"Reading a long, long passage in one of his books, one from time to
time forgets -- one is, by the very language, detached from -- what
the repeated word "it" refers to, so "it" becomes an impression, an
atmosphere, a sense, "a harmony without parts." This "it" was, I
imagine, the secret that englobed his life and his writing."
---David Platte on Henry James
#############################
Indie List Digest!
November 28, 1994
Volume 4 Number 11
#############################
recent shows for me... (Slot, New Radiant Storm King, Snowplow,
Catherine, et al)
palace/fibbers
Bar None Night
How happy do you feel?
Giant Sand
ANNOUNCE: Uprising Records on the Web
ANNOUNCE: Mega Pop Show in CT
ANNOUNCE: Indie Label List
ANNOUNCE: WANTED: Your Band Covering the Fall
------------------------------
From: tHE haPpY pEZ <N_DERBY@SMCVAX.SMCVT.EDU>
recent shows for me... (Slot, New Radiant Storm King, Snowplow,
Catherine, et al)
Hey! We actually get good shows sometimes here in Vermont! Here's some
that I went to recently:
slot, the pants, picasso trigger, new radiant storm king
nov. 6th at toast in burlington, vt
slot->wow. I was really impressed with them. Great three-piece that
could put out lots of noise as well as attitude. Not that I care
about the attitude, because there were only about fifteen people there
to watch. The rest sat in back drinking while waiting for the local
band. Great set I thought; to sound stupid, THEY ROCKED!
the pants->A local band. My mom always told me, 'If you don't have
anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.' Therefore no
comment. Well wait, I'd like to pose one question: why didn't they go
on first?
picasso trigger-> They didn't show up. something about the
weather????
new radiant storm king-> After an extended set by the pants, it was
time for new radiant storm king, or bed for others, since half the
place left. It was fairly late, around 12:30 or so...Remember this is
a sunday night. So all ten or fifteen of us got quite a treat. I
didn't know who to watch, the drummer with her facial expressions and
flailing arms (one of her sticks actually flew out of her hands!) or
the bassist/singer completely hunched over while playing. I was also
impressed with the way the bassist and drummer went on with a song
when the guitar guy had to fix the guitar due to a broken
string...(sorry, i don't know any of the names here) They thanked all
of us for sticking around for their amazing set. Most of us who were
still there purchased records and such in hopes that we at least
bought them lunch for the next day.
snowplow, catherine, and velocity girl
nov. 13th at metronome burlington, vt
snowplow->Another local band. I don't speak badly of these guys
though. I thought they did a good job, but i was just anxious to see
the other bands. I was happy they played a good short set.
catherine->After hearing an interview on the radio a few hours
earlier, I was anxious to see these guys. They seemed like a fun
group that would interact a bunch with the crowd. And that they did.
At one point they even had a volunteer from the audience go up and
play guitar. After the singer/guitarist said something along the
lines of, 'Believe me, the less you know about guitars, the better you
are'. Some people compare these guys to the smashing pumpkins.
Naahhhhh. I don't think so. They sounded like....I don't know,
catherine? Anyways, they played a great set. Another fun band to
watch, especially the facial expressions of the bassist, who actually
looked like he was in pain at times.
velocity girl->Well I hadn't seen these guys/girl in about two years,
and I don't really like their recent stuff compared to the older, BUT
I have to say they put on a great great show. Lots of fun. They were
friendly and seemed excited to be there. I couldn't help but notice a
fan up front with a camera (yeah, he snapped a few here and there)
singing along to every one of their songs. They did a good job with
the variety of songs from the old to the new and getting the crowd to
dance along. They started out with my forgotten favorite and ended
with sorry again. Of course there was lots in between from both
albums, copacetic and simpatico. They covered a few songs as well
(new order and for the encore they did an echo and the bunnymen
cover). Super show, and hey, most of the people at this show hopped
on over to the next...
the wrens, madelines, 360s, smashing orange
nov. 13th at toast burlington, vt
the wrens->Well, I missed these guys because velocity girl had just
ended and I needed to go to the atm machine to get more money to catch
this show. I heard they did a great job, though.
madelines->Another local band. I hadn't seen these guys in quite a
while and they did a great job. Much tighter and more practiced than
before. And hey, the guys from catherine seemed to be enjoying as
well.
360s->didn't show up. what's going on here?
smashing orange->wow. These guys were pretty cool. I didn't get a
chance to see all of their set, but what I did see I really liked.
They spoke of how they are a rumoured 'heavy metal band' and wanted to
put a stop to it. So: they are not a heavy metal band, but
uhh...ahhh....great loud rock band, yeah. Go see 'em if you get the
chance and help me out with classifying.
Well that's all for now...so long from vermont.
------------------------------
From: Jay Babcock <jay@DrMemory.nuc.ucla.edu>
palace/fibbers
Palace Brothers
"Palace Brothers" LP (Drag City)
Geraldine Fibbers
"Get Thee Gone" 10-inch (Sympathy for the Record Industry)
The first thing is: These ain't party records, that's for damn sure.
What is it with the young adults these days, anyway... all this
slouching around and acting gloomy... busily appropriating the music
of their great-great-grandfolks?
For instance: Out somewhere in the hills of Kentucky, one guesses, is
Palace Brother Number One, Will Oldham, sitting alone in a darkened
kitchen with his guitar, a tape recorder, and a bunch of sad songs.
(Why is he in the kitchen? Because the porch is too public a space,
friend.) So he makes an album up on the spot -- or at least that's
what the new Palace Brothers record sounds like to me, what with its
spare instrumentation and seemingly off-the-cuff lyrics.
So we ask: Where's the banjo, and where's those queasy strings, and
where are all the other Palace Brothers who yowled along with Will on
last year's splendid "There is No-One What Will Take Care of You"
album and are mostly absent here?
And we notice: The songs are good, but different than the old stuff --
there's less of that rotgut-whiskey-confessional-at-the-altar- stuff,
more plaintive folk music strumming and quirky wording ("nighttime's
the right time to climb on a rocket/nighttime's the right time to pull
your shoulder out of its socket").
And we are swayed: by an album-opening couplet to rival all comers
("when you have no one/no one can hurt you" -- too true), by the
simply beautiful "I Send My Love to You" and most of all, by the
stunning, desperate "No More Workhorse Blues" -- one of those very
rare songs that works because it is just barely there.
To get our sad banjo fix, though, we gotta check out "Get Thee Gone,"
the first record from Los Angeles' own Geraldine Fibbers. The
Fibbers, led by Carla Bozulich of the late art/industrial band Ethyl
Meatplow, are a bunch of urban ruralists who make a type of sad, slow
country music that seems equal parts Dolly Parton (they cover
"Jolene"), Velvet Underground (check out the Cale-esque violin and
occasional dirge-y tempo), and, in the record's quieter, more ominous
moments (I may be reaching here) -- "Burning World"- era Swans.
Things aren't all dour, though; balancing out the darker moments of
songs like "Marmalade" ("tell me a story/help me forget I'm gone") and
"Outside of Town" ("I'm ruined for love/I'm ruined for life") are an
upbeat jingle-jangle singalong number ("Mary"), and a sweet duet with
fellow Angeleno hayseed Beck.
A promising start from a promising bunch of younguns...
- Jay Babcock
jay@drmemory.nuc.ucla.edu
------------------------------
From: JimJBeat@aol.com
Bar None Night
Last Saturday was Bar None Night at Brownies in NYC. I really want to
tell everyone about Chocolate USA. They were great. They played this
show with an expanded lineup, adding several friends from NY (and
called themselves "The Chocolate USA Tea Room Orchestra") - the band
included gtr, bass, drums, banjo, electric zither, a toy acoustic
piano, and a tape recorder, and as usual, there was a lot of switching
instruments around. Lead singer Julian Kostner has grown into much
more of an accomplished front man and less of an eccentric nerd, but
he still has a wonderful little-boy voice and writes some really
clever, catchy pop tunes. The band is great - even on a new song they
supposedly only rehearsed once, they were tight and focused.
The opening group was Wonderbra, which is a joke band composed of
Glenn Morrow and Tom Prendergast (Bar None's co-owners) and two other
members of the staff, playing New Wave covers. There's nothing wrong
with that in concept, except...
1. They announced to everyone that the show would start at 9 pm
"sharp," then didn't go on until 9:40...
2. Although they were the opening band (on a six-band bill) and
really only there as a goof, they played an hour...
and 3. They all left after their set and didn't hang around to watch
the other bands on their label or shmooze with their invited guests.
Not that an evening of shmoozing Glenn Morrow is my idea of fun, but
still, there is a protocol to these events.
Chocolate USA were followed by the Wallmen, a jocular frat-rock band
from Syracuse, who were fine if you like jocular frat-rock bands (and
don't mind their idiot fans, one of whom thought it would be really
cool to smash a glass mug on the floor, littering the place with
broken glass, despite the fact that there were a couple of small kids
running around the place.)
I didn't stay for the Swales or Shirk Circus because I've seen them
both before - the Swales are boring and Shirk Circus just plain suck.
------------------------------
From: "It's just a little moose." <ilion@is.dal.ca>
How happy do you feel?
19 November 1994, Grawood Lounge, Dalhousie University Campus
Furnaceface concert, Punchbuggy opens
Wow. This is the first time I have gone to see Furnaceface, and I was
blown away. Punchbuggy opened for them, and they were pretty good,
competent musicians, fairly decent lyrics, some amusing banter, but
they were utterly eclipsed by Furnaceface.
Fface had a projector set up that ran film behind them for the first
hour of their performance (basically everything but the encore). The
film was stuff like Environment Canada ice-fishing education films and
news reels of really old white guys talking and some clip-art type
photography that the band probably did themselves.
They started out wearing white radiation suits, which the film made
interesting blotches on. After about half an hour they said it was
time to change and took off the radiation suits, and under them they
were wearing '70s-style track suits that they got on sale from a
warehouse someplace in Michigan (I think) and on which they had had
sewn the logo from their new album (This Will Make You Happy), which
is a bomb. Their road manager (Squirrel-Boy) was selling track suits
along with the usual band paraphernalia (and also getting people to
fill out performance evaluations based on Smitty's and MacDonald's
ones, which were a masterful satire).
The music was loud and excellent. They did some of the really classic
oldies like We Love You, Tipper Gore and My Girlfriend Thinks She's
Fat, and a lot of new ones (and even one so new it isn't on the new
album, which came out a mere six weeks ago). The band is really
approachable and the stage was set up almost level with the floor so
there wasn't that pedestal thing going on. It was really amazing. I
highly recommend going to see them if you get a chance.
Joanne Merriam (ilion@is.dal.ca)
------------------------------
From: kingunix@garnet.berkeley.edu (Robbeldebobbel)
Giant Sand
Ah yes! I'd been waiting for Giant Sand to come 'round to SF for quite
a while- the last time they played was last year at the Bottom of the
Hill (small stage, and that night, sound problems). Much as I dislike
Slim's for a number of reasons, the big stage and good sound system
were a better place to see Howe Gelb and his band of roving minstrels.
This time featuring his wife (?) Paula and his daughter (looked about
7 years old), who was way too shy to actually sing or say anything
(she appears on several Giant Sand records), but was fun to watch as
she alternated between hiding behind daddy and moving forward, looking
worshipfuly at how Howe was the star of the show (not really- Grant
Lee Buffalo was headlining, but I left before that...). At one point
in time she actuated an effects pedal, sending a strumming guitar into
a screeech of feedback. Which brings me to the music - classic Giant
Sand, if there is such a thing: guitar sound shifting from acoustic
strum, via rockin' and rollin' to total noise attack and rhythmic
clanging sounds. And all the time there's the pedal steel in the
background, functional drumming (often using brushes rather than
sticks) and bass and second guitar blending in nicely. The bursts of
electric organ playing by Howe wouldn't appear to fit in at all, but
somehow they did... I didn't know a single song they played, but they
rocked! Go see 'm when you can!
Skinny
------------------------------
From: Chris Khoury <ckhoury@cps201.cps.cmich.edu>
ANNOUNCE: Uprising Records on the Web
Hello: for all those interested, the independent record label Uprising
Records is on the World Wide Web. Uprising's diverse catalog includes
the Urban Farmers, Grout, The Deconstruction, Day 28, Lucky Pierre, El
Smasho, Lovebox, and more! We also distribute items from other labels.
Check out our catalog (photos included!) at:
http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~khoury/uprising.html
Technical questions can be directed toward me: khoury@uiuc.edu
Label-related questions can be directed to: khourymi@student.msu.edu
Cheers -chris.
------------------------------
From: snow@minerva.cis.yale.edu (Matt Holiday)
ANNOUNCE: Mega Pop Show in CT
On Saturday, December 3, there will be an all-day pop festival at the
GPSCY club at Yale University in New Haven, CT. The show starts at 1
p.m. and the lineup (from first to last) is Mistletoe, the Cups,
Jason Morphew, DeLux, Detour, Holiday, Syrup (featuring ex-Swirlies),
Versus, Helium, and the Magnetic Fields. So that's 10 bands, and it
only costs $4 for the whole day. If you need directions or a place to
stay or more info, you can e-mail me or the show's organizer Calvin
Chin <chince@minerva.cis.yale.edu>.
Matt Snow <snow@minerva.cis.yale.edu>
------------------------------
From: es229@eng.warwick.ac.uk (Tony)
ANNOUNCE: Indie Label List
For those interested there's now a WWW version of Sean and Steve's
"Partial Guide to Independent Record Labels." I know these things are
probably becoming pretty passe, but the list is definitely worth
taking a look at and hopefully in its Web form should be an
informative and useful source ... then again, I would say that ...
anyway, if people would like to take a look and maybe add some stuff
or just pass comment it'd be appreciated ... ooopppss nearly forgot
the URL
... try:
http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/~twicks/ill
[For those of us on this side of the Atlantic who want "just the
facts" (not the very nicely formatted restructuring of the announced
list, nor the forms-based add an entry stuff), you can conserve some
intercontinental bandwidth, and use
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/mbreen/indie.labels.txt
as an alternate. But Tony's list is a very nice Value Added version
of Steve's work.
For a hint of other I-L Stuff on the web, I've got a couple links in
my bookmarks file at
http://www-sc.ucssc.indiana.edu/~esinclai/hotlist.html
which all should feel free to check out. -es]
------------------------------
From: (Jeff Curtis...) <jac15@po.cwru.edu>
ANNOUNCE: WANTED: Your Band Covering the Fall
I am posting this for folks on the FallNet list. Please respond to
them (addresses below), not me. If you're interested in subscribing
to the FallNet list, send subscription- type mail to:
fall-request@listserv.unc.edu. I think that will work!
====================================================
Wanted: Your bands doing covers of songs by The Fall
We are looking for cassettes of your bands doing Fall covers, plus
some originals. We ask that you not send more originals than you send
covers.
We plan on distributing this tape "at cost" to anyone who wants it.
If you send in a tape we can tape over it and send the compilation
back to you for the cost of postage.
If you want more details, e-mail:
Jonathan Kandell (jkandell@ccit.arizona.edu)
Andy Halper (ahalper@cs.arizona.edu)
Tucson, Arizona
=====================================================
<------------------------------------------------------------>
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