Honey Bear (1996)
I probably don't have many more Unwound Wednesdays left. I'm pretty much through all of the 7"s of theirs I picked up. This one is a split with Steel Pole Bathtub. I generally love split 7"s. They were pretty much my favorite thing back in the 90's. You buy a record for a band you like and then you get to hear another band on the flip side. I discovered a lot of new music that way and I still love picking up new split 7"s when I have the chance. They're not quite as common as they were back then, but they're still around.
This split is an odd bird. There is no label at all on the record itself and the bands are not identified on the artwork anywhere. I guess that's not really that big of a deal as your loyal record store employee would likely just write it on the plastic sleeve for you before putting it out in the store. Though it does make me wonder how many of these records went out into the world and sat around because no one knew who was on it.
Anyway, Unwound deliver one of their slower paced, gradually building songs for their side of the split. It's classic mid 90's Unwound working off of a sliding bass guitar loop with softly spoken vocals. I tend to like it when they're a bit more chaotic, but it's still a very good song.
Steel Pole Bathtub delivers all of the chaos you would need on this record as their side is really just noise. I'm sure I sound like an uneducated poser and all, but I do not understand this sort of thing at all. The song starts with a fury of pounding drums and feedback before dissipating into the occasional noisy squall over some primal and repetitive chanting. I couldn't tell you if this is good noise or bad noise. All I can tell you for sure that the only way I'll ever play that side of this record again is if I put it on by mistake because the sides aren't labeled. I couldn't find this song streaming online, but you probably don't need to hear it to be honest.
Unwound - "Seen Not Heard":
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