It was one of those records I’d downloaded in my college days of downloading more albums than I could ever possibly listen to, and though the name was always memorable, I didn’t know squat about what it sounded like when I picked it up. Toadliquor‘s 2003 compilation of unreleased material, The Hortator’s Lament, on Southern Lord, was $4.99 in the Vintage Vinyl used bin. Even if it sucked, I wouldn’t really lose out in that situation.

That didn’t turn out to be a problem anyway, since The Hortator’s Lament (and a hortator is the Roman military officer responsible for crew morale and coordinating rowing) is full of mid-’90s sludge and blown out doom. I suspect this isn’t so much “Buried Treasure” as it is “An Album a Bunch of People Already Have that I Didn’t Until Now,” but on a trip that also yielded Serpent Throne‘s The Battle of Old Crow, Kaptain Sun‘s Rainbowride and the super-fancypants edition of Master of Reality, among others, I thought somehow this was the most fitting. Maybe that’s because I haven’t listened yet to the Kaptain Sun record.

But hey, even if I am late to the party, maybe you haven’t broken out Toadliquor in a while and this can be a reminder that it’s over on the shelf, just waiting for you to blow the dust off and give it another go. Let that be the worst thing that ever happens.

If we look at the discography of Southern Lord, it’s arguable that the period beginning in 2001 (say, with Warhorse‘s As Heaven Turns to Ash…) and ending in 2004 (say, with The Hidden Hand‘s Mother Teacher Destroyer) could be considered a “Golden Age.” Certainly they released some great stuff before — The Obsessed, Burning Witch, etc. — and some of their best work has come after — Earth, Wolves in the Throne Room, SunnO)))/Boris, etc. — but in terms of what the label originally stood for, the three year period 2001-2004 really captured the essence of its (perceived) doomed mission.

Taking Toadliquor in the context of releases like Sourvein‘s Will to Mangle, SunnO)))‘s White 1 and Grief‘s Turbulent Times, the songs on The Hortator’s Lament fit right in with Southern Lord‘s output of the day. Though they never gained the notoriety of Boris or the cult following of Khanate, Toadliquor nonetheless stood for exactly what made Southern Lord a successful venture in the first place: it was clear that the label was releasing the band because they genuinely enjoyed the music.

Toadliquor hadn’t released a full-length since 1993’s Feel My Hate, the Power is Weight, so it’s not like their album cycle was coming around and they had their lawyer shop their demo around to see who’d pick it up. More than likely, Greg Anderson or Steve O’Malley was into them and asked if they had anything that had never come out. Next thing you know, here I am thumbing through the used bin at New Jersey‘s most fabled record store, and there’s The Hortator’s Lament. Crazy how these things work out sometimes.

Tags: California, Record Shopping, Southern Lord, Toadliquor

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Buried Treasure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.