The New York trio had a cohesive brilliance about them: each component of their sound was big, from the reverbed vocals to the resonant tom-based drums to the scuzz guitar that was thin as razor wire. But their skill lay in the economy they used in deploying these motifs, to create catchy surf-punk/pop gems that dripped a dreamy wistfulness. I was won over by the end of their first song.
When Adam informed me that the three goddesses would be residing at his house for the night, I quickly went home, brushed my teeth and applied copious amounts of aftershave, then raced over to his house for the after show party.
I was met with a room full of tea lights and a roaring fire, with the three girls curled up around their amplifiers and flight cases drinking beer, playing David Lee Roth vocal takes and talking about “peanut galleries”. We had a good conversation about “1950’s dust”. Adam and I sat both sat there in a stunned adolescent rapture, until it was time to head home.
In the first use of (an albeit legitimate) blag, I managed to wrangle my way into a sold out launch show for Nathalie’s album under the auspices of being “The Producer”. The man with the coily earpiece had nothing to which he could counter that claim, and I was allowed in. This sparked the idea that people should employ this excuse on a more regular basis whether true or not. Scene luminaries such as Peter Brewis from Field Music and Steve Jefferies from Warm Digits were not so lucky.
Miss Stern played a blinder; the venue was perfect for her material, and it marked the first time I was acknowledged in front of the general public as a producer… which made me feel embarrassingly happy in a teen movie wish fulfillment kinda way.
Album available here, with a BBC website interview here and a transcript of the Narc. article here.
I was inspired by this film that I saw at the Star & Shadow last week. It documents the crazed experimentalism of, among others, Sun Ra, Faust, Harry Partch and a duo called No Input. The latter utilise no exterior sound sources, and instead create feedback pieces by having lots of boxes, with all the outputs of their units plugged into their inputs. Also of note was the Australian lady who composed using an orchestra of dot matrix printers.
I was at the back of the cinema, taking notes.
