Numero Group has just released a gorgeous boxed set of the D.C. band Tsunamiâs collected works. Their first record, Deep End, was a part of the soundtrack to my 1990s (they were involved with the Riot Grrl movement) and revisiting it now, it still packs a punch. Thereâs such great interplay between the singers, Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson, and the songs are ragged and noisy while also being deeply melodic. Jenny's DIY mentality (she also founded Simple Machines Records) and genuinely indie/alt ethic certainly helped put them on the map, which then charted the course for so many bands which came along after them. What with '90s indie-pop having its moment (think: bands like Soccer Mommy, Alvvays, Snail Mail, and Mannequin Pussy), thereâs no better time to return to the source, to a time when politics was kinda boring and the insidious dismantling of the democratic process was only in its infancy.
Heroines. The title track to their sophomore release, 1994's "The Heart's Tremolo," gives a good sense of that oh-so-Tsunami thing without diving headfirst into their noisier mudbaths.
