1993, when I was seven years old, Thomas Dietze (vocals & guitar)l, Mike Hynes (bass) and Joe Schneider (drums) decided to be in a band together. Just as I had left mine, they created their Kindergarten. For the 25th anniversary of the debut album, Honey Puller Records puts out a re-issue which will be my 1st issue, since I never heard it before. The band, like other curiosities such as Polaris, was a nearly mythical phenomenon that bewitched only the coolest of cool people for a single album and a few summers to then disappear*.
The re-issue will release on February 21st, just in time to get your Valentine a beautifully shoddy grunge album with an old man in a horrible blazer on the cover. So, what do we know about the band? They are band number five (5) named Kindergarten on Discogs. They are impossible to google (there you are again, my music blog-nemesis, the awful-to-research-bandname!). Other than that: Thomas Dietzel might still be making music but I am kinda sure all the Myke Hynes’ and Joe Schneiders I found online are not the original band members.
So, what about “Iphigenia”? Apart from having the name that the first cat had that ever lived in my home, it’s a pretty great album. It’s loud, noisy even, with the kind of clanky, angry drums that mark the early and mid 90s. Thomas Dietzel sounds just a little like Kurt Cobain but not enough to make it annoying. There’s enough of atonal scream-singing (now and then even some female backing vocals) coupled with a beautiful punk rock guitar, the bass the only thing that doesn’t run away but rather turns around to grab your hand and tag you along this ride. It’s hella fun. It’s super loud, it sounds like a sticky floor in a dingy club and it has just the right amount of chaos. It’s also the kind of grunge album that you really love if you love grunge but also really don’t if you don’t.
*Polaris, unbeknownst to me, when I wrote this, recently announced a US-tour in combination with some “Adventures of Pete & Pete”-nostalgia, so if you are from the US, I envy you so much that I want to punch a hole in the wall.
I lost my panties in the moshpit! 