Third Man Records celebrates ’90s Minneapolis shoegaze on new compilation
December 02, 2022
Jack White’s Third Man Records has played a crucial role in the vinyl revival of the past 20 years. Along the way, the Detroit/Nashville-based (and now London-based, too) record label has highlighted influential, but lesser-known, bands and music scenes that never quite got their due back in the day.
Detroit’s adventurous space-rock scene of the ’90s got its due on Third Man’s 2020 compilation, Southeast of Saturn. Out this week, a new follow-up collection, Southeast of Saturn Vol. 2, focuses on Midwestern shoegaze and dream pop bands of the ’90s.
This compilation rightfully includes five groups from the burgeoning shoegaze music scene in Minneapolis: Colfax Abbey, 27 Various, Shapeshifter, Fauna, and Ousia. Even without stars dedicated to them on First Avenue’s legendary black walls, these bands made a spectacular racket back in their day that ignited the Twin Cities indie scene while also inspiring future waves.
Both volumes of Southeast of Saturn were curated and compiled by Rich Hansen. While researching Midwest shoegaze bands, Hansen came across a compilation called RedEyed: Minneapolis Shoegaze and Dreampop 1992-1998 that Twin Cities music dignitary Chris Strouth put together in 2006. Hansen had reached out to Ousia, a band signed to Strouth’s UltraModern label, and then they got in touch with him. Strouth also ran Prospective Records for John Kass, and put out records by Shapeshifter, Colfax Abbey, and Fauna.
“That comp was called RedEyed, in reference to the [south Minneapolis-based] Red Eye Theater,” Strouth says. “Before I was at Twin/Tone [Records], I was the theater’s music director. I got super into shoegaze there, and we broke a lot of bands. Low did their first big Minneapolis show there before their first album came out. Ed Ackerson did his first post-27 Various show there, Fauna did their album release there, and Colfax and Shapeshifter and a zillion other bands perfected their craft in that space. At Red Eye we had a wide stage and three giant rear-screen video projectors that gave it an extra psychedelic haze. There was a big appreciation for bands like Pink Floyd, but it was the root, not the flower.”
The shoegaze/dream pop scene in the Twin Cities in the early ’90s was a tight knit group of like-minded musicians who pushed each other both creatively and sonically.
“We all got pretty close because our scene was so small, and we really tried to support each other,” says Shapeshifter’s bassist Timothy Sean Ritter, who now plays in Muun Bato. “It was fun because we were so different-sounding and didn’t really care what people thought of us. We just wanted to be passionate and most of all really loud. The experience gave me a lot of confidence to be creative and uncompromising in what I continue to do.”
While most of the mid-’90s U.S. regional music scenes were trying to become the next Seattle, a small subset of Minneapolis bands drew inspiration from the cacophonous sounds of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Pale Saints, Slowdive, Spacemen 3, and Lush making waves in the emerging U.K. shoegaze scene. “No one wore plaid, it was all about stripes,” says Strouth. “It had a definite mod undertone. The music itself strived to be more than just an appreciation for British bands, the sound was bigger, all encompassing, with a heavy influence on visuals.”
The closest this crop of bands got to grunge inspiration was appreciating the heavy sounds coming from bands on the local Amphetamine Reptile Records roster.
“I think the Amphetamine Reptile bands were our answer to the noise/grunge scene here,” Ritter explains. “Bands like Babes in Toyland and The Cows were just as influential to me at the time as Pale Saints or Ride. We were – and are – always pushing boundaries. It was a strange time to be in a band that was so intentionally trying to be sexy and loud, when most bands were loud and screechy. I feel like that was the ultimate goal we were all trying to achieve at the time. MBV set the template for that vibe and we were all following that, but also inventing our own unique sounds.”
A major force in the local shoegaze scene was Ed Ackerson, leader of 27 Various and a skilled producer who helped many of these bands shape their sound. Ackerson died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, but his sonic fingerprints are all over the Minneapolis contributions to Southeast of Saturn.
“Ed and I were friends, and I loved his music from mod into shoegaze,” Strouth says. “The only real input I had on Southeast of Saturn was my insentience that the Various be on it. Ed was first through the door, and his are the shoulders we all stood upon. Tommy (Zachary Vex from Fauna) was his engineer, and together they developed this very technical sound, and you can hear the influence on Fauna. Tommy made it his own, but Ed’s shadow is in it. Ed also produced and recorded early Shapeshifter and Colfax as well.”
The music on Southeast of Saturn Vol. 2 still bristles with a vitality and urgency that more than justifies an entire compilation. And the Twin Cities bands included on the album deserve to be discovered by a new generation of music fans, while reevaluated and appreciated by longtime local scene veterans who were there back in the day. These groups loudly and defiantly made their mark on the sonic landscape of Minnesota, and their musical influence continues to be felt and heard today.
Southeast Of Saturn Vol. 2 record release events:
5 p.m., Friday, December 2: Record release party at the Electric Fetus, featuring a tribute to the 27 Various with original members Bart Bakker and Mike Reiter, joined by Casey Virock (Porcupine), Kris Johnson (Two Harbors), and Janey Winterbauer (the Suburbs). Limited edition copies of the album on Full Moon- and Great Lake-colored vinyl will be available to purchase.
8:30 p.m., Saturday, December 3: A listening party for the album at Bev’s Wine Bar, featuring likeminded tracks spun by DJ Christian Fritz (MPLS LTD).
