Shiner...

Here I am, a little over a year into this blog, and I’ve never written about one of my favorite Midwest acts, Shiner. Shiner was undoubtedly one of, if not the main band, that got me into the more bombastic hard hitting style of rock that has somehow grown into its own little genre here in the central plains. Formed in 1992 right here in my backyard of Kansas City, MO by Allen Epley along with Shawn Sherrill and Jeff Brown, the band would only play a handful of shows before Tim Dow would replace Brown on drums. With that lineup, the band recorded a 7 inch record for Desoto, which then opened the door for their first full-length titled Splay in 1995.

Splay is more of a straight forward rock album than what Shiner’s sound would later evolve into, however it still has the significant low end rumble and hammering guitar rhythm that the band was notorious for. The complexity wasn’t there yet, but Splay still contains one of my favorite Shiner songs in “Brooks”. It’s a song I’ve literally listened to probably thousands of times by now and that may well be underestimating that number a bit.

After the release of Splay, the band parted ways with bassist Shawn Sherrill and replaced him with former Season to Risk member Paul Malinowski. With Malinowski’s presence, the band then began to grow into the large and at times overwhelming sound that would grace their last couple records. For their second album Lula Divinia, the band left Desoto to record on Hit It! Recordings. The album would be released in 1997, to which saw the band pretty much topple their debut effort in just about every way. The band brought forth a slight progressive touch while still keeping the raw power within their music that made Splay so appealing. However, Lula Divinia is whole other record than that. The song structures and usage of melodies were strung together with a much better flow.

Before the recording of their third album Starless, the band brought in guitarist Josh Newton, who has been in so many bands I don’t even want to begin to count them. Along with Josh, the band saw a change at drummer with Tim Dow exiting the position and the arrival of Jason Gerken, also of many many other great bands, including KC favorites Molly McGuire/Gunfighter. With the band now at a four piece, they recorded and put out Starless, which was released on Owned & Operated Records in 2000. As one would imagine with the band adding another guitarist, the groups sound only dived further into more diverse and technical territory.

It’s hard to say whether Starless is my favorite Shiner album or not. I’ve always sort of flipped flopped between Lula Divinia and it. Both are amazing records in their own respective rights; however it’s really just too tough to decide. Starless seems to be a much more drifting record when it comes to guitar interplay between Epley and Newton. Everything really intertwines so well and there is sort of calm to the album that I actually like that’s sort of due to Epley’s vocals on it, not that they differ in any major way from past material. Regardless, Starless might have the slight edge, who knows.

After a stint with a couple different labels, Shiner returned home to Desoto for 2001’s The Egg. The album was recorded by J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels) and to a lot of Shiner fans is considered the bands finest moment. The Egg, for me personally, took a bit of time to fully appreciate. It’s a mammoth of a record and not just in sound either. It’s a large record in which it takes a bit in order to completely wrap your head around something that shoots off into so many wild and creative directions. Even after following the band through all three of their previous records, it was still difficult to even expect this sort of sound from the band. I’d underestimated them the whole time, and I even thought they were amazing during that period! Weird how something like that happens. But anyway, The Egg was the achievement in precision song writing and crushing low end that the band had been working towards their entire career. If someone were to say that this is their finest moment, well, they would have a damn good case. When it comes down to it though, for me, I always go back to one of the two records I mentioned before as my favorites. Call me lame, or whatever, but I think for a band like Shiner to make it so damned tough to choose between a favorite album is a pretty good example of a great band that was blessed with a number of talented musicians and songwriters.

Splay:
Shiner – Brooks [MP3]
Shiner – Martyr [MP3]

Lula Divinia:
Shiner – Third Gear Scratch [MP3]
Shiner – Sleep it Off [MP3]

Starless:
Shiner – Kevin is Gone [MP3]
Shiner – Unglued [MP3]

The Egg:
Shiner – Surgery [MP3]
Shiner – The Egg [MP3]

Bonus
Semper Fi 7”:
Shiner – Sailor’s Fate [MP3]

After a year of touring in support of The Egg the band called it quits in January of 2003. The members have since moved on to various other projects. Allen Epley has The Life and Times and Josh Newton is keeping busy with The Great Fire of 1666 and From Autumn to Ashes. Paul Malinowski has moved on to do a lot of production work while Shawn Sherrill can currently be found in new wave/post-punk/indie hybrid Roman Numerals. As for finding Shiner releases, that still remains fairly easy. You can pick up any of their full-lengths from Amazon brand spanking new. Also, keep an eye out for a re-release of their EP Making Love through Anodyne Records here fairly soon.