This isn't quite as good as Mezcal Head but I think it's a little better than Raise. It reminds me of Gish or some of the Verve's later work.It's not as dense sounding as their earlier work and it's much more psychedelic. The vocals were never their strong point but on this one he actually sounds decent.

i like Mezcal Head and Raise both better than 99th Dream, maybe even Ejector Seat Reservation (ESR is so hit and miss). though admittedly both of those top 2 also have a lot of nostalgic value for me so its probably not a fair comparison.

are you seeing them on their current tour CW? I am seeing them on saturday with ex-Shiner guys The Life and Times.

They played here on Sunday and I missed it. Tell me how the show was when you see them.

aye, aye...captain.

i can't wait to see them again. saw them open for SP in Chicago in december of 93, as well as with Hum in June of 1998 up in Green Bay. one of my college roommates who went to Green Bay with me is coming down for the show this weekend. good times.

DEADSY

ok, i've listened to the whole catalog and here is my new official ranking:

mezcal head > raise > ESR = 99th dream

sorry CW....but the pop influences, cleaner production quality, and overlayed-acoustic-guitar on-top-of-electric-guitar business doesn't work for me. i wind up wantign to skip more tracks on 99th dream than any of the others.

to me its the shoegazing, flat production, fuzz, pulled back vocals, etc. that are seminal requirements for this band.


Edit: ok, ok, ok.....as a whole 99th dream is probably a better album than ESR overall, despite my complains about the instrumentation. but the strongest songs on ESR are better than those on 99th dream, whereas 99th dream has more middle of the road songs that are better than "the misses" on ESR.

i just saw them in austin a week or two ago.

it was pretty good.

yeah, they were a kickass band. sucks i wasnt around to see them in austin

they played toronto on friday and the show was sold out so i didn't get to go. my roommate went though and he said it was really really good.

yea the show saturday was so fucking awesome. they played well over 2 hours. it was the longest and best swervedriver show i have ever seen. srsly. and the crowd was really really into it, both to my surprise and to the surprise of the band (you could tell by their reaction).

they opened with track 1 from Raise (Sci-Flyer)...followed by track 8 (Sandblaster). In general I love when bands unexpectedly open with track 1 from album 1, like when SP opened with I Am One first show of The Arising! tour, but this was even better because Tracks 1 an 8 from Raise happen to be my 2 favs on that album. So I was in complete bliss right from the get-go.

They came back to Raise 4 more times in the set (Son of Mustang Ford, Deep Seat, Rave Down, Sunset)...played tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 9 off Mezcal Head...as well as track 11 (Never Lose That Feeling) during the encore....which was sooooooo good. And as if all that wasn't enough fan-service for someone like me who LOVES the first two albums, they also played 3 Raise-era b-sides: Kill the superheroes, scrawl & scream, laze it up.

Alas, for fans of the later material, I think they only played 1 track off ESR (the last track) and 2 tracks off of 99th Dream (tracks 1 and 4). Maybe they were reading my comments in this thread when they picked the setlist. :smoke:

they weren't, natch!!

yea the show saturday was so fucking awesome. they played well over 2 hours. it was the longest and best swervedriver show i have ever seen. srsly. and the crowd was really really into it, both to my surprise and to the surprise of the band (you could tell by their reaction).

they opened with track 1 from Raise (Sci-Flyer)...followed by track 8 (Sandblaster). In general I love when bands unexpectedly open with track 1 from album 1, like when SP opened with I Am One first show of The Arising! tour, but this was even better because Tracks 1 an 8 from Raise happen to be my 2 favs on that album. So I was in complete bliss right from the get-go.

They came back to Raise 4 more times in the set (Son of Mustang Ford, Deep Seat, Rave Down, Sunset)...played tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 9 off Mezcal Head...as well as track 11 (Never Lose That Feeling) during the encore....which was sooooooo good. And as if all that wasn't enough fan-service for someone like me who LOVES the first two albums, they also played 3 Raise-era b-sides: Kill the superheroes, scrawl & scream, laze it up.

Alas, for fans of the later material, I think they only played 1 track off ESR (the last track) and 2 tracks off of 99th Dream (tracks 1 and 4). Maybe they were reading my comments in this thread when they picked the setlist. :smoke:

that sounds fucking awesome man

it was totally awesome. i was very very impressed.

there's a ton of live downloads on their o-site, if you are interested. some really cool live comps.