Hazel

One of the joys of working at the record store in 1995 was all the free promo copies of cds we received. Our store actually kept them in the store and played them (which I later learned is unusual with most employees usually taking them and selling them to other stores) but we could claim them to take home at a later date. Sub Pop was excellent at sending us promos which was nice since 3 of us usually wanted what they sent and would fight over who got what! At the time I think that a lot of people thought that Sub Pop had slipped a little but I look back at that time frame and what they were putting out and strongly disagree. The Spinanes, Velocity Girl, and Hazel were probably my 3 favorite bands on the label at the time and I still listen to them all!

I first heard Hazel because of one of those promo cds. Are You Going To Eat That? came in and I was immediately taken. Simple yet catchy with just guitar, bass, and drums and dueling boy/girl vocals. I hear a little bit of The Wipers in Hazel. That same sort of energy with the guitar holding the same sort of sonic space in both bands - up front and in your face. I immediately bought their first album, Toreador Of Love, and loved it just as much. I always thought that this was the most apt description I read of the first album - "A tackle box full of hooks." This was a comment somebody left on the cd at KDVS. So, yeah, not a lot to say about this band other than they were fantastic and if you like more rock/guitar based indie stuff rather than say twee or pop you will probably enjoy this quite a bit.

In chronological order:
Day Glo
I'm Shattered Again
A bonus track! They released an ep on Candy Ass (the drummers label) in 1997 which was their last release. This is a live version of a song from that.
Mr. Magazine Man (live)