Brian, Colin and Vince were three young men that played quirky and fun acoustic music. Songs ranged from sweet and sappy to completely goofy and ridiculous. Either way, the trio was always entertaining. You'd be hard pressed to see these guys perform and not have a good time. The live track included with this collection, "She Never Had a Chance," does a pretty good job of capturing the jovial feeling that was the BCV on-stage phenomenon.
Colin once offered this description of the band:
3-part harmonies, a million songs, Brian was the leader and star – such a great songwriter and guitar player, Vince sang great harmonies and played bongos... Trees hugs and rock and roll was a motto one day. We were not hippies, but I think hippies thought we were fun... Some ex-ND kids think this is the best band I’ve ever been in.Looking back, I remember long stretches of time where the song "Hypothetical Situation" would make a weekly appearance on my college radio show. It seemed to be the perfect tune to encapsulate how broken my heart felt at the time (awwww...). Ahem, continuing on... "Spectacles" would eventually end up being covered by Chisel, and released on a split 7" where BCV and Chisel swapped songs (more on that in a future post). But the original version offered here is an outstanding take in it's own right.
These 30 songs were put to tape in a Morrissey Hall dorm room in April of 1992, and self-released on cassette. There's a little bit of banter in between tracks, which adds to the overall charm of the recordings. The cassette was actually re-issued a year or so later on Colin's Sudden Shame label as SS007.
see also:
Brian, Colin, and Vince on MySpace
Probably my favorite campus band tape of all time. Bukow and I listened to this tape over and over again on our drive out to see a Rush concert in Peoria, IL in 1994. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe only time I ever saw BC&V was at their final show in Washington Hall. I suppose the venue says something about their popularity -- in my experience, only Chisel and Umphrey's McGee have had the sort of widespread appeal that BC&V had. Somewhere I think I still have a tape of that final show. If I remember correctly, Chisel was one of the opening bands, and I think that's where they debuted their version of "Spectacles".
ReplyDeleteDuring "Hypothetical Situation", when Brian sang the line "Just say he looked like me and you never noticed, and now he's leaving - could be forever", the crowd shouted "NO!" back at him.
i can't believe i am downloading my own tape! yow!
ReplyDeleteThat Washington Hall show is one of my fave college memories - that was like the real graduation. I remember running around videotaping some of it but I have no idea who I was doing that for... Gee, if only we had known the internet was going to be invented like 6 months later.
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for this, and the Chisel stuff. This blog brings back lots of great memories.
ReplyDeleteWould you happen to have The Smiles 7"?
The way I saw it, BCV was a mix of melodies, killer harmony, fun, anxst over unfulfilled relationships, and an oftentimes-jubilant sometimes-vulnerable rejection of some of the realities of our place in a big hard world... a creative, intelligent, emotionally moving sound and search for some better way that hadn't been found yet. In short, I loved it.
ReplyDeletev
Amazing. I woke up this morning with "Hypothetical Situation" nudging my brain. Just bits and pieces of it — kinda like how I remember Puff the Magic Dragon or Rock You Like a Hurricane. You know, singing the parts you can't forget and humming the rest? I flashed back to 1994 when my friend was so bummed that she had lost her copy of Just Trying to Help. So I googled and found this post, and this blog (OHMYGOD!) and am doing a happy dance to the awesomeness of it all. I sent her the link so she could download it and get her tape back — 20 years later, ok, but still. Rad. Thanks, Ted.
ReplyDeletecool! glad you found us!
ReplyDelete