TRUMANS WATER
The Singles 1992-1997
For a brief, bright moment Trumans Water were the toast of the underground, patted on the back by John Peel and the press and, unfortunately, compared to Pavement. Then again, who wasn't compared to Pavement, a quick, meaningless shorthand for lo-fi and weird (with a hook hidden here and there)? Nevermind the fact that both Trumans Water and Pavement both released their debut albums the same year, 1992 -- Pavement had inadvertantly framed how all others in the moment would be defined, even if it most cases the shoe didn't fit the foot at all. Certainly, there were moments where Trumans Water and Pavement may have stumbled into the same spots, but as Kevin Branstetter commented in an interview with Benni on the Luna Kafé e-zine:

Our first albums were a little similar in where we were coming from attitude-wise, kind of silly, not serious or pretentious. But as we said in the beginning and as we've seen come to pass we were really coming from opposite ends of the musical/inspirational spectrum. Pavement was a pop band that had tendencies toward noisy bits while Truman is basically a noise band that inadvertently stumbles across melodic bits.

Certainly, while Pavement are still lauded today, their hooks sunk deep into the skins of some, Trumans Water is all but forgotten above the underground. Left to their own devices in their subterranean lair while Stephen Malkmus still mugs for the cameras, Trumans Water has continued to released good albums, not that anyone seems to have listened to them now that the initial "buzz" has disappated. No Sides' release of Truman Waters' singles gives everyone a chance to reassess their early legacy and maybe even compell some to see what the band are up to now. Compiling all of their 7 inches from 1992 to 1997, the compilation is prime exhibit of the band's astounding power to wiggle, burst in flames and spazz, melodies sometimes even burbling to the surface before a song grinds to a hault in exhaustion.

If anything, the Singles Retrospective 1992-1997 is a mosaic, the colored bits of rock forming a stunning portrait of a band unafraid to follow its impulses, no matter what absurd places it might lead them to. On "Sad Sailor Story", from the 1992 Homestead Records single, "Our Scars Liked Badges", the song begins slow and dramatic before it falls into an epileptic spoken word fit musing over unemployment and listlessness. On the next single, originally released on Drunken Fish (a fine label that seems to have given up the ghost in the past two years), Trumans Water runs the gamut from twittering tape manipulation to ominious, sludgey chord changes concerning dusty mourners to another seizure ("Silver Tongue Please") followed by the medicated, meandering garage psych instrumental "X-Ray Eyes Or". I could continue from there, running down every jewel contained on the 8 singles contained within the compilation. Even after Glenn Galloway was left behind in San Diego, the band moving to Portland, Trumans Water succeeded admirally irregardless of their former limelight all but gone. Their Clawfist single, "Great Flood", released on Footprint Recording Label in 1996, may be even more lo-fi in some ways, but it still swings with the best of their material, be it the spazzy tape hissing rocker, "Underwater", the no-fi drones and drum skitter of "I Drive A UFO" wandering into the Dead C's sonic constructions or the musique concrete of "Windstorm" glued together from barely tuned in radio stations.

To these ears, Trumans Water can never grow stale as long as they always continue to unflinchingly lose themselves in their music. While other bands might have sold their souls to grab that Brass Ring, their faces still found on the covers of magazines long after they have ever produced anything good, Trumans Water has remained true to only itself, vomiting forth only the sounds the band wants to hear as opposed to what might move the most units according to Soundscan. I can't praise No Sides' Singles Retrospective 1992-1997 enough. Not only has it brought together a full course meal that completely satisfies me, but it has also helped to remind me what a great band Trumans Water were and still are.

Jack Cole - Argumentum Ad Populum, 05/19/2003