Idle Mind were a band from Littleton, Colorado, active in the mid-90s. Their label, Sh-Mow records, was based in Boulder. Sh-Mow Records is best known for releasing the Shmowballs compilation, which includes a couple bangers from Christie Front Drive and Small Dog Frenzy. The only contact information in the liner notes is for the label and, unsurprisingly for the mid-90s, the band had no website. The band's name also makes them extremely difficult to search, a difficulty only compounded by at least two other bands sharing the same moniker.
But there are some bread crumbs. Idle Mind played frequently with Space Team Electra, giving them an emo connection to Vine and Broken Hearts Are Blue. Idle Mind frontman Patrick Park would go on to have a solo career. He gave an interview in 2003 where both he and the interviewer were much harder on Idle Mind's output than I think it deserves (as an interesting aside, the article claims the album was released in 1996. However, since the art says 1995, I'm sticking with that unless more evidence surfaces it was delayed). Another bandmember, Roger Green, was a friend of Park's from high school, and was a member of long-running alt-rock outfit The Czars. Most notably for followers of all things emo, or, in this case, all things emo-adjacent, Sera Cahoone (incorrectly attributed as Sara Cahoone in the liner notes) would go on to greater things in Carissa's Wierd.
Travis M. described Idle Mind's sound as "Toad The Wet Sprocket meets Jejune." I don't know enough about the indie rock of the 1990s to expand on the first comparison, but the Jejune I definitely hear. Listening to 'Hold' or 'All I Am' makes the influence of midwest emo and emo pop very clear. That said, Idle Mind are firmly in the 'emo-adjacent' category, more of an indie rock band than anything else, at least to my ears.
The band's only album release is a self-titled LP from 1995. Aside from the album track on the Shmowballs comp, I can't find evidence of any other releases.
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