Dave Chamberlain

One of the late-nineties bizarro punk bands that operated largely under the radar thanks to grunge, New York-based Alice Donut was--until its disbanding in 1995--one of the few bands in its genre to integrate casual use of country and catchy hooks. Neither as base-level simple as the Misfits nor as quirky as the Meat Puppets, Alice Donut (in hindsight) cut a cloth evenly split between punk, pop and Americana, always leaning to the heavier side of things but with any thrashing intent replaced by a nearly psychedelic slant; real, singing vocals were split evenly between Tomas and Sissi Schulmeister, who went on to form a family after the band's demise. With seven records between 1988 and 1995, all released by Alternative Tentacles, they arguably were (and remain) the strength of Jello Biafra's label during the post-Dead Kennedys period. The hands-down best, "Bucketfulls and Sickness and Horror in an Otherwise Meaningless Life," released in 1989, seeped with enough speaker dirt to qualify as proto-grunge, and concurrently featured some snappy choral hooks that Kurt Cobain would eventually perfect. Tracks like "Dorothy" and "Consumer Decency," with Schulmeister's almost sinister pitch driving the action forward, have aged remarkably well, which lends hope that this reunion won't be just another old-folks wank. In fact, I can think of no other underground band from the eighties that deserves more credit than it got in its heyday.

Alice Donut plays August 19 at the Abbey Pub, 3420 West Grace, (773)478-4408.

(2004-08-17)

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