Techno-Squid Eats Parliament

Techno-Squid Eats Parliament was a 1990s power-pop band based in Little Rock, Arkansas who released a critically acclaimed eponymous album, produced by Grammy winner, John Hampton, on Ardent Records that was re-released on Philips Multimedia as one of the world’s first Enhanced CDs.

The CD functioned both as a fully playable compact disc, and when played in a Macintosh personal computer, allowed fans to access additional content such as band interviews, videos, and a tour diary.

Techno-Squid Eats Parliament formed in 1992 when childhood friends, Aaron Sarlo and Clay Bell began searching for a bassist and drummer to fill out their fledgling sound.

The judges for the competition were record producer Jim Dickinson, Jody Stephens of Big Star (who would go on to be the band’s A&R director), John Fry, and Rick Clark, a writer for Billboard Magazine.

[4] Techno-Squid Eats Parliament’s lackluster success is largely attributed to their unusual name (record shops would mistakenly stock the band’s album in the Funk section).