Trumans Water : C/D?

What they did right, IMHO, was that they took the above influences (Fellers, Girls, SY, etc.) and forced them into a hardcore/punk tradition.. whether Trumans intended that or not.

Sonic Youth, Boredoms, Fellers, etc. all had/have amazing rock moments of course.. but they don't rock all the time, or at least, that doesn't seem to be their "point" -- instead, following more of a tradition for higher art purposes a la Beefheart, Residents, etc. Well, supposedly.. I know I'm at least partially full of shit here... but you know what I mean. The Wire would have never touched Trumans Water... for example. Which is kinda why Trumans excited me. They took all my favorite elements of art rock bands and warped them into this ball of volume for hardcore kids.

Except there's a problem. The hardcore kids never really paid attention, sadly. Trumans were relegated to being that "wacky" band for fans of more conservative indie rock to point and laugh at. I always though Trumans Water had a lot more in common with, say, Antioch Arrow or Drive Like Jehu, than, say, Polvo or Pavement.

Maybe because the fact that Trumans always rocked is why they weren't taken as seriously? In any case, I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't seen a Glen-era Trumans Water live show.. them be the daze.

Oxes are the only current band I can immediately think of that remind me of Trumans... as far as approximating entertaining live shows, and engaging damaged rock.

Spazz-core was the word then and I guess the same now... brian donut bitch, i'm not sure if you ever venture up to SF but there is quite a bit of this particular breed of pollutant in the water which makes the kids go spazzy. sadly, kimo's doors have closed.

i took them very seriously, glen always had my jaw on the ground with his playing... i recently saw him play a soul junk and he opened the set with a guitar song (one of the few) and it totally amazes me with the sounds he can get out of a guitar... and yet, it still sounded like a mellower TW.

I saw them at various north county SD shows, but the most impressive appearance was their first show in LA (troubador) and the emptied the place in 30 seconds flat. (ned, on the same trip, the record store on 3rd street had a signed 1963 fender jaguar by kevin shields for a then-ungodly price of $1,000. i remember saying "for a jaguar?" haha)

no mentions yet of the spazz or "free" music that was very inherent in their records (donut bitch, have you heard fly ashtray or uncle wiggly?). Borbetamagus was a HUGE influence for Glen at least, Sun City as noted above, I never liked Faust's "the sad skinhead" until i heard the TW cover.

i say classic - spasm smash is the SEARCH, of thick tum, 10x My Age, Godspeed quartet... Anything with Eli from Cactopus on drums, Rick Froberg doing guest guitar/screams...

when glen left i stopped paying attention although i did see the TW brothers open up for pavement in seattle (Feb 97?) and it wasn't half bad... glen was missed though.

I've heard Deerhoof, and I want to see them live.. (if that's the aesthetic you were talking about). However, I know I've heard I Am Spoonbender referred to as spazzy, and when I finally heard them, I was left cold and unimpressed....

I saw them at various north county SD shows, but the most impressive appearance was their first show in LA (troubador) and the emptied the place in 30 seconds flat.

I can't remember all the shows I saw... the best was with Powerdresser and Heavy Vegetable at the Belly Up... (were you at that show? OH MY GOD..)

no mentions yet of the spazz or "free" music that was very inherent in their records (donut bitch, have you heard fly ashtray or uncle wiggly?). Borbetamagus was a HUGE influence for Glen at least, Sun City as noted above, I never liked Faust's "the sad skinhead" until i heard the TW cover.

I've heard of Fly Ashtray but sadly never heard. I'm a huge Uncle Wiggly fan, and while they are loose in just the right ways, I'd be hard pressed to call them "spazz" or "free"...

i say classic - spasm smash is the SEARCH, of thick tum, 10x My Age, Godspeed quartet... Anything with Eli from Cactopus on drums, Rick Froberg doing guest guitar/screams...

I forgot to mention the godly PEEL SESSIONS disc... OH MY.

i wasn't suggesting that fly ashtray nor uncle wiggly were as spazzy or free (sorry, my writing on ILM is very free and spazzy) as TW...

i just keep in mind what donut bitch likes and it seemed mid sentence like two things that may be enjoyed by like-minded folks.

anyways, back to TW... I've never heard the peel sessions, now i will start looking around. thanks.

this whole toiling midgets/thinking fellers/fly ashtray/sun city girls/trumans water/six finger sattelite/wingtip sloat/earth early 90s revival is quite fine by me! keep em coming...

sorry, i had a hairball.

They are playing in London two days after my birthday, but I will be on my way to the US by then (oh, the irony!). I haven't seen them for a while, do they play the West Coast often? How do they compare to the Truman's Water of old?

as stated above, i stopped paying attention to TW circa glen's departure (ie, many moons ago). i saw soul junk play fairly recently and they were all over the place finally settling on lo-fi christian hip-hop.

im not sure if they will be playing any shows here in the continuous 48, though a friend seemed to think that might be playing at least one show in portland (but im not holding my breath). they mostly tour europe these days, since Kevin Branstetter lives in France and they seem to get more folks there than here, where they are pretty much forgotten by the middle to above ground.

as for the post glenn years, well at least until Fragments Of A Lucky Break when glenn popped up again, I think they still did some great stuff (maybe not as great, but still damned good), one of my favorites being, Apistogramma with longer, slower songs (including a great Sun Ra cover) -- a little less spazz and a little more squiggle.

My 136 Spasm Smash thoughts -- most of the judgment still holds true, I figure.

Still sing that to myself sometimes. I'm not entirely sure it was what they were singing, though... Plus recently heard that Gina Arnold (?), something, something again, on an old tape... Pretty good! Classic, even!

They toured late last year with Morris Tepper (ex-Beefheart).. they started with an unannounced-til-day-of show in Seattle (of which I saw the listing and went "G*#$%()#R)#$!!", and ran over there, and was one of the 20 attendees, for them, anyway), then played Portland,.. then they played a few shows last Thanksgiving in California... and that was it.. all last minute.

Kirk played last year with an Oslo damaged noise/rock band called Epikurs Euforie... also Kirk is supposedly in a band with Sara formerly of Unwound, and Lara formerly of Last Of The Juanitas... but that may have just fallen through.. not sure. Kirk's also in his own more poppier band. They play shows with Anne Eickelberg's band often.. or used to...

Kevin still lives in France, and is (hopefully still) having a successful career as the American voice for sportscasting events broadcast there... mainly basketball. (which is no surprise to anyone who has met them. They've been playing basketball since the womb.)

Arg. I need to get an update again.

Can't believe I still haven't heard their version of "Someday You'll Be King" (only MX-80 Sound cover that I've heard of, ever.)

Last i heard, he makes music for commercials with Rafter Roberts. That may have changed recently.

Keep in mind the album came out originally self-released and self-colored in late 1991, sent to Peel just to see what would happen.. right after Nirvana took off, and "everything was about to change, man".

It's not surprising that Peel really liked them. It is surprising that he just TRACKED the entire first album on his radio show, if that rumor is indeed true.

Sweet lad, you and I were in the same room together about ten years back when we figured THAT out. ;-) (Namely I was playing "City Hobgoblins," you were using the computer and we both went 'wait a minute...')

We lived in Ohio 2000-2002 and one day we were watching TV and there was some jewelry or perfume commercial that came on and there was someone singing "With a Girl Like You" by the Troggs on it and I was like, "What the hell is this?" As it went along, I realized it was Glen!

x-post - it was before their rise to fame, Ned!

I discovered them via the Our Scars 7" because I was at Rhino records in Westwood/L.A., and there was a sign besides the single saying "HOLY SHIT. THIS IS THE BEST BAND EVER. if you even slightly like SOnic Youth, you MUST GET THIS!". So, I, uh, took the chance, got it, got home, played it, loved it.. could in touch with the band via someone I met in the band Napo, they called back, came up, played live on KUCI twice, and a few months later, Spasm Smash would get released.. and the spiral then had spark.

It would have been before her rise to fame too! I could easily it happening!

Yup. They came up with the band name not too long before. They used to play around with a different band name every time. Then, one night, they had a drunk friend at a gas station trying to read a business card with the name "Thurmond S. Waller" on it.. and well, he read it, and the band name was born.

Jewel may have jammed with proto-Trumans Water!

Who HAS taken over for classic Trumans' madness, in their own odd way, is Racebannon. I was only reminded because someone just started a thread about them. Racebannon are more "metallic" and "opus"-ey than Trumans Water. TW would never turn an album into a rock opera about a cross-dressing performer.

They seem to be an 'early' band.

re: soul-junk/glen (ex-trumans)... they're working on a word for word translation of the bible into song for their most recent label sounds are active

http://www.soundsareactive.com

Hmm, not heard of it. Some sorta San Diego comp, I gather?

"Yer plastic culture sucks and...it's gonna BLOOOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOOWWWW!"

TW now have a myspace presence and whoever is behind (either Kirk or Kevin B?) is now blogging the history of the band! Also, unreleased songs in the player. "Alter of Gibralter" being my favorite.

One of the very few reasons to still have a myspace account.

Nice. I'll have to check that out.

What is all this "Steve Woo" talk? Any SD or OC or LA folk must surely know
it's Chris Woo.
Also, holy shit at seeing Stampone mentioned on an ILM thread. Worth the de-lurk just to note that...
Sort of.

It's something. Hi dere bear bear bear.

Hi dere Ned. We've spoken elsewhere...

Ah yes? Drop a line if you'd like, use the webmail function on here.

Hey Chris! It was me who typed "Steve Woo". Sorry.
(in brief, we met before when I promoted in O.C. for Koo's. Now live in Seattle since 2001)

No Woo here... Pretty sure Chris has still never ILM'ed. Sorry for the mislead/mix-up Mackro....

Steve Woo, Steve Shasta... it's all a blur to me

Shasta

I wanna pop

new album 'O Zeta Zunis' out 8/24 on Asthmatic Kitty

http://andrewearles.com/2014/04/25/trumans-water-another-band-in-my-upcoming-book-gimme-indie-rock-500-essential-american-underground-rock-albums-1981-1996/