| The White Birch | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 4, 1994 [1] | |||
| Recorded | August and December 1993 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Genre | Indie rock, slowcore/sadcore | |||
| Length | 43:11 | |||
| Label | Sub Pop | |||
| Producer | Codeine, Mike McMackin | |||
| Codeine chronology | ||||
| ||||
The White Birch is the second and final album by the New York City band Codeine. Released in April 1994, the album is considered by many to be the band's best album and a clear influence on Low, among other bands. [2]
On their debut album Frigid Stars LP and the follow-on EP Barely Real , Codeine's sound was characterised by agonizingly slow tempos and a stripped-down aesthetic, [2] their songs rarely venturing beyond the combination of a sharp, robust rhythm section underlying crisply ringing guitars. The White Birch introduced more melodic elements and developed an aesthetic that shifted sharply between clean and heavily distorted guitars in a way that few bands such as Slint had previously explored. Along with Slint's 1991 album Spiderland , The White Birch would prove to be a huge influence on bands such as Mogwai and Shipping News.
Following an extensive US tour, the band split up. Scharin returned to Rex, before working with HiM and June of 44. Immerwahr formed a new band, Raymond.
An alternative version of "Ides" was released as a 7-inch split single with The Coctails on Simple Machines in 1993. [3] "Tom" was released as a 7-inch single on Sub Pop in 1993, backed with "Something New". [4] "Wird" is a full-band version of "W.", which previously appeared as a piano piece on Barely Real .
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
| Pitchfork Media | 8.4/10 [5] |
| Select | 3/5 [6] |
| Spin | 9/10 [7] |
In a contemporary review, Select stated that "As Codeine transplant rock from the nightclub to the monastery, they're producing something as disconsolate yet numbingly beautiful as a gang of monks laying down some plainsong remixes of American Music Club's greatest hits. It's a strategy that has more to do with beats per millennium than minute, but this a trance music nonetheless." [6]
All tracks are written by Codeine [1]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sea" | 7:21 |
| 2. | "Loss Leader" | 4:18 |
| 3. | "Vacancy" | 3:37 |
| 4. | "Kitchen Light" | 3:36 |
| 5. | "Washed Up" | 4:40 |
| 6. | "Tom" | 5:02 |
| 7. | "Ides" | 5:07 |
| 8. | "Wird" | 6:05 |
| 9. | "Smoking Room" | 3:18 |
Slint was an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky, formed in 1986. The band consisted of Brian McMahan, David Pajo (guitar), Britt Walford, Todd Brashear, and Ethan Buckler. Slint's first album, Tweez, was recorded by engineer Steve Albini in 1987 and released in obscurity on the Jennifer Hartman Records label in 1989. It was followed two years later by the critically acclaimed Spiderland, released on the independent label Touch and Go Records.
Cave In is an American rock band that formed in 1995 in Methuen, Massachusetts. The band's lineup solidified with the 1998 release of Until Your Heart Stops through Hydra Head Records, and their early albums were prominent in the metalcore scene. The band later experimented with other genres, receiving mainstream recognition for their 2003 RCA Records album Antenna and its lead single "Anchor," which had an overall alternative rock style. The group went on hiatus in 2006, later reforming in 2009 with the release of the Planets of Old EP, followed by the White Silence LP in 2011, both of which saw a return to Cave In's earlier and heavier sound.
Codeine is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in New York City. They released two full-length albums—Frigid Stars LP in 1990 and The White Birch in 1994. Although the group broke up in 1994 shortly after the release of The White Birch, their subdued and melancholic style helped pioneer the then-nascent slowcore subgenre of indie rock. Codeine has since reunited on two occasions: the first for a handful of shows in 2012, and a second time for a series of shows in New York and Los Angeles in 2023.
Eric's Trip is a Canadian indie rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick. Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop in the early 1990s. The band had a minor hit in alternative circles with the single "View Master", from the 1994 album Forever Again.
Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It was released by Touch and Go Records on March 27, 1991. Slint's lineup at the time of recording comprised Brian McMahan on vocals and guitar, David Pajo on guitar, Todd Brashear on bass guitar and Britt Walford on drums. Spiderland was engineered by Brian Paulson and recorded over four days in August 1990. The music and vocal melodies were composed throughout the summer of 1990, while lyrics were written in-studio.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed is an American grindcore band. Its line-up has changed often over the years, with guitarist and drum programmer Scott Hull being the only continuous member. The current line-up includes vocalist Jay Randall, and Richard Johnson of Enemy Soil and Drugs of Faith, along with John Jarvis of Pig Destroyer and Fulgora on bass guitar.
June of 44 is an American rock band which was formed in 1994 from ex-members of Rodan, Lungfish, Rex, and Hoover. The band's name refers to the period during which writers Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin corresponded.
Smudge are an Australian rock and indie pop trio formed in 1991 by Paul Duncan on bass guitar, Alison Galloway on drums and Tom Morgan on guitar and vocals. Morgan is known outside Australia as a song writing collaborator of Evan Dando and his band, the Lemonheads. In 1994 Duncan was replaced on bass guitar by Adam Yee and in 1997 Pete Kelly joined on guitar. Smudge signed with Half a Cow to issue four studio albums, Manilow (1994), Hot Smoke and Sassafras (1994), You Me Carpark. .. Now (1996) and Real McCoy Wrong Sinatra (1998), before going into hiatus from late 1999. Since 2002, Smudge play a few times a year. There has been no new music since 1998.
Chris Brokaw is an American musician, best known for his work with the bands Come and Codeine.
The Coctails were a musical group from Chicago, who formed while its members were attending the Kansas City Art Institute.
David Pajo is an American musician. He has played a wide variety of music, loosely fitting into several other genres such as hardcore punk, math rock, post-rock, electronica, folk rock and indie pop. Though a multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his guitar work, most notably with Slint. He is currently a member of Gang of Four.
The Van Pelt is an American indie rock band from New York City that were active from 1993 to 1997, and have reformed several times since.
White Magic is a psychedelic folk rock group formed in Brooklyn and led by singer/guitarist/pianist/composer Mira Billotte. Billotte performs under this moniker both with accompaniment or solo, using a daf, shruti box, and singing a cappella. Invoking both traditional and experimental folk, White Magic's sound ranges from loud psychedelia to meditative trance.
Skag Heaven is the only full-length studio album by the American punk rock band Squirrel Bait, released in 1987 through Homestead Records. Squirrel Bait disbanded after the album's release and the band's members went on to form Slint, Bastro and a number of other influential indie and post-rock bands.
Anomalies, Vol. 1 is a compilation album by the American rock band Cave In. The album was officially released on December 14, 2010 through Hydra Head Records, however copies could be obtained one month earlier on Black Friday. Despite its title, Anomalies, Vol. 1 is actually the second release in Cave In's Anomalies series, which a grouping of releases that compile previously unreleased or rare tracks. Released earlier in 2010, Anomalies, Vol. 2 was a live album of a recorded performance from 2003.
Frigid Stars LP is the debut album by American indie rock band Codeine. It was released in August 1990 on Glitterhouse in Europe and in Spring 1991 on Sub Pop in the US. The album was released to generally positive reviews and is regarded as being one of the pioneering albums in the slowcore and sadcore genres. It was chosen by Pitchfork in 2008 as one of the 20 best Sub Pop albums.
Barely Real is the 1992 extended play (EP) by the American indie rock band Codeine. After releasing their previous album Frigid Stars LP in 1990, the group accepted an invitation from the quartet Bastro to tour in Europe in 1991. Following the tour, the group was invited to record a single for Sub Pop Singles Club and attempted to record their follow-up album The White Birch in 1992. The recording sessions proved to be disastrous for the group since they found themselves often with unusable tracks over several different studios. As Codeine could not record enough material for a full-length album, they decided to release what tracks they had as an EP.
Enablers are originally a post-punk band formed in San Francisco, California which features the poetry/spoken word of Pete Simonelli. The current members now mostly exist on opposite sides of the American coasts.
Douglas Arthur Scharin is an American drummer and percussionist. He has served as a member of a multitude of bands, including Codeine, Rex, HiM, Enablers, June of 44, Loftus and Mice Parade. He currently resides in San Diego, California.
Stephen Immerwahr is an American bass guitarist and vocalist best known as a founding member of the slowcore group Codeine.
