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Archers of Loaf
Archers of Loaf is an American indie rock band originally formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1991. The group toured extensively and released four studio albums, one compilation, numerous singles and EPs, and a live album which was released after the band broke up in 1998. In 2011 the band began a reunion tour that coincided with the reissue of four of its albums by Merge Records. In July 2022, the band announced the release of their first album in nearly 25 years, Reason in Decline, released also via Merge Records in October of the same year.
Singer/guitarist Eric Bachmann, guitarist Eric Johnson, bassist Matt Gentling, and drummer Mark Price, all originally from Asheville, North Carolina, formed Archers of Loaf in the early 1990s. Eric Bachmann was a saxophone major at Appalachian State University before dropping out because he "didn't want to be a high school band director."
Their initial release in 1992 was a 45" single, "Wrong" b/w "South Carolina" given away free with issue 1 of Stay Free! magazine.
The band signed with Alias records, and released their second single "Web in Front" in February 1993; it received moderate college radio airplay. The song was featured in a season five episode of Beavis and Butt-Head, and was included on the soundtrack of the movie Mallrats in 1995.
Archers of Loaf released their debut album, Icky Mettle, in September 1993. It was critically well-received, with critic Robert Christgau awarding his second-highest rating of "A", and peaked at No. 18 on the CMJ New Music Monthly Top 150 Album charts, charting for 21 weeks. In the 2008 book The Pitchfork 500 named "Web in Front" one of the top 500 songs of recent decades.
In 1994, the Archers released the EP Vs the Greatest of All Time. However, the song "The Greatest of All Time" does not appear on this release but rather the second album, Vee Vee, released in 1995. Vee Vee followed a similar template as their previous recordings and featured the track "Harnessed in Slums", which became popular on college radio. The album also garnered significant attention outside the independent music scene, culminating in the band being courted by Maverick Records, a division of Warner Music Group, which the band rejected. Bachmann later stated that he and the band did not really consider the offer. The band was still under contract with Alias, and changing labels would put them into considerable debt to Maverick. According to Bachmann, "We already signed a deal [with Alias] and it costs lots of money to get out of these things. If we would have had Maverick buy out our contract, we'd be however many thousands of dollars in debt to them. It's really complex that way and it really didn't make sense to do that". The band had another reason for rejecting the Maverick offer: They did not want to be associated with the other high-profile bands on Maverick. "The other bands [on Maverick] were that bad," said Price at the time. "There are other bands on major labels that are associated with a lot of shit but it's big enough that there are a least a few bands that you like. For us on Maverick, it'd be us and Candlebox and Alanis..."
In 1995 the band had its highest-profile tour opening for Weezer. The band's sometimes brash sound did not go over all that well with the Weezer crowd, and Gentling later said of the tour, "It wasn't as much that we didn't like the Weezer guys, but the opening bands get treated like crap by the people who work (at the venues). And as far as our music is concerned, I don't really know if we're all that compatible, at least live." In 1996 the band released The Speed of Cattle, a collection of B-sides, singles, and John Peel session tracks.
Their third studio album, 1996's All the Nation's Airports, was considered far more accessible than their previous releases, and was the first to be distributed by a major label, Elektra Records (the band was still signed to Alias Records, though). The album was recorded in Seattle and took three weeks to complete, which was the most time the band had been in the studio to complete an album up to that point.
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Archers of Loaf
Archers of Loaf is an American indie rock band originally formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1991. The group toured extensively and released four studio albums, one compilation, numerous singles and EPs, and a live album which was released after the band broke up in 1998. In 2011 the band began a reunion tour that coincided with the reissue of four of its albums by Merge Records. In July 2022, the band announced the release of their first album in nearly 25 years, Reason in Decline, released also via Merge Records in October of the same year.
Singer/guitarist Eric Bachmann, guitarist Eric Johnson, bassist Matt Gentling, and drummer Mark Price, all originally from Asheville, North Carolina, formed Archers of Loaf in the early 1990s. Eric Bachmann was a saxophone major at Appalachian State University before dropping out because he "didn't want to be a high school band director."
Their initial release in 1992 was a 45" single, "Wrong" b/w "South Carolina" given away free with issue 1 of Stay Free! magazine.
The band signed with Alias records, and released their second single "Web in Front" in February 1993; it received moderate college radio airplay. The song was featured in a season five episode of Beavis and Butt-Head, and was included on the soundtrack of the movie Mallrats in 1995.
Archers of Loaf released their debut album, Icky Mettle, in September 1993. It was critically well-received, with critic Robert Christgau awarding his second-highest rating of "A", and peaked at No. 18 on the CMJ New Music Monthly Top 150 Album charts, charting for 21 weeks. In the 2008 book The Pitchfork 500 named "Web in Front" one of the top 500 songs of recent decades.
In 1994, the Archers released the EP Vs the Greatest of All Time. However, the song "The Greatest of All Time" does not appear on this release but rather the second album, Vee Vee, released in 1995. Vee Vee followed a similar template as their previous recordings and featured the track "Harnessed in Slums", which became popular on college radio. The album also garnered significant attention outside the independent music scene, culminating in the band being courted by Maverick Records, a division of Warner Music Group, which the band rejected. Bachmann later stated that he and the band did not really consider the offer. The band was still under contract with Alias, and changing labels would put them into considerable debt to Maverick. According to Bachmann, "We already signed a deal [with Alias] and it costs lots of money to get out of these things. If we would have had Maverick buy out our contract, we'd be however many thousands of dollars in debt to them. It's really complex that way and it really didn't make sense to do that". The band had another reason for rejecting the Maverick offer: They did not want to be associated with the other high-profile bands on Maverick. "The other bands [on Maverick] were that bad," said Price at the time. "There are other bands on major labels that are associated with a lot of shit but it's big enough that there are a least a few bands that you like. For us on Maverick, it'd be us and Candlebox and Alanis..."
In 1995 the band had its highest-profile tour opening for Weezer. The band's sometimes brash sound did not go over all that well with the Weezer crowd, and Gentling later said of the tour, "It wasn't as much that we didn't like the Weezer guys, but the opening bands get treated like crap by the people who work (at the venues). And as far as our music is concerned, I don't really know if we're all that compatible, at least live." In 1996 the band released The Speed of Cattle, a collection of B-sides, singles, and John Peel session tracks.
Their third studio album, 1996's All the Nation's Airports, was considered far more accessible than their previous releases, and was the first to be distributed by a major label, Elektra Records (the band was still signed to Alias Records, though). The album was recorded in Seattle and took three weeks to complete, which was the most time the band had been in the studio to complete an album up to that point.