From the cutout bin: The Connells - Weird Food and Devastation

Welcome to From the Cutout Bin, where we dig up old CDs that have been forgotten for whatever reason and can now be found in the dollar (or quarter) bin at your local used CD store (if your community still has a used CD store). This installment features 1996's Weird Food and Devastation, the sixth album from North Carolina's the Connells.

The Connells were one of the first crop of post-REM bands to come out of the Southeast (ahead of groups like Better than Ezra and Hootie and the Blowfish). They got their start in Raleigh, N.C. and achieved unexpected success all over Europe with 1994's "74-75." They spent most of 1995 touring in Europe, and those experiences affected this album.

According to the reviews I found online of this album, fans consider it to be the Connells' "weird" one. And it is both dark and jaded; Weird Food sounds, if anything, like a band trying to figure out its next step and how to hold on to its newfound audience. But many of the songs are not that strong: if the chorus is catchy, the verses are boring. If the intro is intriguing, the rest of the song slacks off and dies. "Hang On" starts out strong, but then loses it with a sing-song chorus and an atonal lead guitar line. "Smoke" overstays its welcome. The album as a whole is too long, clocking in at a bloated 14 tracks (REM's New Adventures in Hi-Fi, also released in 1996, has been accused of this as well).

My verdict: good, but not great. It was the first Connells album since 1987 not to chart in the Billboard Top 200 and modern rock radio ignored both the singles, "Maybe" and "Fifth Fret."

By 1996, the Connells had seen college-rock bands who followed in their footsteps become multiplatinum superstars (especially Hootie and the Blowfish). REM, the band they came up behind*, were the biggest band in the world. Did they feel pressure to deliver with this one? I don't know; maybe. Did they deliver? Not really. This could be the fault of their longtime label, TVT, as the singles were pretty decent; TVT screwed over plenty of bands (check out Trent Reznor's thoughts on Nine Inch Nails' short time with the label).

After Weird Food and Devastation, the Connells released one more album for TVT, 1998's Still Life, which also failed to chart, and then self-released a final album, 2001's Old-School Dropouts. They are in semi-hibernation now, and occasionally play shows in and around Raleigh, where they remain popular. Ongoing disputes with TVT have kept any sort of greatest-hits compilation from being released (and TVT's recent bankruptcy can't help matters on that front, as the Connells' back catalog is now owned by Prudential Securities).

Here's "Fifth Fret," the second single (and the catchiest song) off the album:

You know, as I watch the video, it strikes me that matters weren't helped by the fact that this band looks like the English department at your local college decided to start jamming in somebody's attic.

*early REM producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter also did production work on the early Connells' albums