It’s shocking how many reissues of lost indie-rock acts offer the descriptor “ahead of its time.†Carissa’s Wierd was never ahead of its time. What it was, and still sounds like, is out of place. Though not entirely anachronistic, the disbanded Seattle group’s sound sticks out from its post-grunge, pre-indie-surge milieu, and luckily its new retrospective, They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: Songs 1996-2003, honors that iconoclasm.
A brief piece I wrote for the Washington City Paper about the new Carissa’s Wierd retrospective. Take a peek here.