OurStage

One of rock music's uses is to proclaim what listeners can't muster the courage or the words to say themselves. In songs that articulate the frustrated attempts of the young to claim a space in the world, the music's clamor and blast is as important as whatever fragmented lyrics break through. The sound of sentences forming and falling apart draws youths to rock, because that sound is so much like their daily attempts at self-expression. At Roseland on Friday night, three bands built a determined cacophony from familiar musical elements, constantly refreshing old notions of rebelliousness. Flowerhead, from Austin, Tex., wore the long hair and unpretentious clothes of the so-called grunge scene. But the band's music owed as much to Southern boogie as Pacific Northwest angst, and buoyant harmonies blended with the guitarist Eric Schmitz's sunny riffing to lend some of Flowerhead's songs a poignant sweetness. "It's not your fault, forgive yourself," sang the vocalist Eric Faust, and the wash of music carried across his message of faith like primal comfort.

A Texas group that attempted to resurrect '60s psychedelia (but wound up sounding like Soundgarden), Flowerhead was a hard rockin' quartet that enjoyed a brief career during the early '90s. Consisting of members Eric Schmitz (vocals, guitar), Buz Zoller (guitar), Eric Faust (bass), and Pete Levine (drums), the band issued an independent, cassette-only release first, 1990's In the Toybox, before signing to the Zoo label and issuing two more albums -- 1992's Ka-Bloom (which the group toured behind with an opening slot on Blind Melon's spring 1993 U.S. tour) and 1995's People's Fuzz. Shortly thereafter, Flowerhead had gone the way of the buffalo. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide

Samples: What a great cd. I loved every song. Where are they??? Gibby Flowerhead rocked..they toured with my band (Thee Hypnotics) in the US and we loved them...they were gentlemen and we miss em... Phil smith I was a student in the 90s at Washington University in St. Louis. There was (and probably still is) a twice-annual blowout in the quad with very little sobriety. At one of these, I was.....how do you say..."chemically altered" and hangin' with my buds. All of a sudden, I heard this amazing guitar riff from the stage that penetrated my body to the core. Then the bass kicked in and started to rattle my bones. I ran up to the stage and watched with utter amazement as this ragtag band broadcast what I felt was the best music I have ever heard in my life. A few days later when I re-entered reality, I managed to hunt down this CD, which has been in high rotation in my car's CD player ever since. Thanx guys for the awesome experience and continued musical trip! MikTheFish

The seeds of Flowerhead were originally planted deep underground by founding members Eric Faust (Lead Vocals, Bass, Guitars) and Buz Zoller (Guitars, Vocals) in 1987. With the addition of Eric Schmitz (Guitars, Vocals) in 1989 and Pete Levine (Drums, Vocals) in 1990, the roots took hold. The unassuming rock band, working in the sweaty club environments of Austin, Texas and nearby cities and states, began its campaign to enter the music world with their independently produced 4-track, cassette only release "Turmoil in the Toybox". .......More at Wikipedia

FLOWERHEAD (Buy CDs by this artist) Turmoil in the Toybox EP [tape] (no label) 1990 ka-BLOOM! (Zoo) 1992 The People's Fuzz (Zoo) 1995 The six long songs on the self-released Turmoil in the Toybox find this Austin quartet toiling through the same bleary guitar-slog as retro bashers like Thee Hypnotics, only with no sense of style or evident enthusiasm for the form beyond its option of velvet-trousered indulgence, as well as a weak but obvious U2 imitation ("Star-Crossed Days"). Singer/bassist Eric Faust has the kind of voice designed to be heard from the 155th row, which makes the indie format a bit incongruous. The band's major-league debut, ...ka-BLOOM!, isn't any better. Replete with too many long songs — most of them of the sterile, neo-psychedelia-cum-'70s-stadium-shaker variety — ...ka-BLOOM! is background music for the indiscriminate stoner, as common-sounding as a car horn. (The final line Faust utters in "Sunflower," the album's closing track: "Praise the Lord, and pass the goddamn bong.") The record contains exactly two decent tracks: "Snagglepuss" flows in a pleasant vintage pop vein, while "Everything Is Beautiful" is a determined, slightly grungified post-punk rip poisoned slightly by simplistic lyrics. Elsewhere, attempting to create vast aural landscapes within seven or eight minutes of recording time like some of its '70s idols, the slackjawed Flowerhead comes up with cliché-burdened tracks like "Oh Shane," "Acid Reign" (remade from Turmoil) and "Thunderjeff" to no real positive effect. The People's Fuzz is even more overblown and pretentious. Where ...ka-BLOOM! was at least endurable, this bubbles the tritest, safest and most predictable late-'60s and early-'70s formulae into 73 minutes of unmitigated boredom (a third of it devoted to an untitled bonus track of Martian rainforest sound effects) that can't decide from one verse to the next whether to ape the Beatles, Flaming Lips, Bad Company, Marshall Tucker, Blue Cheer or Styx. The songs are shorter this time, but the band remains mired in its witless regression. [Ian McCaleb]