Fig Dish - Onanism (1999?)

I haven't shown any love for Fig Dish on here since about 2010, so apologies if I'm overdue.  What I'm sharing was relatively available a few years ago, but the original website hosting it appears to be defunct.  For those in the dark regarding who I'm even referring to, Fig Dish were an often excellent aggro pop-rock outfit from Chicago who recorded two albums for A&M in the mid '90s - That's What Love Songs Often Do (1995) and When Shove Goes Back to Push (1997).  Both disks were foisted onto a rather indifferent public, and commercially they went thud.  In fact, I don't think I ever happened across a CD of Love Songs that didn't have a promo stamp on the cover.  Pity all those uninformed kids who clung to their copies of Mellon Collie... and precious little else.  I saved the notes from the site that hosted Onanism, and they're below.  This is essentially an oversized batch of demos for material slated for Fig Dish's follow-up to Shove that never came to fruition.  Some phenomenal cuts too - "Ragged Ones," "Science Goes Public," "Senior Circuit," etc..

After two albums, with a combined sales of 16,000 copies, Chicago rockers Fig Dish severed their relationship with A&M Records in 1998. The band, consisting of Blake Smith (vocals/guitar), Rick Ness (vocals/guitar), Mike Willison (bass), and Bill Swarz (drums), went back into the studio to record demos to shop to other labels. RollingStone.com wrote a feature about Fig Dish’s departure and their subsequent record in which Smith said Fig Dish had no intention of breaking up and had recorded a double album worth of new material. Less than a year later Smith and Willison had started a new project, Caviar, while Ness started his own solo band, bringing Swarz along with him. So whatever became of those 2 CDs worth of material Fig Dish recorded?

After being locked away in the Fig Dish vault for nearly 10 years, we’re happy to unleash the cracken and offer you the 19 track demo that Fig Dish recorded and used in an attempt to find a new label. For fun, we’ve tossed in 2 songs that were on the hard-to-find “Quiet Storm King” CD-single released in 1995, “Eyesore” and “Spit the Part."

David Cobb, college roommate of Mike Willison, and longtime Fig Dish fan/friend/supporter dubbed this double CD, Onanism, so that’s the name we’ve given this collection of songs.

01. Burn Bright For Now
02. Cellophane & Sulphur
03. The Ragged Ones
04. Science Goes Public
05. If Not Now When
06. Trouble & Sway
07. Lake Five Blue
08. Take Me Whole
09. Tear The Atmosphere
10. All The Blues Are Pale
11. A.D. & D.
12. The Effects of Dehydration
13. The Bottom
14. Senior Circuit
15. Best Disguise
16. Carcharias Carcharodon
17. Extra Nanny
18. The Widow Cobain
19. When Shirts Get Tight (demo)
20. Eyesore
21. Spit the Part

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Singles Going Single # 73 - Fig Dish (1993, Happy Tails)

Scooped up during the post-Nirvana signing blitz, Chicago's Fig Dish dished out two excellent platters for Alias Records, That's What's Love Song's Often Do in 1995, and 1997's When Shove Goes Back to Push. With a roaring, riff-rawk assault a la Dramarama, The Buck Pets, and Soul Asylum, Fig Dish had the makings of a respectable success story. Though making some inroads at alt-rock radio circa Love Songs, Fig Dish didn't "phair" nearly as well as their gold and platinum hometown brethren Urge Overkill, Veruca Salt, and yes, Liz Phair.

The single concerning this post was a precursor to the aforementioned albums. Featuring an early incarnation of one of Love Song's most durable numbers, "Rollover, Please," and the otherwise unavailable "Miss California," this 7" makes a strong case for Fig Dish opting to go with a big indie like Sub Pop instead of selling their souls to the suits. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Anyway, I recently learned that in 1998 Fig Dish recorded an album's worth (and then some) of songs for a tentative third album that never was. You can try it on for size by clicking here. On the same blog, you can also partake in a download of a 2006 Fig Dish reunion gig. More Fig Dish songs are available on this here Myspace fan site.
After Fig Dish, mouthpiece/ax-slinger Blake Smith and fellow Dish alumni Mile Willison founded the slyly electonica-inflected Caviar to no significant commercial consequence.

A. Rollover, Please
B. Miss California

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Fig Dish - Unleash the Cracken (1991)

This is kind of an obvious tie-in with the new remake of Clash of the Titans hitting the big screen this weekend, though the only thing this ancient Fig Dish album and the movie have in common is the famous one-liner. I have reservations in sharing this disk, given the band is rumored to be a little ashamed of it, so if anyone has a problem, shoot me an email (click my profile). Most Fig Dish fans latched onto the group via their 1995 major label LP, That's What Love Songs Often Do, chockablock with hook-laden, hard rock scorchers like "Seeds" and "Rollover, Please" (the latter song originally appeared on a single in a different incarnation, which I posted a couple years ago right here). Cracken is very much a respectable Fig Dish album, albeit it's a kinder, gentler F/D, a la say It's A Shame About Ray-era Lemonheads. Contrary to the what I just rattled off, there are a couple songs here, specifically "Birthday Clowns" and "Pretty Karen Record," that crank just as mightily as their more seasoned offerings. I dunno. Make what you will of Unleash the Cracken. Their definitive album it's not, but if you ask me this is an above average springboard release. BTW, I don't possess an original copy of this, so thanks once again anonymous peer-to-peer sharer on Soulseek.

01. Diet Song
02. Lita Stay
03. Wide Open Skies
04. Pop Wonders
05. Birthday Clowns
06. Midnight Dragon
07. Much Sense
08. Pretty Karen Record
09. Tube
10. Anything Black

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Splitting the Difference # 9 - Fig Dish/Everready 7'" (199?, Liquid Meat)

Here's a couple slices of riff-roarin' rawk from a couple bands that I've already featured on here. Chicago (Fig Dish) meets southern California (Everready). Both of these aggregations were pop-friendly punks from the mid-90s. Fig Dish's "Eyesore" appeared on their "Quiet Storm King" promo cd ep, but this might be a different version (click the hyperlink above for their first, and very scarce single). As for Everready's "Weezer," I don't think it's about the band it's title entails, at least that's my take from the lyrics. Not exactly sure when this single came out - probably 1995/96.

Fig Dish - Eyesore
Everready - Weezer

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VA - Shreds Vol. 1 - The Best of American Underground Rock 1993 (Shredder)

Per the thoughtful blurb on the back cover, 1993 gave rise to some 4000 independent singles in the US alone (had no idea anyone was keeping score)!  Good on Shredder Records/Shredding Paper mensch Mel Cheplowitz for sorting out so many of the vital ones, particularity in such a robust era when it seemed like every week there were at least half-a-dozen must-haves hitting the shelves.  Remember when?  Anyway, Mel and I (not to mention probably a lot of you who frequent these pages) were on the same wavelength, evidenced by this who's-who of twenty subrosa luminaries.  The emphasis on Shreds Vol 1 is clearly skewed to indie and punk-pop outfits, or moreover ones that straddled the fence narrowly dividing those two contingents.  Not a lot of big indie farm-team type labels are represented (save for perhaps Fat Records' NOFX who contribute the seminal lesbian narrative "Liza and Louise"), rather there's a strong emphasis on records that bubbled up from micro-indies and private labels.    

A healthy portion of this coveted roster have materialized in one or more features on Wilfully Obscure - Corduroy, Parasites, Fig Dish, J Church, Bracket, Tugboat Annie, Jolt, and The Deviators, yet in many cases the music was sourced from my own vinyl rips, whereas the versions here strike me as being culled from the master tapes.  Shreds functions as both a time capsule and a goldmine of tuneful, indie-punk treasures worth their weight in Nuggets from a parallel universe. We're even thrown a couple curveballs via the bendy dream-pop of the Swirlies, and even the relatively demure Mary Lou Lord made the cut.  My favorite Prisonshake song, "2 Sisters" is included as are offerings from  the Karl Hendricks Trio, The Leonards, and Mr. T Experience.  Time won't allow me to extoll much further on the music contained within, so just go ahead and download this already!   Let me know what you enjoyed.

01. For Sale - Hanging By A Thread
02. Corduroy - I'll Be On My Way
03. Swirlies - Wrong Tube
04. Parasites - Something To Hold Onto
05. Moist - Be Young
06. Odd Numbers - Autumn Leaves
07. Mary Lou Lord - Some Jingle Jangle Morning
08. Karl Hendricks Trio - Baseball Cards
09. NOFX - Liza And Louise
10. Fig Dish - Rollover, Please
11. Prisonshake - 2 Sisters
12. Tugboat Annie - Stay Inside
13. Stink - Never Will Forget
14. Leonards - Thinking About It
15. Jolt - Let It Go
16. The Deviators - Falling Away
17. J Church - Made Life Simple
18. Fracture - Babbling Atom
19. Bracket - Imaginary Friend
20. Mr T Experience - Swallow Everything

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Lustre - s/t (1996)

Holy cow.  I forgot what a damn good album this was, until I played it for the first time this week in probably close to a decade.  Last Thursday I featured a single from Lustre, an unlikely entry in the Chapel Hill, NC indie rawk sweepstakes from fifteen years or so ago.  Actually, they really couldn't boast much of an indie pedigree at all, considering this self titled platter was delivered by A&M.   Proving just how much fun three chords could be, Lustre's penchant for muscular, guitar crunch and penetrating hooks put them in league with Sugar, Fig Dish, Head Candy, and other such saccharine laden riff brokers.  A dash of '90s AOR didn't do Lustre much harm (or good) but even with every lick in place they failed to make a pronounced dent at lamestream radio.  I mentioned in my original Lustre post that the group's closest claim to fame, "Nice Overalls" turned up on the Empire Records soundtrack, and for the love of straight-to-video, it's also on the album.  As a final thought, copies of Lustre are pretty scarce to find without a gold promo stamp marring the cover.  In addition to the track list and d/l link, you can also watch the video for "Kalifornia" below. 



01. Musta Been Cool
02. Shining
03. Fifteen
04. Wasting Time
05. Stay (How Long?)
06. Nice Overalls
07. Kalifornia
08. Sheer
09. Watermelon
10. Still Seems There

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Velouria - Smooth! Lite tape (1996)

No, they don't really sound like the Pixies, but would you believe a few '90s "small of fame" faves of mine like Fig Dish and the early Figgs?  I'm also picking up vague glints of everyone from Bracket to Triplefastaction, but this 1996 demo really isn't as derivative as I'm making it out to be.  Yeah, this is really impressive - hella power chordy with a firm grasp of melody. Self described "pop dorks," Velouria hailed from Silver Lake (that's L.A. to most of you) and went on to record a pair of 45s and just as many albums. This was a sweet find. 

01. Where Ford Falcons Come To Die
02. Audrey & Anguish
03. Sunbeam
04. Women's Wednesday
05. Perpetually You
06. Reville

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Gloritone - Cup Runneth Over (1998)

I throw the term "left of the dial" around a little too much, so here's an album that runs a bit contrary.  This rather pummeling power trio were gestated in the mid-90s in the parched desert sands of Tempe, AZ, and with their airwaves-ready debut, Cup Runneth Over being co-opted by the likes of RCA Records, you 'd think Gloritone might have gained a sizable toehold.  Not. Taking a more traditional (albeit LOUD) rawk-n-roll route, Gloritone didn't sound out of place amongst the Foo Fighters, Fig Dish, and to a lesser extent Summercamp.  Cup Runneth Over doles out the hooks in colossal grandeur, packing more melody into keepers like "John Wayne," "9 Summers," and "Cut My Heart" than many of their peers' entire albums.  Bitchin' stuff folks.  At any rate, the album came and went, as did their tenure with RCA, but a follow-up, Fainter Farther Still appeared in 2001, and is available in ones and zeros from iTunes and Amazon, as well as physically from the latter.  Get it.

01. Halfway
02. John Wayne
03. Never Not
04. Broken Arrows
05. 9 Summers
06. She Was a Good Thing
07. Speed of Sound
08. Cut My Heart
09. Flying Kites
10. When Grey Skies Come
11. Last Rites From The Coffee Table
12. Walking Dead

Now on Amazon Downloads.

Re-uploads for April.

Here's the best I could do.  Thanks for your requests.

Visitors - No Sign of Intelligent Life
Luxurious Bags - Frayed Knots
Sheila Divine - s/t ep
Jellyfishbabies - The Unkind Truth About Rome
The Furys - Indoor/Outdoor ep
The Fugue - Waiting for Something
Rooney - three eps
Dramarama - The Days of Wayne and Roses
Nightman - No Escape
Brave New World - The Law of Series ep
Bitter Pleasures - Eat the Monument ep
Sea Hags - demo
Expando Brain - Mother of God its...
Young Pioneers - tape
A Picture Made - 7"
The Chant - Two Car Mirage & Three Sheets to the Wind
Field Trip - Beautiful
Clay Idols - Falling Down Backwards
Sammy - Chili Lite 7"
Eric Menck and Paul Chastain - Firetrucks and Periwinkles
Fig Dish - Unleash the Cracken
Sweet Jesus - discography
Caretaker Race - Hangover Square
Minerva Strain - Blue Tarantella
Contras - Ciphers in the Snow
Fingers - Video Games ep
V/A - Imaginary Records comp
Tina, Age 13 - The Alcoholic Father of My Inner Child
Windbreakers - At Home With...
Howard and Tim's Paid Vacation - I Never Met a Girl
Beat Temptation - Concerned About Rock Music?
Nocturnal Projections - Nerve Ends in Power Lines
Lucy Brown - s/t 1988
Scared of Chaka/Flake Music - split 7"
New Musik - Straight Lines ep
Propaganda - Calling on Moscow ep
Yo - Charm World
Mock Turtles - 87-90
Juliana Hatfield & Evan Dando - The Mercury Lounge, NYC 9/30/10
Luxury - EP #1
The Teardrop Explodes - live 3/7/81, Mount Vernon, NY
Dharma Bums - Givin' In 7"
Dangtrippers - Incantation 7"

Shirk Circus - This Band Will Destroy Your Life (2011, Dromedary) - A brief overview

The passing of Shirk Circus frontman Josh Silverman in February of this year is not likely to go down as the biggest music casualty of 2011 - not by a longshot in fact, but for those in his inner circle, and the countless others who were aficionados of this unheralded New Jersey power trio who were predominantly a mid-1990s proposition, I'm sure his loss is intense nonetheless.  Despite having reformed for some reunion shows in 2010, Shirk Circus hadn't been on my radar since the release of their 1994 debut Words to Say.  Back then, if an album failed to illicit an almost visceral response with yours truly, I didn't necessarily denounce it or sell it back to the store, rather I relegated it to the back burner, or in the case of Words to Say, let it sit dormant for a good many years.  Upon revisiting it recently (i.e. as recent as this weekend, in fact) I found it's allure much more irresistible that at first blush from seventeen years prior.  That album could have easily been the product of the north Midwest indie corridor, or for that matter Chapel Hill, NC with it's raw, sinewy guitar fills and Josh's nonchalant indie aesthetic that was so prevalent during that era.  My loss that I failed to pay more attention to it when it was current. 


Fast forward to 2007 when Shirk Circus decided to revisit and complete an album's worth of basic tracks laid down in 1996, for what was apparently to be their third album.  That record, eleven years in the making (ok, so there was just a slight hiatus in between those years) has finally surfaced.  Sonically, This Band Will Destroy Your Life hardly sounds like a fifteen year-old artifact. You can chalk much of that up to the band's overall proficiency, and ever so gradual maturity.  Ironically, they were charting a very similar trajectory to two of their Clinton-era contemporaries, Fig Dish and Small 23.  Just as those less-than-household recognizable power chord merchants were on the verge of calling it a day, so were Shirk Circus.  This Band... sports a leaner, cleaner modus operandi than it's predecessor albums, without kicking any significant amount of spunk or momentum to the curb.  This Band Will Destroy Your Life is available wherever records and tapes are sold...but I'd get it direct from Dromedary Records.

Stag - Kickstart the Ramparts (2005)

You might not guess it from the graffiti motifed cover art of Kickstart the Ramparts, but this recently bygone Buffalo, NY area trio apparently had a real flair for '90s indie guitar rock. Whether by coincidence or not, Stag collectively hearken back to several groups I've championed on here, like Fig Dish, Small 23, Loomis, and to a lesser extent, the Figgs. Solid songs make Kickstart (especially it's first half) a repeat listen. BTW, there does not appear to be a shred of info on the web regarding Stag, so to anyone associated with the band, please post a comment.

01. Along for the Ride
02. Failsafe
03. Yeah Yeah Yeah
04. Coming Home
05. Swingers
06. The Aftermath
07. Oceanview
08. Suburbia
09. Always on My Mind
10. She Came Alone
11. Lights, the Shy, and You

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