A Sonic Apéritif!

This is the apéritif that started the album that helped start the cocktail and exotica rebirth of the ‘90s! It’s hard to call recordings as lush and beautiful as these demos, but that’s what they are. These reels preceded the band’s Subpop debut I, Swinger, and contains early versions of most of that album along with songs you’ve never heard them do on record before!

The devil’s in the demos! A singing, dancing tour of the seven wonders of the cocktail world hosted by Satan—it’s as awesome an origin story as any band could want. Especially the ensemble that kicked off the ‘90s neo-lounge scene.

In 1992, the band squeezed into bassist Nicholas Cudahy’s living room to cut a home demo on his eight-track cassette recorder. “I think we recorded Liz in the bathroom,” reports drummer/vibraphonist Aaron Oppenheimer. “And then Nick mastered it down to these two-track tapes.” The process was anything but laborious. “Every song we played maybe a couple of takes. And then Nick went and locked himself in the room and came out with a demo.”

Some songs wouldn’t make it to the band’s 1994 Sub Pop debut album, I, Swinger, and some would never see the inside of a proper studio at all.

In their final I, Swinger versions, the bulk of the demo tunes sparked a nationwide movement. Legions of musicians swapped the Stooges and Ramones for Esquivel and Arthur Lyman in their pantheon of influences. But the tape that started it all was buried for decades until Nick unearthed it.

In hindsight, the 1992 recordings seem as shockingly prescient as they were anachronistic, having foreshadowed everything from neo-swing to post-rock. And the ripples are still spreading. “I do feel like there is yet another resurgence of cocktail culture and tiki bars and things,” Oppenheimer avers. “Maybe it'll find a new audience. And maybe those folks who were fans 30 years ago will think, ‘Oh, yeah, that stuff is pretty good!’ It's exciting.”

—Jim Allen

• The ‘92 demo reel that got the band inked to sub pop, to eventually kickoff the neo-lounge movement!
• LP cut by Kevin Gray and pressed on black vinyl!
• Contains demo versions of 6 swanky cuts and seven others that didn’t make the cut!
• Includes a literal placemat’s worth of liner notes from Jim Allen!

01. Cadillac
02. Satan Says
03. Carnival Of Souls
04. Theme From The Tiki Wonder Hour
05. A Shot In The Dark
06. Summer Samba 03:35 video
07. Is That All There Is? 03:49
08. Intermission
09. Spy Vs Spy
10. Pavillion
11. Breakfast At Denny’s
12. Rotisserie
13. The Best Is Yet To Come