Loftus was an American indie rock band from Chicago, signed to Perishable Records. Consisting of former members of Red Red Meat and Rex, it released only one album in 1998.
Loftus was formed out of a proposal by an A&M Records representative to combine the bands Red Red Meat and Rex into a group that would release an experimental album for an A&M subsidiary Treat and Release. [1] A selection of members from both bands recorded with Bundy K. Brown and Brian Deck at the recording studio of Ben Massarella of Perishable Records in August and September 1996. [1] Allmusic reported that the album was written "by putting everyone's names in a hat and then picking out four names at a time to go into the room and come up with a song. The lineups changed, the songs were recorded and the record took shape." [1]
Treat and Release eventually folded before the album was issued, [1] and the recordings were reacquired by Massarella and Tim Rutili, members of Red Red Meat (which disbanded in 1997). [2] Massarella and Rutili re-launched Perishable Records with the release of the Loftus album in 1998. CMJ New Music Monthly described the album as "quietly noisy deconstructed country and blues grooves". [3] The album was a modest financial success for the label, which led to their issuing side projects from several of Loftus's members. [4]
The group did not issue any further material under this name, but the album saw a vinyl reissue on Jealous Butcher Records in 2013. [5] The original CD issue on Perishable and the vinyl reissue on Jealous Butcher were both encased in sandpaper sleeves, which were meant to abrade and damage the covers of the records they sit next to on a shelf. [6]
Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks is a 2001 EP by the alternative rock band Modest Mouse. It collects the earlier Night on the Sun EP along with unreleased tracks from the recording sessions for The Moon & Antarctica.
Ugly Casanova was an American indie rock band signed to Sub Pop Records. The band has released one album, Sharpen Your Teeth.
Skam Records is an independent electronic music record label based in Manchester, England, founded by Andy Maddocks around 1990. Skam also runs a smaller sub-label called 33.
Sharpen Your Teeth is the only studio album by the indie rock band Ugly Casanova. Brainchild of Modest Mouse lead singer Isaac Brock, Ugly Casanova was his attempt to try new methods and genres outside the realms of Modest Mouse. The album sees Brock performing on more instruments and using a more stripped down method of recording. The story given is that an eccentric character named Edgar Graham met with Modest Mouse while on tour. During their time together, Graham and the band recorded a few songs together, and Graham completely disappeared. In an attempt to get Graham to resurface, Brock took the recordings to Sub Pop Records, redid them in the studio, and had them released as Sharpen Your Teeth. It has since been revealed that Brock fabricated the story himself, using Ugly Casanova as a method of writing music whilst not being recognized instantly as Modest Mouse.
Red Red Meat was a 1990s Chicago-area blues-influenced alternative rock band. After their break-up, frontman Tim Rutili went on to form Califone, for which many of Red Red Meat's former members, including percussionist Ben Massarella, often record and perform. Tim Hurley went on to form Sin Ropas.
Califone is an experimental rock band from Chicago. The band is named after Califone International, an audio equipment manufacturer. Their work has been critically acclaimed.
The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation is the debut full-length album by American metalcore band Poison the Well. It was released on December 14, 1999. Influential in the early popularization of metalcore around the turn of the 21st century, the album was the band's first on Trustkill Records and is now recognized as a landmark album in the genre due to its quality and influence. The album was the band's first release to appear on CMJ's charts, reaching number 9 on the Loud Rock chart in May 2000. It had sold 30,000 copies by 2002. The release received numerous reissues on various formats over the years through such record labels as Good Life Recordings, Roadrunner Records, Shock Records and Rise Records and was digitally remastered in 2012.
Longstocking were an American, Los Angeles–based queercore-punk band.
Brian Deck is an American music producer and member of the band Red Red Meat. He co-founded Idful Music Corporation in 1988. Since becoming a full-time producer, Deck has worked with bands and artists including Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, Califone, All Smiles, Fruit Bats, Gomez, The Grates, Holopaw, Baby & Hide, David Singer and David Berkeley. Brian currently works at Narwhal Studios in Chicago.
Kind of Like Spitting is an American indie rock band. They formed in 1996 in Portland, Oregon. The band is led by singer-songwriter Ben Barnett, whose work has drawn comparisons to Elliott Smith, Mark Eitzel, Billy Bragg, and Robert Pollard.
There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight is the fourth and final studio album by Red Red Meat, released in 1997 by Sub Pop.
Perishable Records is an independent record label founded by Chicago musicians Ben Massarella and Tim Rutili in 1993. Rutili and Massarella were both members of Red Red Meat at the time, and released the band's "Hot Nikkity Truck Monkey" as its first single. The band was almost immediately after signed to Sub Pop, but after Red Red Meat broke up in 1997, the pair revived the label name and began releasing new material on it. Its first release after the dissolution of the Sub Pop contract was an album by Loftus, released in 1998. Perishable's recording studio initially was a renovated first-floor apartment in Chicago, and musicians recorded to 2-inch analog audiotape before moving on to processing using the digital audio workstation ProTools. The label's offices, in 1999, were in a truck wash in south Chicago that doubled as the office for Massarella's side business, BJ Transportation Service. In 2002, the label lost some of its flagship acts - The Fire Show had broken up, and Fruit Bats had signed with Sub Pop - and Massarella and Rutili openly talked about potentially winding down its operation. However, by 2003, the label was operating out of an erstwhile elementary school in the Pilsen neighborhood, where the group had also outfitted a studio it dubbed Clava. Clava was located in a converted garage next to the school, was financed by Massarella, and was operated by Brian Deck of Red Red Meat.
Tim Rutili is an American musician, filmmaker, and visual artist. He is best known as the founder of Red Red Meat and Califone, and his membership in supergroups Ugly Casanova and Loftus.
Ben Massarella is an American percussionist and drummer. He is a member of Califone, a former member of Red Red Meat, Loftus, and Orso, and co-founded Perishable Records with Tim Rutili in 1993.
She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not is the sole studio album by American hardcore punk band Kiss It Goodbye, released on April 1, 1997 though Revelation Records. The album was repressed on vinyl format in 2012 to celebrate the band's short 2012 reunion tour.
oRSo is a US-based band formed in 1996 and led by Phil Spirito of Rex, HiM (US), Loftus, and Califone featuring Brian Deck of Red Red Meat and Ben Massarella of Califone. The musical style is self-described as "carny rock, chamber folk or just orchestrated weirdness"; their songs, which feature prominent banjo parts, also feature experimental sounds such as those made by typewriters and toilets. The band releases on Perishable Records.
Rex is an American indie rock band formed in 1994. Rex was considered one of the most important and influential slowcore bands and released three albums and one EP on Southern Records, as well as a collaboration with Red Red Meat on Perishable Records. Members included Doug Scharin, Curtis Harvey (Pullman), and Phil Spirito (Orso).
Pullman is an American, studio-only, folk and predominantly acoustic rock supergroup, formed in Chicago by Ken Brown, Curtis Harvey, Chris Brokaw, and Doug McCombs in the late 1990s.
Red Red Meat is the eponymously titled debut studio album of Red Red Meat, released in 1992 by Perishable Records.
The Fire Show was an American indie rock band from Chicago signed to Perishable Records. They released three albums on the label in the period 2000–2002.