The Karl Hendricks Trio - A Gesture of Kindness LP

Fiasco / Peas Kor (1995)

Karl Hendricks Trio was one of the early bands I got into as I started exploring the worlds of punk and indie rock my junior year of high school.  My friend Pat was the one who first introduced me to them via their first album Buick Elektra.  That remains my favorite of Karl's many records, though I'm sure a large part of that is the nostalgia and my general propensity for having the first record I hear by a band remain my favorite.

For whatever reason, A Gesture of Kindness is the Karl Hendricks Trio record I was least familiar with back in the 90s.  I'm not sure why it didn't get as much play as some of the others, though the fact that I was almost constantly listening to Buick Elektra and Some Girls Like Cigarettes probably played a factor.  That said, I recently decided that I could no longer exist having most of my Karl albums on CD, so I'm trying to pick up the missing ones on vinyl where I can.

I got a very nice deal on a copy of this in really excellent condition and I'm really happy I did.  This is such a great record.  It sounds old, in that it very much has a 90s feeling to it that you'll never hear today with it's blown out guitar sound, but it still manages to sound fresh and exciting.  There's just so much energy crammed into these songs and the quiet-loud-quiet-loud dynamic is one of those things I'll just never get sick of.  

For those not familiar with Karl Hendricks Trio, it's really not the worst place I could think of to start out.  While, as I mentioned, I like Buick Elektra more, I think A Gesture of Kindness or S0me Girls Like Cigarettes will probably yield the best results for first timers.  Give them a shot, they really were one of the great bands of the 90s.

The Karl Hendricks Trio - A Gesture of Kindness:
https://karlhendricks.bandcamp.com/album/a-gesture-of-kindness