Woodshed - Jason & Alison (1994)

Jason Narducy and Alison Chesley made this great record of guitar and cello pop rock with the intent of making the acoustic instruments into the “wall of sound” that much more electric bands were doing at the time. It worked to an extent (see the second half of the opener Leaving), but the softer and more melodic tendencies still bled through, stopping well past “twee” but well before “grunge.”

I saw them in concert once, and Alison had an unforgettable move where she tipped her cello into the monitor and then rode the feedback into a solo, like Hendrix with a floor stop

The duo expanded to a full band called Verbow, who made a couple of much more conventional alt-pop records in the second half of the 90s. This one is still the one to listen to, imo.

The two had made a connection with Bob Mould (Two days in a row of Bob Mould connections. Didn’t plan it that way), who produced the first Verbow album. Narducy would end up as Mould’s go-to bassist for the past 20 years or so.

After Verbow, Chesley started recording and touring as Helen Money, working her rock-accented cello vocabulary into some pretty wicked minimalist post rock.

This is a record I hadn’t listened to in years but I really enjoyed the spin.