Drummer Dan Goodwin met guitarist Julian Swales at college in 1980, who already knew bassist Patrick Fitzgerald from a party he attended in 1985, and the trio began rehearsing together, taking their name from a Hygena advert that Swales spotted on the side of a bus. The band's first single, 'The Last Gasp Death Shuffle', featuring Swales on lead vocals and bass, as well as guitar, was recorded in just one day on an eight-track in a Kennington basement, and was released in December 1987 on the band's own Gold Rush Records. It gained a 'Single of the Week' accolade in NME, and this led to the band signing with British indie label One Little Indian Records. It was around this time that Fitzgerald put his career as a medical doctor on hold to devote himself fully to the band, and their first singles for One Little Indian, 1988's 'Prize' and 1989's 'The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule', both made it onto the NME Writers' '100 Best Indie Singles Ever' list, published in 1992. Their first full-length album, 'Love Is Hell', was released in April 1989, with Fitzgerald's impassioned, wordy, often bluntly personal vocals careening over what sounded like a mass of swirling guitars, even though the band only had one guitarist. Swales' chiming, effects-laden style of playing drew comparisons to the guitarists of the Chameleons, Cocteau Twins, and A.R. Kane, and the group's melodic yet abstract sound was a precursor to the shoegaze scene of the late 1980's/early 1990's. Despite the promising start, the band faced a subdued reception from the mainstream music industry, generally due to their lyrical content, such as 'Margaret's Injection', from the 1989 'Elephantine' EP, being a fantasy about killing then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Fitzgerald was openly gay, and his lyrics were unapologetic, especially on tracks like 'Prize' and 'Within The Daze Of Passion', but for once their label was very understanding, with A&M never asking him to change his words or closet himself in interviews. However, some indie-focused television programs like Snub TV and Rapido failed to give them much coverage, and they were not at first offered a John Peel radio session, although they did eventually did get one after asking Peel personally.
The group had signed with A&M Records in the US in 1990, and went into the studio with producer Hugh Jones, with their second album 'Strange Free World' being released in February 1991, and spawning some moderately successful singles which were very well received by college radio in the US. The band went back into the studio in 1992, again with Jones at the helm, and their third album 'The Death Of Cool' came out in August that year, named in honour of the recent passing of Miles Davis, whose influential album titled 'The Birth Of The Cool' had been released in 1950. A&M were wary of the band's choice of 'Breathing Fear' for the first single, due to its touchy subject matter of gay bashing, so 'Smiling' became the album's initial single in the US, although 'Breathing Fear' was released later in the UK only. The band toured extensively, including a high-profile slot opening for their US label-mate Suzanne Vega, and in late 1993 they began work on their fourth album, co-producing it themselves with engineer Pete Bartlett. Their label rejected the album twice, but eventually both label and band agreed to bring in up-and-coming producer Pascal Gabriel to work on a couple of tracks, as one of the label's complaints about the album was that it seemed to lack a potential hit single. Gabriel produced the new song 'Come On Now', that had been written after the rest of the record was already recorded, and he also remixed two of the album's other tracks. 'Cowboys And Aliens', was released in the UK in October 1994, and although the band admitted that they enjoyed working with Gabriel, his changes did nothing to help the album's dismal sales. When it was released in the US a few months later, it was largely ignored by the same alternative rock radio and media that had championed them just a few years earlier, and by the end of that year, both A&M and One Little Indian had dropped the band. Shortening their name to Kitchens O.D. and signing to the London-based indie label Fierce Panda Records, they issued the single 'Feel My Genie' in May 1996, but despite being named 'Single of the Week' by Melody Maker, the group officially disbanded that summer after a farewell gig at Kings Cross in London. Although I knew of the band's work, I didn't have any of their albums, and so this collection of non-album b-sides is my introduction to the group, and I must say that I was impressed enough to investigate their other recordings, so if you don't know them either then give them a try.
Track listing
Disc I - 1987-1990
01 The Last Gasp Death Shuffle (single 1987)
02 Escape (b-side of 'The Last Gasp Death Shuffle')
03 Concede (b-side of 'Prize' 1988)
04 Innocent (b-side of 'Prize' 1988)
05 Into The Sea (b-side of 'The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule' 1989)
06 Elephantine (single 1989)
07 Margaret's Injection (b-side of 'Elephantine')
08 The 1001st Fault (b-side of 'Elephantine')
09 Anvil Dub (b-side of 'Elephantine')
10 These Drinkers (b-side of 'Drive That Fast' 1990)
11 Elephantiny (b-side of 'Drive That Fast' 1990)
12 Three To Beam Up (b-side of 'Drive That Fast' 1990)
Disc II - 1992-1996
13 Goodbye Voyager (b-side of 'Breathing Fear' 1992)
14 Skin (b-side of 'Breathing Fear' 1992)
15 Air Shifting (b-side of 'Breathing Fear' 1992)
16 Glittery Dust (b-side of 'When In Heaven' 1992)
17 Don't Come Back (b-side of 'When In Heaven' 1992)
18 Spacedolphins (b-side of 'When In Heaven' 1992)
19 Jesus Nevada (b-side of 'Now It's The Time To Say Goodbye' 1993)
20 White Horses (b-side of 'Now It's The Time To Say Goodbye' 1993)
21 What We Really Wanted To Do (b-side of 'Now It's The Time To Say Goodbye' 1993)
22 Feel My Genie (single 1996)
23 To Love A Star (b-side of 'Feel My Genie')
