Review Summary: A much-needed summery of the band that preceded Beachwood Sparks.
Beachwood Sparks, a derivative band if there ever was one, was formed by members of a band that was derivative in a much different way. Further were generally perceived as the ramshackle, yet talented, younger brother to Dinosaur Jr. Where Were You Then, a compilation spanning the band’s career from 1991-1997, tries to make a case for them being a bit more.
It generally succeeds. I typically steer clear of “greatest hits/best of” sorts of deals, but Further is a band that warrants something like this. Many of their individual releases are out of print, rare or kind of pricey. So Where Were You Then is the perfect way to see if shelling out that much is in fact worth it. It mostly is. The compilation shows a band with a penchant for unhinged slacker noise that only seems to be on the verge of falling apart.
While some songs, especially “Over & Out” follow a bit too close to the Dinosaur Jr. playbook, a better point of comparison for their career might be Sonic Youth. More specifically Sonic Youth’s 90’s pop songs that actually worked, balancing verse/chorus/verse structure with their days as no-fi terrorists. These songs are extremely catchy, but at times downright abrasive.
Then, unintentionally or not, is dropping at a very good time. As Wavves gains more and more mainstream success, noisy slacker songs about surfing are the right commodity to push. Further tends to do this just as well or better in some respects. A song like “California Bummer” is bouncy, dark and sarcastic all at once like the best Wavves material years before Wavves even existed. “Surfing Pointers” creates a creepy vibe with screeching walls of guitar, creating a more realized seedy atmosphere that Wavves (even with better production) has never has quite achieved.
The drums are mostly sacrificed to the god of guitar noise, who looms heavy over most of these songs. You can wonder all day what they would’ve been like had they only had the “proper” studio, but more than likely it wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting. It at least “sounds” as if the band really has a vision of how to mold their lo-fi circumstances into something unique, but that’s a bit speculative. However, cuts from the later years like “Grandview Skyline” show a great attention to sonic detail, carefully sculpting minimal guitars into something truly effective and haunting.
“Springfield Mods” is a short track that creates a bouncy yet wistful vibe with its keyboards that jump up in the mix occasionally. It was probably just an experiment, but it’s one of those things that would’ve been cool to see them expand on.
Where the band really works its magic is on slower numbers. The previously mentioned “Grandview Skyline” is a good example of this. “Quiet Riot Grrrl” is another, submerged in somber buzzing guitars, creating a song that tragically never found its way to the 90s prom circuit.
The main gripe I have with this compilation is the way everything tends to run together. It’s all pleasant enough, but there are plenty of forgettable tracks that get lost in their own lo-fi haze. The vocals stand out on some songs and are passable enough, but are nothing to write home about. They serve the arrangements and fulfill the unavoidable “slacker” label some people would assign to stuff like this.
If you consider lo-fi an aesthetic with its own sort of benefits then you’ll love what this band is trying to accomplish here. But for people who consider it an annoyance it’ll probably be a huge deal breaker. Further aren’t necessarily going to be everyone’s favorite band, but they certainly had a much more unique voice than people seemed to give them credit for at the time.
