Salem 66 was formed in 1981 as a trio by guitarist-vocalist Judy Grunwald, bassist-vocalist-songwriter Beth Kaplan, and drummer Susan Merriam. Over the course of a decade a few members came and went as the lineup grew and the band recorded a 12-inch EP, two 45s, four LPs, and a compilation CD before breaking up. Now, 35 years later, Don Giovanni Records has dished SALT, a fresh collection of ten previously released songs by the band on vinyl, compact disc, and digital, as an overview to the Salem 66 catalog, becoming available digitally for the first time. Tapping into the zone where jangle pop mingles with post-punk, SALT finds their sound holding up spectacularly well. It’s available now.
Although many will romanticize it as the worst of times, the 1980s underground was loaded with high-quality music that’s diversity thrived through the individual stamp of regional scenes. Too often, the tendency when synopsizing the stretch of time between punk’s stylistic splintering and the Alt-rock explosion is to boil it down to the same dozen or so bands, but there was so many more worthwhile records in the store racks across that span, and too much of it has fallen into true obscurity, rather than cultivating a fanbase that’s modestly sized but in the know.
This is essentially the case with Salem 66. Ahead of their time but a persevering presence on the Boston scene, the band released the entirety of their output (excluding a few compilation appearances) on one of the cornerstone indie labels of the era, Homestead Records. That Salem 66 stuck with Homestead and vice versa is indicative of the band’s success while extant, and as mentioned above, a prior comp, 1983–1987 (Your Soul Is Mine, Fork It Over), dropped 18 songs from their pre-CD catalog onto the format; that wouldn’t have happened if Salem 66’s output was languishing in the cut-out bins.
As Don Giovanni points out in their promotion for SALT, Dinosaur Jr’s first show in New York was opening for Salem 66. But what’s important to note is that Salem 66 was not a buzz band a la Sonic Youth or abrasive in form and content like Big Black; with each successive release, their music became less linked to post-punk and university-friendly jangle pop in favor of a sound that’s more recognizable today as being proto-indie.
The return of Salem 66’s output to easy availability brings with it “The Well,” a 4-song digital-only EP of the band’s earliest stuff that reveals the music’s ties to punk, and the arty stuff, to be sure. It’s worth noting that they nicely covered Wire’s “Fragile” on their first full-length album, 1985’s A Ripping Spin. Salem 66 could get plenty raucous (see “Playground” here) to offset the jangle, a stylistic association that’s been reinforced by the inclusion of “Seven Steps Down” on the excellent Captured Tracks compilation Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983–1987.
“Seven Steps Down” was the opening track from the band’s self-titled EP from 1984. It’s a solid cut, but SALT omits it in favor of “Red Barn” from the EP, which highlights Salem 66’s moodier side. “Red Barn” is one of the band’s best songs, even if, for those familiar with the live version of the song included on the 1988 Homestead compilation Human Music, it can register as a tad embryonic.
Going the compilation route for vinyl was a smart move for the Salem 66 reissue program. Affordable used copies of the original records aren’t exactly scarce (neither is there an abundance), but SALT’s arrival tips off new listeners to a catalog that maintained a high standard until the end.
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