Dad is a 1989 studio album by the indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 act A Band Called Bud, later known as the Grifters.

Background

One year before taking on a real drummer and the name the Grifters, Tripp Lamkins, David Shouse and Scott Taylor played and performed under the name 'A Band Called Bud'. Because no one who answered the ad Shouse had placed in the then fledgling Memphis Flyer

Memphis Flyer

The Memphis Flyer is a free weekly alternative newspaper serving the greater Memphis, Tennessee area. Liberal in its politics, the Flyer covers local politics, as well as music and entertainment, regional sports, and human interest stories. Circulation: 55,000The Flyer was founded in 1989 by...

 was found to fit their sound, Shouse resigned himself to the position of playing rudimentary beats on an upright cocktail drum kit

Cocktail drum

Cocktail drums are a type of portable drum kit which combines bass drum and snare drum sounds in a single drum.- History :Cocktail drums were first put into production in the 1940s with the Carlton combo kit, consisting of a vertical 20 inch bass drum, a snare drum, cymbal and other assorted...

, while writing many of the band's songs and splitting vocals duties with Taylor. Dad was the only album recorded under the name, even though the same line-up performs on the first two Grifters EPs (though Stan Gallimore appears briefly on the latter EP). The only other release under this name was a split flexi-disc with John T. Baker's The Martini Age. The split single featured the A Band Called Bud single, "Shark". and was included in a 1989 issue of Kreature Comforts, a Memphis magazine distributed by Shangri-La Records

Shangri-La Records

Shangri-La Projects is a record label in Memphis, Tennessee that grew out of and split off from the Shangri-la Record store in Memphis, Tennessee, and released several of the seminal records of the early 90's Memphis indie scene...

.

Recording

Dad was recorded in Taylor's basement and in Doug Easley's "backhouse studio", which would eventually lead to a new location under the name "Easley's" and eventually Easley McCain Recording

Easley McCain Recording

Easley McCain Recording is an American recording studio, based in Memphis, Tennessee, notable for recording musicians such as Tav Falco's Panther Burns, Grifters, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Come, White Stripes, Townes Van Zandt, Pezz, Jeff Buckley, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Guided by Voices, Lydia...

.

From the liner notes:

"This is our first recording. Aside from several rhythm tracks and the final mixing, everything was done in Scott's basement on a dying 4-track machine. We make no apologies for quality."

Songs

Many of the songs that appear on Dad would later be rerecorded by the four-piece Grifters. The exceptions being "Nothing At All", "Dad", "Just One Of Those Things", "Hey Jack", "Let's Go To Bed" and "Box Lunch". Another version of "Nothing At All" would appear on Scott Taylor's first solo album under the Hot Monkey

The Hot Monkey

The Hot Monkey is the name under which Memphis musician, Scott Taylor records and performs his solo material...

 moniker, Lion

Lion (Hot Monkey album)

Lion is the first official release of the homemade tapes of Memphis musician, Scott Taylor. The earlier songs on this compilation were recorded when Taylor was only eighteen. The songs are most often bitter or ouright angry love songs or simply songs of longing...

. Others would later appear in Grifters' sets, such as the occasional rare performance of the stripped down. "Hey Jack"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aUL4Oe_abM

Track listing

Side 1

1. "Nothing At All" - 5:00 (vocals Taylor)
2. "Dad" - 3:26 (vocals Taylor)
3. "Black Fuel Incinerator" - 4:45 (vocals Shouse)
4. "Under The Ground" - 4:41 (vocals Shouse)
5. "Just One Of Those Things" - 4:09 (vocals Taylor)
6. "Shark" - 4:46 (vocals Taylor)
7. "Hey Jack" - 4:10 (vocals Shouse)

Side 2

1. "The Want" - 4:36 (vocals Shouse)
2. "Let's Go To Bed" - 3:34 (vocals Taylor)
3. "Box Lunch" - 3:38 (vocals Shouse)
4. "Daydream Riot" - 4:50 (vocals Shouse)
5. "I'm Drunk" - 2:25 (vocals Taylor)
6. "Thumbnail Sketch - 5:25 (vocals Shouse)

A Band Called Bud

• Tripp Lamkins - Bass
• David Shouse - Vocals & Drums, Guitar on Hey Jack
• Scott Taylor - Vocals & Guitar

Trivia

Alt.country

Alternative country

Alternative country is a loosely defined sub-genre of country music, which includes acts that differ significantly in style from mainstream or pop country music...

 band, Blue Mountain

Blue Mountain (band)

Blue Mountain is an American alt-country/roots rock band formed in 1991 in Oxford, Mississippi by husband and wife duo Cary Hudson and Laurie Stirratt , who is notably the twin sister of John Stirratt, the bass player for the like-minded Americana band Wilco.-History:After the dissolution of...

 sang an ode to their former gig mates http://www.thelocalvoice.net/TLV-pages/music/TLV29-BlueMountain.html, A Band Called Bud on their 1995 album, Dog Days

Dog Days (Blue Mountain album)

Dog Days is a 1995 album by American Alternative country group Blue Mountain. In 2008 the band released a remastered version of the album. Scott Hull remastered the album...

. Cary Hudson sings of a band that plays guitars strung with barbed wire:

"There was a band called 'Bud'/they made electric mud/rode around town in a beat up van/smokin' marijuana like every other man"
- opening lyrics to the song A Band Called Bud