Wednesday, March 29, 2006

kings of the underground

just a few weeks removed from seeing Dinosaur Jr., the music scene in southern new england during my youth has been on my mind a bit. the strength of bands coming out of boston and the surrounding area played a huge factor in nuturing my love of music growing up. today i thought i'd revisit one of the forgotten bands from back then. Cold Water Flat had a rather short existence. the band, formed by Paul Janowitz, younger brother of Bill, the frontman of the then locally popular Buffalo Tom, was close to disbanding the group after one album when they were signed to a major label amidst the explosion of alternative music in the nineties. in fact, it was the newly formed Fort Apache imprint created by MCA, Fort Apache Studios being the epicenter of Boston's music scene in the ninties, recording popular local artists and emerging national alternative acts. the subsequeent '95 self-titled release would turn out to be their last when it failed to catch on, but in my eyes remains an underlooked gem from a time were southern new england was abuzz with the success of bands ranging from Dinosaur Jr. and the Lemonheads to bands like Morphine, Belly and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. it contains the familiar punch of grunge emulating pop that recalls the heyday of 120 Minutes and the formation of countless modern rock radio stations, making it good pickings for the eventual nostalgia for all things ninties.

Cold Water Flat "King of the Underground"

1 Comments:

At 6:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

going to see dinosaur jr tonight. and i tell you what, as of late i've been going through all of the old standbys myself. the music that came of your part of the country at the time made it down here easily enough so i still love it, but the stuff that came out of here didn't get too far in their original forms. and now that they've all made their respective transitions and gained a little more national publicity (ufofu/captain audio --> secret machines, tripping daisy --> the fucking spree, bad hair day --> the paper chase, rhett miller (crybaby folkie) --> old 97s --> rhett miller(pretty boy) etc), it makes me crazy nostalgic for music that i thought was pretty damn good back then. too bad i can't seem to find a lot of it.
and too bad i can't seem to find a lot of new stuff either....

 

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