This one is a tad belated. Make that eight years belated. Then again, demand for Loomis has been limited as best, even when they were active in the mid/late '90s. I'm following up on an entry I did for them in 2009 for the first and only proper album, You're No Tiger, Meow, Meow, Meow which dates back to 1996. Back in the day, those who took notice of these Madison, WI gents were treated to the quartet's sobering, but muscular brand of thoughtful indie rock, that really did bring the rock on most occasions. Well, in addition to that seemingly "lone" LP was this exhaustive 34 song compendium of singles and mostly unreleased material, damn near three albums worth to be exact. The brief sleeve notes fail to provide recording dates, but it's safe to say that some of their earliest recordings are situated at the beginning of disk two. Loomis apparently began life as pop-punk aficionados, and during this phase of their tenure, they came up with raw, Husker Du and Doughboys informed assaults like "Boxspring," "Spoke" and "Beige."
In my earlier piece on Loomis, I observed sonic similarities to their Chapel Hill, NC contemporaries Small 23. That same observations applies to much of the remainder of How Much..., but these guys tinged the brunt of their handiwork with bittersweet inflections, stopping far shy of gloomy or maudlin. It's a formula that worked well to their advantage on the relatively subdued "Twinkle Toes" and "Liberace." Regardless of what mode the band chose to revel in, the real beauty of How Much is Too Much, is the sheer quantity and quality of material offered. Before you make room for this on your hard drive, you can sample all of it on Bandcamp (who for some reason aren't offering HMITM as a download). If you're brand new to these guys, do check out the aforementioned You're No Tiger... LP as well.
Disk 1
01. pillow
02. liberace
03. beige
04. two inches deep
05. down
06. elo
07. lunch tuck
08. paper mache
09. she moves like a lazy susan
10. home/a piece of resistence
11. secret asian man
12. when i move
13. win!
14. hookers
15. twinkle toes
16. butterbean
17. i'm a reader
Disk 2
01. girl of your choice
02. spoke
03. wait inside
04. chop suey
05. names and words
06. boxspring
07. rototiller
08. chunks
09. twerp
10. clerk
11. ballad of a handgun
12. untitled number one
13. train
14. iriwn am
15. hi-tech swimpsuit
16. i don't speak porpoise
17. untitled number two
3 comments:
Dave from Loomis here. There are two things on Bandcamp TherealLoomis.bandcamp.com. We did a reunion show in 2006 and recorded four of the live tracks a new song and a rewrite of “Wait Inside”, combined them with the Bob Weston sessions for a post-YNTMMM kind of album. Still kicking around a revamp of HMITM, remixes of the demo demo and four track stuff along with the rest. Also discover other versions of some songs from the first demo session.
Thanks for caring,
Dave
Thanks for leaving a note. Just saw it now and purchased Tender Meats on Bandcamp. BTW, do demos exist for any of the songs on YNTMMM?
The demos for YNTMMM are on the album. We demoed 4 songs at the studio YNTMMM was recorded and shopped that around. Then we recorded the rest of the songs along with Dag Nasty's "When I Move" and "Secret Asian Man". The demo mixes and album mixes are virtually identical. The only extra stuff you don't have is some songs from the first demo that are not on "How Much is Too Much". Different versions of "Paper Mache", "Train" and one unreleased song with no vocals. Maybe there's another that is escaping me right now, nope just checked only three songs.
Actually I take that back "When I Move" and "Secret Asian Man" were recorded a few months after the rest of the album was recorded. The album got delayed from summer 1995 to spring 1996. We got asked to contribute to a Dag Nasty comp and decided to put out a 7” to have something out as the album was delayed.
I know "Conquistador" was a demo song, as for the rest I don’t remember. I looked for one of those demos but I don’t think I have one.
Thanks for supporting the band. Let me know if you want to know anything else.
Sent an email to you with the same info.
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