No Filler Music Podcast - Outside The Lines: The Elusive Sound of Majesty Crush

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

We chat about the short-lived and underrated indie band Majesty Crush. With lead singer David Stroughter's neurotic vocal delivery and a sound that didn't fit neatly within the lines of the 90s rock soundscape, Majesty Crush defied categorization in their brief but spectacular career. Their music is being celebrated in the release of Butterflies Don't Go Away, a compilation record featuring all tracks from their Love 15 debut record as well as their handful of EPs that followed. Join as we dive into one of the most underrated shoegaze acts of the 90s. Tracklist Majesty Crush - Boyfriend Majesty Crush - Brand Majesty Crush - Cicciolina Majesty Crush - Horse Majesty Crush - Worri Majesty Crush - Seine Majesty Crush - If JFA Were Still Together This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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the fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name's Quentin. With me as always is my brother Travis. And we are diving into the short-lived shoe gaze indie rock from the early 90s majesty crush. I'm really excited about this, Jeff. I was getting some emo, at least lyrically. Like it was, and that was probably early 90s track, right?

Yeah. Okay. It's interesting because, you know, obviously, obviously very fuzzy guitars at the beginning. But like lyrically, and even the way he's singing, it makes me think of emo stuff. But yeah, I'm coming in completely cold here, Q. I've never heard these guys before, never heard of him before. So from what you've been telling me, and from what I just heard, yeah, very curious to hear what else they could do. Yeah, so they dropped one full-length album in 93 called Love 15.

So that song you just heard in the intro was called Boyfriend, which is the opening track. Dude, even the song name sounds like an emo song, dude. It basically sounds like it's a guy thinking about like, I'm going to steal your boyfriend away from you. That's exactly what it is, dude. So let's name off the roster here. So we've got lead singer David Strouder, bassist Hobie Eichlin, guitarist Michael Siegel, and drummer Odell Nails the third. There's three of them.

Yeah, that's the third one, dude. Yeah, they came around right as grunge was exploding. I mean, at least by the time they dropped their one studio album, they got overshadowed by the grunge craze. And that's just what happened with shoegaze, man. I think we've heard about that. Like, we've talked about that before, how, you know, shoe gaze was kind of on the up and ups and then grunge came and said now move aside yeah and that's the

thing like they they had all you know the heavy grunge guitars at some points they also had the wall of sound you know shoe gaze guitar and sound but then yeah out of nowhere out of left field his voice man and his his the stories that he tells man are just different they're dark and they're unsettling really. A lot of his songs are about stalkers and like just obsessing over women. This song, boyfriend, I get on a train, you're sitting right there. I've never seen you before. How can I ever forget? Then he says, it seems like your boyfriend right there. So he's just sitting there on the train. He sees this pretty girl across the way. There's a guy that looks like is probably her boyfriend.

And then he just goes into this whole, like, obsession with this girl that he sees. He sounds like kind of a creep, you. And I don't know, but he has another song called Number One Fan that is written about... It's not getting any better. This is... It's not written about him. It's about... It's a song inspired by John Hinckley, Jr.

Oh. Who had a huge crush on Jody Foster. That's a cool concept for his song. That's kind of where his head's bass... So is it coming from the perspective of John Hinkley? Probably, like number one fan? Yeah. Like you're, exactly.

Like I would do literally anything for you. Okay. I'd kill the president for your love is one of the lyrics in that song. Cool, cool. But yeah, I don't know if that had anything to do with like them just getting kind of slept on, you know, in the 90s. Sure. But also the record label that released Love 15, it was called Dolly Records, full. it in and got absorbed by its parent record label.

So basically that that translates to they got dropped by their label because it didn't, like the support wasn't continuing after that point. So you lose the support of your record label on your debut record, you know, like... Dude, did that happen with Spoon? Yeah, actually. I think it was one of their earlier, yeah, their early records. They just didn't get the promotion from their label that, that they needed.

Yeah, exactly. Okay. Yeah, so here's a really good, so I'm pulling a lot of this info from a really good article from Fader. There's a lot of articles coming out about these guys now because of this double album reissue that they just came out. Basically, like, you know, they're reclaiming their spot now. That's what they're kind of hoping for. Okay. The lead singer was shot by police.

So he was kind of a manic dude. Kind of not surprising by the lyrics. By the lyrics. Yeah. Yeah. And he just had a, he was just kind of in your face as a performer. And, you know, that was one thing that one of the members of the band said, like, we weren't staring at. We weren't gazing at our shoes, man.

Like, as a band, we were in your face. And you're just different. But, yeah, Stratter was shot and killed by police in 2017. he was addicted to pain meds and you know so he was kind of unstable and he apparently was threatening officers with an axe so anyways yeah i mean i don't mean to bring all that up for any particular reason but only to say that like the founding members of the the surviving members of the man are really hoping that this you know double reissue kind of sheds light again on the music that he wrote and the music they were able to create together and kind of get, you know, get more

support from the new generation for, you know, just getting excited about Majesty Crush again. And let me tell you something, dude. This is phenomenal, dude. It's just crazy that most of this music on this double EP was in the span of about two years because, yeah, the majority of the album is Love 15 in its entirety. And then there's just a handful of kind of singles and, and, and then there's just a handful of singles and B-sides from EPs and rarities that finish off the album. So yeah, let's just jump right into it, man.

It's time. It's just music-heavy episode on this one. All right. Let's do it, dude. All right, we're going to go in order as well. Yeah, it's tough to pick a favorite, dude, but this one's up there for me. So this is track four off the record. This is called Brand. Yeah, yeah, I guess I was, I found myself like just, I guess, kind of captivated by it a little bit.

That's his voice, dude. Like they were doing some interesting. Yeah, really interesting things with his voice and like his phrasing's and stuff. And yeah, interesting, man. Really interesting. Because they got a lot of things going on here, you know, that make them kind of different. Yeah. Yeah, that makes me wonder, too, if that was, you know, one of the reasons they didn't really get to the mainstream.

I mean, I think the major blow was the record falling out. Yeah. The record label falling out. But yeah, yeah. I mean and I was hunting for old you know clips from review I wanted to read reviews from the 90s

you know from these this record release at the time that it came out but I couldn't find anything but yeah dude his lyrics are really I mean just he's not hiding anything you know like I wake up

with a bottle in my hands I go to bed with a bottle touching my lips. I wake up with a stogie in my hands. I go to bed with a stogie burning my lips. And I think the whole song is about, he says, I have a girl who wakes me up with my favorite brand.

My guess is favorite brand of cigarettes or favorite brand of liquor because that's what the song's about. Or is you saying, a favorite brand like his girlfriend? Maybe. Who knows? Who knows? But either way, yeah, that was, that's obviously what's,

what stands out, I think, is Stratter and his, just his presence on the recordings. And, I mean, just from what I've read, like, apparently he was, he was pretty difficult to work with because, you know, he was neurodivergent and had a lot of issues. But, yeah, this music that he, that he made, dude. And what they, instrumentation that they provided as, you know, backing that was just, yeah, really different, really different. Kind of, you know, you can. can hear like the 80s new wave influence maybe a little bit there you know and I would think that these guys were probably influenced by the 80s you know if they're making music in the 90s the early 90s you know they're coming we're coming out of the 80s and it's definitely part of it

I mean it's slow you know obviously shoegaze the origins of shoegaze were the 80s so but yeah his voice was it was just really compelling yeah yeah Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so this part here I like in this fader article. It says, if anything, Majesty Crush saw themselves as outsiders by virtue of being anti-Machismo. At a time when grunge was entering the mainstream, and things turned plaid and a little boring. So Nails, the drummer says here, our audiences were young, passionate, and tapped into something emotional and feminine. And Eichland goes on to say, we wrote songs you'd listen to in a cold room on a department.

pressing Sunday evening. Yeah. The word McKismo jumped out of me there because that is an exact word that the lead singer of Catherine Wheel used in an interview. That's right. He said basically the same kind of thing where it's like, you know, we're rock, you know, loud rock without the, without the McKizmo, you know. Yeah.

That was Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel. Kind of saying the same thing where it's like, you know, it's, you know, this, makes sense, dude. When grunge was happening and like, yeah, lots of testosterone, like, around grunge and like the loud rock and stuff like that, you know, kind of flirting with metal here and there. Like, I can see how a lot of bands were probably like, I don't want to be affiliated with that, you know what I mean? Like all the, all that like front man, machismo, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Which is interesting, because like, like they said, like, we weren't all just staring at our shoes, like, you know, we were in your face. It sounds like a lot of bands in the,

like the shoegaze label either. I can understand that, especially like now decades later, you know, shoegaze is just what it is. But like that was a new phrase. And I could totally understand how they could be like, that sounds like an insult, you know? Yeah. I keep saying, I keep saying my kismo because that's how Dickinson pronounced it. But, you know, because he's like British.

But her English, it's machismo. Is it really? No, it's not. I looked it up, bro. I just look it up right now because I wanted to make sure I said, right? And if you look up, yeah, if you look up the pronunciation of it, it's very clear that it's cheese. Machismo. Actually, you know, I'm cool with that.

I just think, honestly, I think it works. It works either way. Oh, me, machismo sounds to me like it's, you know, super cheesy. And I think that totally works for what the definition of it. Totally. All right, man. So do listen to the new. Did you listen to the new Kron band, by the way?

Yeah, I did. Just more of the same, more of the same, but they know what they're doing. We can't help to love it. Yeah. It's kind of a, they said it's like a falling back to their roots kind of thing, just being as a trio. Dude, I heard that there was an interview on NPR with them, and I can't remember her name, bass player off the toe my head. But for their first two recordings, they did it in, and I'm going to, don't want to, quote me on this, but in like a barn, I believe, where a lot of birds chirping and trees

swaying in the wind, they could hear it while they were recording. But they were recording in a studio for this one. So they actually had the record producer pipe in sound effects into their headphones. So they could still hear the birds chirping and the trees swaying on their time. I'd say you're getting a headspace right there. Yeah, man. All right. So speaking of kind of stalker obsession lyrics, this next song, which is a killer track. It's a killer track? Oh, no.

Whoops. It's called Chichilina. And it is a... Big a part? Exactly. It's a song about Strouders' obsession with an adult. film actress. This guy needs to calm it down.

An Italian adult film actress named Chealina. He needs to chill out, dude. I mean, dude, this is, yeah. His demons are coming. His demons are coming out on these records. All right, so here we go. This is Chichielina. It's trying to place them somewhere and I can't do it.

Which is what's great about them. Yeah, you can't do it. You know? And maybe that's another reason they didn't, they didn't get any attention. Like I feel like labels and especially like MTV and stuff, they were just, they were looking for grunge.

You know what I mean? They wanted to put grunge on the airwaves, you know. And they couldn't put these guys neatly in a box. In utero came out in 93, the same unit. Yeah, this record came out. Nobody had time for any other band. That Love 15 came out, yeah. Except for Nirvana and any band that remotely sounded like them, you know.

But you know what, dude, that's fine because now we get to hear them now. It's good that they're getting, they're getting some attention again, you know. For sure. Okay. So we've got one more song off of Love 15. And then we got a couple more tracks that were singles and, you know, B-sides and whatnot. So here we go. This is actually the last track on Love 15.

This might be my favorite one, man. This, just something. This one's, I'm going to say it. Haunting. Okay. One of our favorite describing words. Here we are. Here we go.

This song is called Horse. And I think we're going to have to do two clips on this one, brother. All right. Shout out to the backing vocals. Yeah. I think that's the second time, second song from your selections here that, you know, what they're doing, with those background vocals is kind of surprising, I guess.

Like, this was kind of what I was saying, like, the first, the first song, where I was just saying, like, wow, I'm just really kind of like, I'm finding myself, like, paying attention to the song because they take it in places you're not expecting it to go. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Which is why, you know, I think vocally, that's for sure. Vocally for sure, man.

He's just like, he's a very interesting singer. Quivering sound, like just, yeah, yeah. just, yeah, vulnerable. And I mean, yeah, just in your, for a voice that's, you know, breathy and, I mean, kind of similar to some dream pop artists for, you know, for that style of voice, it's still just like in your face. Sure. Somehow.

And yeah, I was, I was trying to just off top of my head quote from this article earlier about, you know, how, you know, we're not staring at our shoes. Here's the quote, the exact quote here. It says, while Majesty Crush are often grouped in as part of the resurgent genre, they're talking about shoegays, they don't feel their music really belongs as part of the scene. We had a dedicated frontman, Eichlin argues. It wasn't all pedals and obscure lyrics. We had a guy stalking the stage and getting in people's faces.

So that, just imagine their live shows, man. I mean, he was just in your face and just. Yeah, he was a troubled man. And I'm sure that just made their shows just super intense. So yeah, I think I'm just going to pick up where we left off here and just kind of fade in from there. Just a little bit more of this track because it goes other places here. Here we go. Shooketh, Q, consider me shirketh.

In terms of like you said, kind of the haunting quality of it. Yeah, the building up and just the, yeah, the. droniness of it just dragging on at the end there so i've been trying to put my finger on like who he reminds me of vocally and i've been saying like he's very unique obviously but i think he's got a little bit of bono in him oh yeah i caught on that too and i you know what i was afraid that we were going to say that guy's name on this podcast tonight that's just his name is bono no big deal what do you have against bono i'm just there's i don't even want to get into it but All right.

Yeah, you're totally right. And I also get a little bit of, I don't what's the name, Smith, the cure. Robert Smith. Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking of that too. And that's where I was saying, like, you know, you can hear some of the, you know, some of that influence, some of the, like the new wave influence from the, from the 80s, like the guitar tone and all that stuff as well. They're definitely not, they're definitely, I wouldn't call them a shoegaze band. I wouldn't either.

Yeah, and I totally get why they're, you know, kind of peeved that they got thrown into that category. I don't know if it's just like if you get a whiff of fuzz. Yeah, yeah. If the, you know, if you instantly got labeled. A little grungy fuzz. That, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Okay, so this actually came out in 92. So a year prior, maybe it was just a few months prior who knows depending on, you know, the month when these were released. but this song was on a little five-track EP called Fan that had number one fan on it, had horse, which is the song we just played. And then the last song on that record is this one we're about to play. It's another great one, man. No surprise.

They're a really good record all the way through, man. If you haven't caught on to that yet, definitely worth listening to all the way through. But yeah, this song is called Worry. Yeah, so that's like the second. time where they've done this really great job like doing a slow build and then like this nice big release you know yeah yeah it kind of opens up yeah so uh another another artist that just that i just thought about um and i think i brought them last year on one of the one of the what

your episodes last year uh this early early dream pop group called a arcane i don't know if you remember Oh, dude. Man, yeah. Speaking of them, they talked about, they mentioned A.R. Kane in this record, one of the, one of the members of the group. Let me see if I could find it. I just, I just fucking nailed it. That's what you're saying. So, yeah, he says, okay, yeah. So the band formed in 1990, but had known each other for much longer. Nails and Eichland first played together in the 80s Darkwave industrial band Spawn Ranch. Gotta look them up, dude. When that group ended, they took the chance to work with Strouder. a school friend of Nails, and recruited guitarist Michael Siegel, who they knew as the guy who would recommend the music by A.R. Cain and other obscure but life-altering albums from his job behind the counter at the local Play It Again Records. So there you go, man. That was the stuff they were into.

Okay. Well, nailed it. You did, dude. Nailed it. All right, man. So I got one more track. And this is from a little five-piece EP. From 1994, so this was one year after Love 15 was released, the EP is called Sons Muscles, and this song is called Sine. Awesome track. Good way to end the episode.

That's where they were heading, dude. And then, yeah, they just kind of petered out after that, broke up in 95. That's too bad, man. Yeah, really. So that was their last record? Yeah, I think so. It was just a little EP. like I said, yeah, and then there was a little, yeah, there was a split.

Okay. You know, there was them in another group. And then in 96, PS I Love You comes out, and that is Strouders solo. Okay. And his only solo album. So they split. He did his own thing. I actually listened to a few tracks off of it.

It's just more the same, which is cool. But it's just, you know, it's not that backing band behind him. But yeah, he's still there doing his thing, just by himself. But yeah, that's it. Awesome. Yeah, this was kind of a, I just kind of pulled a 180 on what band I wanted to cover for this week because, yeah, I saw a little blurb about this record on pitchfork. I saw the word shoe gaze and I go, hello. And I press play.

And then I was just so like taken aback by it. Yeah. I just figured this was definitely deserving of one of our deep dives for the year. Totally. Well, it's good to also throw in, you know, a band that you may not have heard of, you know. And in fact, you probably haven't heard of them. Yeah, because if we look back at like, what have we covered so far this year in terms of our deep dives? We did Dinosaur Jr.

Most people have heard of Dinosaur Jr. We did. Cocked out twins. Cockto twins. cocto twins sorry we did deftones and now we're here majesty crush

so that means we did so where do we go from here I mean dinosaur junior I think that album came on the 80s the one that we covered the one the first one that we did uh it was their yeah 87

um and then cocktoe twins was 90s I think the record that we did was maybe the one was that another 80s one I think that was another 80s record head over heels yeah 83, brother. Okay. And, okay, so we spent a couple of episodes in the 80s and then a couple episodes in the 90s

because around the fair was 97. This record's 93, you said? Well, the majority, yeah, the majority of the tracks were from Love 15 from 93. I got a good one for us to cover it, dude. And I haven't even talked about or thought about covering this record until just now. We're going to go to the year 2020. 21. Whoa.

Let's spend some time in this century, dude. You know? Sure. Yeah, totally. I'm just going to tease it right now, dude. Drop it. Avlov. Avlov.

It's fun to say. Does that not mean anything to you? I thought you were going to recognize that band. Okay. I recognize the album covers, but. You are going to love this record, man. We're going to talk about this album. called Buds.

Come out in 2021. Damn, this is a great album. It's kind of just a great indie rock record. Awesome. From 2021. I brought one song off of this record years ago, a couple of years ago, probably, for what you heard. So it's a great, great record. And I think it's a good way to mix it up because this is just straight up indie rock, man.

And it's really, really good. Awesome. All right. So that'll be sometime in May, I guess closer to the end of it. of me, when that drops. But between now and then we will have another What You Heard episode out. And I've already got some great tunes lined up, Q. Yeah, me too, man.

You know, we should probably intro that episode with the Cronbin track. What do you think? Oh, for sure. Yeah, dude. We'd like to intro brand new tracks on those episodes. So that'll still be somewhat fresh. Unless something else even fresher comes out. True.

But, you know, crime bend, they're from Houston. You know, you got to love them. That's true. Our hometown. Yeah, exactly. It's not like any other famous Houston just dropped their record that everybody's been talking about. Houstonian. You're talking about Beyonce? I'm talking about Beyonce, Cowboy Carter.

Yeah. I haven't listened to any of that, but. Me neither. I got nothing about respect. Sure. Do what you want. Do what you want. It sounds like an interesting record.

She collaborated with a bunch of, I guess, country musicians, I guess. Well, I mean, there's like a shit. It's all over the map. Like Miley Cyrus is on the record. Posty's on there, Post Malone. But like, Dolly Parton's on there. Willie Nelson's on there. It's an interesting concept, I guess, for a record.

If you get Dolly Parton and. and Willie Nelson on your record. You know, I feel like that's a blessing. You get the blessing from the country gods. You did something right. Who cares, like who else matters in the world of country? Sure. In Dallipart and Willie Nelson.

You're right, dude. All right, so that's it for tonight. Or, you know what, today? Whenever you're listening to this. Yeah, as always, check us out on the Pantheon podcast network. That is your home for music lovers. Right? That's right.

You can find a lot of great music-centered podcasts on the network. That's pantheonpodcasts.com at Pantheon Podcasts on Instagram. Check us out there as well at No Filler Podcast. That is our main means of communique. So send us a message on Instagram. Let us know what you've been heard. What kind of music you've been into? If you have another band that you think is in the same band as Majesty Crush or something,

just similar vibes, send them our way. We'll give it a listen if you like it. We'll fade us out on our What You Heard episode with a pick from one of our listeners. At No Fielder Podcast is The Hem. handle. And we're going to fade us out with another track off of Sons Muscles from 94 from Majesty Crush. This one is called If JFA were still together, guess what that's in reference to, Travis? I think I know. Yeah. JFA is a punk rock group. Oh, I actually had JFK and I was like, man, this is the subject. It's getting darker and darker.

Well, I mean, JFA is a Jody Foster's Army. Like a Jody Foster's Army, yeah. Wow, okay. Maybe a little nod to number one fan. So yeah, that's how we're going to fade us out. And thanks so much, as always, for listening. We'll come at you in a few weeks with our What You're Heard episode for April. And until next time, my name's Quentin.

And I'm Travis. Y'all take care. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say, I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz Holiday Shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.