Wild Seeds are a

roots-rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in contemporary folk music, folk, blues, and country music. First emerging in the late 1960s, it is seen as a response to the perceived excesses of the then dominant psychedel ...

band from

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

formed in 1984. Michael Hall, the band's lead vocalist and guitarist, was inspired to found the band by successful

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

bands of the time, including

the Fleshtones The Fleshtones are an American garage rock band from Queens, New York. They are the only band that debuted at CBGB in 1976 that has not had an inactive year. History 1976–1979 The Fleshtones were formed in 1976 in Whitestone, New York, ...

and

Dream Syndicate The Dream Syndicate is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active from 1981 to 1989, and reunited since 2012. The band is associated with neo-psychedelia and the Paisley Underground music movement; of the b ...

. The band broke up in 1989, but occasionally play together. They have been identified as one of multiple New Sincerity bands active during the 1980s, along with the Dharma Bums, True Believers, and

Zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' (; ; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F ...

Critical reception

David Menconi wrote in '' No Depression'' that the Wild Seeds were "one of the coolest bands to call Austin home during the mid-'80s." He also described their 2001 compilation album, ''I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long: 1984-1989'', as "about the most fun you can have this side of an enchilada dinner with a case of Big Red".

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

wrote that on their first release, the 1984 EP ''Life is Grand'', the Wild Seeds "show off a drummer supple enough to power their rock and roll eclecticism and a taste for serious fun wide-ranging and complicated enough to give them identity problems, which could clear up with one strong live show (like at the Pep Friday)." Christgau later awarded a B grade to the band's 1988 album '' Mud, Lies & Shame'', writing that "the first three cuts are everything one could have hoped, especially the self-explanatory "I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long," a true classic as these things are measured." A review of the band's 1986 album ''Brave, Clean + Reverent'' in ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' described it as a "crisp album of straight-ahead roof-raisers." Tom Popson wrote that on ''Brave, Clean + Reverent'', "Hall exhibits a knack for creating interesting, concrete images that listeners can see clearly in the mind`s eye, while leaving enough ambiguity between those images to render contexts and relationships open to individual interpretation."

Discography

*''Life Is Grand (Life in Soul City)'' (Aznut EP, 1984) *''Brave, Clean + Reverent'' (

Jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

, 1986) *'' Mud, Lies & Shame'' (

Passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

, 1988) *''I'm Sorry, I Can't Rock You All Night Long: 1984-1989'' (Aznut compilation, 2001)

References

{{Reflist Musical groups from Austin, Texas Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1989 Rock music groups from Texas