Happy Already April 21, 1998

Sportsguitar is a Swiss band, the lineup rotating around songwriter Oliver Obert and guitarist Roland Saum. Their second album, Married 3 Kids, marked their US and Matador debut, following the reissue of their 1994 debut on Derivative, a Canadian label. Of that debut, Oliver says, "We wrote and sang all the songs in English 'cause Swiss German is no good for rock-y lyris and German is as hard for us to speak as English. When we finished recording we thought it sounded as good as any of our favorite bands so we decided to do some more songs and then release it ourselves."

Upon release of the "Gong"/"Tits" single of Sub Pop in 1994, the music press was quick to dub them "Switzerland's answer to [insert fave indie-rock band here]," and "a couple dirty-minded bastards." Amused by the camparisons and somewhat startled by the attention, the band found themselves at a loss for words. "We has absolutely no idea what to say to journalists, so we said nothing." To their great amusement, this alleged "pact of silence" thing stuck and article ran under headlines such as SPORTSGUITAR: THE CURIOUS BAND THAT GET PEOPLE TALKING.

Sportsguitar's second album traces a line from the Pastels and Swell Maps to early Pavement and Portastatic, slaves to none and just as melodically hefty. They've already toured the US twice, though 1997's tour was cancelled after one gig due to Oliver's tinnitus. There's a full-blown tour for Happy Already, however, and we've customized soundproof pods for each member of the band to keep another tinnitus attack at bay. Very Gary Numan.