Loud Sugar - Loud Sugar (1991)

Ideated from: a week of stuff that doesn’t seem to exist on streaming services

Sometime shortly before the industry had settled on the term “alternative rock” there was a body of music that people briefly called “college rock.” There was nothing particularly academic about it; it was just played on the loose web of student-run college radio stations around the country.

Loud Sugar wasn’t a particularly successful college rock band, but the sound and outlook are typical of the time. The music is mildly funky and slightly acid-house-ish like lots of things were at the time *

There was a whole mini-generation of college rock that didn’t survive the transition from CDs to digital, even though they were on an imprint of a major label. So I had to find it on somebody’s Youtube channel

• Before the Internet, by the time you heard about cool musical trends and found bands that were playing them, the seminal work of the trend was already old news and all you heard were photocopies. This was how several bands briefly made money

Tracks I Liked

Instant Karma Coffee House - got a lot of play from my friends and me and is probably the best song here. Processed but soulful like Primal Scream or World Party, with a nerdily neo-hippie-ish lyric