idaho - s/d

Top GAZE band.

The debut Year After Year is also Idaho's pinnacle. Like a morose drive through the desert with the windows closed, every song has a dusty, meandering feel that permeates your senses.

While the 2nd This Way Out is a very different record it's also extremely satisfying, a much more rawk record with big Son Volt like licks and urgency. If you prefer to program out Farrar's slower songs then This Way Out will definitely be a revelation.

From that point on things get spotty for me ... while some tab the 3rd album Three Sheets To The Wind as their pinnacle I find it a bit unfocused for my taste ... and the wonderful production feel of the first feels very muted.

The one reliable truth about Idaho is that every release has at least one barn-burning brilliant song. While none of their subsequent releases have come close to being a full album worth of strong material, there's at least one tune that will recapture their old glory. "The Worm," "Goldenseal," "The Sun Is All There Is" ... all wonderful.

The outtakes compilation We Were Young And Needed The Money is probably the best full Idaho release I've heard in the last 5+ years ... glad these 'rejected' songs have been released.

the song 'bass crawl' on one of their eps is one of the msot amazing things. the EP is totally OOP and impossible to find though (in fact, I just sold my copy; but not w/out ripping and keeping that song)

(specifically, it is "the forbidden" ep)

year after year is one of the great classics of sadcore, slowcore or however you want to name rather slow music with mainly melancholic undertones. i chose it as my favourite album of 1993.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hADx9YWYGyk

<3

Strange, the consensus here likes the first 3 albums best (the only ones I've got so far) but elsewhere Lone Gunman and Hearts Of Palm are talked up.

Listein to "Year After Year" again. Great album.

all those albums are good. but they are depressing to me in ways that similar things that I've always adored are not, and I have a hard time listening to them.

yeah this band achieved a level of suffocating-ness that their peers mostly did not

Very sad news that cofounder John Berry has passed:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/obituary/6836458/john-berry-idaho-co-founder-indie-rock-band-dies

Rest in peace.

Love the first 3 albums. Haven't listened to them in years.

Year After Year is so good. I bought it when it came out, and then lost touch with this band. Time to buy more.

Hmmm. Idaho early albums aren't easily available.

they certainly are not. does jeff have a bandcamp set up? he may not own these either.

most of those CDs are on ebay though, I believe.

His Bandcamp only has a few later albums. The website offers ÇDs by email order. That may be the best option. I'd rather he earns a few dollars

The song One Sunday came on just now and it struck me suddenly how much it sounds like The Spinanes but with a male voice. At least on that song.

not sure if i said it already on the relevant thread but

year after year

Du alter Verführer!

this song made a deep impression on me as an 18 year old stoner, and i still love this record quite a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hADx9YWYGyk

Du alter Verführer!

Noticed Hearts of Palm got reissued last year. Went right on my want list for sure.

yeah, it's a really nice pressing. Jeff said others will follow.

Managed to pick up The Lone Gunman. So far more of a stripped electronic sound and quiet vocals. Already like it

A documentary is coming together

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janjensendavis/traces-of-glory-the-musical-journey-of-idaho

The filming's done, the idea here is to get sound mixing and promo help going. 70% funded with 18 days to go so hey, why not help a bit?

Whoa @ opening shot in the trailer. That's his house? What's he do for a living I wonder...

haha I know, no shit right? he has done a lot of corporate music scoring but I seem to also recall that jeff's family had money even back then. that might have just been a rumor though.

It's all hearsay, but I vaguely knew one of Idaho's drummers back then and iirc Jeff had enough money that he could more or less work on Idaho full time.

the interviewees in the trailer more or less say as much, don't they?

I imagine Idaho's cost of living is pretty low.

And if you supported the Kickstarter they've released a link to screen it as you choose over the next two weeks. I'll check out here in the next couple of days and report.

Huh, I forgot to follow up here! It was a good watch, a little more money put into it than some documentaries I'd guess; also helps that there was a hell of a lot of archival footage by default. It concentrates on the initial albums and then a current-state-of-things in a back-and-forth fashion.

Anyway, bring all this up because the documentary is now streaming on Prime and Apple TV; also new album announced plus an RSD set of the initial albums on vinyl in October.

yeah hoping to have time to watch this this week.

New album is already out, it's very good. Not Alas good, but very good anyway.

Those first three albums are incredible. Very nice vinyl boxed set already available for pre-order.

Would happily pay to watch the doc but it's currently unavailable in Canada. Ned, any inside info on whether access might soon go broader?

Didn't see anything in the announcements about it. You might have to VPN it?