Formats
SORC1007LP - LP
0748079898561
Details
Memphis’ Grifters made some of the finest recordings of Clinton-era America, with a number of albums on labels such as Shangri-La (their second and third LPs) and then Sub Pop for their remaining two albums. Their mixture of Memphis blues/roots influences, classic pop songwriting and lo-fi aesthetics saw them as one of the shining lights of the ‘90s indie-rock scene. Sorcerer Records is pleased as heck to announce that it is reissuing their first full-length LP, So Happy Together, out of circulation for over two decades. Originally released in 1992 on the Chicago indie label, Sonic Noise, which ceased operations not long after the album was released (hence many Grifters fans having never heard this very recording), the Grifters’ So Happy Together is an absolute masterpiece of lo-fi slapped-together rock & roll. Less ‘rootsy’ than their subsequent music, it sees the band navigating their way through 10 sublimely inventive, non-generic ‘rock’ tracks which beggar comparison. Well, at the time they were compared to the likes of Pavement, Guided By Voices, Trumans Water et al and other practitioners of stumbling no-fi sounds, but the Grifters’ deft grasp of song dynamics, mixing up quiet balladry with booming guitar explosions inhabiting the same song surely puts them in their own bracket, no? In a review I penned at the time, I even claimed them as the missing link twixt the Wipers and Mission Of Burma (stealing comparisons from others, I believe), and 25 years later, such a claim still doesn’t seem totally ridiculous. Anyway! The time is ripe for the world to rediscover the sheer genius of the Grifters. The Fat Possum label reissued their 2nd/3rd albums just a couple of years back, and now it’s time to hear where it all began. So Happy Together comes fully remastered from the original tapes by Mikey Young, housed in the original artwork in a heavy 425gm sleeve with an insert featuring exclusive photos from the time and new liner notes from the band’s Tripp Lamkins. What a treat!