SHRIMP BOAT
IAN SCHNELLER: guitar, vocals, drums ...SAM PREKOP: vocals, guitar, bass
DAVID KROLL: bass, banjo, tenor sax ...ERIC CLARIDGE: drums, bass ...BRAD WOOD: drums, soprano sax
(( + JOE VAJARSKY: tenor sax ..+ TOM JASEK: drums ))

SHRIMP BOAT was a phenomenal band that made music out of Chicago from the mid ‘80s clear through to 1993. Taking inspiration from bluegrass, jazz, country, rock ‘n’ roll and most importantly - their own collective gung-ho, their ability to voluminously manifest new song form from the air around them left those exposed awestruck.

AUM Fidelity has never been a label for looking back. However, the voluminous joy and sweetest dreams that the music of SHRIMP BOAT provided was a major impetus in launching the label back in 1997 - pointedly, the promise of eventually manifesting an archival Box Set that would reveal to the world anew the quiet majesty and eternal beauty of their music was burning from the very beginning. In the summer of 2004, this promise was realized with the release of the 4xCD Box Set, Something Grand. As a dessert to this promise, the first-time-on-CD issue of their brilliant debut LP Speckly was arranged for release on AUM Fideilty in Spring 2005.

Post-SHRIMP BOAT activities:
Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge formed and continue to create with The Sea And Cake; Sam returned to his painting in earnest and Eric began painting as well. Ian Schneller recorded and released two albums with his new group Falstaff, and has since devoted his creative energies to Specimen Products - designing and hand-crafting stringed instruments and tube amplifiers. It would be truly great to hear him perform again in the realm of music, yes. Yes it would. Brad Wood produced (and played on: drums, bass, guitar) Liz Phair’s epochal Exile In Guyville; he also worked with Tortoise, The Sea And Cake, Red Red Meat and others - further refining /defining a renowned era of “the Chicago sound.” David Kroll left the band to focus on his painting; his work is featured on the cover and book of Something Grand.

((( SHRIMP BOAT Albums Now Available )))

FULL DISCOGRAPHY

2005 Speckly CD (AUM Fidelity) first time on CD
2004 Something Grand BOX (AUM Fidelity) magnum opus box set of previously unreleased recordings
1993 Cavale CD/LP (Bar-None/Rough Trade) out of print *
1993 Small Wonder 7" EP (Ajax) out of print: 3 of these songs ended up on Cavale; the 4th appears on Something Grand
1993 Keep On The Sunny Side: A Tribute to the Carter Family CD (Amoeba Records) out of print: both of the Shrimp Boat songs.featured on this compilation appear on Something Grand
1992 Duende CD/LP (Bar-None/Rough Trade) out of print *
1991 Volume One CD (Specimen Products) *
1989 Speckly LP (Specimen Products) out of print
1988 Daylight Savings CS (self-released) out of print *
1988 Some Biscuit CS (self-released) out of print *

* in 2005, Bomba Records (Japan) re-issued on CD the following titles: Volume One, Duende, Cavale, and for the first time ever, Some Biscuit & Daylight Savings together on one CD. A small quantity of these are now available here.

*** and yes, the planned re-issue of the first genius Falstaff album remains on the AUM docket .. just going to take some time still OK?