Donner Party was a

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

–based

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band, performing between 1986 and 1989.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 305 The band consisted of Melanie Clarin on drums and accordion;

Sam Coomes Samuel J. Coomes (born April 23, 1964) is an American musician, and one half of the indie band Quasi, along with his ex-wife, drummer Janet Weiss. Coomes was also a member of the mid-1980s underground pop band The Donner Party and replaced Brand ...

on guitar, violin, and banjo; and Reinhold Johnson on bass. The band released two albums, both self-titled; the first was released in 1987 on the

Cryptovision Records Cryptovision Records is a New York City based independent record label that was founded by musicians James Talley, Mike Linn, Brian Beggs, and Gene Wood in 1979 and dissolved in 1990. In 2009 Dave Amels, A&R man for the original Cryptovision Recor ...

label, and the second on

Camper Van Beethoven Camper Van Beethoven is an American rock band formed in Redlands, California, in 1983, later based in Santa Cruz and San Francisco. Their style mixes elements of pop, ska, punk, folk, alternative, country, and world music, among other ge ...

's Pitch-A-Tent label in 1988. These two albums, plus an unreleased third album and some live tracks, were collected and released as ''Complete Recordings 1987–1989'' in 2000 on Innerstate Records. The band played a one-time reunion show on April 16, 2000, at Slim's in San Francisco. Named after a group of 19th-century American travelers who turned cannibals while stranded, the Donner Party's songs frequently took a comic view of death and its attendant dread (and also, as it happens, food). Titles include "When You Die Your Eyes Pop Out", "John Wilkes Booth", "Try to Imagine a Terrible World", and "Boxfull of Bones". "When I Was a Baby", recorded with a cheap organ with almost whispery vocals to sound somehow homey and quaint, begins: "When I was a baby I looked like a pig/My nose was a snout and my ears were too big," and only gets creepier from there. The amusingly titled "Mom Please Don't Listen" is basically a litany of coprophagia and gory death. In "Would You Like to Have Something to Eat?", they link failing to follow parents' nutritional imperatives with being sent to Hell. In contrast, their cover version of the ''Sesame Street'' song "Up & Down," designed to teach the literal concepts of "up" and "down," is performed cheerfully yet not exaggeratedly—in keeping with the spirit of the original song from the series. In 2000, "Would You Like to Have Something To Eat?" was featured in a commercial for HomeGrocer.com, an early online grocery delivery service. Clarin also played drums in another San Francisco folk-rock band,

The Cat Heads The Cat Heads were an indie rock band from San Francisco. The band formed in 1985 with a later line-up recording as The (ex) Cat Heads. History The original line-up of the band was former Love Circus and Leaches singer Mark Zanandrea (vocals, gui ...

, and also in Harm Farm. Coomes would later play in

Heatmiser Heatmiser was an American rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon, in October 1991. Consisting of Elliott Smith (guitar and vocals), Neil Gust (guitar and vocals), Brandt Peterson (bass; later replaced by Sam Coomes, frontman of Quasi) and Ton ...

, and then form Motorgoat and

Quasi ''Quasi'' may refer to: *Quasi (band), American indie rock band * ''Quasi'' (film), 2023 American film *Quasi, a musical term meaning "almost" * ''Quasi'' (fly), a genus of insect * ''Quasi'' (sculpture), an artwork in Wellington, New Zealand *"Q ...

with his ex-wife,

Janet Weiss Janet Lee Weiss (born September 24, 1965) is an American rock drummer, a member of Quasi (band), Quasi and former member of Sleater-Kinney. She was the drummer for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, leaving after the album ''Mirror Traffic'', and co ...

Discography

*''The Donner Party'' (1987), Cryptovision (shown as ''Donner Party'' on the label) *''Donner Party'' (1988), Pitch-A-Tent *''Complete Recordings 1987-1989'' (2000), Innerstate

References

Indie rock musical groups from California Musical groups from San Francisco {{US-folk-band-stub