Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
June 25, 1993
It wasn’t just its homebase that differentiated Fluid from its Sub Pop label mates. It was, according to guitarist James Clower, a matter of attention – or lack thereof.
“I don’t want it to sound like I’ve got sour grapes, because I don’t really,” Clower says. “But (Seattle’s) Sub Pop (Records) kind of blew us off because we lived in Denver and all its other bands lived there. They didn’t want to have to deal with us. That’s one of the reasons why we decided to switch labels.”
Often favorably compared to both Nirvana and Mudhoney, the alternative rock band with the loud, fuzzy guitar sounds, performs tonight at Metro. It’s touring to support its first CD on Hollywood Records. Longtime fans will recognize the album title “Purplemetalflakemusic” as the name of the group’s publishing company.
Owned by the Disney conglomorate, Hollywood has more money to feed into its artists than Sub Pop, but it lacks that indie label’s hip-factor. Fluid isn’t bothered by any notions of what its record label may or may not be.
“It took us a long time to decide to look at major labels as possible homes,” he said. “But Hollywood was really interested in us. I think we’re the band that Hollywood thinks can give them maybe some street credibility. They’re really into us and pay attention to us.
“The president of the company told us not to change anything, that they loved us just as we were. Not too many labels sing that tune. Usually everybody wants to change you at least a little bit. Hopefully the only thing that will change is we’ll sell more records.”
Since forming in July, 1985, Fluid has built a reputation as a solid live band. Even without early record company hype, the group earned a respectable following of fans both here and in Europe. Clower remembers how surprised the musicians were when they played Germany. Not only did the kids know all the English lyrics, but they sang them in tune.
“We could have just stood there and played the music and they could have done the rest,” he said, laughing. “It was pretty amazing, especially when you think about how little we could say in German. It was a really neat thing to hear.”
One thing fans on either side of the Atlantic won’t hear in concert is “Hand in Hand,” the last cut of their CD. Clower said he wishes they hadn’t included that song, not because he doesn’t like it, but because they can’t reproduce it live.
“We’ve always been pretty adamant about not recording songs that couldn’t be done in concert,” Clower said. “I play three guitars and the piano on that song, and I obviously can’t do that live. We did try once and it just didn’t sound right. We didn’t want to include the song on the album because if it does get to be popular and people scream it out at shows, we’ll be like, `Sorry. We can’t play it.’ And that’s not fair.” So why include the song on the CD?
“Ultimately it was a Hollywood decision,” Clower said. “They really liked it, and so did we. But if I had my way, we would have put another song on that we could play really well live.”
Of course, Fluid always could perform the song unplugged.
“That could work,” he said, laughing. “That might be our saving grace.”
