OUTLAW BLUES Various Artists 1992

 

by request

Discogs

Tribute to Bob Dylan

Tracklist

1	Thurston, Kim And Epic–	Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence	4:01
2	The Bluebirds–	Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues	5:44
3	Lee Ranaldo–	You've Been On My Mind	2:28
4	Anastasia Screamed–	Tombstone Blues	5:58
5	Spirea X–	It Ain't Me Babe	3:27
6	Poster Children–	Isis

4:05
7	Thin White Rope–	Outlaw Blues

2:48
8	The Original Sins–	Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window	3:38
9	The Cuckoos–	This Wheel's On Fire	4:41
10	The Boo Radleys–	One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)

6:07

ANASTASIA SCREAMED Moontime 1991

                                                                          

 Discogs 

 

Artist Biography by Rev. Keith A. Gordon

Tumbling out of the same late-'80s post-punk Boston music scene that produced the Lemonheads, Dinosaur Jr., and the Pixies, geography was the only thing that Anastasia Screamed had in common with their contemporaries. With a dark, discordant hard rock sound that owed as much to sonic assassins like Hüsker Dü and Led Zeppelin as to the pop-oriented college radio rock popular at the time, Anastasia Screamed earned a loyal audience up and down the Northeastern coast with their unpredictable live performances. Formed in 1987 by guitarist Chris Cugini and drummer Chris Burdett, the band went through a number of roster changes until the pair met songwriter/guitarist Chick Graning on the subway one day. The musical interests of the three were similar and, enlisting the help of bassist Michael Lord, they recorded the self-released five-song Electric Liz EP in Boston's Fort Apache studios. Produced by Sean Slade, the 1988 EP came to the attention of London's Fire Records, which signed Anastasia Screamed to their Roughneck imprint. Tiring of the competitive Boston music scene (and high living expenses), the band picked up and moved to Nashville at the suggestion of Tennessee native Graning. Bassist Charlie Bock replaced Lord for the recording of Laughing Down the Limehouse, the band's 1990 debut album. Well received by the British music press, Laughing Down the Limehouse produced a minor U.K. hit in "Samantha Black." The five-song EP 15 Seconds or 5 Days followed in 1991. Distribution problems stateside, coupled with label problems overseas, prompted the band to break up in 1992, with Graning going on to form the band Scarce. 

Tracklist

1	Tornado
2	Out Of The Light
3	Stand By
4	One Deep Breath
5	She Must
6	Dead In The Grass
7	Get A Load Of That Machine
8	15 Seconds Or 5 Days
9	Fall To Ceiling
10	Blues
11	Dead Ants

 

SCARCE Deadsexy 1995

 

by request

Discogs

Scarce Biography by Aaron Schatz

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.

Tracklist  

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