum. After releasing a charming and very Unrest-like debut (1992’s Bruiser) of New Order-meets-indie-pop on Teenbeat that was basically a solo effort by Beaujon, Eggs returned two years later as a full band (minus a permanent drummer) to issue this ambitious and creative double album. Exploder journeys through the band members’ record collections, combining Eggs’ moxie, pop aptitude, and skilled hand at intense experimentation in a result

that is captivatingly original, yet clearly influenced by T. Rex, Queen, America (the band), XTC, Love (“Willow, Willow” is covered here), My Bloody Valentine, the Byrds, Pink Floyd, and The Wedding Present, to name a few. (Note: The CD version features three one-minute tracks of silence to notify the listener when they would be flipping to the next side if they were listening to the vinyl version.)

ELEVENTH DREAM DAY

Beet (1989, Atlantic)

A strange and overlooked early major label stab at the

underground, Eleventh Dream Day’s second album (its first for a major) carried over the paisley underground and cow-punk styles of Americana attached to the early-’80s L.A. scene mixing these with the timely and visceral thrust heard throughout the middle to latter part of the decade from Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum, Squirrel Bait, and so on. Topped off with a Stooges/MC5 fixation and a quite passionate delivery, Beet kicked off a string of forgotten but great albums by this band that extended through most of the ’90s, even after the band’s boot from major label-land. (1994’s

El Moodio was the final transmission before the band went with

friendlier bedfellows, Thrill Jockey.) Eleventh Dream Day was notable for having Tortoise founder Doug McCombs behind the drum kit and Janet Bean (Freakwater) on guitar and vocals. Beet opener “Between Here and There” sums up what this band was capable of.

THE EMBARRASSMENT

Death Travels West (1983, Fresh Sounds)

Self-described “Blister Pop” semi-legends The Embarrassment came charging out of Wichita, Kansas, in the late ’70s/early ’80s with a rather American form of post punk that was equal parts R.E.M., Mission of Burma, and the Feelies, creating one of the more bulletproof proto-indie archetypes of the era. Bespectacled nerds way before that look was en vogue, The Embarrassment sprinkled many of its best moments across 7-inches and demo recordings. But the band did manage to put together one hands- down classic in 1983’s Death Travels West before breaking up (for the first time) that same year. “Drive Me to the Park” is the

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THE EMBARRASSMENT

The Embarrassment LP (1987, Time to Develop)

Half of The Embarrassment—guitarist Bill Goffrier and drummer Brent Giessmann—made the move to Boston, where the former started Big Dipper and the latter joined the Del Fuegos. The band would restart in 1988, but a couple of retrospective releases showed up during the interim. The first was the aptly titled Retrospective cassette-only release in 1984, and some of this impossible-to-find tape shows up on the B-side of the eponymously titled The Embarrassment LP—namely the live- in-the-studio (from 1983) one-takes of two of the band’s best songs, “Picture Women” and “Rhythm Line.” But even better, Side A reissued the band’s amazing five-song 12-inch EP (self-titled, 1981). Both compilations are tough to find in original formats, which makes 1995’s Heyday: 1979–83 two-CD collection on Bar/ None highly recommended.

THE EMBARRASSMENT

God Help Us (1990, Bar/None/Restless)

The Embarrassment regrouped in 1988 and released one more full-length before calling it a day for real (at least until sporadic reunion shows almost two decades later). Easier to locate than the band’s earlier releases and with different production in place (think very late ’80s compression-happy college-rock), God Help Us features an Elvis cover that’s worth multiple listens (“Burning Love”) and the amazing “After the Disco.” The Embarrassment guitarist Bill Goffrier’s other band, Big Dipper, had an excellent run of muscular, intelligent American indie-jangle in the late ’80s and early ’90s. EMBRACE

S/T (Recorded 1985/Released 1987, Dischord)

The legendary bands Minor Threat and The Faith, led by Ian MacKaye and his brother, Alec MacKaye, respectively, supplied the growing Dischord Records roster with not one but two flagship hardcore bands during the first half of the ’80s. Both acts were made up of highly intelligent, creatively restless personalities— precisely the types artistically fleeing from hardcore in droves by the time both bands broke up in 1984.

The next year, Ian formed Embrace with all three nonfamilial former members of The Faith. Like Rites of Spring and Swiz, the

short-lived, single-album Embrace came out of the scene-declared “Revolution Summer” of 1985. These purposely counteractive bands brought a fresh stylistic arsenal of personal, humanistic lyrics based on inward (and scene) examination, and sung with feeling over an instrumental framework of melodic, moody guitar work, pushed along by all manner of tempo experimentation. (The raging speed of hardcore was occasionally carried over.) This conscious and direct reaction to hardcore’s political hypocrisy and general macho posturing was described as “emotional hardcore” or “emocore” by critics, thus marking the first rumblings of what came to be known, abused, loved, loathed, and misunderstood as “emo” over the next two decades. Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of the musicians here have ever been amenable to the use of “emocore” or “emo” in describing their involvement in these developments.

The uncanny energy and charisma that contemporaries Rites of Spring brought to live performance comes out on its self-titled LP, while Embrace’s also-eponymously titled album is the micro- movement’s subtle and slightly more casual affair. MacKaye and his cohorts channel some New Order, Cure, and late-’70s/early- ’80s post punk observations (and affinities) through the filter of tuneful post hardcore that MacKaye’s next band (after the one-off Egg Hunt), Fugazi, expounded upon in a big way. (Please excuse the understatement.)

ENGINE KID

Angel Wings (1994, Revelation)

The influence of Slint’s Spiderland stretched well beyond indie rock and made a lasting mark on both the metallic (often straightedge) hardcore and underground metal scenes of the ’90s. Engine Kid came out of the former, and while guitarist Greg Anderson would become a key player in the latter through his work with Sunn O))), Goatsnake, Burning Witch, etc., this band’s approach to hardcore/post hardcore was unbelievably heavy. Engine Kid released one full-length of blatant, well-meaning Slint worship with 1993’s Bear Catching Fish, but the band’s swan-song epic, Angel Wings, transcends such trappings to stand as one of the stronger offerings from indie rock’s early-’90s heavy-metallic and melodic camp. Note: side 4 is a cover of John Coltrane’s “Olé”

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EVERGREEN

Seven Songs (1994, Anomaly)

Not to be confused with the project of Slint drummer Britt Walford that was active around the same time and which also released a sole full-length, this Evergreen was from California. While its few releases (Seven Songs, three 7-inches, and one split single with the like-minded Still Life) do not make for a large body of work and Evergreen wasn’t around that long, the band played a role in the development of what would be given the unfortunate (and promptly prerogative) term “screamo.” With vocals that are mostly buried (unless they are in, well, screaming mode), mournful arrangements, razor-sharp guitar work, and fresh use of the skeletal-to-raging juxtaposition so prevalent during this time, Seven Songs is, along with albums by Cap’n Jazz and the aforementioned Still Life, rightfully considered a holy grail of ’90s emotive hardcore that broke through that genre’s barriers. Therefore, it will strongly appeal to indie rock fans of all stripes.

EVERGREEN

S/T (1996, Hi-Ball)

Not to be confused with the also obscure and great hardcore/ screamo combo from San Diego of the same name and era, this Evergreen hailed from Louisville, Kentucky, and was formed by Britt Walford, better known as a founding member of Squirrel Bait, Slint, and post-Slint post-rock band The for Carnation. (It’s worth mentioning that Walford was also the drummer on the Breeders’ Pod LP under the pseudonym Mike Hunt.) In 1994, Evergreen released a limited 7-inch (the fantastic “Pants Off” b/w “The Queen Song,” also on Hi-Ball) that forecasted the top- shelf garage-punk that would pack its lone full-length from start to finish.

By the mid-’90s, the indie underground’s garage-punk submovement was treading water in a big way, with dedicated labels like Estrus and Crypt saturating the marketplace with an avalanche of sound-alike bands. There were some greats that proved exceptions to this situation, of course, but Evergreen fell pretty far outside of the scene to be noticed. Nevertheless, Evergreen fashioned its own brand of garage-punk rather than

another example of a played-out form. There’s not one track of filler on Evergreen’s criminally overlooked self-titled LP, from the slower numbers to the blown-out ragers that check in at near- hardcore tempos. This album has a wide enough appeal to be a cherished acquisition for fans of punchy Midwestern heavy-indie rock (see late-’80s/early-’90s Touch and Go) as well as those who are into Gaunt, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, New Bomb Turks, Gas Huffer, Railroad Jerk, Cheater Slicks, Oblivians, ’68 Comeback, and the Bassholes.

THE FAITH/VOID

S/T Split LP (1982 Dischord)

The Faith featured Ian MacAye’s younger brother, Alec, on drums. The band’s half of this split (like its Subject to Change 12-inch from 1983) is good-to-great first-wave hardcore done the typical D.C. way. A punishing contrast was Void’s half of the LP, the primary reason thirty-plus years of hardcore (in its countless guises) has been, and will continue to be, in awe of a band that lasted only a couple of years, represented by a pretty limited officially released discography. Creating in the vacuum of proto-sprawl that connected D.C. with Baltimore, Void was the first band to bring metal to hardcore, and it did it by way of half-black/half-Filipino guitarist Bubba Dupree, whose histrionic guitar-work was a hurricane of Eddie Van Halen, Greg Ginn, and Bad Brains’ Dr. Know. Band member connections and the violent chaos of its live shows brought Void into the D.C./Dischord hardcore sphere, where some got it and others were reviled or terrified by it. Regardless, nothing at the time sounded like Void, a fact that becomes immediately apparent to the uninitiated upon first listen, regardless of the three decades that have passed since the release of this now-legendary album.

FANG

Where the Wild Things Are (1985, Boner)

The version of Fang that matters was responsible for this full- length debut, as well as the fourteen-minute Landshark EP released in 1983 as the inaugural title on guitarist Tom Flynn’s Boner Records label. (Fang’s recorded debut was “Fun with Acid,” which appeared on Alternative Tentacles’ legendary 1982

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of the more notorious exports from the early-’80s Berkeley, California, punk/hardcore scene, pre-1986 Fang was always motivated by button-pushing within the hardcore scene, but its proto-crossover metallic H.C. was more metal-punk, with lyrics and song titles that put an irreverent (albeit offensive, toilet- based, and anything but politically correct) smile on the depraved antics of bands like Flipper. In addition, Fang was nowhere near as anti-human or acutely nihilistic as No Trend. Singer Sam “Sammytown” McBride left the band after the release of

Where the Wild Things Are, but fronted an inferior band later that

released three albums under the name Fang. In 1989 McBride strangled his girlfriend to death in a drug-fueled rage and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, for which he served six years in prison.

THE FEELIES

The Good Earth (1986, Coyote)

The release date of this band’s debut Crazy Rhythms (1980, Rough Trade) almost single-handedly extended this book’s chronological criteria back one year on the strength of that album’s now- sterling, inimitable nature. The Feelies’ core members—Glenn Mercer, Bill Million, Brenda Sauter, and newish (joining in 1983) drummer, Stan Demeski—stayed active for half a decade in side projects/offshoots, along with a casual performance schedule as the Feelies that was primarily limited to holidays and the region surrounding their home of Hoboken, New Jersey, before going into the studio with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck as co-producer (with Million and Mercer) in 1985.

The awesome albums Buck’s own band recorded during its early 1981–1985 climb sometimes felt like an alternately more organic yet artier post-punk interpretation of Crazy Rhythms, but it doesn’t take long for The Good Earth to reveal this to be a two-way street. The frantic, hyper-speed Velvets-meets-Television alchemy of the debut album only shows up on a few tracks here; elsewhere, it’s replaced by an atmospheric and hypnotic acoustic- based (sometimes manically strummed) folk rock that became the band’s next trademark sound, and a huge influence on the Feelies’ like-minded regional buddies, Yo La Tengo.

THE FEELIES

Only Life (1988, A&M)

Only Life presents the Feelies comfortable and confident with

their second musical phase and unafraid to let loose with a greater focus on speedy jangle-strum rockers. In a sense, this is 1980’s Crazy Rhythms in updated and mature form. That means fewer acoustic jams than on this album’s precursor (but with the same lineup). Unsurprisingly, Only Life closes with a cover version of “What Goes On” by the Feelies’ biggest influence, The Velvet Underground. This major label debut attracted more critical praise than The Good Earth, ranking at No. 28 on the Village

Voice’s Pazz & Jop “Best Albums of 1988” poll.

FIRE PARTY

S/T (1988, Dischord)

Along with Scrawl, Salem 66, and Frightwig, Fire Party was one of the few all-girl bands of the mid-to-late-’80s American underground. Formed in 1986 and crucial to the D.C./Dischord scene’s soon-to-be legendary mid-’80s break from the hardcore doctrine (a.k.a. “Revolution Summer”), Fire Party released two mini-LPs, toured the country and Europe with Scream, and recorded a Peel Session before splitting up in 1990. Of both titles the band released (the other is 1989’s New Orleans Opera, also on Dischord), this self-titled debut is undeniably the best example of Fire Party’s melding of Chairs Missing Wire and the more timely sounds of early post hardcore/indie rock.

FIREHOSE

Ragin’, Full On (1986, SST)

In the spring of 1986, a twenty-one-year-old Ohio State student and obsessive Minutemen fan named Ed Crawford was allegedly fed a fraudulent rumor by the members of Camper Van Beethoven after a Columbus, Ohio, gig by that band. They supposedly told Crawford that the Minutemen bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley were already auditioning replacements for guitarist/ founder/singer D. Boon, who had perished in a single-vehicle automobile accident on Christmas Eve of the previous year. Crawford then located Mike Watt in a phone book and cold-called him to express his strong desire to come out to California and

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of his childhood best friend, lacked any enthusiasm for playing music at the time. Crawford’s intense persistence—he showed up unannounced in San Pedro, California, to repeatedly follow up with Watt on location—eventually landed him an audition with the former Minutemen rhythm section, and fIREHOSE was formed shortly thereafter. Dubbed “ed fROMOHIO,” Crawford lived with Watt over the next nine months when fIREHOSE wasn’t touring or recording. SST released the trio’s debut full-length Ragin’, Full On by the end of 1986, and in October and November of that same year, the band supported Sonic Youth on an eighteen-date tour of the eastern United States.