''Interstate'' is the fifth album by American
post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
and
instrumental rock
Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes musical instruments and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style. Instru ...
band
Pell Mell, released in 1995. After issuing ''Flow'' in 1991, the band members wrote new material separately, sending each other ideas, until more concrete ideas were becoming formed, leading to the band recording ''Interstate'' between two studios in 1993 and 1994. Defined by a breezy, wide-open sound, ''Interstate'' features sparse, rhythmic guitar riffs, organ playing, drums and thematic instrumentation, in addition to a distinctive compositional style that has been compared to "the dynamics of a good conversation" by one critic. Additionally, the album has been considered a
post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
album and critics have noticed its display of
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
influences.
Named in relation to the band's collaborative efforts given that the members live great distances from each other, ''Interstate'' was released on
DGC, their only album on a major label. Several journalists have pointed out the unlikeliness of the album being released on a major label. Nonetheless, the album was greeted with critical acclaim, with critics complimenting its tight,
ensemble
Ensemble may refer to:
Art
* Architectural ensemble
* ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album
* Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary
* Ensemble cast (drama, comedy)
* Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the chorus
* ''En ...
sound. It was a mild radio success, reaching number 37 on the
CMJ
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
Top 75 Alternative Radio Play chart, and has since been accredited as having helped widen the audience for alienated instrumental rock.
Background and recording
Instrumental rock
Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes musical instruments and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style. Instru ...
band Pell Mell, who were "deeply involved" in the 1990s
alternative
Alternative or alternate may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki''
* ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film
* ''The Alternative ...
movement,
had existed since the early 1980s, and although based in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, the band members lived in four separate American coastal cities, composing music by sending ideas to each other via e-mail, telephone or post: "Ideas are sent back and forth and when something takes shape, the members then converge in one city to record as a band."
By 1995, the band consiststed of four multi-instrumentalists: Greg Freeman, Robert Beerman, David Spalding and Steve Fisk, the thirst three of whom made up the band's trio of guitarists.
By the time Pell Mell began recording ''Interstate'', David Spalding had become the band's "new key and core member."
This follows in the footsteps of the band's previous album, ''Flow'' (1991), their final album for
SST Records
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was formed in 1966 by Ginn at age 12 as Solid State Tuners, a small business through which he sold electronics equipm ...
which saw Spalding write seven of the album's tracks. He is credited as a writer on ten of the twelve tracks on ''Interstate'', two of which were co-written by Beerman and two others co-written by Freeman, who also contributed two of his own tracks.
In August 1993, the band began recording ''Interstate'' at Lowdown,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, and continued recording in June and October 1994 at
Fort Apache Studios
Fort Apache Studios is a New England recording studio focusing on alternative rock sessions produced there since 1986.
History
The studio was initially built by a collective begun in 1985 by musician/producer Joe Harvard and members of a band ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
.
The album was also engineered at both studios and mixed at the latter alone, while being mastered by Eddy Schreyer at
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
' Future Disc.
The band's "unsurprising ability" in self-producing the album, alongside several members of the album engineering and mixing the album with help from Tim O'Heir, contributes to the album's "full-sounding" and "dramatic" sound.
Music
![Hammond B3 at RCA Studio B](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Hammond_B3_at_RCA_Studio_B.jpg)
''Interstate'' uses only guitars, drums and organ to create its "striking and often emotional take on
instrumental rock
Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes musical instruments and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style. Instru ...
."
The record is driven by rhythmic, sparse and evocative guitar riffs,
and piano hooks which are then "exalted by Steve Fisk's
Hammond B-3
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...
organ, occasional mellontronic meddlings and thematic guitar melodies."
Several critics highlighted the album's
ensemble
Ensemble may refer to:
Art
* Architectural ensemble
* ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album
* Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary
* Ensemble cast (drama, comedy)
* Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the chorus
* ''En ...
dynamic and breezy, open feel;
Ned Raggett of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
noted a "wide-open feeling of many of the songs, suggesting a slightly dreamy America where there's little around but the weather and the land," while Tim Kenneally of ''
SF Weekly
''SF Weekly'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper founded in the 1970s in San Francisco, California. It was distributed every Thursday, and was published by the San Francisco Print Media Company. The paper has won national journalism awards, ...
'' similar noted the album works as a "sonic analogue to a cross-country road trip."
Describing the track structures, Bob Gulla of ''
CMJ New Music Monthly
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
'' said:
The band's press release described the album as possessing a "
post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
, guitar centric, instrumental sound design that's difficult to categorize."
Indeed, ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' magazine described the record as "leaning towards moody
surf rock
Surf music (or surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a Music genre, genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is in ...
and proto-post rock when
he band
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
leaned towards any rock at all."
Michael Lipton of ''
LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...
'' wrote that ''Interstate'' "recalled
spaghetti Western
The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
s, the
minimalist
In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...
rhythms of '80s N.Y. band
Polyrock
Polyrock was an American post-punk/New wave music, new wave band formed in New York City in 1978 and active until the mid-1980s. Strongly influenced by minimalist music, minimalism, the group was produced by the composer Philip Glass and Kurt Mu ...
and a dash of
Booker T. organ." Anthony Violanti, writing for ''
The Buffalo News
''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...
'', meanwhile, noted the "old-fashioned style," citing the usage of "tight guitars, a tough bass and driving drum riffs that all blend in instrumental form."
Len Comaratta of ''
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
'' compared the album to "Outer Accelerator" by
Stereolab
Stereolab are an Anglo- French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a repetit ...
from their album ''
Mars Audiac Quintet
''Mars Audiac Quintet'' is the third studio album by English-French rock band Stereolab. It was released on 2 August 1994 and was issued by Duophonic Records and Elektra Records.
Recording
Stereolab recorded ''Mars Audiac Quartet'' in March an ...
'' (1994).
Opening track "Nothing Lies Still Long" has been compared to
the Ventures
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the ...
, and is followed by "Revival", which is similarly rock-flavored.
"Anna Karina" is a slower, wistful track with "hints of
steel guitar
A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
twang."
Raggett described it and "Constellation", which is "layered with twangy guitar beats,"
as two examples of the album's wide-open feel.
The band's "longtime fascination with
krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
" is evident with the
motorik
Motorik is the 4/4 beat often used by, and heavily associated with, krautrock bands. Coined by music journalists, the term is German for "motor skill". The motorik beat was pioneered by Jaki Liebezeit, drummer with German experimental rock band ...
drive on "Saucer", reminiscent of
Can
Can may refer to:
Containers
* Aluminum can
* Drink can
* Oil can
* Steel and tin cans
* Trash can
* Petrol can
* Metal can (disambiguation)
Music
* Can (band), West Germany, 1968
** ''Can'' (album), 1979
* Can (South Korean band)
Other
* C ...
and
Stereolab
Stereolab are an Anglo- French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a repetit ...
,
and driven by "an incessant beat and driving bass,"
and "Blacktop."
Fisk in particular has been highlighted on several tracks, including with his "buzzing organ break" on "Revival" and "his Hammond work" on "Vegetable Kingdom."
Release
Pell Mell were struggling to think of a name for the album, leading graphic designer Clifford Stoltze to recommend the name ''Interstate'', as a reference to the band members living "in four different cities
eingable to stay together by sending audio tapes through the mail and traveling to meet for recording sessions;" the band agreed on the name.
Stoltze then worked with Beerman, himself also a graphic designer, on designing the album sleeve, by pulling together an "abundance of materials."
The album cover depicts a photograph that Stoltze snapped on a road trip through
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
, while other photographs taken by band members are also used in the album sleeve.
Taking inspiration from the album title, Stoltze chose the
Interstate
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...
typeface for the band's name on the cover.
''Interstate'' was released by major label
DGC on 25 April 1995 in the United States as their first and only album on a major label.
Many have commented on the unlikeliness of the album's release on DGC; Ned Raggett wrote: "the idea that Pell Mell would have ended up on a company run by
David Geffen
David Lawrence Geffen (born February 21, 1943) is an American business magnate, producer and film studio executive. He co-created Asylum Records in 1971 with Elliot Roberts, Geffen Records in 1980, DGC Records in 1990, and DreamWorks SKG in 199 ...
must have seemed truly bizarre when the band first started, but that's what a little
Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
can do for bands (and so it must have seemed for many an alternative outfit in the early '90s)."
Similarly, in 2013, ''
Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' ranked the album at number 13 in its list of the "40 Weirdest Post-''
Nevermind
''Nevermind'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, ''Neve ...
'' Major Label Albums," with Andrew Earles of the magazine saying:
In addition to CD and cassette editions, the album was also released as a translucent gold LP in the United States.
The album was a mild radio success, reaching number 34 on ''
CMJ
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
s "Top 75 Alternative Radio Play" chart, compiled from
airplay
Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...
reports of the most played alternative releases on around 500 different
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
,
non-commercial
A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...
and
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
radio stations. New Zealand-based independent label
Flying Nun Records
Flying Nun Records is a New Zealand independent record label formed in Christchurch in 1981 by music store manager Roger Shepherd. Described by ''The Guardian'' as "one of the world's great independent labels", Flying Nun is notable for bringin ...
released ''Interstate'' in Europe in 1995, or, in some regions, on March 4, 1996.
Critical reception
''Interstate'' was released to critical acclaim by music critics, with the album's warm, band dynamic and relaxed feel being frequently highlighted. Anthony Violanti of ''
The Buffalo News
''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...
'' rated the album four stars out of five and said: "Pell Mell has one of the most original sounds in contemporary music. It's refreshing to see an instrumental band back in rock 'n' roll."
Ned Raggett of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
gave the album the same rating, saying "it's an ensemble performance at heart, and an excellent one" which was the most fine example of the band's talents.
''
CMJ New Music Monthly
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
'' named the album "Best New Music", and Bob Gulla's review for the magazine noted the album's no-frills "good old-fashioned ensemble chemistry" and unexpected feel.
Thomas Kerpen of the ''Ox'' fanzine was favorable and highlighted the album's "great instrumental sounds" and particularly the "melodic atmospheric guitars, no wonder with three guitarists."
Similarly favorable although slightly more reserved, Paul Lukas and Ira Robbins of ''
Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...
'' described ''Interstate'' as "a solid continuation of ''Flows sound, although it has less consistently stellar material."
In early 1996, Raoul Hernandez of ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' ranked the album at number 6 in his favourite American, non-local albums of 1995, joint place with fellow instrumental rock band
Friends of Dean Martinez
Friends of Dean Martinez is an American instrumental rock/ post-rock band featuring members of Giant Sand, Calexico, and Naked Prey. The band combines Americana with electronica, ambient, lounge, psychedelia and dub and intertwines surf rock ...
's ''The Shadow of Your Smile''.
He wrote that the two albums, alongside the music of
Dirty Three
Dirty Three is an Australian instrumental rock band, consisting of Warren Ellis (violin and bass guitar), Mick Turner (electric and bass guitars) and Jim White (drums), which formed in 1992. Their 1996 album ''Horse Stories'' was voted by ''Ro ...
,
The Mermen
The Mermen are an American instrumental rock band from San Francisco, California formed in 1989. They have since moved to Santa Cruz, California.
The group's sound was originally rooted in surf and psychedelic rock music of the 1960s, although t ...
and
The Denison/Kimball Trio
''The Denison/Kimball Trio'' (sometimes known as DK3) were a musical duo consisting of American guitarist Duane Denison and American drummer Jim Kimball. Their music was completely instrumental and heavily influenced by jazz, the avant-garde and ...
, "helped bring instrumental modes of rock alienation into the mainstream."
Radio series ''
Living on Earth
''Living on Earth'' is a weekly, hour-long and award-winning environmental news program distributed by Public Radio Exchange (on Public Radio International from October 6, 2006, show to December 6, 2019, show, and before that, NPR from 1991 until ...
'' have used "Anna Karina" as soundtrack music. Mars Simpson of ''Treble Zine'' suggested that
Japancakes
Japancakes is an American indie rock group, based in Athens, Georgia, United States.
History
Rhythm guitarist Eric Berg formed the band with the idea of putting ten musicians in a band without any rehearsal, and performing a D chord for 45 minut ...
' ''Loveless'' (2007) was similar to ''Interstate'',
Tortoise
Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...
's ''
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
'' (1998) and
My Bloody Valentine's ''
Loveless'' (1991). "Nothing Lies Still Long" was used on earlier seasons of
Six Feet Under as the music played during the recap segment prior to the start of the episode.
Track listing
Personnel
Musicians
* Greg Freeman – bass guitar, guitar
* Robert Beerman – drums, guitar
* David Spalding – guitar, bass
* Steve Fisk – piano, organ, noises
Other
* Clifford Stoltze – design, photography
* Robert Beerman – design
* Greg Freeman – engineer, mixing
* Tim O’Heir – engineer, mixing
* Walton ‘Wally’ Gagel – engineering assistant, mixing
* Steve Fisk – mixing
* Kelly Spalding – photography
* Eddy Schreyer – mastering
References
{{Authority control
1995 albums
Pell Mell (band) albums
DGC Records albums