Later this month, the Athens-centric Strolling Bones Records will be releasing a new compilation spotlighting the largely overlooked Floridian trio Beggar Weeds, whose lone 1988 EP Sure Pants Alot has mostly been lost to time. Which is surprising, given their collaborators: Michael Stipe co-produced a handful of the band’s tracks alongside Jim McKay, who’s recently become more well known for his work in TV, having directed episodes of Better Call Saul, Mr. Robot, and The Wire. That R.E.M. DNA can be heard in interesting ways across the songs that have slowly been trickling out from the forthcoming retrospective Tragedy in U.S. History, which adds six previously unheard recordings to the EP’s five, along with two bonus tracks. Today the band is sharing two of those unreleased songs, which together demonstrate how their sound stretches from the post-punk movement simultaneously playing out in Minnesota and the sort of vintage swamp-rock made famous close to home.
“Graduating” clings much tighter to the former, with jangly guitars and tight drumming backing almost nasally down-South vocals. “Senioritis was real and ‘Graduating’ was written from the perspective of a 23-year-old venting the anxiety of leaving college and anticipating disappointment,” shares the band’s Scott Leuthold. “I barely finished a bachelor of design in May of 1986, effectively distracted with the prospect of joining a rock ’n’ roll band. My parents were thrilled and wondering how the band would influence my standing offer to practice architecture with my father and brother back in Jacksonville. The song grew out of a descending, school-bell riff, and lists reservations about the real world—a family job was waiting at home, but I was thankfully preoccupied with the prospect of making a racket with some new pals.”
The Stipe-produced “Picolata” is far more jauntily rooted in their Southern environment, with Leuthold quickly betraying his roots while recalling the track’s origins. “Have you ever wanted to quit your day job and just sell boiled peanuts and fruit at a roadside stand? Or be in a punk rock band making just enough per day to buy a sandwich and a RC Cola? We did, and as generational Florida natives, we revere and miss the ‘old Florida’ we grew up with. I believe that’s what Picolata is about.”
Check out both tracks below, and pre-order Tragedy in U.S. History here before the collection drops on February 20.
