Seaweed: Actions and Indications: Black Vinyl LP

Black Vinyl LP

Aaron Stauffer (vocals), Clint Werner (guitar), John Atkins (bass), Bob Bulgrien (drums), and Wade Neal (guitar, vocals) formed Seaweed in 1989 as high school pals in Tacoma, Washington. Not long afterward, they piled six deep in a pickup truck for their first national tour, traversing the country with Superchunk and Geek. In 1992, the band upgraded to a white Econoline, carrying their high-energy live shows throughout the nation and beyond for the next seven years. Other Seaweed tour mates from that era included Quicksand, Green Day, Bad Religion, Screaming Trees, Cosmic Psychos, Bivouac, Cornershop, Into Another, Love Battery, and many, many more.

Between 1990 and 1999, Seaweed released albums on Sub Pop, Hollywood Records, and Merge Records. Their fifth and final full-length, Actions and Indications, was released on Merge in 1999. The album was recorded at Uptone, the band’s home studio in Tacoma, with Werner and Wes Weresch in the engineers’ chairs. (By this time, Bulgrien had left the band, and Alan Cage of Quicksand commanded the drummer’s chair.) Throughout their career, Seaweed maintained a singular commitment to a ballad-free blast of Marshall-based growls and yelps, and Actions and Indications is no exception.

Seaweed was widely renowned for their action-packed live shows. Aaron blended his personal and introspective lyrics with a frenetic stage presence, backed by the band’s melodic blend of DC-style punk and Pacific Northwest “grange-hall grunge.” In 2007, Seaweed reunited for several highly anticipated shows in Seattle, with Jesse Fox on drums. Since then, the band has performed from time to time as circumstances allow, and they remain one of the most dynamic live bands of the explosive 1990s independent music scene.

Includes “Choices Lost,” “Ghosts," and “Never” as digital bonus tracks.