HIDDEN TRACKS: Browsing the Bins for the Masterpieces You Missed - Episode 1

By Ross Greenawalt, kotv.com Poorly organized bargain bins. Dusty shelves filled with used CDs. Piles of half-melted, unboxed cassette tapes. Musty cardboard garage sale boxes filled

Monday, November 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

By Ross Greenawalt, kotv.com

Poorly organized bargain bins. Dusty shelves filled with used CDs. Piles of half-melted, unboxed cassette tapes. Musty cardboard garage sale boxes filled with lightly scratched LPs. These are places I love. Places where I've found some of the best music I've ever heard. As a lifelong record geek and (admittedly self-proclaimed) music encyclopedia, I feel it's my duty to share some of those finds with the general public. Incredible artists no one remembers, surprising releases from unlikely stars, lost classics, unique stuff, weird stuff, you name it -- nothing is off limits except the beaten path. So if you're a member of the aforementioned general public, and you're still reading, enjoy.

For Squirrels: EXAMPLE (Sony/550, 1995)

"Promising" doesn't even touch the surface. "Brilliant" comes close. "Heartbreaking" just about covers it. On September 8, 1995, For Squirrels was a band poised for success: a pair of indie releases had earned a contract with Sony, and the band's major-label debut "Example" was set to be released in just a few weeks. But along I-95 in Georgia, while the band drove home to Florida from a gig in New York, For Squirrels' career arc came to an abrupt and horrifying halt. The band's van blew a tire and overturned, killing singer Jack Vigliatura, bassist Bill White, and manager Tim Bender. Drummer Jack Griego and guitarist Travis Tooke were injured but survived. The pair allowed Sony to release the album on time to pay tribute to their fallen comrades, and maybe to achieve what they had all been working toward.

And what a tribute "Example" turned out to be. Positive reviews and college airplay helped sell over 100,000 copies. Tooke and Griego hooked up with longtime friend Andy Lord, touring briefly as For Squirrels, but soon found it too difficult to keep using that name with a different lineup. Dubbing themselves Subrosa, they released "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" for Sony in 1997 (with another album in the works as of Fall 2000).

The ten tracks on "Example" are so individual and so unique that they could have been culled from ten different albums released by ten different bands. "Under Smithville" is pure college-rock, hopeful but angst-ridden, not to mention completely infectious; "Orangeworker" lands somewhere between classic REM and current Old 97's; "Long Live the King" is King Crimson meets King Diamond. The music and even the vocal styles morph with each track, yet despite the wide variety of textures, "Example" holds together surprisingly well.

Vigliatura's lyrics seem pretty gloomy now - there's a fair amount of loss here, with death sometimes more than a metaphor - but for every chill there's an equal and opposite thrill. The haunting single "Mighty K.C." sums it up best: the main verse is a wrenching minor-key breakdown - lines like "please don't break me" and "take me off to the morgue / I'm ready to be buried" sound downright creepy in hindsight; but the chorus turns positive, optimistic despite the imagery: "by the grace of God go I / into the great unknown / things are gonna change in our favor." Yet even with that upturn, the track eventually goes back where it started. That circularity, that uncertainty, those contradictions make every listen more intriguing than the last.

"Example" is a stunning portrait of a talented young band, cut down on the brink of success: a compelling, sophisticated, constantly interesting release. Few bands ever get this good - even fewer start out here. Hit the bins and find a copy of this now.

When he's not listening to or writing music, writing book reviews, editing his comedy newsletter or defending the state of Ohio where he and Drew Carey hail from... Ross Greenawalt actually works as the senior producer/director at KOTV Channel 6 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.