How did I miss these guys when I was going through my Pavement phase? I just got Icky Mettle from e-music (after browsing ChicagoMike's downloads for things that I've been meaning to try), and I love it. Amazingly, I also couldn't find a single thread with "Archers of Loaf" in the title, so I started one.

Where should I go from Icky Mettle?

Let this be a lesson to anyone else who hasn't listened to this band because their name is kind of stupid, or you keep confusing them with Archer Prewitt (who were rly rly boring when you saw them in Chicago), or for other unrelated reasons: Archers of Loaf are good and they sound like Pavement.

All the Nation's Airports is my favorite of the ones I've heard.

Icky Mettle has arguably their best songs, but Vee Vee is my favorite album. The vs. The Greatest of All Time EP is also amazing.

Icky Mettle is my favorite, and the followup Vee Vee is good too, if memory serves. I haven't listened to these guys in way too long.

It wasn't until last year that I heard this band either. Somehow I managed to miss them and Superchunk in the 90s.

Icky was the best one I heard.

They sound nothing like pavement.

Sure they don't.

Definitely Vee Vee next, though I also like All the Nation's Airport.

Also, obviously check out Crooked Fingers too if you haven't already.

I have, and I like it ok, but I don't really see a lot of similarities. Maybe I just haven't heard enough?

there are none other than it's the same guy but completely different style of music.

Yeah. What Mike said.

I bought albums by Archers of Loaf (Vee vee) and Superchunk (Foolish) after reading their glowing reviews. Couldn't believe how bad Superchunk was - it still stands as the only CD or LP that I've ever attempted to return to the store for a refund on the grounds that it was just plain shitty. Archers of Loaf was a little better, but not much. Sold it as well.

I get the Pavement reference, though. And that was part of the problem.

get their singles collection "The Speed of Cattle"

it has the WAY superior 7" version of "Wrong", and the excellent just-barely-post-Icky Mettle 7" "What Did You Expect" which is in their top 5 songs of all time.

It also has b-sides from that era, which are worth hearing too.

That coupled with the Vs. the Greatest of All Time EP are all you need.

IMO, the band took a serious nosedive with Vee Vee.

You bought the worst albums by each band.

Superchunk's No Pocky For Kitty is one of the best recorded power-punk albums of all-time, and Icky Mettle is a classic.

i have to agree with the neutered cat. you've already got their best album. get the vs. the greatest of all time EP next. not only does it have a killer album cover, but it also contains my fave AoL tune, "Freezing Point".

i don't hate VeeVee quite as much as SK, but definitely stop there.

I would go in chron order if I were you, and include the EPs. To me, Icky Mettle is their best, but Vee Vee is a close second.

Chronological order worked for me when I got into AOL in the 90s (I think the Cattle collection had just come out after VV?). Airports is probably my favorite album, although Vs. Greatest is one of my favorite EPs, ever, but I have many great memories associated with IM and VV and...gush gush gush.

"What did you expect?" - one of my favorite songs of any band.

Did they call themselves Archers of Loaf because they spent so much time after band practice just sitting around and shooting the shit?

You all are so sly.

What's the Mike joke?

I called Tanner "Mike" yesterday.

Someone recommended these guys to me years ago and I never tried them out. Adding to eMusic que......now.

I didn't like Airports but I was only 16 when I bought that record.

I now have Icky Mettle and that's great...would like to hear vee vee someday.

airports is my current favorite, but possibly because i wore out the others. "Vee Vee", "Airports" and the essential ep "vs the greates of all time" are growers that took me a long time to "get"

i think icky metal is the most accessible, but is the thinest in every aspect from songs to production and depths to explore. i still like many of the songs, but it doesn't hold us as much as an album for me.