Prairie School Freakout (W/Cdrom) [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Eleventh Dream Day | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 7, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 1988
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Thrill Jockey
• ASIN: B0000C669Y
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,830 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best record to ever come out of Chicago..., October 21, 2003

By 

Ken King (DeKalb, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prairie School Freakout (W/Cdrom) (Audio CD)

Take all of your favorite guitar-oriented bands--a smattering of Neil Young/Crazy Horse, Television-styled rave-ups. Add enough punk edge and touches of country grit to create music that sounds timeless, yet energized and thoroughly modern. Add some lyrics that make you think. This record continues to jockey for "my favorite album of all time" spot in the estimable company of the Beatles' "Revolver," Wire's "Pink Flag," and R.E.M.'s "Murmur." I gave away my first copy, so that an old friend would not be without it. I wore out my second vinyl copy--now I have a new digital one to get me through the ages. Bless you, Thrill Jockey, and bless you, EDD.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only a Wanker doesn't have this album, October 18, 2003

By 

Pancho - See all my reviews

This review is from: Prairie School Freakout (W/Cdrom) (Audio CD)

This is Eleventh Dream Day's best album. It makes grunge and today's doom and gloom crap look wimpy. Good songwriting, crunchy guitar and huge bass. Not for children who think that Rancid is punk, or that Avril Lasagna is edgy. Pancho

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Debut LP from one of America's best indie bands, January 27, 2007

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Prairie School Freakout (W/Cdrom) (Audio CD)

The liner notes to the original album that I bought back in '88 explained that after trying half the night to fix the amp buzz, the band gave up and went ahead with a pretty much live-to-tape run-through of their set list. The results should have propelled them to the forefront of late 80s alternative/ college rock, when that term was still a helpful category where talented and innovative Americn indie bands could be found. Like X, the male-female vocals and the roots influences mesh with a punkier, guitar-heavy squall, a propulsive rhythm section, and poetic and intelligent lyrics.

This album did gain the band attention of A&M and their next three records were issued on the major label. They then were dropped in the post-Nirvana purge for not being grunge, I suppose, and their later albums, sadly as a trio for the most part, on the Chicago label Thrill Jockey mix their earlier noisier attack with a more post-rock, Tortoise-influenced production (and a producer from that band) that layers electronics, keyboards, and treated instruments to haunting effect. Their first four records, however, expand on what PSF-out builds: Neil Young meets punk, ten years after the Pistols, when countryish and classic rock and psychedelic influences were allowed to enter into bands' sounds.

A couple of songs I find slightly annoying; Rick Rizzo's voice tends to declaim rather than carry a tune, and this works better on the faster songs than the slower tunes. Rizzo does like his Neil Y, spiraling, sprawling approach, and sometimes (as I admit with Young himself), the freedom given him to jam does wear on. The more concise, tighter, catchier songs I favor, on this as all their fine records in the fifteen years since. Often, these tend to be dominated by Janet Beveridge Bean's drumming and a voice which carries a more countryish tinge (she also sang with Freakwater) that gives variety and necessary depth to play off Rizzo's sprawling guitar. In turn Rizzo's tendency to stretch out is pitted against Baird Figi's more rigid, confined, and controlled discipline on his guitar. Figi seems to keep Rizzo in check. The two guitarists work well together coming from different directions; Douglas McCombs on bass has always contributed efficient and understated backing that subtly keeps Rizzo also moving forward rather than in circles! The four musicians sound even on this debut full-length as if they have been playing as a unit for a long time. This recording is a great advance from their previous, eponymous EP, which sounds markedly unremarkable by comparison. The band made a great leap forward on Prairie School Freakout.

The reissue on Thrill Jockey contains the band's other and earlier EP, Wayne, but this only adds two tracks added to the original ten on the LP. Three songs appear in video form on the bonus disc. The album itself (reissued with notes by all concerned) it seems has not been remastered. The primitive hiss of the original one-nighter recording, I argue, should remain unpolished! Its determined DIY confidence and uncompromising pace remind me of the SST days when Husker Du laid down Zen Arcade! The antithesis of digital cleansing, and all the more reason to celebrate the EDD LP's resurrection on CD, contrarily!

This album balances both loud eruptions and soft moments well. Few albums persist from this era that stand up so well. Along with Yo La Tengo and New Radiant Storm King, EDD have endured and kept true to their post-punk integrity combined with an increasingly sophisticated aesthetic, while enriching their sounds and refusing to sell out. They have matured well, but on this first LP already show they have what it takes for the long fight fought well on the edge where critical acclaim and a few discerning listeners enables them to soldier on. "Among the Pines" remains one of my favorite tracks from this period of indie rock: it tells a story, it conveys passion, and it carries emotion that convinces you it's genuine art and not feigned pose.