Overwhelming Colorfast

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Bio

A piledriving pop-punk band, Overwhelming Colorfast was a vehicle for Bob Reed, who was the band’s sole permanent member. Reed looked like D. Boon from the Minutemen and sang like Bob Mould in his Hüsker Dü days, but there was a Buzzcocks-like love for sweet pop mixed in with his punky guitar roar.

After a debut 7,” “It’s Tomorrow,” on the tiny indie Sympathy for the Record Industry in 1991, Overwhelming Colorfast signed with Relativity Records and released 1992′s self-titled debut, produced by the hot record maker of the moment, Butch Vig (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, etc.). After 1993′s placeholder EP Bender, Reed hooked up with kindred spirit Kurt Bloch of the Fastbacks and the Young Fresh Fellows and recorded 1994′s excellent Two Words, an album that mixes pop, punk, and ’70s hard rock influences in a manner similar to Redd Kross’ Neurotica. – by Stewart Mason

Inteview

Excerpt from an interview with producer Butch Vig (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Garbage) from Gearslutz.com re: Overwhelming Colorfast.

GS: I came upon a record recently that a friend gave me in high school that I never had a chance to listen to very much at the time. It was the self-titled Overwhelming Colorfast record you produced that came out on Relativity. The liner notes state that it was tracked and mixed during August and September 1991 right before Nevermind hit.

It is a really cool power-pop record with some great tones and cool tunes.

We all know not every record is going to be a smash and I have no doubt just as much hard work went into OWCF’s record as any other you have produced. I’d love to hear about any memories and insight about those sessions and the band. Everyone always wants to hear about the hit records and huge bands but it would be cool to hear about working with an “every man” band that worked hard, toured hard, never quite hit, but I am still sure affected many people.

BV: They were a cool band! Bob Reed was the main vocalist/guitarist songwriter. It was a fun album to make, Bob had a real strong pop sensibility (even covered a Beatles song!)…and Bob was the first person to tell me about this great young poppy punk band called….Green Day. I remember I had a few problems tracking cuz he had his brother Dan playing drums, and Dan would occasionally hit the cymbals slightly before the kick on downbeats..and it drove me crazy…I kept moving his crashes farther away from him in the hope the extra few inches would help de-flam the downbeats!