Further - Sometimes Chimes 2xLP

Speaking of wilfully obscure, California's Further proffers the paradigm case. If you're a fan of skronky, sloppy indie rock a la early Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, and Pavement, well then this may be your Golden Grimes ticket to Glory. The shortish story is that members of Further started off in Shadowland who released two dismal "alternative" albums on Geffen. Disenfranchised with their experience on a major, Brent and Darren Rademaker formed Further, who released four albums and handfuls of singles (as evidenced by their discography) of liberatingly unrestricted indie rock. Rarely critics darlings, Further were often chided for sounding like the bands listed above, thus spawning the excellently tongue-in-cheek song "Furtherdoh Jr-Q" provided below. After the band broke up in the late 90s, Brent joined Beachwood Sparks and Darren joined The Tyde. Sometimes Chimes is a double LP released on Christmas Records in 1993. It is out of print and fetches a pretty penny on eBay. There are 27 songs here, clocking in at 1.3 hours, and by my count, it's 20 songs too long (though it's an admirable excess as it is). So I've handpicked a fine EP's worth of True Indie Rock songs. For more background on the band, check out this and that.

Side A mp3: Further - Surfing Pointers
Side B mp3: Further - Isabel (Unrest cover)
Side C mp3: Further - Going to Glendora
Side C mp3: Further - Ride
Side D mp3: Further - Organ Donor
Side D mp3: Further - Furtherdoh Jr-Q
Side D mp3: Further - Alternative Ulcer

P.S. If you enjoyed these songs, run don't walk to Wilfully Obscure, a great blog I just found when searching for info on Further. The kind soul over there has just posted a link to the complete Golden Grimes EP, which is better, pound for pound, than Sometimes Chimes.