Archers Of Loaf vs. the Greatest of All Time
More mid-90’s indie rock nostalgia ….
For most people, the band that personifies early- to mid-90’s indie rock seems to be Pavement. But to me, it’s the Archers Of Loaf. Their music was gloriously noisy, laden with white noise and a sometimes almost hardcore level of aggression, but somehow they managed to still be catchy as hell and fun to listen to. Like Pavement they gave off a distinct slacker vibe (with their sloppy arrangements and Eric Bachmann’s clever and often arch lyrics), but somehow they gave it off while they were thrashing away like crazy.
My first intro to Archers Of Loaf was the fantastic track “What Did You Expect?” off the Rows Of Teeth compilation, which I absolutely loved, so after reading a favorable review of their EP Vs The Greatest Of All Time
Coming out in 1994 between Icky Mettle and Vee Vee, the band’s first and second albums, the EP showed them transitioning towards the denser, noisier sound of the second. The songs are full of static and shards of dissonant noise, with goofy, pointless jams interspersed between the tracks. But the songs themselves are fantastic, without a weak song in the batch. “Audiowhore”, “Lowest Part Is Free!”, and “Revenge” are all pounding rockers, while “All Hail The Black Market” is a slow shout-along, and “Freezing Point” – the EP’s centerpiece and best track – is a stately anthem that wrings far too much pathos and drama out of what is likely another set of lyrics about indie rock (at least, that seems to be what most Archers songs were about at this point).
Anyway, I listened to the EP endlessly and then ran out and picked up the equally excellent Vee Vee when it came out, picking up their first album on the same day. I’m probably thinking about them now because we’re having our usual belated hot September weather in San Francisco, and it’s reminding me of driving around Los Angeles in my beat up old car in ‘95 cranking those two albums, which I’d copied onto opposite sides of a cassette (that’s what we did back then, kids). That was actually a miserable time in my life, but listening to The Greatest Of All Time, I still feel nostalgic for it. Go figure.
