Grunge could have been a disaster for the Spin Doctors. The band shared a number of traits with full-on grunge artists, but were initially considered by their record label, Epic, to be too dilute. Indeed, Epic told the band that their first studio album – A Pocket Full of Kyptonite – would not sell because of its musical diversity, and they blew the promo budget on Pearl Jam instead.
But what did the record company know? It turned out that the public loved the idea of pop records set to a funked-up grunge beat, with a range of fusions thrown on top for the hell of it.
Homebelly Groove is a live album that nicely charts the Spin Doctors’ indie period, before they began raiding the charts with their hi-cred catchiness and everything went crazy.
The cassette contains a mix of tracks from two separate gigs, recorded nearly two years apart. The earlier gig, held at the Wetlands Preserve in New York on 27th September 1990, has the better sound of the two. The later gig was recorded during a live WNEW-FM broadcast, from NYC’s Lonestar Roadhouse, on 12th June 1992.
I believe guitarist Eric Schenkman used his original 1965 Fender Stratocaster at the Wetlands gig. Much of it certainly sounds like a single coil Strat played through a Marshall head and cab, and Eric said in a 1993 interview for Guitarist magazine that the ’65 was his main gigging guitar for the first year and a half of the group’s touring life – which would probably just about cover September 1990. Eric subsequently replaced the ’65 with a humbucker-fitted Strat built by a mate, because with prices sharply rising in the vintage guitar market, the classic oldie was too valuable to risk taking to gigs.
The cassette itself is typical of the early 1990s. Released in ’92 as Epic product number 472896 4, it offers no reference to the type of tape media, so I assume it’s a very high grade ferric. Whatever it is it’s got monster bass response and a really nice warmth – perfect sound for a three-piece guitar/bass/drums plus vocalist combo. This is exactly the sort of album I’d much rather listen to on tape than on CD.
The Spin Doctors’ hits were such an object lesson in catchiness, that it’s easy to forget the standard of musicianship that characterises the band. This album, conversely, leaves no doubt at all that the Spin Doctors arrived as one of the most accomplished rock bands – not just of the grunge era, but of any period.
Tape Tardis 