Evergreen, the Louisville hardcore-cum-blues-boogie-rock band featuring Slint’s Britt Walford on drums, attempted to record a follow-up to their self-titled release (Evergreen, an amazing, minimalist, dance-y rock album), which was put out by Hi-Ball in ’95. The sessions, which were recorded by Bob Weston (2nd time this week!), were never released. Rumor has it that the advance the band received in order to record the album went “up in smoke,” which — if you’ve read the James Murphy VICE Magazine interview about recording Evergreen — isn’t too hard to believe.
*Note: see comments for re-evaluation of “up in smoke” comment.*
They recorded seven songs. Several LPs have popped up on eBay this year claiming to be the unreleased 7 Song LP. Those are apparently from the other band called Evergreen, which also recorded 7 songs in 1995 that were never released. Crazy, right? The proof is in the comments section of this very page.
Evergreen
Unreleased 1995 Bob Weston Sessions
MediaFire Download Link
Tracklist:
01. Track 1
02. Track 2
03. Track 3
04. Track 4
05. Track 5
06. Track 6
07. Track 7
August 30th, 2008
The artwork at the top of your post is from a different Evergreen. This Evergreen (from CA) was around at about the same time as the Louisville/Walford Evergreen but sounded decidedly different.
This Wikipedia entry gets it largely correct: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_(band)
November 19th, 2008
thank you so much for posting this! i have their early demo tapes…even better than this…more raw. been after these recordings for years!
November 19th, 2008
how do i go about getting those early demos, joshua?
November 22nd, 2008
a friend of mine grew up in louisville – he had the actual tape…guess they sold em at shows.
November 23rd, 2008
…i could yousendit to you?
November 23rd, 2008
please do, joshua! my e-mail address is not hard to find.
December 3rd, 2008
Christ, this is my digitized tape. I put it on a forum for Chicago-centric musi-nerds… If some fuckwit pressed up albums that is unfortunate. Giving it away is one thing. Selling what is not yours is something else entirely.
Also, I made up the titles for songs I did not recognize, so “Unknown Song” and “Instralude” are not the real titles.
And the bit about the Elektra advance going “up in smoke” was just my speculation. For all I know, the boys spent it on vaccines for Botswana.
…Um, I don’t have those early demos, though. Maybe send ‘em my way?
December 3rd, 2008
Jurgis –
I’ve gone and made requisite changes to incorporate your comments. I’m pretty sure that forum for Chicago-centric music is where I found this, so I just copied/pasted whatever was written there. Until then I hadn’t heard of it, so who knew…it could have been true.
Joshua — whenever you’re ready, man! Lay it on us!
December 5th, 2008
Hi, couple things:
These sessions with Bob were done -before- the hi-ball album. As i recall, they re-recorded with Murphy simply because they were legally barred from releasing the stuff paid for by the major label.
While I did make up 2 song titles, the rest are correct. You can put those titles back up.
Relieved nobody pressed lps of the tape!
December 6th, 2009
Can I just say this is fucking sweet. I’ve been obsessed with the Evergreen record for years, I had no idea they recorded with Weston or ever had a deal with elektra. Does anyone know if there are still copies of S/T on vinyl floating around?
January 5th, 2011
Noise Pollution re-released all of the old/classic Evergreen material a while ago. This is all of their more aggressive/catchy punk rock material. In Louisville this is treasured.
http://www.louisvillenoise.com/v2/releases/noise33.htm
May 19th, 2011
Thanks for posting. I sang for this band. Track three is called “Beat” and is about the initiation of pain. The track after that is called “Shadow Serpent” and is about our muse, a gnostic demon. If anyone has live audio I would love to know. Thanks.
May 19th, 2011
Sean is that quote James Murphy gave to VICE about you taking bong hits between lines while recording vocals for the s/t album true?