SARGE
CHARCOAL - LP

UPC: 810096657466
Label: SUAH SOUNDS
Format: LP
Release Date: March 21, 2025
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Sarge's amazing 1996 debut, available for the first time on vinyl.

"There was a moment, some thirty years ago, when Sarge was poised to be the Next Big Thing. Then again, it was the late 90s. There were a lot of Next Big Things.

Still, something about the Champaign, Illinois indie rock trio resonated with fans and critics alike, leading them to be named Rolling Stone’s Hot Band of 1998 following the release of their second album, The Glass Intact.

After their 1996 debut, Charcoal, Sarge released their celebrated follow-up before disbanding in 1999. Their final salvo came with 2000’s Distant. Frontwoman Elizabeth Elmore then founded a band called The Reputation (Lookout! Records) before leaving music in 2007 to work in international law. Meanwhile, bassist and band co-founder Rachel Switzky channeled her punk rock sensibilities into the disruptive world of innovation consulting. Drummer Russ Horvath went on to play in several other bands including The Webstirs and Mil Mulliganos. He currently plays with The Last Afternoons and feeds his drumming habit by teaching high school art in the Chicago suburbs.

Critic Greil Marcus once said of the band, “Sarge was punk with a small voice and a backward glance, with less attitude and more follow-through than almost anyone they might have shared a stage with…”

For me, an indie-rock obsessed teenager whose constant rotation included Archers of Loaf, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, and Neutral Milk Hotel, Charcoal came as a welcome punch in the gut. What was a bunch mumbling longhairs and post-hippie burnouts singing indescribable (if decipherable) lyrics was quickly supplanted by Elmore’s pixie-esque sotto voce telling emotional bare stories about life as a young adult, something that I was still half-a-decade removed from.

After hearing “Dear Josie, Love Robyn” on Princeton’s WPRB, I quickly became obsessed with Charcoal and its tightly wound power pop sensibility that steadied the band’s late-90s, Gen X-imbued cynicism. It was something like Kim Deal fronting Sweet.

Of course, back then, vinyl’s revival was still at least a decade away. But, as the format slowly and then quickly came back and my collection swelled, Charcoal always proved one gaping hole on my shelves. 

Now, for the first time ever, Charcoal is being made available on vinyl via my Suah Sounds label. Featuring the original album cut at 45rpm and a bonus download of a live show from May 1996 at The Atrium in Springfield IL, this reissue hopes to highlight this lost gem of late-90s indie pop."

Mike V - Suah Sounds

TRACK LIST:

1. Smoke 03:30
2. Backlash 02:46
3. Dear Josie, Love Robyn 03:01
4. Chicago 03:50
5. Crush 03:10
6. Bedroom 02:46
7. I Don't 03:54
8. Another Gear Uncaught 02:41
9. The Last Boy 04:12