Heatmiser
So, this posted without a review. Sorry about that- butterfingers!
Anyway, you might have heard about Elliott Smith. But, this was his band, first. Well, him and Neil Gust. But,like a pet bought as a substitute for a child once that child is born, nobody claims Heatmiser, and that's sad to me.
First of all, they were a loud rock band , call it grunge, call it metal, call it whatever, and I rather like that sort of thing. But, Heatmiser was also openly gay in the lyrical themes. So, a very different loud rock band, indeed. But, the two principle song writers, Smith and Gust, really hated loud rock about halfway through this band's life. Head scratcher, ain't it? Nobody made them play hard rock, yet they hated it??? Well, I think it boils down to a kind of self-loathing. Smith probably stabbed himself in the chest at the age of 34. That, my friends, is self-loathing. He also wouldn't cop to being gay, half the time (now, granted, he did have some girlfriends, but there's a much longer line of boyfriends). He also was noted for all of his songs being full of self-hatred on a level rarely glimpsed outside of Kurt Kobain...
So, why would I like this unwanted first born? Because it's challenging, melodic, and unique music. Gust plays with a kind of post-punk conviction, similar to bands like Quicksand, and Fugazi, while Smith's fingerpicked guitar is very smooth and flowing, almost like an Allman Brother's slide guitar. The end result is like a Snicker's bar to me: hard peanuts suspended in caramel, wrapped in a fuzzy batch of chocolate distortion. Later on (this is their first widely-released record) they played with dynamics a lot more, and wrote music much more like their solo output (Kinks-y baroque retro pop for Smith, more seventies-influenced indie rock for Gust) But, I don't think the dynamics were good for their sound. It's better as a kind of sticky blur.
The songs are good, in an Emo kind of way (lots of sad songs) and the playing is talented and unique. What's not to love?. If you like the mellower side of Jimmy Eat World, Fugazi, or the Foo Fighters, but still want that loud distorted rock, you'll do no better than Heatmiser, who also get bonus points for naming their band after a really cool Stop-motion Animated figure, later played by Harvey Fierstein!
