The Fluid

Clear Black Paper became the inaugural one-band full-length on Sub Pop, following a string of singles or compilations, and the Coloradans would soon break more ground. The Fluid worked with producer Jack Endino on 1989's Roadmouth before Nirvana did likewise in connection to the same year's Bleach, and for 1990's Glue, the group collaborated with producer Butch Vig, who'd go on to helm Nevermind, Nirvana's seminal 1991 disc. Glue "was an experiment, and I think it was probably one of my favorite-sounding things," says Bischoff, who agrees that the band had "the hardest damn time" capturing its live sound on tape.

Nevertheless, the Fluid five's sales failed to match the fervor of their boosters, leaving them to watch as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and others reached ever larger audiences. Eventually, they drifted into quasi-limbo, and Bischoff and Shavlik started '57 Lesbian and Spell, separate side projects that shared a member, singer/bassist Chanin Floyd. Then, amid the Great Grunge Signing Frenzy, the Disney-owned Hollywood imprint set its sights on the Fluid, offering some nice coin to rekindle the flame. The firm's corporate lineage raised eyebrows among the local alterna-crowd, and a laughing Bischoff concedes that "our eyebrows were raised, too. To us, it was like poetic fucking justice. Like, see what happens if you dick around too much? You end up being gobbled up by Disney. That was our big joke: 'Got to go work for the Mouse today.'"

Soon enough, the wisecracks turned sour. The quintet headed to California to make what became 1993's Purplemetalflakemusic, but the majority disliked the sonics fashioned by engineer-turned-producer Mike Bosley: "His first mix, I swear to God, it sounded almost like a Boston record," Kulwicki says. Moreover, culture clashes sparked between the band and the label over just about everything, including tour allies. Although the Fluid received offers to travel with the Ramones and the Buzzcocks, Robinson says that "Hollywood wanted us to go out in support of the Goo Goo Dolls" — an astonishingly terrible fit. Finally, Robinson and his cohorts chose to headline their own jaunt, but financial assistance to help them along the way evaporated when a shakeup among Hollywood's upper management wound up claiming company president Peter Paterno and nearly everyone else who'd backed the band. "We were out for nine weeks," Clower says, "and I came home with twenty bucks in my pocket."

Upon their return, the cracks opened by the Hollywood experience began to expand. Shavlik felt the fun had drained from the Fluid and was more enthusiastic about Spell, despite the bad blood it had caused between him and Bischoff. According to Shavlik, "Matt had '57 Lesbian going on, and Chanin was playing with him as well, and then she just decided to start playing with Spell full-time." Shavlik split from the Fluid to do likewise that summer, setting into motion a familiar chain of events; Spell signed to a major, Island Records, which didn't provide the kind of backing that might have given the group a legitimate shot. A frustrated Clower walked out next, but the remaining threesome planned to carry on, asking Dave Stewart, the drummer for the Frantix and '57 Lesbian, to handle the sticks. Within months, however, Robinson decided he "just wanted to do some really pretty music," he says. When he dropped out, Bischoff and Kulwicki realized that the Fluid had finally dried up.

In the years since, Bischoff drifted away from music — he currently works for an Austin-based lighting distributor — as did Kulwicki, a longtime employee at a sign company, and Clower, a mechanical-engineering student at Metro State. As for Robinson, he briefly thought he might get the chance to partner in a quiet, change-of-pace album with Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and the Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan; he and Cobain brainstormed about it after Nirvana's final Colorado show in December 1993. When Cobain's death nixed that prospect several months later, Robinson hooked up with Das Damen's Jim Wallerstein in the New United Monster Show, which lasted until 1999. Afterward, he shifted into freelance set design, and he's done well in the field, contracting for clients such as Target. That makes Shavlik the only Fluid alum who hasn't stopped rocking. His current act, the Press Corps, features Mudhoney's Dan Peters on drums; Bruce Fairweather, once of Green River and Mother Love Bone, on guitar; and another Colorado expat, Cold Crank's Erik Roper, on second ax.

Still, Shavlik was game to play with the Fluid again, especially after an air-clearing phone call with Bischoff. Prior to his arrival from Seattle and Robinson's from Texas, where he spends about half his time, Bischoff, Clower and Kulwicki sharpened their chops with an assist from fill-in drummer John Call, formerly with Baldo Rex, and everyone expects the band to be at full power for its biggest concerts. No one knows for certain whether the appearances will lead to anything else, be it reissues of out-of-print Fluid material by Sub Pop, the completion of a documentary or even more performances. But they're all as eager as Robinson to raise a righteous racket together again.

"It's going to be great fun — and it's time," he says. "It's been fifteen years, and the guys in the Fluid are all my brothers. It feels really good to be doing something to honor what the Fluid was, and if that's all this ends up being, that's enough for me."

Visit Backbeat Online for extended interviews with all five members of the Fluid.