Archers of Loaf - Later Years and Breakup

Later Years and Breakup

Their third studio album, 1996's All the Nation's Airports, was considered far more accessible than their previous releases, and was the first to be distributed by a major label, Elektra Records (the band was still signed to Alias Records, though). The album was recorded in Seattle and took three weeks to complete, which was the most time the band had been in the studio to complete an album up to that point.

Gentling said of the experience, "We knew we wanted to take a long time on this album. We specifically wanted not to do tracks over and over and over again, but more to work on tone and get all of our instruments down right. We took over a day (just) to get the drums sounding right."

The band toured extensively in support of the record, to limited mass commercial success. Of the tour, Bachmann said, "We got back and we were not real happy with the way that went. Usually when you finish a tour you have a general idea of a song or two you can start working on, but we got back and were like 'geez, what are we going to do?'" The band almost broke up at this point, due to a general lack of enthusiasm for the continuation of the project. However, after some soul searching, they decided to continue on for the time being. "We thought we'd had too good a time with it, so let's make another record, do another tour, and if there's not another spark, we'll split up after that," said Bachmann of the episode.

Their final LP, White Trash Heroes, was released in 1998. The album's style deviated drastically from their first three albums, and received mixed reviews from critics. The album's creative break from the band's previous work may have stemmed from the different writing process used for White Trash Heroes. According to Bachmann, "Things were laid down one at a time, though we did play a lot of it live, too, but pieced together more perfectly so we could hear when one sound was beginning to get in the way of something else." The band went to great lengths in the studio in an attempt to keep the writing from turning stale. For example, on the song "Banging on a Dead Drum," the band members all switched instruments to try to liven up the feel of the song. Johnson plays drums, Gentling plays slide guitar, Price plays bass, and Bachmann still plays guitar, as he was the one who knew the song.

This approach made playing songs from the album on the last tour more difficult. "Certain songs we don't even play yet," Bachmann stated in an interview during the White Trash Heroes tour. "We haven't even learned them that well due to the way the record was pieced together. They're not impossible to play, we just haven't pulled them out yet...as time goes on we learn more of the new ones, and they've been coming across fine." During the tour supporting the album, Eric Johnson missed several dates due to his day job's work schedule. Brian Causey, guitarist for Man or Astro-man? and friend of the band, filled in for the missing Johnson. In late 1998, after Price was diagnosed with, and subsequently had surgery for, carpal tunnel syndrome, the band decided to call it quits for good.