Mint Humbucker

Mercury Rev's classic debut single Car Wash Hair, unavailable since 1993, is featured on a Mint label sampler 'family album', 'MINT HUMBUCKER', together with tracks from Dean Wareham and other artists - most of whom have some Mercury Rev involvement. "Mint - the label that plays together."

The Mint label, an imprint of Jungle a&r'd by Graham Combi, developed into a loose family of linked artists leading from the first two signings, Mercury Rev and Mutton Gun. Mutton Gun, whose David Boyd went on to run the successful Hut Records at Virgin, featured Dean Wareham on their album as well as various Chills. David introduced Dean to Mint, resulting in the solo single Anesthesia in-between his Galaxie 500 and Luna projects.

Coincidentally, Dean guested on Mercury Rev's Car Wash Hair, and Rev's Jimmy Chambers in turn played drums on Dean's single. The circle was later completed when Rev members guested on Mutton Gun's third album. Mercury Rev fans will be particularly delighted to find Car Wash Hair available again. Still a highlight of their live set, when released in '91 it was acclaimed by the press as one of the best singles of the year, but was deleted in '93. Chasing A Bee from 'Yerself Is Steam' also features.

Meanwhile, Rev's Jonathan Donohue had been staying in Oklahoma after being a member of The Flaming Lips. There he came across Radial Spangle, recommended them to Mint, and played on their album, which was produced by Rev's Dave Fridmann. Later, Jonathon came across ex-Agit Pop Cellophane from Poughkeepsie, helping out on their album too.

Then along came Mint's new signing, Ubik, who come from another planet. Having spent three formative years in Spaceman 3, Sterling Roswell remains strongly committed to inter-galactic travel, albeit within the vehicle of his well-honed song-writing skills. An Ubik album is expected shortly.

MINT HUMBUCKER is presented with a 12-page booklet with a discography, musician credits and a history of the label written by Q journalist Martin Aston, and will be available at a mid-budget price.

TRACK-LIST: Mercury Rev - Car Wash Hair; Ubik - Venus Honey Dew; Cellophane - Clean; Mutton Gun - D.Q.; Radial Spangle - Birthday; Dean Wareham - Anesthesia; Dean Wareham - Tomato Poodle; Radial Spangle - Dragonfly; Mercury Rev - Chasing A Bee; Mutton Gun - Ol' One Eye; Ubik - Ubik Freq; Mutton Gun - Soundtracks.

'MINT HUMBUCKER' SLEEVENOTES by MARTIN ASTON

The whole Mint label affair was set into motion by a band named Coal, that over the course of time, spun out a succession of diamonds.

Looking back, it's clear that there was no masterplan or manifesto, as seems to be the way these days, just a happy accident. Yet Mint, with its rush of ragged rock, psychedelic imbalance and just plain idiosyncratic inspiration, anticipated the American rock renaissance propagated by the likes of Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips and Grandaddy. In line with its unintentional intent, there was no attempt to blow its own trumpet: Mint's was always a modest agenda, promoted through word of mouth and critical salivation. It was, in a gee-shucks manner, completely about music, and nothing to do with trends, fads or any second-guessing. Mint wasn't a place to source big names, more a place to make reputations. Typically, in its 11th year (and not its 10th), and with new releases to come after a period of inactivity, it's time to celebrate an anniversary. Hence Humbucker.

As for reputations, by the start of the 90s, Mint's parent company Jungle has carved one from other avenues altogether. A maverick at the best of times, and unfashionable as only the most independent of labels could be, Jungle not only championed punk and metal's legends of yesteryear - the likes of Iggy & The Stooges, Johnny Thunders and Wilko Johnson - and the gothic champs - Fields Of The Nephilim and Play Dead's debut recordings are on its catalogue - but also wild, left-field visions, from Christian Death to Test Department. The Fallout label subsidiary, meanwhile, profiled The Adicts and UK Subs. A very broad church, then, but demo tapes arriving from America, bearing the name Coal, and the popularity of bands such as Big Black and Butthole Surfers, suggested a more guitar-rock-shaped future...

And then label founders Alan Hauser and Graham Combi chanced upon a tape from another unknown source, this lot calling themselves Mutton Gun. A male/female, New Zealand/Irish (though all living in London) rock/industrial make-up was matched by the musical eclecticism, bordering on schizophrenia - giddily psychedelic, stormed by zappy samples and all-round irreverence (this was the dawn of the shoegazing era, when fringes flopped down on stupidly solemn faces). It was a different buzz, so the pair launched a new label imprint, Mint Sauce, named in tribute to the Gun's sheeply disposition. Mutton Gun's debut album, Amplexus, was released in 1990, praised in numerous quarters, but given that the band had never played live (and, never did), didn't take advantage of the interest. The disquieting instrumental Soundtrack is taken from that debut, while D.Q and Ol' One Eye are taken from the follow-up Into The Hogger.

Tapes from Coal, whose startling form was clear from the off, suddenly coalesced into an album. With Mint providing the perfect home, the album was delivered, and with it, a new band name - Mercury Rev. Over the course of the next decade, the band, spearheaded by guitarist/vocalist (and ex-Flaming Lip) Jonathan Donahue, would deservedly add commercial success to critical recognition, but back then, it was just rabid journalists who got it - some of whom reckoned the debut album, Yerself Is Steam, was the best album of 1991. In the era of Ride, Curve and all the shoegazers, the likes of album opener Chasing A Bee amply pissed all over their shoes, with its manic delirium (live especially, things would hang on the lip of chaos), nuggety tunes and unpredictable innovation. Nobody else then was weaving in flutes, and other instrumental embellishments, or restoring the spirit of psychedelia. With stun guitars. They were incredible. And with it being 10 years since the release of Yerself Is Steam, Mint has its traditional anniversary...

Again, indicative of the spontaneity of the enterprise, Jungle decided to give Mercury Rev their own imprint - hence Mint Films - which worked against building a label profile, but what the heck, eh? Enlivened with the experience, Jungle set about expanding the experiment. One contact led to another, until there was a sense of family or community about the adventure. Dean Wareham, who had recently split up Galaxie 500, and a friend of Mutton Gun (he played on Amplexus), was between label deals and looking to release something low-key - which became the Anaethesia 7" single on Mint Tea, with a UK-only extra instrumental cut, Tomato Poodle.

With Rev drummer Jimmy Chambers playing drums on Anaethesia, Wareham returned the favour, adding guitar to Mercury Rev's brand new single Car Wash Hair (long out of print until this compilation), which, outrageously, surpassed anything on Yerself Is Steam. At this point, Rev took off, hemmed in by fanatical label interest, tour support and the like, and Beggar's Banquet signed them. At the same time, Rev's compadres Radial Spangle were Mint's next signing. Donahue had discovered Spangle playing in a bar in their local Oklahoma quarter - the quartet fitted comfortably onto the Rev/Pavement axis, and were truly a very underrated pleasure. Birthday is taken from the Oklahoma quartet's first album, 1993's Ice Cream Headache, which Donahue guests on, while Dragonfly comes from the 1994 follow-up Syrup Macrame, both on Mint Industries, and both produced by Rev bassist Dave Fridmann, who subsequently developed a distinctive studio career, producing, among others, Rev (including their breakthrough album Deserter's Songs), Flaming Lips and Mogwai.

Next up was Cellophane. The band had another Mercury Rev connection: Donahue and Rev flautist Suzanne Thorpe appeared on the band's debut album Hang-Ups (on Amplified Mint). Like Rev, Cellophane originated from upstate New York - in this case, Poughkeepsie, the murder capital of the state - and going by Humbucker cut Clean, they played as if their lives depended on it. It was to be the only Cellophane album, though vocalist/guitarist John DeVries later played bass for Mercury Rev on a UK tour (and for ex-Rev vocalist Dave Baker's Shady project).

Mint only sought to work with those that matched the imprint, so things quietened down. Dean Wareham formed Luna - with, among others, ex-Chills bassist and Mutton Gun founder Justin Harwood - and signed to Elektra. Mutton Gun recorded a third album for Kramer's Kokopop label (which Dave Baker and Rev guitarist Grasshopper guested on) and subsequently scattered themselves about the hemispheres... theirs is perhaps an unfinished saga, who can tell? Radial Spangle broke up, with no news of any impending musical activity since. But the Mint imprint is still very much alive, as their first new signing in three years proves. There's no 'family' connection, but definitely a spiritual one; Mercury Rev were not only kindred spirits with, and friends of, Spiritualized, formed by Jason Pierce (of Spacemen 3 fame), they supported them too, which is a roundabout way of introducing Ubik, the new project from ex-Spaceman Sterling 'Rosco' Roswell.

Possibly the spaciest of the Spacemen, Roswell overcame the break-up of his last band, Darkside, and is now concentrating hard on Ubik, which he describes as "Space Age Pop". Ubik's debut single was the Ubiq Freqz EP, represented here by it's full-on original version. Venus Honey Dew, meanwhile, is from Ubik's forthcoming album due in 2001, and promises more trippy, innovative, space-age stuff. Very Mint, in other words. The Mint taste lingers, and, the true test being passed with flying colours, the music on Humbucker, sounds as fresh as it did then.