"None of us like particularly polished recordings. We like little mistakes and stuff". Joe Pernice's comment explains why four guys from Massachusetts ended up recording these two albums in one year (1995) while sitting around a kitchen table rather than booking time in a studio.
This is the second time they have been re-issued. The first was in 1997 when Sub Pop sought to cash in on the success of the band's third album, Massachusetts. Now, the re-issue by One Little Indian precedes a brand new album (Do You Love The Sun) after a 16 year gap.
Named after the missiles fired in the Gulf War, the band began life as the Scuds playing loud rock 'n' roll in local clubs. The group's after show ritual was to gather in Bruce Tull's kitchen to unwind and play old favourites on acoustic guitars.
The trio - Joe Pernice, Stephen Desaulniers and Tull - soon realised that playing slow tempo 'slacker country' was more fun than plugging in and playing loud. They added 'mountain boys' to their name and became their own support band.
When, with shades of Spinal Tap, the Scuds lost one drummer after another they decided to make the Scud Mountain Boys the main attraction and even took to taking the kitchen table on stage to recreate the domestic vibe.
Pine Box was recorded in the kitchen on a four track machine and released by the indie-rock label Chunk Records in 1995.
The title's reference to a pauper's coffin gives fair warning that these are not intended as feel good songs. The self explanatory There Is No Hell (Like the Hell on This Earth) hammers home this point as does the "don't leave me in the reservoir" plea on Reservoir and the reference to cold nights of Glacier Bay.
The band's second album, the ironically titled Dance the Night Away included more four-track kitchen recordings and more resigned songs of loss and longing. Even the upbeat (She Took His) Picture is the bleak tale of a woman who shoots her man with a camera after shooting him with a gun.
The only real difference from the debut is that some tracks were recorded in a 24-track studio and a few feature drums from Tom Shea or Keith Levreault.
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Unlike other of the first wave of Alt.Country bands like Uncle Tupelo or Whiskeytown, the Scud Mountain Boys took more inspiration from the sweet melodies of pop than from outlaw country rebels or punk rock.
This is illustrated by the choice of cover songs. On Pine Box they revisit Jimmy Webb's classicWichita Lineman and play versions of Please, Mister Please and Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves which were originally recorded by Olivia Newton-John and Sonny & Cher respectively. The second album features another Jimmy Webb cover Where's the Playground Susie.
With Shea as a full time member, Seattle-based Sub Pop released Massachusetts in 1996, an album with a fuller studio sound and more upbeat songs with drums and electric guitar. This was more successful than the low key, lo-fi predecessors even though something of the stark intimacy of the kitchen table recordings was lost.
Following this release, Pernice effectively scuppered the band, leaving to study for a master's degree in creative writing and putting his musical ambitions into working with his brother, Bob.
The death knell for the Scud Mountain Boys came with the release of the Pernice Brothers' Overcome With Happiness, a record of very un-Scud-like orchestral pop on Sub-Pop.
With hindsight, it's easy to see why the downbeat songs of the Scud Mountain Boys were not a harbinger of sustained success. They mark one year in the lives of these musicians and were recorded with no thought of them being the basis of a career. Nevertheless, the sparse beauty of the songs means that it is good to know they refuse to stay buried.
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