The anvil fell,
Went straight to hell;
Had to get a job.
#############################
Indie List Digest!
April 28, 1994
Volume 3 Number 28
#############################
Cell/Monsterland
Plankton/Scaredycat Update
College Radio Fest @ Old Dominion
Several Reviews (Morphine, Swingin' Neckbreakers, Hazel, et al.)
Flying Saucer Attack, the Fall
Multiple Show reviews
ANNOUNCEMENT: Final One (gig)
AD: Purderous Magina Records
-----------------------------
hey there, hi there, ho there, fellow..er...indie-list-a-teers! it's
nearly the end of school, so in a matter of days, thousands of
college students will be leaving our town, and summer will be
kicking in. (do you know where YOUR roommates are? better check and
make sure they're not out selling your furniture.)
two thoughts to mark the occasion: 1) next week clark 'i gotta match'
johnson, former squirrelbait/bastro fella, graduates with honors from
law school. so you see, there is life after indie-ness. congrats,
clark!
2) while watching TV recently, it occurred to me how much will
oldham, lead warbler for the palace brothers, looks like the guy in
the Mentos commercial who crawls in one door and out the other of some
yuppie's car. could this be a conspiracy? or is it just me?
az
One information request from Peter Andrew Lopez
<pl1x+@andrew.cmu.edu>, who wants to know whatever happened to X-Ray
Spex or Poly Styrene.
Trouser Press 4 ed. mentions two post X-Ray albums, anyone know more?
Also, special trivial contest - there's a not-so-obscure Chicago
nee' Bloomington band mention hidden in here. Special prize to that
which guesses the answer.
es
-----------------------------
From: pjoe@grafix.wlink.nl (Joep Vermaat)
Subject: Hanging out with Cell and Monsterland
Hanging out with Cell and Monsterland
We've known Cell for almost three years now. Just after releasing
their debut album "Slo-blo," they came to Holland supporting the Drop
Nineteens in the Paard (Den Haag). We came to see the Drop Nineteens,
but after the show we were a lot more impressed by Cell. We went to
see them again a day later in Rotterdam. And in November they came
back to support Sonic Youth and Pavement. Half a year later they
started the tour on the European continent in Brussels. We just had
to see them, so we drove off to Brussels. They immediately recognized
us and they asked us backstage. From that day on, we became known to
them as the Lekkercrew. A small group of people, coming from
Lekkerkerk, going everywhere Cell plays.
At the start of the year Dave (bass guitar) wrote us a letter, telling
us they would be playing five dates in Holland. This time round we
wanted to do something special. Bands normally hate the food they
have to eat on the road. Mostly it's unhealthy and tastes like shit.
So we thought: why not cook them a meal? And so we did.
The Cell menu:
Starting with a whole-meal soup filled with potatoes and several
vegetables spiced up with herbs and pepper. Followed by chicken sate,
the chicken marinated in kejap and spanish peppers, baked in oil
served with spicy peanut butter sauce. Served together with big
Turkish white bread and a spicy fruit salad consisting of apples,
pineapple, bananas and peaches. Backed with garlic and spanish
peppers. And all this washed away with lots and lots of beer
(Dommelsch).
[mmm. sounds good. should we start an IL recipes archive? 'fun in
the kitchen with superchunk.' or 'calvin johnson's favorite apple brown
betty.'-az]
The band came late. The record label had arranged a live session at
Dutch radio. So they didn't make it on time, but at around half past
seven they all sat in the living room, eating our food. They were
amazed, thrilled, and enjoying the meal. While eating we talked with
the band, listening to their session on the radio which was being
transmitted at the same time they were eating with us. At a quarter
to nine, there wasn't any food left, and they had to go back to the
venue, Monsterland would start at nine and they were anxious to see
them. So were we.
April 16th Cell/Monsterland Paard Den Haag Holland
Monsterland is a fun band. The threesome, Greg (guitar), Todd
(drums), and Thom (bass guitar), on first hearing play an immediately
recognizable blend of Husker Du/Buffalo Tom/Poster Children/Superchunk
kind of music. But there is more to their music than that. The
melodies are so good; the lyrics (as long as you can hear them) are
funny and they aren't repetitive, a different rhythm for every song.
There is something in their music, so endearing, you can not help
falling in love with it. In only three numbers I started to bounce up
and down with a big stupid smile on my face. Live, they are really
loud, creating a brick wall of sound, but in the wall you can hear all
sorts of melodies; you often hear someone singing harmony without
anyone standing near the microphone. Best songs? "Crashing Teenage
Crush," "Nobody Loves You" and "Angel Scraper."
It was the third time for Cell to play in the Paard. The first time
only twenty people showed up. The second time, supporting Eleventh Dream
Day, about fifty people. And now there were about a hundred people.
So you could say that the band doesn't have that much success over here.
But The Hague isn't really the indie capital of Holland, so it wasn't
that bad.
The set Cell played hadn't changed much in a year. Far before
releasing their second album "Living Room" they were playing songs
from it live. Tonight they played a lot of both albums. They had again
become better, having just played the UK, they really knew the songs
through and through. Because they had eaten so good, they enjoyed
playing, cracking jokes in between songs. It was almost as if they
were playing a homecoming gig and that really pissed off one newspaper
reviewer. Well fuck him, the band enjoyed it, we enjoyed it and so
did the rest of the audience. We were looking forward to the next
day.
April 17th Cell/Monsterland Vera Groningen Holland
Vera is a great place to play. It is run completely by volunteers so
the organisation tries to keep down prices, just enough to pay the
bands and a bit of overhead. For just about 5 dollars you
could see the bands this night; in the rest of the country prices are
twice as high. But we didn't have to worry about that. Monsterland
were good here, even better than in the Paard. And Cell went
completely nuts. About two hundred people had come to see the bands
and a lot of them were dancing, so the band enjoyed themselves. The
next day it would be Dave's birthday so he had bought a tin of cookies
which he shared with the audience. After the last song the audience
shouted for more, the band came back, played "Blue Star", a full
eight-minute version. In the end Ian and Jerry were lying on top of each
other pulling the strings, catching up feedback. Dave had fallen off
the stage and, completely dizzy, stumbled on again. And Keith almost
kicked his drum kit off the stage. The crowd went wild and wanted
more. They ended their brilliant set with a beautiful version of
"Fall," a song they hadn't played in ages. After that band was too
exhausted to play further. Next day would be for resting at the farm
of Ebs' (the Dutch sound engineer Jeroen Ebskamp) parents.
April 19th Cell/Monsterland Basement Rotterdam Holland
Both bands had a great time relaxing at the farm. Monsterland had
played soccer against Cell, Cell won 4 to nil, Monsterland blamed Ebs
for losing. Star player of the field was Ebs' little brother. They
have also milked some cows, drove around on the tractor, etcetera..
The Basement is the worst venue of the whole tour. It's like the
antithesis of Vera. Everything in this venue is commercial; even
going to the toilet will cost you a quarter. Beer is expensive and
watery (Heineken). Still, a lot of people came this night to see both
bands. A very young and grungy crowd. Both bands played well, but
not as good as the first two nights.
April 20th Cell Record store "Plato" Utrecht Holland
At 3 o'clock Cell were supposed to play a promotional concert in a
very small record store in the center of Utrecht. They came late; at
4 o'clock the van had finally found his way through the small shopping
streets. The band considered the store way too small to put up all the
stuff. So they wanted to play outside, because it was such nice
weather. But as soon as they had put up some amps, the city police
came by and told them they had to go inside. They did, and by
diminishing the drum kit considerably (only using a snare, a tom, and
two hi-hats) they were able to fit into the shop. There they played a
small set ending with a new beautiful song, "Vegas," one of their best
yet; they had only played it live one time before, earlier that day at a
session for Dutch radio (VPRO). Keith thought he was doing a bad job,
but even on this small kit everything sounded just fine. The sale of
Cell records didn't rise considerably, though.
April 20th Cell/Monsterland Tivoli Utrecht Holland
Tivoli is way too big for both the bands. You can put at least two
thousand people into the venue. So the crowd of about a hundred
didn't really fill up the place. Both bands felt really uneasy on the
big stage so didn't do too well. Cell played "Vegas" again, this
time it sounded really good, they played an epic-length version of it
using lots of feedback and solos. This song can become a big hit on
the next record.
April 21th Cell/Monsterland Arena Amsterdam Holland
By far the best venue of the tour. With the biggest and nicest crowd.
I think there were about two hundred and fifty people. And
considering it was sort of a farewell party for us and their American
manager both the bands really did their best. Monsterland where in
top form. But Cell took the cake; the first five front rows were
moving to all the songs they played, even the slow ones. The band
noticed and tried even better. "Vegas" did well again, but this time
the version was a bit shorter.
After that we had a good party and we said goodbye. Cell will be
coming back in August hopefully playing the "Lowlands" festival; even
Seam is being tipped. Their management told that NBC was interested
in the band and there is a chance the band will perform live on one of
the talkshows (if I'm right, it's the one replacing David Letterman).
We said goodbye especially to Ian, who will be leaving the band after
the European tour. It was obvious his talents were a bit understated
in the band. He's planning to start his own band, in which he can
perform his own songs and work on his vocals. Hopefully he'll write
more beauties like "Halo".
We think Cell will do really good, when they release the next album.
They might even become as big as the Afghan Whigs, one of the only
bands you can point out as a peer. But Cell is quite unique in their
field. Monsterland have a lot of potential too; they should
experiment more. Especially considering their great taste in music.
Talking to Thom we discovered that his taste is a lot like ours
(Seefeel, Aphex Twin, all things on WARP, Slint, Talk Talk, Stereolab,
The Shoes, etc..) All these guys are some of the nicest people we've
ever met.
Feed them when they come to your town!
Joep Vermaat (pjoe@grafix.wlink.nl) one of the two pure,
writing on behalf of the Lekkercrew. If you want more information
on the recipes, write me.
-----------------------------
From: Guy McCusker <gam@doc.ic.ac.uk>
Subject: Plankton tapes/Scaredycat
Julian Lawton mentioned the Plankton tape label and in particular
Scaredycat... the address he gave for Plankton (which is run by
Scaredycat's Pete and Carman) is in fact is wrong, 'cos they moved
house a little while ago. The new address is:
193 North Hill
Highgate
London N6 4ED
United Kingdom.
Guy.
-----------------------------
From: SE_AMMIDOWN@ACAD.FANDM.EDU
Subject: Review for indie list!
Hi guys- after a whole buncha time on here, finally breaking my
silence. After seeing that no one posted anything about the College
Radio Fest at Old Dominion a couple weeks back, I thought I might
throw in my two cents.
Friday, April 15
We left Pennsylvania at like 3, so we were bound to run into traffic
somewhere along the way. Lo and behold, we did, so we missed the
first three bands- Antic Hay, Fudge, and Hose.Got.Cable (unfortunate
but what can ya do?) We did arrive to see the last 20 minutes of the
Holy Rollers set, which was very impressive-loud punk that had all
the teeny boppers moshing and all us radio people kinda standing
there, still dazed from our trips.
The Eggs, who were supposed to headline, came on next, since two
members of Pitchblende and the Ropers were stuck somewhere in
Virginia. I had only heard some Eggs stuff; nothing that got me too
excited, but their performance here definitely got me going-moody
indie stuff with really good lyrics, and a trombone, which immediately
made me respect these guys a lot.(I'm a sucker for a mean trombone)
When the missing Ropers and Pitchblende members showed up, their
stuff was set up real quick and they tried to squeeze out a couple of
songs each. Pitchblende, to be honest, bored me-wall of noise with
drowned vocals that didn't sound that interesting anyway. The Ropers
got off a quick song, but that was it, so I'm not going to pass
judgement.
Saturday, April 16
After an interesting (to say the least) evening of partying, we
partook of some free food and went out in search of a beach. When
that failed we headed back to Old Dominion to check out the big lineup
for that evening (no sarcasm involved). We got there halfway through
Paint from DC's set-thoroughly unimpressive girlie pop, sounded like
a bad Blake Babies imitation. Ultracindy came on next-they proved to
also be a dud, just noise with a whiny singer.
Ah, but now we were getting into the meat of the schedule. Edsel
came on next and shocked everyone. They really dished out some good
power pop that managed to stay interesting through the entire set. They
sounded better than what I had even heard from their latest album.
After Edsel left, the evening's pizza arrived (yeah, more free food!),
which was a good thing, because up next were the Archers of Loaf.
I just cannot say enough about this band-they just rock, to be
brutally short about it. Their set was almost entirely stuff from
Icky Mettle, but they played two new songs, one of which was about the
worst rock band against the best rock band, which was really cool.
And before they finished with their signature tune, Web In Front,
Eric, the guitarist (sold me a T-shirt later, nice guy...) held up and
entire stalk(?) of celery and promptly threw it into the audience,
and it became our beach ball for the next couple of minutes.
Polvo came on next and did a really tight set. I have to admit, I'm
not a big Polvo fan, and at this point I was tired enough were it
didn't matter how good they sounded, although they did sound good.The
one bad thing that I got from their set was that they did try to force
too much out of some of their songs and tried to make them too
long...
Superchunk, in their first show since the release of Foolish, rocked
the house. They started with "Like a Fool" and just kept going-they
mixed up the old and new pretty well, not that it mattered much,
considering the quality hasn't changed-Mac can draw almost any
emotion out of his guitar, I'll tell ya. When they were done, I heard
several people proclaim that Superchunk was their new favorite band...
Well, that was it-Poole came on after Superchunk, but we didn't
stick around, knowing that we had to get out at 8 the next morning.
Oh, wanted to thank Walt at WODU for hosting the whole thing and
getting us hotel room and free food-can't wait 'till next year! L8r
all...
Steve
se_ammidown@acad.fandm.edu
-----------------------------
From: Aaron Schatz <ST000414@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
New release reviews
One of the nice things about working for WBRU, even if it is a totally
commercial station that plays garbage like "Milla" is the WBRU Free
Bin, where an indie-lister like myself can pick up all kinds of good
stuff and also a lot of complete garbage (an "Enuff Z'Nuff" album,
anyone) that we don't play. I have no clue how new this stuff is, but
some reviews:
Hazel - Toreador of Love (Sub Pop) - will someone please tell me who
these people are, and where they're from? All the CD gives is song
titles and a thank you list. From what I tell, Hazel is a pop-punk
trio (one woman, two men). The songs here are short but very good -
this album has grown on me very quickly. Best song is "She's
Supersonic" which has an amazing five-bar chorus. They aren't unique
in any way, just good. Also they have a song about Boog Powell
(baseball players are very popular on the indie scene these days)
which begins with a long spoken intro and then proceeds to be an
instumental. I'll give it ** out of 5.
Morphine - cure for pain CD-single (Ryko) - Hello, I don't get the
hype. It's okay, but I don't think these guys are going to save rock
'n'roll or anything. "Cure for Pain" is good, bluesy, but the three
unreleased tracks are just plain annoying, particularly the eight-minute
"Down Love's Tributaries." **1/2
Swingin' Neckbreakers - Live for Buzz (Telstar) - they played one of
Ty Jesso's Totally Wired shows at the Last Call a few weeks ago, but I
didn't go. From the cover photo to the music, these guys think
they're in 1968. They should be playing this album on "Classic Rock"
radio. Not to say it's bad, though...it just sound like these guys
should be playing the Fillmore East with The Troggs. Best song is
"Thinking Man's Girl." I think the Black Crowes would sound like this
if they were about 1/10 as pretentious and cut down on the lame guitar
solos and ballads. *1/2
Jeff Buckley - Live at Sin-e' (Columbia) Buckley is one of those
coffeehouse types who's getting a lot of press now, except that unlike
Beck, he is good. Real good. I know this EP is on a major, but it is
a MUST LISTEN. Four songs - two originals, plus an Edith Piaf and Van
Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do." Just the man and an electric
guitar. He has an incredible voice - goes from crooning to screaming
in seconds. Great, bluesy guitar playing and well-written
originals. This one hasn't left my 5-CD changer since I got it - the
last CD that was this good was Versus' "Let's Electrify." The thing is
that this is supposed to be live filler to tide us over until
Buckley's debut LP, which will apparently feature a full band. My
guess is that it will suck (Like John Wesley Harding's full band
albums) but this EP definitely gets the big ***.
***********************************************************************
Aaron Schatz "The one problem with academia
Brown University is that you can't grow
ST000414@brownvm.brown.edu potatoes in it."
(401) 863-5584
P.O. Box 3994, Providence, RI 02912 - Justin Blumenstiel
***********************************************************************
-----------------------------
From: DDBAN203G@university-central-england.ac.uk
flying saucer attack, the fall, BMJ addresses
This week's record reviews
-------------------------------
But first an address for the exciting band BLIND MR JONES, whom i
reviewed last time i submitted:
their record company is Cherry Red records
Bishop's Park House
25-29 Fulham High Street
London SW6 3JH
Blind Mr Jones give the address: 7 Queen's Rd
Marlow
Bucks
SL7 2PS
unfortunately their latest single had no addresses on it; the above
are from the Crazy Jazz EP, so let's hope they haven't changed since!
3 New Records
------------------
FLYING SAUCER ATTACK - crystal shade
A new FSA single, excitement mounts...will it be as good as "Wish"? As
destructive as the album...it is. The title track is FSA thru and
thru, overkill feedback while the tune plays away sweetly in the background.
Like someone's transistor radio being almost (but not quite) drowned
out in a heavy machine room. Cool!
The other track is instrumental, not like "Popul Vul" on the LP, but
still like a UFO landing among Mayan temples, human sacrifice for the
gods et cetera. These people read Von Daniken, no doubt. Cool
squared.
FSA
c/o Simon
407 Fishponds rd
Bristol
THE FALL - the infotainment scan
My first Fall album-uh. I've had a few singles B4 but not a long
player-uh, this is really good-uh! Mark E. is a superstar all right-uh,
only he could get away with covering "Lost In Music" without being
able to sing-uh. On "I'm Going To Spain" he does sing a bit-uh. But
it's soon back to normal Mark E. mode-uh. "The League Of Bald-Headed
Men" is a good song-uh, and a brilliant title-uh. The technoish remix
of it is also good-uh. "Glam Racket" is a superb song, with my fave
lyrics on it-uh, more a controlled rant about shell suits and Viz
comic-uh. "Service" is my current fave-uh, with excellent piano that
seems familiar-uh, any clues, indie kids-uh? As good as a crate of
Newky Brown ale-uh.
(Permanent Records)
DECLINE - lost again
Bargain bin time; I saw this for a quid. It's quite good too, probably
because it's quite different to what I usually buy. Very rocky and
grungy, perhaps though it's quite old this single (1991) so it's no
bandwagon jumper. If it were released now it would be called new wave
of the new wave. I bet they would have gone down a storm on Top Of
The Pops, like SM*A*SH did.
(Blind Records, 33 Ellenor Drive, Astley, Manchester, M29 7NN)
That's all, folks.
this mail is from:
christian "nastyned" davies - c.davies@uce.ac.uk
at the: University Of Cheap Equipment In Birmingham
nastyned software - quality applications at budjet cost
-----------------------------
From: dannnnnn <DLM94001@UConnVM.UConn.Edu>
dambuilders/slant 6/meghan sk-70 revue...
hubba bo-dang!
these last two weeks have been incredibubbly vunduhful, allowing me
the opportunity to see incredible shows nearly every night including
archers of loaf,(!!!) spore, unwound, (!!!x2) vodoo glow skulls, lois,
and karate. (between the vicinities of willimantic ct and boston) and
yes, although the drummer was a little out of proportion w/lois's
music,(middle east, 4/24) thank god the sound was decent and her
voice was heard. mwaa! and true props fer that boston trio karate, i've
seen dem a couple of times now, and their songs are really catchy-
that groovin d.c/maryland/virginia/carolina feel... and i actually DO
like the vocalist, although i don't really hear any trace of primus.
once again tho, my opinion.
hope y'all are chillin and enjoying the descent weather.(if yer in
new england then you know wot i'm talking about- no more wednesday
blizzards!)
the new 3ds disc on merge, unwound on krs, & dambuilders on east/west
are worth yer time if ya get the chance...and speaking of the
db's...made the road trip light (hr & 1/2) to boston from uconn again
a couple of weekend ago- 4/16- to see slant 6 at tt the bears in
cambridge. i'm a big dischord fan and dug the disc, so when i found
about this show i knew that i'd be there. anyways, meghan from sk-70
opened up, doing a spookyish set w/accoustic and electric self
accompaniment. it was weird, cuz she'd play these deep songs with
cool but desperate (?) vocals, and the song'd be over and her voice
and mannerisms were entirely th'opposite of the music...if that makes
sense. i've listened to the new cd once, i liked her performance
more, but now i definately plan on giving it a second listen. and
then...slant 6 came on 'n' made my eardrums bleed...can we say LOUUUD?
christina's voice was in check, and they even did a bunch of new
songs! plus, the autoclave 10" for five bucks or something, a real
good deal- couldn't lose. however, their stage presence was kinda,
well, i'm not sure if they had any. that punk- rock-song-after-song
thing mixed w/the slack i-don't-give-a-shit attitude. i don't think
that any of them said a single word outside of the tunes. they just
went up, played, and stepped down. since i'm a big fan, i dug it, but
some of my friends weren't as keen. the big surprise of the night was
the dambuilders. all i can say is..WOW. they were amazing. joan
wasser (vioilin/backing vox) broke both her distortion pedal AND a
string. an intense set that featured 'smell' among other tunes of the
new disc, as well as old favorites and some famous classic rock song i
forgot. a good show on th' whole. i left w/a ringing in my ears that
wouldn't go away until i saw unwound. that's when i went deaf.
-if anyone needs anything or wants to correspond, i work @ whus 91.7 @
the uni of ct; i'll be glad to promote or make sure we've gotten yer
material. (bandwise) email me @ dlm94001@uconnvm.uconn.edu.
xoxox, da w/2ns.
oh yeah, does anyone know anything about combustible edison playing in
boston or providence in the next two weeks???
-----------------------------
c/o Sean Keric Murphy <skmurphy@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
ANNOUNCEMENT: THE FINAL ONE.
From:jsolomon@merle.acns.nwu.edu
Hello. My name is Jon.
On Thursday, May 12, 1994, at 7:00 p.m., I will be having bands play at my
parents' house. The bands are:
Shellac, Silkworm, Dis, and Brick Layer Cake.
It is five dollars. It is the last one. If you would like directions,
please call my parents at (609) 924-6499.
-----------------------------
From: "BGCV/Lars Rosenblum" <BGCV@musicb.mcgill.ca>
AD: Purderous Magina records
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