Las Peligrosas/Speed Queen

So, it was the best of times... it was the worst of times. The heyday of riot girls had ended and emo and math rock indie bands were replacing the grunge and punk forefathers. A few bands seemed to hang on and try to differentiate their styles... but bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, L7, Kreviss, Huggy Bear, Courtney Love, Beat Happening, Red Aunts, and many more were already on the way out. In the midst of the Power 90s, the South Bend scene emerged and it was only natural that girl bands or bands with leading female vocalists would arise - it seemed a critical mass of musical creativity was being reached in the midwest and South Bend was oddly and strategically situated to be a part of it.

Most of my memories are of the early days when the idea first came up to even start a band. I think that Faye had been playing bass for a while, Annie was picking up guitar quickly, and Anne could already play drums. Think it was Faye and Annie's idea to start jamming and writing songs and they invited me to get involved. The only thing I really had to offer was a voice and we were all pretty good singers. Contributing to lyrics sticks in my mind - think we made it a collaborative effort to write "Rev" as the lyrics started out so clever and were projecting that strong, assured female voice that I think Las Peligrosas unintentionally was trying to get across. The Dalloway's concert [ed. performed under the band's original moniker, Speed Queen], the basement show at the Guerra-Concannon compound and the show in Columbia, OH (at a coffee house, I think??) made everything seem so real! I can't remember a thing about the "Rev" recording for some reason... but think I remember it being difficult to get our vocals to sound on key and good, so were were in there for a quite a few hours.

I remember that I was so inspired by Faye's punk rock ethic and bad(ass) attitude, and Annie's absent-minded innocence mixed with confidence! I had so much fun being in the band - it was nice to be a part of it all, dragged kicking and screaming into so much fun... and we were the only serious all-girl band at the time. Seemed so apropos without being predictable.

--Emily Davis




I bought my bass and practice amp with money that I had earned from waiting tables in Arlington, TX. That money was supposed to be used for books and other collegiate endeavors. But I blew it on a bass--that I have to this day. Mostly I was tired of seeing music and wanted to figure out a way to make it... along came the shining Ms. Emily Davis, the creative Annie, and the rhythmic Anne Evans. I can say that when we started this band I had no training, but Emily's vocals and Annie's basic guitar were a saving grace and --hell Anne and I weren't all that terrible holding up the rhythm section for this track, although I have no illusions. I think we had more band names than we did songs.

"Rev," if I recall, was created without lyrics. I remember that we looked through a fashion mag and wove together our lyrics. Interestingly, with as many smart women with a lot to say, we were at a loss for words for lyrics. We played several shows (why didn't anyone tell me that I should not wear ankle socks?) and I remember going to the St. Vincent DePaul and proudly scoring the black and white dresses shown in some of the photos. To be honest, none of our music was particularly good, but it was a good time.

We were originally passed up on the campus CD, sfumato, but were somehow reconsidered? If I recall it was because the CD needed more "diversity," but I also remember that we had a lot of friends encouraging us along the way. It's nice to have a musical memory of this time. It was apparent that when we got into the studio to record for the CD that we had not recorded before. We were able to record this song and now I kinda wish we had more recordings. I hope that "Rev" doesn't cause the listeners to regress into some sort of fetal position or bang your heads against the wall (but maybe that isn't so bad). It was literally a first attempt at music in a band, and one I remember fondly. Thank you Em, Anne, and Annie!

--Faye




I had the house with drums, and they had the vision. I don’t remember the conversation that began the band, only that I was always up for adventure and trying anything new. I was flattered that these ladies, creative and individualistic each one, invited me to join them on their endeavor to make music.

A few clear memories:

• In practice Emily said, try this: which was a definite punk rhythm, not rhythm and blues (which was all I knew how to play at the time); I started hammering away and it made me feel free. Thanks, Em!
• Faye turned around so I could see her and be in rhythm with her bass; Awesome! A connection of creating something immediate. Thanks Faye!
• Annie: Laughing always, but led us (me, at least) with intuitive, kind, and sparky grace.
• I was so nervous about the St. Mary’s coffee house show that I dropped my new hot pink drumsticks on the 1-2-3-4- Count, and a few other times. Sorry, ladies! (I think that was our debut)
• Going to find outfits: loved the black dresses with white collars; wish I still had mine…
• Struggling over that tricky transition in "Rev" in general and in the studio. Still sounds so awkward to me.
• Overall, having a blast! So much fun! I loved being part of the group, and entering, even so shallowly (I think we had five total songs) into the larger ND music scene.

I must thank Jim Bukow, whose drums were in the basement of the unfortunately named “Swamp House,” where I lived with housemate Ryan Halford. Both Jim and Ryan played with Sweep The Leg Johnny, who practiced in our basement.

I must also thank Vinny Carrasco, who gave me the gift of hot pink drumsticks (labeled “Hotsticks”) which I still have today... Thank you, Vinny, wherever you are.

Thank you also Steve Sostak, who I believe was integral to getting us on the CD, and for all the folks in bands who encouraged us and friends who supported us.

--Anne Evans



listen/download:

Brian, Colin and Vince - Three Cheers for Skybuster Jones

COLIN

I think this was the last BCV show before Brian transferred to school in Boston – so I remember at this time also trying to find a couple hours to record what would later be half of the Bucket o’ fun n’ stuff n’ yeah album. And that even though it was our last hurrah, we wanted to go out with a big fun show and we still were trying to play new songs as soon as hey were written – I believe we had just barely learned the “She’s turning into a werewolf” a cappella round that day. But I might be wrong about that. I didn’t even remember that song existed until I heard these recordings.

One thing I remember about this show was that we wanted to do whatever we wanted to do – and for me that included carrying my bed all the way from my dorm to Washington hall so I could have the fun of listening to the other bands while lying in my bed under my comforter with a pillow on stage – that was pretty awesome. And I think we invited anybody up on stage who wanted to be there. It was pretty loose.

There was something really moving about the crowd yelling things like “Brian, don’t go!” in the middle of "Hypothetical Situation." I think we all felt mixed emotions – sad to have something so wonderful be coming to an end, but also just a warm good feeling during the act of playing. I certainly was in a bit of denial about the ending of the band – and I was lucky to have a whole semester afterwards to work on the BCV cd, so I was still a bit busy with it anyhow.

I get confused about the timeline of how and when everything happened, but when we were doing the stuff, that was what mattered the most to me. I always just felt lucky to get to hear Brian and Vince sing every time we practiced. Plus Brian’s guitar playing was a treat to watch develop – he was fantastic at everything and so easy going that the band seemed almost effortless – songs came pouring out all the time and we just sat around and played them, then walked around playing them and then sometimes took a cab to go play them somewhere else. Trees, Hugs, and Rock n Roll, man.

To be honest, I am amazed at how cheesy I was back then – not that I’ve changed so much, but that younger Colin was a bit of a dork! Yow!

P.S. I cannot for the life of me remember where the Skybuster Jones concept came from, but I know the show was supposed to be a benefit for the food shelf and that some folks brought cans of food. And I believe James Kennedy later used the Skybuster Jones character in his rock musical – because I got to play him! Or was the musical before the show? I think I had it right the first time.

P.P.S. I still love the countermelodies on “Powder Blue” and “She.”

VINCE

I remember that we envisioned this show to be a "rock opera" without having a clear idea of what that was. That's why I brought my manequin on stage I think. In the end it was a fun creative outlet and goodbye to Brian. I still have no recollection of a werewolf song.

BRIAN

I think the name 'Skybuster Jones' can be attributed to John Kehoe.

My official thought on BCV is that I am thankful to have been friends with Colin and Vince. The years gone by certainly put it all in perspective. Second official thought... it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of great people around, and it's cool to see all the pictures.

Other than that... dear vast and mighty internet, indexer of all things, appearing on my phone, connecting the un-connected, friending the un-friended, index this! Yow!

[Note: There is also one song by Chisel included with this BCV set. Mostly because it was on the same tape, and also recorded at the Skybuster Jones show. It's a crackin' good medley of BCV songs: "Spectacles/Crunchy Lunch/Wizards." Need I to say anything more?]


see also:
Brian, Colin and Vince on MySpace
V/A - Incubus 1993: ND Music Compilation
Chisel vs. Brian, Colin and Vince - Spectacles/One in Ten 7"
Brian, Colin and Vince - Just Trying To Help

The Florida Evans Showband and Revue - Made Simple

DAN:

My first experience with the Notre Dame band scene came by way of tapes of my older brother James' WVFI radio show in 1989 - predating the power nineties by just a couple months. I was 12 years old. For the next 4 years James would relay music from the Notre Dame power 90's scene to our home in Suburban VA, particularly Chisel CD's, which were so exciting. I really liked their music and didn't hear much like it anywhere else on the radio etc. James used to drive back and forth to ND with the drummer John Dugan, also from NOVA.

Those tapes, that music, my older brother, were all pretty influential. The first show I saw of the ND band scene was a private emiLy show for an audience of three in somebody's off campus house in 1993. I was 15, a sophomore in high school. Joe, Doug, and Mike's music was at once, loud, hard to understand, terrifying, electric, exciting, soulful, passionate, artful, complex, vastly intriguing and i mentioned loud. It was about as real and vicious a punk rock experience I've ever felt. My brother was dating Mike's older sister Melissa, so the three of us sat in their living room during our older sibling's graduation weekend and were blown away. It was so cool. And I knew that I had to be cool like that.

I'm not sure if I ever really accomplished that goal. My musical impulses were always a little less sophisticated I guess, but my love of rock and roll and desire to be an artist in general and in a band at notre dame were kicked into high gear by that experience.

The Florida Evans Showband and Revue took its name from my older brother's radio show called "Florida Evans" which I thought was hilarious. I also thought the Showband and Revue part was hilarious. If we had any thing going for us it was highly developed sense of punk rock irony.

I saw lots of basement shows my freshman year at Notre Dame in 1995, and a couple at the coffee house at St. Mary's before they closed it. I started writing songs around that time in earnest and also listening to and hearing about Matt Curreri, another singer songwriter on campus... he had some very notorious hits at the Keenan Review and Acoustic Cafe. I played my first solo show at Lula's sophmore year, which Matt came to. Around that time my roommate Brian Monberg who was the head of Amnesty International on campus was organizing a concert at stonehenge and said I should put a band together for it. I had lunch with Matt at the North Quad Dining Hall, which was kinda random cause we didn't really know each other then, and suggested we put a band together for this show, playing some of his songs and some of my songs, I'd play bass on his songs, he'd play bass on mine and we'd find a drummer. He said he was maybe gonna try to put a band together with Aaron Dunn, another Acoustic Cafe all-star, so wasn't sure... but that didn't happen... and the Florida Evan's Showband and Revue was born!

We got Dean Busack, the drummer for Stomper Bob and a real stand up guy who lived in Carroll with me, to help us out for the gig. He was super cool, liked playing music with us and agreed to play some more with us even though he was graduating. We practiced in my dorm room at Carroll Hall for that gig - we had I think one of the largest rooms on campus. We made a tape of a few songs in that room on Matt's four track. But the band became a big part of our lives from then on - we gigged a lot around all of town for the next two years.

We sucked but we were also good. We got cut off and kicked out of Club 23, ignored at Corby's, told to turn down at a bonfire at the site of the old Corby Hall... We got in fights, we had groupies, we wrote more songs, we played more shows.


Junior year first semester, we had this freshman named Jim Bilek play drums with us. He was a super sweet guy, liked The Beatles and put up with us, but I think of the band as really coming into itself once Doug started playing drums with us our senior year. Quite simply, Doug knows how to rock. The punk energy that I had always wanted behind our music finally showed up and gave my more poppy songs the edge I had hoped for. Matt's songwriting was getting really awesome and we became what I like to think of as a pretty cool band. That summer before our senior year, I had acted in a "punk rock musical" in NYC at the Ohio Theater written by my friend Sander Hicks and that kindof widened my musical horizons too. Sammy B, the lead singer of the Mooney Suzuki, who I think now goes by Samuel James Jr., Parker Kindred, Jeff Buckley's drummer, and Nick Colt, NYC impersario, were the pit orchestra. Since I was the lead actor we were kinda like a band that I sang for... We even gigged once as a band called White Collar Crime in Portchester NY, with the Mooney Suzuki opening. We recorded our "original cast album" at Sonic Youth's studio one night from midnight til dawn with Lee Renaldo at the controls. All of this is to say that (1) I like to name drop and (2) I came back to campus and started demanding we all wear suits to our gigs like I had seen the Mooney Suzuki do. It sort of worked, but then there were definitely gig's where I was the only member of the band in a suit. Ah well.


We played a ton of gigs that year, mostly in the basement of Matt and Ron's shack. It was easily one of the coolest times of my life. We played one gig in Michigan I remember - I think it was a highschool prom - that a friend of ours had some connection too. That gig stands out in my mind as particularly awesome because those kids danced their tails off. I felt like a real band that night, not just some weird art project at ND. Another fun gig, might have been before Doug's time, was a partyin my dorm room at Carroll in honor of my little brother visiting. He was 16 and drinking in our room, and at one point our rector, Fr. Mike Sullivan, was out walking behind the dorm and someone threw a beer out the window and hit him in the head. I'll always be proud of the fact that I was able to talk my way out of that and save the party/show from getting shut down, with a promise to not let my brother drink and a pledge to play guitar at the dorm mass.

Finally, in spring of 1999 at the End of the Power 90's, we won the battle of the bands at Senior Bar. But I think only because of a technicality involving the fact that we played our own songs. Because the lame-o judges really liked this other band that played a note perfect rendition of "The devil went down to Georgia". That kind of encapsulates our experience at Notre Dame to me, obliged if not actually liked. (That and the fact that Umphree's McGee, our friends in an amazing jam band, skipped the battle of the bands to get paid a thousand bucks at a bar that we went to after... kinda lessened the mystique of winning the title.) But that what made us cool, I think... like Matt's song, Night Bus, said "I always loved him cause he never was the best" I think that's how I felt about Flo Evans.

Doug and Matt continue to be two of the most inspiring and artful people I know. We broke up after graduation but continued to see music, make music, and record music together in NYC and CA for years after. They were some of the best creative partners I could've hoped for.

*


Made Simple: made simple.

This album was one of those albums where we decided to document nearly every song we had written, which one might argue is not the best strategy for an album, BUT, I like to argue, so bring it.

"Allen Ginsburg" - This song was always so much fun to play for me. I loved singing on it. it always felt super fun and energetic too. And somehow it felt like a weird art rock song. I always liked starting with it because I thought it was an upbeat attention getter.

"Good Times" - people really liked... it was kindof a goofy song that I wrote while jogging at age nineteen, so it's kindof hard to discuss it like literature, but i walk past the punks on the corner and get so sad that they don't know my name, is still a feeling I get. I also can say I that I stopped watching television around this time for a good 10 years, only to return for PBS children's programming as of late- a killer gateway drug.

"My Shy Tongue" was a killer song to play especially when we added that tag at the end. When people talk to me about our band in college they always mention this one. It was a pretty powerful epic tune and always exhilirating to play

I also always loved singing "You Were Wrong," too. What a great song.

"Night Bus" - Matt wrote after we spent the spring of 98 in London, and discovered the "night bus" "I've had enough fun for my life.... .... I want my life like rows of trees, rows of houses, rows of me" still gives me pause for it's beauty and self understanding.

"Samantha's Anthem" - Never ever ever was this song played how I intended it until Doug McEachern joined the band, like The Boss said "and The Big Man joined the band." Doug played drums like he was taller than Clarence Clemons. My roommantes and I told the Papa John's delivery girl, samantha, if she would give us a free pizza we would write a song about her. Things worked out for all parties involved.

"Tired of Being Alone" was my Evan Dando rip off.

"Clever Kids" - I played the other night for my own kids, Ivie James, my one-year old son, who said, "too loud." The band Lynx who visited us at Bulla Street paid me a compliment on this one, that always stuck with me. The also called me the bill murray of south bend, this has also stuck with me.

"Better Left Unsaid" - indeed

"Litter" - This felt like one of our earlier songs that hung in there to make it onto the album. Basically because it was awesome, youthful, "and all we did was have some fun."

"Hot Rod" - was a really insane tune. I don't feel like we ever got this one quite right in it's orchestration actually. It was our surf rock venture and I think we were all a bit confused. But "we all took French, Rick learnt cars, we can talk in code" that's deep shit.

"She's Coming Around Again" - I wrote the first verse of in Cape Cod. I'm in Cape Cod now. Tom Waits said songs find you when looking for a local habitation and a name, and it's an honor to be the one they chose and you should always try to honor the song by writing it down or remembering it or whatever he said - this song happened to me that way.

"Goodbye Girls, Goodbye Boys" was a love letter from the band, Matt really, to the people who always came to our shows. Which in retrospect is a pretty amazing thing. People did like to hear music in South Bend, and other people really liked to make music. In my opinion that's a holy bond and we were all lucky to participate.

Thanks Mike and Ted for doing this jam, and hounding us to geterdone. It's pretty cool. Peace out, dob


***




MATT:

When I was 18 years old, two people mercifully entered my life and pulled me back from a deep depression that I was brewing; A lonely little nerd, roller skating through a sea of Catholic finance majors, football players, and priests, rescued from going clinically silly by a beautiful little elf-girl and this big goof named Dan O’Brien.

Dan and I started playing shows together. He dragged me all the way to London and all around Europe, train and hostel style. He found all of our drummers, I think, and he mostly put up with my shit while I brooded and played soccer. Once he didn’t even kill me when I drove an hour or two east to pick up Jim Bilek in Chicago, which most people find it easy to remember being west of South Bend.

But Dan is right in saying that we became a band when Doug joined. It was then that we wed into the music community of South Bend and had a connection with Ron Garcia, the Lula’s crew, and a real family of musicians and creative types.

Plus Doug rocked. He had a really cool DIY esthetic that I’d never really come in contact with before, he wrote serious and poetic “zines” in his tiny handwriting, and he had a beat up old Honda hatchback overflowing with punk rock tapes. Kick ass!

I have to include Ron in my Florida Evans experience. He was a killer bassist and a great home studio engineer. I have to admit that his dreadlocks shed, and they looked like pubes all over the floor, which I really battled with. But we shared a cute little shack just a block from campus where we had Florida Evans and Butterfly Effect band practices and shows. The first keggers that I actually enjoyed. And college was complete.


We spent the spring of 1999 recording at the house with Ron. We cut and folded all the album art ourselves. There was a color cover at first, but it was ugly and I got caught printing hundreds of them on the graphic design student printer, so we had to do the final in black and white. I love how it came out, though. One of my more forgiving design teachers helped me with the spacing and fonts. I think we had them for sale for like 3 days before graduation.

I was always bummed that Florida Evans ended in 1999, but what can you do? We all lived together in New York City a couple years later. Dan and I were in Chinatown and Doug was in Brooklyn. Doug and I worked together in the Bronx. Dan and I played together all the time in our apartment, and Doug joined me on stage a number of times during those years, but we never tried to relive Florida Evans.

I did just make a Facebook profile for the band and uploaded our main album tracks. Maybe I'll upload our earlier album, too, but I don't know where it is offhand. I redigitized this baby a couple years ago (actually just retransferred the DAT tape). I changed the order around on the Facebook page...I never really liked the Matt-Dan-Matt-Dan order we had.

Thanks for caring, Mike. I'd love for the FESBAR web presence to grow a bit. Always proud to be part of the South Bend scene.

***

DOUG:

Matt called me from London in the spring of 1998 to ask me if I wanted to play drums for FESBAR in the following school year. It sounded like a fun idea, so I said yes. I always had a good time playing in Florida Evans, largely due to the facts that
1 - The songs were fun, as was the general attitude of the band,
2 - There was little in the way of existing recordings of the band (at least as far as I knew), so I was pretty much free to play whatever I wanted to play on the songs,
3 - Matt and Dan are great people I am happy to count among my friends. It is not too much of a stretch to say that my time in Florida Evans is (more or less) directly responsible for my present job as a high school math teacher in NYC, which is a very good thing.

*



Somewhere I have a picture of us sitting on Ron's bed during the mixing process for Made Simple. At least one of us is drinking a 40.

Taking a quick look through the track listing I realize I can sing at least a part of every song, which is more than I can say for a lot of other SBP90s albums, including albums where I wrote the songs. My friend Rob rates this as one of his favorite albums ever, especially for driving. I remember him introducing himself to Matt and Dan by saying, "Hi, I'm Rob. I'm a fan."

I think the first three tracks (going by the original CD listing) make for a great opening salvo. One of my old cellphones had a feature where you could program ringtones note by note, so I made the opening guitar line to "You Were Wrong" my ringtone.

"My Shy Tongue" is an Acoustic Cafe classic. I've met a number of people who knew that song without knowing (or remembering) Florida Evans.

"She's Coming Around Again" may be my favorite Florida Evans song.
I once used 'gummets' in Butterfly Effect poster, in reference to a misheard line from "Litter".

For reasons I can't recall, I played guitar on "Nightbus" and Dan played drums.

I borrowed a tambourine from Mike Mirro of Umphrey's McGee for "Dopeless Hopefiends".

"Goodbye Girls, Goodbye Boys" is one of my all-time favorite album closers, period. I wanted to cover it with The Butterfly Effect at our last show, but we never had time to work it out.


***

listen/download:


see also:
Florida Evans on MySpace

Florida Evans on Facebook
Catch up with Matt's current musical work: Matt Curreri & The Ex-Friends

Bother - Boredom

"Kids... don't take your action figures to school... "

Bother shows were a revelation. Tight, grinding, metal-infused punk rock backing a wild, jumping, flailing frontman screaming at the top of his lungs about Boba Fett and Sega Genesis. In this writer's opinion, easily one of the greatest, most unique offerings of the South Bend Power 90s scene - certainly one of the defining campus bands of the early 90s.

--------------

"Bother was the first band I was ever in. I believe Kelly originally wanted it to be an all-woman band -- if I remember correctly, Bother was supposed to be an acronym (B.O.The.R, for 'Bitches On The Rag') but as it happened, Kelly ended up with three dudes instead. At our first show, we covered Mudhoney's 'Touch Me I'm Sick' and Nothing Painted Blue's 'Swivel Chair.'

To tell the truth, I'm totally embarrassed at the way I scream these songs -- there's a good reason I've rarely sung in any other band I've been in. Kelly, Jason, and Jim deserved a better vocalist. They were great musicians! I'm grateful that they took me along for the ride.

I remember hearing 'Kill the Popular Kids' from the Incubus compilation blasting from an open window in Zahm and thinking, Wow, I've really arrived."

--James K.

--------------

James K. would go on to play in Comeuppance, Krautmiser, and Toot Hopkins; Jason L. and Kelly D. later formed Pinch Point; and Jim B. played drums in Sweep The Leg Johnny version 1.0. But they got their start here with Bother, pummling their fellow students into submission, dazzling the popular kids with style. "I know it's hard; I know, I've tried."

listen/download:


see also:
Bother on MySpace

Braid - Live at the Canary House - 13 December 1997

This was the second visit to South Bend for the Chicago, Milwaukee and Champaign based Braid, following a show at Clifford the Big Red House a year earlier (show #175 for Braid, according to complete Braid show list -- the Canary House show was #309), when they played with Chisel Drill Hammer from Iowa, The Fold from Chicago, and The Cuba Five. In '97, Braid visited the Canary House (aka the little yellow house at 610 N. St. Peter) on the way to Washington, DC, where they would record their third album, Frame and Canvas at Inner Ear Studios. Not surprisingly, over half of the set is songs from that album (including "Never Will Come For Us", not shown on the setlist). Florida Evans and The Butterfly Effect opened, along with Chicago's 90 Day Men, who were also returning visitors to the Bend.

The basement at the Canary House was one large, unfinished room the size of the entire house, which made it an ideal show space. Use of the unenclosed toilet attached to one wall was optional. Colored light bulbs and strings of Christmas lights gave the place a bit of atmosphere. The PA setup was a bit dodgier, with the speakers propped up on boxes and shelves. It was not a singer-friendly setup.


Inspired by the excellent treatment emiLy received at Knox College, we liked to cook meals for visiting bands, which helped evenings get off to a friendly, relaxed start. Aside from bands with ND alumni, Braid drew the most out-of-towners to shows. Some were friends from Chicago who drove the hour and 45 minutes, others were South Bend natives who came back to town for the occasion. Ultimately I think that's a reflection of the sort of loyalty and dedication bands like Braid seemed to elicit from friends and fans. Heck, I saw them a dozen or so times in the space of two years in four different cities. It also explains the inside jokes and friendly heckling you can hear on the tape.


My favorite memory of the night was before any music got played. Ben Barnett, who was traveling with Braid, pointed at a drawing by my friend Ian (who turned out to be our mutual friend) on the refrigerator door and got very excited as he was planning to get a tattoo of the same drawing. We got to talking and he explained that he had a band called Kind of Like Spitting and asked if he could play a short solo set during the night, which he did. A few years later, I ran into Ben out in Portland. He said that he looked back on that night in South Bend as his break, as it led to Braid asking him to play again the next night and later taking the full-band version of K.O.L.S. on tour. (Listen for Bob's dedication "This is for Ben!" at the beginning of "What A Wonderful Puddle!")


From what I remember, this was recorded by Ron Garcia with a single room mic, as were the majority of the live shows soon to come via SBP90s.

download:
Braid - Live at the Canary House - 12/13/1997

see also:
Braid on Facebook
Unofficial MySpace
Twitter: @braidcentral
Studio recordings available from Polyvinyl Records

Victoria's Real Secret - Sample Tape (1992)

As a follow up to a previous post which discussed VRS’s band history and Pasta album, this post explores some earlier songs which pre-dated Pasta. Actually, two of the songs, “Been Around The Block” and “Fish” are two of the songs that made it onto Pasta, but the remaining two were never released on anything more than demo tapes for prospective gigs. These songs give some good insight into the raw and highly unpolished sound that VRS possessed in its early days.

Track 1: This sample tape is introduced by a dedication from Marty (master of time) Menes to Papa John’s Pizza—the most common provider of midnight snacks to Notre Dame students in the nineties. Following the “shout out” to Papa John’s (and the guy across the street), CD begins strumming the main guitar pattern that appears throughout the first song, “Pickpocket”. I soon jump in plucking some complimentary bass notes, and the remaining band members follow in a high spirited, energetic, but fairly derivative romp through some comical lyrics about pickpocketing the world. The song is raw, as is the production (recorded on a four track in the basement of “The Swamp”), but it is a good representation of where we were as musicians and songwriters during the infancy of VRS. Everyone starts somewhere...

Track 2: “Been Around The Block” is the next track, and as written in the previous post, this song predated VRS and was penned by the members of Schwa (including Steve, CD, and Marty). It’s a great grooving song, and this version is a bit rawer in its production than the version on Pasta. I’ll re-post what was previously written about the song to save the reader the trouble of flipping back to a different blog post:

“Been Around the Block” has a straight forward song structure like “Backwards”; however it triggers a more effective emotional response. I’ve always been a fan of hypnotic grooves, and this song brings a Fugazi-like bass line that tries its best to get your head subtly bobbing. For this alone, I enjoy this song. Although I’m not crazy about the guitar’s flange effect on the recorded version, I think this helped the mood of the song when played live. Given this song was a remnant of Schwa (that’s a whole ‘nother review), VRS sure got a lot of mileage out of it.

Track 3: The third track is the same recording of “Fish” that made it onto Pasta. As I previously wrote in the past blog:

“Fish” is another one of the first songs written by VRS. Steve conceived the song’s lyrics to chronicle the cyclical romance of two of the band’s close friends. It contains poppy and lively guitar with some acoustics layered in. The rhythm section pushes the tempo, but generally allows the guitars and vocals to carry the song. Although a simple composition, this was just an up-tempo song we always had fun with. Ryan throws in an over-qualified guitar solo to complete the song, and thus, the album. I feel that ending the album with such an early song was an appropriate reflection of how the band started, and an acknowledgment of how far we had come.

One thing I failed to mention before is that “Fish” easily became a fan favorite for VRS followers. For better or worse, this became our “Freebird” at every local show we played. I’m sure this had something to do wish this single being featured on one of the ND campus music compilations (Incubus 1993), as well as the fact that “Fish” was one of the early songs that we continued to play for a couple of years.



Track 4: The Sample Tape ends with “Ryan’s Lonely”, a crude commentary about the self-pleasuring habits of VRS’s guitar soloist. In defense of poor Ryan, I will say that he had “mad skills” around women. He played the sensitive, troubled, creative genius role perfectly, and figured out early that playing a classical guitar in one’s bedroom is a phenomenal tool to have in one’s tool box. In other words, I’ll stick up for Ryan and say that the basic theme of this song is mis-guided. This song begins with some guitar “noise”, but soon kicks into an in your face tempo, a driving drum beat, catchy guitar rift, and rapid slides up and down the neck of Ryan’s guitar. A performance note: Ryan’s action of sliding up and down the neck intentionally ties into the overall theme of the song, and he tended to exaggerate these movements when performing live. Like many VRS songs, this one contains a consistently repeated guitar rift around which the other components of the song are built. We mix in some dynamic changes, but we basically play the same parts throughout the song. Nevertheless, it is a fun and lively way to end this collection of songs, and who can’t appreciate ending it on the lyrics “Better touch myself and smile!”

In conclusion, this sample tape is a good snapshot of the early stages of Victoria’s Real Secret. Although not as polished in both content and production as Pasta, it provides a good benchmark from which one can measure the progress of our band. As I previously posted:

More than anything else, I remember VRS as a band that was FUN to see live. We always had a great time stirring the audience into a frenzy and playing off each other.

This sample tape, if nothing else, reminds me of the fun and lively shows we put on. That’s a memory I will always treasure. Thanks for reading and listening! Questions or comments? Feel free to contact me at wil.freve@comcast.net.

--Wil Freve


listen/download:


see also:
Victoria's Real Secret on MySpace
Victoria's Real Secret - Pasta

Severinsen - SNUBBED! by incubus 1993 + Bonus Live

In 1993, Severinsen recorded a couple songs at Miami Street Studio, with the impression that one of them would be included on the incubus 1993 ND campus band compilation. Yet for some reason, the band was eventually excluded from the CD. This EP, affectionately dubbed "SNUBBED! by incubus 1993," represents those studio recordings, as well as a couple extra live tracks we dug up from the show we previously posted.


MIKE:

This was my first time recording with John Nuner at Miami Street. (I'd go on to record at least two other mega sessions with emiLy). Nervous as heck but I'm happy with the way I played and the way we sounded. Nuner was a nice guy and easy to work with.

I'm pretty sure we recorded the basics for 3 songs (another one in addition to "Limber/Sorry" and "My Greatest Fear") but only kept/overdubbed/finished those two.

Singing the backup vocals to "My Greatest Fear" with Colin and Eric was much fun.

"Limber/Sorry" was and still is my favorite Severinsen song to play and to listen to. I'm very happy we have a nice studio version of this.

Somebody (can't remember who) told me later that both of these songs were rejected from the incubus CD because Chris was already represented in Chisel and Colin was already represented in Brian, Colin, and Vince. Which to this day still seems incredibly unfair to Eric and myself, but so it goes. SNUBBED!, indeed.

I'm not sure how we started doing the PJ Harvey cover with Kate Babka, but it was always a blast. And the Kylie song always made me laugh. It is about Kylie Minogue, isn't it? When I would hear her techno stuff years later (1999-2001 or so), anytime I saw her on VH1 on directTV or something, the line "Kylie's got a crush on us" would pop into my head.



ERIC:

I remember Colin having to stand on top of his amp in the studio to prevent the horrible vibration it produced from being recorded. Then I remember actual vocal track takes being produced in the bathroom to produce that "natural reverb"effect. The last minute decision to provide backup vocals on "My Greatest Fear" was just hilarious. Good times.

Then of course there was the incubus snub. I was probably the most affected by it, because I didn't have another band on the compilation, and I was a senior, so there would be no second chance. I remember getting my copy and giving it a chance, listening through all the tracks to hear why our recordings were not included. I was a genuine fan of many of the bands that were included (as a sidebar, I was so impressed with Bother, I asked them to play at our house during Zep Fest. The lead singer, James Kennedy, almost got into a fight with some of the people at the party because the band wanted to play during the NCAA Final Four basketball game on the TV. We eventually had to hide James in the basement to prevent him from getting hurt. So punk!!) When I heard the last forgettable track on the CD - "Punch the Clown" by The Porkchoppers (so forgettable, I had to look it up) I fully realized what a snub it was. The last song was so horrible, it turned into another valuable life lesson that you only get in college - in the music business, it's who you know. As I recall, the Porkchoppers were friends with the producers of the CD.

Our luck seemed to follow us around as we were the only band at the battle of the bands in the top 10 that played on the "student run" stage. All the other bands in the top 10 played on the stage that was engineered by professionals. The student engineers didn't even notice I was singing the last song of the set until halfway through the song when Meghan King of The Sister Chain fame yelled at them to turn up my microphone. The fact that we still got 5th made me wonder how well we could have done on the other stage.

I remember taking a recording studio class the year after graduation and bringing a copy of these recordings we made in for show and tell. I was the only brave soul in the whole class. Everyone commented how they wished they could hear the vocals better and that they were lost in the mix. I lamented at the time that I sort of wished the same, but I also recall that was somewhat intentional.



CHRIS:

I seem to recall that the engineer, John Nuner, had some funny turns of phrase. "Put it in the can," maybe? Something like that? His studio had a strange, fly by night feel to it. I always assumed it was a front for some shady dealings. But Nuner was (and hopefully still is) a good guy.

As for the songs, I love Colin's and cringe at mine. L/S was the beginning of great things for Colin - he wrote in that vein for the next ten years or so, shoegazing with the best of them. The lyrics of MGF are inexplicable. I hope no one thinks they're autobiographical. Thank god for the backup vocals, which add the only levity to an otherwise super creepy song.



COLIN:

Did John Nuner have a palm tree for a logo? I was always confused by the Miami moniker.

I think we all generally had a positive experience during the sessions. I think we recorded 2 songs because we couldn't decide whether to use one of Chris' songs or one of mine - and we were not the primary songwriters in the other bands we were in. Our idea was to give the incubus folks both songs and let them pick which one they wanted to use. I don't think it occurred to us at the time that they might go with the third option - neither! Yikes! And yeah, I recall that we were led to believe that we were excluded because of Chris and I already being on there with Chisel and Brian, Colin and Vince - but I didn't have the same problem of not being able to separate the various acts in my mind.

I'm not particularly bitter about it now, but I remember feeling slighted - Severinsen was a really important band to me. I see now that we were still learning what we were even doing, but at the time we were feeling like ND music scene veterans - playing regular gigs on and off campus and such.

When I decided to make my own compilation cassette release, Shameless, on my label Sudden Shame I put BOTH of the Severinsen songs on there -- is that why so many bands got 2 songs each? Ahahaha!

As a studio newbie, I remember trying to make cool sounds and used a cassette case to do amateur slide work up and down the neck.

I'm definitely glad we made these recordings, even though they were snubbed. We knew they we good!

As far as the bonus live material goes, we were playing "Sheila na Gig" because Chris had become a massive PJ Harvey fan on his semester abroad - and he also came back to the states with a cassette that had "Kylie's Got a Crush on Us" as performed by Teenage Fanclub (but written by the BMX Bandits). So we just loved playing those songs. I remember going to see PJ play in Chicago with Chris and waiting outside afterwards to say hi! And last year I got to see both of those bands live at the same festival (Indietracks), but neither one played that song. If they had, it would likely have blown my mind!

Did we start having Kate sing on "Sheila" because we wanted to help her get into Club 23 (underage) or was it just because we thought it would be a fun thing to do? I can't remember. Maybe Chris started feeling weird about singing it (as a boy?) and wanted to get some estrogen injected back into it. I could make up theories all day long, but Kate might be the best person to ask for the real answer! A couple months ago I was playing a show in a bar in Montpelier, VT, and my friends band that we were playing with did a cover of that song, too! Boy did it bring back memories all over again.

"Belly up!" That's another blast from the past! So glad to be reminded that this song ever existed. The recording quality is waaay rough, but I'm just glad to hear enough of it to spark my memories.

listen/download:


see also:
Severinsen on MySpace
incubus 1993 compilation

Trendinista 5000

While many assume that the Trendinista 5000 full-length cassette was recorded at the Record Plant by Bill Laswell or perhaps on a farm in Minnesota with Brian Paulson or Smart Studios with Butch Vig, the tape was actually made in a small cellar of a student house on St. Peter’s Street in downtown South Bend, IN.

The year was, I think, 1992 and we had just gotten back in town but not yet started classes at ND—so I’m guessing August—I’d have to check my old journal from that era. Chisel, a band that housemate Ted Leo and I had been doing off and on for a year or two, was off until we could find a new bassist, but we had a lot of creative energy built up from the summer. We set up our gear in a small, dark, musty space in the basement of our shared house and called up our pal Dennis McNicholas, whom I had done Teenage Dope Slaves with about a year previous.

We let the tape roll for either one day or two—making up songs on the spot, perhaps with one run-through before recording and ultra minimal overdubs. It was my idea of an “instant music” project, almost like automatic writing as a technique for producing a lot of material without filtering or critiquing what you were doing, just fueled by camaraderie and enthusiasm and strong coffee. I was taking the lead only because I had been the one with the guitar in hand when we started taping. There was a lot of switching around, Ted covers the drums (quite masterfully) when I’m playing guitar and singing and usually vice-versa, with Dennis singing and probably playing some guitar, too. I didn’t even own an electric guitar at this point, so I assume the axe was Ted’s old Fender Squire. The kid Mark was our housemate Mason’s girlfriend Mary’s little brother. I believe Dennis came up with the band name, or perhaps we did together—we had the name before we wrote the Trendinista girl tune, I think. 5000 was slang for see ya later—as in Audi 5000 if I recall.

As you can probably hear, all three of us were very familiar with Beat Happening and T5000 is, in some way, a kind of tribute to Calvin Johnson and that band. But you can also hear a bit of Codeine—with whom I was really taken for a year or two, perhaps Buffalo Tom and also some Teenbeat/Unrest vibes in there. The tape is kind of a time capsule of the era. Considering how quickly it was made, I think the songs are pretty phenomenal—still insanely catchy. Dennis and Ted were obviously talented young men—it was fun writing songs together.

Sometime that year, Colin Clary released the cassette on his Sudden Shame label out of Vermont. Dennis did original artwork for the cassette— a woodblock print—or maybe a soap block print, I'm not sure.

--John Dugan

listen/download:


see also:
Trendinista 5000 on MySpace
twitter: @johnedugan, @tedleo, @SBP90s

Obstruction - Live at Clifford

Haha! I didn't even remember that someone had recorded that show! Wow, good times. I guess everyone was just too nice to tell me how bad I sucked on drums those days!

Actually, "Eyesore" was a pretty good rendition, we always played that one well and "Holy Martyr" rocked!

Man, my timing was horrible! I think I was playing in another time zone on "Underscore" at the end there. Haha.

Once again, our best song and crowd favorite "Gunshot" seemed to always stand out from the rest. I especially liked it when I hit my cymbal so hard it flew off the stand towards the end of the song! Now that was some serious hardcore! Who was that trying to put it back on, Doug? Pretty funny.

Those were the good ol' days boys!! When is the reunion show!?

--Andy Yang

-------------

We look so young and shiny, like we have our whole rock and roll futures ahead of us!

I didn't realize that I roll my eyes every time I mess up lyrics, that's hilarious.

Bah, who needs timing when you have hardcore? I love how the verses in "Underscore" feel like we're rushing because we're late for a hanging or something and then the chorus has this laid back almost ska feel to it.

On explaining the songs: I wasn't the most eloquent public speaker. Good thing my job was to bellow our lyrics.

The darkness and dinginess captures the feel of a basement show really nicely.

Yeah, that was Doug futzing with the cymbal. Andy you were rocking it hard! We should have set our instruments on fire (if only we could afford new ones)!

It was such a blast playing in that band with two of my best friends to this day!

--Hardcore Ron

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I'd have to agree with what Chris O always says about too many bands making the mistake of talking too much between songs. But with a set that could be played straight through in only around 10 minutes, I think we were sorta trying to string things out a little. Ah well...

I love seeing Ron rage on the mic, and watching Andy beat the drums into submission. The guitar work here is, as usual, somewhat regrettable. But whatever-- punk rock! Obstruction GO!!!

So cool that this video exists!

--Ted Hennessy


see also:
Obstruction - One Step Closer
Obstruction on MySpace
follow @SBP90s on twitter

Comeuppance - Live at the Pre-Nuptial Bash

Our first show was at Bronwyn and Ted’s engagement party at St. Peter Street. We dressed in our finest and nervously took our places on stage. Justin Mitchell graciously let me use his amp and set it up for me. We played four songs, which went by in a blur but for a moment in “Madeleine” when I had to hit the distortion pedal: the worry of finding the right pedal in the dark, stabbing at it with my toe and half-missing, then relief at hearing the piercing sound – and astonishment and thrill that I was actually playing guitar onstage in a band and not falling to utter pieces.

--Allison Rigo

listen/download:


see also:
Comeuppance on MySpace
Comeuppance - Tally Ho!