Milwaukee's Couch Flambeau were putting wry, deadpan lyrics over hard rock riffs about two decades before Craig Finn started getting all the credit for it, and that's not to say that Couch Flambeau sound at all like the Hold Steady, mostly because the Hold Steady kinda suck and Couch Flambeau definitely don't.
"We're Not So Smart" nailed the indie rock scene at that time better than just about anything else, outside of perhaps Great Plains' "Letter to a Fanzine", and if you don't know what a fanzine is, try picturing a blog only a lot dumber and on paper.
Hey, we're starting a fanzine... uhhh, we don't have a name for it yet, but could you send us a few copies of your album?
We're not so smart.
I'm not sure anyone really wants to hear Jay Tiller singing "Mississippi Queen", but here it is anyway. Hey, cowbell!!
Couch Flambeau -
"We're Not So Smart"
"Mississippi Queen"
(these files are now listen-only)
3 comments:
I checked out Couch Flambeau cause I heard Steve Albini talk about how they were one of his favorite bands, Big Black era... I assumed they'd be heavy and noisy and fucked (like a Whitehouse from Wisconsin!)... Eventually, I picked up a 7" and ?????????
Steve Albini really like Die Kreuzen too, remember. He wrote a thing in Forced Exposure saying they were the best live band ever, or something.
The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files. For those of you who missed the boat, I will do my best to respond to any e-mailed requests for the original files.
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