Squirrel Bait
| Squirrel Bait | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Louisville, Kentucky, United States |
| Genres | Post-hardcore, punk rock, indie rock,emocore |
| Years active | 1983–1988 |
| Labels | Homestead Records |
| Associated acts | Bitch Magnet, Bastro, Gastr del Sol, The Lemonheads, Love Jones, King Kong, Slint, Evergreen, The Breeders, The Glasspack |
| Past members |
Peter Searcy David Grubbs Brian McMahan Pete Schuler Britt Walford Clark Johnson Ben Daughtrey |
Squirrel Bait was an American punk band from Louisville, Kentucky active from 1983 to 1988. Squirrel Bait's dense, moody, melodic hardcore sound, featuring pronounced tempo shifts, foreshadowed the grunge sound of the late 1980s as well as math rock. Squirrel Bait, along with Hüsker Dü, are often noted as precursors to the emocore ("emotional hardcore") sound that arose from the D.C. hardcore punk scene with bands like Rites of Spring, Beefeater and Fugazi.
Squirrel Bait signaled the second coming of American punk - bands of little brothers and sisters who got to grow up on Black Flag and Hüsker Dü without a preparatory course in Supertramp. ... Like a hundred other little Düs across the country, Squirrel Bait managed to make a couple of records before spintering off to form five more bands. Unlike most of that punk rock loam, the members of Squirrel Bait chewed up their legacy and shat out something curious and consequential.
The band started as a hardcore punk trio of high school friends, originally known as Squirrelbait Youth, with David Grubbs on guitar and vocals, Clark Johnson on bass guitar, and Rich Schuler playing drums for the band's first demo tape in August 1983. By the time Squirrel Bait recorded their second demo in 1984, Peter Searcy had taken over vocal duties and Britt Walford was playing drums. Three of this demo's songs would later appear on the band's vinyl releases.
Walford left and was replaced by Ben Daughtrey on drums and Brian McMahan joined on second guitar. The band continued to play locally and toured to nearby cities where they opened for Hüsker Dü and Chicago-based bands Naked Raygun and Big Black, who recommended Squirrel Bait to their label, Homestead Records. Through Homestead, Squirrel Bait released an eponymous EP in 1985, a single in 1986 and an LP in 1987, all of which were later compiled on a single CD.
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