Back in the dark days of the early-/mid-90s I came across the hand scrawled list above and felt like I had struck gold. I printed it out and carried it with me during long hunts for new music. Most of what I remember about those days are independent record stores, smoke-filled dorm rooms, and run-down apartments containing nothing but a couch, an ashtray, and a stereo. That’s mostly because those are the only places I frequented. It’s also because I was into anything that felt experimental and the Louisville underground music scene certainly fit the bill.
As you can see, Squirrel Bait is at the center of the creation myth that surrounds the music that we now call experimental indie rock, post rock, and math rock, along with a bunch of other forgotten tags like jazz rock and the uglier ones like slow-core and crescendo-core. The point was that this music was different and hard to describe. Best of all; it was good.
In this thread I will review albums made by bands that are in the Squirrel Bait family. This will require some limitations because if I were to consider all the bands that employed certain family members like David Grubbs, John McEntyre, Jim O’Rourke, and David Pajo, then the genealogy grows to include huge portions of the Drag City, Touch & Go, Quarterstick, and Thrill Jockey labels among others. Fun as that sounds it’s just too much. So I will try to keep it as close to direct connections with Squirrel Bait as I can but may also include some reviews of bands that contain only cousins of the band. In any case, there is plenty to discuss.
The first three albums to be reviewed are:
Skag Heaven (1987) by Squirrel Bait
Diablo Guapo (1989) by Bastro
Umber [+ Star Booty EP] (1989) by Bitch Magnet