Self Released (2018, Reissue)
Back in 1988, Treepeople released a cassette only album called No Mouth Pipetting. This was back before Guilt, Regret, Embarrassment. I never had this cassette and only became aware of its existence a few years ago when I found it on Discogs. A little creative searching online led me to MP3s of the tape, but I never held out much hope for tracking one down. Then the band decided to start playing some shows again. And went on a short tour. And rereleased the whole thing on limited edition white vinyl. Crazy times.
Once I found out about this, I went a little nuts trying to track a copy down, finally locating one on the online shop of a record store in Boise. It's a little easier to get one now if you're looking as the band put their leftovers up on eBay. So go grab one before they're gone. I'll wait.
Back? This record is really great. Yes, the recording sounds a little dated and sure, in particular the drum fills sound really tinny. But that doesn't change the fact that the songs are still powerful and Doug Martsch & Scott Schmaljohn seem to have had a real chemistry with their guitar playing right away. For what is essentially a demo, Treepeople very obviously had their shit together pretty early on. The LP sounds a lot better than the files that were ripped from the original cassette that I had found online, but at the end of the day it is a self released record from 1988, so it's never going to sound like something recorded yesterday.
I'm thrilled that this album was released on vinyl. Now I don't need to looks for that original tape anymore and if there's one thing that my life doesn't need any more of, it's cassettes.
Treepeople - "Pack of Lies":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mabTAHIi-lM
Treepeople - "Fish Basket":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqWhQgaze3U
I remember when this came out. I had just stopped playing drums in SOC about 6months or so before the release of NMP. Treepeople had been playing around a lot locally (Boise) and were definitely the most popular local punk/indie group, at the time. I was struck just how sophisticated and clean the demo sounded. My other band Psychic Knot has recorded at Horizon Studios previously so I new it was great sounding studio and the engineer Rob Matson was a cool easygoing local country dude (Pinto Bennet band). Treepeople were a lot more rowdy and punk, live. So hearing how ‘pro’ and clean the demo came out was a bit shocking/thrilling. You could actually hear all of the parts everyone was playing. Fast forward to 2018. I am now playing bass in Treepeople to sub for our mentor and friend Pat. After pressing the GRE bonus tracks we decided to release NMP on vinyl. Scotty did the layout and used elements from the OG tape cover. I think it turned out beautifully. Our only regret is that we misspelled Pat’s last name on the tribute. We all missed it during the proof session. In reality, we were in a bit of a rush to get the record pressed before our last tour of 2018 so I can see how it happened. Scotty was really bummed since it’s his own last name too! Anyway, super glad you liked it. I definitely love it and am proud about how it turned out. Cheers, Troy
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