Loading ...Diaper – The Brown Suit
By Evan ~ March 3rd, 2009. Filed under: collector scum.
Okay kids, this one is about as new to you as it is to me. I just discovered this band/album from an online message board that I frequent. Literally the only sliver of information I have about it is that Diaper consists of Todd Rittmann, Pat Samson and Kera Schaley, and The Brown Suit was recorded by Steve Albini. The album was released by Weed Records in 1994. According to Amazon.com, nobody that owns the album has any feeling about it whatsoever, as it hasn’t received a single rating from any Amazon users. I ordered my copy for $1.95, and it is well, well worth it.
The songs on The Brown Suit are very minimal, featuring acoustic guitars, strings and a female voice similar to that of Tara Jane O’Neil during her stint in The Sonora Pine. There’s a male voice on some songs, and the best comparison I could make would be to recall the Silkworm covers EP You Are Dignified. Very understated, monotone stuff. The rhythms are stunted, you could call them “math-y” if you like trying to squeeze music into genres. The distant vocals add an air of eeriness to the music that I haven’t heard and enjoyed this much since Nina Nastasia’s The Blackened Air. Hearing the female (I’m gonna guess it’s Kera) assert “I am beautiful…” during the album’s second track should sound strong and proud, it shouldn’t sound that creepy. And I love it. The noise solo at the end of “Yellow” sounds like some Albert Ayler shit. I guess to lighten the load a bit there’s a track called “J Mascis Is God”. Pretty funny, right? Maybe the members of Diaper do have a sense of humor. I mean, they put an artichoke on their album cover.
Oh yeah, and if ANYONE out there can provide me with more information about Diaper, by all means share it. It’s criminal that an album this cool returns roughly zero results for a Google search for “Diaper” and a song title from the record.
Diaper
The Brown Suit
MediaFire Download Link
Tracklist:
01. Spineless Beast
02. Branket
03. Founders Day
04. Wet Nap
05. Yellow
06. Popular Science
07. Scarf
08. J Mascis Is God
09. Off
March 4th, 2009 at 7:53 am
[...] by one Steve Albini). Head over to Swan Fungus and check out the The Brown Suit by Diaper… here. Plus, check out the The Brown Suit coverart below. It’s an artichoke — artichokes are [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 12:26 am
“J Mascis is God” was a claim made by Spin magazine on one of their covers.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Todd and Pat went on to form U.S. Maple… I think they were both in Mercury Players before Diaper. Kera may have been Albini’s squeeze around the time of “In Utero” – she plays cello on “All Apologies.”
August 25th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
I was just going to mention that Steve Albini did not record this album at all. We went to a really cool farm to record part of this record. In fact I borrowed a cello that I had to rebuild on the spot. Rich Hoogteijlingen – (I thought he americanized it Hotling)-did all the recordings. The vocal tracks I put down later at his studio (Waterhouse). In fact because I really like telling stories, my dearly departed dad drove me there and helped me warm up the vocal chords by busting out all his favorite ABBA tunes. Yes Pat & Todd went on to US Maple but also currently are playing in Chicago with newly formed groups. I live in Athens GA and usually am under the name Martyr & Pistol. Kudos to the person who saw the Spin magazine cover-yes it was comedy- never liked SPIN. Oh crap do they give money to this blog? We are actually all comedians- no seriously-I know the music is a bit grim, but every song has a punch line. It was the first time I tried to sing lead vocals so I made them turn it down very very low because I did not like the sound of my voice. Now I wish they were louder because alas you cannot hear said punch lines. Ha ha!
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:31 pm
[...] about a year ago I posted some music from an incredible band called Diaper. The album, The Brown Suit, was pretty much non-existent as far as Google was concerned when first I heard it. The only [...]