Complete Recordings, 1987-1989

RELEASE
2000
LABEL
Innerstate Records
GENRES
Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock

Album Review

As Donner Party's first two self-titled albums have long been out-of-print, this CD anthology combining the two with a previously unreleased third album and some live tracks is the ultimate collection. The band's naive melodies, surreal lyrics, and songwriter Sam Coomes' delivery have all worn the test of time. Though the third album is a shade more experimental/instrumental ("Chocolate Shake," "Nutty Booty"), advanced, and heavier ("King Chico," "Trepanned") than the first two, it's only by a matter of degrees. The off-kilter harmonies and skewed rock melodies that fans grew to love are at the core of Donner Party's groundbreaking sound that would later become identified as "'indie-rock." Ironically, they turn in a straightforward cover of the Who's "Squeeze Box."
Denise Sullivan, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. Before Too Long
  2. Halo
  3. Are You in Tune With Yourself?
  4. Godlike Porpoise Head of Blue-Eyed Mary
  5. When You Die Your Eyes Pop Out
  6. The Ghost
  7. The Owl of Minerva
  8. Oh Esmeralda
  9. John Wilkes Booth
  10. That That Is, Is
  11. Jeez Louise
  12. Spiders
  13. Surfin' to the Moon
  14. Clean Living
  15. G-L-O-R-I-A
  16. Why Bother?
  17. Sickness
  18. Up & Down
  19. Try to Imagine a Terrible World
  20. Boxfull of Bones
  21. Mrs. Miserack
  22. What a Gush of Matter into Life Is Here
  23. Treepig
  24. Unfriendly
  25. Trust in Henry
  26. Friendly
  27. Lost in Hoboken
  28. Blue Starch Acid for Baby's New Tooth
  29. Please Don't Listen
  30. Would You Like to Have Something to Eat?
  31. When I Was a Baby
  32. Dasen GR På Svennsta Skä
  33. Chocolate Shake [#]
  34. King Chico [#]
  35. Your Mother [#]
  36. Harold Payne [#]
  37. Notker the Stammerer [#]
  38. Kore Cosmu [#]
  39. Goodnight Irene [#]
  40. Everyone Is a Girl [#]
  41. Nutty Botty [#]
  42. The Nixie [#]
  43. We Cannot Be Happy [#]
  44. Birthday Suit [#]
  45. Trepanned [Live][#]
  46. Spiders [live/#]
  47. Friendly [Live]
  48. Breakfast [live/#]
  49. Treepig [live/#]
  50. Sickness [live/#]
  51. Goodnight Irene [#/Live][Live]
  52. When I Was a Baby [live/#]
  53. Squeeze Box [live/#]