Space Needle
Space Needle
Recordings 1994-1997
(Eenie Meenie)
Ignored Rhode Island indie rockers finally get their due on this selective reissue.
Rock has a funny way of reinventing its history. Not too long ago, proto punkers Rocket From The Tombs and Radio Birdman were reissued and praised as the bands punk rockers didn’t know they were influenced by. Later generations have “rediscovered” the importance of Testors and later Friction. They were like, really important bands.
Space Needle suffered in the mid-’90s due to poor distribution and even more poorly timed in-jokes. Given the major labels’ propensity for snapping up any alternative band of this era means Space Needle were either so underground as to be unknown, or really fucking bad. We’ll go with the “so underground.” At one point underusing former Varnaline man/current solo songwriter Anders Parker, tracks on Recordings predate early Death Cab For Cutie and My Morning Jacket (“Sun Doesn’t Love Me” and “Never Lonely Alone” respectively), ape Guided By Voices (“Before I Lose My Style”), and even dick with indie rock instrumentals in ways Heroic Doses never conceived (“Where The Fucks My Wallet”). In trying to give the band’s indulgent side fair play, an unhealthy portion of Recordings is dedicated to toothless noise experiments that offer little, other than an explanation why we wouldn’t otherwise be talking about Space Needle today.
— Kevin Keegan
Click here to download “Before I Lose My Style.”
