Band That Everyone Likes But Nobody Loves Of The Day

How many times in the last six years have you flipped through your records and thought to yourself, "I could really go for some Samiam right now." Yeah, probably less than once. Maybe, if you were really nostalgic, you tossed "Capsized" on a mix cd. Their breakup a number of years ago was vague at best, and didn't exactly spark any suicidal dread in listeners. It's with that same sort of exuberance from music fans that Samiam reunited - with a collective "oh, that's kind of neat." In fact, a more common response would be, "who?"

I always loved Samiam, but I loved them like I'd love an aunt or uncle I see only on holidays. I understand their relevance and recognize that there are few bands that have sounded like them, and I'd even sing along if one of their songs came through when iTunes was on shuffle, probably remarking "wow, I forgot how good this band was." Unfortunately, this is one of those bands that wouldn't be on anyone's top ten list, but probably would slip in between 20 or 25 on almost everyone's list. I had the pleasure of seeing them at the Troubadour this evening (supposedly their first LA show since 2000), and they performed like a band ecstatic to make their return, even if only to a limited audience. Their singer's passionate performance drove an impressive show (said performance being largely driven by the bottle of red wine he polished off during the set). It's really a shame that their new record has the production of a basement recording from 1986, so the band remains unlikely to emerge from the realm of obscurity. For fans though, the band's reunion is a welcome addition to an otherwise festering music landscape.

Samiam - Dull

Hot Water Music's Chuck Ragan opened the show with half an hour of inspired blue collar folk songs that sound suspiciously like Hot Water songs without the drums and distortion. He's releasing all of his music exclusively through a regular 7" club on No Idea right now, although I believe the entire lot of songs will be released on CD sometime next year. Or you can just listen to his myspace songs and artificially inflate his play count. With The Draft recently releasing a great debut, it's a lot easier to confess now that Hot Water's final album really wasn't all that good.