signed with DGC

Swervedriver appeared to rebound when they signed a three-album deal with DGC Records (a subsidiary of Geffen Records ) in early 1996. Originally, the first album in the deal was to be an American release of Ejector Seat Reservation ; the band had attempted to talk A&M into relinquishing them the rights, but after news of their talks with Geffen was publicized on the Internet, A&M had come back with an exorbitant price for its sale (to avoid the same missed opportunity after previously dropped Soul Asylum hit it big with 1992’s Grave Dancers Union ). With their advance, they finished building their own recording studio, Bad Earth in Farringdon , and instead began work on a new record for the label. Over the next year, the group would record 99th Dream with Moulder at the helm, this time taking a more simple, laid-back approach than with previous productions. They scaled back from 48-track to 24-track recording, condensing the layering of guitar in the process, and employed more full-ensemble straight live track, partly with the mindset of making it easier to play the guitar lines live. During that time, the band also put out a pair of self-produced boutique label seven-inch singles, including the double split “Why Say Yeah” with indie collaboration act Sophia. DGC distributed promotional copies of the album and scheduled a release date of 7 May 1997. Meanwhile, in December 1996 Swervedriver went back into the studio and re-recorded the album track “These Times,” citing their growing dislike for the original’s faster-paced, Oasis-like sound and a bad experience with one of the label’s reps during mixing. Three and a half weeks before 99th Dream was due to be released, DGC dismissed the band’s A&R representative, Jody Kurilla, in a corporate downsizing and three hours later terminated their contract (though they would not impede the record’s future release). Considering the recent break with their third label in two years, Hindmarsh stated, “Someone from A&M once told us that it takes four or five listens to a Swervedriver album to see whether you like it or not, and in this marketplace, unless you can hit immediately it’s not going to register with people.”