Tuesday 7 February 2012

Label Day: Suicide Squeeze Records

"Summer, 1996. The Pacific Northwest. Modest Mouse’s debut album, “This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About,” is released by Up Records. The underground - still swooning - holds its collective breath as Built to Spill signs a deal with Warner Brothers to record their follow-up to “There’s Nothing Wrong With Love.” Pivotal times. The Riot Grrrl movement had re-claimed “the personal as the political,” heralding another wave of feminism and burgeoning movement that went beyond musical expression; yet, genres and subcultures still quarantined the conversation… All the while, Elliott Smith had begun to sing, alone on stage, acoustic guitar in hand.  

Enter Suicide Squeeze Records.

A label operated out of a basement - an effort and an adventure - in the mid-nineties (when K and Kill Rock Stars really thrived). This was a prolific period for regional music. Even as the national spotlight burned off elsewhere, inspired sounds rushed from the suburbs and the capitol, and swelled in Seattle. There were countless exciting bands, and near as much noteworthy music - much more, in fact, than indie labels could have hoped to document…"

I can't say, after reading that, that this is what I expected to hear. But there is something, something quiet and indie and..well, eighties about it all the same. Headphones, I Never Wanted You

I love this band so much. Never before has bratty punk been quite so adorable. The Coathangers, Trailer Park Boneyard

Picture this. You're walking along a street in a black-and-white B-movie. This drags itself up from the gutter like the the werewolf from the alley on your left. Then the lone camera closes in on your scream. Dirty Beaches, Lone Runner.

Moll x

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