Fireclown:The greatest short-lived band from the Pacific Northwest

Two days ago, while I was traveling by the bus, and my mp3 player was fetching its last breath(because it didn't have any batteries) with "Come on down EP", I asked myself: "Is there anyone listening Green River right now"...but I realized how hilarious I was so I came down to :"Is there anyone listening Green River"...."Is there anyone listening at least Nirvana"...I realized once more that I was the only survivor of Kurt Cobain’s X Generation, and the only one who tried to bring this country on the right track.

Ok, I think it’s time for me to come back to our subject today, because it seems that I started with my own problems. One of the reasons for witch I like so much the short-lived bands is that by having only one material and maybe a song included on some compilation, one can’t criticize their evolution…because they don’t have one. I think that the material which fascinated me the most was : ”Another Pyrrhic Victory: The Only Compilation of Dead Seattle God Bands LP(1989)”…is absolutely overwhelming. Today’s band comes from the dark and obscure side of Northwest, from Eugene, Oregon and was formed in ’88, the guitarist Adem Tepedelen, the singer Jeff Kleinsmith, the bass singer Karl Hornyik and the drummer James Halada, they all had come from different local bands…Interesting to notice would be Jeff Kleinsmith’s former band, The Funeral Party, founded in ’86, which had as influence The Cure, Joy Division etc. The Cure influence has left its mark on Fireclown too, on account of the singer’s voice. The name of the band has been taken after a song from Tygers of Pan Tang. In October ’89 James and Adem moved to Boulder, CO, the band took a short break until July ‘90 when the four reunited. In February ’91 they released a single, and then, in August Adem left the band and had been replaced by Sean Tessier. It didn’t last long, the sources say that after two shows they broke up.

Adem, Jeff and James founded Stymie in February ’92. Sean had sung for a short period of time in Dehumanizers after which he founded Squalor…And that’s how, folks, Fireclown disappeared. Junkie 7’’(New Rage Records) is the name of the sole material released by Fireclown and has two songs: Junkie and Big Disease….very, very dark.





Junkie
Big Disease



See you after the holidays...Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

The most noisy...most absurd...heaviest thing that was going

In the next lines we could talk about so many things, like trials, video-clips which were too "ugly" to be broadcasted on MTV, wood hewers and ex-butchers...but I think that we are already fed up with these aspects, so let's move on. If you haven't realized yet who I was talking about, Tad is the answer...Pretty noisy...pretty absurd...pretty heavy not to impress the remarkable Seattle scene. I know that your next question would be "what is the material that you are going to preach us about today"...the answer: "Salt Lick Ep". The first material that I've listened from Tad was the "God's Balls/Salt Lick" compilation, and in my opinion, their best introduction. The compilation came out in 1990, released by Sub Pop and formed by the "Salt Lick" Ep(1990) and the "God's Balls" Lp(1989). The two materials sound quite different, but if we think that in the end the Ep was produced by Steve Albini and the Lp by Jack Endino, the difference is acceptable...the reason that I've liked better the first songs of the compilation (in other words "Salt Lick") was that they sounded more noise, they were more terrorizing and faster, while "God's Balls" is more like heavy and sludge.

I would also like to recommend you the "High On The Hog" song, with Kurt Cobain's voice, song known by many of you under the "Alcohol" name, I don't know who came up with this, or where did he get this idea, but apparently this is the name under which it appears on "Outceticide 3". The song was performed live at 26th of November 1989..I don't know the exact location....you can see the clip on youtube.

However, I want to say a couple of words about the fact that my blog is "overloaded" with visits, that's because people, today, would rather post something pop-emo and indecorous, but I don't need a lot of visits; as long as one person is interested in the grunge materials posted on this blog, I will do my best to refresh it...and for that person, I don't think it's that hard to leave a comment now and then. I also want to thank Last Days Of Men On Earth blog because he offered me a space in his friends list...

Axe to Grind

High on the Hog

Loser

Hibernation

Glue Machine

Potlach

High on the Hog(Kurt Cobain vocals)