Tar - Building Taj Mahal & Muncie

ending the week with the noise rock stylings of Tar

Tar - Building Taj Mahal.mp3
Tar were the forgotten step child of the early 90's noiserock world. Everyone fawned all over Helmet, Jesus Lizard, etc. while this hardworking band from Chicago quietly went about it's business, releasing 5 albums and scads of singles for AmRep and Touch&Go. Tar had a unique guitar sound that stood apart from the grunge and metal stylings so prominent at the time. I remember reading the band's sound was a result of custom made aluminum guitars, but I'm not a guitar tech so I'm not qualified to comment. Whatever.

Over and Out was Tar's swan song, released in 1995. At that point the band had decided the ride was over and the only thing left to do was to release one last set of songs. Over and Out sounded fresher than the previous LP's by a long shot, their best end to end album since 1991's Jackson. The formula for Tar is pretty simple. Rumbling bass lines, loud, atmospheric guitars, low key vocals, songs that start slow and soft and build to crescendo. "Building Taj Mahal" is a freaking behemoth.

It's download one, get another day here at SiLT.

Tar - Muncie.mp3
Tar did record a great deal of rocking, upbeat music. This song isn't one of them. A somber number, second only to the track above in terms of power and emotion on the last album. I'll leave it to another MP3Jay to post the other stuff.