The Buck Pets

The 90s is the last decade of creativity before major label buyout mania took over and the independent cool labels got swallowed up by corporations.  Good for the share holders but for the music listener not much so. Even in the 80s Island Records when Chris Blackwell was heading that label managed to score some good bands along the way.  John Mayall made two late comeback albums that were great, the now hard to find Chicago Line one of them. Drivin' n Cryin' the most visible.  And one of them came from Texas by the unique name of The Buck Pets.

A typical story of a one album wonder band, The Buck Pets' debut album is a raw sonic sludge of loud guitars and a combination of Soul Asylum lyricism but with a Husker Du' guitar sound that kinda foretold the grunge movement.  But since they were not from Seattle, the term is more Alt Guitar Noise.  Their first album remains their sole classic album. A bit of Jane's Addiction stop and start rock was added on for good measure, my guess is they couldn't name themselves The Fuck Ups and decided to find a name that could rhyme with that, thus The Buck Pets. Island was gracious enough to send the boys down to the Bahamas at Compass Point and get Ron St Germain to produce and mix the album and it doesn't sound out of place along with Jane's Addiction or early Husker Du', I hear The Junk Monkeys as well.  The band owes nothing to Peter Buck or REM, the initial reaction was them being associated to REM but not at all.  Unless they inspired REM to record Monster a few years later.  The first song Iron Cock probably scared away MTV 120 Minutes or Headbangers Ball but it's a nice start to the album.  I think the highlights is the acid power pop of Song For Louise Post and bonus CD cut The Bad Sleep Good,  Or Not At All which melody was probably inspired by Nirvana's Bleach but for references to such bands of influence, The Buck Pets S/T still manages to hold up.

But somehow the attitude changed big time and perhaps the Island buy out to Polygram soured the band and the next album Mercurotones paled in comparison. A product of Corporate Island telling them what to do and what sound is now, the record is just about total confusion as The Bucks tried anything and everything to update their sound but a lot of songs never get going or sound unfinished.  Perhaps the best title of this album is Fuck It by The Buck Pets.  One song Libertine is produced by the Dust Brothers (Beastie Boys) and the rest done by Michael Beinhorn whose best moment was Mother's Milk by Red Hot Chili Peppers and one of the more hands on and less satisfying producers of the 90s. Rock Goddess (R T Cocaine Blues) starts the record out okay but the rest of the record they sound bored. Libertine at least changes the outcome a bit and perhaps the Dust Brothers would have been a better choice of production than Beinhorn. The first album was husker du drive, Mercurotones is driven more by the Pixies.  Not a total waste, Hey Sunshine shows that they can do power pop fairly well.  But the band disown just about everything about this album including art work and photo taken.  The record flopped and Corporate Island said bye bye.

A change of label to Restless (aka Worthless Records according to the band) didn't help things. A change of drummers and To The Quick was released to indifference. Living Is The Best Thing got some airplay on the album rock station but nothing more came of this.  Ted Nicely replaces Mike Beinhorn at production but the problem was the songs were even less memorable than Mercurotones and they were stuck on a label that had no clue on how to promote this band.  A cover of the Who's Bargain is commendable but if you want to ever hear an album of a band giving up. To The Quick is that.  They did  threw in the towel after that, although Andy Thompson and Chris Savage did get the band back together for a 2010 reunion show.

For all intent purposes, The Buck Pets fit very well with Alternative rock of the late 80s, when they came out of the gate, they showed their influences and inspiration quite well but with record label meddling the next two efforts make a valid point of not signing with a major label.  You can hear the results.  For for a short time in 1989, they were one of the up and coming bands.  The first album is all you need to know.

Grades:

The Buck Pets (Island 1989) A-
Mercurotones (Island 1990) B-
To The Quick (Restless 1993) C