Biography
If Guided by Voices embodied the Beatles within the mid-'90s lo-fi underground, the Grifters' expansive, blues-inflected din might easily stand in for the Stones. Purposefully cacophonous, ragged, and pitched sharp or flat, the Memphis outfit buries its tunes beneath layers of crackling distortion and tape hiss. Rooted in that city and shaped by its sonic environment, the group also echoes the early lo-fi experiments of Royal Trux and Half Japanese, in contrast to Guided by Voices, whose method involved capturing straightforward pop material on inexpensive home gear. Emerging in the late '80s under the name A Band Called Bud, the initial lineup featured vocalist/guitarist Scott Taylor, bassist Tripp Lamkins, and drummer Dave Shouse; the only outputs were a lone single and a little-known cassette of living-room takes. Entering the new decade, Shouse began splitting songwriting and guitar duties with Taylor while Stan Gallimore took over the drum chair. The resulting quartet made its vinyl debut in 1990 with the Doink Records single "Disfigurehead." Their first full-length, So Happy Together, appeared in 1992 on the sympathetic Sonic Noise imprint and extended the Sonic Youth-derived punk stance heard on prior tracks. The following year's One Sock Missing, issued on the band's newly founded Shangri-La label, revealed a more seasoned unit whose tempos had slowed without losing any of the serrated edges supplied by distortion and tape edits; the same imprint later reissued material by A Band Called Bud and documented Taylor's side project Hot Monkey. Once Pavement rose and Guided by Voices surfaced, the lo-fi aesthetic gained wider traction inside indie circles by 1994. On their third album, Crappin' You Negative, the Grifters foregrounded the blues-rooted bravado previously kept in check, pairing it with melodies built from the insistent cycling of jagged guitar figures; the record achieved underground success. The band moved to Sub Pop that same year. Following the 1995 Eureka EP, they delivered Ain't My Lookout in 1996, then Full Blown Possession in 1997.
Albums
