Squirm | ja

There are 4 bands called Squirm.
The first are a sonic pop band from New Zealand formed in 1992. They released an independent cassette ep followed by 2 cds on Failsafe Records - a 6 track mini album Whip me honey, and an album Mastermistakemaker.
They followed this with a self released Cd and have 1 more album unreleased.
Guitarist Michael J Hex Hex (Michael Brassell) died in february 2004 of pneumonia. He had released discs under the name Michael J Hex and the hiss explosion and was one of the nicest guys in New Zealand music.


From the Failsafe Records press release for the band.(http://www.failsaferecords.com)

Meet Squirm - a band living in Christchurch New Zealand.
Squirm was born in 1992 when two friends Virgil Reality and Mike Hex joined forces with a rather anarchic drum-thrashing accountant named Hat to form a 'Progressive Art Punk Glam Rock Band'.

Well that was 1992, and since then Lawrence O'Blivion has replaced Hat on drums becoming the latest addition to the Squirm Family.

Whip Me Honey EP
'Whip Me Honey' is Squirm's five track single / EP / Mini LP containing two prime cut singles from the forthcoming album Mastermistakemaker and three essential tracks from the Squirm back catalogue exclusive to this EP plus "Voodoo" one of the standout tracks from the excellent Good Things Compilation.
These recordings have captured the sound, feel, and attitude of the band - Feedback, Beauty, Volume, and Chaos, all colliding in strangely askew pop songs. Tracks are - "Whip Me Honey", "Traumatize", "Feeding The Ground", "Voodoo", "Gone With The Weird", and "Mayhem". Feast Your Ears!

Recording
The recording of these songs was handled by Squirm themselves, in an effort to strip the recording process back to the basics and capture the essences of Squirm's Music - Songs, Musicians, and Instruments. The songs were laid down as spontaneously as possible mostly live to multitrack, but where appropriate anything from a Dictaphone to a crappy cassette deck has been used to capture the right moment. The whole EP and LP projects costing under $800.00 as a positive spin-off to this approach. The outstanding thing about the sound of these recordings is the complete appropriateness of the production for each track. No track sounds overproduced or underproduced, in fact the songs come out in such a way that you don't notice anything but the song.

As Virgil puts it "Bands tend to spend too much time and money on recording. Most studio situations are a rip off. You're told that to get a great-sounding record you've got to spend $20,000. That's bullshit! There are songs on our record recorded with a Dictaphone that sound great because that approach worked with that song, it's what the song required".

'Mastermistakemaker' Album
Mastermistakemaker is the album you never knew you'd always been waiting to hear. It comes out of nowhere and blows you away with its raw popness. Simple powered melodies and warped angularity. Captured 'just right' with the minimum of fuss this album contains 12 slices of Squirm including "Whip Me Honey", "Spoonbender", "Broken Planet", "Thou Art Golem", "West", "Love Is Love Is Love", "Cantankerous", "Bury Us Together", "Mouthbreather", "Drug Driven Bedroom Machine", "Gone With The Weird", and "Why Not Me".

Sonic pop twisters Squirm tamper with the very fabric of pop while worming contagious melodies though their crafted pop tunes. Love of a good melodic pop song with twisted, warped guitar lines wrought through them in anything but the obvious way around Squirm's infectious pop grooves. Feast Your Ears!


The other Squirm. Formed in 1995
Squirm was a grunge-punk band from Rockford, Illinois circa 1995-96. The lineup was fluid, with 11 or more people having been members of the group by the time of its disbandment. Noteable members include Travis, Brice, "Johnboy", Joshua, Lee, Dave, and Abbey. One lineup of Squirm recorded and released a cassette-only album entitled "Pretty Ugly" in 1995.

The 3rd Squirm was a Danish band, highly praised in the underground scene. They've toured with Rich Kids on LSD, among others. Unfortunately, their releases never made it further than a few demos.

The 4th squirm was an early 80s hardcore punk band from NYC in the States. However probably only a couple of songs were released on the "Big Apple - Rotten to the Core" compilation. .