Eric’s Trip: The Eric’s Trip Show

In the rush to sign bands in the wake of Nirvana and Teen Spirit, many mediocre nouveau heavy metal bands signed major label deals and grunge was born. As the world’s attentions were diverted from indie guitar bands, one in particular didn’t just slip through the net, but somehow avoided the attentions of the punk underground altogether. Simply put, in the early ’90s, Eric’s Trip is the best lo-fi punk band you never heard of.

Eric’s Trip signed to Sub Pop in 1992 but seemed to be the one band on the roster not just underhyped but barely ever mentioned. Outside of its native Nova Scotia, Eric’s Trip remained virtually unknown, eventually splitting in 1996 after three albums and countless singles. During this period and in the years since, the band’s popularity has slowly grown among an elite few simply lucky enough to stumble across this incredible band. A reunion tour across Canada this summer was marked by the release of The Eric’s Trip Show, a live retrospective.

The band’s closest reference points would be a triumvirate of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh, for its embracement of an underground aesthetic drenched in feedback and a love of loud and heavy rock. Squalling electric guitars were layered with hissy recordings of acoustic guitars, creating a musical fragility to mirror their lyrics.

At the lyrical core of the band was a couple, Rick White and Julie Doiron. Their break-up was chronicled on the band’s second and best album, Forever Changes. White’s songs unself-consciously divulged every minor detail of the split, the album’s final song detailing how he felt upon hearing that Julie had become pregnant by her new partner. His lyrics often walked a thin line between a raw emotional honesty and extreme sappiness. Indeed, the band’s own label was named Sappy. Going out on such a limb allowed Eric’s Trip to distinguish itself by writing lyrics that were so unabashedly heartfelt they would make even Lou Barlow blush. Similar to Sebadoh’s tales of love and woe, but without the self-pitying anger, Eric’s Trip chronicled life’s emotional ups and downs but always seemed to find a good or forgiving aspect to turmoil. Such an optimistic bent resulted in the sappiest punk songs ever. Julie’s songs especially, featured naïve, shy vocals and lyrics. Her sometimes off-key vocals, so sickly sweet they could shatter your heart, had a small devout following of hardcore punk kids weeping like young girls over a wounded kitten.

With the selection of songs on The Eric’s Trip Show, the band seems to be consciously shying away from its sappiest material. Initially this might be thought of as avoiding the band’s strengths, but five years’ perspective allows this live retrospective to shed new light on the songs.

Some of the fragility is predictably lost; the delicate acoustic four-track recordings were obviously not as present on the stage as in the bedroom. Half of the compilation was recorded during the band’s final year and by this point the band is developing a much heavier sound, more Black Sabbath than Sonic Youth. The songs chosen for inclusion here show the band to have had a maturity and a darker side not readily apparent on its records. “My Bed Is Red” no longer sounds like a tragic lament, instead it takes on an eerie quality, the narrator surrounded by his lover’s blood. “Smoke” and several songs recorded in New York at the band’s last ever concerts, find the band sounding positively homesick. The Eric’s Trip Show highlights a band capable of longing for far more than a girlfriend who has just split.

This album is not revelatory; it presents another shading to Eric’s Trip but it does not cast the group in a brand new light. Having never seen the band play live, I do not mind passing over its more emotionally extreme moments in favor of its musical ferocity. I happily destroyed my eardrums taking a trip down memory lane. While many lo-fi bands tried to sound angular and awkward, Eric’s Trip was clearly not afraid to get its ya-ya’s out and put its foot to the pedal. Songs are played at a million miles per hour. Eric’s Trip was an enthralling mix of perfectly controlled bursts of feedback and turbo charged riffs; a delicate balance between heartfelt lyrics and the fastest drums this side of Animal in The Muppet Show.

If you’re already a fan of the band, you should already know this album has to be worth purchasing. If indie music just hasn’t been the same since Teen Spirit became appropriated by the mainstream, then here is a band to fill that void in both your record collection and your heart.