there two bands to come out of the overcrowded underground of the mid to late nineties pop/punk/whatever crowd. one band, knapsack, immerged kinda unscathed when front man, blair shehan went onto form the equally great, the jealous sound. i am sure most have heard of the jealous sound, but i am not to sure what kind of splash, if any, knapsack made on a global or even a national scale. there was not too much to the knapsack sound that set them apart from?other like sounding groups, but it was blair’s voice and lyrics that really made the shine. lyrically he rarely treds into the melodramatic waters like most of the groups/genres that knapsack are typically clumped together with.?all three records are just great poppy punky rock.
the other band in question is the blink and you missed em band outta the ‘ham, verbena. their 1997 debut, souls for sale, is a perfect blend of stones type swagger and a royal trux type sleaze. at the time i had not been so excited about a bands potential then that possessed by verbena. shortly after the release of souls for sale they jumped from merge to capital, and this is when it all went to shit. their sophmore/dave grohl produced record, into the pink, was a huge departure from souls for sale and sounded like an attempt win over a crowd that really no longer existed.? all things aside, souls for sale is still a freakin awesome record and i dont hold the last two heaping piles against em.
knapsack
off of silver sweepstakes
cellophane
casanova
off of day three of my new life
thursday side of the street
boxing gloves
off of this conversation is ending starting right now
katherine the grateful
skip the details
verbena
off of souls for sale
hot blood
junk for fashion
come on
