Squigglycore(??): Truman's Water
San Diego, Oh, San Diego, you of such a vibrant scene in the early 90s with your Three Mile Pilots and your Drive Like Jehus and your Crash Worships and your Heavy Vegetables and your Gogogo Airhearts. You of your powerful rock'n'roll. Oh, San Diego, with your fluf and your Rocket From The Crypt and your varied alternative goodness. Oh, San Diego, you with your Jewel and Pinback and Black Heart Procession and Blink 182 that later escaped from your warm and sandy clutches. Rock the Casbah, right?? One band that escaped the warm, sandy clutches of San Diego was Truman's Water, but they didn't escape to fame and recognition, they escaped to Portland, OR and to obscurity.
When I first saw Truman's Water at the infamous Jabberjaw in LA in 1994 it was maybe the first time I realized that I could like or that I did like music that would clearly not be enjoyed by the masses. They were wild. The music didn't seem to make much sense, the instruments didn't really seem to be in tune, the tempo changed wildly, the members jumped higher than I thought possible. They were inspired by very early Pavement, but that's not really right, maybe more like a Polvo or a God Is My Co-Pilot, but only parts of those bands. Truman's Water become somewhat of an indie darlin in 93 and 94 when John Peel started pumping them over in the UK and Sonic Youth started saying how awesome they were. The indie spotlight faded and they were snatched up by a major label. They put out maybe a dozen albums between 92 and 98 with the majority of them being somewhat hard to find (cassette only or tiny labels). They hit their pinnacle on their 93 album Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox and Ass. After Spasm Smash they leaned more towards instrumental improvisation. They band lost it's singer Glen Galloway in 94/95 (he has later returned periodically for albums and tours) when he became a christian and formed the idiosyncratic christian lo-fi band, Soul-Junk. Soul-Junk has been putting out records since then and has slowly become probably the only lo-fi christian hip hop group ever. Truman's Water moved as a band shortly after Glen left the band to Portland. They have slowed down but still put out albums and it seems like they tour Europe (where all good instrumental improv spazz bands thrive) once a year. Truman's Water will always be remembered for always being an unrelenting and never comprising band and for their impressive diffuculty and obscurity they deserves the title The Greatest Band Of All Time.
trumans!! so awesome
arent they playing in town soon?
maybe dunes. i cant remember. awesome band
trumans water never signed to a major label. They've been one of my favorite bands since I was thirteen, and are criminally over-looked. Die Monitor Bats owe a great deal to them, but I wonder if they're even aware of T.W. Spasm Smash.... is a masterpiece as is Milktrain to Paydirt. They're singles comp on Weasel Walter's label is pretty great, though all the songs listed aren't on the actually cd! I'm curious as to how much of a "buzz" band they were in '93-'94. I've read things about Fugazi and the Make-up taking them out on tour at the time, and John Peel played the entire "spasm... " album on one of his shows. apparently the only time he did that for any band.
Correct, we never signed to a major label. We were getting courted by geffen for a while but we pretty much snubbed them off realizing that they wouldn't really back us up and would have most likely destroyed us as a band... Buzz band? Eh. One show with fugazi at the hollywood paladium, a few shows with stereolab and the boredoms, god is my co-pilot... No one ever brought us on tour except beck for a couple weeks. That was nice. but i think we managed to alienate more than convert. It was pretty much all peely's doing. He played 'of thick tum' in its entirety on his show. And we were not the only band he did that for. He did do it for a handful of other bands over his long, illustrious career (r.i.p.)but it was a pretty rare occurence nonetheless. meanwhile we're still trudging away thu willfull obscurity... Thanks for the flattering article!