Customer Reviews

Dead Air

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

listen to it over and over and you will love it. so meaty. my favorite heatmiser albumn. title track has elliott on vocals and kicks butt. neil's bottle rocket is pure rock music and my favorite song of his. everything elliott ever did was good even if he didn't think so. get it all.

Take stock of "Dead Air" and realize that, like most good albums, the sonic variance is slim. All fifteen cuts on the earliest album from singer-songwriter Elliott Smith ("Good Will Hunting") and company's rock outfit fall into the category of "brash, loud and inventive."

Heatmiser here strike me as a jaded ballplayer nailing fifteen machine-thrown balls in a row out of the park. Each song is a loud, thundering crack of pop-smeared beauty. The blurry guitarwork is spot on, but Smith and Gust's fat and gritty fuzztones add a punk garnish to a pop platter. It's Elliott Smith rocking out, which actually turns out to be a bit like channeling Smith melodies through Richard Hell guitar. Throw in some moments that sound like a harder-edged early REM ("Bottle Rocket"), and we have a damn good band, if you think about it.

Better yet, don't think, just pick up Heatmiser's entire catalog. And when you're done with that and Smith's back catalog, do yourself yet another favor and check out the music of Rocky Votolato, solo singer-songwriter, and HIS previous rock band, Waxwing.

I found this CD in the bargain bin last week and bought in on the strength of Mic City Sons (a great CD) and my overall love of Elliot Smith. Unfortunately, this CD was a big let down. Nowhere are the haunting/catchy melodies or memorable lyrics so common in Smith's other work. The songs on the CD all sound alike, and like they come from the same one bad idea. If you haven't heard any Elliot Smith or Heatmiser, don't start here - my recommendation is to go pick-up "Figure 8" and work your way back through Smith's catalog.

This first full album by Heatmiser has often been analyzed as if predicting Elliot Smith's promise, but this overlooks the equally important contributions of the other leader of the quartet, Neil Gust. His punchy, catchy pop-punk captures aggression and swaggers confidently, in the wake of the grunge craze. This element can be appreciated in his two post-Heat albums with No. 2. Since "Dead Air," one of Mic City's earlier (if very minor) successes, Portland continues to produce strong music: back then, Pond, later Dandy Warhols, Stephen Malkmus post-Pavement, later Heatmiser bassist Sam Coombes' duo (with Sleater-Kinney drummer who's his ex-wife) Quasi, and drummer Tony Lash's Sunset Valley.

This album gradually grows on you, like those of Pond. At first, it seems in a rut, but the melodies and arrangements, direct as they are, open up into miniature landscapes of only a few seconds each. The band plays tightly, and although the Seattle shadow may dominate at this 1993 hour, the energy that will make the band's and its members own music sustain itself into the next decade awaits the curious listener.

This is a great album by a great band of the past. Catchy real-life rock & roll with a crunchy edge.