Route 17 is Dark and Scary Late at Night
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The Poconos played 14 and one-half times between January and October 1997. This is our performance diary -- plus a special Web exclusive, "Where Are They Now?" by
Mike Appelstein |
1) JANUARY 15: Kardyhm Kelly’s house, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. With the Receptionists, Sarge and Vehicle Flips.
Mike:
Tami and I had been playing around in our living room with our
guitars for a few months, coming up with riffs here and there.
Then Kardyhm asked us to play at her house with the Receptionists
and Vehicle Flips, two of our favorite bands.
(In fact, one of the first songs we played together was the
Receptionists’ “Soren Loved Regina.”)
This gave us exactly one week to finish songs, write lyrics, and
throw together a set. By the
afternoon of January 15th, we had six songs that we could play
together reasonably well: Tami’s “Drive Faster” and “October,”
my “Central Station” and “Nothing Ever,” a bass/recorder
instrumental called “Honeydew,” and a cover of the Marine Girls’
“In Love.”
Tami: When I think back on this night, all I can remember is a feeling of sheer, utter terror. I was so scared about playing in front of people – at this point, I still had trouble playing new songs for Mike when we practiced! I couldn’t eat all day, and I don’t think I spoke a single word in the two hours before we played. I just paced around uncomfortably and turned really red. Then I got really scared I was going to forget all the words to my songs, so I rather frantically scrawled the lyrics up and down my arms in ballpoint pen – all of them, up to the elbows! Of course, I didn’t realize until halfway through the set that there was no way I could actually look at them, because I was too scared to stop watching my fingers while I was playing! Pondering all of these things, of course, I promptly forgot what I was doing, and we came grinding to a stop midsong. I believe the words that came out of my mouth were, roughly, “Oh shit, I’m so nervous.” To my enormous relief, everyone in the room applauded! We had to stop again a bit later because I was hyperventilating (although Mike thought I had just forgotten the words, if that’s any better, and he kept trying to prompt me...) And that’s the last thing I really remember. I never really was the Talent Show type. I believe I sat through the other two bands like a block of wood... oh, and then I drank a lot of beer! Overall, it’s an experience I would highly recommend! If you’re into bungee jumping, roller coasters, extreme sports and the like, anyway...
2. FEBRUARY 1: our apartment, 925 Garden St. #2, Hoboken, NJ. With Kumari and The I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout.
Mike: Five months after we moved to Hoboken, we finally had a housewarming party and invited some of our friends to play in our living room. Kumari played their first-ever show and, I think it’s safe to say, blew away almost everyone in attendance. I immediately fell in love with their minimal guitar/melodica arrangements, their shy vocals, and their cute (but not overtly so) songs. We played next, debuting several songs we hadn’t had time to finish in time for Kardyhm’s show: Tami’s quiet, wistful “Valentine’s Day” and Tiger Trap-like “Booksmart,” and my “Waterslide” (inspired directly by the Mountain Goats, although you’d never guess from how it turned out) and “Mount Airy Lodge” (a jokey song basically written on a dare). We’d practiced a lot over those couple of weeks, so I felt far less skittish. After the set I indulged in several “Silver Nipples,” a truly raunchy combination of vodka and sambuca that Tami found in a drink-recipe book. They got me drunk very quickly. The I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout put on one of their best sets I’ve ever seen, combining their crashpoppy hits with a number of quiet, interlocking instrumentals. Adam seemed extremely comfortable, to the extent that he indulged in hip-swaying during “Daydream December.” The Mad Planets came in late, so we played a couple of unamped songs for them in my bedroom.
Tami: Mike is such a liar – he drank at least two of those Silver Nipples before we played! And wow, talk about a putrid drink! Our landlord gave us two bottles of booze for Christmas, and that’s the only thing we could make without buying another ingredient. Cheap us. So Silver Nipples it was. And hardly anybody would drink them with us (they really were that bad)... so, indeed, we got quite drunk. There were about 35 people crammed into our five by ten foot living room, which maybe explains why everyone left by 11 p.m. Except for the Mad Planets and Elena Humphreys, that is, who stuck around and entertained us ‘til the wee hours. There’s some really embarrassing video footage creeping around of us playing the aforementioned acoustic songs for them in Mike’s room... let it suffice to say that both of us were caught with our heads lolling more than once!
3. MARCH 22: Kardyhm’s house, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. With The I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout, Mad Planets and Tokidoki.
Mike: A return engagement at Kardyhm’s house. We’d rearranged our set to include more new songs (“Peter,” “Ten-Hour Drive”). Kardyhm played percussion and sang backing vocals for us, which she would do for the next three shows as well. Tokidoki showed up just in time to hear our version of Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike’s “That’s The End of That,” which we dedicated to their roadie/driver, Dave Knapik. Callie saw us for the first time tonight. Adam played with a revamped Secret Hideout (read: temporary new drummer). They played only a few songs that unfortunately lacked the light touch of their usual set. Tara and Erik played some songs sans drummer John Kapp, who was in Oregon, and Tokidoki closed out the night with a lullabye-like set that lulled me into pleasant dreams.
Tami: I really can’t add much to Mike’s account of the show. Tokidoki were so sweet, though. It was the first time I’d seen them, and I instantly fell in love with both of them. We had a really great time afterward. As usual, a ton of people slept over, and Dave Knapik and Steve Burt and I stayed up all night in the living room, listening to records. Steve told us the best bedtime story ever, about The Land of Make-Believe (I didn’t know it was an amusement park), that was full of weird abstractions and warps in the time-space continuum and... well, I don’t really know what it was about, but it was really fantastic and it went on forever. We got up the next day and went to the diner for one of the world-famous post-Kardyhm breakfasts at the diner down the street before trudging back into Manhattan on the train.
4. APRIL 3: The Luna Lounge, New York City. With Coloring Book and Mad Planets.
Mike: Not only one of our rare club performances, but our sole New York City show to that date. Molly Templeton of the NYU Independent Music Fest asked us to play with two of our favorite local bands, Bayside’s Coloring Book and Long Island’s Mad Planets. Time Out New York dubbed this show “the battle of the shy zine editors,” even though Tara Emelye and Jen Matson are hardly as “shy” as I. Lots of our friends showed up, and even a number of people we didn’t know. It was kind of strange, after our house-party experiences, to be on an actual stage, complete with a PA and lights. In many ways, it was actually a lot more comfortable for me. Later in the evening I played keyboards on Coloring Book’s “Crush,” and the next day Tara and I appeared on the IMF zine panel. I sat next to MRR columnist Mykel Board, which thrilled me more than I’d care to admit. MTV’s “Indie Outing” broadcast a quick cut of the panel.
Tami: I was a very silly girl the week before this show and had a fleeting romantic fling with someone who had a horrible cold. And so I was deathly ill by the time we were to make our big club debut, just a total miserable wreck. I completely lost my voice, and spent the entire day at work guzzling cough syrup and cough drops and hot tea and various elixirs in an effort to get it back. I finally managed it around 7 p.m., and on the upside I was so distracted I didn’t have time to be nervous before the show. It was actually a really fun night – probably one of my favorite shows – and lots of my co-workers showed up and bought me drinks. That’s always a good thing. (Oh, and in case you’re wondering, said fleeting romantic fling was probably NOT worth all that trouble!)
5. APRIL 16: The Spot, Stony Brook, NY. With Kumari.
Mike: Originally The I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout were supposed to accompany us, too, but Adam couldn’t make it. The Spot is SUNY-Stony Brook’s campus pub. It looked kind of like NYC’s Fez crammed into a state college student center. The Mad Planets let us use their amps, which was certainly nice of them. Kumari played their usual stellar set to a tiny crowd, throwing in a cover of Lois’ “Strumpet” amongst the proceedings. We played for a small crowd of LI hipsters; I even spotted two members of My Favorite for a few songs. Not one of my favorite sets; we had no drums and were sleepy. The electrical system in Kardyhm’s car shut down just as we were about to hit the highway, so we had to wait more than an hour in a gas-station parking lot for the Mad Planets and friends to rescue us. We ended up sleeping at Erik’s suburban homestead and made it to our day jobs in time for lunch.
Tami:
The Spot is a really strange
place – it feels like the set of an ‘80s movie where nuclear holocaust
has destroyed everything and everyone except these eerie concrete bunkers,
which were once a high school, or maybe a shopping mall. And that’s
where the show was. But I was actually quite pleased with this one, since
it was the first time we got free drinks for playing. Nothing like free
drinks to make you feel like a real rocker! So anyway, I couldn’t shake
this weird feeling of desertedness all night...not when we went to the
Taco Bell across the street (in another weird bunker), and especially not
when we broke down on the LIE trying to get out the place! (Isn’t it
funny how your life seems real, real screwed for the first few moments
after something like that happens?) There were six of us stuffed rather
firmly into the car, and we had just
pulled onto the freeway back to Manhattan. It was so like some kind of
straight-to-video movie! We bought a ton of junk food and entertained each
other with a puppet show involving a crate of stuffed animals Kardyhm had
in the backseat and tried not to look like we were panicking.
Other notable points:
* I wore these horrible Lycra stockings that in photographic
retrospect were really quite terrible, but I was going for the tennis
player look on that particular night (although I look nothing like a
tennis player on any occasion in reality).
* Dave Kharas made really cool flyers for the event.
* We met David Rapp of Shy Camp fame.
* We got paid!!
6. APRIL 25: Yale University, New Haven, CT. With Mad Planets, Mia Doi Todd, Statuesque and Pinata.
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yale university, 4/25/97 |
Mike: Something strange always happens whenever I go to New Haven. Years ago, I drove to Yale to see Throwing Muses and nearly caused a three-car collision exiting off I-95. More recently Tami, Callie and I had seen the Softies and Tokidoki play at Yale, and the whole weekend was fraught with a strange social dynamic better left out of this account.
Tami: Hoo-boy!
Mike: And I’ll leave it at that. So I was already a little apprehensive as we headed up to New Haven via Metro-North, where Chris MacFarlane picked us up in Alarma, his beloved pickup truck. Steve Burt had been trying to find a venue for this evening show literally up until several hours before, finally settling upon a yellow, echoey Morse College dorm lounge. Yale was heavily into its spring weekend; at 7 p.m., there were already crowds of drunken collegians stumbling their way around campus. Statuesque were still soundchecking, so we headed across the quad to get a snack. I found a campus newspaper, which contained a full-page story about the Golden CAF, the outdoor show Steve had booked us to play the next afternoon. The organizer had described it over the phone as an “arts festival,” but it turned out to be...well, an outdoor sexfest. Every year, it seems, Yale proudly hosts this annual Dionysian ritual, complete with nude Jell-O wrestling and pagan weddings. The Poconos are a fairly quiet, sensitive band, at least compared to an event like this. Steve played coy when we asked what he’d gotten us into.
Tonight we played to a few Yale students, the other band members, and Dan Sutton of Cassiel Records (who kept asking us to hurry up and play already). Kardyhm played drums on “Waterslide,” branching out from her usual maracas and fruit shakers. The Mad Planets played their usual fine set, followed by Mia Doi Todd, whom we had first heard at that Softies show a few weeks earlier. She’s a solo performer, kind of the Cat Power of New Haven except with lyrics about agriculture and nuclear holocaust. I hear she’s since moved to the West Coast. Statuesque thrilled us with their set, full of interesting vocal/guitar interplay. I particularly loved “Arbiters Anonymous” and its rousing chorus of “O! to be in England/Let’s get back to England/O! to be in England/Let’s have another crack at England!” Pinata were a noisy campus band who lent most of their equipment for the night. I remember lots of angst and a lyric, “I’ve got my white hat, I’ll be a fratboy,” that reminded me of Hoboken. We went for falafel at Mamoun’s after the show, where we met Steve’s nice friend Darby. Tami, Chris and I stayed in Darby’s dorm suite that night, while the Mad Planets and Statuesque crashed at Steve’s house.
Tami:
I have to agree, New Haven gives
me the willies. Yale has the weirdest vibe, I can’t quite put my finger
on it. It’s very unlike the big-ass Midwestern state university I went
to, though...the buildings all seem so old and crusty and covered with
ivy, and....oh, I don’t know. The show was fun, but my favorite part of
the night was the time we spent just wandering around campus. They were having their big spring weekend, and everyone was
outside, playing volleyball and drinking beer and flirting in their
warm-weather clothes. There’s
something so weird about being in (and playing in) a town where you
don’t know anyone at all. Up
to this point we had only played in and around Manhattan, and mostly for
gatherings of our close friends. It felt a little like summer camp, or
like those various high school occasions when you got to visit other
schools (basketball games, quiz bowl, choir contests, whatever your thing
was...) And there are all these people walking around who are a lot like
you, and like your friends, and you know that, but still you don’t know
a thing about them. It’s
exciting to step out of your own life for a little while and look back in
on it...or, at least, something very much like it. In New York, you tend
to see the same people, even if you don’t know them, at every show you
go to. It’s so rare that
you feel completely out of your element. And also to find yourself
barefoot in someone else’s dorm bathroom, brushing your teeth and
getting ready for bed! Makes you think a bit about what your life
would’ve been like under different circumstances...
8. MAY 3: The Middle East Upstairs, Cambridge, MA. Night one of the Boston Popfest with Flora Street, Jumprope, Permafrost, Honeybunch and the Push Kings.
Tami:
The Boston Popfest was a blast! I know I’ve said this about a
couple of other shows, but I really do think this might have been my
favorite! We walked all over Cambridge in the cold and rain with Steve and
Jordan during the afternoon. Cambridge reminds me of my little town in
Missouri, in a lot of ways. It’s
kind of cozy, a little granola, sort of hip in a pocketed way. We visited
WHRB, we saw the river, we saw lots of big Harvardy buildings that had
lots of stories and lots of traditions that didn’t stick in my head. We
record-shopped. We traipsed all over, actually. I thought my feet were
going to fall off! And the Middle East is a great club.
Jon did an awesome job with the sound, and I could actually hear
stuff in the monitors! It’s a terrible feeling when you’re singing and
you have no idea what you sound like. (“Oh, did I hit a bad note?”)
And I had a lot of fun at the show itself... maybe it makes me a
hypocrite, but standing around in a club (especially when no one is
dancing, nay, moving) makes me really cranky. But, uh, this show wasn’t
like that... and almost everyone we knew in New York drove up for it!
Mike: We were back to a two-piece for this show. I gave my full review last issue, but let me reiterate that everything felt right: crystal-clear sound, free food and drink, an appreciative and reasonably large crowd with many seldom-seen friends in attendance, some of my favorite bands on the bill (ah, to be on the same bill as Honeybunch and Dave Auchenbach!). We played well in one of my favorite clubs. I felt like a rock star. One of the best nights ever.
8 ½: JUNE 21: Gabby Warshawer’s rooftop, East 50th Street, NYC. With Kumari and the Ninjas.
Mike: Tami was in Chicago this weekend, so she doesn’t count this as a Poconos performance, but I really do think of it as being inseparable from the whole Poconos experience. Couple the day’s intense heat with spending a couple of hours on a hot black rooftop, and you’ve got a recipe for heat exhaustion. Everyone was feeling tired and sweaty after about 15 minutes. Still, there are few finer places to see live music than a midtown Manhattan roof, surrounded as we were by a midtown cityscape of glass and steel skyscrapers. There was no mic stand, so attendees took turns holding the vocal microphone while the bands played. The Ninjas played a quick four-song set, and Kumari played lots of new songs, many of which later showed up on their Irogami EP. I played two originals (“Waterslide” and “Central Station”) and two covers (Belle & Sebastian’s “I Don’t Love Anyone” and the Shop Assistants’ “Somewhere In China”). It felt really nice to play solo, much to my surprise.
9. JUNE 25: Tomomi Kimura’s going-away party, our apartment Hoboken. With Kumari, The I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout and Northern Parkway.
Mike: Kumari’s Tomomi Kimura was returning to Japan, so we had a party/show in her honor. This was supposed to be a Kumari-only show, but Tomomi asked Adam and us to play some songs. It was the first time Adam and Bill had played live together since February, and a treat for everyone in attendance. Tami and I played half a dozen songs, and Andrew and Jeremy from Northern Parkway closed the hootenanny with some slow, extended pieces. Tomomi, we miss you.
Tami: This is probably the only show I’ll ever host in my bedroom – I think we crammed about 15 or 20 people in there?! But what a lovely night. It was really hot and everyone was really sweaty. I don’t know what possessed me... it seemed like it might be more spacious than the living room. (By the way, if you haven’t figured this out yet, it’s really hard finding places to have shows in New York!)
Mike:
Tami had the only room in the apartment with an air conditioner.
I think that’s why we had it in there instead of the living room.
Tami:
I drank way too much wine, and I was totally bowled over by the
dreamy, longing songs that Andrew and Jeremy played. And it was nice to
see Adam and Bill, and Tomomi and Nobi, together one last time. In
retrospect, I guess it was a sad night after all – it seems like not
long after that an era ended... the year, to me, was all about this
wonderful little scene going on in New York and on the East Coast –
Kumari, The Receptionists, The I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret
Hideout, Mad Planets, Coloring Book, Shy Camp, The Best Wishes, The
Moonlings, Musical Chairs. It’s amazing to realize you’ve become part
of something that is exactly what you would dream of being a part of...
and there are so many occasions that I have stopped and wondered at my
amazing luck in finding these like-minded musicians... That so many of
them are no longer together, and that the pop scene around New York grew
noticeably more quiet after that, was a terribly sad occasion for me. But
from all things past, new things grow, I suppose!
10. JULY
13: Day 2 of Popfest NW, Area 51, Seattle, WA.
With The Ninjas, Benji Cossa, Kissing Book, Gaze, Suretoss, The
Autocollants, Poundsign, The Softies and surprise guests Splendid
Vengeance.
Mike: Arianne asked the Mad Planets and us to play at the show she was organizing in Seattle. We decided to make a vacation out of it. Here’s how the weekend went:
Friday, July 11: Tami and I saw Evita on the flight to Seattle. It was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen; combine my pre-existing hatred of Andrew Lloyd Webber-style musicals with Madonna’s high acting talent, and you have a film I watched in muted horror. Callie picked us up at the airport with her sister Betsy (their family lived on Bainbridge Island at the time), and we immediately went to a party at Incredible Force of Junior’s house in the U-District. We were all fairly jet-lagged and wired, and seeing so many familiar faces (Chris, Arianne, Steve Thornton, Nancy Ostrander, the Mad Planets, Lita Ledesma, the Ninjas) mixed with so many unfamiliar faces made me a little loopy. We stayed long enough to see Rizzo play, who were an absolute blast. The power kept going out and Rizzo encouraged the partygoers to make out in the darkness, but almost no one took them up on it. Callie, her sisters and I had to catch the ferry to Bainbridge Island, so we ducked out early. It was so beautiful standing on the deck watching Seattle fade away; this is how I ended all my days in town. Tami and Lita ended up staying at the IFOJ house.
Saturday, July 12: Betsy, Callie and I took the ferry back into the city for the first day of Popfest NW. It took place at Area 51, a fairly divey club on the seamier side of Pioneer Square. Area 51 is an orange building overlooking a parking lot and a park full of Seattle’s finest homeless denizens. Inside the club, there was a dirty window that let in yellowy shards of daylight; behind the stage was a chain-link fence and spray-painted UFO mural. The whole place smelled of humidity and poor ventilation. Seattle’s notoriously bad for all-ages shows, let alone all-ages pop shows, so everyone was grateful to have at least found a place to have one. Steve, Arianne, Allison, Jonny and the rest of the organizers did their best (and succeeded) to promote good vibes all around. This first day of Popfest NW was quite nice. Rizzo once again played their action-packed set, this time unencumbered by short circuits. The Mad Planets performed with fill-in drummer Theo, and we gazed with pride at another NYC-area band tearing up the Northwest. Tullycraft played a fun set packed with many songs from their as-yet-untitled album, and The Crabs were, of course, wonderful, even playing “Jean Paul Sartre” by audience request.
After the Crabs, Tami and I tried bum-rushing the stage for an impromptu practice with Chris (who was to drum with us the next day), but the club had to prepare for an evening punk show and made us leave. We ended up practicing at Chris and Arianne’s hotel room with just a bass and two rolled-up posters for drumsticks. Tami and Lita dropped me off at the Bainbridge Island ferry afterward, while they drove up to Ballard for an alleged bowling get-together that never quite happened. They ended up back at the IFOJ house.
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seattle, 7/13/97 |
Sunday, July 13: Callie and I had a quick brunch on Bainbridge Island with her mom, and then hopped the ferry. We made it to the mainland a bit early, so we made a quick trip to Uwajimiya Market, the amazing Asian supermarket in the nearby International District. When we got back to Area 51, we ran into the Autocollants, who were having their own impromptu practice in the parking lot. They were on what was envisioned as a West Coast tour, but which ended up being just two shows. Slowly everyone reassembled at the club. Today’s show was to consist of only 6 bands, but the organizers decided to throw on another four or five interstitial acts. Thus the Ninjas and Benji Cossa ended up opening, each playing about four songs. The Poconos followed, and I think we played OK aside from a few tuning problems. Chris did a fine job drumming for us on short notice. What no one knew, because I somehow managed to hide it, was that I was absolutely stricken with stage fright. I mean, I always got a little nervous when we played, but it felt uncontrollable this afternoon. I remember looking up and seeing a different semi-famous indie person in the audience. Look, there’s Sean Tollefson. Hey, there’s Jen Sbragia walking out the door. Sure, they’re all just people, but it put a lot more pressure on me to, you know, not suck. As soon as we got offstage, I literally collapsed on the sidewalk outside of Area 51, hyperventilating and ranting to Callie about how I should never have come to Seattle or agreed to play this show. She walked me to a secret waterfall garden around the corner from the club, and we just sat there for awhile drinking bottled water. I calmed down quickly enough, and we made it back to the club in time to hear half of Kissing Book’s last song. After the set I met a few people I knew through the list or CIF. I was especially surprised to see Emily Walker of Busboy zine; turns out that she was moving to Nebraska, and she and her boyfriend were making a Northwest pit stop before settling in.
The rest of the day was very long, but all the bands were good to great. Gaze’s songs were low-key and peppered with vocal harmony. The Autocollants played a long, enveloping set, their last ever. Suretoss was manic on an almost Mountain Goats level; I now regret not asking Chris to play Suretoss sets all the time when he lived back East. Toward the end of the day, a whole busload of metal hippies pulled up to the club in a multicolored school bus. They made about the most grand entrance possible, yelling “No autographs, please!” at the crowd of amused popfest attendees. At first we wondered if they were the New Bad Things in disguise, since they’d never shown up. No, they were Splendid Vengeance. Apparently they were friends with the club owner, who’d told them they could play after our show. SV spent some time inside the club heckling Poundsign; then they retired to their school bus, holding court for anyone who came out to get some air. After the Softies played a nicely lulling set, SV set up. It was one of the most drastic juxtapositions I’ve seen since Beat Happening opened for the Flaming Lips in 1988. Despite their large posse, the actual “band” consisted of one guitar player/vocalist and a drummer. They made it through exactly one song before their Marshall stack blew.
Tami, Lita and the Mad Planets went exploring the Pacific Northwest for the next couple of days, while Callie went back to Hoboken and I spent some time visiting my friends in Portland. We reconvened in Olympia for YoYo-A-Go-Go.
Tami:
Is “metal hippies” an oxymoron? Ah, well. The weekend in
Seattle was such a blast, although I felt terrible because Lita and I
ended up crashing at Chris IFOJ’s house for about four days like
complete ungrateful bastards. He was pretty cool about it, considering –
er, thanks Chris! – and he had the raddest Latchhook collection I’ve
seen in my whole life. We’re talking floors, walls, ceilings -- covered.
It was really quite stunning. They had party after party, every night we
were there, and they faithfully moved the DJ booth from the backyard (for
the late night fetes) to the house, where there was someone spinning when
we got up for breakfast! I was totally psyched to remember that people
outside New York actually have backyards. And the thing about Seattle in
the summer is that it’s warm in the daytime, but at night the
temperature drops to sweater weather. I love it. I almost decided to drop
everything and pack myself off to the Northwest.
As for the show, it was pretty cool, but I was fairly nervous
to play in front of bands I considered to be influential in my own pop
tendencies, from my days as a college DJ in little ol’ Missouri. Never woulda guessed I’d be playing with them someday...and
it passed in sort of a blur. I do remember that I attempted to tell a joke
while Mike was tuning – and whoo, I will never do that again! We spent
the rest of the week traveling from Seattle (which was misty and smelled
like earth and was ultra-laid back in a way I really miss, living in New
York) to Portland (dirtier, hipper, overall weird, maybe TOO hip – Mike
said, “Even the travel agents wear chain wallets!”).
Then we were off to Olympia for YoYo-A-GoGo, after an afternoon
stop-off to climb Mount Ranier with Lita and the Mad Planets (well...okay,
not).
P.S. Rizzo rocked!!
11. AUGUST
16: Kardyhm’s house, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. With Musical Chairs, the
Best Wishes and the Moonlings.
Mike: This was a doubly festive event: It was Kardyhm’s birthday, and it was also an opportunity to see three of my favorite East Coast pop bands. Musical Chairs, the Moonlings and Best Wishes had spent the last few weeks touring around the East Coast and Midwest; this was their second-to-last show, and all of them seemed kinda weary. The Moonlings were spectacular, I thought. I always liked Nik-L-Nip, Mark and Lara’s previous band, but the Moonlings had better songs, more fleshed-out arrangements, excellent taste in covers, and generally lulled me into a trance. Best Wishes followed with their trademark guitar/drum whisper-pop, even debuting several new songs (to these ears, at least). We rearranged a couple of our songs for guitar and drums and, in general, had more of a rocking sound than we usually do when it’s just the two of us. New songs included a cover of the Receptionists’ “Witch Hazel,” which Tami played on guitar, and a short song we’d written in honor of Kardyhm’s birthday. The Musical Chairs finished up the night, just Ian Schlein with the Best Wishes’ Catherine Holt on backing vocals. I’ve always liked Ian’s songs, but this was the most intimate and special set I’ve ever seen him play. He should consider doing the solo thing more often. Callie and I spent two hours trying to get back to Hoboken due to late and missed trains.
Tami:
People were a bit... um, unsettled... by how loudly we (I) played
this time around, which wasn’t really very loud at all, but you know how
it can be in the bedroom pop scene sometimes.
I was actually starting to feel like a jerk; people kept... er,
requesting that I drum more quietly, and I think that only made me louder.
You know how sometimes you just get a bee in your bonnet? I felt
better, though, when Adam came up after the show and said “Hey, I’m so
glad you rocked out. When I saw you drumming I was like, “Wow, I hope
they aren’t gonna be all quiet and twee.” Or something along those
lines.
Really, though, I think my favorite songs are almost always the
quiet ones, but sometimes it just feels good to rock out. You just gotta
do what you gotta do. Ya know?
12. SEPTEMBER
23: Club Shanghai, Toronto, Ontario. Night 2 of “aPOPalypse Now!” with
Winnie, Jumprope, Aden and Poundsign.
Mike:
Ah, the popfest circuit, such a good excuse to travel! We
unfortunately missed the first night of the Toronto Popfest, aka
“aPOPalypse Now!” thanks to our day jobs.
But we woke up at the crack of 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning,
hopped in the white rental car, and set out through the wilds of upstate
New York. It was fairly warm and humid that early morning, but by the time
we were halfway through the Catskills, a rainstorm had turned the weather
cool and autumnal for the first time of the season.
As we crossed over into Canadian customs, we saw this slogan on the
welcome sign: “Welcome to Ontario.
Club Shanghai is a two-story club accessible by elevator (this excited me for some reason). The pop show was on the fourth floor, in a swanky room with tables, chairs, pool tables and a Guns ‘n Roses pinball machine. The third floor was hosting an all-ages “battle of the bands.” We could hear the noise rumbling underneath our feet most of the night. The soundman was nice. The guy from Winnie doing the lights was nice. Even the bartenders were friendly and smiley. We were clearly not in New York City.
We had lots of fun playing. I was unusually chatty onstage; usually I’m too self-conscious to do much besides introduce the songs. Two hockey-player-looking guys at the bar compared us favorably to Simon & Garfunkel. After our set, I got to chat with seldom-seen Canadian friends, including Elisa Kurtis (whom I hadn’t seen since the very first Indiepop List fest in 1995), Janis McKenzie and her husband Dave. As the evening went on, though, sleep deprivation took its toll. I felt progressively more exhausted, reaching a state where I was almost unable to leave my chair or keep my eyes open. But I enjoyed all the other bands all the same, especially Aden (who were especially good on this night) and Poundsign (who seem to have moved into a synth-pop direction, at least compared to the other two shows I’ve seen).
We fell asleep on Sharon and Alex’s comfy couches, and spent a couple of hours the next afternoon wandering around Queen Street. I want to return to Toronto; I don’t feel like I saw enough of it. I wonder if this is what real touring is like: trips to interesting new cities without time to do much exploring. We capped off our Canadian weekend by visiting Niagara Falls, which was nicely tacky in that wonderful faded-resort-town way: cheap motels, souvenir shops and retirees driving big RVs. (The American side is kind of blah and has a worse view of the falls.)
Route 17 is dark and spooky late at night. Especially when you’re running low on gas and can’t pull in any radio stations.
Tami:
The best part of this show, no offense to anyone else, was the guy from
Winnie, whose name I don’t even know anymore. He was extremely
entertaining, and he made up a razzle-dazzle light show with our own foot
peddle for us to employ while we were playing, whenever we desired! (You
must know by now that I get off on this rocker stuff.) The other really
great thing is that we got our name on the front of the building on a big
marquee – I nearly wrecked the car rubbernecking at it the first time we
drove past the club. Otherwise...ah, what can I say, I love Canada. It’s
just so clean!
13. SEPTEMBER
28. Fez, New York, N.Y. With Tara Emelye, Castaway Stones, Poundsign and
Aden.
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nyc, 9/28/97 |
Mike:
By now you’re probably asking yourself, “So if Tami and Mike
lived right across the river from NYC, how come they always played places
like Seattle and Toronto?” Well, we only played live when people asked
us to, and it just so happens that those people didn’t usually live in
NYC. So when we had an opportunity to play Fez, the plush “Moroccan
lounge” (so their voicemail says) underneath the Time Cafe, we jumped at
the chance. Tami and I have often sat at Fez’ packed tables, trying our
best to dodge the mean waitstaff while watching bands like the Magnetic
Fields, Divine Comedy and Holiday play in front of the deep red curtain.
It felt like something of an event to play there ourselves. We even had a
dressing room (complete with lock!), a first for us...
Tara Emelye opened up with a rare solo set. As much as I like
the Mad Planets, Tara’s
solo songs are sparser and subtler; songs like “Typical American
Holidays” and “I Was A Hit At The Party” show off a wistful side
that’s sometimes lost in the full band setup. I wish she’d record some
of these songs so we could hear them more than once or twice a year. We
debuted “Consulate,” our first new song since the spring, and dusted
off our cover of the Marine Girls’ “In Love” by request. As usual, I
botched the final chord to “That’s The End of That.” I practiced
this time, I swear! Overall, I think we both felt a little shaky up there.
It’s intimidating playing for your friends and people you know, and
doubly intimidating in a place like Fez, where there’s little room for
error. Chelsea from Cinnamon Stick
zine took note of our “rolling surf beat” and imagined us playing at
Jones Beach. I never thought of the Poconos as a surf band before, but the
Beach Boys’ Endless Summer was the first LP I ever owned, so maybe that’s
shining through...
The Castaway Stones are Pam Berry’s newest project; this is the first band I’ve seen of hers where she plays guitar in addition to singing. Good songs, nice harmonies... everything you could ask for, really. Poundsign and Aden played pretty much the same quality sets as they did in Toronto. We sprung for a cab back to Hoboken with our earnings. Thank you, Brian, for putting this show on, even if we didn’t drink enough to please the Time Café management...
Tami:
Well, I personally did drink enough to please the Time Cafe
management. And this is
unqualifiably my favorite show ever, because this is the night I got very
drunk in front of my co-workers and then found out that my (now) boyfriend
had a crush on me. The aforementioned co-workers took up an entire table
in the middle of the room (the one usually reserved for Phil Gramm) and
complained incessantly about Poundsign sounding like New Order. Hey, I
didn’t say it, they did. In my opinion, there can never be enough bands
that sound like New Order. We borrowed drums and amps from the Castaway
Stones and from Aden, and then I felt like a total dummy because I
couldn’t figure out how to put them together. And I didn’t want to
interrupt their dinner, so I went ahead and did it all wrong... when they
all came back, I got a few tsk, tsk, tsk’s. OK, I’ll admit it, I never
learned how to set up my own stage! But I loved playing at the Fez... they
have their lights set up so that you really can’t see past the first
row, which I think lends a certain cliche appeal...
14. OCTOBER
18. Ed and Jill’s party, Brooklyn. With Bella Vista, Best Wishes, Coloring Book, Pinataland, Shy
Camp, Tara Emelye and others.
Mike: An impromptu performance. Tami and I were planning to spend Sunday at Jen and Jon’s house recording, so we happened to have instruments stashed away in Jill and Ed’s bedroom. After fine sets by Bella Vista (three of the Moonlings minus Lara – they were wonderful), the Best Wishes and Coloring Book, the living room became something of a free-for-all. First there were the two guys singing a horribly off-key version of U2’s “Mysterious Ways.” Then there was the woman doing her best PJ Harvey impression. After that was a full set by Pinataland, a fun Brooklyn band with elements of drunken swing, polka and pop. They were lots of fun, especially after several glasses of the very strong punch that Jill and Ed had supplied. Somehow Tami and I ended up playing afterward. Pinataland had dismantled their drumkit, so we reverted to the guitar/bass lineup that served us so well in the early days. We played a couple of our usuals (“Waterslide,” “That’s The End Of That,” “Booksmart”), and dusted off “Drive Faster” for the first time since our second show. We stopped after five or six songs. David Rapp followed up with a few Shy Camp songs, and then Tara Emelye (who’d had a few to drink herself) staggered up to the mic. With David providing backup, she improvised a song about various subjects -- the party, Tami’s imminent move to Missouri, how she and David met – always coming back to the chorus “I love music/I love music/It’s great!” How I wished for a tape recorder at that moment. She and David then tried to cover “How Soon Is Now?”, but he kept forgetting the chords and she kept forgetting the words, so they stopped after a couple of minutes. We went out to a diner in Little Neck afterward and spent the whole next day recording.
Tami:
Oh, I’m so embarrassed. First off, let me say that I DID NOT move
to Missouri, although that was my plan at the time. Two days before I was
supposed to move I saw a very depressing movie about my hometown
(Columbia, MO) at a film festival in the Village, and I decided on the
spot that there was no way in hell I was going to do any such thing. Too
many Dairy Queens, too little ambition. So here in New York I still am,
and here I shall be for some time. And, sadly, this was the last time Mike
and I played together.
Main
characters:
Tami Heaton:
Living in Brooklyn and working in the Web
industry (yes, one still exists). Recorded some demos under the name
"New Dance Show." No releases yet.
Mike/Callie Appelstein: We got married in the spring of 1999. Shortly thereafter,
we moved to Seattle, where I began performing and recording under the name
"Automat." No releases yet, though I have had some solo
tracks released. Click here for details.
Jon Chaikin: Continues to do recording
and mastering work for Shelflife Records, among others. His band,
Coloring Book, is inactive.
Kardyhm Kelly: Continues to live in Hastings-in-Hudson with
her beau, March
Records label owner Skippy McFadden.
Chris McFarlane: Moved to Seattle in 1999.
He is one-fourth of The Condiments, one of the city's most
promising new bands. He's also continuing with
Suretoss as a full band, with the other Condiments as backup.
Bands
we played with:
The Autocollants:
Split amicably after their 1997 tour. Most of the band members are
still involved in music, frequently appearing on each other's recordings.
Bella Vista: Disbanded. Mark
lives in England; Lara has moved to Connecticut after a long stint in
Chicago; Leonard and Jenny live in Washington, DC.
Best Wishes: Disbanded. Josh
lives in NYC, Catherine in Rhode Island.
Coloring Book: See "Jon Chaikin."
I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout: Settled down to
the permanent lineup of Adam Bayer and Maria Pitallano. Currently
Adam lives in Portland, OR, and Maria lives in San Francisco. They have released two CDs so far.
Kumari: Changed band name to "Clean Boy Messy Girl."
They continue to exist as a group, even as Nobi remains in NYC and Tomomi
in Japan.
Mad Planets:
Disbanded.
Papercut Records has released a compilation CD, Music
Makes Me Think of You, on the Papercut label. Tara Emelye (now
NYC-based) continues to perform and record solo.
The Moonlings: See "Bella
Vista."
The Ninjas: After the Ninjas
split up, Eric Copeland moved to NYC and joined Black Dice, an
experimental band known for their ear-piercing, often menacing live
shows. Eric's brother, occasional Ninja Bjorn Copeland, is in Black
Dice as well. They are the winners of this article's "Most
Drastic Change of Aesthetic" award. I was awed the one time I
saw them.
The Receptionists: Disbanded and
dispersed around between California, New York and Ireland. Ba Da
Bing! Records has released a Receptionists retrospective, The Last
Letter.
Splendid Vengeance: Your guess is as good as mine. I've been
looking for their psychedelic school bus ever since moving to Seattle.
Was it all a mirage?
Tokidoki: Disbanded. Their
long-delayed debut album is scheduled to be released in 2001, a joint
venture between the Sunday and Sky Blue labels.