Idaho

Emerging from Los Angeles, California, the slowcore outfit Idaho ranks among the scene’s most dedicated yet underrecognized contributors, steered by tenor guitarist and vocalist Jeff Martin, whose stark songwriting drew press comparisons to American Music Club’s Mark Eitzel, Red House Painters’ Mark Kozelek, and Neil Young. Though its commercial footprint remained modest, the group cultivated a loyal underground audience through consistent 1990s releases and occasional live appearances. Into the 2010s, Idaho shifted between full-band configurations and Martin’s solo vehicle; he also handled drums, bass, and keyboards while self-producing. Following a thirteen-year recording hiatus, the project resurfaced in 2024 with the album Lapse, a band documentary, and a box set of early recordings.

Jeff Martin and high-school acquaintance John Berry began composing together during the 1980s, cycling through several short-lived groups that they treated casually. After handing a demo to a contact connected with Caroline Records, the pair secured a deal. Their first release, however, was the “Skyscrape” single on the subsidiary Ringers Lactate label, followed later in 1993 by the Caroline-issued EP The Palms. By year’s end, the full-length Year After Year appeared, its drum parts shared among Berry, Mark Lewis, and Unsane’s Vincent Signorelli.

Berry departed prior to the 1994 album This Way Out. Martin consequently played nearly all instruments himself, augmented by Mark Lewis, Joey Waronker, Dan Seta, and Jeff Zimmitti. Seeking to keep Idaho road-ready, he assembled a semi-stable lineup and, for 1996’s Three Sheets to the Wind, relinquished portions of the writing; the expanded roster of Lewis, Seta, and Terry Borden produced the band’s most robust recording to date.

Idaho subsequently pared back to a duo, Martin retaining guitarist Seta while Lewis and Borden launched Flotilla. Martin also moved to the smaller Buzz imprint, which issued the comparatively restrained Forbidden EP in 1997 and the album Alas in 1998. Using proceeds from a car-accident settlement, he founded Idaho Music and released the archival live set People Like Us Should Be Stopped alongside the understated Hearts of Palm, both in 2000. Through the mid-2010s he continued directing the project, often alongside recurring collaborators that included Berry, yielding the studio albums Levitate (2001), The Lone Gunman (2005), and You Were a Dick (2011). Additional collections of unreleased material comprised We Were Young and Needed the Money and The Broadcast of Disease, the latter drawing on tracks from the 1980s. John Berry died in his sleep during cancer treatment in 2016.

Meanwhile Lewis persisted in writing and convened periodic sessions with multi-instrumentalist Robby Fronzo. After thirteen years, Idaho reemerged with Lapse, ten new songs in the group’s signature style written and performed by Lewis and Fronzo; Arts & Crafts released the album in May 2024. That October the label followed with the five-LP vinyl box set The Devil You Know 1992-1996, containing remastered editions of Year After Year, This Way Out, and Three Sheets to the Wind plus a bonus disc. Filmmaker Mark Davis began a documentary on the band in 2019 with Martin’s participation; Traces of Glory: The Musical Journey of Idaho was finished in 2022 and issued in June 2024.