UK indie rock compilation
Tracklist
| 1 | Atomic 61– | RIP | 3:39 |
| 2 | Mudwimmin*– | Wild Bill | 3:38 |
| 3 | Mule– | Tennessee Hustler | 1:46 |
| 4 | Love Cup– | Tearing Water | 4:46 |
| 5 | Action Swingers– | Bum My Trip | 3:00 |
| 6 | Tulips– | Choco Pig | 3:56 |
| 7 | Mantis (2)– | Who Wants To Be A Camel? | 5:27 |
| 8 | The Meathooks– | Hell Generator Dub | 3:15 |
| 9 | Honeymoon Killers*– | Kansas City Milkman | 3:43 |
| 10 | Cell (3)– | Never Too High | 5:23 |
Formed in 1994 when Schnabel met DiRienzo in LA after a show of his other band Cell (3).
Cell split soon afterwards and Schnabel and DiRienzo - now joined by
drummer Danny Ellen - started focusing on Ugly Beauty. The band signed a
record deal with Atlantic Records in 1995.
They had a minor hit with 'Forgotten Too.' The song was played in
the American Horror movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer" at the beach
in the beginning of the movie. The band split up in 1998, a year after
the release of their debut.
Tracklist
1. Seven Days
2. The Only Heroine
3. Bring Me Flowers
4. Forgotten
5. This Defeat
6. Faded Love
7. Way Down
8. Endless Stream
9. The Sweetness
10. La La La
11. Forgotten Too
Alternative rock band from New York City, New York. Active from 1990 to 1995.
Trouser Press (in a not so flattering review of Cell's releases):
Operating under the rationale that songs and singing don’t matter much if you’ve got a bombass guitar sound that screams indie cred and supportive pals like Sonic Youth (who’ve certainly coasted down that same carpool lane on more than one occasion) in your corner, New York’s Cell made an exceedingly underwhelming bow on Slo*Blo, shaking the walls in a rich, tuneless blare. Singing guitarists Ian James and Jerry DiRienzo mash together roaring, boring textures while drummer Keith Nealy (a onetime Sonic Youth guitar tech) and bassist David Motamed (ex-Das Damen) kick the tracks along in vari-speed drive; if commercial post-punk noise were to get more formulaic than this, it’d have to be stacked in the generic-brand aisle. “Two” mounts a usable Led Zeppelin beat and something approaching a melody (to carry along the timeless “Your world’s in trouble and I’m seeing double”); the acoustic digression of “Bad Day” suggests Love It to Death-era Alice Cooper (though the opera singer that filters in from somewhere at the quietest moments doesn’t figure in that equation). Although “Hills” reaches for some pop purpose, Cell doesn’t get a firm grip, and jamming lets it slip away.
Firmly wacked into a presentable state by producer John Agnello, Living Room makes a concerted effort to tone down and shape up something better (setting the thresher controls closer to Crazy Horse) — and to a degree succeeds. It’s amazing what a difference a little loud/not-loud dynamic variety can make. Beyond the refurbished sound, DiRienzo’s songwriting is functional (“Goodbye” roughs up an attractive descending figure and serviceable pop melody), but even the better ones (including “Milky,” “Fly,” “Soft Ground” and the Johnny Thunders-styling “Sad & Beautiful”) are limited by the lack of an able singer and the are-we-done-yet? slouch that underlies all of Cell’s work.
Following Cell’s demise, DiRienzo launched a new quartet, Ugly Beauty, in 1996.
Tracklist
| A | Never Too High | |
| B | Stratosphere |
| 1 | –Hole (2) | Over The Edge | 2:42 |
| 2 | –Yo La Tengo | Some Kind Of Fatigue | 4:46 |
| 3 | –Seam | Decatur | 3:20 |
| 4 | –Unsane | Exterminator | 5:49 |
| 5 | –Love Child (3) | Wait And See | 3:04 |
| 6 | –Superchunk | Skip Steps 1 & 3 | 3:07 |
| 7 | –Big Ray | Evergreen | 3:59 |
| 8 | –Cell (3) | Stratosphere | 5:36 |
| 9 | –Sebadoh | Brand New Love | 4:04 |
| 10 | –Eleventh Dream Day | Sunflower | 3:20 |
by Mark Deming
A post-punk band from New York City, Flower would become better known after they broke up than they were during their 1986-1990 lifespan. The group's music was strong, guitar-based indie rock with a noisy attack balanced against melodic structures that showed a firm grasp of pop hooks. Flower's two original albums -- appearing in full on the 1994 collection Concrete Sky -- were well reviewed but went largely unnoticed until several former members went on to form the considerably more successful band Versus, leading fans to look back to the group's precursor. After reuniting in 2018, Flower returned with a third album, 2020's None Is (But Once Was).
The initial lineup of Flower featured Richard Baluyut on guitar, Ian James on bass and vocals, Yosh Najita on keyboards, and Rob Hale on drums. They formed their own B Records label to release their first EP, a three-song vinyl 12" titled Crash. The band played regularly in New York City and became part of the same noisy underground scene that had birthed Sonic Youth and Swans. Yosh Najita and Rob Hale would both leave the group, with Andrew Bordwin taking over on drums, and rather than finding a new keyboard player, they doubled down on guitars with the addition of Ed Baluyut, Richard's brother. This edition of Flower struck a deal with the independent Bear Records imprint to release their first full-length album, 1988's Concrete. Reviews were positive but sales were small, and their second LP, 1990's Hologram Sky, was initially released only in Germany on the Semaphore label. After Hologram Sky came out, Ian James left Flower, and Fontaine Toups came aboard as their bass player. Toups' tenure in Flower was short, as they split up by year's end.
Richard Baluyut had been mapping out plans for his next band during the final months of Flower, and the first lineup of Versus featured three of the four members of Flower -- Richard Baluyut, Ed Baluyut, and Fontaine Toups -- with original drummer Rob Hale returning to replace Bordwin. Versus would enjoy a degree of success in the independent music community that Flower did not, and by 1994, enough Versus fans had become interested in Flower that Simple Machines issued Concrete Sky, a collection that featured both albums in full as well as a bonus track from a European sampler that had never been available in the United States. The band reunited to play a few dates to celebrate the compilation's release. Meanwhile, Ian James had joined the band Cell, who were signed to Geffen Records by part-time A&R man Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and they went on to release two albums for the label, 1993's Slo*Blo and 1994's Living Room. After the breakup of Cell, James formed another group, French, who also featured former Flower drummer Andrew Bordwin.
In 2018, Richard Baluyut, Ed Baluyut, Ian James, and Andrew Bordwin reunited to play some shows as Flower, and the following year, they brought out a new single, "Names" b/w "Talk," which coincided with them touring as an opening act for Sebadoh. In July 2020, Ernest Jenning Record Co. issued None Is (But Once Was), a full-length album featuring ten fresh original songs.
| Hologram Sky LP | |||
| 1 | Beauty Pt. II | 3:26 | |
| 2 | Torch Song | 4:24 | |
| 3 | Hologram Sky | 4:11 | |
| 4 | Dazed | 4:23 | |
| 5 | Memorial Day | 4:25 | |
| 6 | Christmas Lights | 2:52 | |
| 7 | All In Doubt | 4:14 | |
| 8 | Vertigo | 5:11 | |
| Concrete LP | |||
| 9 | Christine Had A Dream | 4:43 | |
| 10 | Empty Head | 2:38 | |
| 11 | Ohio | 4:45 | |
| 12 | Magick | 4:35 | |
| 13 | Angel | 3:37 | |
| 14 | Spiral | 3:32 | |
| 15 | Million Feet Tall | 3:46 | |
| 16 | Sliders | 3:21 | |
| 17 | You Should Be Blind | 3:13 | |
| 18 | Stop Time | 6:18 | |
| From 'Sorority Sampler' Compilation | |||
| 19 | Concrete | 5:35 |
| 1 | Milky | 3:22 |
| 2 | China Latina | 3:36 |
| 3 | Sad & Beautiful | 4:04 |
| 4 | Goodbye | 3:38 |
| 5 | Chained | 3:18 |
| 6 | Come Around | 3:32 |
| 7 | Living Room | 4:42 |
| 8 | Fly | 4:05 |
| 9 | Halo | 3:04 |
| 10 | Soft Ground | 4:44 |
| 11 | Camera | 4:08 |
| 12 | Blue Star | 6:22 |
The New York band Cell consists of singer-guitarists Ian James and Jerry DiRienzo, drummer Keith Nealy (who was once a guitar tech for Sonic Youth) and bassist David Motamed (ex-Das Damen). The group produces densely textured guitar layers of post-punk, a la Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr., debuting with the album Slo-Blo in 1992. Living Room followed in 1994 on DGC. That sophomore effort, helmed by producer John Agnello (Buffalo Tom, Jay Farrar, Steve Wynn), displayed more nuances than its predecessor did; the dense blare of the preceding album was sculpted into more supple arrangements this time around, with the guitars landing somewhere in Crazy Horse territory. After the dissolution of Cell in the mid-'90s, DiRienzo formed the group Ugly Beauty, which released the album Sweetness in 1997.
Tracklist
| 1 | Fall | 3:34 | |
| 2 | Wild | 3:46 | |
| 3 | Cross The River | 2:56 | |
| 4 | Dig Deep | 3:29 | |
| 5 | Stratosphere | ||
| 5:35 | |||
| 6 | Two | 2:58 | |
| 7 | Everything Turns | 4:11 | |
| 8 | Tundra | 3:06 | |
| 9 | Bad Day | 2:24 | |
| 10 | Hills | 4:08 |
