Red Aunts-Saltbox (1996)
Artist: Red Aunts
Catalog Number: 86473-2
Year of Release: 1996
Country and Year of Edition: US 1996
Sell Price: $3.01
Sell Date: 8/31/24
Condition: VG+/VG+
Discogs Last Sold 8/24/24 NM/NM $3.33
Low: $1.00
Median: $3.00
Average: $3.77
High: $15.77
Current low price: $1.17
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 29
Have/Want: 259/41
Where Sold: Falls Church, VA
Time It Took To Sell: 12 years
Where and When Bought: Used $5 from Venus Records NYC year it came out
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: C
Sad To See It Go: No
I liked the previous years album #1 Chicken by Red Aunts to go back to the well with their fourth full length Saltbox. After giving this a few listens, there is a bit of a question "why?" I did have over a half dozen other things that sold recently to write about. Why did I want to go over this today above everything else?
There is a bit of asking why does anything exist. This album has one great song, the 52 second "I Can't Do Anything Right." I guess the song "Fake Modern" has a charming "Nirvana template" with a speak over counterpart. The rest is straight garage-punk risen from the dime-a-dozen bands that mine this to be a adequate version of the music. The one band I think would be a fair comparison is Babes In Toyland, who were a few years before and a few pegs better.
That said, maybe if I started with the band in their Sympathy For The Record Industry years instead of the first Epitaph one I'd have a little more of a nostalgic spirit. Maybe #1 Chicken was on the Mars Bar jukebox circa 1995 to expose me to it a little xtra. I don't remember having ever seen them live. Maybe this is the issue--I somehow want to be exposed to this stuff on singles and on bar stages, but by the time I heard them the band was already "pro," even if this record sounds as "punk" as anything else in 1996. Although "punk" is not really how I'd describe this band. More like professional amateurs 4 records into a 5 album career that ended after 7 years before they moved on to something else. That said, they seem good live as this video from Amsterdam in 1996 shows. This is the type of material that translates better on a stage than a studio.
Leader Terri Wahl's next band was The Screws that did a couple albums for In The Red who issued a compilation of the Red Aunts in 2014 before an actual reformation in 2016 that lasted for a string of shows before the unexpected passing of their bass player Debi Martini in 2019. Wahl got into doing a catering business that I guess is her focus now.
Saltbox is pleasant enough, but this record doesn't hold up to repeated listening over time.
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