| 1 | Thingy | 0:57 |
| 2 | Saloon | 1:43 |
| 3 | Eggy In A Bready II | 1:18 |
| 4 | Doesn't Mean Shit | 1:24 |
| 5 | Myliebetz | 0:46 |
| 6 | Couch | 3:11 |
| 7 | Head Rush | 1:57 |
| 8 | Listen To This Song, Kill Pigs, And Try To Sue Me | 2:31 |
| 9 | Eight | 1:41 |
| 10 | Dutch | 2:12 |
| 11 | Termites | 1:45 |
| 12 | Calling The Toads | 1:57 |
| 13 | Krishna On The Ledge | 2:44 |
| 14 | Black Suit | 2:16 |
| 15 | Junior | 4:03 |
| 16 | Johnny Pig | 1:44 |
| 17 | Means Less | 1:47 |
| 1 | Vitamins | 2:07 |
| 2 | Oreo | 1:35 |
| 3 | Harry Gato | 2:17 |
| 4 | Up & Down | 2:16 |
| 5 | Mechanical | 3:00 |
| 6 | Gum Fighter | 2:14 |
| 7 | Wabbit | 1:58 |
| 8 | Invasion | 2:13 |
| 9 | Best Coat | 2:08 |
| 10 | Drool | 1:13 |
| 11 | Hippy | 0:12 |
| 12 | Sea Stunt | 1:53 |
| 13 | Daredevil | 3:04 |
| 14 | Math | 2:18 |
| 15 | Mentos | 0:30 |
| 16 | Boo! | 2:18 |
| 17 | Our Way | 0:49 |
| 18 | Electric Man | 3:20 |
| 19 | Supersong | 3:00 |
| 20 | Close Encounters | 1:04 |
The tragic story of Scarce began in 1993 with singer/guitarist Chick Graning and singer/bassist Joyce Raskin. After the breakup of the Boston band Anastasia Screamed, Graning had moved to Providence, RI, to live with then-fiancee Tanya Donnelly of Belly, and he met Raskin, who attended the Rhode Island School of Design. The two began to write songs together itself in both the Northeast United States and England with their exhausting live shows. While most bands of the time performed in whatever clothes they were wearing that day (that was why it was called grunge, after all), Scarce performed with Raskin in a prom dress and Graning in a black suit or gold lame tuxedo, both energetically bounding across the stage. Scarce quickly became the subject of a major-label bidding war, although their signing was postponed by legal problems Graning had with his previous band's U.K. label. In the meantime, Scarce put out three singles (later collected on the independently released Red EP) before finally signing to A&M in late 1994, around the time Graning and Donnelly broke up their relationship.
Ehrbar then left the group to form his own band, the Space Needle, and Scarce recorded its debut album with Boston session drummer Mike Levesque. The album was released in England in June 1995 with a U.S. release shortly to follow, when Graning failed to show up for practice one day. Raskin and Levesque went to his Providence home, and after kicking the door down, discovered Graning on the floor unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital, where it was discovered that he had suffered a near-fatal brain hemorrhage. The American release of the album was postponed and the single "Honeysimple" was pulled, and Graning then spent the next nine months re-learning how to walk, how to talk, and then how to play his guitar and sing his songs. Once he had recovered, the band added new drummer Joe Propatier and re-recorded much of Deadsexy. When the album was finally released in the United States a year later, it boasted new tracks with Propatier on drums and a new song order. After his hemorrhage, however, Graning found that he and Raskin had drifted apart both musically and emotionally. Shortly after the U.S. release of Deadsexy, in October 1996, the band broke up. Graning later began a solo career.
| 1 | Honey Simple | 3:13 |
| 2 | All Sideways | 3:55 |
| 3 | Rains Of Kansas | 3:43 |
| 4 | Summertime | 4:22 |
| 5 | Glamourizing Cigarettes | 2:24 |
| 6 | Crimes River | 4:20 |
| 7 | Days Like This | 3:57 |
| 8 | Sing Me Stella | 4:03 |
| 9 | Freakshadow | 3:14 |
| 10 | Salvador Sammy | 2:03 |
| 11 | Sense Of Quickness | 4:23 |
| 12 | Obviously Midnight | 5:45 |
by Charles Hodgkins
Deathstar's Archers of Loaf/Polvo-informed indie rock initially took shape in the northern reaches of California's sun-scorched Sacramento Valley. The powerhouse trio -- guitarist/vocalist Kelly Bauman, bassist Ken Lovgren, and drummer Jim Rizzuto -- released a pair of EPs in the mid-'90s and began work on a third release before aborting the project altogether in late 1997. Original copies of the group's paltry output can be painfully difficult to track down, but Deathstar's legacy as underground noise pop heroes has outlasted the group?s brief recording career by a wide margin.
Bauman and Lovgren went to high school together in Redding, CA, where Bauman's outfit Case for Radio would frequently play shows with Lovgren's band For Pete's Sake at the local Plumbers Union Hall in the late '80s. The pair later crossed paths in the nearby college town of Chico, where they hooked up with ex-Trench drummer Scott Nichol. Nichol soon departed Chico for cooler pastures, leaving Deathstar's drum stool temporarily vacant until Bauman and Lovgren met Rizzuto (formerly of Blackout and Pitchfork Tuning) in the summer of 1994.
The trio's first recording project was a self-titled 10" EP for San Diego's Silver Girl Records; its six songs were four-tracked with John McCall at an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Chico. An appearance on the Superwinners Summer Rock Academy compilation (which also included Track Star, Knapsack, the San Francisco Seals, and McCall's band the Imps) followed in late summer 1996. Local appearances with Blonde Redhead, Knapsack, Thinking Fellers Union Local #282, and Deathstar's own heroes Polvo affirmed the band's respected status within the region's indie scene.
Throughout most of Deathstar's steak-and-potato days, Bauman moonlit as drummer for Harvester, hitting the skins for the rootsy alt-country rockers on their 1996 Geffen release Me Climb Mountain and even playing a gig with the band in a mine near Nevada City, CA. Meanwhile, Deathstar spent time crafting a properly produced follow-up at Sacramento's Enharmonik studio, and it was these sessions that would ultimately yield the fiery Strikes the Earth EP. However, packaging snafus delayed the EP's release on St. Francis Records until the summer of 1997, by which time Bauman's move to Portland, OR was imminent. The band reconvened in the Rose City later that autumn with producer Adam Selzer (later of Norfolk and Western) in hopes of recording material for a third release, but the sessions weren't as productive as the group had hoped. Bauman eventually returned to Northern California and jump-started both the North Magnetic and Arnica Sync, while Lovgren joined Ant Farm and Rizzuto pursued a teaching stint overseas.
| 1 | Shut Down |
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| 2 | Spineless |
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| 3 | Realms Of Gold |
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| 4 | 16-Bit |
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| 5 | Pencil Fight |
The alternative group 3 Lb. Thrill was formed in 1994 by guitarist, pianist, and vocalist Matt Brown, bassist Bill Decker, drummer Pete McDade, and vocalist Jeff Jensen on harmonica and guitar. The band's music, much of it written by Brown, offers fans guitar-based soft grunge, similar to tunes by groups like Total Chaos, Royal Hunt, and the Mutton Birds.
Brown, Decker, McDade, and Jensen had all originally worked together in a jangle pop band called Uncle Green. While performing as the long-lived Uncle Green, the band released five albums. Its first, What an Experiment His Head Was, came out in 1980 under the DB Records label. With tracks like "I Always Knew You'd Come to Me," "Guilty Party," and "Don't Fix It if It Works," Uncle Green's music was compared to that of artists like Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band and Thin White Rope.
By 1994, Uncle Green was officially laid to rest, but its members rose again as 3 Lb. Thrill. The foursome signed with Brendan O'Brien over at the 57 Records label, a subdivision of Sony 550 Music. The group, with its new name and a slightly revamped sound, released its debut album, Vulture, in 1995. The album is filled with numbers like "Baby Come Clean," "Something Will Come," and "Bikini Island."
| 1 | Born Again | |
| 2 | Diana | |
| 3 | Baby Comes Clean | |
| 4 | Stop Inviting | |
| 5 | Mary Tells Me | |
| 6 | Jeff's Fast One | |
| 7 | Something Will Come | |
| 8 | Bikini Island | |
| 9 | Bad Seed | |
| 10 | Coffin Nails | |
| 11 | Collide | |
| 12 | Embrace | |
| 13 | Piñata |
| 1 | Genius Boy | 3:35 |
| 2 | Bleed | 3:04 |
| 3 | Saviour | 2:56 |
| 4 | Familiar | 3:18 |
| 5 | Get On | 2:52 |
| 6 | Strange Eyes | 3:18 |
| 7 | Welcome | 4:23 |
| 8 | Nowhere, Man | 2:48 |
| 9 | Sincere | 2:41 |
| 10 | Lie | 3:57 |
| 11 | Undressed | 2:48 |
| 12 | Sleepwalking | 4:04 |
| 13 | Rain Down | 6:11 |
| 1 | Roadkill | |
| 2 | Ever Rest | |
| 3 | League Night | |
| 4 | Sediment | |
| 5 | Salt Talks | |
| 6 | A Tale Of Good Living | |
| 7 | Yakima | |
| 8 | Blood Bath | |
| 9 | Daze | |
| 10 | Nevada | |
| 11 | Open Doors | |
| 12 | Chemicals | |
| 13 | Yakima (A Slight Return) |
by request| 1 | Yeah | 2:35 |
| 2 | Bicycle Song | 5:33 |
| 3 | Wake Up | 3:50 |
| 4 | Amp | 2:43 |
| 5 | Medicine | 3:56 |
| 6 | Rockets | 4:17 |
| 7 | Motorama | 3:01 |
| 8 | Nocturnal Autodrive | 4:21 |
| 9 | Why You Won't | 3:46 |
| 10 | Carnival | 3:25 |
| 11 | Chappel Hill | 1:41 |
| 12 | Paper Bag | 4:44 |
| 13 | Gazer | 8:28 |
| 14 | Untitled Track | 3:04 |
Siblings Beth and Jay Sorrentino began making music from about the age of five. In their Lancaster, Pennsylvania home, Jay would play drums while Beth sat at the piano. Bassist Ken Heitmuller also began playing early on. In 1989, the trio formed suddenly, tammy! and recorded two EPs in their basement studio. With the absence of a guitar player, the band provided a fresh sound in indie pop. Both Spokesmodel and El Presidente were well-received, especially in the College Music Journal. Indie label spinArt's first release was the group's own full-length debut. The self-titled album did well and earned suddenly, tammy! a spot supporting Suede. Signed to Warner Bros. in 1994, the band recorded throughout the summer with producer Wayne Livesey and released (We Get There When We Do) in 1995.
| 1 | Stacey's Trip | 2:41 |
| 2 | Plant Me | 4:37 |
| 3 | The Way Up | 3:42 |
| 4 | Intro To Babee | 0:23 |
| 5 | Babee | 4:32 |
| 6 | No Respect Girl | 3:44 |
| 7 | Can't Decide | 3:38 |
| 8 | Disease | 2:35 |
| 9 | Lamp | 2:43 |
| 10 | Bell & Howell | 0:45 |
| 11 | How He | 3:39 |
| 12 | Instrumental | 2:24 |
| 13 | Fearless | 2:54 |
| 14 | Ryan | 3:00 |
| 15 | Mt. Rushmore | 3:48 |
