Dead Air

Heatmiser | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 6, 1993)
• Original Release Date: April 27, 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Frontier Records
• ASIN: B000003SUJ
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,673 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Elliott Smith likely cringed to remember that before his all-too-precious reinvention of himself he was trying to rock out in a Fugazi/Helmet vein. That's not because the results were bad, though -- if derivative, Dead Air is still a mighty fine debut album, though arguably more credit goes to the band's true creative touchstone, fellow singer/guitarist Neil Gust. Openly gay but not making it his creative raison d tre like, say, Pansy Division, Gust and company tear things up with full-on energy, while the co-production on the part of the band and Portland legend Thee Slayer Hippy is crisp and focused. There's a perhaps inevitable casting of grunge over everything given its 1993 genesis, but instead of sprawl the emphasis is on tautness, vocals rough but not whined, more H sker D and Mission of Burma, say, than Black Sabbath or Black Flag. Gust's knack for anthemic, empowering choruses infused with open emotional passion makes the Fugazi comparison in particular appropriate, almost as if on his own he's fused Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto in one body. At one point, on the wonderful "Can't Be Touched," he even sounds like an aggro Michael Stipe. The songs don't waste time -- 14 in 37 minutes -- and steer away from easy singalong approaches in favor of slightly more complex headbanging with a brain and heart. "Stray," re-recorded from an earlier single, sounds fantastic, just brawling with both fierce energy and close-to-the heart empathy, not to mention a great chorus. "Bottle Rocket" is a definite winner, with some great call-and-response vocal work and a steadily building verse-into-chorus structure that's fierce without falling prey to incipient emo clich s. Every so often there's some great flash on the guitars -- check out the solo on "Dirt" -- while the rhythm section does well enough (drummer Tony Lash in particular). ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another side of Elliott Smith, November 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Air (Audio CD)

Heatmiser was, without a doubt, one of the most terribly underappreciated bands of the early 90s. Led by Elliott Smith and Neil Gust, the band played incredibly tight, loud pop, composed with a punky edge and an understanding of rhythm and structure that reached far beyond most of their contemporaries.

This is a side of Elliott Smith that those who never knew of him before his solo career may find jarring, but since so many are fond of psychoanalyzing Smith's every utterance, this ought to provide plenty of good fodder for interpretation.

And for those who just want a great rock album, there's plenty here for them, too.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pre-Elliott Smith Perspective, April 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Air (Audio CD)

I bought this album after seeing Heatmiser open for some other band in 1993; I liked them better than whoever was headlining, but some of the friends I went to the show with thought they were boring. A friend who used to be a DJ at our college station, and who first put me onto Fugazi and Sonic Youth, joined me in liking them, though. Yes, as somebody else complains, the songs on this album all sound kind of similar, but if you like the way they sound, that's not a problem, right? Those best-selling Elliott Smith albums all sound the same, too.

I listened to this album maybe a hundred times throughout the 1990s and enjoyed it more and more, but for some reason it didn't occur to me until about 2000 that Heatmiser might have put out other albums, or that they might still be in print. (I don't listen to radio, watch MTV, or read music magazines.) When I finally did a search online, I found that Elliott Smith had become a megastar, and gradually I've brought my collection up to date.

I do like the singer-songwriter-y sound of modern Smith and can hear it in some of the Heatmiser songs, but that sound is not what I liked about Heatmiser, which is more rock, punk, grunge, whatever you want to call it. So if you love XO and Smith's self-titled album, it's possible that you won't like this at all. You'll may, however, enjoy Mic City Sons, a Heatmiser album that's closer to XO and such but that still has the classic rock flavor of the other Heatmiser albums.

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth buying, December 15, 2010

By 

A customer - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dead Air (Audio CD)

This album is awesome. Dead air I think is the best song with lines like "To much of nothing made me uptight." Definitely check out Cop And Speeder as well I rank that on my top 10 list. You'll find that the mixing of both Gust and Smith's singing changes it up nicely. This album definitely has better lyrics than traditional indie-rock bands. Check it out!