Here are some of my personal favorites from Idaho, a band/project centered around Jeff Martin who wrings beautiful, poignant, harmonically rich music from his custom Carruthers 4-string guitars, Prophet V, and various acoustic and Rhodes pianos backed up by various lineups. Fans of Low, SoulWhirlingSomewhere and Flotilla will dig this. (Flotilla are actually comprised of ex-Idaho members.)
Three Sheets To The Wind (1996) is Idaho's strongest release, with the band as four-piece showing incredible range and depth blending Jeff's autumnal audio excursions with tunings-rock in varying degrees. I saw them tour behind this album, and the live show was amazing.
The Palms EP (1993) is Idaho's first release, with the band as a duo of Jeff and showbiz kid John Berry trading off on guitar, bass, drums and Eventide tweaking.
Year After Year (1993) is the duo's first full-length release, a decidedly downbeat, Swans-paced shoegazer affair punctuated by Unsane's John Signorelli on drums for a couple of tracks. Definitely *not* something to play on a date, but rather something to play after said date has torn your heart to shreds. Side 2 is a bit more upbeat, though-- not in a genuinely happy way as much as in a mood-stabilizer way.
This Way Out (1994) features Idaho as Jeff's solo outing, with Berry leaving due to heroin problems. (He would return around the Millenium.) This is a transitional record, decidedly more rock than
Year After Year and foreshadowing
Three Sheets To The Wind, punctuated by the fact that much of the session work on this album was done by Terry Borden, Mark Lewis and Dan Seta, all of whom would join the band for
Three Sheets.
All of these were released on Caroline, who dropped the band 10 years ago, so it's 99.9% likely that these are OOP. (Please correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll yank these.)
I'm not posting 1997's
Forbidden EP or 1998's
Alas because, while OOP, they are about to be reissued in a single release. Anything later is most likely still in print.
As for 1996's
Spanish Bayonet Florida EP, that's rare and most certainly OOP. If anyone else here has this, please be a saint and post it-- it's a brilliant record, and you'd make my month.
