For a band that played so softly, Carissa’s Wierd generated a hell of a buzz. “We never intended to be as quiet as we were,” says co-founder Jenn Ghetto. The hushed volumes that became a stylistic trademark were one of the earliest outcomes of that WTF attitude. As teenagers in Tucson, AZ, Ghetto and Mat Brooke met at a Goth club. Soon they were writing songs together on twenty dollar guitars, plugged into cereal box-sized amplifiers—definitely not the kind that go to 11. They worked around their limitations. “All the early recording we ever did was in her moms’ closet on a cheap four track,” remembers Brooke. “We’d have to be quiet, because her Grandma was sleeping.”

The adolescent friends couldn’t afford a practice space to rock out in either. So when it came time to translate their homespun compositions and lo-fi recordings to a live setting, the intimacy remained— only now they were sharing bills with local hardcore bands. WTF indeed. Carissa’s Wierd may not have played as loud, hard and fast as their Tucson contemporaries, but they radiated intensity nevertheless.

Carissa’s Wierd never quite grasped the ardor of their fans. Long out of print, their full-lengths, Ugly But Honest (1999), You Should Be At Home Here (2001), and Songs About Leaving (2002) all became collector’s items, as did the compilations I Before E and Scrap Book — all of which are represented here (with vinyl reissues of the three studio albums forthcoming). Now neophytes and diehards alike can hear what the excitement was about. In celebration, the band even intends to play a one-off reunion show. That’s something both Ghetto and Brooke thought would never occur… but sometimes you just gotta say “what the fuck.”

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