''The Serpentine Similar'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band Gastr del Sol, released on June 1, 1993, by TeenBeat Records. The album was re-released by Drag City on June 16, 1997.

Background

Guitarist

David Grubbs David Grubbs (born September 21, 1967) is an American composer, guitarist, pianist, and vocalist. He was a founding member of Squirrel Bait, Bastro, and Gastr del Sol. He has also played in Codeine (band), Codeine, The Red Krayola, Bitch Magnet a ...

and drummer John McEntire had played together in the

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...

band

Bastro Bastro was an American post-hardcore band which was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's main line-up consisted of David Grubbs on guitar, Clark Johnson on bass guitar, and John McEntire on drums. The band also experimented wit ...

with bassist Clark Johnson. When Johnson left Bastro in 1991 to attend law school, Bundy K. Brown joined and the group began writing new material, later documented as the

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

live album ''Antlers: Live 1991''. These songs were then reworked as quieter, acoustic versions for ''The Serpentine Similar'' as Bastro became Gastr del Sol.

Critical reception

In 2007, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' concluded that "art rock doesn't get much brighter or more accessible."

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from ''The Serpentine Similar'' liner notes. ;Gastr del Sol * Bundy K. Brown – instruments *

– instruments ;Additional musicians * John McEntire – additional percussion ;Production and additional personnel * Michael O'Bannon –

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product, such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game ( box art), music album ( album ar ...

* Brian Paulson – production,

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Serpentine Similar, The 1993 debut albums Gastr del Sol albums Albums produced by Brian Paulson Drag City (record label) albums TeenBeat Records albums