Techno-Squid Eats Parliament was a 1990s power-pop band based in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

who released a critically acclaimed eponymous album, produced by Grammy winner,

John Hampton John Stephen Hampton (c. 1806 – 1 December 1869) was Governor of Western Australia from 1862 to 1868. Early life Little is known of John Hampton's early life. His death certificate states that he was born in 1810, but other evidence suggest ...

, on

Ardent Records Ardent Records is an American record label based in Memphis, which was founded by John Fry in 1959. Ardent of the 1960s and 1970s featured pop music acts and was distributed by Stax Records from 1972 until 1975. It is best remembered today for Bi ...

that was re-released on

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

Multimedia as one of the world’s first

Enhanced CD Enhanced CD is a certification mark of the Recording Industry Association of America for various technologies that combine audio and computer data for use in both Compact Disc and CD-ROM players. Formats that fall under the "enhanced CD" ca ...

s. The CD functioned both as a fully playable compact disc, and when played in a Macintosh personal computer, allowed fans to access additional content such as band interviews, videos, and a tour diary.

History

Techno-Squid Eats Parliament formed in 1992 when childhood friends, Aaron Sarlo and Clay Bell began searching for a bassist and drummer to fill out their fledgling sound. Sarlo and Bell enlisted the help of Mark Pearrow on bass (Pearrow coined the band’s name) and Shayne Gray on drums. The band’s second show was as a contestant in the Spectrum Weekly Musicians’ Showcase in Little Rock. The judges for the competition were record producer

Jim Dickinson James Luther Dickinson (November 15, 1941 – August 15, 2009) was an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the band Mud Boy and the Neutrons, based in Memphis, Tennessee. Biography Dickinson was born in Lit ...

Jody Stephens Jody Stephens (born October 4, 1952) is an American drummer, who has played in Big Star (with Alex Chilton of the Box Tops) and Golden Smog (with members of the Jayhawks and Wilco). After the deaths of Chris Bell in 1978, and both Alex Chilton ...

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guiar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new l ...

(who would go on to be the band’s A&R director), John Fry, and Rick Clark, a writer for Billboard Magazine. Techno-Squid Eats Parliament won their night, and shortly thereafter, signed to Ardent Records in Memphis. Techno-Squid Eats Parliament toured extensively throughout America and Canada, playing

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

, Crossroads Music Festival, NXNE, in support of their release on Ardent/Philips. The band enjoyed critical acclaim, but failed to catch on with mainstream audiences despite repeated coverage on MTV, opening for acts such as Cheap Trick,

Cracker Cracker, crackers or The Crackers may refer to: Animals * ''Hamadryas'' (butterfly), or crackers, a genus of brush-footed butterflies * '' Sparodon'', a monotypic genus whose species is sometimes known as "Cracker" Arts and entertainment Films ...

, and Alex Chilton, and press coverage in music industry mainstays like

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

and

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 ...

. Techno-Squid Eats Parliament’s lackluster success is largely attributed to their unusual name (record shops would mistakenly stock the band’s album in the Funk section).

Disbanded

In 1995, Techno-Squid Eats Parliament disbanded when drummer, Shayne Gray, quit the band to star in

Ira Sachs Ira Sachs (born November 21, 1965) is an American filmmaker. His first film was the short ''Lady'' (1993). Biography Sachs was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His films include '' The Delta'' (1997), '' Forty Shades of Blue'' (2005), '' Married Li ...

’s debut film, The Delta. In the wake of TSEP, Clay Bell moved to San Francisco to pursue a solo career, Aaron Sarlo went on to form punk band, Dangerous Idiots, and Mark Pearrow moved to Boston to work at MIT as a research engineer and published author on the topic of web site usability.

Reformed

In 2015, after a 20 year break, Techno-Squid Eats Parliament reformed to release their follow up record, "We’re Back. What Did We Miss?"

Discography

*Techno-Squid Eats Parliament (1994) *I Shot Your Boyfriend / Sometimes Things 7" single inyl(1994) *We’re Back. What Did We Miss? (2015)

Albums

*Techno-Squid Eats Parliament (1994) *We’re Back. What Did We Miss? (2015)

Singles

I Shot Your Boyfriend b/w Sometimes Things inyl(1994)

Other formats

Techno-Squid Eats Parliament Enhanced CD (1995)

References

{{reflist

External links

Aaron Sarlo at IMDb
Musical groups from Little Rock, Arkansas American power pop groups Alternative rock groups from Arkansas