8/2002 | 5/2002 |2/2002 | 01/2002 | 11/2001 | 09/2001 | 08/2001 |
Jan. 1, 2004It's another new year here at the towering Ear Candle/Noodle Brain corporate complex, and all of us here are itching with anticipation, our brains and hearts bursting with plans, plots and purpose, as we prepare to venture forth into the world with fresh new vigor. But right now, we are taking our time to get out of bed and drink our respective favorite caffeinated beverages and eventually even put some clothes on.
2003 saw J Neo Marvin and the Content Providers shift from a conceptual loose-ended recording project into a viable live performing entity. We had some great shows and some very educational ones. The WHAT IS TRUTH? CD was released in the spring (still available at CD Baby, Last Stop Records, and Amazon, as well as Amoeba Records on Haight...do YOU have one yet?) and is starting to get some press from magazines like Punk Planet and The Big Takeover. Jack Rabid of Big Takeover describes the album as "a pleasure for those who decry that lyrics are a lost art." He likes the tunes as well. So it's all developing slowly. We intend to continue reaching more people in this dazed, confused country (and the world outside) with our music in the new year.
J Neo Marvin and Davis Jones had our big wedding bash on November 15 and somewhere between 60 and 70 people came to wish us well. We are moved by the good will of our friends and families.
Last Sunday, we began our new recording project, cutting 5 basic tracks at Alex James Muscat's Last Stop studio: four new original numbers (including a new one called "Little Emperor" that no one has heard yet, but you will soon) and our Mountain Goats cover, "Twin Human Highway Flares". Our goal is to release a new full-length collection in mid-2004 with the title FREEDOM FRIED. Alex has proved to be a resourceful and passionate collaborator; this may be the beginning of a powerful new alliance.
Coming up in 2004: Our Ear Candle Live showcase continues: the next installment will be Monday, Jan. 12 with the harmony duo Deirdre and Les (you may know Deirdre from her former bands Electric Color Wheel and Marzipan) and a stripped down 5-piece Content Providers including percussion king Earl Eckles on the mighty pandiero. Come to Doc's Clock, 2575 Mission St., San Francisco at 9:00. We thirst for your support.
Also watch for our appearance on Feb. 21 as part of "Your Show Of Shows", an event organized by the cutest Goth couple in the land, Bay Wolf! That will be happening at the Brainwash cafe/laundromat on 1122 Folsom St. in SF. We will be opening the show around 8 PM, followed by Bryan Harrison, John Swerdan, Alex James Muscat, and Bay Wolf themselves. It will be my first time playing the Brainwash since X-tal appeared there 11 or 12 years ago. Bring your dirty laundry and multi-task! (For you out-of-towners, yes, Brainwash really is a laundromat, as well as a cool venue.)
Best wishes to everyone on this mailing list for the new year. We are looking forward to some serious cultural, economic, and political shifts that revitalize our society and propel us into a genuine future.
-J Neo Marvin
***********************************************
"You can throw me if you want to,
But I'm a ball and I go BOOP BIP BIP BOOP BIP BIP YEAH!"
-Arthur Lee
Greetings.
It's a fine, hot Indian summer morning in San Francisco and I'm just itchin' to get off this computer. But before I do, I have much to report to you all.
The Content Providers continue to increase in wisdom and in stature. We have a handful of new songs taking shape, and we're rearranging the first CD material as well as trying our hand at an X-tal song or two. The new version of "Soft Shoulder" (with Davis, Cynthia, and me on three-part harmonies) is already becoming a live favorite. I think Maati would like what we have done to her poem. Soon, we are planning to do some recording with up-and-coming engineer/producer Alex James Muscat in his new Last Stop studio. Alex is a great guy with a lot of soul who never has a bad hair day. I know he'll do right by us.
Two big events coming in November (well, three actually, but more on that later):
On Saturday, November 1, there is going to be a huge event at the Canvas Cafe called the BOOM show, conceived by our friendly neighborhood mandolin guy, Jeff Belbey, running from 2 in the afternoon to the wee hours of the following morning. Our set will start around 7:00 in the early evening, and we plan to debut some new stuff. The band is sounding better than ever, with Adam McAuley of Little My and Warm Wires fame holding down the drum seat. The whole day promises to be a warm, celebratory community event. And it's FREE. It's happening at the Canvas Cafe, 1200 9th Ave. on the corner of Lincoln, across from Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. You can find out more here.
Also, another great development: We will begin hosting our own monthly shows at one of the great Mission district hangouts, Doc's Clock, on Mission St. just north of 22nd St. We're calling it EAR CANDLE LIVE. We'll choose some people who we think are really special to share the bill with us every second Monday of the month, and if the first two go well, Liz will let us keep doing it. Yay!
The first Ear Candle Live will be on Nov. 10. We'll be playing with Bernie Jungle and Carvell Wallace, two great songwriters. Joining us on percussion will be some of the guys from Electric Color Wheel, who have done an excellent job thumping behind us in the past. Also, our part-time understudy bassist, Aaron McKee, will be making his debut as a Content Provider that night. Give him some love.
On Dec. 8, we've scheduled Terese Taylor (with Robert Johnson on drums) and our good friend Toy with her band Toy House.
Our aim with the Ear Candle shows is to put together bills with people who may not have been exposed to each other before and try to introduce everyone's audiences to each other, creating the potential for new alliances, new friendships, exchanges of ideas, a stronger community, and a good time for all. The shows will be free to the public, but we will be passing the hat for the performers and making everyone's CDs available for sale at the shows. As usual, I'll be sending another e-mail strictly for the locals closer to the day. We hope as many of you as possible will show up to support a new artist-driven event. Liz has been really cool and supportive of our efforts and we want to do her (and ourselves) proud. It's a great opportunity to establish an ongoing D.I.Y. event. We can never have too many. OK, I'll step down from the soapbox now.
Website news: Last week I transferred jneomarvin.com to Hostbaby, the web-hosting service run by the excellent online music distributor, CD Baby. They've been absolutely great. And they have some special services geared to working musicians, which I'll be taking advantage of more and more as I go. I have already added their easy-to-use news/blog feature to the site, which enables me to communicate in a more fun, impulsive way. Check here for latest info, links to fun stuff, and rants and ramblings about everyone from the Byrds to the Quails. Also, I've added a fourth page to the already-popular punk rock scrapbook, here. The stars this time include Jackie Mittoo, Crucifix, the Fall, the Minutemen and Frightwig. Enjoy. I've gotten some really nice feedback about this stuff. Who woulda thought some drunken Instamatic snapshots from a bygone era would prove to be so precious to so many? I'm tickled.
So what else is happening in November, you ask? Oh, just that I'll be exchanging vows with my wonderful partner, Davis Jones, in our home, with a nice group of friends as witnesses. So long, single life, you won't be missed.
I hope everyone is having a great fall. I wish the same for the powers that be, but in a different sense of the word. We are living in interesting times, but I have faith we will outlive them.
Today's top spins: Spearhead, Quails, Six Organs Of Admittance, Byrds (first 3 albums), Bob O'Magic, Terese Taylor, probably Alex too but I can't find his CD anywhere right now. Cheerio, -J Neo Marvin
***********************************************"The power of 'No', man, that's the biggest bat we've ever wielded. If it makes you uncomfortable, just f***in' say no...it eliminates everything. It just slashes through all that crap."
-Guy Piccioto, Fugazi
Hello again, It has been an eventful summer so far, with a smattering of Content Providers gigs and more in the works for a potentially busy autumn. We had a good CD release party at the Make-Out Room last May, followed by a brilliant set at The Hotel Utah in June where somehow everything went right. Our lead guitarist Glenn Stevens has posted his own highly entertaining reports on our shows so far (including some not-too-embarrassing photos) on his own site: http://www.glennstevens.biz/neo.htm. Go say howdy to Glenn, and check out his very impressive world travel diaries.
The next scheduled Content Providers show will be on August 6 at the marvelous Canvas Cafe, situated on the corner of 9th Ave. and Lincoln, right across from Golden Gate Park. We'll be going on around 10:00, and will be playing between 30 and 40 minutes, I'm told. Show up early and sign up for the open mike happening before and after we play, which is hosted by the very amiable and conscientious Mike Fleming. The new band has been busy working up new arrangements of songs from the first CD, SLOWLY I TURNED, and they're sounding really swell. We also plan to spring a surprise cover on you, either by Mark Eitzel or the Mountain Goats.
WHAT IS TRUTH? continues its slow, inevitable, glacier-like advance upon the world's collective consciousness. You can now find it on cdbaby.com, amazon.com, and laststoprecords.com. We salute our intrepid internet distributors; please patronize them! Material world distribution remains open at this point. (One odd note: while filling out the Amazon application, I was asked whether the CDs had "explicit lyrics". I chose the path of honesty due to one word on SLOWLY I TURNED's "How I Spent The Dark Ages" and a few epithets on WHAT IS TRUTH's "Primate House" that probably add up to less harsh language than you'd find on the average episode of "NYPD Blue", but hey, as I said I chose the path of honesty. Little did I know that whem you look at our page on amazon.com, you see EXPLICIT LYRICS in big block letters by each title, something you don't see when looking up "Street Hassle" by Lou Reed. Hmmm. I hope that we don't disappoint anyone looking for some cutting-edge medical-gore-metal or porno-electroclash-trash; you can't please everyone, after all.
I just made some changes to www.jneomarvin.com, adding a new page to the Scrapbook section and putting better captions on the existing page. Now you can find vintage punk/post-punk photos from 1978 to 1980, including Patti Smith, Nico, Delta 5, Clash, Gang Of Four, and more (including my under-lauded Santa Cruz homies the Schematix, the X-Dreamists, and JJ 180.) Oh, and you may find some good blackmail photos of my younger self in there somewhere too, if you look carefully. Woo-hoo! Scanners are fun toys!
That's just about all the news for now. Rock on, speak out, fight the power and enjoy the summer,
-J Neo Marvin
***********************************************
"Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."
IT'S HERE!
The second Content Providers album, WHAT IS TRUTH?, has floated like a massive, delicious, wasabi-coated angel of light from the loading dock of Mr. Toad's into the cozy basement of our humble abode, and will be available at CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com) in a matter of days. (Though if any of you are impatient, e-mail me here for information on ordering it directly.) It's been a long time comin', my dears, but let me tell you, I'm thrilled with the result. Celine Keller outdid herself in the art department, what a gal! And Davis Jones contributed the very snazzy Ear Candle logo, the first step in turning this vanity project into what we intend to be a viable indie record label. I tell ya, no joke, we got big dreams. We want to SIGN PEOPLE and PUT OUT THEIR BRILLIANT STUFF TOO one day. Hey, why not? It could happen. In the meantime, WHAT IS TRUTH? is out. Did I mention how proud I am? It's the collective work of 28 gifted Content Providers blended together into a potent, psychedelicized poke in the world's eye. You need it. We got it.
Speaking of Content Providers...
We are no longer a conceptual band. We are a BAND. Yes, a solid yet zany troupe of singers and players of instruments has been rocking in a semi-acoustic stylee on the top floor, and it's starting to coagulate into something good. The new Content Providers lineup will be making their public debut at the Makeout Room (3225 22nd St. near Mission in SF) on Tuesday night, May 20, at the WHAT IS TRUTH? CD Release Party. We'll be sharing the night with 86 and the Lipsey Mountain Spring Band, and we'll have lots of copies of the new CD. Have I mentioned yet how proud I am of this fine product? Those of you who are among the 28 who played/sang on it know whereof I speak. (OK, OK, I'll stop the tongue-in-cheek pouring-it-on-thick blather, but I really am stoked about this milestone.)
In other news, check out the new website: http://www.jneomarvin.com. Yes, I bought the bloody URL at last, and am puttering around learning HTML step by step. I've done a few small updates to the site that my friend Kathleen started, and will continue to do so as time permits.
COMPILATION FEVER! As if a newly released CD isn't enough, the Content Providers appear on TWO upcoming limited edition tribute CDs produced by online mailing lists. First, our version of Robert Wyatt's version of the Chic number "At Last I Am Free" appears on the just-completed REBUILDING THE BRIDGE, featuring members of the Typical Girls newsgroup (fans of classic female punk rock artists such as the Slits, the Raincoats, Delta 5, et al), is a track-by-track reimagining of the 1980 Rough Trade singles comp WANNA BUY A BRIDGE?, and is a benefit for a group that builds bridges in poor Third World countries like Ethiopia and Nepal. (Sorry, I don't have the link handy.) Not only that, but the international soccer hooligans over at Club Mekon have finally completed the long-awaited Mekons tribute, I HAVE BEEN TO HAREHILLS AND BACK, in which we do "Sometimes I Feel Like Fletcher Christian"; this one is also a benefit for the Illinois Anti-Death Penalty Coalition, whose name I may or may not have gotten right here. I would like to be able to provide extra copies for those who are interested, but your best bet for obtaining these gems would be to join the lists in question at www.topica.com for Typical Girls, and www.mekons.com for Club Mekon.
And on that note, I must go and practice for the show. Wheeeeee! See some of you there, I hope. The rest of you, thank you for reading, and I hope you like what we've done.
-J Neo Marvin
***********************************************
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one:
'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."
--Voltaire (1694 - 1778)
Dear friends,
It has been four months since I last sent out one of these; life has simply
become too eventful for me to stop and write you all. But the biggest item I
have to share with you is this:
WHAT IS TRUTH?, the second Content Providers album, is all but completed. Last
Wednesday we created our master discs, which have been placed in a vault deep in
the bowels of the earth with a sign reading "Do not open until we have raised the
money to press this masterpiece." All that remains to be done is to take the cover
artwork, which Celine Keller is furiously laboring over at this very moment, and
take it and the masters to Mr. Toad's along with a big wad of hard-earned cash,
and hopefully the result will be a thousand CDs sometime in April. After this,
the challenge will be to come up with creative, imaginative ways to get rid of
them all. You will be called upon to make your contribution to this good cause
when the time comes, and I know you are up to the task.
Already a new project has come up to keep me and my comrades busy. The Typical Girls mailing list (an e-mail list devoted to the great female punk rock artists of the late 70s/early 80s) has decided to put together a tribute album in honor of the 1980 Rough Trade label sampler WANNA BUY A BRIDGE?, which showcased a wide array of bands and individuals from Stiff Little Fingers to the Slits to the Young Marble Giants to Cabaret Voltaire. So next month, I'll be gathering a group of Content Providers to cut a version of Robert Wyatt's cover of Chic's "At Last I Am Free" and sending it off. The results should be interesting.
I never did my review of 2002, and what I have here is only a cursory one. I entered the new year with no desire whatsoever to compile any "top tens" of any kind this time...maybe I'm finally outgrowing my "High Fidelity" side?....Nah, not a chance. I was just overwhelmingly preoccupied with my own project above all else. I'm glad the Subtonix, Systemwide, Waycross and Jen Faith all finally got their albums out after so long, and that the Quails put out a second one that actually captured what they do so wonderfully live.
But for me, 2002 above all else was the year I met a remarkable woman and my life took a series of completely unexpected turns. Like many of us probably do, I had a clear picture of who my ultimate life partner would be, then once the real thing came along, all my preconceived notions went right out the window. Turns out the girl of my dreams is an accountant, a writer, and a philosopher with a vision of a functioning society based on secular humanism, ethical business practices, and a rigorous, uncompromising approach to human potential and social change. Plus, she looks like a cross between Katherine Hepburn and Judy Davis, only blonde. After going through intense infatuation, a huge nasty fight, and gradual re-establishment of true, solid friendship in the space of a little over three months (sounds like the plot of a cliched romantic comedy, but it wasn't a bit funny at the time), we found ourselves falling in love on a whole other level and have been fairly inseparable ever since. The greatest challenge has been to create a relationship in which any potential dysfunctionality is immediately hunted down and strangled in its cradle before it grows big enough to wield any power. We've been doing this, and it's been amazing. So here's to Davis Jones, who is sitting about six feet to my left at the other computer at this moment.
Made a lot of new friends lately from this Hotel Utah folk scene I've been hanging around since 2001. One of the highlights of last year was when Davis and I filmed an outdoor concert at Crissy Field called "The Picnic". Several of the new Content Providers on WHAT IS TRUTH?, like pandiero player Earle Eckles, harmonica guy Jim McLaren, and singers Kim Theurich, Toy (who requests, no, demands her last name be kept confidential), Deirdre Fogarty, and Jeremy Hanberry, were recruited during or soon after that show. It was a very sixties kind of affair, not in a camp way but an honest one. There was a lot of great spirit on that day, and it was nice to see how open everyone was to contributing to my own odd chamber-garage-indie-folk-rock stuff. I think the whole experience gave me an insight into the kind of healthy inter-"scene" cross-fertilization that, to me, may be the only solution to the stifling self-referential hipness that is slowly killing indie-rock in the 21st century. If there is any hope for some sort of genuine cultural movement that can inspire more people to stand up to the shameless fascist juggernaut rolling over our country at this point, we need more of this in our ears and in our lives.
Well anyway, I have no particular gigs to announce, but some of us are talking about getting a semi-permanent Content Providers live band going later this year; in the meantime I'll be showing up at the Utah on Monday and occasionally at Nickie's on some Wednesdays for the ongoing post-hootenanny experience.
-J Neo Marvin
***********************************************
"In the face of this approaching disaster, it behooves men and women not
yet overcome by war madness to raise their voice of protest, to call the
attention of the people to the crime and outrage which are about to be
perpetrated on them."
-Emma Goldman
Newsletter #8
More stuff going on these days than I can keep track of.....
There's a really spiffy new book out of selected lyrics by my favorite band on Earth, the Mekons, published by Verse Chorus Press (the good folks who gave you Puncture magazine) and titled HELLO CRUEL WORLD, after one of their most poignantly prophetic songs from the 80s. Due to some very minor input from myself (the title, plus some suggestions of songs from the album Retreat From Memphis that I felt had been overlooked, and maybe other things but I really don't recall) I am credited as "Editorial Consultant". Hot damn! I am royally chuffed. Pick up the book. It looks sort of like a cross between a Gideon Bible and Chairman Mao's little red book (although it's actually brown) and will enrich your life more than both put together.
The WHAT IS TRUTH? sessions continue, with a vast array of new and old Content Providers lining up to add their essential pieces to the puzzle. It's an all-star lineup, folks, whether you've heard of any of them or not. Last month, Nancy Clarke added some deranged violin and anxiety-laden pop harmonies, Davis Jones got in touch with an inner riot grrrl she hadn't even known was there, and Franco Reguzzoni poured his mighty Italian soul into some lushly delectable keyboard parts. Are we done? Hell no. October will be a busy month as the stars descend upon The Wally Sound. Gory details to come. Rico, phone home.
A live compilation of solo artists recorded at the Hotel Utah will be released by the local label Last Stop Records to commemorate the Challenge 2002 competition held there on Labor Day. I didn't win, didn't really want to either. But I did pull off an acceptably spirited rendition of "Fiscal Year Zero (Charge Of The Lite Brigade)" for posterity. Dissent is not dead yet in America, despite what you may read in mainstream newspapers or hear on Clear Channel-owned radio stations:
"I woke up one morning to find myself trapped in a bad summer action movie The special effects are awesome but the hero is not exactly convincing We've burned all our history books to keep warm, now the news looks like science fiction And the acts human beings are capable of are forever beyond description 'You're either on the bus or you're off of the bus' the driver's voice crackles through the speakers As the highway to Hell stretches out like a yellow brick road We're checking the map as we quell our reservations with biker crank and Prozac 99 bottles of something unspeakable on the wall Take one down, pass it around."
Favorite blog of the moment: xoverboard.com Rocking the box: new music from the Quails, Jen Faith, Sleater-Kinney, old music from Nina Simone, Neil Young, Wire, Robert Wyatt, Nick Drake, etc. Things making life worth living: my girlfriend, my girlfriend's cat, this insanely over-ambitious recording project
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, SMALL SHOW:
On Sunday, October 27, I will be part of the Smallest Show In Town, a monthly variety show put on at the Hemlock Tavern on Polk near Post by the fine people of the Lipsey Mountain Spring Band, northern California's finest hillbilly calypso jug band. (If you remember Ed's Redeeming Qualities, you know these people. It's a Leone family thing, and that means SPECIAL.) As always, it is a fast-paced evening of spoken word, ultra-acoustic music, and grilled cheese. Pat Ryan of A Subtle Plague will be doing a reading, and pencilled-in guests may include Jill Olson and Brad Mossman. I will be performing solo and possibly with a very special guest or two. Be there at 8:00 sharp. It's a community event. Every evening ends with a group singalong on "Goodnight Irene". I'ssall good.
A new slogan for America: "We're not ALL stupid thugs in this country,
honest!"
Namaste,
-J Neo Marvin
First and foremost: The What Is Truth sessions are moving along steadily. At the end of July,
we cut the remaining four basic tracks with Alan Korn on bass and Harris Taback
on drums. They rock! It was great because Harris hadn't done any drumming for
several years, but after a few rehearsals, he was the same dynamo he was as the
drummer of the Schematix (an early Santa Cruz punk band...look for them in the
"Hyped2Death" series) 23 years ago. We got some definitive takes of "Primate
House", "Dear Emma", "New Age Couple Goes Down In Flames", and the Yoko Ono cover
"Kite Song" (which came out sounding a bit like the Fall). The same day, Dan Leone
also came in and added a steel drum part to "Slow Drain", which contrasts nicely
with Nik Phelps's skronky free-jazz horn section. We now have all 12 songs in
various states of completion, and various guest artists are slated to add their
instrumental and/or vocal parts. Now it's all down to scheduling. (Everyone
please get in touch soon!) I hope to have this mighty beast of a CD completed
before Christmas. I have a gig coming up in Oakland, at a new venue called the Talk Of The Town
on International Blvd. (formerly E. 14th St.) near 41st Ave. on Wednesday, Aug. 21
. It's not confirmed, but this may be a stripped-down-duo Content Providers show
featuring me and Alan. (We'd hoped to include Harris, but our schedules are too
hectic this month for sufficient practice...but be warned, you will soon feel our
trio power.) The show was put on by Bob O'Magic, and includes his own duo,
Anonymous Magic, the Two Gallants, and last but far from least, Burke, who you
must experience at least once. There seems to be some connection with something
called "Vulcan TV", which must mean that the nearby Vulcan Foundry, a building
that used to be managed by the drummer of my old band X-tal, Mick Freeman, is
still going strong as an art space, just as it was a decade ago, when the
phrase "live-work loft" conjured up images of artists, musicians and other
eccentrics turning empty warehouse spaces into hotbeds of creativity as opposed
to those ugly-ass boxes that sprang up all over San Francisco at the height of
the dot-com thing. An encouraging sign. I will have more details about the show
(address, time, etc.) in a follow-up e-mail for the local crew. OK, that's all for now. May the Republicans continue to crash, burn and
self-destruct as gloriously as they've been doing lately, and may they not
take too many of us with them in the process. First, one for the locals: I
will be playing a solo show on Friday, June 14, Your humble servant, Come to where the flavor is. FEB. 25,
2002
JAN.
5, 2002 My
own evil plans to infiltrate the local folk circuit are progressing quite
nicely. I have two solo shows coming up. First one will be Monday, Feb. 4 at
the Hotel Utah, followed by Thursday, March 14 at the Sacred Grounds Cafe.
Both of these are open-mike features, which means I will be doing a full
set, preceeded and followed by the usual unpredictable array of characters
who dare to work up the nerve to sign up at the beginning of the night. You
are encouraged to do the same. (And yes, Brad, as per your request, I will
be sending reminders to locals closer to each event from now on.) OK,
I can't resist. Just for fun, here are my personal charts for 2001: TOP
10 ALBUMS (in no particular order): INDIVIDUAL
SONGS/ALBUM TRACKS THAT ROCKED MY WORLD LAST YEAR: REISSUES
OF THE YEAR: 2001
RELEASES THAT ARE PROBABLY REALLY COOL BUT I STILL HAVEN'T HEARD THEM FAVORITE
HARD-TO-FIND CD's I FOUND USED AT AMOEBA
IN 2001: BANDS
THAT KICKED ASS LIVE IN 2001 THAT I HOPE TO SEE NEW RELEASES FROM IN MOST
INTENSE LIVE EXPERIENCE OF 2001: ALWAYS
A GREAT NIGHT OUT: COOL
COMPILATION I'M ON THAT CAME OUT IN 2001: COOL
COMPILATION I'M ON THAT DIDN'T COME OUT IN 2001: OK
friends, that's all for now. It's a sick world out there, so get enough
sleep and drink plenty of fluids. Well,
as I wrote previously, I am making the rounds of local open mikes just
to
test-drive the new tunes, and it's been interesting. I am overcoming my
open-mike phobia and I've actually gotten some good responses from people
who
are not exactly what you'd call my "target audience", whatever that
may be.
(Disillusioned middle-aged indie-rock types?) This is encouraging. It's
never
been my goal to come off as though I'm too cool for school, and I strive to
be
accessible on my own terms. Both punk rock and folk music are based on
direct
communication and simple, catchy tunes, and since I fall somewhere between
the
two I pretty much operate on the same principles. Anyway, the open-mike
experience is pretty entertaining: very unglamorous and congenial, and
irreverence will always score you points if you're not an asshole about it.
I'll
keep going as long as I'm having fun.
I'm still awaiting some follow-up on this, but I have exchanged e-mails with
Russ Tolman of Innerstate
Records about a possible German distribution deal
through Cargo Distribution. This is an exciting prospect since X-tal always
did
well in the former Holy Roman Empire and some success over there could lead
to
gigs abroad, maybe a full tour, and tearful reunions with a great many
friends I
haven't seen in way too long. We'll see where this leads.
SEPT. 12, 2001 Dear
friends, In
other news: yes, this is supposed to be my music newsletter, but...well,
you know.
The next Content Providers album is almost entirely written. I had to chuck
a verse out of one song last night because after yesterday's destruction it
no
longer made sense, but the more I tried to rewrite the lyrics, the more it
threw the rest of the song completely out of balance. Whatever. The song is
on
blocks now, but should be up and running by the time we're ready to record.
Members
of the great Bay Area band She
Mob (new album, TURN TO CHOCOLATE, out now...get
it!) are slated to make a guest appearance, and I hope to pull in some other
people whose work I admire as things progress. At this point the working
title is HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN, which is a reference to an old song
that was
popular in the 1930s during the Great Depression; the title is guaranteed to
become more bitterly ironic the worse things get. The last line on the album
is likely to be: "I keep my hope locked away where you can't find it".
Kind of
sums up my attitude at this writing.
I have been showing up at various open mikes in town lately, just to try out
new material in front of a crowd. Was going to do it tonight, but I think I'll
just be out drinking with friends instead. Hope you're all well. Go easy on
one
another; we're all a little edgy this week. AUGUST
12, 2001 SLOWLY
I TURNED is now available through CDBaby.com,
a reputable online independent music retailer recommended by several of my friends.
(Thank you Jen! Thank you Lisa!) Tell your friends. Browse their website. It's
actually pretty cool. Rebecca Gates' new EP is there, among others. The album,
meanwhile, continues to be available at Amoeba
on Haight St., Mission Records, Flat
Plastic Sound on Clement, and Recycled Records also on Haight (where a couple
of new copies are pretending to be used at the moment). Coming
up: Come to the Bottom
Of The Hill early on Friday, August 17, where
I will be playing a brief mini-set at the start of an all-star bill of local
talent as part of a tribute to the late Dom Leone, brilliant quirky
twee-folk-pop songwriter and founder of Ed's Redeeming Qualities. Dom
is
best-known to most people for the Breeders' cover of "Drivin' On 9"
from
their hit album in the 90s, but ERQ (who moved to San Francisco after Dom's
death
in the late 80s) were a brilliant, one-of-a-kind band who also brought us Dom's
cousin Dan (now chiefly known as the Bay Guardian's "Cheap
Eats" columnist)
and violin virtuoso Carrie Bradley, whose violin, guitar, voice and songs
have
also graced her own band 100 Watt Smile, as well as the Breeders, the Buckets,
Granfaloon Bus, Paula Fraser, Map Of Wyoming....and the Content Providers.
(Carrie will be playing in 4 of the bands on Friday, including a rare
reunion performance by Ed's Redeeming Qualities! If she's in the mood, she might
play with me and make it 5!) This promises to be a great show, so come on down
if you can. If
this current surge of songwriting inspiration I'm in keeps up, I should
be starting to record the next album in a matter of months? What will it be
called? What will it sound like? Will the band still be known as the Content
Providers? I have no idea. The mystery will unfold in its own time. In the meantime,
I'm hoping to get some more gigs and will let you know when anything's
confirmed.
My longtime friend and current webmistress Kathleen O'Connor had open heart
surgery a couple weeks ago to repair what she described as a "silver-dollar-sized"
hole in her heart. I'm very happy and relieved to report the operation was
successful and she is now recovering at her mother's place in Lake County. Send
her your thoughts.
at the Skylight Cafe on Taraval St. (near 26th Ave) around 8:00 PM. I'll be
playing for about 45 minutes to an hour for FREE. Tell your friends. I have
pledged to draw at least 10 people to this gig, so please help me keep my
promise.
The second Content Providers album will be titled "WHAT IS TRUTH",
in
honor of the old Johnny Cash hit (recently updated very nicely by Jon
Langford). An expanded lineup of Content Providers has been toiling
diligently at Wally Sound Studio and so far we have seven songs in various
stages of completion featuring Tim Ennis on percussion, Alan Korn on bass,
and, on various tracks: Bill Fitzgerald on tamboura, Diane Wallis (ex-She
Mob) on violin, James Oterreau on piano, and Terri Manning (emerging from
the shadow of her famous sister Barbara) contributing immaculately trippy
vocal harmonies, musical saw, bamboo flute and slide whistle. Pencilled in
for June are (if all goes well) Sue, Suki and Alan of She Mob cutting the
basic track for "Unforgivable", an enraged epic about date rape and
organized religion based on a true story, plus contributions by
multi-instrumentalist Nik Phelps (ex-Club Foot Orchestra, currently leading
the Sprocket Ensemble), Waycross lead guitarist (and popular bartender)
Sunshine Haire, and food columnist/ex-Ed's Redeeming Qualities founder Dan
Leone, who will add his steel drum stylings to our jagged cover of Mink
Deville oldie "Slow Drain". Can't wait till you hear this stuff. The
goal is
to create a 21st century answer to the Rolling Stones' "THEIR SATANIC
MAJESTIES REQUEST", which is, of course, a goal I'll never attain
(holographic cover art is just too costly) but the failed attempt will
undoubtedly yield some classic results.
As for the website, well, I know it's been neglected, but please be
patient. I have a great excuse. After a couple of dull years, my love life
has suddenly become very interesting in 2002, so I admit I've been
preoccupied. Soon, there will be new things to look at, including part 2 of
the Fall interview, all the "WHAT IS TRUTH" lyrics, and more. Keep
on
hoppin'.
-J Neo Marvin
***********************************************
Come to http://home.pacbell.net/-kato/neo/ country.
Dearly beloved,
Spring is just around the corner and the air is thick with the anticipation
of new life. And here at the towering Ear Candle/Content Providers corporate
complex, our eyes are also gleaming with paternal excitement. Yes, the first
recording session for the second Content Providers opus happened last week:
the beginnings of seven songs have been laid down with the assistance of Tim
Ennis, master percussionist. Wait till you hear the Nyabinghi Rasta drum circle
beat we created on "Fiscal Year Zero"! This is gonna be good. The
website is off to a fine start,
but I admit there hasn't been much change for the last few weeks. Soon, I'll
be working on fixing some errors and hopefully adding some more entertaining
content.
The solo feature at the Hotel Utah was a blast. Nice to see some old friends
show up. I've got another show on March 14 at the Sacred Grounds Cafe on Cole
and Hayes, where I saw an extremely memorable Beat Happening performance some
13 or so years ago. The Sacred Grounds is a true acoustic venue, without even
a PA, so expect much yelling and loud strumming in an intimate setting with
pots of chai. Another gig I'm involved in next month will be at the Hemlock
Tavern on Polk St. March 17 (yes, that's right, Shemp Howard's birthday, not
to mention St. Paddy's Day) where I'll be filling in on bass and occasional
guitar with the marvelous, brilliant ladies known as She Mob. I have not yet
been told what kind of conceptual costume I will be forced to wear, but trust
me, it's gonna be festive. That's all for now. Stay tuned.
-J Neo Marvin
Greetings and happy new year to you all. Thanks to everyone
who recently signed the mailing list. I hope you're all doing well. 2001 sure
sucked, didn't it? I see no signs that 2002 will necessarily be much better,
so let's all stay aware and hang on to our skepticism in these times of enforced
"unity"; we're going to need it. I tell ya, if I never hear the phrase
"things are different now after Sept. 11" again, it won't be a moment
too soon. I admit it's good to see the Taliban get overthrown. (At what cost,
though? If we trust our own media, we'll never know.) If I wanted to be REALLY
cynical I could thank Osama
for that turn of events; if it weren't for Al Qaeda, Bush would probably STILL
be sending the Taliban money as a gesture of appreciation for their faith-based
anti-drug program. Nonetheless, these events have allowed our own sinister mullahs
to institute sweeping changes, the implications of which we have not begun to
feel. (Just wait till the next anti-WTO demonstration.) We are living in interesting
times, as the old curse would put it. Or in the words of the Twinkle Brothers,
"It dread, but it gwine dreader!"
The Quails-We Are The Quails
Mark Eitzel-The Invisible Man
Jenny Toomey-Antidote
She Mob-Turn To Chocolate
Bob Dylan-Love And Theft
OOIOO-Feather Float
Various Artists-Guess Who This Is:Tribute To Dom Leone
Sarah Dougher-The Bluff
Black Kali Ma-You Ride The Pony, I'll Be The Bunny
Paula Frazer-Indoor Universe
Barbara Manning & The Go-Luckys!-Incapable Of Love
Missy Elliott-Get Your Freak On
The Subtonix-Black Nails In My Coffin (from the Troubleman "Mix-Tape")
Linda Smith-It's Now
New Pornographers-Letter From An Occupant
Burke-The Year Of You
Dan Bern-Thanksgiving Day Parade
Leonard Cohen-That Don't Make It Junk
The White Stripes-Fell In Love With A Girl
Kelly Hogan-Speedfreak Lullaby AND You Don't Know The First Thing About Blue
The Gossip-Southern Comfort
Mates Of State-Ride Again (I have no idea what the hell these guys are
singing about, but it sure sounds purty)
Hammell On Trial-Go Fuck Yourself
The Coup-Wear Clean Draws
Mike Appelstein-Central Station
Toyhouse-Hopeless Fire
Liliput
Negativland-These Guys Are From England And Who Gives A Shit (the notorious
"U2" single plus extra goodies)
Nuggets Box Set Vol. 2
YET:
Fugazi-The Argument
Erase Errata-Other Animals
Quasi-The Sword Of God
100 Watt Smile-s/t
The Mekons-The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen
George Harrison-Wonderwall Music
The Clancy Brothers-Live At Carnegie Hall
Y Pants-s/t
Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan In Joujouka
2002:
The Subtonix
Systemwide
The Mekons
Pep Squad Somnambulist
Six Organs Of Admittance
Ideas In Animation featuring Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble
Typical Girls
Won't Pay More Than $3 (two songs from Slowly I Turned sit
uneasily amid awesome new stuff by Linda Smith, the Subtonix, She Mob, Tobi
Vail, Erase Errata and other members of the Typical Girls mailing list)
Sympathy For The Mekons (Club Mekon members' tribute album to you-know-who,
still waiting to see the light of day. Soon come, mon.)
Love,
-J Neo Marvin
NOV. 2, 2001
Greetings again. Not much "band" activity to report (none, in fact;
everyone's quite busy these days with their own lives and their principal projects),
but I myself have been furiously writing, recording crude demos, and rewriting
songs, making said demos obsolete. The next album is going to be different in
some
ways, I'm sure, but how it's going to turn out I don't know. I just hope to
gather all my favorite people and get them in there somewhere. In the
meantime, the new songs are taking shape nicely. Want to hear some? Read on.
In an unexpected but highly welcome turn of events, I have a solo acoustic
gig in a really cool setting. To be exact, I will be providing some musical
interludes during the Small Press Soiree, an event put together by several
local zine editors at the Black Box, Oakland's best, if not best-kept, secret.
ANY
excuse to go to the Black Box is worth it; it is a fantastic venue with an
art gallery and a nice large theatre space, well situated just around the corner
from the 19th Ave. BART station. (I actually have played the venue before,
oddly enough, having served as a stand-in bassist with the great Australian
pop
band the Cannanes
at the Box's opening party. Very fun.) The Small Press Soiree
itself will take place on Sunday, Nov. 18, starting at 6 pm and continuing
on into the night with readings from various writers, show and tell from zine
editors, merch, wine, a DJ, projections (possibly) and me doing songs from
Slowly I Turned plus some new ones. The cover is a reasonable 3 bucks.
Sounds like a party to me. I'm psyched to be playing something different than
the
usual club. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...) The
Black Box is
located at 1928 Telegraph Ave. next to the downtown Oakland Sears store between
19th
and 20th Sts. You can also take a look at the event website at www.emliterary.org/event.html.
I hope to see many of you (at least the local recipients of this list) there.
"They love explosions 'cause they never get burned."
X-tal, "Happy Americans"
Back around 1985, at the height of the Reagan years and as the Hollywood
action movie began to reach new heights of pyrotechnical fabulousness, I wrote
the
song quoted above. At the time, I meant to make a point about how easy it is
for
Americans to talk casually about bombing one country or another because for
generations we have been fortunate enough to have been almost completely
spared from the reality of war within our own borders. Now that we are still
reeling from yesterday's events, I hope that one thing we take away from this
awful
experience is the inability to ever again see an explosion anywhere without
wondering who was in it, what their lives were like, and who they left
behind. If the anonymous delusional fascists who committed these crimes accomplished
anything besides damaging the Bill of Rights and the Palestinian cause
beyond recognition, I hope they have given us a vivid reminder that war is
something more than cool special effects and flashing blips on a video screen.
I expect that the days and weeks ahead will be filled with much talk about
how "we must now stand by our President". The biggest fear in my mind
now is not
of more evil airplane stunts, but of what our current illegitimate Republican
junta and their Democratic lap dogs may do in order to convince the public that
they are "doing something". At this point, our government has virtually
been
handed a blank check: our forces can attack any country anywhere and claim they
are
retaliating. If Bush had ever shown himself to be the least bit trustworthy
at any time up to now, this prospect might not be quite so disturbing. I
suggest we all keep our bullshit detectors cranked up to 11 at all times. The
public's
desire for justice and closure could allow us to take way too much for
granted Also, I wonder what sort of "anti-terrorist", "anti-sedition"
legislation is
even now working its way through Congress. In a time of emergency, we could
be asked to support any number of draconian measures in the name of unity and
security; don't be surprised if our freedom of speech is seriously
curtailed. (Don't worry though, I'm sure that only truly "dangerous"
speech will be
threatened, i.e. anything that dissents against our leaders' agenda,
like...oh...this e-mail I'm writing?) I hope I'm just being paranoid; we'll
see how things unfold. My thoughts are with those grieving right now.
Illegitimati non carborundum,
-J Neo Marvin
The SLOWLY I TURNED release party at the Make-Out
Room was a gratifying success. The band played brilliantly and the audience
was appreciative. Even some of the very talkative Mason Jennings fans in the
crowd seemed to be enjoying it. I look forward to more shows like it in the
future.