Sounds From The Junkshop Bonus: Footnotes 1999-2000

 

Well, it's been a while since we last did one of these things - clearly the years 1999-2000, far from being a fallow period for music, had more bands who left an impression on me than I thought with several groups from this era meriting their own SFTJ entry!

However, as with every era, there were a few bands out there (and similar to last time out, a LOT of Fierce Panda ones!) who briefly made an impression on my listening habits but didn't really stay there either due to breaking up suddenly or just drifting away from me after one brief moment of genius. As I've mentioned in previous SFTJ's, this was very much the "why not?" era of indie music where the demise of Britpop had left a hole at the centre of the scene which at this point hadn't really been filled. And as no-one really knew what was likely to happen next, the general consensus seemed to be that anything was worth taking a chance on if you could see some kind of potential in it which led to some interesting cases of bands getting five minutes on a major label only to promptly disappear once it became clear that they weren't going to be "the next big thing". See the entries on King Adora, Crashland, Straw, Mo Solid Gold, the Crocketts and most infamously Gay Dad for just a few examples of this.

Add to that the fact that my music tastes were starting to get heavier and there's a few scuzzier groups of reprobates in this list as well, mostly ones I found from listening to stuff on labels like Infernal or Changes One. A fair few of these were American glam-punk bands who were making an effort to try and pick up a following over here after achieving cult status back home but never really got further than a few gigs and their albums being either restricted to only being available on import or through an indie label.

Anyway, a bit of a mixed bag as you may have gathered. Let's take a dip inside and see what's there, shall we?...

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SEAFOOD

Fierce Panda mainstays during the turn of the millennium years, Seafood hailed from Northampton but clearly wanted to be from somewhere cool like Nebraska or Minnesota. I remember one less than kind review of one of their singles describing them as "Husker Don't". However, as someone who'd enjoyed Sugar's Copper Blue album back in the day and was just starting to discover Husker Du and the Replacements, they kind of reeled me in a bit.

The group had formed in the mid-'90s and signed to Fierce Panda in 1998 or so, releasing a few singles on there. When the label signed a distribution deal with major label Mushroom records, one of the first things they did was sign Seafood to a five album deal which they must've been rubbing their eyes in disbelief at. Unfortunately they only got round to releasing one album, 2000's Surviving The Quiet, before Fierce Panda broke away from the Mushroom group again and Seafood ended up dropped. The album in question was a bit hit and miss but had at least four stormers on it in the two panic attack singles Easy Path and This Is Not An Exit plus the riffed up paranoia of Guntrip and the gentle Dear Leap The Ride.

After the collapse of their deal with Fierce Panda, Seafood were reassigned to another label under the Mushroom umbrella, Infectious, best known for having Ash on their books (and previously Symposium as well), for a second album When Do We Start Fighting? but I seem to remember I wasn't as jazzed about this one as I was their debut and drifted away from them after that. Looking at their Wikipedia page, it seems they managed to hop on for a ride in emo's jetstream when that particular movement took off, landing tours with the likes of Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World (not that big a jump really when you listen to them). They managed a further two albums before going their separate ways in the late noughties as the law of diminishing returns and singer David Line's health problems brought the operation to a halt. Seafood are maybe one of those bands whose back catalogue is ripe for a revisit as it's been close on two decades since I last listened to them but Surviving The Quiet is well worth a track down should you be so inclined towards the more angular end of alt-rock.

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OOBERMAN

Formed by a group of Liverpudlian exiles at Bradford Uni, Ooberman were another one of those bands who put out an awesome opening volley of singles only for their subsequent album to be a disappointment and see them silently drop back to the indie labels that spawned them.

The group first came to my attention via their 1998 single Shorley Wall which was a record of the week in Melody Maker and I just happened to see it in Mike Lloyd records in Stoke the next day. An achingly lovely slice of haunting psychedelia about seaside ghost towns (not a million miles from the Coral's excellent Coral Island album last year thinking about it), it was one of the best records I heard that year and got me really excited for what this band could do.

Initially, it seemed as though Ooberman couldn't put a foot wrong - second single Blossoms Falling (a Top 40 hit no less) was a breathless rush of a song about spring coming round and new love and was one I often used to play in the early days of relationships back then. Their third Million Suns was even better, a lovely string-drenched cosmic ballad with a big singalong chorus. And then...dammit...their debut album proper The Magic Treehouse turned out to be a massive disappointment with only a couple of other decent tunes outside the three singles (Roll Me In Cotton and Silver Planet probably being the best of an under-par bunch) and a disappointing leaning towards third division Pink Floydisms and clichéd nerd humour. Gutted, I wandered off.

Ooberman would be dropped by their major label paymasters Independiente following disappointing sales of The Magic Treehouse but would struggle on for two more albums, 2003's Hey Petrunko and 2006's Carried Away before going on hiatus amid a fracturing line-up. The group's two frontpeople Dan and Sophie can now be found in the Magic Theatre whose album I may give a spin after revisiting The Magic Treehouse. Looking back at that album from twenty years distance, it's a frustrating affair but those first three amazing singles at the very least deserve a listening to as you sigh and wonder what might have been if they'd managed to keep that form up for a whole album...

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TENNER

Oh boy...younger self hyperbole alert. I vividly remember reviewing Tenner's second single, the excellent We Will Be Kings EP, in the Keele campus fanzine when it was released in late 2000 and proclaiming that "As Coldplay were in 2000 so Tenner will be in 2001!" Oh boy did I get that wrong but it didn't seem like such an outlandish declaration at the time. These Bath natives had just graduated from Fierce Panda up to Food records just like Chris Martin and co had a year before with a sound which harked back to the more moody reflective end of Britpop and said song brought back memories of Gene and Marion with the singer sounding uncannily like Rick Witter from Shed Seven.

Of course, as should be blindingly obvious, chart domination wasn't on the cards for Tenner - a few months later, Food closed their doors and the band found themselves label-less. They would go through a pretty comprehensive change of sound and resurface as tuneless emo howlers X Is Loaded in the mid noughties. To be honest, I wasn't even aware that the two were the same band and went back to give XIL a listen and, as someone who generally couldn't stand emo, all I can say is...no. Just no. Ah well, at least they came up with one stone cold classic in We Will Be Kings, it's just a shame we never quite found out what would've happened if they'd stuck with that sound and gone on to put some further songs out in this guise. Ah well, them's the breaks.

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INNER SLEEVE

The prospect of a shoegazing "supergroup" trying their luck in 1999 seems like an ambitious one to put it mildly but Inner Sleeve, featuring ex-Slowdive drummer Simon Scott and ex-Chapterhouse bassist Russell Bromage, were game enough to give it a go. The net result was a half-brilliant mini-album Looking Up on (where else?) Fierce Panda which I ended up playing the first four songs of quite a bit during the latter half of the year.

The songs in question - the twisting Come Alive, the psychedelic Let Me Down, the slow building nine minute Smile and album highlight, the six minute morning after regret lament of Over, were great stuff indeed and still hold up well now. Yes, there's an argument that Inner Sleeve were at least six years too late with this album but as a very late in the game shoegazing effort, it isn't bad at all, it's just a pity they decided to pad it out with a load of roughshod demos.

The group unfortunately wouldn't last beyond that one album with Simon moving on to drum with early noughties Americana indie types Lowgold (who we may well cover in a future SFTJ) but I'd definitely recommend the first half of Looking Up to any fortysomething shoegazers out there who might have missed it first time out, those songs are definitely underappreciated gems.

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TWIST

Another one of Fierce Panda's "hey, why not?" bands, Twist hailed from Wolverhampton and I think it's safe to say they may have listened to a few Hole records growing up. Their sole mini-album Magenta, had a similarly feral aggression to Courtney and co's early '90s output which, coupled with some good musicianship and fierce lyrics, made them briefly look like ones to watch.

Listening back to Magenta now, it's held up pretty well with the ferocious Lay Low and Shari Says mixing well with the paranoid Hey You and Good Is Girl. I've no idea what happened to them after they split but they left behind a bit of an underappreciated lost classic in this album. Well worth a listen if you can find a copy somewhere.

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SPACE AGE PLAYBOYS

One of the weird side effects of following the various ex-members of the Wildhearts around the turn of the millennium was that you often found yourself being dragged off down side roads that you maybe weren't expecting and, in a roundabout way, it was Ginger who got me into Warrior Soul. Around 1999 or so I ended up picking up an Infernal Records compilation called Up In Flames because it contained the ultra-rare Silver Ginger 5 tune Motorvate on it (which wasn't on the UK release of the Black Leather Mojo album) as well as a then-new track from the Yo-Yo's and it ended up being a bit of a gateway into me discovering a lot of other bands who'd be on my CD player a lot in the following years including the Black Halos, Gluecifer, the Hellacopters, the Dwarves...and the Space Age Playboys.

The Space Age Playboys were formed by Kory Clarke following the demise of the band he'd made his name with, politico-glam-thrash pioneers Warrior Soul, another band who we'll probably cover in a future Garbage Days Revisited at some point. On their later albums like Chill Pill and Space Age Playboys (which lent its name to Clarke's new group), Warrior Soul had been drifting towards a more glammy electronic sound and the Space Age Playboys band was basically the sound of Kory going full Ziggy Stardust.

Their sole album New Rock Underground was a pretty good effort as well - after hearing opening track Buzz On on the aforementioned Up In Flames compilation, I ended up tracking a copy down and really enjoyed it - full on space age glam rock being played ridiculously OTT in the best Buckcherry style via songs like The Band Gets High and Tokyo Girls Go Bang-Bang. Unfortunately, it sold no better than the last few Warrior Soul albums did and the group turned out to be a short-lived venture with Kory soon moving on to old-school rock 'n' rollers Dirty Rig and then to the 21st century incarnation of Warrior Soul where he remains today (new album imminent apparently). The Space Age Playboys may be a mere footnote in Kory's career but that album is a bit of a lost gem in my opinion and certainly deserves a listen if you're into the dafter sci-fi end of glam.

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MURDER CITY DEVILS

Another band who I got into through Infernal records (the label who also had the likes of Ginger and Antiproduct among others on their books at the time) and more specifically the Up In Flames compilation mentioned in the Space Age Playboys entry above where they contributed the ultra-sinister 18 Wheels. The group hailed from Seattle and were signed to local label the infamous Sub Pop (who also had the Yo-Yo's on their books at the time).

Possibly because of the Sub Pop connection and the fact that their album Empty Bottles Broken Hearts was produced by Jack Endino, the group seemed to get referred to as grunge revivalists a lot of the time but that's very wide of the mark to these ears. The swirling organ on a lot of the tracks actually gives them a Doorsy style dark psychedelia feel and the fact that there's a song named Johnny Thunders on there is a bit of a giveaway as to who another of their main influences was.

I really enjoyed both Empty Bottles Broken Hearts and the MCDs' follow-up In Name And Blood - they were pretty much unlike anything else around at the time, a genuinely sinister take on alternative rock which maybe had a very fleeting similarity to Groop Dogdrill or what Queens of the Stone Age would strike gold with a couple of years later. Those two albums just sounded like the most deliciously evil music I'd heard in many a year and I enjoyed them both but the group split very suddenly in 2001 after the line-up succumbed to instability with some quite dark goings-on which...well, see the group's Wikipedia page for more details, it'd take more space to cover them than we've got here. They have since reformed and are still out there gigging with a new album surfacing in 2014. Which I completely missed at the time and should probably check out at some point.

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ANGELICA

Similar to Twist earlier on this list, it's fair to say that Angelica were basically a riotgrrl band who landed that crucial five years too late. Hailing from Lancaster, they briefly started out on Deceptive for one single (Teenage Girl Crush) before moving across to Fantastic Plastic for the mini-album The End Of A Beautiful Career. Sounding like a grungier Kenickie, it was a bit hit and miss but the seething anger of All I Can See, the claustrophobic Bring Her Head Back To Me and the creeping closer Fireflies showed a band with a fair bit of potential with the brutally straightforward feminist lyrics definitely marking them out from a lot of bands at the times.

Again though, right sound, wrong time - the group got a few mentions in the likes of Melody Maker but it didn't translate to sales. The group however did come to the attention of Babes In Toyland's Kat Bjelland who produced their sole album The Seven Year Itch (which I completely missed at the time). However, what could have been a leg up for them ended up proving fatal as Bjelland offered the group a chance to go on tour with her as the new Babes In Toyland line-up. Singer Holly and guitarist Claire were both BIT fans and said no as they didn't want to disrespect the original line-up but the group's rhythm section said yes and the result was a massive falling out which saw the band split very messily.

Singer Holly Ross would go on to be the most successful of the band post-split as she would form indie press darlings the Lovely Eggs with her partner David Blackwell (who'd previously managed Angelica) who have gone on to far greater success than Angelica ever managed. She's also appeared on Scroobius Pip's podcast (where she told the above story about Angelica's split) and the episode in question is well worth a listen as she comes across as a likeable person who gives some good insights into the harsh realities of life in a largely self-sufficient gigging indie band. The Lovely Eggs might not be quite my cup of tea musically (sorry guys) but The End Of A Beautiful Career, while it's not quite all killer no filler, is definitely worth a curiosity listen to see where they started out.

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BELLATRIX

It's maybe not a surprise that the band who Icelanders Bellatrix, the other mainstays on Fierce Panda around this time, found themselves compared to was the Sugarcubes. Like Seafood above, they were signed to a five album deal by the Panda crew when the deal with Mushroom records came a knocking. Unlike Seafood though, you could kind of see the logic - they dealt in a wickedly twisted brand of indie-pop which certainly could've caught on.

The group's lead-off single Jediwannabe (an actual Top 75 hit on its re-release) was a great first volley with the chugging riff and singer Eliza's hyperactive violin and slinky vocals taking a friendly dig at Star Wars nerds marking them out as a fun band with a good ear for a catchy hook. Follow-up The Girl With The Sparkling Eyes was another cheeky slice of weirdness with the sort of off-kilter lyrics you'd expect from a Scandinavian band who were writing in a language which wasn't their first ("Love bites you in the ass when you least expect it/Oh you silly sod") Again, all good fun.

The group's swooping third single Sweet Surrender was the lead-in to Bellatrix's debut album proper It's All True (although they'd put out a couple of mini-albums prior to signing with Fierce Panda) and if you can get past the fact that the non-stop kookiness does get a bit cloying in places, it's not a bad effort with the likes of the sorrowful Tame Tiger and the grinningly OTT This Boy Will Be Mine being particular stand-outs.

It all seemed to come to a halt very suddenly with Bellatrix - similar again to Seafood they ended up leaving Fierce Panda after the collapse of the deal with Mushroom and I found out through an FP newsletter about six months later that the group had gone their separate ways with Eliza going on to a solo career. Which I never heard anything further about. Bellatrix were very much a flash in the pan band but It's All True, despite a few moments where it goes over-wacky to the point of annoyingness, isn't a bad effort at all and is certainly worth of a revisit if you need something to cheer you up on a glum afternoon.

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And so we put the millennium years to bed in SFTJ. We should be back a bit sooner with our next entry which will cover 2001. With nu-metal, fratpunk and sub-Strokes indie garage rock reigning supreme at this point, your correspondent would find himself drifting further and further away from the zeitgeist and we’ll find out where that all ended up…