Bundle of Hiss

Bundle of Hiss was a band that bassist/lyric-writer Kurt Danielson started with high school friends in 1980 (Kurt, now an ancient codger, graduated in the halcyon nights of '81). When he moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington, Kurt, quasi-original singer Russ Bartlett, and drummer Dan Peters met Jamie Lane, who joined on guitar (after original guitarist Jeff Hopper left the group, just as the actual original singer Kurt Schonberg had earlier left; note that the band was actually born and incubated in Kurt S.'s parent's garage; very early 4-track recordings of this original incarnation of the band do exist, and rumor has it that Jeff is even now looking into the feasibility of resurrecting them). Shown from left to right in this page's main profile picture are Kurt, Dan, Russ, and Jamie. This incarnation recorded some early demos with Jack Endino. Shortly thereafter, Russ left to pursue his own career; Jamie continued on guitar and took over the vacant lead vocalist post, making the band a trio. After recording many demos with Ric Vaughn at Audio Designs in Seattle, the band splintered: Jamie went on to grad school at Syracuse (he now fronts the Mellors), Kurt and Tad Doyle (who had joined the band on guitar and backup vox just prior to the break-up; he was already at work on the first incarnation of TAD and was moonlighting in the Hiss, and it was a cool, if short-lived, chapter in the band, a fit final incarnation that was well-equipped to fulfill its role as that of a band destined to make a soundtrack of itself exploding into still-living, still-quivering fragments that would survive to infect the history of alternative music, if only in a modest, humble manner) formed the second incarnation of TAD, and of course Dan joined Mudhoney. That's really all there was to the story for a long long time, that is, until Jack Endino applied his invaluable ingenuity and hard work to the salvage job of the old master tapes (a rather thankless task, but also one which Jack fulfilled w/ gusto, incredible skill, and the assistance of a vegetable dehydrator, which Jack used to 'bake' the mold and moisture-damaged master tapes that Dan Peters had recently re-discovered in the humid depths of his Ballard basement; the time alone Jack devoted to this job was worth solid gold), which Loveless Records released around the turn of the last century as the CD entitled "Sessions: 1986-88."