Introspect was rad band from southeastern Pennsylvania that was active during the mid 90s. They played a groovy style of hardcore with those anguished, shouted vocals kids like myself were eating up at the time. There's a kind of Helmet-thing going on here, which definitely worked for them and which you can hopefully appreciate. Philadelphia and the neighboring areas of Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware Counties had more than a few excellent bands that called its borders home. Introspect was a part of the same local scene along with bands like Prema, Autumn, Bleed, Canon, Franklin, Frail, among others. These two records are just a few more examples of what was going on in the Keystone State during the mid 90s. They were released on bass player Shawn Wieland's Fountainhead Records in 1994, and Eric Wareheim of Adult Swim fame played second guitar on the 2x7".
Some warning, the
cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" is actually only a 25 second snippet of some in-studio silliness, as opposed to an actual legit cover. I didn't want you to get your hopes up, as it certainly doesn't warrant getting it's own song title on the sleeve. Moving on, both records are enjoyable, but I think I may dig the 7", which was the earlier release, a bit more. Check 'em out.
-single-
Tracklist
1) Her Monument
2) Stationary Trust
-double-
Tracklist
1) Muddy Water
2) Forced Reaction
3) Blue / I Think We're Alone Now
4) Always
5) Birthright
6) Effort
No one knows this band.....
ReplyDeleteYeah, I feel like not many kids outside of our area would really have been exposed to them. They definitely played a few fests back in the day, so hopefully some non-Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York or Delaware people got to check them out. Thanks for your comments, too, Alfredge!
DeleteSome added history help.. they started out of Council Rock High School in Newtown PA, as a four piece, with a singer who vocally kinda reminded me of Chaka from Burn on the early Burn Demo stuff.. Not saying that because they both happened to be black, but they both had a very similar voice and delivery. They had an early demo, recorded at Unisound, where they played A LOT. They used to cover Insted's "We'll Make the Difference" and have a vague memory of them maybe doing an Outspoken cover? The singer disappeared and became a hippy I heard, and then the guitarist sang.. I think he sounds a lot like Lemmy. And the drummer was METAL. His fave bands were Rush and Kiss, and his favorite drummers were Stewart Copeland and, yup, you nailed it, John Stanier from Helmet and now Battles. Then Eric joined. you got the rest. Early on I feel like they were sorta made fun of a lot, cuz they weren't all on the same page like their local contemporaries like Mouthpiece or Flagman.. They were outsiders and nerdy. Then, like Bleed, who also went to Council Rock, they sorta ACCIDENTALLY sounded Ebullition-friendly and that world sorta got into them... Until that world realized they were not all PC dudes... Bleed was an even weirder and random group of dudes... Also Jaime Holmes from Double Decker Records did Fountainhead with Shawn. Sorry, I just have WAY too good a memory..
ReplyDeleteWe played with them in 1995 in VA Beach when I was in Inkwell
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