Indie-List_V2_N25 THE INDIE-LIST DIGEST! Volume 2 Number 25 ************************************************************ * ** ********************* **** * ** *********************** ** * *************************** ** * ** *********************** ** * ** ********************* **** ************************************************************ "Digitally Rechanneled For Superior Stereo Sound!" In this issue: Molly Winds Up For Giant Slow Friendly Steps Into The Loris House Message from the Moderator; TeenBeat 100; Comix indie-x; Jonathan Richman UCI Concerts for Late October '93 ahgi;dafkj; Cop Shoot Cop/Steel Wool/Power Wagon @ O'Kayz 10/19/93 Seam, plus Velocity Girl / Tiger Trap TSUNAMI in Winnipeg, CANADA! and more <------------------------------------------------------------> EDITOR'S NOTE T MINUS TWO by Mark Cornick cornick@delphi.com It gives me great pleasure to announce that Sean Murphy will be succeeding me as Editor. Sean, as you know, has been writing for Indie-List since the very first issue, and although I anticipate an occasional grumpy bout, I promise you have nothing to fear. Sean will be starting with the November 2 issue. It also looks like Liz might sub-contract her job as well, so you could be looking at an Almost All New Junta before the end of the year. Hold onto yr seats... <------------------------------------------------------------> Molly Winds Up For Giant Slow Friendly Steps Into The Loris House by Mark Cornick cornick@delphi.com Probably lost in the release of new albums from the "big names" (Nirvana, Squirrel Jam, et al.) was the second LP from the Boo Radleys, _Giant Steps_ (Creation/Sony.) It's a seventeen-track whopper, ranging from 70s California- esque rock to grandiose noise to spacey dub and more. They get help from Pale Saint Meriel, Moose (whatever happened to them?) and others. There are some tracks from recent singles, like "Lazarus" and "Rodney King" (but, interestingly, neither track from the recent SpinArt 45.) Much like my own band, Friendly, the instrumentation includes everything but the kitchen sink: g/b/d, trumpet, fluegelhorn, clarinets, cello, organ, what have you (although we're much cooler than them -- they don't have an electric eggbeater solo :-) It's a little much to listen to all the way through, but taken a little at a time, this is one of my favorite LPs of 93. **1/2 The second issue of Wind-Up Swan Catheter, produced by everyone's favorite list manager Liz, is out. This time you get interviews with Bailter Space and Don Caballero, a Coctails/Lollapalooza diary, day jobs of Chicago rock stars, cooking with Rose Poster Child and Steve Albini, a Shrimper ad (must be some hip Chicago thing these days) and, naturally, more. The first issue was fine as far as layout goes, but this one is even better (the photos are a lot better, especially.) Whether or not Liz thinks she did a good job (she seems a little happier with this one than the first), I think it's just smashing. Liz already told you how to procure one, so do it. Speaking of Friendly, we're recording tracks for our debut EP (due sometime next year) this weekend, with Rob Christiansen (Eggs, Grenadine) producing. Future Friendly recording plans include the EP, to be followed sometime thereafter with a full-length thing, as well as a possible appearance on the Squealer "Industrial Folk" compilation. Stay tuned... In the meantime, Friendly will be playing at the Metro in Richmond on October 27, with Charlottesville semi-legends Mollyhouse opening. It is a FREE show, so anyone in driving range should come for a night of good music and, of course, the buffet. (If you're in driving range, you really should get out of the way of those golf balls :-) And finally, Mike probably won't tell you so I will: the debut 45 from Slow Loris is due very, very soon on their own label, which has a very long name I can't remember. Three songs, one old, two new, worth looking out for. More on it when it comes back from the pressers. --mark P.S. Did anyone else notice that the new Blake Babies CD is stickered "Featuring Juliana Hatfield with Freda and John of Antenna"? Weird... Mark Cornick * cornick@delphi.com "[Haile Selassie] will come in very shortly; would you tell him that Marcus Garvey phoned?" - unidentified voice, "Towers Of Dub", The Orb <------------------------------------------------------------> Message from the Moderator; TeenBeat 100; Comix by K. Lena Bennett keb@u.washington.edu Well, the times they are a changing here at Indie List. It seems like Sean is going to be the new editor, I might end up the new archivist while also remaining moderator, Josh and I are intending to work on the hardcopy edition of Fshee!, and J.C. is moving right along on the indexing. The number of submissions has gone down again, but methinks that's just temporary (come on, folks, write!). I never have time to write reviews so I'll just tell you what I bought this week. Not a lot since I don't get my next paycheck till Monday. Yesterday I got the TeenBeat 100 7" that has 10 songs on it from bands like Tsunami and Eggs and Unrest and Blast Off Country Style and Bratmobile (who I've never heard before but think I might like), as well as some I've never heard of. Each song is a minute long. A good deal for 4 bucks. Thanks to the influence of my indie list friends, I've started to be willing to buy 7" vinyl (which always seemed like too much of a hassle for me before), as well as discovering the wonders of mail order. But I still don't know what everyone and their dog seems to see in Unrest. [ Y'know, Liz doesn't like Unrest, and Sean and I both do -- must be a male/ female thing, right? :-) - Mark ] The big comix news of the week is that Julie Doucet's book _Leve Ta Jambe, Mon Poisson Est Mort" is now out -- it's a collection of some of the old Dirty Plotte mini's, as well as some stuff that was previously published in anthologies, and I think, some new stuff. I haven't seen it yet (see paycheck comment above) but it's definitly on the shopping list. Plus, Fantagraphics will be publishing Dame Darcy Megan Stanger's _Meat Cake_, following up on the hard-to-find first issue from Iconographix. If you've seen her work in Rollerderby you know how crazy she is. A must-have. Starhead (another Seattle-area publisher) will be coming out with a book whose name I forget but which has the word DIVAS in it, containing the work of local Ellen Forney, Canadian Fiona Smyth, and another totally awesome female cartoonist who I'm totally forgetting now (it's not Darcy, is it?)... Speaking of female cartoonists, if you haven't seen Megan Kelso's Girlhero yet, you are a total loser and should rush right out to your comix shop now. Plus I found out at a party last week that Megan and I have the same birthday. Finally, in other local news, Aeon will be putting out _Boom Boom_ by former self-publishing whiz David Lasky, who I would say is the most promising talent in the up-and-coming under-30 bunch, and not just because I love him to death. You will not regret going to your retailer and lying down in the doorway urging him/her to pre-order this book. I mean it. Lena keb@u.washington.edu Grungepuppies Are My Weakness.... <------------------------------------------------------------> indie-x; Jonathan Richman by Jeff Curtis jac15@po.cwru.edu Hi! The indie-x is going well. I have the first 10 issues done. This will take a while, since I"m mostly doing it on my lunch hours and when I can get a few minutes here and there. IN the meantime, here is my review of a Jonathan Richman show (well he doesn't seem to fit in, but ... maybe he does) for the indie-list. If you want it. --JC Jonathan Richman, 16 October 1993 @ Peabody's Cafe, Cleveland Heights, OH Well this is the third time I've seen Jonathan play in the last 10 or so years, and this is the most intimate place I've ever seen him. The place is about the size of my basement, and in fact is in the basement of this club, with the middle of the first floor cut away so people can also peer down from that floor to see the performer downstairs. Weird. Anyway, Jonathan has not changed much over the years. Playing all by himself with a big hollowbody guitar plugged into an amp that was facing the wall so as to muffle its sound, and more often than not, not using the vocal mike. He is about as lo-tech as they come, but that is the point I guess. He really is quite an entertainer, though. His songs are really funny and charming, just like he is, and most of the crowd had a big grin on their face throughout his show. The highlight of the show for me, though, was in the middle of his song, "Down in Bermuda," which explains how he went down to Bermuda, and seeing how loose and carefree everyone was there, and the music too, made him see how stiff he was, and made him loosen up. In the middle of the song, he stopped and said, "Hey, wait a minute there Jonathan, what do you mean 'stiff???" And he explained how he and the Modern Lovers were down there doing a show, and he played a few minutes of the great M.L. song, "She Cracked" in a very hilariously serious way, with a totally stiff straight 4/4 beat, and the "guitar solo": 8 bars of playing the same one chord straight beat! Well this really made me laugh since I had been in a couple bands that did a cover of this song *just like that*. Then he said, "And they thought we were, ok, not bad, but, uh, interesting. Then the ancient 40 year old Bermuda man got up there and started playing..." some real tropical sunny happy sounding thing ...and he told how everyone started dancing and they loved it! Well anyway I guess that explains why it seems like so many of the people who show up at J.R. shows seem like they'd be as much in place at a Jimmy Buffet show. Anyhow, if you want to see where Beat Happening, Violent Femmes, and numerous other quasi-primative types find their roots, or if you just want a fun time with a lotta laughs, go see Jonathan. --Jeff Curtis jac15@po.cwru.edu <------------------------------------------------------------> UCI Concerts for Late October '93 by Brian K!z!K Macdonald bmacdona@Bonnie.ICS.UCI.EDU Well, for all y'all who might be wondering around Southern California in the near future (or for those who already live here...) [Lena's note: I couldn't get K!z!K! to tell me what UCI stands for or where it's at (my guess is Univ. of Cal. Irvine). Am I just dumb or ignorant?] [ yes, it's UCal-Irvine, and if I remember right their mascot is an anteater. Cool, but nowhere near as cool as the Erskine College Flying Fleet... - Mark ] Here is the official UCI Concert Series for Fall Quarter '93 so FAR! -------------------------CONCERTS-------------------------------------- Mon. Oct 25th @ NOON SEAWEED at the UCI Student Center Terrace (FREE) Wed. Oct 27th @ NOON MARY LOU LORD @ KAIA WILSON at the UCI Student Center Terrace (FREE) Fri. Oct 29th @ NOON TSUNAMI at the UCI Student Center Terrace (FREE) Fri. Oct 29th @ 8:00pm UNREST and STEREOLAB (and possible IDAHO) at Monarch Bay A&B in the UCI Student Center ($5) up and coming in November are the NELS CLINE TRIO and SPOON in December, _NOFX_ and openers (possibly) ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT and (probably) FACE TO FACE at UCI Crawford Hall, December 4th! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To get to UCI: FROM L.A., find yourself on the 405 Freeway SOUTH. EXIT on Jamboree Rd. and TURN RIGHT... FROM SAN DIEGO, find youself on the 5 Freeway NORTH, go until it turns into the 405 NORTH. EXIT on Jamboree Rd. and TURN LEFT... Now continue on Jamboree and in a few blocks, TURN LEFT on Campus Rd. Keeping on going pass University and then TURN RIGHT on Bridge Rd. Then IMMEDIATELY get on the left lane and TURN LEFT on Pereira Dr. Then IMMEDIATELY to your left is a parking structure. Turn in there and park (you might have to pay) and walk across Pereira Dr. into the UCI Student Center. Go up the stairs then into the building. Go up a few more stairs inside, then exit outside through another set of doors and you're at the UCI STUDENT CENTER TERRACE!!! To get to MONARCH BAY A&B in the UCI STUDENT CENTER, use the same directions as above to get to the Student Center. Go up the stairs to the glass doors and enter. NOW... instead of going FURTHER UP the stairs to the other side, go DOWN the stairs to the right. Just follow the path and you'll see directions on how to get to MONARCH BAY A&B. MONARCH BAY A&B does not serve food or drinks, so plan accordingly. ENJOY! K!z!K <------------------------------------------------------------> ahgi;dafkj; by Steven Silverstein cs141091@cs.brown.edu I think this will be my last submission for awhile, but I figured it was sort of a good idea to bid adieu until like I feel like writing again. This stuff is still taking up a good bit of time in my ears, but I've just grown a bit weary of being so into it, so Indie List submissions will be off for a little while. You can still write me, and I'll still be around and still seeing far too many shows. Anyhow all of that said, a last couple of reviews: Scarce, Kustomize, and Trotsky Icepick, 10/17, Last Call Saloon Not only are Trotsky Icepick a Bronze Age SST band, they aren't even particularly good. Kustomize was a letdown. Yukki Gipes (Bullet LaVolta) plays drums (vs. singing) and Peter Prescott (Mission of Burma, Volcaon Suns) plays guitar (not drums). It was a surprise (to say the least). They were decent, but forgettable. Scarce I'd only seen at Lupo's (far bigger) and this was just fun. They're really energetic and a lot of the songs are just very catchy and neat. (this is Chick from Anaesthasia Scream and Joyce from Mr. 1000, if anyone cares). Anyhow, see 'em if you get the chance. Not innovative, but quite cool and re-invigorating. Bob Mould, Vic Chestnutt, Paul's Beard. Club Babyhead, 10/15. Paul's Beard was a dull local acoustic dude. Vic Chestnutt was amazing from his wheelchair, despite crowd heckling. He was funny and interesting and self-referential and just damn good. And his bassist and drummer were excellent. Mould was in fine form and quite a treat. He's not indie, and you all know the deal if you care. He did 4 new songs and 2 Copper Blue outtakes, nothing from Black Sheets. "Walk Away" from Beaster was the big surprise. The more I listen to the new Helium 7", the more I like it. I think it is great! I think I'd reviewed it, but it's grown on me a lot. That's all for now. -Steve <------------------------------------------------------------> Cop Shoot Cop/Steel Wool/Power Wagon @ O'Kayz 10/19/93 by Mike Schmelzer mjs@genetics.wisc.edu I missed the local band, Power Wagon. Sorry. But I was most thrilled to see Empty records recording artist Steel Wool. They played a true Pacific Northwest kinda sound (ie Sonics, Girl Trouble, Gas Huffer rather than the g-word) which provided me with a lot of joyful jumping up and down. I talked to them afterwards, and they were a swell bunch of guys. One of the guitarists, John, has an incredible rock'n'roll wail of a voice. The moment I heard it, I gave the band two thumbs up, way up. Next up was Cop Shoot Cop. Now, it may just be that I was kinda low on energy, but my friend Jim confirms that their show was a little weak tonight. As I (probably errouneously) recall, the last time I saw them, they were two bassists, no guit, and drums. I know for a fact that they kicked total throbbin ass that last time, though. Alas, this time, their sound was diluted by the presence of more personell, including a guitar and a pots-n-pans sound sculpture around the drums. Something was just plain missing, and I don't know what. Only on their very last song did they match the intensity of last time. Coming up Thursday: Archers of Loaf! (I hope I'm motivated enough to report on that one. See you then...) -- ;; Mike Schmelzer, mjs@genetics.wisc.edu, (608)262-4550. Finger for PGP. ;; Yeah, you're on my list too, pal. - Gravity's Rainbow <------------------------------------------------------------> Seam, plus Velocity Girl / Tiger Trap by Tim Wicinski wicinski@polyp.barn.com Seam, some other stooped bands, on a bad night in SF I wanted to see Seam the last time they played SF but i hate the club they played, didn't think it was really them (why would they play the Paradise?) and was busy. i lost, so this time i wasn 't going to miss out. i head down a little late, but three bands i should only miss the first part of the first band, no big deal right? wrong. Seam opened for two SF bands. why? i have no idea, other than the same night was some weeekly-paper sponsoring of something called "the soma crawl" (where soma stands for south of market) an excuse for washed up hasbeens to wander the streets going in and out of bars drinking and going ya-hoo a lot. too fucking bad for me cause i ended up in the middle of it all. the club where seam played was one on the "tour" and as i got in line to get in, i saw that in facty Seam was playing in front of my eyes. turned out they were 4-5 songs into their set, so i watched them from behind thru this door. the sound was good too, due to the back of the stage being a rollup metal door. i sat there with a pile of other people looking at the packed club, and refusing to pay the $4 cover. they did a pile of stuff, but since i don't own their LP i just know of their touch & go single and something else. i liked their sound, very crisp (despite the door and the mobs of unruly spazzalots) and melodic. i should buy their record. i left after they finished, and didn't look back from the drunkard throngs. Velocity Girl / Tiger Trap @ Slims, in SF i hate this club - it's too...nice. clean, good sound. everything which makes it a place to see bands as opposed to a club to visit. anyway, tiger trap were pretty excellent, per usual. i liked their shows at smaller places like Gilman or Brave New World rather than a big stage like slims. what can you say about them that hasn't been said? they change instruments as part of the K tradition, their drummer is manic in the right ways, and they enjoy themselves. velocity girl were a LOT better than the last time they played in SF - this time the sound system worked for a change. they played some new tunes (labrador was one of them) which sounded good, as well as the old ones. they were very sacreligous when they so flippantly threw around copies of their slumberland single. one can not do such things to vinyl and not have the chi' thrown in a bad direction. i do not wish them forboding, but such things can have bad effects. still a fine show. now for unrest to appear.... tim <------------------------------------------------------------> TSUNAMI in Winnipeg, CANADA! by Red Glenny CLARK2@UWPG02.UWINNIPEG.CA Two recent occurences have come to make me believe that, in fact, there exists a Music God. The first was the Unrest Vibe Out/So Sick 7" that showed up with my Tean Beat order (along with Unrest T, combs, Eggs old CD, TB 100 7"). The second was such an epiphany that it's worth setting up a little, although the article title kind of killed the suspense. I was looking over the stuff Joanna at Simple Machines sent me (Machines Comp, July & Aug WHS) (Oh, Joanna's filling in for Pat) and saw a listing of Tsunami's Tour Dates. Out of curiousity, I decided to see whether they were playing Minneapolis (approx. 8 hours away) since I KNEW SADLY that Tsunami would never play Winnipeg, Manitoba. This was Friday October 15. Tsunami played here, in Winnipeg, yesterday (Monday, Oct 18). Good Gravy! And I nearly missed them! So anyways, I no longer have to be insanely jealous of USAers (yes you!) who get to see bands like Tsunami frequently. I Am