Harm Farm, who debuted with Spawn (Alias, 1990) after years of turbulent activity, play Appalachian folk infused with ethnic music, featuring Noah Chasin on violin and the ever-present Melanie Clarin (Catheads, Donner Party) on drums. That album and the follow-up, Nice Job, Einstein, brimming with college humor and punk energy, evoke Camper Van Beethoven, Beefheart, the Pogues, and Violent Femmes, but grounded in a more authentically folk background.

San Francisco's Harm Farm spent years playing folk music in the style of the Appalachian Mountains mixed with exotic instruments, before they debuted with Spawn (Alias, 1990). Tom Hallenbeck's guitar, Brad Pedinoff's bass, Noah Chasin' violin and Melanie Clarin's drums (Catheads, Donner Party) propel the casual romps of Jersey Devil and Clams. The band crashes its way through dissonant rock and roll bacchanals (Discovery) and feverish Irish jigs (Lucy Ann, Miss Mercury), with a peak of craziness in the grotesque bluegrass instrumental Snapdragons. Laughing and joking, they end up closing the album with an epic ballad in the style of Thin White Rope, Trust. Very few roots-rock albums of the time were so inspired.

Punk verve and college humour also permeate Nice Job Einstein (Alias, 1991), another crazed merry-go-round of folk music revised through the eyes of Pogues, Camper Van Beethoven and Violent Femmes.