spleen blossom

the title comes from venting one’s organ (as the spewed lyrics suggest) and (probably) the fact that nirvana’s nevermind and songs like “in bloom” were huge at the time. best guess, that is. oh, and we were listening to the jerky boys’ prank phone call tapes a lot in those days, before somebody decided they needed a record and movie contract. that’s the sample at the start.

yes, mike!

we’re not sure who mike was, but he seemed to be having a good time (or so the exclamation point would indicate). listen for the shredded guitar strings piercing the kick drum, exploding it into a thousand pieces.

man with a sandwich on his head

a drawing from a children’s calendar for a local school was the inspiration for this anthem (and we do mean “anthem”) to persevering outsiders. note the studio-savvy echoyness.

they turned the power chord on its head

rising from the bowels of early 90’s college cover bands (“free fallin’” anyone?), schwa arrived to turn the power chord on its head.

• tim power on guitar, back to the audience, the sonic swirl of j mascis and thurston moore and anthony braxton swirling around his ringing ears. he wrote the songs that made the whole world thrash
• scott foster (“the prophet”) drawing on love and politics and disease, scraping layers of perry farrell’s dna and sprinkling them into his lyrics. the mic had a crush on him
• jon flick, boy wonder, bashes his kit, equal parts keith moon and brad pitt. a 4-track in his hands was a thing of beauty
• marthame sanders, whose name anagrammed to “thunder broom”, had the hair for it all. drips of lou barlow, mike mills, and greg ginn fell on the four strings
• joe carroll, animator, linesman, accordionist. a gentle giant with a squeeze box, he brought the melody in an overflowing suitcase

cassettes have piled up around the house for years; softly dissolving plastic bits of faded glory. then along comes the worldwide webbernet; they finally find a worthy home for the world to hear.