Next Time More Famous: Further

My partner in crime, Mr. Zac Pennington, astutely pointed out the obvious last week that the more obscure a band is the harder it is to track down photos of them on the internet for use in this humble music appreciation site. Well, Mr. Pennington, I toast to you, as I have found your theory to be dead on. In my searching for photos of the mid 90s rock back Further, I returned exactly 0 photos of the band. The only image I found (exhausting google image search and all the links in the first ten or so pages in a standard google web search) was the image you see to the left, the cover of their last release (Next Time West Coast). The other album cover you see below was the result of me taking a photo graph of the eight or so year old copy of their first album (Sometimes Chimes).

The insane obscurity of this band is really surprising. The leaders of Further, brothers Brent and Darren Rademaker, had been in Shadowland, a band that had put out two releases on major label (Geffen) in 89 and 90. Shadowland went through a lot of grief with Geffen forcing them to want to make Further so obscure (I am assume that their obscurity was mostly their own decision). The trouble with the major label even seeped into Further's material the first thing you hear on their debut album is a sample of somebody saying "and we got the shaft from the record company," with a song on their second album, Griptape, called "The Death Of An A & R Man." Shadowland was heavily influenced by 60's music, as to where Further was influenced by more contemporary peers like Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Sebadoh, and Teenage Fanclub. Actually, in most reviews (of the few you can find) they are criticized for emulating these bands too closely. This can be a knock, but I also find it to be a positive for this band. Yes, they do sound like many bands of the day, but I think they combine different aspects of these bands wonderfully. In fact, they had a good sense of humor about being accused of ripping of their contemporaries by naming of their songs "furtherdoh-jr.q" (a reference to Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr, etc.). Not the most original band but Further did make good music.

Further released two full lengths and three eps over their short three or four year career. The Rademaker brothers both went onto bands that were nowhere near obscure as Further, with Brent going on to the wonderful (60's influenced) Beachwood Sparks, and Darren going on to (60's influenced) The Tyde. Chris Gunst, the principal singer and songwriter for Beachwood Sparks played guitar in Further towards the end of Further's lifespan, and I actually read in one article the Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel, The Postal Service, Figurine, Strictly Ballroom, and more was in Further for awhile. All this evidence points to Further being willfully obscure. Further may not be the greatest band in the world when it comes to execution and originality but when it comes to effort that has to be put in to enjoy this band, concept (willful obscurity), and charm Further truly is The Greatest Band Of All Time.