Staff pick of the week...
This week...Geoff picks it!

Artist: Honcho Overload Title: Singles Price: For Digital Distribution only - not available as a phsyical CD The five songs from this Champaign band's first two singles originally released in 1992 are now available in a digital format from our digital distribution partners.	Tracks on this CD:
	Wish
	Wrists & Ankles
	On The In
	Miserable
	Sugarfoot

I fondly remember the early days of Parasol -- the carefree days of hanging out in the basement waiting for the UPS man to bring us boxes and boxes of singles, hand folding and stuffing the sleeves, and sending them off to everyone we thought might care. Back then it was just Brian Kirk (of Bus Stop records fame) and me. Some of the early singles on Mud (Parasol's alter ego) were by a pair of local bands called Hot Glue Gun and Honcho Overload. Each of those bands spawned good friends and future Parasol employees (Nick Macri and Bill Johnson, respectively). Those bands were huge in these parts and always put on incredible live shows -- and I almost always went (nowadays, I rarely go) because the feeling around here was that if you didn't you'd miss what everyone was talking about the next day -- be it a cross dressing lead singer, the insane video crew or some spontaneous guest band member. Those singles also remain as some of my favorite releases. Not just the music (which is, of course, great) but also because it defined a period of time for me -- a great period of time.

Now Bill has assembled the first two out-of-print Honcho Overload singles onto one convenient to download digital file -- available from iTunes - and coming soon from AudioLunchbox and eMusic. I strongly recommend you check this out for a glimpse at what was going on in Champaign-Urbana back when and what lead to Hum, the Reputation and the Blackouts years later. For further research check out the Mud singles compilations ("Mud Puddle Playoffs" and "Cover the Earth"), the Hot Glue Gun retrospective ("The Life and Death of Hot Glue Gun"), and the Honcho Overload full-length CDs ("Smiles Everyone" and "Pour Another Drink" -- available as digital downloads only).