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Neil Gust and Elliott Smith arrived in Portland, OR together in the summer of 1991 to start a new band with drummer/producer Tony Lash. Within a year of adding bassist Brandt Peterson on bass, they were playing across the West Coast and demoing dozens of songs for their first LP. Six of these tracks were self-released on the cassette titled “The Music of Heatmiser” which was sold at shows, local record shops, and handed out to record labels.
The sound of the band changed a lot over 3 LP’s, but this is Heatmiser right out of the gate. New, energetic, excited, moving quickly through styles, totally broke and making it work in whatever way possible. It’s guitar rock, full-blast, through 100 watt Marshall half stacks, when grunge was ascendant in the Pacific Northwest and the Portland scene was exploding. Fast, tight, loud, fun.
On October 6, Third Man Records will release this original set of 6 songs on vinyl and streaming for the first time, along with 23 demos, live tracks, rare versions and never before released songs.