Fetchin Bones was a cross-genre rock band from North Carolina. During a six-year career they produced five albums but were most celebrated for inspired live performances. One reviewer stated they were “a band that must be seen live for a full grasp of their eclectic frenzy”. During numerous tours Fetchin Bones supported acts such as R.E.M., the B52s, X, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Allmusic described the band as “a truly underrated group that didn’t hit it big when they should’ve”. (More from Wikipedia)
Fetchin Bones formed in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1983 and released a total of six albums. Initial bandmembers included two women, lead vocalist Hope Nicholls and bassist Danna Pentes, plus guitarist Gary White and drummer Marc Mueller. Writing for Allmusic, Michael Sutton said that the band was “highlighted by Nicholls’ powerhouse voice, which recalled Janis Joplin in its dirty intensity”. North Carolina studio wizard Don Dixon produced their second through fourth albums, but Fetchin Bones’ no-nonsense hard rock was quite different from the jangle pop that Dixon was normally associated with, such as the fine band Let’s Active.
With their final album, Monster (1989), Fetchin Bones had mastered a sound that presaged the grunge sound that was to come in the following decade; but the band was always out of step. In the beginning, they were alternative rock even before anyone really knew what that was, and their sound became the template for the riot grrrl movement as well. Their albums are quite good; I used to see their videos occasionally on MTV’s late-night alternative-rock showcase 120 Minutes, and they were briefly college-radio favorites. They should have been FM Radio hitmakers as well, though it never happened.
When I first arrived at the ruins of our home after Hurricane Katrina, I picked up a mud-covered disk that turned out to be a Fetchin Bones album – Galaxy 500 as I recall. I laid it back in the grass and then noticed when I was leaving that it had warped into a flower shape. With the baking sun beating down on hundreds of albums strewn across our yard and our neighbors’ yard (where most of the debris from our home wound up), I was at a loss as to how any of those albums could be saved.
As it turned out, my mistake was to flip the album over when I laid it back down; the soaking-wet album covers and the mud were fairly effective protection until I could gather the albums together and stack them in our neighbors’ carport. I returned dozens of times and was continually amazed when I found ever more albums tucked into every possible corner of the yard and bushes and foundation and creek. Bad Pumpkin, Fetchin Bones’ second album is the only one of their albums that I have cleaned up so far; I hope there are others to come.
(February 2014)
