Ba-daba-da buh buh Ba-daba-da buh buh ############################# Indie List Digest! August 22, 1995 Volume 4 Number 37 ############################# Alex Chilton, Mo Tucker live One pure Bardo Pond, Dissolve, others ANNOUNCE SUMMARY: New Little Pop Kid catalog available ANNOUNCE: SHOTMAKER TOUR ITINERARY ANNOUNCE: A Boston Music Home Page Intro: We wound ourselves up after the move by attending the first show of our Chicago experience - a gig by Number One Cup and out-of-towners Butterglory. Butterglory are in town to record their new album, and this gig (and the one-song performance slated for the evening following) seemed to be a bit of a lark, an opportunity to play out some songs that they hadn't known were finished. What I'd heard of Butterglory before sounded downright Pavementlike. I like the Pavement sound well enough; we own the 7"s, etc. Whether they deserved imitators is a judgement call for any listener to make, but my opinion was that Butterglory did a nice job of it. But this show was a shift. Instead of sounding like baby Malkmuses and Bob Ns, Butterglory, the three piece, sounded like a fine mid-period VU band that had come back. And that's a sound to support. At points they struck me as '70s power rock, a sound that was an illusion from the hard strikes to the drum. Number One Cup have a new album out, and this evening's gig was a pre-promotion for it (the following night was to comprise several bands and individuals (Sabalon Glitz, David Grubbs, Butterglory, Red Red Meat, et al.) performing the album, one track at a time. When we last saw (and reviewed) Number One Cup at the Cardigan Festival, we thought of them as one of those bands that takes a lot of the good parts of various other bands and mashes them into a shape of their own. The sound hasn't changed much in the intervening months, except to get a bit tighter. It's all in good fun, if a bit glib somehow. I'm not cynical enough to play "spot the influence" with Number One Cup, and I think they're trying to put together a sound that defies that, at any rate. They're close to winning. es <------------------------------> From: Leonard Nevarez <6500ljn@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu> Alex Chilton, Mo Tucker live Indeed, not only do Alex Chilton and Mo Tucker live, but they played separate shows at the Santa Barbara Underground, which (with last month's Jonathan Richman show) has recently been booking a series of shows by artists we could call "the parents of indie rock": now 40-ish musicians whose musical heyday still looms large over independent music and who are now themselves recording on indies. After each of these shows, I've been struck by the same sentiment: When they all finally go someday, there won't be another one like 'em. (Not that every 40-year-old reminds me of mortality all the time!) Alex Chilton @ the Underground, 7/23 Chilton's looking a little grizzled these days, but he kept from going through the motions with a genuinely enthusiastic 90-minute set that the far-from-capacity crowd cheered on like the Sunday night alcoholics many of them probably are. His thing these days is to skip his early, influential power-pop material in favor of a very loose and loungy Memphis R&B that gives him the chance to croon it up and generously dish out some tasteful lead guitar. In other words, if a stranger were to walk in and think they were in the middle of a rather eclectic musical set at Las Vegas, they wouldn't be far off -- especially when the performer says "Okay, now we're going into the Italian-language portion of the set" and launches into the surfy "Il Rebele" and the always-classic "Volare". Other covers included the jazz standard "My Baby Just Cares For Me", "Ti-ni-ni-ni-no" (long ago recorded on his "Feudalist Tarts" ep), some Frank Sinatra ("Got a Lot of Livin' to Do") and Isaac Hayes ("As Long As I've Got You"). Perhaps the most characteristic aspect of where Chilton's music is at today is found in his originals, all of which he plays like they were _someone else's songs_: "What's Your Sign, Girl?" (sung with Big Staresque falsetto), the wacked out reverb of "Devil Girl" ("scarier" than anything the Cramps have done lately), and the shoulda-been-an-R&B-standard "Take It Off". By distancing himself from his own songs this way, Chilton doesn't invoke some easy slacker-(sym)pathetic irony but instead showcases the immediacy of his combo's performance: jaded and blase, perhaps (especially when the horribly unfunky couples started dancing up front, forcing the musicians to look away), but also tight, energetic, and exhaustive in their expertise of musical idioms. For evidence, look no further than Chilton's guitar work: tasteful, never self-indulgent, and sometimes sublime in its Memphis conventionality. So Chilton was there and he wasn't, in all the right places, which will no doubt further fuel his notorious wise-ass reputation (which has been known to deteriorate into contempt for his audience). But let's not overdo the mystique. Last night he didn't look too pained when people shouted out Big Star requests (although he certainly didn't play them -- too bad they missed last year's reunion); he interrupted his set list to play a requested "Take It Off" (but only after some self- and other-deprecating audience dialogue along the lines of who should take what off). He's an original, generally a swell guy, and if he played your wedding (always an interesting litmus test when it comes to playing these ageless musical genres), you just know that a lot of people would get drunk and laid that night who never usually do that sort of thing. Mo Tucker @ the Underground, 7/30 First up was Acetone, an LA band I've seen twice previously that continues to toil in relative obscurity (despite -- because of? -- being signed to faux-indie Vernon Yard Records). That's too bad, since their unique sound, in which neo-Paisley Underground psychedelia meets the shimmering guitar and vocal crooning of the Chris Isaak band, always sounds refreshing to these ears. Subdued, almost never rocking, Acetone is way cool. Mo Tucker then hit the stage looking straight out of the VU, with a leather jacket and the same haircut she's had since 1967. Her 3 male back-up musicians looked almost stereotypical of what I'd imagine the Hoboken NJ/Maxwells scene looks like: dyed black hair, not-quite-NYC scowls, obviously on vacation from their day jobs at record stores. Mo is playing guitar these days, by the way; she also reads (lyrics? notes?) from a music stand to her side, which I guess constitutes being upfront about how much time she has in her life these days to memorizing lyrics... I guess. Her songs sound quite VU-like, not surprisingly: "What Goes On"-like 3 chord figures typically played to Bo Diddley rhythms with a touch of Half Japanese amateurism. Most lyrics were about how much everything costs these days, how bosses suck, how life can drive you nuts; Mo speaks for no-nonsense working class moms everywhere. "Mom-core", I guess you'd call it. She did 2 Bo Diddley covers, including a rousing "Hey Bo Diddley" for an encore. She didn't always keep my attention -- hey, how interesting can VU-ish jams really be? -- but she's certainly unpretentious and original. And like Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters have done with Nirvana, if anyone is allowed to borrow generously from a ridiculously influential band, it's Mo, who showed who the real soul of the VU was. But that was always obvious with Mo, wasn't it? Leonard Nevarez 6500ljn@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu <------------------------------> From: "Pim Vermaat" <pimz@pi.net> One pure Hi! I promised, I would be posting all summer through. But I forgot since we're all living in a greenhouse effect, it's become quite impossible to live in a hot small (31 degrees celcius) dark room like mine. So I spent my summer in the garden of my parents' house. Trying to stay out of the sun. Reading books, listening to wonderful music and not thinking about computers. Thankfully my father has connected himself to the internet too. So I can translate you some of the stuff I've been saving up. So this posting consists of a nice Mouse on Mars article and some record reviews I strongly recommend. I'll write more in a week or two.. Come to think of it. I think the Indielist have been having a break too. So why am I writing this? [hey, we've been unpacking boxes and living without cable. it's not been easy. and it's hot here too, ya know? -az] Mouse on Mars They were without a doubt the high point of the Tegentonen festival in Paradiso, Amsterdam earlier this year. Especially for the evening the two Germans, Andi Toma and Jan St Werner, were joined by an English drummer who gave the music some extra accents. Because of that, the band really didn't sound like a techno act, but more like a guitar based rock band similar to Seefeel, a Tegentonen high point of last year. "We don't see ourselves as a techno band," Andi tells me. "The festival organisation asked us to describe our music and we said they could call it 'electro-kraut-dub-grind'. But they didn't understand that, so it became 'krautrock' in the flyer." Even that description is too limiting for Mouse on Mars' music. Andi: "We're really going in a death-kraut or grind-kraut direction. During a recent Peel session we almost sounded like Heavy Metal. We weren't very prepared, so we made some things up on the spot. Nobody seemed to mind though, John Peel broadcasted it." Jan: "I'm glad we don't have to behave like a techno band. Thanks to Too Pure we have the freedom to do whatever we like." Andi: "Our experience with many independent labels is that if you suddenly make something completely different, they'll tell you, shocked, that that wasn't really what they had in mind. But Too Pure seems to have the fullest confidence in us, as long as we know what we do. They are a great bunch of people. They came to Germany to meet us." Jan: "That was really important to them. They had to get an idea of what we are about. They are more interested in the development of ideas by people instead of a certain style by a band." Andi and Jan earn a living with music. Next to Mouse on Mars, they separately work with a lot of other people. For instance the German techno band Oval. But to earn more money, they sometimes make tunes for German television. "Yes, they call us a lot for those kind of things," says Jan. "We've worked for Vox, a reasonably experimental German television station. At the station we were responsible for all the sounds and tunes. Since then, we've made music for a lot of programs. The weird thing is that most of the programs seem to stop after a short while." Andi: "They always call to ask us to make something really 'special' for the show. And if the hear the result a few weeks later, they say: 'Gosh, that sounds very special. Could you make it a bit less special?'" Jan: "The worst thing they can say is that it sounds 'unique', because then the program will seize to exist almost immediately." Andi: "But thanks to this extra source of income, we've enough money to buy our electronic equipment. Recently we bought a 'professional Super Robert voice'." Jan: "We found it in a catalogue with equipment made by D.I.Y. people. If you have a sound that you don't like, put it through a 'Super Robert' and it will sound completely distorted and cool." These and the sounds of everyday life are the kind of sounds Andi and Jan get excited about. Jan: "One day we found out we forgot to listen. If you listen to your surroundings then you'll discover music in everything. Last year we did an experiment requested by the Finnish techno label Sahko. For one week the label had started up a non-stop experimental techno radio station in Helsinki and we were allowed to fill an hour." Andi: "Our contribution was a recording consisting of three levels. First we had put up microphones all around the studio. Next to that we had sampled various everyday sounds in the city. And during all that our shortwave radio picked up all sorts of strange noises. We played everything live and it fitted perfectly!" Jan: "As long as you don't set up a goal for yourself nothing can go wrong. That's what people should think about more often. If they would, there would be much less war and disagreement a world without plans. If you don't plan it, you take one step at a time. And you'll just see where you end up." And finally.. some record reviews: Labradford: "A stable reference" (Flying Nun) ...an echo reversed... ..hanging still.. Like drops of black ink in a bowl of rippling water. Streaks of black everywhere, not a concrete point to fixate on. Some tones seemed to have stopped before they have begun, an echo reversed. Labradford make music in which slow melodies are covered by the sounds they consist of themselves. Even the lyrics disappear in the mist of sounds still hanging around or yet to come.. ..yet to come.. ..an echo reversed... Cul de Sac: "I don't want to go to bed" (Flying Nun) Endless and unashamed, they fool around with guitars until they've lost sight of their goal. Cul de Sac work that way, but they show that fooling around can be a goal in itself. This record, a selection of cleaned up recordings from their rehearsals, varies from totaly boring to very experimental and new. Luckily, the balance swings to the latter. But I would only recommend this to people who already know Cul de Sac. If you've never heard them, try "Ecim" or wait 'till their next one. Aurobindo: "Involution" (Ash) NOT FOR MUSIC LOVERS! This record by Mark van Hoen (Locust) and Daren Seymour (bass player with Seefeel) could easily have been released by the Finnish experimental techno label Sahko. Locust and Seefeel have both been put in that same corner in the world of electronic music. A corner called 'isolationism', a genre which did finally get a name thanks to the excellent collection "Amb4: Isolationism" released last year. Aurobindo shows us there's still much to experiment with. This duo creates a dark palet of colors consisting of scary and seemingly constant repetitive sound experiments. With just two little bright points of light, a track with a happy bleepy melody and one with a spoken voice telling us something unimportant over and over again, both become completely fucked up by several distorting effects. ONLY FOR SOUND LOVERS! Revolution 9: "You might as well live" (Habana) This record has been released in the wrong season. Because in the world revolution 9 it is autumn forever. A romantic autumn, with trees colouring red, early setting sun, candlelight, pain, the loss of a loved one, the anger after a huge fight. These are just a few elements out of the set most used melancholic elements in popmusic. Melancholy they share with the best, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Palace, Lou Barlow, Idaho (add your own favorites). For the past six years Revolution 9 got raving live reviews in Melody Maker. And rightly so, because the trio using voice/guitar, cello and percussion, bring a silent sound that would make any listener cry on a dark autumn or winter day. Buy now and put it on as soon as the first leaf falls. Annie Williams: "Ruby" (Apollo/R&S) These four songs are just as important as the air we breathe. And that's what Annie does. She doesn't sing, she breathes. She breathes fairytales in the kaleidoscope of sounds Mark van Hoen is making for her. She breathes and tells us things about her life, her love, her lust... Do you think I'm overdoing it? Hear what I compare this with: Moonshake, Laika, Pram, Mouse on Mars and Nico. Amazing, that a thing like has been released by an 'ambient' label. Mouse on Mars: "Bib" (Too Pure) Electro-kraut-dub-grind they call it themselves. But from this EP onwards they can just as well call it electro-kraut-dub-grind-jungle. The German duo are completely out of this world again with this lovely mixture of fast rhythms, acid bleeps and a Beach Boy female choir. Scud Mountain Boys: "Dance the night away" (Chunk Records) Mark my words, THIS BAND IS GOING TO BE VERY POPULAR. All the signs are there. This record, produced by Thom Monahan (ex-Monsterland) in the kitchen of one of the band members, has only just been rel eased and already several labels are hunting for them. Sub Pop, Elektra, Atlantic, Warner Bros, everyone would like a piece of this little ingenious country band. Why? Because this will sell. A steel guitar, three voices, almost no percussion, acoustic. The music brings up memories of early Eagles or Crosby Stills Nash & Young in their heyday. You can even hear a bit of Palace Brothers, especially lyric-wise. As if three Will Oldhams are singing with perfectly pure voices. Buy before half the world knows about them. Coming: Laika, Catherine Wheel, live reviews, more record reviews, mu-ziq interview / v902160@si.hhs.nl (school) (/oe/) The One Pure -> Joep Vermaat: pjoe@grafix.xs4all.nl (own) / pimz@pi.net (my father) <------------------------------> From: madnbut@vt.edu (Butch) Bardo Pond, Dissolve, others Bardo Pond-BUFO ALVARIUS, AMEN 29:15 (Drunken Fish) These folks have recorded several 7" singles for Compulsiv and others (?). Basement sludge/psyche that really gives you the creeps. Droning, stumbling swamp glue; it's the aural equivalent of a cough syrup shake. This is what Mazzy Star will sound like when they lose their jobs and give up. The sad thing is that the best piece (the "Amen 29:15" of the title, which is actually a 29-minute song) is only a bonus cut on the CD (perhaps it's available on vinyl elsewhere?). For once, LP buyers get shortchanged cause this is scary enough to freeze your veins. A super-long droned-out jam that sounds just like you and your friends in the basement stoned, except when you come down, this still sounds cracked. I always want to imagine that folks making music like this are truly deranged. The reality is that they're probably just like you and I; perhaps a little more high-spirited. (Drunken Fish: 8600 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035) (Bardo Pond: 1801 N. Howard St., Philadelphia, PA 19122) Dissolve-THAT THAT IS...IS (NOT) (Kranky) Dissolve is a recent side project of New Zealand musician Roy Montgomery (Pin Group, Dadamah). Dissolve move in sparse, repetitive territory and put a greater emphasis on texture than on song structure. These 4 track recordings (at least they sound like 4 track recordings) mix some unearthly combination of Brian Eno, Throbbing Gristle and the Dead C; occasionally, a low-key pop tune will shine through, but it's mostly the starkly beautiful sound experiments that draw you in. The sounds grate and swirl; multiple guitar lines, all independently simple, combine into a repeating mantra of zen-like quality. At first, you wouldn't really call this "easy listening", but suddenly the clanging becomes the sounds of water in a fluttering creek, and the swirling is the haze of the heat off the pavement, and you're gone. Kranky: PO Box 578743, Chicago, IL 60657 Luxurious Bags-FRAYED KNOTS (Twisted Village) The Luxurious Bags work in territory similar to Smog on "their" newest release, Frayed Knots. LB (apparently the one-man band of "Luxurious D. Bags Jr.") show a surprising pop sensibility on this release, especially compared to earlier records like From Heaven to My Head, which were much more experimental (that is, there weren't any songs, just scrunchy noise). Like Smog, LB take relatively downbeat pop tunes and turn them into epics of noisy heartbreak. The surprise addition of structure to the LB oeuvre may disappoint some, but it makes for a very moving and gripping listen. Twisted Village: PO Box 35604 Brighton, MA 02135 Minerva Strain-BLUE TARANTELLA (Jettison) This Chapel Hill quartet always reminds me of Echo and the Bunnymen for some reason: it's not that they're overwrought and angst-ridden as was Bunnymen front guy Ian McCulloch. It's got little to do with the lyrical content (though the 'Strain shares some of the Bunnymen's lyrical mystery), and much more to do with the stately, majestic instrumental attack. Though American, it seems to me that they've got more than a little in common with English bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Ride. It's just that so few Amerikkan bands seem to incorporate a pop/psyche feel with the kind of grace that M. Strain is able to incorporate. Fluid, rippling guitar lines intertwine in a trippy mush that finds me hugging my lava lamp for safety. I may just start taking drugs again so I can "feel" this record. Favorites include the disorienting "Jupiters" and "J. Edgar Hoover Parachutes" (with guest guitar from Walker Martin of Bicentennial Quarters) which sounds like an adolescent John Lydon stumbling drunkenly home from a 13th Floor Elevators concert. Just like the Bunnymen in their better days (or the best Creation bands from '91 or so), M. Strain is a thoroughly modern take on traditional psychedelia. Plus, they've got the good taste to include covers of P.I.L. ("Poptones") and Dennis Wilson ("Cease to Exist"-yup, the infamous Manson tune). Highly recommended, except that it comes on CD only. Jettison: PO Box 2873 Durham, NC 27715 The Sea and Cake-NASSAU (Thrill Jockey) The Sea and Cake share drummer John McEntire from another great Chicago band, Tortoise, and also a willingness to explore sound possibilities outside those usually found on "indie-rock" records. This album sounds like it could have come out in 1966: they've managed to distill the essence of the "cocktail" sound and put it to use in the service of non-ironic, mostly lighthearted tunes. The sentiments seem fairly breezy on the surface, but several listens uncover a deeper emotional experience, both through the lyrics and through the inspired musicianship. While the playing (again, at first listen) seems largely hazy and light, there's a tension in the interplay between the instruments that takes a little while to sink in, even while you nod off for another morning hour in bed. Thrill Jockey: PO Box 476794, Chicago, IL 60647-6794 Announcement: Hey there! Yeah, you! You want to learn more about the lusty teen love rock sounds of Blacksburg, VA? Do you want to have amazing psychic adventures exploring the outer realms of "cyberspace"? Do you enjoy the avante-garde squeak and doink of Refrigerator, Geezer Lake, June, Rake and thousands (or tens) of others? Do you have way, way too much free time on your hands? The Squealer Home Page is your answer: http://www.mal.com/~squealer Over 100 served, and a few came back for seconds... The Squealer home page is more than just another dumb URL. It's a dumb URL alright, but IT'S OUR DUMB URL!!! Check out the SQUEALER home page at: http://www.mal.com/~squealer <------------------------------> From: bh813@freenet.carleton.ca (Jon Georgekish-Watt) ANNOUNCE SUMMARY: New Little Pop Kid catalog available [Jon Georgkish-Watt sent along a catalog for the new Little Pop Kid catalog. While it's too long for full inclusion (though I'll be happy to send it along to those who wish to see it - and I suggest such!, highlights included two girl afraid 7"s, and advance issues of some other woks, including cassette releases. For more info, drop him a line, or send snail-mail to pop kid, 2-90 charlotte st., ottawa, on, K1N 8K2. Details (but not the rest) follows -es] pop kid 001: girl afraid 7"ep (5 songs, 11 mins.) pop kid 002: girl afraid / two for flinching split 7" (4 songs, 10 mins.) coming soon(ish): pop kid 003: pumpernickel 7" pop kid 004: the yellowjacket avenger 7" other stuff available from us (well, right now there's just one thing): plainsongs #4: music from the home (lower than fi, volume 1...twenty-four ottawa basement orchestras)...(27 songs, just seconds short of 90 minutes)...(cassette)... mail order is the way to go: pop kid 7-inches cost 4 dollars. canadian orders add $1 first item, 50 cents each additional, for postage...u.s. orders pay in u.s. funds and the exchange will cover the postage...plainsongs cassettes are $4 post paid to anywhere on the continent.... if at all interested, send cash (well concealed!), cheque (canadians only), or a money order to: pop kid, 2-90 charlotte st., ottawa, on, K1N 8K2. please make cheques or money orders out to me, jon georgekish-watt, and not to pop kid...thanks... questions? concerns? e-mail me! later friends, jon <------------------------------> From: an914@freenet.carleton.ca (Shawn Scallen) ANNOUNCE: SHOTMAKER TOUR ITINERARY the mighty shotmaker are hitting the road yet again this summer. they are one of my favourite live bands of all time. they are heavy, noisy, emo-y and cutey (pies) all at the same time. i urge you to check them out if you can. shotmaker rock my world, hopefully they will rock yours! Shotmaker Tour Itinerary August 18 Bakersfield, CA @ Romper Room 19 Berkley, CA @ Gilman w/ Bouncing Souls, Screw 32 20 Eugene, OR 21 Portland, OR 22 OFF -- HELP!!! 23 Seattle, WA 24 Olympia, WA @ Capitol Theatre 25 Missoula, MO 26 Rapid City, SD 27 Lincoln, NB 28 Minneapolis, MN 29 Milwaukee, WI 30 Chicago @ Fireside Bowl w/ Los Crudos 31 Kalamazoo, MI September 1 Detroit, MI for more info or to help fill in the dates with question marks call Tim at 613-967-1818 (before Aug 2) or Caroline at 705-324-2895 (after Aug 2) thanx, shawn -- shawn scallen - an914@freenet.carleton.ca - 613-234-PUNX CKCU-FM music director * photographer * vectrex/colecovision/2600 fan --------------------------------------------------------------------- for info on ottawa shows/events email --> punx_subscribe@proton.com <------------------------------> From: RPMARR@ix.netcom.com ANNOUNCE: A Boston Music Home Page Dick & Bert's Boston Music Home Page, (a Multimedia Public Service Data Base for Boston Music). http://www.mw3.com/ima/fantastica/boston/d&b_home.htm Thank You Richard Marr RPMARR@ix.netcom.com <------------------------------------------------------------> Next Issue: Lida Husik Dirty Three Announcements Your scene? more... <------------------------------------------------------------> The Indie-List Digest is published weekly (Mondays) or more often by the Indie-List Infotainment Junta, Unltd. What Who Where Editors Eric Sinclair esinclai@indiana.edu Anne Zender azender@indiana.edu Mailings Sean Murphy grumpy@access.digex.net Archives Chris Karlof karlofc@seq.cms.uncwil.edu FTP ftp://ftp.uwp.edu/pub/music/lists/indie FAQ http://www-sc.ucssc.indiana.edu/~esinclai/indie-list-faq.html Consultants: Mark Cornick, Joshua Houk, Sean Murphy, Liz Clayton and K. Lena Bennett. Indie-List is not copyrighted. It may be freely reproduced for any purpose. Please cite Indie-List as your source. <--------------------------------------> please send your articles for the next issue to <indie_submit@indiana.edu>. <-------------------------------------->