Hace Frio - The College Years (1995-1996)

Say hello again to Hace Frio, your indie pop rock friends. Hace Frio was Dave McM., James J., Vinny C., and Rose S. (though I don't believe Rose is featured on this cassette). Let's hear what a couple of these guys had to say about the band:

"Hace Frio was a band for the fun of it. None of us could play instruments except Vinny on drums, but we had loads of fun making up little pop songs. We actually played a load of shows from Michigan to Chicago, and did a mini-tour with emiLy, which was a highlight of our life as a band in the summer of '96. Over time we got a little tighter, wrote better songs, and rocked Nazz into oblivion. Our best show was playing with Chisel in the basement at 702 W. Angela Blvd, or perhaps playing University of Chicago with an audience of about 60-70.

The College Years was the first recording, with loads of songs. We were inspired by the general output of bands like Guided by Voices, although we fell short in the lyrics and music departments. What was great about Hace Frio was that even though we were short on instruments and green behind the ears, we got to listen to far superior bands like emiLy and learned to appreciate Joe's masterful guitar playing, and the general elan of the band. Plus Vinny covered up any musical lapses we had." -- Dave

"When we started, Dave and I seriously had no idea how to play. Our first show was quite awful, but we all loved music, had an idea and went with it.

So many good times! Early on we hijacked the WVFI van for a weekend, it was 107+ degrees outside and we headed to Chicago to record our first demo songs in Sweep the Leg Johnny's basement. Quite an insane experience, we probably shouldn't have made it there and back, but we survived. We had a mission, what that was is anyone's guess. Vinny's awesome drumming, and Rose's sweet violin sounds, along with sheer determination, led to much better song writing and towards the end some really amazing shows." -- James

This cassette features a diverse selection of sounds and directions, from indierock and punk to instrumental noise and poetry. Who could forget "Anne" -- a poppy toe-tapper that is sure to stick in your head all day once you give it a spin. You've gotta also love "Dyngus Day" -- an homage to the Bend and it's most beloved local holiday. And "Center Aisle" brings the rock with it's full-on Dead Kennedys-style choruses.


The College Years was recorded in 1995, and released on the eSTaTe record label (what is it with capital letters in the middle of words with this crowd?). We'll leave you with a little something from an unlisted cut at the end of the tape:

"Ahh the College Years... when old Smitty said, 'Kick back, look at the spectacle of life kid, absorb all the wonderful French minds and let it all slide down your throat like a Werther's Original,' he had it right! And this, this is our gift to you: The College Years by Hace Frio 1995-1996. Yes... and then I'm going to kill you and eat you. But that's alright. People will call me a cold-hearted fiend, but enjoy the recording."

listen/download:


see also:
Hace Frio on MySpace

July - April Twentieth

Who better to speak on behalf of July than Ms. Kate B.:

Most teenage girls today wouldn't think it, but in the pre-Alanis days of the early 90s, when a strong woman in music meant Janet Jackson or Madonna, or maybe Pat Benatar (which was on occasion mistaken for Kate's vocals?) a band with a woman singing about taking charge of her life and wreaking havoc on those who wronged her was, apparently, a revolutionary thing for some of the female audiences who heard us -- or at least that's what I heard at shows, especially the few times we played away from the band's house. The sad fact was that very few bands in the Notre Dame family had female singers at all, and those who did generally opted for a sweet and gentle delivery. So when July appeared on the scene, we turned some heads if only for the sheer novelty of it. And personally, I think the time was ripe for women to be getting up and demanding attention, on stage and in general, which is something that happened a lot in the early and mid 90s, especially in the punk and indie scene. Still, I don't see July as a chick rock band, even though I tried to sing it that way. I was amazingly lucky to start off playing with a group of amazingly tight and talented musicians who could craft powerful and catchy tunes that could stand up to my novice singing and songwriting. What I lacked in stage presence, those guys made up for in strength and ability, and if I had it to do again, I would have just done more of it.

Here is the official story: Prior to coming together as July, Ernie C. (bass), Ted K. (drums) and Justin M. (guitar) had played with another singer as Grope for Luna. Two weeks after starting to practice with Kate B. on vocals, we played our first show at the "Farewell to Bush Bash" at Stonehenge on the ND campus, which consisted of four songs. Not so great with names, we played our second show as Freezehead, and Kate also vetoed Sweep the Leg Johnny as a potential name (we'll let the history books weigh in on that choice) before we settled on July as a name.

In practices, Ted's drums were so loud that the other instruments had to be turned up to match, so the boys usually never heard the vocals until it came time to play live with a proper PA. I think the balancing act between an art-rock guitarist, a jazz drummer, a riot-grrl singer, and a Fugazi-loving bassist produced something really special and unique, if very much of its time. Or, to quote Joe C. from our entry in Maximum RocknRoll's Book Yr Own Fucking Life, "A great great grindy power pop punk kinda sorta thing with PJ Harvey-esque vocals."

April Twentieth was recorded live at Dalloway's Coffeehouse on, natch, April 20th, I think 1994. Rommell DD is taken from a Richard Brautigan poem. The cassette was released on the Rent To Own label as RTO5.

listen/download:


see also:
July on MySpace

Teenage Dope Slaves - Kill Gerard Cosloy

This gem comes to us courtesy of John D. (Chisel, Edsel, etc.), and is quite the early 90's rarity. A big thanks to John for hooking us up!

The music of Teenage Dope Slaves could be described as noisy, discordant indie punk, at times with Slint-y spoken vocals, ranging all the way up to some nicely distorted howls. In this band, we find John stepping away from the skins and instead handling guitar and vocal duties. TDS also featured Dennis McN. on bass and vocals, and Jeff J. on drums, vocals, "tape junk" and samples. Dennis apparently went on to become head writer at Saturday Night Live. Cool.

Here's what John had to say about TDS:

"Originally a four-track band project. We were supposed to play a show but I was punched in the face by some neighborhood wannabee gang banger during a party at the house and we canceled."

The cassette was recorded in December of 1991 at the Rokkhouse on Joe C's 4-track, and is noted as Rokkhouse 001.

listen/download:


see also:
Teenage Dope Slaves on MySpace

(Rokkhouse photo shamelessly swiped from Facebook -- thanks Jeff!)

Chisel vs. Brian, Colin and Vince - Spectacles/One in Ten 7"

Chisel and Brian, Colin and Vince... two acts you know and love. This split 7" finds them paying each other homage by covering one of the other's classic tunes.

First up, we've got Chisel turning out an amped up version of BCV's charmer, "Spectacles," which was originally featured on their Just Trying to Help cassette. Technically, though, this tune should be entitled "Spectacles/Pillow," as the final chorus romp is borrowed from another BCV song ("Pillow," duh) found on the Bucket O' Fun N' Stuff N' Yeah CD. Regardless, this is a power ballad of massive proportions--well, for Chisel anyway. You have to grin a little at the almost over-the-top treatment Ted Leo and the boys applied here. A punk rock kid once told me he thought this was the worst Chisel song he ever heard. But I think if that same fellow listened to it now, years later, he'd have a greater appreciation for what was going on with this recording. It's a fun, rocked out jam, and knowing Chisel-- you just gotta love it.

Aside from it's debut on this piece of wax, Chisel's "Spectacles" was also played over the closing credits of the Songs for Cassavetes documentary.

The flip side has Brian, Colin and Vince toning down "One in Ten," which can be found on Chisel's Nothing New album. This folked out rendition takes the original rocker and smooths it out with BCV's patented three-part harmonies and fine acoustic instrumentation. Put it on and sail away...

And just for grins, check out this unearthed, less-than-enthusiastic review from the high & mighty punkers at HeartattaCk, issue #6:

Arghh, why me! Why did I choose to review this. Since I chose to, I will choose to not have my ears hear it. The Brian, Colin and Vince side was 2 acoustic songs that were so boring. Just stop now. The Chisel side was pleasant after listening to BC&V. The packaging wasn't half bad. If college rock is for you, then give it a try. RR

This record was recorded in May of 1993 by the infamous John Nuner at the Miami Street Studio down in the Bend. It was released on the Sudden Shame label as SS005.



see also:
Chisel on MySpace
Brian, Colin, and Vince on MySpace


Scorecard insert from the 7"

The Butterfly Effect - Now Everybody

In the summer of 1997, Ron G. mentioned he wanted to start a band with me when he got back to South Bend in late August. Later I found out that his idea was something where I was playing drums and he was on bass, but by the end of the summer I had a pile of new songs written on guitar (some left over from the end of The Cuba Five) that I was eager to play, and so The Butterfly Effect was formed. Vinny C. was living in Chicago at that point, but was convinced to come to South Bend on occasion as a temporary drummer. Not long after our first practices, Vinny moved back to South Bend and is still living there. About a year later, we recorded Now Everybody-- at Plinko Studios, our friend Garth's basement studio over Thanksgiving weekend. Four days before recording, I completely lost my voice. Timing is everything, as they say.

The tape included the following liner notes from Chris O.:

Though catchy in a grandmotherly fashion, the "From the mouths of babes" argument is hardly compelling. First, it seems to slight the unsightly. What right-minded grandmother would stoop to such a lowbrow dis? Perhaps if said grandmother had an envelope-pushing band of her own competing for market shares in the highly competitive South Bend, Indiana market and not simply biannual envelopes garnishing pop-up greetings and five dollar bills, one could start to see the seedlings of an intergenerational "scene conflict." And what sort of credence should be given to grandmothers making claims of "hipness" to current styles of punkrocity? Certainly their modes of thinking concerning current modes of coolness are outmoded. What kind of person is comfortable hearing their grandmother refer to a person as a "babe"? At the very least, it seems more grandfatherly! In the use of the word "babes," which seems most problematic, one might say that these aging laggard women mean "bab[i]es." The classic definition of the entire phrase then meaning "Interesting and insightful witticisms come out of babies' mouths." A few quick consultations with fellow consorts immersed in the "indie-rock subculture" revealed a short but thorough list of things that "hipsters" have witnessed coming out of the mouths of "bab[i]es": "a silvery stream of spittle," a "gaseous flow of small iridescent bubbles," and a "nickel." "The Butterfly Effect," then, seems to have very little to do with infant intellectualism.

At this point it should be noted that "The Butterfly Effect," the rock troupe, should not be confused with "The Butterfly Affect," a theory proposed in 1949 by Gerald Gootes and Florence Shingles of the University of Notre Dame concerning the higher IQ scores of Irish-American, Columbian-Italian, and African-American male toddlers subjected to the intensive spinning of Butterfly mobiles above their cribs as infants. (See "The Butterfly Affect," Nervous Parent Magazine August, 1949) The Butterfly Effect, with an "E," in fact rejects intellectualism in both grandmothers and infants. The Butterfly Effect rejects both the objectification of themselves as "babes" and the preposterous notion that they would resort to drooling or sucking on loose change to feign intellectualism. In fact, contrary to the opinions of the so-called "intelligentsia," The Butterfly Effect seek not to move your pituitary glands or bowels, but your sing-along mouth, heart and butt, respectively. The music seeks to kick and the lyrics seek to move. In the end, one must hope that if an emergency caucus was held, and all the infants, psychologists, grandmothers and vicariously emotional hipsters showed up, the Butterfly Effect would give them one heck of a sweaty show.

I should know.

The title comes from the final line of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. The lyrics to "Little Ode on St. Anne's Day" are a poem by Jim Carroll. I gave him a copy of this tape following his reading at Notre Dame and he briefly joked about me hearing from his lawyers before telling a story about being in the studio with Rancid. The sample in "Fat Man and Little Boy" comes from the beginning of Patton. The effect at the end of "The Idiots Dance" is a deliberate rip-off/homage of Pink Floyd. "The Idiots Dance", "The New Gods of the Underground", and "Twenty-Three on Twenty-Four" were re-recorded for the second Butterfly Effect album a year and a half later.

listen/download:

see also:
The Butterfly Effect on MySpace

Streganona - 4:4

Ahh chilluns... here's a special treat for you. We're kicking off a new feature of the SBP90s blog today -- Friends of The Bend! Periodically we'll be taking a break from the SB 90s local scene to highlight some of the fine out-of-town acts that came through our little burg to show us a good time.

And talk about a good time -- who could forget the handsome lads of Streganona! Hailing from the Hyde Park area of Chicago, they ascended on The Bend (maybe twice?) thanks to a connection with our good pal Dave M., if I'm not mistaken. They rocked our bodies and stole our hearts, sparking much debate as to which band member was the sauciest (the drummer, of course!). Smooth and sexy basslines, driving and frenetic guitarwork, dual singing and screaming vocals, and oh those beautiful beats... what's not to love!

The four songs on this cassette were recorded on the bass player's 4-track in February of 1995, which is probably shortly before the time they came to play for us. I've got two copies, and they both have different covers. Maybe yours is different, too... I'm not sure how many variations exist. A note on the sleeve says "For optimum sound quality, Streganona suggests a decreased midrange and a maximized volume." I recommend you comply!

listen/download:


Got a suggestion for a future "Friends of The Bend" feature? Who was it you remember that came to town and rocked the house (or basement, for that matter)? Leave a comment and let us know! Thanks!

emiLy - engineering means i Like you

"It's Mike's turn to be in the zone! Mike, welcome to the zone... "

So, my first entry on South Bend Power Nineties. I am in the zone.

Imagine a time when you could load up the beat-up old Chevy Suburban, drive west all the way across the state of Illinois to a place called Galesburg, unload guitars, amps and drums, carry everything up a long flight of stairs into a small studio serving as a radio station at Knox College, set up and play a live set that was simultaneously being aired over the radio and recorded for posterity, then break everything down again, carry it back down to the truck, go eat dinner, then do it all over again that night, 'cept this time instead of a radio station it was a show at the campus coffeehouse with a crazy fast hardcore punk band called Haymarket (one of many). I get tired just thinking about it, but we're old now.

Well, we did it, thanks to two guys at Knox College, Trent and Cyrus, who heard our Finer Time 7" (see previous SBPN blog entry below), liked it, enough to invite us to their school to do the radio broadcast and live show. They were also nice enough to let us crash at their place before driving all the way back to South Bend the next day, and feed us excellent vegetarian cuisine. Oh, and allow moi a superfreakout nostalia session of Atari 2600 geekness: Yar's Revenge. If you're out there and reading this, thanks you guys.

"All right! ... I'm in a much better mood now... "

I think this recording accurately captures the intensity and range of emiLy at the time, the 1993-1994 version of emiLy. Joe had reached the zenith of his screaming-lyrics ways, the songs were getting longer and more complex, and we were still screwing up just enough to keep it punk.

According to Doug, regarding this recording, here's "other pertinent info gleaned from the insert: recorded in two hours on april 9, 1994 (FOURTEEN YEARS AGO?!?? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!?!?) in the WVKC studio at knox college in galesburg, il." That about sums it up.

Thanks.

listen/download:

see also:
emiLy on MySpace
emiLy on last.fm

Brian, Colin and Vince - Just Trying to Help

"Like Crosby, Stills and Nash but a lot funnier."

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

The Cuba Five - am i your world?

The Cuba Five began as another emiLy side project, though the band really came into its own following the breakup of emiLy. I had a bunch of songs written which I never got to do with Spoonfed, so I started a new band. Chris C. (who also played in The Whiteout, Regular Size Monsters, and Ely Parker & the CIAs) played drums, and Brian G. (from decaf) was the original bassist. The band started in spring of 1996, and played a handful of shows in this format. Brian graduated that May, and Mike L. (from emiLy, The Mad Dogs, and a lot of other bands) took over on bass. The Cuba Five was around until March of 1997, when Chris moved across the country in mid March. He announced this on a weekend, we practiced on that Monday, recorded Tuesday and Wednesday, and played a final show on Thursday.

The album was recorded at Clifford the Big Red House by Ron G., at the beginning of a spring which featured at least four bands recording in the same basement (Obstruction, The Mad Dogs, and Cod in Salsa being three of the others).

The band name (occasionally misheard as "the cube of five") comes from the following historical bit: In 1872, seven Irish political prisoners were freed from jail on the condition that they leave Ireland and never return. Five of them sailed to New York on the steamship Cuba, where they were warmly welcomed by the Irish immigrant community and nicknamed 'The Cuba Five'. One of them, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, earned the nickname "Dynamite Ro

ssa" (hence the song name) for his advocation of using bombing as a tactic to promote the cause of Irish independence. His granddaughter, Rosemary, is pictured on the cover of the tape at age 2. Rosemary is my grandmother.

As far as the music goes, I remember it being reviewed by a friend of ours in the ND campus newspaper. He said how you could hear Billy Bragg, Jawbreaker, and (most of all, in my opinion) Unwound. I can't argue with this. I think the strengths of the album are the instrumental tracks. "Beta Decay" once had lyrics, but they were tossed and we kept only the title. The song has a sample from the movie Swimming With Sharks, while "Dynamite Rossa" samples Walking & Talking, and "At Long Last Arriving" has a couple samples from rumblefish which get largely drowned out by guitar. Our sampling technique was quite primitive: hold a hand-held tape recorder in front of the television while the desired bit is playing. The title of "Saroyan" refers to the author William Saroyan, whose short story "Am I Your World?" provides both lyrics for part of the song and the title for the album. It's not an easy story to find, but it's worth reading if you get the chance. "Homesick" is worth skipping. Seriously. "Nation of Uselessness" was sited as the single bright point of the album in the HeartattaCk review, which was pretty vicious otherwise. People said "Does This Answer Your Question?" shamelessly riffed on Billy Bragg, but I always thought it was much more of a Chisel ripoff.

The second best complement I got about this album was having a friend of mine tell me that he and another friend were playing video games one day and the other guy started humming something. When he asked what he was humming, the guy started singing "Young American Skateboard Disaster".

The best complement I got about this tape was unexpectedly hearing it playing on the stereo in a friend's car. Because while it's cool to hear people say "Hey, I like your band", nothing beats knowing they're actively listening to it.

listen/download:

see also:
The Cuba Five on MySpace

The Mad Dogs - Sometimes I Go Nuts

What could be more appropriate for "the blog that no one demanded" than the band that no one ever wished would play. The liner notes for this release (penned by Chris O.) do an exceptional job at laying it all out there:

Ah, the Mad Dogs. While the "Mad Dogs Proper" period lasted roughly from October 1996 through June 1997, the band itself was somewhat of an amalgamation of sorts of Chikkenhead (comprised of Mike Larmoyeux, Ted Hennessy, and Doug McEachern) and the Catatonics (comprised of Chris Owen, one Jeanine Gaubert, Dave "Night" Stoker, Mike, and Andy Yang of Obstruction fame). When it became obvious that the Catatonics could no longer function (read: get together for practice or even remotely interesting conversation) and that Chikkenhead would never eclipse the limp yet existent Recess Records band of the same name (or sing and play their instruments at the same time), it was decided to unite the two awfully hard sucking bands into one monstrous vehicle of audience antagonism. Chris became the singer for the Chikkenhead, which began a period of zero songwriting, zero practicing, intermittent performances, and haughty quibbling over what the band should finally be called. During this period, which actually encompasses the entire life of the band, they were called, at various points, "Thunderhead," "the Grasshoppers," and finally, to no one's complete satisfaction, "the Mad Dogs." Audiences, oddly enough, always called them "shit."

Drawing from completely incongruous interests and a muted sense of responsibility to entertain, the Mad Dogs experience was often, at the very least, difficult to perceive as worthwhile for both the band and the audiences they somehow managed to gather. While Mike (seminally the man in 10 bands at the same time) was willing to play essentially anything, a willingness on no one's part to actually write new songs left the band in an odd state. Doug's quixotic interest in britpop and the like led to a personal emphasis on The Cuba Five, a brilliant and entertaining combo that frankly whomped ass. Ted's love of Propagandhi and political pop punk presented a puzzling predicament as he was the transcriber of Chris' nonsensical attitude towards writing music (Chris: "it goes like this--BLAM BLAM BOOM BA BOOM BLAM BLAM DU DU DU DUH DU DA DA BOOM!" Ted: (plays an E chord) "OK, say that again"). An unhealthy love on Chris' part for Iggy Pop, GG Allin, Stiv Bators, the Dwarves, and, er, Morrissey, was the final blow in proving incompatibility. That and, of course, conflicting work schedules. At this point, alcohol begins to become important. It became obvious at some time that drinking at least one "Orange Jubilee" Mad Dog before and during a performance led to an increased level of interesting behavior for the Mad Dogs.

OK, sure, they never played to anyone outside Doug and Mike's basement (well, Dalloway's, but that was the first show, and the Bowling Green hardcore fest with Chris singing with Obstruction for a couple songs), but fuck man, the Mad Dogs kicked ass. This cassette doesn't precisely document the silliness that those shows were characterized by, but it gives a pretty good idea. Just imagine 20 or so friends, an unimpressed out of town band or two, a pony keg, shoes, beer, and friendly insults flying, and the Mad Dogs bleeding, cursing, fucking up, ripping clothes off each other, acting out deviant sexual nonsense, and never ever getting all the way through the set without breaking something. And the music. That wonderful music loved by no one but me.

Col. Ricardo Cabeza
July, 1997

This cassette (a split effort with hardcore heroes Obstruction, who'll get their own post here soon enough) was recorded quickly in two short sessions in the spring of 1997 (by Hardcore Ron), just before everyone promptly went their separate ways for the summer. It was every song the band knew, minus a couple they never really learned how to play. The highlight of these recordings for me will always be the last chorus in "Dream Lover," when you can actually hear a somewhat intoxicated Chris throwing up into his mouth while still trying to sing through to the end of the song. If that doesn't say it all...

listen/download:



see also:
The Mad Dogs on MySpace