Classic tunes reworked.
With a reunion and new material in the works the timing of this tribute album obviously isn’t coincidental, but is it any good? As with any compilation album, not all the tracks are brilliant, but overall the majority of the artists paying tribute to 90s punk/grunge/rock five piece Seaweed have managed to do the tracks justice, The Fire Still Burns do a particularly good job on ‘Crush Us All’ and ‘Antilyrical’ by The Story Changes has plenty of edginess, some have captured the essence of the band’s music like Favez covering ‘Free Drug Zone’ and some, like Nora doing ‘Clean Slate’, Stephen Brodsky with ‘Chalk The Cracks’ and Worlds|Between|Us covering ‘Card Tricks’, have made the tracks their own.
Seaweed had a chunky, heavy, punk infused, melodic and fuzzy grunge sound, you might remember their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Go Your Own Way’ which was used for the “Clerks” soundtrack and it’s surprising how many of their other tunes you might know as their tunes have been highly influential over the years, giving inspiration to many other bands like Alexisonfire, Hot Water Music and The Receiving End Of Sirens amongst others.
Like their contemporaries, Quicksand, Superchunk, Mudhoney et al, they were raw, tuneful and crossed genre boundaries and as a result they attracted fans from all areas, so the fact that the bands and artists featured on this compilation: Elemae, Nora, Stephen Brodsky, Moneen and Thursday to name a few are from such equally varied backgrounds should come as no surprise. Because there are some well known names on this disc and because of the diversity of the styles on offer, it should act as a good introduction to Seaweed and hopefully inspire people to go and check out some of their classic albums, because a band this good shouldn't be hidden away.