Tar - Handsome

Label: Amphetamine Reptile

Year: 1989

Elsewhere on this very site, you can find Tar's "Jackson" lp, which is usually the one you come across in your friend's cassette collection, but I wanted to get their first lp (it's a stretch to really call it an lp proper, as it's only 24 minutes long) up here as well, since it's a different sound.

They play it a little more upbeat on this record than on later ones, where they tended to slow things down a bit, get a little creepier, a little murkier. Here it's pretty punky, catchy, and streamlined. They seem to hit on Chicago cornerstones, Naked Raygun a bit, which ends up sounding like a Husker Du meets Jawbox steez. There are a few songs on here recorded by Steve Albini, and you can probably make out which ones are and which ones aren't. Those tracks get a little rougher, a little heavier. 

Anyway, I'm not up for a big synopsis, I just listened to this record the other day, and remembered that it's pretty good, maybe not as good as "Roundhouse", and certainly different than "Jackson", but good nonetheless and I wanted to get it posted. Word? Word.

DL