M' brain 'urts...
#############################
Indie List Digest!
August 1, 1994
Volume 3 Number 45
#############################
This issue jumps STRAIGHT to the contents:
Cool 7"s and Indie Rock Flea Market
Jale, Sloan, Square Pegs
Austin Show Reviews (via Chicago)
Versus, Codeine
Coctails, Karl Hendricks Trio
godheadSilo, Shreds
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, &c
Matador Profile trivia
Ringo redux
Giant Sand, &c
From: Rob Thornton <rt@clark.net>
Cool 7-inches & the Indie Rock Flea Market
Hi everyone, I'm another long-time "lurker" who's decided to step out
and review some stuff for y'all....so here goes:
Highly recommended:
Tear Jerks: Chances Are (Simple Machines) - This is an old 7-inch,
it's S.M. #11 actually, but it's worth a second look because the Tear
Jerks are one of D.C./Baltimore's neglected treasures. The Jerks are
a duo--"Charles Brohawn" and "Asa Osbourne"--but I think that they're
actually Charles Osbourne from the Tinklers(a D.C/Baltimore
naive/primitive band) and Asa (Baker?) from Lungfish. They have a
lo-fi echo and reverb-laden guitars-only sound that sounds like the
essence of loneliness. It's raw and formal at the same time, and
Osborne (I think he sings) has a crabbed monotone that somehow slashes
straight through you to the bone. It's primitive, claustrophobic
psychedelia, it evokes the trashy sound of V.U. and the courtly
emptiness of Big Star's "Third/Sister Lovers" simultaneously, it's
one-of-a-kind, and it's fine! (**1/2)
Rocket From The Crypt: "Ufo Ufo Ufo/Birdman" (Merge) - A rockin' slab
of vinyl, I must say! It's much better than RFTC's "Pure Genius/Lift
And Love" on Drunken Fish, which has a speed-demon A and a really
boring B. "Ufo" is a mid-tempo tune that's almost too slow for my
tastes but it's got a nice kick that roused my "inner headbanger," and
"Birdman" is a quicker tune that jumps maniacally with the aid of a
one-hand rock-n-roll piano lick straight from the '50s. We have
babbling/screaming, we have chunko distortion and a right-on rhythm
section, we have rock, we have roll...good stuff! Also the single
looks great; it has an "Elvis Side" and a "Speedo Choking Adam Side."
(*1/2)
Dub Narcotic Sound System: "Dub Narcotic/Version" (K) - I'm not sure
who's responsible for this, and the single doesn't credit anyone, but
I'm almost certain that it's our man Calvin teaming up with Steve Fisk
to do a trashcan-banging take on dub reggae! Samples go off over a
drunken riddim as C-man drawls "There's plenty of poets and plenty of
pain/drop the needle and we'll dance you insane...1999 dub rock,
YEAH...you got it...." It's a primitive take on the genre, and Fisk
keeps it heavy on the percussion with the bass mixed low. Wails and
whoops surround the WHOOM! BAM! on the cannonball Shane-gunfire
drumsounds. It's kinda creaky, it's kinda raw, it sounds a little
like a wacked-out On-U-Sound song, and it's good! "Version" is a
slightly different remix minus some vocals.
Other news: went to the Indie Rock Flea Market on July 9th to search
out bargains for a planned zine. Labels present: Merge, Mammoth,
Dischord, Teenbeat, Simple Machines, VHF, Pop Narcotic and a slew of
others...I noticed that Teenbeat and VHF had stuff available at a
great discount in particular, and let it be known that Teen Beat
honcho Mark Robinson manned the 'Beat booth himself for a good part of
the time!
Learned that Mr. Robinson and Bridget Cross are in a new band called
Air Miami along with some other folk...Saw Mr. MacKaye (I think he
was the guy wearing a purple pork pie hat) for a second, and had the
chance to meet Sean Murphy himself (in the flesh! No, really!) at the
Simple Machines booth.
Naturally I felt compelled to prostrate myself before him, and as I
knelt he lightly bopped me on the head with his fist and said, "Oh,
get up!" Had a nice chat with Sean and then cruised by the other
booths. A fine time overall, though I only got to see bit of one
band, Tone (not that great, I thought), and had to leave before
Tuscadero and Blast Off Country Style played. Unfortunately a heavy
cloudburst blew in and soaked the gathering as I left, and I didn't
see if the Market survived the actively hostile humidity that was
being tossed around by high winds. Hope that the rest of it worked
out OK....
Rob
rt@clark.net
------------------------------
From: Joanne Merriam <ILION@ac.dal.ca>
Jale/ Sloan/ Square Pegs thing
Brunswick Hall, 9 July 1994
Playing[ Square Pegs, Sloan, Jale
Being from Halifax and never having seen Sloan or Jale before is
something like being that guy in grade two who picked his nose and his
biggest joke was farting and nobody knows what happened to him. So I
had to go, I might never get a chance to see them again, especially
not for four bucks.
This was the record release party for Dreamcake, Jale's new CD, except
they didn't release the record until three days later so I haven't had
a chance to buy it. What I have heard from it has been pretty good,
but not as good as them live.
A little history[ there's been some kind of weird staff turnover at
the Double Deuce (up to now, the only alternative music playing bar in
town, not counting the Flamingo, which closed a little over a year
ago), and Greg Clark who used to own it or manage it or something, and
his partner have had a falling out. So he is opening a new place,
still all-ages since he hasn't gotten licensed yet for alcohol, and it
may or may not end up at Brunswick Hall. I hope it does as this is a
tremendously wonderful space. Lots of room, well-ventilated, yet
somehow dank and dark at the same time.
Square Pegs opened. I know nothing about them, except that they are
from Guelph, Ontario, consist of two girls and a guy (the guy is the
drummer and maniacally happy, the girls both play guitar and both
sing, kind of in shifts), and they were very grateful to be playing
with Sloan and Jale. I thought they were really good, and hope to
actually see a tape or something surface. Wicked band, mostly happy,
fairly intellegent lyrics, some neat things done with guitar, but very
young and lots of room to improve. I think they were all underage,
which in Nova Scotia is under 19.
Sloan were supposed to be the big surprise guests but everybody knew.
This is Halifax, after all, a very "small town" kind of city, and
nothing is a secret here. They only played new material from an album
which they claim will be out in August, so look for it in September.
They were as good as I expected, sounded very much like the stuff from
Smeared but a bit harsher, which might just be because it was live.
Jale came last and rocked. They've just returned from a tour which
took them to London, England, amongst other places; I hear L7 beat
them up. They can play their instruments now. I'm not being
sarcastic, they've talked in interviews about how they couldn't pkay
when they started out, but it's been I think two years since Tag
(their earlier incarnation, renamed Jale when they found out there was
another band also named Tag) formed. They were excellent. People
danced (I've only ever seen a Halifax crowd dance for Cub before)....
I recommend Dreamcake if you can find it; I think it's on SubPop.
Joanne Merriam
PS: Any campus station people out there on WWW or Mosaic or whatever?
Talk to the people at ckdufm+national@ac.dal.ca.
Especially if you are Canadian.....
------------------------------
From: "Josh Ronsen" <rons@midway.uchicago.edu>
Something is dull in Denmark, er Austin
Ok, a couple of show reviews from Austin, Texas.
Sincola, Peglegasus, Wonderland Gang @ Antone's, early July
===========================================================
I arrived just in time to see Wonderland Gang, who were the reason why
I came to this show in the first place, pack up. But it doesn't
matter; the keyboardist plays in my noise outfit, so I am sure I will
somehow make it to a future show sometime or other. Wonderland Gang
play loud, aggressive punky rock with a bit of strangeness in it. For
example, in their old set the two cover songs they did were a
Buzzcocks song and Faust's "Jennifer" with a guitar doing all of the
keyboard/string parts of that song. Their namesake song is a bouncy
Stereolab-ish monster of groovy chord and tempo changes. Next month
they will be recording a 7" of it, and I wil let everyone know when it
comes out. = Hanging out with members of the WlG afterwards, I missed
the first half of Peglegasus, which I am mighty sorry that I did. I
think they might be from Houston, but they were exciting! Loud, fast,
tasteful playing. The guitar interplay was on the order of, The
Church let's say, but with a completely American feel to it. They
seemed to ram a bunch of shorter song and song segments together like
early Husker Du. Wow. Maybe the Church and Husker Du aren't the
bands I should be comparing them to, but that's what I thought at the
time. I haven't seen a band this good in Austin in a long time. They
have a CD and 2 7"'s out, which I have not yet gotten, although I
shall the next time I go on a music buying binge. For anyone who
likes guitars and crafty writing, this is a band to check out. =
Sincola. Austin's darlings. They just signed with Caroline, so I've
heard. Who cares. This was the first time I have actually heard
them, and they did not agree with me at all. Their music was
competent, but not exceptional. If I had to compare them to anybody,
I wouldn't know who, because I really don't listen to bland indie rock
(or bland anything for that matter), but I hear a lot of similar music
on the video shows I suffer through. Perhaps worst of all, they have
a singer who wore a bright red dress and liked to stare audience
members in the eye when she sang her more risque lyrics (which easily
wins over the unsophisticated Austin audiences). I really couldn't
stand more than three songs from this band, especially not after the
wonderful performance of Peglegasus.
Bedhead, Flying Saucers, Silkworm @ Emo's (late July)
=====================================================
I can't say I liked any of these bands, none of whom I had heard
before. Openers Silkworm, a standard rock quartet, were the best of
the three with tangy bass guitar, noisy drumming and distorted guitars
somewhat in the background. Not bad, but I only saw the last couple
of songs. The Flying Saucers, another quartet, on the other hand were
pretty bad. One could tell that they wanted to be some combonation of
Spacemen 3 and the Flaming Lips, but they had little talent to carry
this off. They did, however, have lots of E-bows, wa-wa pedals and
tremelo boxes, but did nothing interesting with them at all. Why did
I torture myself with this? To see Bedhead, which has been described
by some as being akin to my faves Galaxie 500, and I guess they were,
but only in the most superficial of ways. To illustrate this, please
refer to the chart below:
Galaxie 500 Bedhead
Melodic bass lines Yes No
Tuneful rhythm gtr Yes No
Tasty gtr solos Yes, very No
Catchy lyrics Yes No
Good instrument
interaction Yes No
Pretty singing Yes ??? (couldn't hear)
Have listened to the
Velvet Underground's
more quiet moments Yes Yes
I was not amused by this comparison, which I made at the show. Maybe
they got better at their end of their set, maybe their records are
better, maybe I am quick to judge, but...
My latest free 7":
"Spinster" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (on Blackheart records).
Three songs on blue vinyl, two of which were co-written by Kathleen
Hanna of Bikini Kill. The good thing about this collaboration is that
Joan Jett has broken out of the faux glam metal thing she's been into
her last couple of records. The bad thing is this is as about as
listenable as the faux metal thing she's been into the past couple of
records.
I have also just heard the new Coctails record, "Peel," and it is
fabulous! I think it might be the best rock record released this year.
A collection of tuneful diverse songs that might be compared to
Galaxie 500 (yes's on the chart up there), the Feelies, Shrimp Boat,
the Lilacs and many other bands that I like. I just heard it at a
friend's house, and haven't gotten my own copy yet, but I shall soon,
and I urge everyone to do the same. No xylophones or saxophones on
this record, just guitars, drums and voices. Exceptional music is
hard to come across, but this is it (their last record "Long Sound"
was a jazz record, and is worth checking out as well).
In Austin,
Josh Ronsen
rons@midway.uchicago.eduMaster?
------------------------------
From: David Gershwin <gershwin@hollywood.cinenet.net>
Versus/Codeine at Jabberjaw, L.A., 7/22/94
With a listing in our local alternative rag stating the bands would be
"Versus and an unannounceable synthetic opiate band from NYC . . ."
I was hoping to catch Morphine, whom I saw at the South by Southwest
conference in Austin in March. In trying to figure out who it was, I
asked my contact at the UCLA School of Pharmacology (no e-mail on this
topic, please. . .) if it would be more likely to be Morphine or
Codeine. The scientific answer is: neither. They are not synthetics.
Alas, it was Codeine.
The reason for this strange beat-around-the bush listing, Indie
Listers, is that Codeine had been booked earlier in the week by local
sleaze-bag promoters Goldenvoice, who stipulate in their contract that
bands are not permitted to play non-Goldenvoice shows. Hence, the
cryptic listing -- which was smart -- keeps the kids guessing, you
know?
Anyhow, the show . . . Local band Timonium (named after a suburb of
Baltimore, MD) from L.A. suburb Downey, CA (featured prominently in
Robert Altman's film _Short Cuts_), opened -- they were very young and
obviously angst-ridden suburban kids who clearly would benefit from
living in a place like Berkeley. Heavy on the snare,
single-riff-driven songs were the essence of their five-song set --
for what seemed to be one of their first shows, a respectable
performance. They could use some more time to develop songwriting,
get out of Downey, and grow a little more. Musically, of course.
NYC's Versus delivered one of the more fresh, exicitng sets I'd seen
in a while. Their songs have the strange character of being melodic
without being "poppy" in the vein of Velocity Girl. Often building to
a crescendo and crashing into a sonic guitar revelry, the likes of
which I haven't heard since the Volcano Suns' "White Elephant" about
'86 or so, Versus has definitely got their sound down pat. Standout
songs at the show were "Forest Fire" and "Tin Foil . . ." as well as
the closer. Man, these guys were tight as can be -- Richard
Baluyut's handling of his Gibson was mighty impressive -- strong Sonic
Youth influence -- but who's complaining? Bassist Fontaine Toups
(great name!) and drummer Robert Hale maneuvered through the tempo
changes and made it look easy. A pleasure to watch. They've got a
new LP out on Land Speed -- I settled for an old single.
One aspect of Versus which didn't hit me until later -- Fontaine and
Richard would often trade-off on vocals, reminding me of great
male/female vocalist pairings such as John Doe/Exene and Thurston/Kim.
I look forward to Versus being around for a while -- we need more
powerful trios!
Codeine, unfortunately, didn't do it for me. Maybe I was supposed to
take some, which I did not (not at an all-ages show, anyway). I kept
wondering, "Oh where oh where has my punk rock gone?" There wasn't
anything to hook me -- no riffs, no energy, no trance-enducing
swirling guitars -- so I stood it out waiting for more. Maybe
Jabberjaw was just too hot and I wasn't in the mood. The lead singer,
draped in a Beck t-shirt, announced mid-set that he had just figured
out that "Loser" had lyrics in Spanish ("Soy un perdidor . . .").
Now, if only Codeine could try this . . .
-- David Gershwin
gershwin@pop.com
gershwin@hollywood.cinenet.net
------------------------------
From: "David N. Hackney" <dh4v+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Coctails, KHT...
Reviews from a lurker. Just some stuff that I picked up and deemed
worthy of babble.
Coctails: Peel LP (Carrot Top Records 3716 N. Greenview Chicago, IL
60613) After recording jazz, waltzes, some rockish stuff and even
songs for children, the almighty Coctails have recorded a primarily
rockish album. Although I would have enjoyed an occasional blaring
saxophone or a cool vibe, this still does me good. The tempo over-all
is a bit slower then I had expected, and it has a definite fIREHOSE
feel, it is quite enjoyable and demonstrates a still greater diversity
of talent. A couple of instrumental tracks stand out as my favorites.
MTV recently showcased them a bit, so they might not be "indie" by
definition for long. Enjoy them while you can.
Karl Hendricks Trio: Checking You Out b/w Valentine Melody 7" (Mind
Cure Records PO Box 19438 Pgh, PA 15213) This has been out for about
two months, but I do not recall its mention here. KHT is one of about
four local indie acts that are worth their dirt, although I'm afraid
this 7" would not be an appropriate introduction. In general, this
one of the few groups which can combine very melancholy, sad and
downright depressing vocals with a strong rock background and make the
two elements work together. A-side is a bit disappointing but the
B-side is a good cover of some old band. Check out their fist LP and
older 7"s however.
Bagpipe Operation: Mt. Lavity 7" and The Extra Glenns: Infidelity 7"
(Harriet Records P.O. Box 649 Cambridge, MA 02238) Harriet Records
has been producing some excellent fuzzy pop 7"s with a blatant Bricks
feel. Both of these 7"s feature distorted acoustic guitars,
hard-to-distinguish vocals and styles which are not tremendously
original but enjoyable nonetheless. The Extra Glenns is the more
upbeat of the two, and the B.O. record is 3/5 instrumental.
On the subject of the Bricks, I'll taking my longest road trip yet to
see the Merge Fest in Chapel Hill is weekend. It should be quite a
blast before the MCATs turn my brain to silly putty.
------------------------------
From: pauls@tellabs.com
godheadSilo LP review, Shreds v/a review
Everyone keeps raving about godheadSilo, so when I found a review copy
of the new LP, "The Scientific Supercake" in my PO box last week, I
thought, "Cool, this should be great! Everyone says so on the
Indie-List and on the punk-list."
Imagine my dismay, then, when I put the slab o'wax on the turntable,
only to hear distorted noise with even more distorted vocals (I guess
trying to get that David Yow sound from those early Jesus Lizard
records). The vocals were buried so deep in the mix that I could
barely tell they were there.
This record was a major disappointment. Not only did I not like it, I
thought it was bad, and it literally put me to sleep, it was so dull
and uninteresting.
I just thought that people should get an alternate point of view on
this band and this LP, given all the raving going on.
Rating: * -- highly recommended that you don't waste your money on
this.
I recently picked up the CD, "Shreds Volume 1: The Best of American
Underground Rock 1993" (Shredder Records, 75 Plum Tree Lane, San
Rafael, CA 94901) and must do some of my own ranting and raving. This
CD is a compilation of indie-pop and pop-punk from around the USA.
Most compilations are hit and miss, with a few standout tracks and a
few lousy tracks.
This comp doesn't have a stinker in the bunch, IMO. Some of these
bands are familiar to us all (Swirlies, Parasites, NOFX, Prisonshake,
J Church, Mr. T Experience), but others are new to me. Every track
either found me leaning back with my eyes closed, and just kind of
grooving to the tune, or found me moving my body to the infectious
beat.
Standouts (yes, even with a comp without duds there are some
standouts) include the Swiriles cut, "Wrong Tube (edit)," Mary Lou
Lord's cut "Some Jingle Jangle Morning," The Parasites "Something to
Hold Onto," and Tuggboat Annie "Stay Inside."
My rating: *** Very highly recommended. Congress should pass a law
requiring you to buy this!
--
"Life is inhuman when you are too old to be young." -Bill Nelson
--------------------------------------------------------------------
/ Paul Silver / Radius Records /
/ pauls@tellabs.com / PO Box 723, Lincolnshire IL 60069 /
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All opinions expressed are strictly my own, unless I stole them.
------------------------------
From: julian@sahiber.demon.co.uk (Big Rock Candy Mountain)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci & the meaning of C86
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Tatay (CD/Cass - Ankst Records)
-------------------------------------------------------
It appears that some people couldn't work out the subject of my
ravings the other week :-) - the name of the band was Gorky's Zygotic
Mynci. Mynci is Welsh for monkey, but there's no 'Z' in Welsh, which
indicates a little of what seperates the Gorkys from a lot of other
Welsh language bands - their 'put a spanner in the works' approach.
I picked up their debut CD - 'Tatay', and it's rarely moved off the
stereo (and that's competing against the new Stereolab single). It
has the same level of 'weirdness' as Pavement's 'Slanted . . .'
(i.e. not that weird, but not definitely not Tiger Trap). It doesn't
sound LIKE Pavement - they just share the same love of taking a pop
song and twisting it, rather than an all out noise-assault.
The musical direction they're coming from is rather different (apart
from, I suspect, a shared love of The Fall) - There's a track called
'Kevin Ayers' - surprisingly, it's dedicated to 'Kevin Ayers' :-), a
Robert Wyatt song ('O Caroline'), touches of Beach Boys in the
harmonies and arrangements, and a little John Cale (pleasantly atonal
keyboard & viola) - as mentioned before, they're one of Cale's
favourite new bands.I also spotted one of them at Robin (Incredible
String Band) Williamson's Glastonbury set. Moogs, flutes, sped-up
voices, willful strangeness - it's all there, but it doesn't ever
sound contrived, especially as they're equally likely to just play
great raucous pop.
Someone on the net has reported seeing 'Tatay' in San Fransisco, so it
must be distributed by someone but you can always try their label -
International Reply Coupoins, SAEs , kitchen appliances, etc to :-
Ankst, Gorffwysfa, Heol Y Bedyddwyr, Penygroes, Gwynedd, Wales, UK.
(And don't DARE write England on there).
Phone - 0286 881010, Fax 0286 881 060.
Other records :-)
----------------
Cuckooland - Winter/Paint The Town Red
Helen Love - Punk Boy (both 7" on Damaged Goods)
Cuckooland used to be Shelley's Children, but this is much fizzier and
pop-like (a Marxist Motorcycle Boy?) - 'Paint The Town Red' is the
good side.
Helen Love is yet another good local act (this is getting wierd -
we've had no good local bands for years, now they seem to be springing
up every week!). More ironic pop, this time an anti
flavour-of-the-month novelty tune, that sounds like Heavenly on a
Casio keyboard - "It's either the best record ever, or the worst thing
I've heard" - Matt of Sarah Records. The 10" pink 'Summer Punk Pop
Songs' LP is out today, and I'm stuck here at work :-(.
Stereolab - Ping Pong (10" Duophonic)
Cheery pop tune disguises Stereolab's least subtlely political record
yet, and it's getting national radio airplay - that catchy chorus of
'Bigger slump then larger war then shallower recovery'. Amazing
video, too - the 'groop' playing 3D chess in futurist clothing, or a
game of 'Pong' projected onto the window, plastic flying saucers.
'Transoma Five' on the other side is a '70s glam riff (Spirit In The
Sky/Blockbuster - something like that) locked down and repeated
forever - I shall never again write ironic articles claiming that
Status Quo invented repetition rock!! This single led to me annoying
my neighbours by sunbathing to Neu! records afterwards.
The High Llamas - Gideon Gaye (CD Only, Target Records)
Small Stereolab connection here in that the High Llamas is Sean
(Microdisney) O'Hagan's project - an XTC-like '60s tribute, leaning
heavily on the Left Banke & the Beach Boys, but with a rather more
Kinks-like vocal and concept (lot's of songs about a goat watching an
old site being torn apart to make way for a supermarket). The key
word is 'charming' - in much the same way as the XTC stuff, it's never
quite as great as what it's a tribute to, but is something else
entirely, anyway (another great English psychedelic tribute :-) ).
Learn to speak indie-pop UK style - or, the meaning of 'see-ate-ee-six'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Someone also asked what the phrase 'C86' meant - it's one of those
little terms the Brit music press kindly come up with to lump a group
of bands together in order to create a 'scene' for 6 months, and then
go on about how crap it was for about 8 years afterwards.
In this case 'C86' was a showcase compilation put out by the NME in,
surprisingly, 1986. Despite the fact that the compilation was fairly
wide ranging, the term came to mean a bunch of bands like early Primal
Scream, Talulah Gosh (now Heavenly), Pastels, BMX Bandits, Shop
Assistants, Razorcuts, more than other fun stuff like Bogshed.
It's since become a term for stuff that sounds a bit like that - the
American equivalent is the Slumberland/Bus Stop/K Records (Lois/Tiger
Trap/Beat Happening side) thing. Hope that helps!
-----------------------------
From: Scott Faulkner <scottfau@microsoft.com>
Matador Profile: "The Millionaire"
Just got the new Comics Journal, and there is a Matador ad on the back
in the shopworn "Dewar's Profile" format that features none other than
Michael "the millionaire" Cudahy. It's pretty good.
HOME:Lonelyville.
AGE: 30.
PROFESSION: Gentleman of leisure.
DRINK OF CHOICE: Absinthe and Prozac.
MOST MEMORABLE BOOK: Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated.
FAVORITE PICK-UP LINE: "It's well known around here that I have the
largest robot in Lonelyville."
OBJECT OF DESIRE: Clara Bow.
PERFECT DATE: A seething maelstrom of twisted passion set against the
tempest-tossed backdrop of a primitive island paradise.
PRIZED POSSESSION: One of Sammy Davis Jr's nehru jackets.
LAST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Unification of the Cocktail Nation, Brother!
DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN THREE WORDS: The "it" man. PROFILE: The friends
of Matador share a vision with the label's suave record company
executives. Michael Cudahy has volunteered to do this Matador Profile
(tm) ad without payment. He feels that the Youth of America have been
in a slump for almost a decade. "Wake up, fellow hedonists!" he
growls. "The Millionaire" is also a player on Combustible Edison's
_I, SWINGER_. Available on Sub Pop Records.
Above the copy is a picture of The Millionaire looking very suave and
sybaritic indeed. I guess this makes the CJ and Matador more
satellites of the Cocktail Nation!
-Scott Faulkner
"I'm Buddy Rich when I fly off the handle"
[while doing some research for an interview, I found another such ad,
this time for Charlie Ondras.... Very clever -es]
------------------------------
From: "K. Lena Bennett" <keb@u.washington.edu>
A word on Ringo
I've been using Ringo and it's still a bit shaky, but as Eric said,
easy and interesting. The point is that the more "people like us" use
it, the more of the kind of groups that we like will be included in
the algorithm, and can be recommended to people who might not have
heard of them otherwise. We can add our own favorite records and
recommendations to the database. I put in a list of some of my
favorite groups, Tall Dwarfs, Heavy Vegetable, Mountain Goats, and so
forth, and RINGO didn't know about them. But it will soon. I
encourage you all to participate.
Lena keb@u.washington.edu
"I knew I was living in a long, long dream
When you fed me the black ice cream." - Mountain Goats
-----------------------------
From: "LePageL/MF" <LePageL/MF@hermes.bc.edu>
Giant Sand in the hourglass
I'm forwarding this review, which was written by my friend Ronnie. We
went to the show together, and his writeup was better than mine, so
here goes.
vic chesnutt/s.f.seals/giant sand...t.t.the bear's...sat,7/23/94
the whole deal started late because vic chesnutt, for reasons never
explained, was not there...given his physical and (if lyrics are any
indication) mental state, i was a tad queasy pondering possible
reasons for his abscence...meanwhile, tt's got pretty packed...i
hadn't been there fer quite some time--roughly since the middle east
opened their downstairs venue and damn near dominoed their
neighbors...i'd forgotten that the tt's crowd was less scenesterly,
more rude, and more jock-like/model-like...wuzzat sposta mean?...most
folks onna crowded clubshow floor remember the ones that leave their
spot and buddies fer a beer run and, notin' th' totin' of multiple
beers, will let 'em back in...in this crowd, tho, i only did this once
and with much abuse...
s.f. seals, led by the buoyant barbara manning, presented us with a
fine mixed bouquet of guitar pop...i had not previously heard anything
by her/them and was repeatedly wowed...the songs that stuck out--and
give a clue as to what makes this bunch so lovable--was a cover of
badfinger's (definitely NOT the searchers) "baby blue" and a song
about the triumphs and tragedies of the early '70s pittsburgh pirates
called "ooh doc ellis" (lise, did i get that right?)...between a
coupla songs, someone hollered 's.f.seals!' and barbara jumped up like
a cheerleader, knees bent, echoing in reponse...fgawsh!
after the seals, the crowd thinned out a bit and we pressed forward
and waited...at 12:20(!), howe gelb stopped tinkering and started a
song and giant sand shifted into a set...covertino on drums,
i-think-he's-permanent-now-but-i- can't-think-of-his-name on bass, and
some guy on steel guitar...i have taped almost the entire g.s. oeuvre
and still recognized (as far as song titles go) almost none of the
songs...(well, there was the one from 'center of the universe' about
the epicenter)...point is--not knowing the songs made no difference
because the music was amazing...songs ebbed, flowed together, swayed,
careened, and were alternately as brainscrambling as the arizona sun
and as lingering and beautiful as the arizona sunset...i didn't see
any set lists and noticed no verbal cues from gelb, which is a tribute
to the band, covertino in particular.
gelb's new stage toy this time around was a small roland keyboard that
he mostly played floyd-cramer-on-shrooms piano on, switching back and
forth to guitar without a hitch...he'd get into a solo, appear to lose
his place, then get pulled back into the song--or lurch into a new
one...it's a review cliche, but the only problem was that it ended...i
gotta go to new york one of these years and see this band in a place
that doesn't close at 1:00...i think giant sand forgets they are in
cambridge when they play here because it happened last time they were
here, too--barkeeps looking white as ghosts, signalling frantically to
cut as if the supply of oxygen runs out at 1 a.m. and the band
appearing stunned that they have to stop...of course, not starting
until 12:20 doesn't help much and i dunno if it was that s.f. seals
played too long or that gelb & co. are too persnickety about gettin
stuff together and gettin going...mebbe they need a
roadie...hmmmm--kinna getta reference?
--ronnie
r_broadfoot@nocmsmgw.harvard.edu
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