“Scorched tales of Manifest Destiny from the best to do it…Montana Bar Rock of the highest order!” – Stephen Malkmus
The question asked most frequently of us, either via electronic mail or in person at the merch table during the miraculous run of Silkworm reunion shows is: “When will Comedy Minus One be reissuing Firewater?”
The answer is now December 4th, 2026.
Firewater, the Matador Records debut for SKWM, released thirty years ago after the band condensed to a trio, is back in print on 2xLP with a bonus CD included containing nearly 20 minutes of additional material, some of which has never been heard previously. Like an alternate take of Don’t Make Plans This Friday with the original lyrics for example.
Pre-orders are live now in our store and on Bandcamp.
Order direct from us and we’ll send you a period-appropriate sticker or two.
Redeye Worldwide will be able to get this release to you around the planet.
You can hear both “Wet Firecracker” and “Don’t Make Plans This Friday (alternate)” below presently.
Both records are housed in full-color Stoughton sleeves inside the record’s gorgeous jacket, highlighting the paintings of Hiroshi Kimura.
Firewater was recorded by Steve Albini at KUFM in Montana, his home and Chicago Recording Company.
It was remastered with Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service.
David Babbitt handled the complete reissue design and packaging.
The vinyl was manufactured at Paramount Pressing, with this first edition limited to 1,500 copies.
Note: Due to the nature of our licensing agreement with Matador, Firewater will only be available as a 2xLP + CD but each purchase does come with a download code.
Firewater is the most ambitious record in the Silkworm catalogue.
It’s an hour of music in one gulp, running from the sour to the smooth, blasting to gentle.
At the time it was just whatever we had on our plate, but it’s clear to me now that we were feeling our oats.
Joel RL Phelps (oh it’s marvelous to play with him again!) had escaped the insane touring schedule the rest of SKWM wanted to maintain.
With three of us remaining, the possibilities somehow expanded even as our number contracted.
We could get quieter at a drop. Andy Cohen and I had more room to noodle around. Michael Dahlquist could step to the forefront with regularity. We started leaving out stringed instruments for entire sections of songs just so we could listen to him do his thing.
We had a lot of notions and a lot of emotions and a lot of things to say about a lot of things that we may or may not have known a lot about at the time.
What’s startling to me now is how on-the-money we were.
What we had to offer – how we felt, how we expressed it – feels pretty fully formed and insightful to me now.
This record is brash, sprawling, ridiculous, funny. Surprisingly touching.
I didn’t expect to love Ticket Tulane or Miracle Mile, but I do.
Nerves still clearly the single, no matter what else happened on that front.
Don’t Make Plans This Friday is the apotheosis of that entire period of the band – determined, weird, stubbornly immovable, oozing through time as it essays a life that none of us had lived at that point in a somehow incredibly relevant way.
And all the tracks from the end of side three and beginning of side four (that’s where you put the question marks on your double album, kids) make me very happy.
If I heard a bunch of young people do this today, I’d be psyched.
If you’ve never run across it before, you’ll enjoy it. Half as much as I do would be pretty good.
If you got one of the CDs that was mistakenly loaded with the Bardo Pond record that came out around the same time…well, you probably enjoyed what you thought it was back then.
And you’re in for a surprise.
Tim Midyett
Chicago, Illinois
The greatest city in the entire United States
