A few years after hardcore's heyday, in that dark void before the USDIY network had really coalesced and scenes were codified, experimentation was truly allowed, even celebrated...and shit was wild. PRIMUS played 924 Gilman countless times, OFFSPRING and ECONOCHRIST toured together. VICTIMS FAMILY was a punk band. The lines between crossover, thrash, commercial alt rock and punk were extremely blurry, countless bands lived exclusively in those grey areas, and those grey areas were often in the suburbs. Enter UNCLE SMOOTH AND THE LOST MAYANS from Waukesha, Wisconsin. I wasn't there, so I reached out to a few people who lived through it to give me some context....
Dug: "Musical giants of Waukesha, WI!"
Karoline: "Maybe we were all just stupid kids and maybe they were really great and I just didn't appreciate it at the time."
Sweater: "I'd like to revisit them, they were 'too musical' for me then. I never understood the whole Primus thing - now I can kind of understand, but I still don't think it's right."
At times it's not too far removed from the college town punk I was surrounded by at the time. There are some proto-grunge bits a la SLUGFUZLE, while the wild funk/punk of CINDERBISCUITS crashes full speed into late '80s thrash and....and also PRIMUS. These dudes listened to a lot of PRIMUS. I can't imagine making music like this as a teenager, and thinking of UNCLE SMOOTH AND THE LOST MAYANS playing the same Madison basement as ASPIRIN FEAST and BIKINI KILL (not the same show, but still)...well, it was a different time.
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