Last night I wrote a long, detailed, passionate post on the X-tal show and everything else surrounding it. When I tried to post it, Hostbaby had logged me out and I lost
everything. Bad baby!!!
I'll write another one later. In the meantime, here is what I wrote to Mike Rowell of the SF Weekly in response to his questions. I had hoped he'd use more of it, because I wanted to stress certain points. Here it is:
Hi Mike:
It's been a busy work week, so I haven't been able to respond as quickly
as I might've liked.
I'm glad the SF Weekly is taking an interest in our little show. Thanks
for getting involved.
As per your specific questions, X-tal for this show will consist of:
J Neo Marvin, Mark Zanandrea, and Jimmy Broustis-Vocals and guitars
Alan Korn-Bass
Mick Freeman-Drums and vocals.
Sadly, Allison Moseley, who played bass, sang, and contributed material
(and commitment and hard work) during the band's longest, most productive
and inspired period, is not able to join us for this one. She is living in
Florida putting her five-year-old son through kindergarten right now. I
wish she was available to take part, but unfortunately it's just not
possible. Luckily, Alan is willing to step in. He was the original
founding bassist of the band and more recently we have played together in
the Content Providers, so I know it's going to work out.
You may have already received the package I sent you by now. It contains
our third and possibly best album, Everything Crash, and a compilation I'm
preparing to release on our own Ear Candle label called Who Owns Our
Dreams?, which assembles some of the best recordings we did for Rough
Trade in Germany that never got released in the US, plus a couple of live
tracks from Europe as a bonus. These provide a good picture of,
respectively, Jimmy and Mark's stints with the band, and hopefully will
give you a more complete idea of our history and the material we're going
to draw from at the show.
A year ago, I talked to Mick on the phone for the first time in years, and
he told me that if X-tal ever got an offer to play a reunion show, he
would buy a plane ticket. Up to that point, I never once entertained the
notion, and probably would have considered it silly and pointless. But if
Mick was willing to come back from New Hampshire for this, I started
thinking about it. Then, last fall, Dan brought up the possibility and I
contacted every former band member I could find, and got a quorum.
I can probably take some credit for the Cat Heads playing, because there
had already been talk of an Ex-Cat Heads set, and Mark and Melanie's
ongoing band It Thing were already planned as an opening act, I thought,
well, if we're going to have all four members of the Cat Heads around, why
don't you guys reform and play a set, too? From there, things snowballed.
Mark and Alan both deserve some credit in particular, since they will be
both be playing in X-tal AND the Cat Heads AND the two bands that the Cat
Heads split into after they broke up, which makes three bands each.
I'm already a bit stunned at the attention this show is starting to get.
It's gratifying to discover that something you did so long ago is still
remembered fondly. I'm not really preoccupied with reliving past glories
in general, and all of us who are involved with this have gone on to do
other projects that I consider every bit as good and relevant but don't
get noticed. So one of my goals in doing this show is to draw some
attention to the fact that we're all still around and haven't stopped
creating. I feel that we're just as relevant now as ever, and we were
never the sort of act that had a shelf life and should now be filed under
the "too old to rock" heading. So if this show is a success and people
start noticing the Content Providers, It Thing, She Mob, Shotwell and the
Band June, it will be well worth our time. Also, getting reacquainted with
all these old songs and finding they still hold up is very rewarding. I'm
very excited this is happening now.
Here's what all the members of this incarnation of X-tal are doing with
their lives now:
I have three self-released albums by J Neo Marvin and the Content
Providers out, and my wife Davis Jones and I have a monthly educational
public access TV show on channel 29 called Noodle Brain Productions. We're
also currently working on two new bands, the Blame, and the Experimental
Bunnies, and creating videos of local musicians under the umbrella of our
company, Ear Candle Productions, which also releases our own music and
sponsors our online radio station, Ear Candle Radio
<
http://www.live365.com/stations/jneomarvin>.
Jimmy has led the Mission-based political punk band Shotwell for the last
10 years or so. They have a ton of recordings out and tour constantly.
Mark is working on the second It Thing album (the first came out in 1991)
with Melanie Clarin and Josh Housh. I was extremely privileged to hear
some of it (he can be very protective of his works-in-progress) and it
sounds great. I look forward to their set in January.
Alan is still the token male bassist for the East Bay band She Mob, who
just released their third album, Not In My World. He just got the (Ex) Cat
Heads album, Our Frisco, reissued on the Cannanes' Australian label,
Lamingtone. Also, as I mentioned, he contributed extensively to all three
Content Providers CDs and played live with us on and off.
And Mick now lives in Concord, NH, with his large family and a new band,
The Band June, who play a sort of folkish indie-rock that Mick compares to
Rilo Kiley. <
http://www.thebandjune.com>
That's some basic information for you. Hope it's helpful. If you have more
specific questions, send them over and I'll try to give you some good
answers.
-J Neo Marvin