Hands down (or should that be needles down?) the two Jellyfish releases, Bellybutton and its follow-up, Spilt Milk are not just 2 of the finest releases from the ’90s—but the best of any era. Which, as I pointed out yesterday, only speaks to the taste level of the fine folks over at Omnivore Recordings.
And yes, we’ve got an opportunity for one of you to win both Omnivore Jellyfish reissues today, but first a bit on Omnivore itself.
Omnivore Recordings may have been formed in 2010, but the idea has been in the heads of its owners forever. Four music business veterans, with over 100 years combined experience, set out to fix what was missing in the music industry—the love of music.
They’ve all lived and loved music for their entire lives—whether sweeping the floors of record stores to heading up entire divisions at major labels and publishers. Omnivore made its debut on Record Store Day in April, 2010 with the release of Big Star’s Third (Test Pressing Edition) and a Buck Owens single of previously unreleased vintage recordings.
They both sold out instantly with the Big Star release winding up in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine in an article about the success of Record Store Day. Focusing on music that is rare, overlooked or has never seen the light of day and specializing in quality, creative packaging, Omnivore is rolling into 2012 with new projects in including exclusive Omnivore webstore-only releases for the most hard-core collectors.
The Jellyfish Bellybutton and Spilt Milk Reissues
Early ’90s power pop at its finest—commercially available for the first time on vinyl in the U.S.! After the demise of Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning’s Beatnik Beatch, the two recruited Roger’s brother Chris and former Three O’Clock guitarist Jason Falkner to create Jellyfish.
While Jason and Chris left after the first album and tour—the follow-up, Spilt Milk, was created by Andy and Roger with help from Jon Brion (Aimee Mann, Kanye West, Fiona Apple, Spoon), Lyle Workman (Todd Rundgren, Bourgeois Tagg, Beck), and T-Bone Wolk (Hall & Oates).
Even though the group lasted for only two albums and four years, their influence on power pop bands since has been as profound as the bands that Jellyfish were influenced by: Cheap Trick, Big Star, Badfinger, Raspberries, Brian Wilson, and more—all part of the power pop tradition being handed down one generation at a time.
Omnivore Recordings’ release of the two Jellyfish albums on LP marks the first time either have been commercially available on vinyl in the U.S. Bellybutton was only released on vinyl as a promotional item in 1990—its only official release at the time was on CD. The first 1,500 copies of the Omnivore release carefully replicates the original tri-fold gatefold packaging and is pressed on translucent blue vinyl.
Spilt Milk has a similar story. It was only released on vinyl in the U.K. The U.S. release was, again, only on CD. This time around Omnivore is pressing the first 1,500 copies on translucent green vinyl.
Cheap Trick, Big Star, Badfinger, Raspberries, Brian Wilson—could there be a better set of influences?
Enter to win a copy of both of Omnivore’s Jellyfish reissues by adding a name to that list above in the comments to this post. Who have we left out that you feel should most certainly join the aforementioned heady line-up of performers as influences? (Pro tip: don’t say The Beatles.)
We’ll choose one thoroughly enlightened winner with a North American mailing address on Monday, 1/16.
