Misery, Women And Karl Hendricks Trio In The Early '90s [MP3]

There were some years there in the early and mid-'90s during which it seemed Karl Hendricks of the excellent Karl Hendricks Trio operating out of Pittsburgh, PA, was the most heartbroken man in indie rock. Which is saying a lot, considering the preponderance of amazing sad-sack indie rock tunes of the era. Yes, no matter how many times you'd had your entrails stomped on by a member of the fairer sex, Mr. Hendricks not only had it worse, he'd already documented it in song. From "Stupidhead" off 1992's Buick Electra to 1995's lacerating "Foolish Words Of A Woman In Love" off A Gesture Of Kindness, Hendricks had been there: confused, crying in his beer or seriously pissed. Or all three at once.

We were reminded of all of this the other day when "You're The Man" surprisingly came up on the IPod as it shuffled its way across another work day. The tune is not Hendricks' most pointed or powerful, but perhaps that is because Hendricks saves the agony for the coda. Anyway, we did a quick check over at Hype Machine and a search for "Karl Hendricks" returns a single hit for some band covering a Karl Hendricks Trio jam. That will not stand. So here's two, the aforementioned "You're The Man" and the stirring classic "The Scoffer's Reply." The latter tune comes from A Gesture Of Kindness, which went out of print and was subsequently reissued by Spirit Of Orr in 2004 (it looks like they still have copies). Hendricks' most recent set was the excellent The Jerks Win Again, which was issued by Merge in 2003. A new record was recorded last year and is expected to see release sometime in 2007.

Karl Hendricks Trio -- "You're The Man" -- The Karl Hendricks Trio Sings About Misery And Women
Karl Hendricks Trio -- "The Scoffer's Reply" -- A Gesture Of Kindness

You can stream three additional cuts at Merge's media page for KHT. The tunes are "Naked And High On Drugs," "You're A Bigger Jerk Than Me," and "The Overweight Lovers." We highly recommend the first and last tune. Here's the page. And here's where you can buy various KHT titles, mostly the later ones, from Merge, who also maintains a band discography here. You can also download "The Overweight Lovers" from the band's page at Better Propaganda here. Additionally, you can stream seven cuts at a page set up by former drummer (1992-1996) Tom Hoffman here, including the superlative cut "Stupidhead."

Finally, here are the vital statistics:

Karl Hendricks Trio: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr | Wikipedia