What The Hell Happened To... 07.13.09: Jellyfish - Spilt Milk

Posted by C.A. Bell on 07.13.2009

Like Queen, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, XTC, or Cheap Trick? Step right up folks, as this week C.A. takes some notes from the Paisley Underground.

I'm not going to pretend that I don't relish feeling like I know something that everyone else doesn't. It's part and parcel of the entire, "I was a fan when they were playing in bars" culture. But sometimes I come across an album that literally upsets me because it is so good and absolutely no one is listening to it. It's the sort of thing that makes me physically angry. That is exactly the sort of situation we will be addressing this week. I'm going to look at what is possibly my favorite album of all time, that is simultaneously completely unknown to even my geekiest of friends. Join me as ‘What The Hell Happened To…' gets educational this week and takes a closer look back at Jellyfish's Spilt Milk.

Track Listing:
1. Hush – (Jellyfish, Manning) 2:10
2. Joining a Fan Club – (Jellyfish, Manning) 4:03
3. Sebrina, Paste and Plato – (Jellyfish, Manning) 2:23
4. New Mistake – (Jellyfish, Manning) 4:03
5. Glutton of Sympathy – (Jellyfish, Manning) 3:49
6. The Ghost at Number One – (Jellyfish, Manning) 3:37
7. Bye Bye Bye – (Jellyfish, Manning) 4:02
8. All Is Forgiven – (Jellyfish, Manning) 4:10
9. Russian Hill – (Jellyfish) 4:45
10. He's My Best Friend – (Jellyfish, Manning) 3:44
11. Too Much, Too Little, Too Late – (Jellyfish, Manning) 3:15
12. Brighter Day – (Jellyfish, Manning) 6:12

Label: Charisma
Release Date: 02.09.93
Genre: Power Pop, Pop Underground, Jangle Pop
Running Time: 46:13
Producer: Albhy Galuten, Jack Joseph Puig, Andy Sturmer, & Roger Manning

The Players:
Andy Sturmer - Vocals, Percussion, Guitar, Keyboards
Roger Manning – Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
Tim Smith – Bass, Vocals
Lyle Workman – Guitar
Jon Brion – Guitar

What Else Was Going On In 1993?

I like to try and provide a little context for what else was happening musically at the time. The early '90s were a fantastic time for music. Alternative music was finally being seen as marketable, bringing all sorts of great music to the forefront. At the same time, rap and metal were both experiencing artistic high points as it seemed like everyone who was making records was firing on all cylinders. Here are just a few of my favorite releases from 1993:

• 10,000 Maniacs – Unplugged


• Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne


• U2 – Zooropa


• Tool – Undertow


• Suede – Suede


• Stereo MC's – Connected


• Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle


• The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream


• Sheryl Crow – Tuesday Night Music Club


• Rush – Counterparts


• Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians – Respect


• Various Artists – Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert


• Red House Painters – Red House Painters


• Primus – Pork Soda


• The Posies – Frosting on the Beater


• Porno for Pyros – Porno for Pyros


• Pearl Jam – Vs.


• Paul Westerberg – 14 Songs


• Nirvana – In Utero


• Neil Young – Unplugged


• Morphine – Cure For Pain


• Motorhead – Bastards


• Mercury Rev – Boces


• Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville


• The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Extra Width


• The Jesus & Mary Chain – The Sound of Speed


• James – Laid


• Helmet – Betty


• Guided By Voices – Vampire On Titus, Static Airplane Jive, and King Shit and the Golden Boys


• Green Jelly – Cereal Killer Soundtrack


• Grant Lee Buffalo – Fuzzy


• Fugazi – In on the Kill Taker


• Frank Black – Frank Black


• The Flaming Lips – Transmissions From the Satellite Heart


• Dinosaur Jr. – Where You Been?


• Depeche Mode – Songs of Faith and Devotion


• Dave Matthews Band – Remember Two Things


• Cypress Hill – Black Sunday


• The Cure – Show


• Cracker – Kerosene Hat


• The Counting Crows – August and Everything After


• Cop Shoot Cop – Ask Questions Later


• Buffalo Tom – Big Red Letter Day


• Bob Dylan – World Gone Wrong


• Blur – Modern Life is Rubbish


• Björk – Debut


• The Auteurs – New Wave

The Band:

The story of Jellyfish begins in 1989, San Francisco. Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning were playing together in a band called Beatnik Beatch. When Sturmer and Manning's songs were turned down by bassist Chris Ketner, in favor of his own tracks, they decided to make it on their own. Manning contacted guitarist Jason Falkner, who had still been unemployed since the breakup of his band, The Three O'Clocks. Sturmer on drums, Manning on keyboards, and Falkner on guitar made up the nucleus of the band for their first LP, Bellybutton, in 1990.

With Bellybutton, Jellyfish would cement their power pop sound, informed by the Beatles, Beach Boys, Queen, Cheap Trick, XTC, and Badfinger. Bellybutton would also produce the band's best Billboard success with the single "Baby's Coming Back" reaching #62 on the Hot 100 Chart. The album would also produce two of the bands signature tracks with "The King is Half-Undressed" and "The Man I Used To Be", the former of which was nominated for an MTV Video Award. But trouble would arise after the supporting tour for the album, as Jason Falkner, tired of being just the band's guitar player, would leave to begin a moderately successful solo career in the pop underground. Touring bass player Chris Manning also left the group due to his dislike of the road life. Unfettered, Sturmer and Manning added bassist Tim Smith and readied for their next release.

The Album:

While Bellybutton may have defined the band's sound, 1993's Spilt Milk galvanized it. Where Bellybutton carried a more streamlined sound and a comparatively flat production, Spilt Milk was an absolute studio production. So much so, that finding out that the band was a three-piece was an absolute shock after hearing the record. Instruments and harmonies fade into and out of the recording surgically and artfully. The album opens with "Hush", an unassuming tip of the hat to the Beach Boys, then immediately moves into the full rock bombast of "Joining a Fan Club". From the first notes of "Fan Club" you know that these men are showmen, and they fully intend on providing us with the most epic experience they can. Another of the album's best tracks, "The Ghost at Number One", picks up on a theme started in "Joining a Fan Club" that makes this group really interesting. This is a band that obviously revels in the grandeur of pop and rock, they are a far out there as you can get. But, on both of these tracks they provide a social critique on the nature of pop stardom. It's a line that Jellyfish walks really well; between completely over-the-top saccharine shallow pop and deeply meaningful and artistic songwriting. Perhaps the best album closer I have ever heard in also on this album. The epic "Brighter Day" carries the sound of some kind of insane circus (ala Carnivale), while bringing home an invariably positive message.

Spilt Milk would meet the world with pretty lack luster success. While the band was promoted well, with several live performances on MTV and media coverage in almost every major U.S. news outlet, the album just barely broke the Billboard Top 200. Shortly after its release, creative differences between Sturmer and Manning would cause Jellyfish to break up permanently. So, here's the question; if these guys were so great, what haven't they even been able to create a cult-following? Why isn't this a band that is referenced constantly even amongst underground fans?

Why Isn't It Remembered?

Reason 1: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

The pop underground was a hard place to be in the early 90s. A lot of people talk about the impact that Nirvana had on the music industry rather flippantly, as if we all just KNOW how big of a shift it was. I don't think the true scope of that change is discussed often enough. Nevermind wasn't just an influential album from the underground, it was an influential TOP TEN album from the underground. That is, by itself, an exclusive category. But Nevermind did something else that made it completely historic. Nevermind did something that Dark Side of the Moon, Highway 61 Revisited, and London Calling couldn't. Nevermind fundamentally, and instantly, changed the record buying market. This is an album that changed the way people thought about music and how they went about purchasing records. This hurt Spilt Milk in two ways. First, the record buying audiences almost immediately had an army of influential groups thrown at them. From the list above and my column about Uncle Tupelo's lost album from the year before, you can see that what was available on the market was of a higher quality and more plentiful, making it difficult for every alternative band to grab their part of the spotlight. Secondly, this was even more difficult for Jellyfish, because their style of positive pop music just wasn't the type of sound that Nevermind pushed record companies and record buying audiences toward. The grunge sound was influenced by punk and American hardcore….and these other guys sounded like the Beach Boys and Queen???

Reason 2: The Underground's Underground….A Paisley Underground

Okay, I'm about to get a bit metaphysical here, so please allow a little patience. I believe Jellyfish is caught in a sort of ‘cool limbo'. Let me attempt to explain. As a reaction to the hardcore punk scene in L.A. during the mid-eighties, a style of pop arose that was purposely informed by psychedelic groups of the sixties. This group of bands became referred to as the Paisley Underground. This scene was small, but included bands like the Bangles, Opal (which would become Mazzy Star), Dream Syndicate, and Red Kross. The Paisley Underground immediately influenced Prince, as can be heard on his 1995 release, Around the World in a Day (and yes….Paisley Park), but would also later be acknowledged by bands like Mercury Rev as having influenced their sound. Jellyfish was certainly, at least, sympathetic to this movement. Original member Jason Falkner was a member of the Three O'Clocks, which was a leading member of the Paisley Underground (bandmate Michael Quercio is actually rumored to have first coined the term). Here's where things get a bit tricky. Jellyfish was part of a movement formed as a reaction to hardcore punk. Nirvana was largely influenced by hardcore punk. So, Jellyfish was trying to be cool by reacting to the anti-cool, just as the anti-cool became cool. All of this created a cool vortex which, I believe, imprisoned Spilt Milk in a sort of ‘cool limbo'. Fans of Doctor Who probably know exactly what I'm talking about there.

Reason 3: Well, They Just Sound Like Queen

Here is an argument against the group that I think is both valid and nonsense. Spilt Milk obviously borrows heavily from the Beach Boys, Queen, the Beatles, and Badfinger. I believe that view of the record hurt its success, much in the same way that Lenny Kravitz's first record was hurt by the constant comparisons to Prince and Jimi Hendrix, and Bruce Springsteen was originally hurt by comparisons to Dylan. I'd also like to take one step further and say that while those comparisons might be true, to assume the work is any less listenable is complete garbage. For every Sex Pistols, there is an Iggy & the Stooges. For every David Bowie, there is a Lou Reed. For every Bob Dylan, a Woody Guthrie. Music is evolutionary, not revolutionary. No musician is a ‘pure original', and I honestly think the best music has come from those that have clearly defined roots. But, nonetheless, the constant comparisons hurt the release.

Reason 4: Ah…..Irreconcilable Differences

Shortly after the release of Spilt Milk, Jellyfish would be no more. Creative differences between Sturmer and Manning would forever dissolve the band and be, I believe, the leading reason why this work has been forgotten. Had the band continued to record at this strength, I don't think there is any way they would have avoided a massive following. Unfortunately for all of us, the group's two leaders have yet to come back together and their post-Jellyfish work has done little to support this fantastic recording. In the meantime, contemporaries like Suede and Sloan have built massive underground followings based on their impressive body of works.

Why Should We Remember It?

Well, of course, it's just a fantastic album. But, Spilt Milk has influenced the music industry in two ways. First, Sturmer and Manning continue to be extremely influential today (even if under the radar). Andy Sturmer has recorded with the Black Crowes, Ozzy Osbourne, and the Merrymakers. But his greatest achievement, and you have no idea how much pleasure it brings me to write this, is that he's big in Japan. Sturmer has picked up regular work producing for the likes of YUKI and Puffy Ami Yumi. Working with the latter allowed this to happen…

Apparently, they are a really big deal across the Pacific. Personally, I'm not sure if that is made for pre-teen girls or really creepy old men. Either way, it's not something that I'll EVER forget. Roger Manning has played with several influential underground acts, including TV Eyes, Imperial Drag, and Moog Cookbook. He also co-wrote two tracks for the Lost in Translation soundtrack, has performed on multiple Beck tracks, and done remixes for Air.

The second reason to remember Spilt Milk is that, whether the album is specifically mentioned or not, it was the trailblazer, and is still the flagship example of this type of power pop. Now that the Nevermind storm has passed, it looks like Jellyfish's day has finally come. Look at artists like Scissor Sisters, The Feeling, The Ark, Mika, Maroon 5, Darkness, Spacehog, and Ben Folds and then listen to an album that was released a decade before any of them debuted. Spilt Milk is a historical landmark for power pop. Maybe other than Canada's Sloan, Jellyfish championed this entire genre with a sole release.

Buying Guide:

Buy it….buy it now…buy five copies and hand them out to your friends for Christmas. I think this album should be a staple of every rock and pop fan's collection. Spilt Milk is an album that has mass appeal from its very first listen and enough lyrical and musical depth to keep the avid music fan interested for years to come.

Fun With iTunes' Genius:

Let's see what else in my collection Genius liked when I selected "Joining A Fan Club"…

1. "Flavor of the Month" by the Posies – Frosting on the Beater
2. "Last One Standing" by Neil Finn – Try Whistling This
3. "Respectable Street" by XTC – Black Sea
4. "Never Be the Same" by Crowded House – Temple of Low Men
5. "Oh, Candy" by Cheap Trick – Cheap Trick [1977]
6. "Strawberryfire" by the Apples in Stereo – Her Wallpaper Reverie
7. "In Quintessence" by Squeeze – East Side Story
8. "Strangers When We Meet" by the Smithereens – Especially for You
9. "Underwhelmed" by Sloan – 4 Nights at the Palais Royale
10. "Mungo City" by Spacehog – The Chinese Album
11. "Tracy Jacks" by Blur – Parklife
12. "Love Time" by Badfinger – Wish You Were Here
13. "From Blown Speakers" by the New Pornographers – Electric Version
14. "Helpless" by Sugar – Copper Blue
15. "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" by Queen – Jazz
16. "You're So Yesterday" by the Marvelous 3 – Hey! Album
17. "Timeless Melody" by the La's – The La's
18. "The Other Side of Summer" by Elvis Costello – Mighty Like a Rose
19. "Stubb (A Dub)" by Mr. Bungle – Mr. Bungle
20. "It's Alright For You" by the Police – Reggatta de Blanc
21. "Tear Off Your Own Head" by the Jesus & Mary Chain – The Complete Peel Sessions
22. "Heart" by Rockpile – Seconds of Pleasure
23. "Drowners" by Suede – Suede
24. "Sodajerk" by Buffalo Tom – Big Red Letter Day
25. "No Surface No Feeling" by the Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go

Pretty good work from the Genius this week. I'd say if you're interested in Jellyfish, you would be interested in any of the bands listed here. Though, I always scratch my head a little bit when Mr. Bungle ends up on a smart playlist.

A Final Thought…

Alright, so it's been a month since I've taken over the column and I've covered singer/songwriter, alternative country, industrial, and now power pop. I can just keep ranting and ranting, but I'm particularly interested in what albums you want to see covered. What albums do you love that no one around you listens to? Outside of it being a good discussion, it might get some column space. That's it for this week, join me next as I'm finally going to tackle the 500 pound gorilla that is Dylan.