TRUMANS WATER
Live Preview - The Shattered, 4/28/99

When brothers Kevin and Kirk Branstetter decided to form the band Trumans Water in 1991, they faced many possible paths of musical direction.

They could have followed in the tradition of Minutemen-style punk rock that was so rich in their native San Diego. They could have dipped their guitars into the pool of quirky indie rock. Or they could have about-faced and explored the unbridled cool of free jazz.

Instead, Trumans Water chose to encompass all three genres. Or it took them outside for a beating.

Whatever the case may be, Trumans Water will play at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Shattered, 812 Cherry St.

During the course of 11 albums in eight years, the band has done its part to shatter whatever passing conventions — and eardrums — come its way.

Trumans Water's song and album titles provide ample description of the band's sound. Face it: "Couch Of the Spastics," "Aroma of Gina Arnold" and "Cough Forth Such Dilemmas" tell the story of Trumans Water's extended weirdo-rock jams better than any adjective-and-object combination.

The lineup for the band's most recent release, 1998's Fragments Of a Lucky Break, features the brothers Branstetter on guitar and vocal duties.

Although Trumans Water started in 1991 as a collective of various So-Cal musicians, it has dwindled down to a threesome. Drummer Kevin Cascell joined the Trumans crew in 1994 for the album Godspeed the Vortex and still is an active member of the band. Multi-instrumentalist Glen Galloway left in the mid-'90s to form the not-so-hot Soul-Junk, a band whose premise also relies on decidedly non-rock instrumentation and goofy song constructions. Black Hare Greyhound and Hot Carla will be the opening acts for Wednesday's show.

Tony Stasiek - The Maneater