Along with L.S.U. and the Altar Boys, another band that was really influential in getting me into alternative music (as opposed to straight metal and thrash of my teenage years) was Breakfast with Amy. Their debut album had enough punk rock influence to appeal to that side of me that wanted noise and aggression, but there was more to their sound than just loud, fast, and angry. There were also these weird, angular, noisy expressions and interesting metaphors about the faith that I wasn’t hearing anywhere else. “Cavewoman” was probably the most original take on conversion I’d heard at the time with its refrain:
Won’t you come out, won’t you?
Won’t you come out and shed your skin,
Won’t you come out, won’t you?
Oh, won’t you be born again?”
But on the album’s closer, “Social Studies” the hardcore punk and noise rock elements come into full effect with an almost turn-or-burn flair:
What’s your, what’s your philosophy, when you’re standing face-to-face with death?”
Over the course of two more albums, the band only got weirder and more experimental. Members also turned up in Fluffy (another favorite of mine), Duraluxe, and Plague of Ethyls. And central band member Chris Colbert became a sought out producer. In the mid-90s it seemed he was producing or recording roughly 50% of albums in the Christian indie rock market.