Red Red Meat - Smokey Mountain Double Dip

JUL 01 1994 · 12:00

Red Red Meat - Smokey Mountain Double Dip (1994) Era: Mid-90s American Indie/Sub Pop Era (1993–1994) - Chicago blues-alternative underground during peak Sub Pop expansion beyond grunge, coinciding with the release of Jimmywine Majestic on Sub Pop Records High archival value as a rare official visual document of Red Red Meat at the Jimmywine Majestic period, one of the most critically praised yet commercially invisible albums in the Sub Pop catalog. The video's lo-fi aesthetic is historically congruent with the band's documented DIY ethos and provides a visual complement to the audio archaeology being conducted through the Jealous Butcher reissue program. Essential for any curated retrospective of 1990s Chicago underground rock or Sub Pop's non-Seattle roster. Context: Red Red Meat occupied a distinctive and commercially overlooked niche within the mid-1990s American alternative rock landscape. Based in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood, a hotbed of indie activity alongside bands like Liz Phair, Tortoise, and The Sea and Cake, the band was the first Chicago act signed to Sub Pop Records, best known as Seattle's grunge flagship. 'Smokey Mountain Double Dip,' Track 4 on Jimmywine Majestic (1994), exemplifies the band's blues-saturated, fuzzed-out roots-rock approach at a moment when the broader alternative market was fixated on post-Nirvana grunge. The band toured with The Smashing Pumpkins in 1992 and later with the Grifters, connecting them to both the Chicago and national indie circuits. Their cult status and limited commercial reach meant video production was minimal and likely self-funded, giving this artifact its raw documentary quality. Director notes: The video carries the label 'OFFICIAL VIDEO' in its YouTube filename, suggesting it was authorized by the band or label for online distribution, likely as part of the Jealous Butcher / Califone reissue campaign (c. 2013–2020) that re-released and digitized the full Red Red Meat catalog. The source material visual quality, warm tungsten bias, compressed contrast, 4:3 framing, and VHS-era grain, strongly suggests original production circa 1993–1994, contemporaneous with the Jimmywine Majestic album release on Sub Pop (street date February 8, 1994). No director, production company, or crew credits were locatable via web search across music video databases, label sites, or band-affiliated sources.