What a golden age
What a time of right and reason
The consumer's king
and unhappiness is treason
#############################
Indie List Digest!
July 6, 1995
Volume 4 Number 34
#############################
Greetings, once again, and welcome to the Indie-List.
You've no doubt noticed that some of the mailing dates have slipped
again. Well, there's a good explanation.
While Sean is making his careful move through the eastern corridor,
Anne and I are preparing pull up stakes and move to the Big City (tm)
of Chicago. This has meant - and will mean - a fair amount of
travelling and stress. Bear with us, if you could, if the IL shows up
a day later here or there, or if your notes and submissions don't get
as prompt a reply. By mid August all the dust should have settled.
For the time being, and for a while to come, the addresses you're used
to will NOT change. Keep sending your submissions to
indie-submit@indiana.edu, and your subscription requests and
modifications to grumpy@access.digex.net. When all this does change,
we'll be sure to let y'all know the details.
And if anyone has work in Chicago for a Mac Internet and (to a lesser
extent) Unix guy, or an Editing gal, drop us a line. We gotta pay
that rent!
A request for information came to us while we were preparing this
issue. Francis <didonf01@MCRCR6.MED.NYU.EDU>, of the Halfbreeds
writes looking for guidance about getting college bookings. If any
out there can help 'em out, I'm sure they'd appreciate it.
-es
<------------------------------>
From: pjoe@grafix.xs4all.nl (Joep Vermaat)
No Pure
Hi!
It's high time the two pure lighten up this wonderful two-weekly
electronic paper. But we've been just a bit busy lately. Loz has
been working his ass off, working on his paper. And Joep followed
some very practical courses. So those are the lame excuses we didn't
send anything of use to you. But expect the following in the coming
summer weeks:
- An interview with Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar (this posting)
- A few reviews of my favourite records I bought over the past half year.
- asorted live reviews over the past half year
- Disco Inferno interview
- Laika interview
- Mouse on Mars interview
- Bedhead interview
- Catherine Wheel interview???
Maybe we'll have time to do a regular posting in the near future. But
don't expect anything regular yet. Enjoy the things I have to offer
you now:
TWO DOLLAR INTERVIEW
The term 'lo-fi' -- the most important reason all those bands gathered
for the Fast Forward festival at Doornroosje (Nijmegen, Holland). Tim
Foljahn isn't too happy about it. During their live performance he
fooled around with it and called Two Dollar Guitar's music 'blow-fly.'
And in a way he's right; live they sounded a lot heavier than most of
the other bands and artists. "I've got nothing against lo-fi. I
think it's wonderful people record their music at home. But it's just
a moniker that doesn't hold a whole lot of meaning. It's just a way
of saying that if something is recorded badly then it has quality. I
think it's strange they call Two Dollar Guitar 'lo-fi', only two songs
on the record I've recorded at home. Oh well, it's probably because I
used a toy piano on the single."
Tim Foljahn is a happier person than you would expect from listening
to the record "Let me bring you down." He talks a lot and tells
funny anecdotes. Like his most favourite live experience ever: He
once supported the Black Crowes, and together with Steve Shelley he played
Led Zeppelin riffs, while Thurston Moore screamed obscenities at the
audience. After a few songs they were pulled off the stage. On record
Tim sounds like a Leonard Cohen on the verge of suicide accompanied by
the Palace Brothers. The subject of death obviously plays a major
part. "I don't think I'm more fascinated by death than by being
born. But I don't really remember much about that. But it's a main
thing as well. It's a real good hammer. You say that, and it makes a
big picture. It means a spinal thing. It can either be good or bad,
it's a fine line. It's not really like 'oh this is depressing'
because someone died. Eventually we will all die, it's just the way
it is. Death isn't that horrible a word anymore to use in a song.
It's overused. Most of my shit is overused. I do a lot of stuff
that's very tired in a way."
The lyrics and music of Two Dollar Guitar have a lot in common with
Country music. A comparison with Palace and Will Oldham is very easy
to make. "I appreciate any comparison I get to them. But still it's
a pretty different thing. He does his whole thing nailed down in a
lot of ways. I don't really know what the fuck I'm doing. He has
done the singer/songwriter thing a little longer than I have." Because
Tim is only just starting, he hasn't got a clue what will happen next.
"It's really exciting that things are changing so fast. I'm sort of
seeing where it's going. I don't want something so conscious that
sort of left the art train. I don't something so preconceived that
it's about this specific somewhat controlled thing. I'm more
interested in seeing what I get."
In the past Two Dollar Guitar has been described as Tim Foljahn's
hobby project. "I see it as a band. The lineup changes slightly,
but Two Dollar Guitar is a band interaction thing. The first single
wasn't like that. But that was before we got really going." The
changed rhythm section was the most important reason the band sounded
much louder live. Steve Shelley, who plays on the record, couldn't
come because he had to record with Sonic Youth. He was temporarily
replaced by Keith Nealy, drummer of the since-November-1994-defunct
Cell. Together with David Motamed he let the sound of their former band
shine through in Tim's songs. Tim finds it very important that all
band members add their influence to the songs. "I don't want it to
be this revolving door thing where there is this guy singing and
doing the songs, who keeps doing the songs no matter who's playing on
them. I'm not into that at all. There were like three songs that we
were doing every night that Steve has never played on and Keith had
wrote the parts for. I've been in that position before, that you step
in. It can be not so fun if you don't have a hand in writing your own
parts. I don't really have a conception of how it looks from the
outside. But as long as we're having fun it's worth while." It's
quite exceptional that Two Dollar Guitar do a tour of five concerts in a
row. "We played more here than in the United States. We were really
surprised it was going like this. This tour is kind of a fluke in a
way. Maybe we will do a few shows with Steve when we get home. I
think we're going get around recording some things this summer. So
probably Steve, Dave and I are going down to Raleigh and record a
record. It would be nice, now that Keith has played with us, to get Keith
on the record. But he's pretty much here and happy over here." No
doubt, we'll hear more of Two Dollar Guitar in future, with or without
Keith. For now check out the debut on Smells Like Records.
|
(|oe|)
|
<------------------------------>
From:JimJBeat@aol.com
Correction (viz. Feelies)
The ex-Feelie in the Wild Carnations is Brenda Sauter (ex-Feelies
bassist) not any of the guys in the band.
The other ex-Feelies project, Wake Ooloo, just released their second
album on Pravda Records and it is very good (and more Feelies-ish than
Wild Carnations.) Wake Ooloo features Glenn Mercer and Dave Weckerman.
Stan Demeski, the Feelies drummer, plays in Dean Wareham's band Luna.
The final ex-Feelie, Bill Million, is no longer involved in music.
<------------------------------>
From: Mark_Richard Stemm <stemm@CS.Berkeley.EDU>
Blunderbuss, Thee Speaking Canaries, Hurl
Good stuff from Pittsburgh, PA. If only I could find stuff this
good in the Bay area; anyone who knows, let me know.
Blunderbuss--Conspiracy, Homestead Records
------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: These guys sound nothing like Slint, Rodan, Codeine or
Versus.
These guys have had three 7"s over the last 4 years or so; this is
their first full length thing. The first two 7"s were local, one on
Pop Bus Records (Pop Bus also has put out stuff by Hurl, Don Caballero,
The Northern Bushmen, ...) and one on Peas Kor (who has released stuff by
The Karl Hendricks Trio and Thee Speaking Canaries). The first two 7"
were kinda a bass-heavy-noise-scream-thing. I know it sounds like a
lot of other bands, but they did it really well. The latest 7" was on
Homestead, and it shows the big switch they made. They decided to move
away from noise and screaming and toward more intricate songs and
singing. The guitar, in particular, has become a lot more interesting.
OK, the summary first, and then the justification: this is the
best record I've heard in the last 2 years, the closest competitors
being Jawbox's "For Your Own Special Sweetheart", Drive Like Jehu's
"Yank Crime", Hammerhead's "Into the Vortex", Fugazi's "In on the Kill
Taker", Hurl's unreleased album, and Polvo's triple 7"(the name
escapes me). Heavy bass like innumerable other people, but with a lot
more melody, and absolutely amazing interesting guitar not like
anything I hear anybody else play. The songs are not riff-riff-riff;
the parts mesh together really well. The songs are, in general,
huge. If you are remotely interested in any of the bands I mentioned
above, you should immediately go buy this record; you won't be
disappointed.
Thee Speaking Canaries -- Songs For the Terrestially Challenged
---------------------------------------------------------------
There are two releases of this double album: one is a Hi-Fi
version and one is Lo-Fi. This is a review of the Hi-Fi Version; I
couldn't bear to listen to the Lo-Fi. This band includes Damon (drummer
from Don Caballero) on guitar, Noah (drummer from Hurl) on drums, and
Karl Hendricks (from the Karl Hendricks Trio) on bass.
In 3 words, the album is "Indie Van Halen". (There are around 3
Van Halen covers on the album). Take out almost all of the annoying
guitar solos and vocals, but leave the 4/4-ness and add more
interesting song structure and this is what you get. If you have heard
Don Caballero, you know how Damon drums; he plays guitar in pretty
much the same extroverted type of way.
It's really good, really really good, and definitely worth
buying. (However, you should be expecting something that "rocks").
Hurl -- Bessimer Process Double 7"(Kinda)
-----------------------------------------
Hurl has a double 7" coming out in a week or so on Peas Kor. I
haven't heard the whole thing, but it has some songs from a live
performance that I do have, and they are great. Find this and buy
it. Totally huge massive rock like Engine Kid, Hum, ...
More importantly: Last summer, Hurl recorded an album but as yet
cannot find any label with decent distribution to release it (as far as
I know). If the real thing is nearly as good as the 5th generation
normal-bias tape crappy copy I have, the people who own these labels
and decide which records to put out are brain-dead and generally
stupid. If you are one of these people, or know one of these people,
tell yourself/them that you/they are stupid and should find and
release the Hurl album immediately. If I had time to do it myself, I
would, pretty much regardless of the cost.
--Mark
I am Mark Stemm, Grad Student, UC-Berkeley
email: stemm@cs.berkeley.edu Mosaic: http://http.cs.berkeley.edu/~stemm
Finger me for my PGP Public Key...
Quote of the Minute:
Eng: Your fly is open. --> Latin: Braccae tuae aperiuntur. --Latin for
Practical Use
<------------------------------>
From: Leslie_Kleinberg@brown.edu
Chris Knox In-store
I just got back from the...
Chris Knox/Lida Husik In-store appearance at In Your Ear, Providence
RI (6/25)
Lida Husik was one woman playing guitar and singing, and her
guitar-playing "assistant." Sitting on a blue vinyl sofa. Nice guitar
almost-folky thing, but not extremely memorable. I liked that she was
an alto, not a poufy, pretty-girl high voice. I do remember that they
did the Magnetic Fields' "Desert Island."
Then Chris Knox. I hadn't heard him before (I'm waiting for the Tall
Dwarfs' "3 EPs" to come in the mail), but I had high expectations.
And for the most part, they were met. One electric guitar, pretty
sparse, then occasionally he would step on a pedal and really rock and
say that that's what tonight's later show would sound like, but that
he had to preserve his voice. Said he was singing everything in a
lower register. A little bit of Robyn Hitchcock-ish between-song,
humorous rambling (or maybe I just have Hitchcock on the brain because
I put on an old, once-autographed t-shirt this morning). He ended
with a special, funny song about in-store performances, how Caroline
really thinks it's great for him to play for 5 people at a time, and
how one day he won't have to do them, but he keeps at it because at
least this way he gets to meet "the people" and get a discount on
anything he wants in the store (interrupted himself midsong to verify
with the counterperson that this was correct). He kept his word about
interacting with the audience, running through the aisles in his
banana-print shorts, slapping us all good-naturedly on the back, and
getting feedback off of the CD display and a few people's bodies. He
lost one of his rubber flip-flops in the process. Quite an amiable
fellow. And good songs, too.
-Leslie
<------------------------------>
From: Swivelmark@aol.com
Seam, Pere Ubu, Geraldine Fibbers
hi it's mark from Duluth MN again, pillaging the piles of discs at the
local community radio station.
after reading this list for a few months now, I have a question that
may seem ignorant: what do you mean by indie? I got into one of those
annoying indie vs. major debates recently and found a kinda odd
solution: I think indie rock means indie of spirit as opposed to
lacking in promotional money. there are several good challenging
groups on majors. there are some sucky untalented fake-challenging
bands on indies. where does the line get drawn? discuss.
[all this is discussed in the Indie-List FAQ, available at the FTP
site and on the web, as listed in the footer of each issue. Mark
Cornick wrote a very nice piece concerning "what is Indie," and I
refer the reader to said resource. Mark's preamble to his
discussion states:
"Indie" is short for "independent." ("Indy" is short for
"Indianapolis." This list is not about auto racing. :-) So, "indie
music" is "independent music." Whazzat? The most common definition is
"music released on independent labels." So you ask, "What's an
independent label?" You, gentle reader, have stumbled upon the
much-vaunted Late-20th-Century Indie-Quandary.
whereupon he discusses the great "mingling" of commercial and
independent interests. As some have noted in the past, Anne and I
have taken a slightly more relaxed view of what Indie is while the
IL has been under our stewardship, although not a completely relaxed
one. We trust our readers to bear with us in their writing. -es]
okay, onto to some semi-indie rawk:
Seam - Are You Driving Me Crazy? (Touch and Go)
For some reason I never really liked this band until this record.
Maybe it's the cleaner production (Brad Wood is officially the best
producer on earth) or perhaps I've listened to the lyrics more
carefully this time. I think Sooyoung Park is probably the best
pure-pop vocalist I've heard in a long time. I also liked the varied
moods on this one. This makes me want to see them live, although the
Eye of the Dragon tour never came near these parts (also would have
liked to have seen Aminiature, who are great on record as well).
Also listened to two pre-release tapes we got: The new Pere Ubu record
will be on Tim/Kerr, suprisingly enough. Not at all surprising is the
fact that they have returned full force to the Dub Housing days and
have dumped most of the pop tunes they foisted on the last few Mercury
records. Although I liked their last record on Imago more, this one
is a good intro for perople to get the full-on Crocus Bohemoth
experience.
Also, even tho they aren't "indie" indie, I thought I should plug The
Geraldine Fibbers. They are on Virgin, but this ain't no Pumpkins,
kids. Their debut full-length (which I heard on badly dubbed cassette
via Virgin) has diverse influences aplenty: John Cale viola-scrapings,
Patti Smith-to-Mia Zapata vocal-scrapings, lots of heart-rending
country twang, lots of guitar freakouts, amazing rhythmic
dexterity....boy, it's hard not to love this even though it's paid for
by Paula Abdul's bosses. Then again, so is Low from Duluth (who by
the way are on tour and should be heading down south by now, see them
please!)
That's it for now. Haven't heard a lot that's really moved me lately.
I liked about half of the new Shallow record on Zero Hour. A little
too much meandering instrumentals, but they are very adept at dynamic
shifts within some of the songs. It's called "3D Stereo Trouble."
Thanks.
Mark Earnest
swivelmark@aol.com
<------------------------------>
From: Kathleen Billus <kathleeb@aw.com>
ANNOUNCE: List your label, station, zine emails in ESCARGOT!
Greetings--
Sick&Tired (the online independent music distributor and mailing list) is
celebrating our one-year anniversary by publishing an expanded print
version of our popular e-zine, the _Tasty Thread_. We're calling the
fanzine *ESCARGOT* and its focus is Underground Music Resources on the
Internet.
To make our directory as accurate and complete as possible, we need email
addresses for:
* independent labels
* college radio stations
* bookers
* venues for live shows
* zines (at least somewhat music related)
If you fit one of the above categories and would like to be included,
please reply through email with *ESCARGOT* in the subject line. We'll
then send you a questionnaire.
We are also compiling a list of music mailing lists for the zine. Let us
know of any that you like and recommend. Please note that you must provide
us with the following data in order for us to research the list:
* the email address of the list manager
* the subscription process
Direct all inquiries, suggestions, and questions to
tubesox@sirius.com (Windy). You can also request information about the
Sick&Tired Mailing List.
Windy
tubesox@sirius.com
<------------------------------>
From: Halobit@aol.com
ANNOUNCE: Susan Constant
The Susan Constant #1
Take an indepth look at the mind of a genius. Learn what it's like to
live as a Madagascar tree frog. Read concise, informative interviews
with John Steinbeck and Homer. Read all of these things, somewhere
else, because they are not found in the pages of the Susan Constant.
You will find interviews with Lois, Jody Blelye, and God though.
Along with enough lunacy to ensure its place in your bathroom as
toilet paper. It's 40 pages and costs a measly dollar and a stamp.
Send funds and family portraits to:
The Susan Constant
502 NW 75th Street
Suite #9
Gainesville Fl 32607-1599
<------------------------------>
From: Mike Appelstein
ANNOUNCE: Caught In Flux #4
Even though I'm still waiting for a couple of photos and an essay, I still
feel confident enough to announce a new issue of Caught In Flux for sale.
Issue #4 will include interviews with Bunnygrunt, Rastro!, Loud Family and
Vinyl Devotion; a long chat with Palmolive, the ex-drummer of the Slits and
Raincoats, and what she's been doing these past 15 years (you'll be
surprised, I promise); a few stories about life after high school (two Class
of 1995 commencements and two 10-year reunions); an extensive review
section; and, you know, "more." Sorry, no music-discovery stories this
time...I've collected about a dozen new ones from the likes of Jen Wolfe
(Septophilia) and Lisa Marr (Cub), but I just don't have room for them this
time. Expect them to show up in a future issue, maybe #5.
The issue is 60 pp. long and will cost $3.00 postpaid. I expect to have it
ready by July 4th weekend. If you'd like to reserve one for your