Bluetip...

One of the more overlooked bands that were found on the Dischord roster through the 90’s was Bluetip. Originally formed in 1995 by former Swiz members Jason Farrell and Dave Stern, the band recorded three full-lengths and a nice rarities comp before eventually calling it a day. While practically all of their recorded output is worth listening to in my opinion, I would have to say that Join Us was the bands finest moment. It was their second album and found the band with a much more comfortable sound than their first album and didn’t teeter off into odd explorations that of which sort of brought Polymer, their third release, down a bit.

I’ve seen it argued in places that the band just wasn’t as catchy or possibly were just to average to really gain any sort of notice among all the other then current bands that were on Dischord. While I will admit that Bluetip probably wasn’t the most captivating or head turning band on the label, they do deserve some sort of respect. They were consistently good from record to record and carried on that DC post-hardcore sound just as well as anyone. While the music may have fallen flat to some ears, I always felt that Jason Farrell’s lyrics were quite redeeming. While they were in good fun, Farrell’s lyrics were often very self deprecating along with being fairly colorful and interesting. They were definitely something I felt that most could relate back to in some way or another. The band shared a certain similarity to Jawbox and Kerosene 454, which to me is more appealing than about 75% of the stuff I hear now and obviously about 100% more appealing than any garbage that is currently making the rounds on mainstream airwaves right now. It just seems that bands that were consistently good but not great back then got swept under the rug way to easily. Now days with such a high interest in file-sharing and online music, I think it’s necessary to get as much of these types of bands out from under there.

I apologize for my minor rant that was thrown in there, but that aside, Bluetip were a very solid band in my eyes and I do hope others out there feel the same way.

Bluetip – Salinas [MP3]
Bluetip – F- [MP3]
Bluetip – Bad Flat [MP3]

For those interested, all of Bluetip’s major releases can be found over at Amazon. Also after the band split, Jason Farrell went on to form Retisonic with former Garden Variety and one time Bluetip drummer Joe Gorelick. Definitely check those guys out if you’re a fan of the tunes above.