Well, this past weekend was nothing but me trying to fend off a terrible head cold that managed to keep me up all of Friday night. I don’t think I’ve felt any more tired in my life than I did finally giving up on sleep around 10 AM Saturday. The rest of that day was a blur with me downing decongestants and nodding off at different periods of time. Anyway, I hope everyone had a bit more enjoyable weekend than I did.

In between my nodding off and downing disgusting tasting medicine, I naturally listened to a lot of music since I was not in the mood to really move from either my desk chair or bed. Anyway, I found myself revisiting a lot of material from the oft overlooked Hurl. It’s been raining here for the most part here in KC for the past few days and Hurl kind of fit that rainy day mood, so I chose to bust out a couple of their albums.

Originally formed in the early 90’s as trio, the band would release a few singles in this form before replacing their drummer with Noah Leger (Northern Bushmen, The(e) Speaking Canaries) and adding a second guitarist in Dan Wilson, thus rounding out the remaining lineup of Mat Daly and Matt Jencik. The band would then go on to release two albums, A Place Called Today (1996) and Not a Memory (1997), and an EP titled We Are Quiet in This Room (1998) before eventually calling it quits.

Hurl’s sound was a large one for sure and at the same time it was full of complexities that made them highly interesting to listen to. There are points where they often remind me of fellow thick sounding alt rockers Hum, however Hurl unfortunately never achieved the strong legion of cult followers like they did. Hurl were every bit as good though, making music that certainly had a feel of spontaneity to it that eventually landed itself in a mass of glorious distortion. Hurl certainly were great at achieving a sort of epic feel in their music, that’s for sure. For those that may have missed out on Hurl, then by all means check out the tunes posted below.

Radishes 7’’:
Hurl – Positronic Ray [MP3]

Madison Earful 7’’:
Hurl – Dual Showman [MP3]

A Place Called Today:
Hurl – Four Feet to Infinity [MP3]
Hurl – Faceman [MP3]

Not a Memory:
Hurl – Forget to Breathe [MP3]
Hurl – All Lines Have Been Erased [MP3]

Both Not a Memory and the We Are Quiet in This Room EP can be had still over at the My Pal God shop. As far as I know, A Place Called Tomorrow is out of print but can still be found over at Amazon or various other places used for a decent price. Do pick up some or all of these discs if you dig the tunes posted above. After Hurl broke up 3/4th’s of the band went on to form Taking Pictures which have since disbanded. Drummer Noah Leger also had a stint in Milemarker. Singer Mat Daly is probably more known for his art/design work these days and he can be found over at his own personal website here.