Even more great vinyl albums, 7 inches, compact discs and cassettes from Homestead Records

	Bodeco - Suicide Ride - Seven inch vinyl on Homestead Records With a name that conflates "Bo Diddley" with "zydeco," Louisville, Kentucky, natives Bodeco were probably the most criminally unrecognized group to emerge out of the early '90s indie roots-rock movement (which spawned such artists as '68 Comeback, Reverend Horton Heat, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Southern Culture on the Skids). The group was known for favoring non-ironic grit and muscle over arch retro contrivances. Ricky Feather led the band, aided by Matthew O'Bannon (guitar), Brian Burchett (drums), Jimmy Brown (bass) and Gary Stillwell (percussion). The group emerged with Bone, Hair and Hide on Homestead Records in 1992. The effort was laced with tales of hard living powered by Duane Eddy-style riffs, aggressive rockabilly and jumping instrumentals. The delayed follow-up, Callin' All Dogs, came out in 1995 and saw the group taking a more varied, mature approach without sacrificing all of the blistering energy and whiplash guitar-work of its predecessor. In the interim between albums, Matthew O'Bannon had released a solo effort, 1993's Wink, on Safehouse Records. The album was recorded at various times over nearly a decade. The rough-hewn release featured rock and roll, country and blues numbers and fiery instrumentals. O'Bannon also spent time as a member of Eleventh Dream Day in the mid-'90s.
	Big Dipper - All Going Out Together - Vinyl album with members of Volcano Suns on Homestead Records In 1986, former members of Volcano Suns, Gary Waleik and Steve Michener (the latter was also in Dumptruck), recruited guitarist/vocalist Bill Goffrier (formerly of The Embarrassment), and drummer Jeff Oliphant (formerly of XS and the Iron Gerbils), who was Gary's cousin. Goffrier struck up a friendship with Waleik when he attended a Volcano Suns gig in mid-1985, and the next year the band was formed.Their first release was the 1987 mini-album Boo-Boo on Homestead Records (released on Demon Records in the UK). The full-length album Heavens, which was released later in 1987, has been described as "one of the finest American indie albums of its era". Their second full-length album, Craps, followed in 1988. Three of the band contributed with songwriting. One of the tracks on the album reflected Goffrier's interest in extra-terrestrial phenomena, with the song "Semjase" about a Swiss farmer who in the 1970s claimed to have been regularly visited by Semjase, a woman from the constellation Pleides. They signed to Epic Records for 1990's Slam. This would prove to be their final album. Michener left the band and they continued with various players for two years, splitting up in 1992 after releasing a 45 and recording more than an albums worth of material. In 2008, Merge Records released a 3-CD anthology of Big Dipper's Homestead recordings, with additional material,including the unreleased tracks recorded after Michener left, titled Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology. This renewed interest has prompted the band to reform for some live shows in April 2008
	Live Skull - Swingtime - Vinyl album on Homestead Records Live Skull formed in downtown New York City in 1983 by the guitar/bandleader tandem of Mark C. and Tom Paine. They were soon joined by drummer James Lo and Marnie Greenholz (Paine's then-girlfriend), on bass guitar. In 1984, a self-titled debut 12" EP saw release on the tiny Massive label. They soon signed with indie label Homestead Records, which released their 1985 debut full-length Bringing Home the Bait. On this LP, vocal duties were shared by Greenholz, Paine, and C. Their 1986 album called Cloud One featured slightly more accessible song structures. A concert album called Live: Don't Get Any On You was recorded at CBGB later that year.
	Membranes - Time Warp 1991 (Long Live Trad Rock EP) - Vinyl LP on Homestead records 1987 This hurricane of noise rock became the Membranes' calling card and for the rest of their career, which ran until roughly the early 90s. They would abruptly switch gears and record something totally unexpected, such as the tuneful, synth-driven EP Everything's Brilliant (produced by Jon Langford), or their best record, 1988's Songs of Love and Fury. It was no surprise that on their last U.S. release, Kiss Ass Godhead, a return to the furious noise of The Gift of Life, they worked with then-Big Black noisemeister and all-around cranky underground rock guy Steve Albini. These days Albini is producing Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, as for the Membranes, they remain an interesting, albeit minor, part of the story of British post-punk. It should be mentioned that the most consistently wonderful thing about Membranes' records was the artwork of Simon Clegg
	Salem 66 - Natural Disasters National Treasures - Vinyl LP on Homestead Records While Ethan James remains behind the production boards, Salem 66 welcomes both a new guitarist and drummer on their third album. Even with all the changes, the group is at their most accomplished on this outing; the guitars are appealingly rough-and-tumble, and the songwriting is more mature.
	Trumans Water - Godspeed The Punchline - Vinyl album on Homestead Records 1993 On Godspeed the Punchline, San Diego's Trumans Water added to their already incessant indie punk fan base. The hodgepodge of sounds at the beginning of the first track, "Destroy 1998," suggest a manic flurry of music to follow, and it's true. Many of the tracks begin with silly, innovative audio experiments. The band's confident and brash style of noisy indie rock was certainly catching on by this point. From the hypnotic howling at the beginning of "Long End of a Firearm" to the wonderful cut-and-paste avant noise on "Ungalactic," the band began to experiment with more than straightforward angular guitar noise. "Outpatient Lightspeed" and "Playboy Stabtone Bloodbath" manage to pack an album's worth of punkish energy into a few minutes. The quietly distant instrumentation of "Spaceship Next Door" dances behind Glen Galloway's spoken vocals on the disc's final track. While some of the band's charming sloppiness had faded, Galloway's unyielding vocals hadn't wavered. Homestead and LSR Records released the LP in 1993.
	Blunderbuss - Conspiracy - CD on Homestead Records Bill Baxter, James Nemeph and Ben Matthews formed the hardcore punk band Blunderbuss in their home of Pittsburgh. The three released three singles on independent record labels during 1992-93 and released their first album, 1995's Conspiracy, on Homestead Records.
	Hoosegow - Mighty - Compact Disc Guitarist Elliott Sharp is most known for experimental outings that are characteristic of the late-20th century "downtown" New York scene, but he has also expressed a deep love for the blues. Even so, Hoosegow -- which features Sharp on guitars and Queen Esther on vocals -- will surprise much of his audience. Queen Esther and Sharp wrote all but one of the songs on their debut Mighty, which is rooted in the classic Chicago electric blues sound, although there is no instrumentation except for Sharp's guitars and Esther's vocals. Sharp proves himself to be quite the virtuoso on stinging blues guitar, and Esther a capable (though not thrilling) singer. The material is more restless and impressionistic than much contemporary blues, refusing to fall into good-timey cliches. It's just off-kilter enough to confuse traditional blues fans, and may be too traditional and accessible for Sharp's usual constituency. On top of that, it's being marketed by an alternative rock label, which means it could well fall between the cracks. That would be unfortunate, as it's a more interesting release than the usual contemporary blues fare, though hardly brilliant
	Soul Junk - 1952 - CD on Homestead records When avant-pop band Trumans Water relocated from San Diego to the Pacific Northwest in early 1994, multi-instrumentalist Glenn Galloway stayed behind, re-christened himself Glen Galaxy, and embarked on a (mostly) solo project called Soul-Junk. Writing songs in praise of Jesus Christ, and in fact drawing a large portion of his lyrics directly from the Bible, Galloway's first album as Soul-Junk, 1950, was released in 1995 on the Holy Kiss label. Numerous releases (CDs, LPs, cassettes, and 7''s) followed on such labels as Homestead, Shrimper, and Sub Pop. All Soul-Junk releases are titled after mid 20th century years -- mainly post-war years, strangely enough -- though Galloway has been reluctant to clarify any specific meanings associated with the titles or the logic behind their non-sequential order of release. At the same time, Galloway remained tied to Trumans Water, touring and sometimes recording with the band, though not a formal active member. As Soul-Junk, Galloway's music could be described as a mélange of indie rock, hip-hop, soul, and all-around lo-fi sonic experimentation, sharing some similarities with Ween, the Beastie Boys, and Beck. An ambitious double-disc set was released in 1999, entitled 1955, a collection that well-displayed Soul-Junk's genre-hopping tendencies, and 2000 saw the release of the pared-down 1956, which focused on Soul-Junk's quirky hip-hop side.
	The Cakekitchen - Far From The Sun - CD on Homestead Records With a reshuffled lineup (Keith McLean on bass, Huw Dainow on drums) and no guest appearances, Jefferies led the Cakekitchen back into the studio for Far From the Sun. The general aesthetic of the band having been long since established, nothing per se changes on this third group effort -- Jefferies is still the guy in charge, vocals tend towards the softly sung/spoken, and avoiding obvious conclusions in a rock format is still the name of the game. The anthemic lift of "Stranger Than Paradise" begins things, interestingly enough, with one of his most straightforward numbers -it's not that far off in feel from fellow Kiwis Bailter Space at that point in time, a massive guitar surge. Similar numbers where Jefferies gets to flex his underground guitar hero muscles crop up throughout. There's the coda of "Fahrenheit 451," an inspiring blast of sound, and the equally soaring conclusion of "Man In the Mirror" (nothing to do with the Michael Jackson of the same name). Plenty of points throughout, though, reconfirm that this is from Graeme Jefferies' mind -- "Overexcited" is a great example of same, its mechanical samples and clatters meshing with the screeching feedback deep in the mix. The sometimes nagging, sometimes lovely violas on the title track, matched with Jefferies' usual vocal approach, makes for another classic Cakekitchen moment, striking without being comfortable. The calmer fingerpicking guitar and folky singing up top makes for a great contrast. The band as a whole are quite fine -- the powerful performance on "Trouble in the Underworld" is as good an example as any. Jefferies' clever, often evocative way around lyrics remains happily intact -- thus the opening to the sweet strum and strings of "Greater Windmill Street Blues," "Across the river one more winter/Safe inside an air-raid shelter/Penny says, 'Please cross the border/Bring your clothes and taste the water.'"