Biography
Active for just twelve months—from January 1980 through January 1981—the Beakers nevertheless built a reputation strong enough to draw praise from Gang of Four and Soundgarden. The quartet came together in Seattle, where Mark H. Smith handled vocals and guitar, George Romansic played drums, Frankie Sundsten held down bass, and Jim Anderson contributed saxophone. Before dissolving, the group issued only a handful of tracks on regional compilations and a few 7-inch singles. Even with such a brief existence, the Beakers secured an opening slot for Gang of Four and drew stylistic parallels to Talking Heads and Minutemen. Their recordings finally reached compact disc in 2004 when K Records assembled them on the anthology Four Steps to a Cultural Revolution.
Albums