Mother - Gold Record

Released in 1994, Gold Record was the album by the Champaign, Illinois trio Mother before they eventually changed their name to Menthol as part of a jump to a major label in the mid-nineties. The reason for the name change was a legal matter; unsurprisingly someone already had dibs on the name Mother. With that said, Mother was comprised of former Hum bassist Balthazar De Lay (guitar/vocals), Joel Spencer (bass), and Colin Koteles (drums). They released a seven inch prior to the album and then recorded Gold Record near the end of 1993, which would be released in 1994 through Mud Records. The two tracks featured on the initial single would end up appearing on Gold Record anyway and at a bit better quality. Their sound was one that really could be simply described as “rock n’ roll”. However, the Parasol Records site has a nice line about the band that pretty much pins it down I think…

“Gold Record LP is a brash, confident, and supremely eloquent album that celebrates the glory and decadence embodied within the true spirit of rock 'n' roll. A three piece band with a penchant for clever wordplay, Mother play all-American guitar anthems with Southern underpinnings. The CD was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis.”

That sums it up better than I could really. Their lyrics were always interesting, albeit a little hard to follow sometimes. This carried over even to their major label debut as Menthol, which was simply Self-Titled released in 1995 through Capitol Records. The band would record a follow up to be released on Capitol in 1998 or so, but it was given the thumbs down by the label and Menthol was kindly shown the door out. The album, which was titled Danger: Rock Science! wouldn’t see the light of day until around 2002 in which it was released through the Hidden Agenda label and reunited them with the Parasol family of labels once again. As for that album, well, I’ll just say it’s an interesting one and doesn’t sound anything like the bands first two records. But anyway, here is a couple tracks from the Gold Record to digest.

Mother – Ain’t No Limit [MP3]
Mother – Bring on the Soul Kisses [MP3]

For those interested in picking up Gold Record by Mother it’s still available through Mud Records. So definitely head on over there and pick it up if you enjoy what you hear.