90s Seattle band Stymie share first single taken from previously unreleased debut album »Toil & Folly«!
Seattle, Washington based alternative rockers Stymie are gearing up to release their previously unreleased debut album »Toil & Folly« on December 15th, 2023 via New Rage Records.
Stymie already released the album’s first single »Arbor Day«, available now on all major streaming platforms!
Tracklist:
01. Creepy Boss
02. Arbor Day
03. Faulty Design
04. France
05. One Proud Stout
06. Sour Apples
07. Punch & Judy
08. True Thrill
09. Willy’s Gone
10. Squalor
11. Toil & Folly
12. Girl
13. Frogs
Courtesy of US/THEM Group:
Seattle, WA early 90s band Stymie announce the release of their previously unreleased (for nearly 30 years) debut full-length »Toil & Folly« today, sharing the first single via New Noise Magazine. Hear & share »Arbor Day« HERE and on all DSPs HERE.
Does anyone really need a primer on the Seattle scene at this point? Once-sleepy backwater, best known as the birthplace of Hendrix and Heart, goes supernova in the early ‘90s, dethroning the King of Pop and giving a handful of longhairs the chance to seriously upgrade the thread count on their flannel outerwear. But for every Nirvana, every Pearl Jam, every Soundgarden and Alice In Chains – hell, for every Tad and Supersuckers – there were countless scene staples that didn’t hit the gold-rush jackpot.
Enter Stymie. This heavy, hook-minded sextet (sometimes comprising three guitars and one bass, sometimes two guitars and two basses) was ubiquitous on bills from ’92-’94. And they were one of the only acts – likely the only one – at home sharing stages with bands as sonically wide-ranging as Buffalo Tom, Sleep, Everclear, Gruntruck, Flop, Treepeople and even the Spaceman himself, Ace Frehley.
Stymie’s own diverse musical influences – Black Sabbath, Black Flag and Black Francis are all reasonable reference points – allowed them to slot into a variety of bills but made them hard for label suitors to pigeonhole. There were flirtations, but no one put a ring on it, with the band self-releasing a handful of singles and showing up on the occasional compilation, including C/Z’s »Teriyaki Asthma Volume IX«. Stymie’s brief three-year run ended in late ’94 without acrimony or messy interventions, leaving behind a solid resume and a cache of unreleased material.
»Toil & Folly«: Now, nearly 30 years after the band’s conscious uncoupling, those tunes are ready to have the basement dust blown off them. The 13 tracks on »Toil & Folly« were drawn from five sessions and represent the many ways the band could bring the heavy. Largely recorded and mixed by noted Seattle producer Phil Ek (Built To Spill, Truly, Big Business), »Toil & Folly« is an unearthed gem for flannel-flying Seattle Sound obsessives always digging through crates (or Spotify) for that band they never heard of but can’t wait to tell everyone they discovered.
»Toil & Folly« will be available on limited edition LP and download on December 15th, 2023 via New Rage Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.
Discography:
• V/A »Things That Are Heavy« compilation 7″ (New Rage) 1992
• V/A »Choice Bovine Cuts« compilation CD (Choice Bovine Cuts) 1992
• »Grocery Bag« 7″ 3-song EP (New Rage) 1993
• »Stymie / Lab Rat« split 7″ (New Rage / Apraxia) 1993
• »Stymie / Control Freak« split 7″ (New Rage / Cavity Search) 1994
• V/A »Teriyaki Asthma IX« compilation 7″ (C/Z) 1994
• Debut »Posthumous« 7″ (New Rage) 1995
Line-up:
• Patrick Barber – Bass, Vocals
• Shane Bastian – Vocals
• James Halada – Drums
• Jeff Kleinsmith – Guitar, Vocals
• Brian Taylor – Bass, Guitar
• Adem Tepedelen – Guitar
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well