As mentioned about a month ago in a SOTW post, I got a bunch of new albums for Xmas that I’ve been meaning to share with y’all. I didn’t feel comfortable posting about them until I really had a chance to give each a listen, so here we are a month later…

Anyway, among the new acquisitions are two albums by 90’s Memphis rockers the Grifters. After scoping out some of their stuff on Amazon, I just couldn’t resist the schizophrenic, dirty sound they had going on, so I picked up their 1994 release Crappin’ You Negative and the subsequent EP, Eureka (1995). To be honest, I’m surprised I hadn’t heard more about them until now. They sound like some strange missing link in my music collection between early Modest Mouse, Pavement, Swervedriver, and Sebadoh (a side note: the liner notes of the Eureka EP start with something like “After a year of touring and hundreds of unwarranted Pavement comparisons…”). They’re southern, lo-fi indie rock with slightly more groove and an uncanny ability to run the gamut of musical genres within the confines of a 3-minute pop number. Me thinks they’d be an incredible band to see live.

The first few tracks above are from Crappin’ You Negative, while the last one is from the Eureka EP. Also, do yourself a favor and give this song a listen if you haven’t already — it’s the reason I bought the Eureka EP and is one of prettiest songs I’ve heard in a while.

Check It Out If… A) You like your pop dirty, schizophrenic, and slightly out-of-control, B) You’re going on a road trip, or C) You are dirty, schizophrenic, and slightly out-of-control.