Good Horsey - ”Kazué” [1994]

Many recordings from the early 90's have not weathered well. It was an odd time, when "underground" had inexplicably shifted to "indie", a term I never enjoyed. I guess the underground was rising in the strata, or at least in major label marketing eyes, who were still casting about in dusty corners for the next Nirvana. Thankfully, Good Horsey never threatened ascension to MTV rotation and their sole full length release, ”Kazué”, is an uneven effort certainly tainted by juvenile and tedious moments. Still, something about this recording grabs me now nearly as much as it did in 1994. Being in my goofy mid-twenties I could relate to the plodding torment, and the slack guitar jams that could have easily fallen embarrassingly flat somehow did it for me. Your opinion may vary. Hailing from Vancouver, B.C., these fellows never got a lot of stateside press. I definitely purchased this solely on the cover painting, something about how the dog is depicted made me pony up the dough. The band wasn't afraid to get a tad experimental, some of the instruments listed include: ukulele, pie pan, xylophone, scrap metal, party favors and the infamous ratiug for the backward solo on "Like The Cute One". One bit of warning: as was de rigeur for any album in this vein in the 90's, the last track has a "secret bonus" song attached, in this case a fairly trying, long noise jam. I thought of excising it from the otherwise wonderful "Burn Up The Sun", but decided against any revisionist alterations.

Relive the wounds of that bad ex from the mid-nineties