Idaho music Message board

RE: Your First Idaho | from ChrisJun 04 2001 - 09:11

I read a review of Year after Year in a CMJ article, and they compared IDAHO to the also recently formed Red House Painters (this was when the rollercoaster and bridge LPs had just come out)-having loved RHP, I quickly discovered that IDAHO would also never leave my carousel. I missed the ID/RHP tour, but saw Jeff play at Brownies in NYC in '94 supporting This Way Out. Then came the tour in '96 for Three sheets...saw them at least 7 times that year on both coasts-accidently on vacation in San Francisco-they were playing at Bottom of the Hill, with Low-met Jeff for the first time; he has remebered me ever since and always says hello at shows...have seen every show in the Northeast since then-I think I've seen Idaho at least 15 times: each show is a simple gift of delight and beauty, and I of course eagerly await the new album. Thanks Jeff.

RE: Your First Idaho | from RossMay 31 2001 - 08:38

It all started with the 'Fuel' video. I was just watching videos, and I guess they were playing with the Swans in Toronto. I remember at the most of the music coming out at the time seemed to be always heavier and louder. And 'Fuel' is probably one of the heavier songs –or maybe denser would be more accurate way of defining it. Anyway, there was something strangely wide open about it –and that fucking bridge! Sweet baby Jesus. Out of nowhere the song is held suspended in mid-air for however many bars, in the sweetest slow-motion soundscape ever.

I went to the record store, and after seeing the cover art, I was convinced there was something very special about it, and bought it. I've been there ever since.

RE: Your First Idaho | from LPMay 30 2001 - 13:24

I heard the IDAHO name along with LOW and CODEINE on a suggested music list, so I ran out and bought Year after Year, The Curtain hits the Cast and White birch, respectively. Needless to say, my faith in the Music Gods grew tenfold that day. I remember popping in Year after Year last, hearing Skyscrape, and realizing that this was, without a doubt, the best song I had ever heard. Long Live L'Idaho.

RE: Your First Idaho | from KCMay 30 2001 - 13:19

RE: Your First Idaho | from GrantMay 30 2001 - 12:57

I picked up the 'Palms'e.p. way back when after it got single of the week in either Melody Maker or NME.

RE: Your First Idaho | from markMay 29 2001 - 13:55

My first idaho encounter happened
in around early `95 when i saw
this way out in a music store.I did`nt buy it!,I was buying stuff
like Giant Sand,Volcano Suns,and
throwing muses and just discovered
GBV.It was`nt until another year later when I heard `fuel` on the radio then another year later in 97
when I saw this way out again and bought it and loved it.

RE: Your First Idaho | from jamesOct 16 2000 - 22:28

Portland or Alaska? I hate that elitist Indie American mentality that dictates that a band is only good if they're from someplace "cool".....

RE: Your First Idaho | from DaveOct 15 2000 - 07:53

I first heard Idaho in a CMJ sampler - Pomegranite Bleeding was the tune.
Others have mentioned that the band seems to play the "soundtrack to their life".
I feel the same way. I listen to a lot of music and like a lot of different bands - but I can't think of anyone else who
so directly taps into my mood or makes me drop whatever I"m doing just to listen and "feel" at that moment.
What I wan't to know is how did a band like this come out of L.A.? Shouldn't this music be coming from somewhere
like Portland or Alaska? :)
Looking forward to seeing the band in Philly.

RE: Your First Idaho | from MikOct 14 2000 - 08:08

There I was a day or two ago reading a capsule review on My Yahoo with my mind stuck in Bonners Ferry looking at a sign for Moscow and still wondering how you can get from there to Los Angeles.

Even tougher to get to Bonner's Ferry from Taipei, Taiwan where I am now but being a Kootenay B.C. boy I remember it fairly well. Fortunately E-music.com had Alas as a download or I never would have had the patience to start the trip.

Looking forward to it now, though.

Good stuff.

RE: Your First Idaho | from RicardoOct 06 2000 - 12:43

First Idaho? This Way Out. I was at an Urban Outfitters (yech!) in Manhattan in '93 and they were playing pretty good music on their audio system. All of a sudden, "Fuel" came on... and I was hooked for life.

Every band I like this much seems to break up (Bedhead, Chameleons, to name a couple). May Idaho continue going for a long, long time.

RE: Your First Idaho | from Chris FentonOct 03 2000 - 13:54

I first read a review of Year After Year in CMJ Magazine. It compared Idaho to RHP- and being an enormous fan of the painters, I just went and bought YAY. Thank God I did that. I have of course bought everything since, and have seen Idaho play live over ten times. A friend and I actually spent a few weeks in '96 going to most of the shows in the northeast. This was the tour to support Three Sheets... and we hung out with Jeff several times-he was very kind and of course fascinatingly interesting. We first met him at a show in San Fran, then happened to stumble into a Borders bookstore in Santa Monica 3 days later- guees who was doing an instore? Low were great, too.. I think Jeff thought we were a little scary showing up on both coasts...but the California thing was accidental. Can't wait for the upcoming NY shows...

RE: Your First Idaho | from Andrew RawlinsonSep 30 2000 - 03:40

I guess ive been into Idaho from the start thanks to a good review in the Melody Maker.I bought the record which was Year after Year and i thought it was a nice record.I was into Nirvana at the time and when that all went horribly wrong i think i needed something different.Idaho along with Palace and Smog gave me that and my tastes in music has broadened greatly thanks to these and other bands.I bought The Palms EP when i was in Seattle in '94 which was a hard record to find in the UK.I like listening to the band on headphones.Idaho are a great band to let inside your head.

RE: Your First Idaho | from john paulSep 19 2000 - 16:34

My opinion of Low was not always bad, and I have heard alot of recorded material. I basically changed my opinion of them based on their live performance.......sorry. But please keep in mind Brad that it was only an opinion and as long as long as they mean alot to you I'm sure that their musical purpose has been served.

RE: Your First Idaho | from BradSep 19 2000 - 09:42

Gotta stand up for Low (who most certainly don't 'suck shit'...or anything else for that matter.) You should really give them another chance, john paul.

They mean nearly as much to me as Idaho (sometimes moreso). Brilliant brilliant music. I wouldn't base your opinion on one live show...check out the
wonderful "I Could Live in Hope", or their most recent "Secret Name".

They're just a really great band, and I hate to see them slammed so viciously. Had to speak up...

Brad

RE: Your First Idaho | from john paulSep 15 2000 - 18:52

I first heard idaho on a college radio station.I also was searching for music that had more meaning and that could make me feel something real.And finally one day just as I was just about to turn off the radio(tired of the boring shit they usually churn out),"Gone" started to play.I had never heard music so beautful and yet so miserable sounding.

After that day I never felt like I had found the music of my life, or as someone simply put it, the soundtrack to my life. But my sountrack had many volumes because everytime I found another album it was just as amazing from beginning to end as the last album.

I've been to a couple of shows, one at a record store in Santa Monica,CA. and another when they played with Low, which in my opionion should change their name to Slow, I don't know why they would give a record deal to a band like that, I MEAN THEY REALLY SUCK SHIT!!!!!...........sorry. Anyways back to the show. I went with my sister and her boyfriend,I was right in front of the stage and they were on the balcony. Before the show I was talking to my sister about the fact that I really wanted to hear "the worm" and how I hoped they would play it. Well about three songs into the show my sisters boyfriend stands up and yells,"play the worm"
(after about seven beers that is).
Then Jeff says in kind of a hushed
voice " I didn't know we were taking requests", but played it anyways, Thank you Jeff.

RE: Your First Idaho | from andySep 15 2000 - 16:50

my band opened up for them on dec 13 1993. tucson,az. yes, that show that was recorded and known as "people like us should be stopped".

the captured recording is exactly what was there. jeff said "drag" a few more times.

RE: Your First Idaho | from Beth JonesSep 12 2000 - 19:00

For me it was good to hear cos it sounded so soniccal and robust. The music never stops playing all the time in my head and wehenever I'm listenting it's good.

Keep going with the playing!

RE: Your First Idaho | from Jim NicholsSep 12 2000 - 17:30

For me, it was "Pomegranite Bleeding" on a CMJ from '95-96? Three Sheets is a masterwork, no other band reaches me the way these guys do. It's like the soundtrack to my life.

RE: Your First Idaho | from DamianSep 12 2000 - 05:18

my first Idaho song was creep...
only i didn't know at the time,
because the radio station never
said...later i saw Fuel on TV and
found that to be quite transcendent...
i bought this way out,and eventually grew to love it and i'm sooo grateful.

RE: Your First Idaho | from adamSep 10 2000 - 15:33

First Idaho was This Way Out. I had
to have it after catching their
live performance in Detroit with
the Swans (I think they were
touring for TWO at the time) at
Industry. It's kind of funny, in
retrospect, because I wasn't even
going to go (not a real big Swans
fan), but made a last minute
decision. Glad I did, because that
watching this unknown band play
music I had only dreamed could
exist changed my life. It took me like, 6 months to find the record, but I was hooked.

RE: Your First Idaho | from alan kyleSep 09 2000 - 07:05

My first encounter with the wonderful Idaho is not unlike some of the above...another sampler cd this time not a Caroline one, but a Virgin one called "Signed, sealed, delivered" back in '94. I think I bought it for the American Music Club track, "Challenger" which turned out to be the weakest track on their lp!! But when I reached "God's green earth" after sifting through all the usual dross, I was instantly hooked and played it on an a loop for weeks until I got to Glasgow and picked up "Year after Year" at an independant store and fell in love with the band. Actually '94 was a crap year for me, I developed Crohn's disease which eventually led me losing my journalist's job, but I remember that cd helped me bask in its melancholic haze yet I found it strangely uplifting as if Jeff had tapped into my pain somehow....don't want to depress you all but I've been a devotee ever since, picking up a couple of elusive EPs on seperate trips to the States to complete my collection of Idaho gems. Can't wait for the new record, does it contain "evolution is cold" then?

RE: Your First Idaho | from Jason EisertSep 07 2000 - 00:47

I was one of those teens who always wanted hear melancholic-type bands, but had no exposure to it...any underground scene in Anchorage, AK was either punk or metal. So finally in the Spring of'99, my friend with whom I worked with at a coffee shop introduced me to Alas. I have been ADDICTED to Idaho ever since...I own everything ever released by them (to my knowledge) except for the "Fuel" 7" and/or cd, and "Drive It" 7" and/or cd. If anyone knows where to get these or has an extra copy for sale, PLEASE e-mail me...I'm fiending!! For all you completists, there is a comp which Idaho is on called Popnews volume 1. You can order it from Pennysaver.com (I think that's the address.

RE: Your First Idaho | from RalphSep 06 2000 - 20:40

I first heard The Idahos when I was held hostage in Afghanistan in 1997. The rebels played Three Sheets to the Wind over and over and over, and I thought it was the best goddamn thing I'd ever heard. Then they made me eat rats and it wasn't so bad accompanied by TSTTW.

Upon release, my captors gave me the disk as a souvenir. It was nice.

1st Idaho | from JPSep 06 2000 - 13:00

I got a CMJ issue in 92or93 for a
cross country trip and it had
Skyscrape on it. I never heard
anything like it before and have
been hooked til this day on Jeffs
music. I got Year after Year right away, which is great, but I think each record afterwards got better and better. My favorites are 3 sheets and the Forbidden EP.
I can t wait for Hearts of Palm

RE: Your First Idaho | from COLINSep 06 2000 - 10:32

I first heard IDAHO through my friend John who wrote above. He played me Three Sheets To The wind and I was hooked. I owe him a great debt for showing me the way to IDAHO. JOHN EMAIL ME YOU BASTARD!

RE: Your First Idaho | from AustinSep 05 2000 - 14:10

I bought This Way Out after reading an article in Ray Gun (I was like 24 at the time!!) about slow core bands. I also got into Low and Codeine from the same article, but they never meant as much to me as Idaho. Did you ever notice that, invariably, the first album you get from a band is always your favorite no matter how good their other stuff is. I love every Idaho release, but they will never be as meaningful as T.W.O.

RE: Your First Idaho | from john LamacchiaSep 03 2000 - 10:53

I play for a band called Candiria. We were on tour, In Maine at the time. The club gave us a lounge to hang out in with a radio / tape player. I noticed a bunch of tapes, most of it was crap but one was Nirvana's Nevermind. I through it in and to my pleasent surprise it wasnt Nirvana. It was Idaho's Year after Year. I didnt know it was Year after Year so I went out and bought everything with the Idaho logo on it. Thats my story and I'm stickin to it!

RE: Your First Idaho | from ChicoSep 01 2000 - 08:09

I was in a crack den when someone put some idaho on the cd player. It was great. Then someone stole the cd player and it wasn't great anymore.

Idaho is the best. They are better than Jesus.

RE: Your First Idaho | from GregAug 31 2000 - 09:16

A friend brought Three Sheets up to my cabin in the woods in January. The mood of the album perfectly complemented the cold stillness and isolation of our surroundings, and I was hooked right away. My wife had to beg me to stop playing it over and over.

RE: Your First Idaho | from Seth HowardAug 30 2000 - 18:57

Yeah. My roommate had that same Caroline sampler. That did it for me too.

RE: Your First Idaho | from brianAug 29 2000 - 23:14

i too discovered Idaho from a compilation
i found in a bargin bin at a used shop in 1994 for $2 or $3.
it was the STUCK ON CAROLINE '93 SAMPLER
and as soon as i heard SKYSCRAPE i was
hooked and YOU ARE THERE blew me away.
a few months later at another used shop
i found YEAR AFTER YEAR and would listen to
it every night for months at a time.
it's still my favorite album.

next.

Fisher-Price: Your First Idaho | from DaveAug 29 2000 - 20:07

I was just curious, how did you all
get started on Idaho? I ordered
the Shanti Compilation for the 4
new Red House Painter tracks. I
enjoyed them, but the two Idaho
songs blew the RHP ones out of the
water. It all started from there.
How about the rest of you?