Neil Gust and Elliott Smith arrived in Portland, OR together in the summer of 1991 to start a new band with drummer/producer Tony Lash. Within a year of adding bassist Brandt Peterson on bass, they were playing across the West Coast and demoing dozens of songs for their first LP. Six of these tracks were self-released on the cassette titled “The Music of Heatmiser” which was sold at shows, local record shops, and handed out to record labels.
The sound of the band changed a lot over 3 LP’s, but this is Heatmiser right out of the gate. New, energetic, excited, moving quickly through styles, totally broke and making it work in whatever way possible. It’s guitar rock, full-blast, through 100 watt Marshall half stacks, when grunge was ascendant in the Pacific Northwest and the Portland scene was exploding. Fast, tight, loud, fun.