Forgotten Fridays - Cherry 2000 - Taint

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. Once a week we go back and remind you, and help decide if they were any good.

Cherry 2000 were this unbelievably great Boston band that only lasted maybe three years in the late 90s, and somehow just seem to have faded away from memory. Led by Dave Steele (also of Orangutang) and Leah Blesoff, the two traded off vocal duties through the band's 1998 debut, and only, album Taint. That and the loud/quiet/loud dynamic gives immediate comparisons to the Pixies, but the band also draws heavily from Sonic Youth, especially by closing out the album with the nearly 20 minute drone and art fest "Lungfish." There are also strong influences from metal and grunge, making it one of the more aggressive albums to come out of the Boston alternative scene in at the time.

The album bounces around between sounds quite a bit, to its credit. The first real song on the album, "Rodeo Clown," is really melodic and feels like an intended single. It's an artsier version of a lot of alternative power pop bands around that time. It immediately goes into "Purified," which is the best example of their loud/quiet/loud dynamic, like a pogo frenzied Pixies song. I think I played "Blood Red" on my radio show every week for about three months straight. It's a drone happy song, with Steele and Blesoff sharing vocal duties and one of the hookiest guitar riffs you'll ever hear.

Taint is available for purchase on Amazon in both digital and CD format. 18 years later, it's still worth listening to.