Screaming Trees were a dichotomoty, visually...the Connor brothers looked like a WWF tag team entry, read to steamroll you and flatten down anything in their wake. on the other hand, the whiskey-soaked vocals of Mark Lanegan carried w/ it a certain physicality which brought a much needed dose of charisma to the band. in other words, chicks dig him.
their MO was fuzz-driven psych, done straight up. as such, they didn't really fit all that well w/ the speed-driven SST merchants, but actually did work as a complement over the 3 records they did for the label. they'd break out of the indie ghetto via their big hit 'nearly lost you' on the Singles soundtrack. a solid band, not one which will inspire fanaticism, but certainly worth some listens.
i cheated a little bit and also added a song (Change Has Come) from their excellent 2x7" (and sole) release they had on Sub Pop. kinda strange that a fairly high profile band which fit the raison d'etre of early sub pop to a T would only do one record w/ them. at least it was a great one.
Transfiguration
Smoke Rings
Where The Twain Shall Meet
Change Has Come
so there you have it, the final day of the 4th label to be featured. hope it was fun and informative for y'all. i enjoyed it, but it was a fair bit of work and i'll be happy to get back to the single song threads. anyway, this is in no way an exhaustive list of the best labels from the US (or even all the best bands from these labels; still good stuff i'd not mentioned), but i hope it prodded people to check some stuff out. that's what this idea is all about.
here are some other essential indie labels certainly worth your time and money:
siltbreeze
flying nun
merge
dischord
kill rock stars
drag city
homestead
domino
teen beat
shimmy disc
independent project
rough trade
frontier
alternative tentacles
estrus
durtro
united dairies
eclipse
time-lag
etc...
their MO was fuzz-driven psych, done straight up. as such, they didn't really fit all that well w/ the speed-driven SST merchants, but actually did work as a complement over the 3 records they did for the label. they'd break out of the indie ghetto via their big hit 'nearly lost you' on the Singles soundtrack. a solid band, not one which will inspire fanaticism, but certainly worth some listens.
i cheated a little bit and also added a song (Change Has Come) from their excellent 2x7" (and sole) release they had on Sub Pop. kinda strange that a fairly high profile band which fit the raison d'etre of early sub pop to a T would only do one record w/ them. at least it was a great one.
Transfiguration
Smoke Rings
Where The Twain Shall Meet
Change Has Come
so there you have it, the final day of the 4th label to be featured. hope it was fun and informative for y'all. i enjoyed it, but it was a fair bit of work and i'll be happy to get back to the single song threads. anyway, this is in no way an exhaustive list of the best labels from the US (or even all the best bands from these labels; still good stuff i'd not mentioned), but i hope it prodded people to check some stuff out. that's what this idea is all about.
here are some other essential indie labels certainly worth your time and money:
siltbreeze
flying nun
merge
dischord
kill rock stars
drag city
homestead
domino
teen beat
shimmy disc
independent project
rough trade
frontier
alternative tentacles
estrus
durtro
united dairies
eclipse
time-lag
etc...
