a day late: heatmiser

Yesterday I got no phone calls on my show, but played a bunch of Heatmiser for Elliot Smith's birthday. I never got into his solo stuff, but I dig his grunge band where he split songwriting duties with Neil Gust a whole lot, especially 'Dead Air,' that first record. A certain pretentious former professor chastised me over my love of that compared to the less heavy offerings that came later, but he also likes all that twee indie stuff so I'd venture to say he's wrong. None of the English major hipsters liked it either, my roommates were ambivalent, but I find myself coming back to these albums for a quick sonic sugar rush cut through with misanthropy.

 I don't know why this didn't get bigger, because the songwriting is solid, the guitars have a pleasing crunch that would have slid in easily next to both Fugazi and the Foo Fighters, maybe Gust's orientation was a bigger deal back then than now (considering that Torche has had a greater degree of success mining the same thematic territory).  No one else seems to share this opinion, but it is what it is. I prefer power chords to Beatle-worship I guess.