Angry Salad

Originating in Boston after roots in Rhode Island, Angry Salad upheld the region's longstanding preference for accessible collegiate rock. The musicians officially united at Brown University during 1993, captured that same year's WBRU Rock Hunt in Providence, and launched a lengthy touring schedule that prompted them to establish permanent operations in Beantown. There the collective captured its first recording, The Guinea Pig EP of 1995, moving ten thousand units across national road dates. The release climbed into the CMJ Top 200 and received a Best Debut Album nod at the Boston Music Awards.

Sustaining an intense cycle of performances, songwriting, and studio work, Angry Salad had amassed sufficient material by 1998 for a first full-length project initially called Bizarre Gardening Accident. While passing through New York, the members approached the A&R staff at Blackbird Recording Company, an Atlantic Records imprint, and delivered a copy of the forthcoming album. The submission quickly secured a contract with Atlantic. Veteran producer Tom Lord-Alge then guided the transformation of Bizarre Gardening Accident into the band's self-titled debut, issued in 1999; a separate EP titled Guinea Pig followed in the early months of the subsequent year.