90s guitar college rock indie... The 80s are back now so lets hope this comes next?

In 92 I found a ad for Ajax records, I think it was in the back of Spin. Once that first catalog came, I started buying whatever records sounded interesting. I owe my musical education to whom ever it was that ran Ajax. I treated those catalogs as gold. I wish I had still had them.
Search: The Cannanes, Peter Jefferies, The Dead C, David Kilgour, The Renderers.

I <3 the Cannanes (and those other people, but especially the Cannanes)

That Judybats video was hilarious!

Thanks everybody, c.c., for posting the links. I'll definitely pick up any of these albums if I stumble across them.

Keep the recommendations coming!

I like Seam, a band RIYL Sunny Day Real Estate for sure, and I've been interested in Pitchblende.
I discovered them when I found out they are friends with The Swirlies (my favorite).

Ah yes I've been looking for Arty Barbeque by the Cannanes.

That's a great album, one of their best definitely

Oh my god, yes, Ajax catalogs were big for me too. Not just ajax label releases, but the stuff they distributed and their year-end lists, etc. Like ILM only in 1994.

Speaking of Seam... the second Bitch Magnet album, Ben-Hur, is pretty great. I just picked that up a few months ago after not hearing it for many years. Still pretty great. Their earlier material not so much, but Ben-Hur is great. Also Bastro's Sing the Troubled Beast is a good 'un.

Ben Hur is the third one isn't it? After Star Booty (which is okayish) and Umber (which is fucking awesome).

Yeah, it's the third one. You can get Star Booty and Umber on the same disc--some of it is okay but I think Ben Hur destroys both. That's the album David Grubbs joined the band on... I don't know that it's Grubbs specifically that makes it better, though it does benefit from having a second guitar which makes all the songs a little more epic.

main seam dude had a band called "ee" that a friend of mine was in...similar vein...were weirdly on asian man records

Asian man records... only band on that label that I've pursued was Polysics. They aren't too special nowadays but albums "Hey! Bob! My Friend!" and "Neu" are both great! Hey Bob is still in print (?) or available but Neu is not. Too bad, cause Neu is a little better. Its a little heavier and just so great. Not 90s though...

I'm looking forward to the new Judybats

Oh hell I'd buy a new Judybats record for sure. They made a lot of bad records after Native Son but for "Convalescing in Spain" alone I'd give them chance after chance after chance.

Inspired by the top of this thread I'm listening to The Multiple Cat ("Territory" Shall Mean The Universe) right now. Kind of great, actually -- the guitar sounds like Versus, the singing like Pavement. But somehow it sounds more like Murmur than it does like either of these (or maybe it's just this one song, "Kitty Kan't Figure It Out," where the bass sounds like Murmur.

Whoa, unexpected naive keyboard solo.

And something about "North?" feels like a kind of Iowa indie rock "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway." I really think some of you guys should listen to this record and describe it better than I can, OK?

i have that multiple cat album somewhere, i recall it being decent but nothing mindblowing, i should reassess..

Yes, Ajax records!!! I remember them selling and distributing a lot of wonderful noisy stuff from New Zealand. Everyone knows the Dead C, but more people should hear the Terminals too. They've got that basement Velvet Underground drone down perfectly. The singer, Peter Stapleton, is one of the more distinctive vocalists out there. I also remember picking up one of the first Cannanes releases from then. I still have it and it's great.

No it isn't mind-blowing, Its just catchy and fresh the whole way through. I have that Multiple Cat album and it really is wonderful. As I have mentioned somewhere earlier the song "Sad, Sad, Sad" is just so breezy and fun, and yeah "North?" is a nice slow burning song. My favorite though besides "Sad, Sad, Sad" is definitely "My Planet" for the part in the song where he goes "...now!" as the distortion is turned on- always makes me punch the air above my head.

imo the cannanes are one of the most underrated groups of all time - an extensive catalogue with very very few weak points, particularly during the 90s..

I'm really interested in getting some Cannanes material... not really easy to find everything though. Physical copies that is.

They've been on my list for awhile.

Just to say, this is my current favourite ILM thread. Having purchased records by Red Red Meat, The Multiple Cat and Space Needle off the back of it (all of which I love and had never heard before) I'm really digging the recommendations.

Keep up the good work!

anyone dig raymond brake? poor man's polvo to be sure but that has its charms sometimes.

i second or third the Ajax catalog influence - i still have some in a box somewhere. discovered so many key bands and generated a lengthy wish list because of that distro.

may i mention the spinanes if they weren't already? manos and those early 7" are as good as it gets for me, along with seam and tsunami. and very jealous to the poster who saw versus a few weeks ago.

Barnaby: I'm so glad you are benefitting from this thread just as I am and was intending to upon creation! I've really been excited to talk about great bands that not many people are discussing these days.

Haven't heard Raymond Brake, but I love Polvo!... and if early Trail of Dead material is poor man's Unwound and I love all of that, then I am excited to hear poor man's Polvo for sure. Weird reasoning but whatever.

And yeah Spinanes have been mentioned. Great band! I've been meaning to pick up "Strand" when I find a copy. I have "Manos" and "Arches and Aisles" already. Both are great.

Oh and sknybrg will you be near NYC by any chance next Friday the 17th? Do you like Superchunk? Versus and Superchunk will be playing a free show together at South Street Seaport at 6:00pm.

Re the original question: No, let's hope it doesn't.

Fair enough?

Best almost-bill I saw in the 90s: Polvo/Drive Like Jehu/Superchunk in Boulder, CO. Polvo's van broke down or something, so they didn't show (which now really bums me out, but at the time I had not heard anything). Essentially, I had bought Foolish about a week before this show and then, about 2 days before it, had read a review of Yank Crime in Option Magazine essentially saying it was the greatest guitar record of the year (dates me, huh?). So, I went out and immediately bought it and was just blown away. I went back to buy the first Jehu record and the guy at the store just said "You know they are playing here, right?" Well, I did then. I have never been the same since that show. Gave Superchunk a big kick in the ass as well (I would not have wanted to go on after that band), they were way better on that tour than the other times I saw them. But shit, it was all about Drive Like Jehu. A group of people actually left the show chanting their name after their set, not to return for Superchunk!

just listened to this:

http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/270/273052.jpg

for real underrated classic of the waning daze of the Am Rep empire...such a great band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZdimaf-YsE

Even though I came around to her Unicorn stuff, I'm so sad she didn't keep putting out stuff like that!

"will you be near NYC by any chance next Friday the 17th? Do you like Superchunk? Versus and Superchunk will be playing a free show together at South Street Seaport at 6:00pm"

damn - i'm on the wrong coast...but i'll spread the word to my nyc friends. thanks for the info, evan!
i was a fairly big superchunk fan and bought a lot of the merge catalog on sight for awhile. may need to go find those records.

"it was all about Drive Like Jehu"

yessir! i think i recall that option article and was lucky enough to catch jehu when they played in austin - summer of '94. love love love that band

Yesterday I went shopping and I was pleasantly surprised that not only music, but clothing fashion is also moving slowly away from the 80s and into the 90's. More depression and testosterone, less glam and gayness.

great, sign me the fuck up.

right on

No problem sknybrg! Sorry you can't make it.

i've been listening to a lot of jawbox and polvo lately. i don't think jawbox have been mentioned here at all yet.

True.. they have not! Shame. I'm also interested in that Burning Airlines project.

Jawbox were great. I'm still searching for a (used) copy of For Your Own Special Sweetheart, but that's really hard to find over here in The Netherlands (since it's OOP). I have their last selftitled album which I think totally rules.

True.. they have not! Shame. I'm also interested in that Burning Airlines project.

I really really liked (and still do!) the first one Mission: Control!. Never really got into Identikit, thought maybe its due a revisit.

Back when I was a concert promoter I booked Burning Airlines to play on Sept. 11 2001. I've still got the ticket stub somewhere... the crazy thing is they played and a pretty good amount of kids still came out to see the show! (to add to the weirdness, I also had Explosions in the Sky booked for later in the week, but they canceled out of good taste.)

Creepy!

I was a gonna say late Government Issue too. You was a good album in this mode.

Idendikit is underrated IMO

Reviving the thread to thank all of those who helped me discover Further (dmr thats you). The "Grimes Golden" EP is one of my favorite discoveries of the year.

Now I'm going to focus on finding some of that Cannanes material!

Oh, and I recently got myself "Across The Room and Into Your Lap" by Uncle Wiggly and its so fantastic. Recommended.

if there's any cannanes stuff you can't find or buy directly from them, let me know as i have all of it

Does anyone have a copy of Rex's "C" that they would be willing to, uh, "lend" me? eMusic doesn't have it and it's positively un-googleable.

I used to have a copy but no longer, sorry. Amazon.co.uk has it if you are in the UK -- here

Ajax Records!!!

The head honcho used to post on here. He's a top bloke.Last I heard he was riding the Ajax chopper out to the Merge do in North Carolina.

Versus
Shudder To Think
GBV
Grifters
Archers
Polvo
Codeine
Rodan
Bitch Magnet
Seam
Lilys
Slint

All the above mentioned, applauded and seconded.

I've missed loads, I know

Didjits - hey Judester, or was that 80s?

Swell - too many days without thinking

red house painters
american music club for the more maudlin moments

Versus reformed??!!!Fontaine Toups?

Who has seized the baton?
Pissed Jeans, Japandroids, Danananananananananananananananananananann.....aykroyd - what a stupid fucking name

for me this is indie rock, fuck that fleet foxes shit

― latebloomer, Saturday, June 20, 2009 2:10 AM (2 weeks ago)

otfm!

thirded

I really like the Japandroids. Saw them recently and they were very loud but/and very good.

And yeah "Too Many Days Without Thinking" by Swell is also one of my favorite 90s albums!

Hey electricsound, is there some secret way to buy tangible Cannanes material without spending loads? I happened to find and purchase "Short Poppy Syndrome" from an ignorant source for cheap (relative to amazon going prices).

hmm good q.. i'd been lucky to pick it all up either s/hand or from the band over the years.

i'm actually really surprised that their albums are so scarce. it probably doesn't help that most of their former labels are no more.

i can certainly hook you up with copies of anything you can't find at all