Indie-List_V2_N24
THE INDIE-LIST DIGEST! Volume 2 Number 24
************************************************************
* ** ********************* ****
* ** *********************** **
* *************************** **
* ** *********************** **
* ** ********************* ****
************************************************************
"Digitally Rechanneled For Superior Stereo Sound!"
In this issue:
Velocity Girl in Vancouver
Grifters Live Review
Velocity Girl/Tsunami/Magic Hour in Boston
and more
<------------------------------------------------------------>
EDITOR'S NOTE
by Mark Cornick
cornick@delphi.com
I apologize for the lateness of this issue. As I mentioned before, my hard
drive went down. However, I was able to resurrect it a little more easily
than I anticipated. So here you go.
You all should know that I submitted my resignation as editor today. It comes
down to a lack of time, a tightening budget, and a pervading sense of ennui.
I'm not as enthusiastic about this list or about indie rock in general as I
once was. I'm tired of dealing with irate readers who want Liz to be a machine
(she's NOT, incidentally). I'm tired of getting mail from postmasters who are
getting Indie-List unintentionally because people forget to sign off the list
before they leave school. I want more time to play drums, write for zines,
hang with my friends, etc. The readers and writers of Indie-List deserve better
than I can deliver. My last issue will be October 29. Lena, Liz and Sean will
be in charge of appointing a replacement. The four of us will be discussing
this situation this week, and hopefully by the next issue we'll have decided
what we want to do. Just be prepared for an orderly changing of the guard.
Thanks.
<------------------------------------------------------------>
MESSAGE FROM THE MODERATOR
by K. Lena Bennett
keb@u.washington.edu
Administrative stuff about Indie List:
First, Liz is pissed off at people treating her like a LISTSERV. I think
Mark will address this in his editorial this issue. She's the most
important person in our little group -- none of you would get this shit
that Mark and I and the writers put together if it weren't for her. So
don't piss her off.
Second, one of our readers, JC, is making an index of band
names/titles, etc., reviewed in past issues of Indie List. He's still
working on it to see if it works, but hats off to him!
Third, another reader, Harry, is willing to manage an additional list,
under the Indie List aegis, but SEPARATE, of sale/trade offers of Indie
CDs and vinyl. I'd be happy to hear comments and suggestions from you all
(the readers) to me at keb@u.washington.edu. For instance, would you like
to see this or not? Would you subscribe if it came out about once or
twice a month? Would you try to sell/trade your used music via this medium?
Anyway, music news this week is that I bought the new Yo La Tengo disc,
and the Belt Buckle (a group with Lou Barlow in it) single (clear green
vinyl!). Been too busy to listen enough to write reviews, though. I've
been trying to ask out this one particular record store clerk, and going
around to the store all the time is really being a drain on my wallet :)
In other music news, I missed the Velocity Girl/Tiger Trap/Cat Food show
the other night due to alternate pleasurable circumstances, but hopefully
I'll be able to make the Bettie Serveert show on Tuesday.
Lena keb@u.washington.edu
Grungepuppies Are My Weakness....
<------------------------------------------------------------>
Velocity Girl in Vancouver
by J S Gill
jarnail@sfu.ca
Velocity Girl / Cub / Kid Champion - Oct. 13, Town Pump, Vancouver, BC
This was one show I was really looking forward to, not only because I was
really impressed by Velocity Girl's last appearance in Vancouver, but
local favorites Cub were opening. Kid Champion, a new Mint Records band
who I'd heard a little bit about but had never experienced live, were also
on the bill.
Before the show, my friend was suprised to find out that a friend of his
from the local campus radio station, CJSF, was the drummer for Kid
Champion. With this in mind, I really wanted to like Kid Champion, but
when the drummer took of his sweater revealing a Swirlies t-shirt, I got
kind of worried. When I noticed the guitarist played a Fender Jazzmaster,
I got even more worried. When they kicked into their first song with two
layers of guitar noise topped with feedback and subtle female vocals
drowned in the mix, I lost all hope. Well, I shouldn't be that harsh,
even though they sounded like an amaturish version of Velocity Girl and
lacked that My Bloody Valentine knack for coming up with memorable hooks,
their vocalist did show some promise (when you could hear her) and some of
their tunes didn't sound half bad. If they can come up with a more
original approach, I think they could have something (They have a single
coming out on Mint Records next month, and Mint's judgment in selecting
bands in the past has been impecible ie. Cub, Tankhog, Windwalker).
Next up were local superstars Cub. They've taken the Vancouver scene by
storm in the last year with their special brand of "cuddle core". Cub's a
three piece that plays cute, totally stripped down, 2 minute pop songs in
the same vein as Shonen Knife (although they hate being compared to Shonen
Knife). Their first two 7 inch EPs have done extraordinarily well all
over Canada, and they have a full length, 23 song CD extravaganza coming
out in a few weeks on Mint (with cover art by Dan DeCarlo, who draws
Archie!). On this night, singer/bass player Lisa Marr was suffering from
the same flu bug that half the audience seemed to have, so her vocals were
a bit off. As they warmed up, Lisa's voice improved and Cub delivered
their usual fun filled set (complete with free Jolly Ranchers for the
crowd). They played mostly new songs from their upcoming CD, which
sounded noticably heavier than their older songs (guitarist Robynn seems
to have discovered the distortion box since their last EP), and also
played the most hilarious Motorhead cover you'll ever hear. After the
set, I overheard Vancouver garage punk king, Nardwaur the Human Serviette,
proclaim "They rocked."
When Velocity Girl finally got on, around 12:30 am, a lot of the crowd
seemed to have gone home, or were just too tired to really get into the
show (did I mention the flu virus?). Velocity Girl didn't seem too
inspired as they rolled (should be sleep walked) through their set which
consisted of about about four new songs, a few songs from Copacetic (but
not as many as one would expect, considering its their latest work) and a
handful of older material. After about 40 minutes they announced that
they were going to play their last song and that t-shirts would be on sale
afterwards. They finished their song, the crowd halfheartedly clapped,
and that was it. I expected a bit more from this band, considering they
were twice as energetic and inspiring when I saw then open for Belly last
April. This time around, they looked as though they were just fulfilling
an obligation or something (It could be they were still shell shocked from
the weirdo Nardwaur interview they did just before the show). Even though
the performance was pretty lame, the sound was excellent. I haven't heard
a band sound this good in Town Pump in a while. To bad the band couldn't
be bothered to take advantage of this. Anyways, after the show I asked
one of they guys if they had anything new scheduled for release, and he
said thay have a single coming out in January on Merge, and are going into
the studio soon to record a new album for Sub Pop.
Overall, none of the bands were brilliant, but I'd say Cub offered the
only real highlights of the night.
- Jerry.
--
----------> J S Gill ---------> jarnail@sfu.ca <--------------> <---->
<------------------------------------------------------------>
Grifters Live Review
by Steve Folta
folta@holonet.net
The Flaming Lips/The Grifters/Starpimp -- The Kennel Club, SF, 10/8/93
I've been a lurker since the very first issue of the indie-list, and it's
taken me until now to submit something, so you can see how slow I move
sometimes :^). This lack of initiative explains why someone beat me to
reviewing this show. Since my impressions of the show were so different,
I wanted to review it also.
I went to this show to see the Grifters, and despite many problems they
did not disappoint me. The sound mix was bad (and the Kennel Club is a
fairly large club with bad acoustics), the vocals weren't great, and at
times it was difficult to hear what was going on (even up front where I
was), but it was nonetheless clear that the Grifters rocked from the first
song. Individual instruments could be pretty loose at times (especially
the guitars), but underneath it all they held together quite solidly.
They finished the set with "Love Explosion", which I thought was only okay
on the record, but they had a new ending for it which made it great (and a
great way to end their set). The Flaming Lips were the headliners. Their
songs were lame but their lightshow was great. They were obviously used
to playing larger clubs like the Kennel, and had adjusted their
presentation accordingly. They were pretty good entertainment, but not
good music, and after the Grifters I wanted more than just entertainment,
so I left after a few songs. I was originally just going to describe
Starpimp (the opening band) as "worthless" and leave it at that, but after
the glowing review in last week's indie-list, I guess I won't be able to
get away with that. But I really didn't like them.
I was also going to review another Grifters show on Tuesday at the Covered
Wagon, but it was moved forward to Sunday without notice and I missed it.
AAARRGH!! I'm sure the Grifters would have been even better in a smaller
club.
Steve Folta
folta@holonet.net (finger for PGP key)
<------------------------------------------------------------>
Velocity Girl/Tsunami/Magic Hour in Boston
by Brad
searles@uvm-gen.EMBA.UVM.EDU
I saw Velocity Girl/Tsunami/Magic Hour in Boston a couple weeks back
and snagged a setlist from VG....I thought someone out there might be
interested in what it looked like...
Audrey's Eyes/There's Only One Thing Left To Say*/Waltz(which they skipped)/
Tripping Wires*/Pop Loser/All Consumer*/Your Silent Face (amazing...this was
a New Order cover that sounded perfect)/Copacetic/Drug Girls*/Diamond Jubilee*/
Pretty Sister/Labrador*/Forgotten Favorite/Creepy/Rubble*/Crazytown
There you go...mostly new stuff, my favorite of which was All Consumer...
There was a lot of new Tsunami stuff as well.
Tsunami is recording their next full length in Chicago (maybe as I
type)... they were going to record it when they passed through with
Velocity Girl on the tour. They may already have. After the tour they
are taking a bit of a break (well, for Tsunami, that means a little less
work).
VG may record their next LP with John Porter (did the first couple Smiths
albums).
I wish I like Magic Hour more than I did. oh well.
brad
<------------------------------------------------------------>
The Indie-List Digest is published every Tuesday and Friday by the
Indie-List Infotainment Junta, Unltd.
What Who Where
Editor Mark Cornick cornick@delphi.com
Moderator K. Lena Bennett keb@carson.u.washington.edu
Mailings Liz Clayton lclayton@uhuru.uchicago.edu
Archives Sean Murphy skmurphy@phoenix.princeton.edu
FTP/Gopher /pub/music/lists/indie @ ftp.uwp.edu
Fshee! Joshua Houk houk@mind.org
Indie-List is not copyrighted. It may be freely reproduced for any purpose.
Please cite Indie-List as your source.
REVIEW MATERIAL: Yes, we'll review your 45/tape/CD/LP/8-track/Edison wax
cylinder/zine/whatever! Send it to Mark at 324 S Cherry St, Richmond VA 23220
USA. We get to everything eventually, so please be patient.
<----------------------------------------------------->
please send your articles for the next issue to LENA!
<----------------------------------------------------->
[Submitted by: Sean Keric Murphy (skmurphy@phoenix.princeton.edu)
Thu, 21 Oct 93 15:18:41 EDT]