I found Dirty Wake by Collapsis in a Listening Station (remember those?) at Circuit City (remember them?) sometime in 2000.  The terrible cover not withstanding (I believe it’s band leader Mike Garrigan lying naked in the desert), the music is fantastic.

From what I’ve read, and there’s not a lot on the band, Garrigan was gigging around the Chapel Hill, NC area for years and finally got signed to a deal, released an album.  Then instead of recording as himself for the follow-up he formed Collapsis.  Think Gin Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Del Amitri, guitar forward melodic rock.  The issue that comes into play though is those other bands had HUGE hits five years prior to 2000 and all then pretty much disbanded or just disappeared.  By 2000 BritRock was fairly big and Pop just took over.

There isn’t a bad song on the disk.  The one-two punch of Automatic and then Tell Me Everything is a great showcase of Garrigan’s vocals and the style that the band portrays.  Personal favorite Superhero comes midway through and although there is a slight stumble with I.O.L. (standing for I’m Online, and how people shouldn’t call then because it would knock you off , hello dial-up!) but only because the song is now so dated.  The album is twelve outstanding melodic rock songs that unfortunately came a little too late for the band.

Website:  http://www.mikegarrigan.com