Antietam

One of the more underrated bands on the early-'90s indie rock scene, Antietam is the South's answer to Yo La Tengo, injecting the studied urban coolness of the Hoboken trio with some fiery Southern rock brio, especially in frontwoman Tara Key's impressive guitar work, which at times suggests a post-punk Lynyrd Skynyrd making nice with Neil Young after that whole "Sweet Home Alabama" thing. Like Yo La Tengo, however, this trio did their growing up in public. Key and her bass-playing boyfriend Tim Harris began the 1980s in their native Louisville, KY, as one-half of the Pylon-like post-punkers the Babylon Dance Band. Although extremely locally popular and able to tour throughout the Midwest and eastern seaboard, the foursome only managed to release one single, 1981's "When I'm Home," before splitting in 1983. The following year, Key and Harris formed the less antic quartet Antietam with second bassist Wolf Knapp and drummer Michael Weinert. With Key taking over vocals as well as lead guitar, Antietam had a vaguely folk-rock air in their earliest incarnation, akin to Chronic Town-era R.E.M. or Like This-era dB's. The band's self-titled 1985 debut, with Harris and Knapp playing twin basses under Key's angular, Roger Miller-style (Mission of Burma, not "King of the Road") guitar, is an odd but accessible piece of mid-'80s indie rock. Weinert, clearly the band's weakest player based on the first album, was replaced by the far more competent Sean Mulhall (the duo's former Babylon Dance Band compadre) in time for the much-improved follow-up, 1986's Music From Elba. Although the R.E.M. comparison no longer holds up, there's a moody, near-psychedelic feel to this quietly intense album that shows a definite similarity between Antietam and the mid-'80s Hoboken bands such as the...