Category: 1991

December 19, 1991

Merry Christmas

December 19, 1991

Merry Christmas
various artists cassette & compact disc
[SDK-25] black & white press printed J-cards with photocopied liner notes, on-shell cassette labeling

Merry Christmas, the 1990 SLAMDEK/Scramdown Christmas tape, is a gem of Louisville’s musical uniqueness, diversity, and cooperative abilities. The nine-band, nine-song cassette was not only unique from other Slamdek Christmas tapes, but was also a unique effort by nature of who was involved and the purpose its songs served. It was a compilation of Louisville bands paying tribute to other Louisville bands.

The cassette had a unified sound and timeliness as all of its songs were recorded especially for this release, and seven of the nine at the same studio with the same engineer. And it had a unifying effect on the scene itself by inviting bands from all “sides” to participate. Bands usually thought of as “Self Destruct bands” appeared on a release with bands usually thought of as “Slamdek bands,” alongside new bands; and all of them covering mostly unpredictable songs.

However rewarding it eventually became, creating the cassette was a fiasco. Any project that involves getting about fifty people together to learn and record new songs, then scheduling all of them at convenient times in the same studio, has all the complex logistics you might imagine it would. Because of scheduling, several bands that wanted to participate could not. Shut Out planned to be on it but couldn’t get it together in time, and Sean Garrison was going to do a solo acoustic song, but ran out of time. Having those two artists on the cassette would have expanded the level of total scene cooperation in even greater degrees in both directions.

Nine bands did pull it together during November and early December, and their master DAT’s were compiled into sequence in my bedroom at the Slamdek House on Bonnycastle. Because of the tight time constraints with Christmas approaching, the cassettes were manufactured in Philadelphia at Discmakers. Discmakers offered a five-day turnaround on small orders. This worked out beautifully, and the cassette was released almost a week before Christmas. One day while Undermine was practicing with their new drummer Will Chatham at the Slamdek House, Carrie Osborne and Breck Pipes helped me fold liner note sheets and assemble the cassettes.
The liner notes were, again, especially lengthy. They listed band members and information about the performers and the groups whose songs were being covered. The monologue began with a synopsis of the three previous Christmas cassettes, which is not reprinted here. But here’s a play by play of most of the liner notes, with commentary [in brackets]:

“This year, Louisville has turned in on itself. For the first time, everything that appears on this cassette was recorded especially for the purpose of being here. Furthermore, the 1991 Christmas cassette is all Louisville bands playing covers of their favorite other Louisville bands’ songs. The reason there is so much great music in Louisville is because there are so many great people making music here. Anyone who is the least bit interested in creating can’t help but to be constantly inspired by the people of Louisville and the energy that music has here. This meager cassette stands as each band’s tribute to the Louisville musicians that have made a difference for them. Virtually forgotten bands like Anti-Youth can now shine again, while die-hard rockers like David LaDuke finally get the respect they deserve. Overlooked Louisville musicians like Patty Smith and Mildred J. Hill, whose song is as far-reaching as the sun, find a new interpretation in the hands of the kids who grew up singing it. Mid-’80’s punk classics by Maurice and Solution Unknown also serve to bring our generations together. Inevitably, the Slamdek bands feed off themselves as Cerebellum, Crawdad, and Endpoint are all saluted in three very different ways. Finally, this is probably the only city in the world that could crank out both Slint and some members of Midnight Star, and then put them all together in a medley.

“Without further description, let’s let the music of our hometown speak for itself. Forget all about everywhere we’ve been told new music is at its best. Everyday we’ll discover a little bit more why we don’t have to go anywhere else to get what we need. This is the ongoing sound of Louisville- crank it up and Merry Christmas!”

Dybbuk “Dare To Feel”
Eric Schmidt vocals, Jeremy Podgursky guitar, Tim Wunderlin guitar, Brian Kaelin bass, Alex Charland drums.

Originally performed by Maurice, 1986

Dybbuk, 1991: Jeremy Podgursky, Tim Wunderlin, Brian Kaelin, Eric Schmidt, and Alex Charland.

“Dybbuk (pronounced DIB-ick) has a self-titled 7″ out on Self Destruct Records. They’ve been together since April 1990 and their record came out in 1991. Eric replaced previous their vocalist Branden Faulls in June 1991. They plan to record in early 1992 for another release.

“Maurice was together from 1983 to 1987 and never released any records. Britt Walford and David Pajo continued to play together in Slint with whom they released Tweez on Jennifer Hartman Records in 1989, and Spiderland on Touch and Go Records in 1991. Brian McMahan played in Slint and Maurice for a while. Maurice was also home for Sean Garrison and Mike Bucayu. They later formed Kinghorse whose 1989 Self Destruct/Steel Heart 7″ is now out of print. Kinghorse has an LP out on Caroline Records and another one scheduled for next year sometime.”

[Dybbuk recorded a full length album, Breakfast T., which was released posthumously as a Self Destruct 12″ and cassette in 1992. The band broke up earlier that year, shortly before guitarist Tim Wunderlin tragically died in an accidental asphyxiation. He was buried at Calvary Cemetery in the Highlands.

[After Dybbuk’s disbandment, Alex Charland joined Slo-Pok, and Eric Schmidt dropped out of the music scene for a while. Brian Kaelin and Jeremy Podgursky formed a new band, Lather, with drummer Brian Toth and guitarist Sean Wolfson. Lather recorded a Self Destruct 7″ in October 1992, and six more songs between April and June 1993. Those ten tracks were compiled on a Self Destruct CD, A Modest Proposal. Lather broke up in the summer of 1994.

[Slint’s Tweez was reissued on Touch and Go in 1993, and the band allegedly tried to get back together around that same time, to no avail.

[Kinghorse broke up in the fall of 1992. Their second album on Caroline never materialized. Mike Bucayu opened his Blue Moon record store in the Holiday Manor Walk shopping center in the fall of 1994. Around Christmas 1994, a Slamdek CD of nineteen unreleased Kinghorse tracks renewed interest in the group, and they reformed with Jerry Cunningham of Raze on bass. Mike was either not interested in the band, or more interested in his store.]

Step Down “Elders”
Duncan Barlow vocals, Lee Fetzer guitar, Kyle Noltemeyer guitar, Christian McCoy bass, Jon Smith drums.

Originally performed by Anti-Youth, 1986

Step Down, 1991: Lee Fetzer, Kyle Noltemeyer, and Duncan Barlow.

“Step Down formed in the summer of 1991. They recorded eight songs in November
and have put it out as a self-released cassette. Three members of Endpoint play in Step Down but play different instruments. Jon is also in Shut Out who were planning on joining this Christmas Fiesta but couldn’t because of scheduling problems.

“Anti-Youth was together in 1986. They never recorded, but ‘Can’t You See’ by Big Deal on the Louisville Sluggers compilation 7″ was originally one of their songs. Anti-Youth was Greg Smith, Todd Brashear, Gordon Gildersleeve, and Bryan Jackson.”

[Step Down changed their name to Guilt at the beginning of 1993. Shortly after the name change, Lee Fetzer left the group to join Enkindel, and Duncan Barlow began playing guitar while singing to replace him. Christian McCoy left Guilt in April 1993 and was replaced by Ashli State. Ashli played in both Guilt and the Telephone Man for a few months before leaving the latter. Guilt released a 7″, Empty?, and a 10″, Synesthesia, both on Initial Records which were later compiled on the Synesthesia CD, and an LP/CD/cassette, Bardstown Ugly Box, on Victory Records.]

Rawhide “Happy Birthday”
Breck Pipes guitar & bass, Greta Ritcher guitar, J.T. Zinn sit-in drummer.

Written by Patty Smith and Mildred J. Hill, 1893

Rawhide, 1991: Greta Ritcher and Breck Pipes.

“Rawhide, although you can see they don’t have a full line up yet, has been playing together since March 1991. They’re looking for a drummer and bass player, so write to them c/o Slamdek if you’re interested. Breck has played in Spot, Cerebellum, and Crawdad. Greta has played in Your Face and Sister Shannon. All of these bands have released records on Slamdek, but unfortunately the Cerebellum cassette is the only one that remains available today. Spot’s Proud cassette is scheduled to be reissued in January 1992. Things are looking up, so hopefully we’ll see them all again soon along with a new one from Rawhide.

“‘Happy Birthday’ was written by two Louisville ladies, Patty Smith and Mildred J. Hill, and is possibly the most widely recognized modern song in the world. The original lyrics were ‘Good Morning To You’ and the tune only caught on accidentally after they had been changed.”

[Their sit-in drummer J.T. Zinn, actually Kevin Coultas using his grandfather’s name as a pseudonym, was replaced by John Causey in early 1992. This happened after John left Undermine. David Ernst joined on bass, and Rodney Bell on vocals. Rawhide played a handful of shows but didn’t last until the end of 1992. David Ernst joined Big Wheel, John Causey joined Crain, Greta began playing drums and played them in Drinking Woman, and Breck moved to Lexington. The song “Happy Birthday” celebrated its 100th birthday in 1993.]

Sunspring “House”
John Weiss drums, Scott Ritcher guitar & vocals, Herr Hayden bass.

Originally performed by Cerebellum, 1989

“Sunspring formed in the summer of 1990 and has had two Slamdek releases in 1991. The Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″, and The Sun Cassette both are still available. Their second 7″, Slinky, was recorded in November and will be out in January. Media kills minds, Sunspring kills media.

“Cerebellum was a band from June 1988 through May 1989. Their self-titled cassette is still available from Slamdek. Cerebellum was Will Chatham, Tim Furnish, Joey Mudd, Jon Cook, Breck Pipes, and Drew Daniel. The first four of them went on to form Crain who have a 7″ out called The Rocket EP on Automatic Wreckords. Their 10-song LP will be released in early 1992.”

[Herr Hayden and The Herr were nicknames that John and I annoyed Jason Hayden with for several years. Sunspring had a run-in with the media in January 1992, when a young teenage girl, Shanda Sharer, was killed by two “friends” after a Sunspring show (see page 72). Slinky was released in February 1992. Crain’s first full length effort, Speed, was released by Automatic on LP and cassette in March 1992.]

Push Back “Wool”
Mark Brickey vocals, Billy Halter guitar, Andy Tinsley guitar, Corey Roederer bass, Leevanhook Seconds drums.

Originally performed by Endpoint, 1989

“Push Back has been together since the summer of 1991. This song is their first entry into the world of recorded sound.

“Endpoint has two albums, If The Spirits Are Willing (1989) on Slamdek, and In A Time Of Hate (1991) on Conversion Records. They have also appeared on numerous compilations and have a split 7″ out with Sunspring. ‘Wool’ was cut from their first album at the last minute because the lyrics are not to be taken seriously. They feared that people who weren’t in on the joke might not get it, and then doubt the sincerity of their other songs.”

[Leevanhook Seconds was actually Lee Fetzer. He was a part of the group again when they later changed their name to Enkindel. Andy appeared with them only for this recording.]

Hopscotch Army “Right From Wrong”
Jeff Goebel guitar, Scott Darrow bass, Mark Ritcher vocals, David Hoback drums.

Originally performed by David LaDuke, 1989

“Hopscotch Army has been together since early 1988. They have two albums, Blurry from 1989, and their new one Belief which was released in September. Both on Slamdek. Their third album is already being mixed and will possibly be available as early as February 1992 (but probably not).

“David LaDuke has been playing roots/metal/rock n’roll in Louisville since 1973. He and his group Sinbad have released several records, Sinbad, Have Rock Will Travel, and his current release, Ball Bustin Guitar Rock. His unique blend of ’70’s guitar rock with an Elvis Presley-style groove has gained him a reputation in magazines and on radio stations around the world.”

[The upcoming album mentioned by Hopscotch Army was never released.]

Undermine “Friends?”
Sean McLoughlin vocals, Takayuki Tsuji guitar, Chris Layton guitar, Scott Bryant bass, John Causey drums.

Originally performed by Solution Unknown, 1987

Undermine, 1991: Sean McLoughlin, Chris Layton, John Causey, Scott Bryant, and Takayuki Tsuji.

“Undermine formed in early 1989 and has released two seven inches on Self Destruct Records. The first one was self-titled (1990) and is out of print, the second is My Wire (1991) and is still available. In January they will be recording an album with their new drummer Will Chatham as a split release for Self Destruct and ear X-tacy Records.

“Solution Unknown was David Pajo, Kent Chappelle, Todd Brashear, Mike Bucayu, and Eric Schmidt (who does intro and outro vocals on the Undermine version). They were together from March 1986 through September 1987. Their first record was a Self Destruct 7″ in 1986, Taken For Granted. The Solution Unknown album was recorded at Inner Ear in Washington DC in 1987. The 7″ is no longer in print, but the LP is.”

[Undermine broke up before recording their first full-length work. Their 7″ and the Solution Unknown LP both went out of print. Sean McLoughlin joined Evergreen. Scott Bryant and John Causey formed Concrete who was together while John also played with Rawhide, then Crain. Takayuki Tsuji moved back to Japan and worked as an interpreter for touring English-speaking bands. Chris Layton was involved in several projects, such as The Auditory Clang and Zig Zag Way, and moved to Florida for a while. In fall 1995, Mike Bucayu and Eric Schmidt took all the Solution Unknown master reels to Sound On Sound and remixed them for a 38-song discography CD on Self Destruct.]

Shovel “Worship”
Dave Cook vocals, Chad Castetter guitar, Andy Tinsley bass, Duncan Barlow drums.

Originally performed by Crawdad, 1989

“Shovel formed very very recently and this piece of work is their first recorded stab at the world. Duncan and Chad are in Endpoint and Andy is Endpoint’s manager. Dave was in Scrub Monkey in 1990 who recorded an album entitled Shit in the back of a moving car, but it was never released.
“Crawdad was originally together from June 1989 to December 1989. Dave Ernst, Breck Pipes, Kevin Coultas, and Joey Mudd recorded a live EP, Loaded, which was released in May 1990 on Slamdek as a limited edition. In December 1990 they did a reunion show, and they are planning to do another this Christmas. Dave Ernst and Kevin were also in Sister Shannon.”

[Shovel played a few shows and self-released a cassette in early 1993. They were another spawn of long winter nights. Another Endpoint offshoot joke band, they were born at Endpoint practices at Kyle Noltemeyer’s parents’ house off Alta Vista. One of their shows was for the 1991 St. Francis Battle of the Bands. They performed a solid half hour song, during which the vibrations were so dense several audience members became sick and had to be escorted out of the building. At another show, in 1993 at the Machine, Josh Sachs was tied to a huge cross crucifixion-style. While on the cross he defecated and performed other visuals with his body to accompany the music. Shovel never played again after that.]

King G and the J Krew “Freakazoid/No Parking On The Dance Floor/Kent”
M.C. Crawdad vocals, P. Control vocals, A. Frisbee violin & guitar, Will “Cheeto” Chatham drums, M.C. Diogenes guitar & vocals, Amy Torstrick guest violin.

Originally performed by Midnight Star, 1983, and Slint, 1989

“King G and the J Krew have been together since 1989. Their first release was the 95-minute Snug Double Album EP (1990) on Hell N’Ready Records, which is not for sale anymore. Their second album will be Indestructible Songs of the Humpback Whale and will also be on Hell N’Ready sometime around February 1992.

“There seems to have been some dispute as to whether or not all the members of
Midnight Star were from Louisville. But this tune is so kickin’, that technicality has been ignored. The Slint segment qualifies it nonetheless. The fat catalog of Midnight Star stuff can be found on SOLAR Records. You know about Slint.”

[One of King G and the J Krew’s most recognizable assets was their propensity to take the joke-turned-obsession to inconceivable levels. M.C. Crawdad was Jason Mueller, P. Control was Heather Cantrell, A. Frisbee was Aaron Frisbee, M.C. Diogenes was Jason Noble. This six minute epic, while seemingly ridiculous in concept, totally defines the word brilliant and exceeds the boundaries of the Louisville-on-Louisville genre this release created. This song was recorded while the band was in the process of creating their masterful Indestructible Songs of the Humpback Whale CD; a process that took about two years to complete. And that’s virtually every single day for two years. After the release of the CD, they began playing shows as a rock band under the name King Kid International. That incarnation had Jon Cook on drums, Tara O’Neil on bass, and Jeff Mueller and Jason Noble singing and playing guitar. King Kid Int’l became Rodan in December 1992.]

April 24, 1992, Robyn Craxton’s Big Surprise: Sunspring and Ennui played a surprise birthday party for Robyn Craxton at her parents’ house off Herr Lane. Pictured left to right: Duncan Barlow, Natalie Sud, Amy Craft, Mindy Shapero, Dave Cook, Robyn Craxton, Matt Ronay, Katie McGee, Julie Brown, Scott Ritcher, and Lamecron “Pee Wee” Lockhearst. The two bands made up a song and played it together as Robyn came down the stairs.

Merry Christmas included a lengthy list of addresses and mail order prices for all records of all the bands who were covered and those who performed on this cassette. It was the first release tagged with the line, “A Product of Louisville, Kentucky,” and it was dedicated to the 83-year-old woman who was the senile landlady of the Slamdek House. She wrote us 3 to 4 page letters several times a week. At the top of each page she scrawled a creepy line drawing of a crucifix, along with the inverted date (such as 29th September 1991). She demanded that she would have no sinners living in her house. Among other things she was not legally able to request of her tenants, we were not fornicate in the building, consume certain beverages, open the blinds, nor were we to send our rent payments in colored envelopes. She did not have a telephone and her letters arrived virtually every other day. During the ten months in which 1919 Bonnycastle was the Slamdek House, she successively fired two real estate agents and an attorney, who had been hired to collect rent and make service calls for the property. Even when the agents were in charge of the property, she continued to write several times a week. The letters reiterated the moral limits by which residents of the house were expected to comply. The hassle of dealing with agents, attorneys, and constant mental harassment, eventually convinced Greta, Will, Breck, and I that it just wasn’t worth it anymore. In March 1992 we moved out, after which the house remained vacant for over three years. She reportedly died in 1993.

The bands on Merry Christmas paid for their own studio time. Howie Gano at Sound On Sound made a group rate deal with us so all bands involved could record for $20 an hour, a $15 discount. The SLAMDEK/Scramdown Merry Christmas cassette sold 252 units. 48 or so more were given to band members, and area stores and publications as promotional copies. Like many Slamdek releases, it did not turn a profit.

LINER NOTES:

Side one:
Dybbuk Dare To Feel
Step Down Elders
Rawhide Happy Birthday
Sunspring House
Push Back Wool

Side two:
Hopscotch Army Right From Wrong
Undermine Friends?
Shovel Worship
King G & the J Krew Freakazoid/No Parking On the Dance Floor/Kent

Special thanks to: John Timmons and everybody at ear X-tacy, Ken at Ken’s Records, Ben at Better Days, Kim at Kinko’s, Lynn at Op Brightside, and absolutely everyone in the entire world who has cut, folded, stuffed, bought, or sold Slamdek music this year. Even a little bit of thanks to those who have taped it off their friends. Merry Christmas!

Album engineered by Howie Gano at Sound On Sound. Project coordinated by Scott Ritcher and Howie Gano.

August 11, 1991

Sunspring – The Sun Cassette

August 11, 1991

Sunspring
The Sun Cassette cassette
[SDK-24] photocopied inserts, dot matrix labels

The Sun Cassette marked Sunspring’s official move from the world of struggling new bands with ever-changing members, to the ranks of those with a defined determination to achieve their goals. We had retained the same members (Hayden, Ritcher, Weiss) since our show at Collegiate in May 1991. And we all seemed to share a common enthusiasm for creating something new, something different yet not a novelty, and taking it places. We were ready to make it happen, but we also wanted to make sure and take the time and effort to make a quality product.

The ten-song, twenty-four minute tape was recorded on a Tascam cassette eight track recorder in four August days. It shares some songs with both the $1.50 Demo and the split 7″ with Endpoint, but has a much clearer, rawer, and more natural sound. The main noticeable difference from previous Sunspring recordings is in the way the songs are played. The Sun Cassette drastically speeds up Sunspring’s pace, and even the slower songs have an overlying feeling of urgency. A list of companies who are invited to sponsor the band, Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, Waffle House, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and Honda also suggests a new emphasis on adrenaline. Sunspring’s massive thank you list tradition began with this

release as well. Recording occurred at my parents’ house, and mixing at the Slamdek House on Bonnycastle Avenue. A second mix was done in November at Jon Cook’s Rocket House downtown where King G & the J Krew were working on Indestructible Songs Of The Humpback Whale. There was also a new Apple Macintosh Classic at the Ritcher household now, and I was finally able to take the right amount of time to use it effectively for layouts. While the inserts were still photocopies, a relatively new Xerox high speed copier had recently arrived at the Kinko’s by U of L. The dark, crisp, clear work of the Xerox 5090 Duplicator can be found in more than half of all subsequent Slamdek releases.

October 18, 1991, Sunspring at Audubon Sk8 Park: Jason Hayden, Scott Ritcher, John Weiss.

Sunspring had very little interest in wasting time or doing things that weren’t fun or over-ambitious. And as ambitious goes, we arranged a six date tour, having only played a total of seven shows in our four months together. The Sun Cassette’s original purpose was to quickly create a tape to sell on that tour. Not only did it serve that purpose, but it held the band over until our Slinky 7″ in February 1992. And The Sun Cassette stuck around after that, staying in print for about two years. The cassette was recorded, mixed and manufactured all in the week before the tour.

Three of its songs were revamped from the $1.50 Demo: “Desert Song,” “Epitaph/Vision” (listed here only as “Epitaph”), and “Implode.” Four others were recreated from another 1990 drum machine demo, the unreleased Honda Civic EP: “Slightly On,” “Spices & Bones,” “Silver Spring” (also rerecorded on the split 7″ with Endpoint), and “Engage.” The other two songs, the band put together as a group: “Incite” and “Mine.”

A secret track was included about a minute after the end of the last song. It came to be called the “Starfish Story,” and is a three minute skit. John Weiss had done some acting in high school at Walden Theatre, so he was a natural for this role. Accompanied by romantic background music and random sound effects, John begins to have a heart-to-heart with the listeners, “Scott’s out of the room right now, so I thought I’d just play with this for a second… We’ve been mixing all day and he wouldn’t let me do anything. I wanted to do backing vocals and stuff but he wouldn’t let me. So while I’ve got a second, I thought maybe I’d tell a story or something. It’ll just take twenty minutes, maybe. We got the time, don’t we?” He then proceeds to share a sincere little story his father told him once. All through the “special” moment he’s sharing with the listeners, John and I had gone back and overdubbed ourselves making stupid noises in the background. “There was this little boy, he was on the beach. He was walking along the beach early one morning. There were starfish washed up all along the beach for miles and miles in every direction. He was walking along and every starfish he’d find, he’d pick it up, and he’d toss it into the sea. He was walking along for a while, when there was an old man, he was on the beach as well. He was watching the boy for a while. He called out to the boy, ‘Boy!’ he said. ‘Boy, you could walk along for the rest of the day. There’s starfish on this beach for miles and miles in every direction. There’s not a thing you could do. You could spend all day, you couldn’t make a difference.’ The boy looked at the old man for a second, then he looked at the starfish in his hand, and he said, ‘Yeah, but to this one I can make a difference.’ And he tossed it into the sea.” Just then you hear a door open, my feet stomping in, and books and things crashing about, and I yell angrily, “Hey! What are you doing in here?” John innocently questions back, “What? Stop?” Then there’s more crashing about and a sound as if the tape recorder has been destroyed, then silence. Not only did many people not realize there was a secret story on the cassette, some even wondered if it was real. But alas, the boys were just acting… they were just acting.

1992 books-on-tape packaging of The Sun Cassette.

The first day of the tour was a packed Louisville show at Snagilwet opening for Kinghorse, Face Value, and Evil Twin Theory. These 300 or so people were the largest crowd we had played for. In addition to the stack of Sun Cassettes, we also had a big batch of t-shirts for sale. In our first eleven shows we earned a total of $60.00, but at this show we got paid $50.00, and sold loads of shirts and tapes adding another $350.00 to it. It was a shocking, yet reassuring way to start off the tour.

The tour took us three boys (in my Honda Civic Wagon with a rooftop luggage carrier) to shows in St. Louis with Jawbox, Helmet, and Dazzling Killmen; then to Omaha where we played with 411, Bamboozled, and Say No More; Iowa City where we played with a bad band called the Halo; to Lincoln, Nebraska with Schlong, Nuisance, Say No More, and the Yard Apes; then to Chicago for Billingsgate’s last show with Guage and Dickey Mo.

The Sun Cassette sold 313 copies over about a year and a half going in and out of print. Around Christmas 1992 it was repackaged into the books-on-tape style packaging. It finally went out of print for good in spring 1993, just before the Poppy album was released. The songs from The Sun Cassette then remained out of print until it was included in its entirety on the Orange CD issued in 1995, long after the band’s break up in 1993.

LINER NOTES:

Side one:
Slightly On
Incite
Desert Song
Implode
Epitaph

Side two:
Mine
Spices & Bones
Silver Spring
Engage
Starfish Story [not listed]

Photographs by Breck Pipes • Thank you: Moms and Dads, Joey Mudd, Kendall Costich, Jay Robbins, Kim Coletta, Jane Morrow, Greta Ritcher, Eric Schmidt, Sean McLoughlin, Betsy Porter, Will Chatham, Breck Pipes, Melissa Middleton, Takayuki Tsuji, John Timmons, Jon Cook, Chris Layton, Tim Furnish, John Causey, Scott Bryant, Sean Garrison, Christi Canfield, Kim Kinko’s, Heather Cantrell, Lee Fetzer, Keith Allison, Karen Sheets, Ken Burton, Jason Noble, Rob Pennington, Kari Alford, Robin Wallace, Chad Castetter, Samantha Feldman, Tishy Quesenberry, Susanne Butler, Duncan Barlow, Impie Baby, John Kampschaefer, Jon Smith, Sissy Davis, Hopscotch Army, Layla Smith and Carrie Osborne (for the food), Simon Furnish, James Canty, the doctor, Erica Montgomery, Todd Johnson, Crain, Marcy Berns, Kelly Kemper, Mitch Osborne, Carrie Newman, Dave Cook, the Nation of Ulysses, Primal Urge, Kinghorse, Bikini Kill, Paul Curry, Dave Wagenshutz, Tim Moss, Ryan Cooper, Katherine Rieber, Scott Broadhurst, Curtis Mead, Becky Hornung, Thad Hornung, Audubon Sk8 Park, Jim Kocian, Mark Corbett, Jason Petrick, Mike Brown, Mike Fitzer, Shut Out, Permanent Death, the Fund for the Animals, Buzz Minnick, Mike Borich, Joe Malone, Rob Roles, Pat and Burke from Disdain, Dave Baker, Dave Barmore, Tet, John Toombs, Eric Ronay, Pat Benatar, Dan Sharp, Bernard (for never giving Jason a raise), Ashli State, Endpoint, Todd Cook, Mark Denny, Richard Vier, Joe Hennessy, Bill Greene, Dan Patterson III, Downpour, Bill W., Dr. Bob and friends, Andrew Buren, Brian Brooks, Franklin Fuchs, Guy, Chris, Fred Fischer, Don Stokes, Big Deal, Darren, Playful 8, Jason Crivello, Nate Brown, Elizabeth Beeson, Scot McAffe, Lydia and David, Rob and Tracy, Liz, Dybbuk and Branden, Todd Lambert, and last but not least Susan Leach. • (always hold true)

August 11, 1991

Hopscotch Army – Belief

August 11, 1991

Hopscotch Army
Belief cassette & compact disc
[SDK-23] 4-color process-printed inserts, on-shell cassette labeling

Hopscotch Army experienced a rough but rewarding new beginning after Danny Flanigan left in February 1990 to further pursue his music in solo acoustic performances and with his band, The Rain Chorus. He also “did a little time” before that actually got underway. Hopscotch Army replaced him on guitar with Jeff Goebel. The band naturally dropped Danny’s songs from their repertoire and guitarist/keyboardist Mark Ritcher took over the full-time duties of singing.
Initially the band lost a good deal of its following by losing half of its songwriting force. But continuing the band after Danny’s departure ultimately proved to provide the group with the more unified sound they had needed for a long time. Belief demonstrates the versatility of that sound within its short eight songs. Jeff, Mark, and bassist Scott Darrow all contribute as songwriters playing off each other’s styles, while drummer David Hoback holds it all solidly together. The band’s sound and attitude became much simpler, less drastic, less over-the-top, and significantly more unassuming.
And while the internal battle of trying to be two different original bands was over, they were still trying to appeal to two separate audiences, both as a cover band and as an original act. This continued to become increasingly harder to achieve, became a bigger strain on the members, and as a result, Belief took a considerably lower profile than its predecessor.

Hopscotch Army was in a comfortable position to change and they tried several things. Covering a heavy metal song by “ball bustin’ guitar rocker” David LaDuke, was one that caught their audience off guard. In another experiment they had Sunspring play right after them at a June 1991 over age Snagilwet show. We ran all our equipment directly into the PA, having no amplifiers on stage, just a drum set. Hyperactive bassist Jason Hayden wore a skateboard helmet, and within two songs the packed house had cleared out.

Hopscotch Army 1992 (clockwise from top):
Mark Ritcher, Jeff Goebel, David Hoback, Scott Darrow.

Hopscotch Army recorded another complete eleven song album, These Shallow Hours, in the time between the release of Belief and the departure of David Hoback in the summer of 1992. Kevin Coultas replaced Dave and played live shows with the group while they were mixing the album. They continued to write what was perhaps their most cohesive and inspired material while Kevin was in the band, but never had the opportunity to visit the studio to record with him.

During their last year, they ended their business relationship with manager Gary Deusner. Nat Grauman, who had been their photographer, among other things, was brought in to book and manage the band. They wanted to lean more towards the audience for their originals. This meant, in so many words, that the fewer shows they played as a cover band, the less money they would be making. This is probably one main reason the band was less active in their later days and their presence less known. The long overdue idea was finally sinking in that it was better to not play at all, than to play covers. Even if it meant getting real jobs in the normal work force, or just going broke.

Kevin quit in the spring to join Crain, which prompted the demise of Hopscotch Army. They played their last show May 8, 1993 at the Butchertown Pub. And These Shallow Hours never saw itself released.

Scott Darrow and Jeff Goebel retreated to Florida for several months after the break up of the band, before returning to Louisville. Kevin’s association with Crain ended relatively soon as well. Mark Ritcher continued writing songs on his own, and began putting a new band together in the fall of 1993. Coincidentally enough, Scott and Jeff joined the new band which was initially called Whale, then Whale USA, then Superstar USA, then Cooler.

Belief was the first Slamdek release to be fully designed on a Macintosh computer. I put it together mostly on the Macintosh Classic at my parents’ house. The Classic was a black and white Macintosh, and Belief was printed in four color process. I guessed at or estimated most of the colors, and then took it on a floppy disk to the Furnish home in the Highlands, on several occasions, to verify and fine-tune the way it looked. The Furnishes had a nicer, color Mac which they were gracious enough to let me use. Denise Furnish (the mother) recommended a business acquaintance of hers at Image Printer in Bluegrass Industrial Park to assist me.

When something is printed in full color, four color process printing is the most common method. Four color process can make millions of color combinations by using varying amounts of four basic inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The most important lesson learned during the production of Belief’s artwork was “superblack.” Mrs. Furnish showed me how to make process printed blacks look deeper, thicker, slicker, and blacker by adding a 20% to 40% screen of cyan into the black area. This is one little bit of valuable information that can make the difference between something that looks professional and something that looks “local.” The process of making printed materials from a Macintosh disk was all new to me.

While Belief took a much lower profile than Blurry, and sold fewer units, its value to the label and to me as a learning experience of the basics of the printing process from Macintosh, was immeasurable. Belief sold 556 cassettes and 486 compact discs.

LINER NOTES:

Side one:
Sundown
Souls
Belief
Looking For You

Side two:
The World
Anesthesia
Rain

ChurchThanks be to these people who help it all go around: Gary Deusner, Mike “Stand,” Georgeann Stewart, Dawn Hill, Maria Lindsay, Mary and Allan Ritcher, Wendy and Kenneth Hoback, Bernie Goebel, Stewart Neff, Guy and Denise Furnish, Far Out Music, Mom’s Music, and everyone else who lends us equipment and forgets about it.

Scott Darrow, bass
Jeff Goebel, guitar
David Hoback, drums
Mark Ritcher, keyboards and vocals

Produced by David Stewart and Hopscotch Army. Engineered by David Stewart. Recorded in Louisville at DSL. Mastered in Nashville by Glenn Meadows at Masterfonics. Edited for CD by Benny Quinn. Photographs by Nat Grauman. The way it all looks by K. Scott Ritcher.

April 22, 1991

Spot – Go, Or I’ll Kill You!

April 22, 1991
Spot
Go, Or I’ll Kill You! cassette
[SDK-22] photocopied inserts, dot matrix labels

In the sense that not-so-serious groups like 7 More Seconds, Slambang Vanilla, and Kill The Man With The Ball were growing to become cartoon-esque in their parodies of hardcore and of themselves; the long-since-acquitted Spot, a genuine and original late ’80’s hardcore band, was also making gains in their mythological value. Go, Or I’ll Kill You! is most closely related to the 7 More Seconds cassette. The covers are intentionally poor Xerox copies, they’re hand numbered, limited editions of comically small quantities, and they both generally disregard the notion that some unsuspecting someone might not realize it’s a joke. More clearly, as Slamdek releases, they were both projects of small groups of friends who essentially put the tapes out because they thought it would be funny to see them in a store. Of course, those involved would all like to own a copy of the finished product, and that in itself was traditionally always reason enough to create anything under the Slamdek flag. No matter how much work it involved, nor if anyone might be interested in buying it. To settle the latter concern, Go, Or I’ll Kill You! sold in stores for 98¢. And even after the work was finished, only about 50 copies were run off, and only 34 were sold. Gee whiz.
The tape is split into two sides (duh). The first side is an August 1987 Howie Gano recording of ten of the fifteen songs from their Proud cassette.

The second side is a compilation of super lo-fi jam box recordings of Spot from practices, parties, and shows. All of the songs are dated in the liner notes, and some also include explanations. It begins with “First Practice Intro” recorded January 10, 1986. This track is about ten seconds long and amounts to Joey yelling the name of the band and some other things which are not as easy to understand. The second song, as well as four others on the tape, are from a May 1987 party at Wendy Hawkins’ parents’ house in Plainview off Hurstbourne Lane. The liner notes say of it, “The show was called Spot Rocks Seven Blocks because neighbors seven or eight blocks away were complaining about the noise.”

Spot, 1988: Chris Scott, Mark Ernst, Breck Pipes, Todd Cook, and Joey Mudd.

Spot show, 1987: Todd Lambert, Kip McCabe, Mark Denny, Joey Mudd.

“Live and Let Live” is third. It was recorded December 1986 in Jon Cook’s mother’s basement at the first show put on by Positive Youth For Unity (PYFU). It’s highlighted by the repeated shouting of “one two three!” in the short breaks. This was a Spot performance audience participation tradition, though it was not actually part of the song. “Spot Song” follows (from Wendy’s party) as a ditty about the formation of the band. “This is our mellow jammin’ song,” Joey introduces, “This is one you all can relax dance to.” The chorus goes, “We need a name for our band, we need it now. How ’bout Spot? We have a name for our band. Now we rule!” The next song is “Cat Penis Song,” a really bad improvised blues number from the first practice, of the kind only fifteen year old boys are capable.

The remaining three songs are from Wendy’s party. “Wally” is accentuated by the crowd encouraging Jon Cook to do “the Wally” dance, and Joey’s inharmonious harmonica playing. A special show version of “I Hate Cars” follows as “I Hate Bob,” named after Bob Kerfoot, the penny-pinching owner of Pro Quality Skates. The final song is “Colorblind,” not a 7 Seconds cover, but in fact another Spot original that didn’t
make it on Proud.

LINER NOTES:

Howie side:
Paving Your Way
Think Ahead
Open Your Eyes
Take Off Your Mask
Dressed In Black
Enough
Live and Let Live
I Hate Cars
P.Y.F.U.
Proud

Spot side:
First Practice Intro
P.Y.F.U.
Live and Let Live
Spot Song
Cat Penis Song
Wally
I Hate Bob
Colorblind

Mark Ernst, drums (’87-’88)
Brett Hosclaw, drums (’86)
Joey Mudd, vocals
Breck Pipes, guitar
Chris Scott, bass

Thanks: Duncan, Todd Cook, PYFU, Jon, SLAMDEK Fuckin’ Scramdown, and Wendy H.

The Slamdek Record Companyslamdek.com
K Composite Media,

April 5, 1991

Endpoint & Sunspring

April 5, 1991
Endpoint & Sunspring
split seven inch
[SDK-21] photocopied covers and inserts

Originally not planned as a 7″ at all, Slamdek’s twenty-first release marked many new beginnings. As the label’s second entry into the world of vinyl, the Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″ put Sunspring (the band) on the map, adjusted Slamdek’s catalog numbers to start running in numerical order, and brought Endpoint back for another release on a hometown label.

Endpoint had recorded two songs at Sound On Sound in November 1990. One of them, “Promise,” was for a 7″ compilation, A Change For The Better, on Vicious Circle Records. The other, “Priorities,” was a spare song they went ahead and recorded since they were in the studio. In time, and in so many words, I coerced Duncan and Rob into letting me do a seven inch of the songs. They seemed to have reservations about it, though. One reason was that Rob wasn’t proud of the vocal tracks on the songs. Nevertheless, the stage was set for a two song Endpoint 7″ on Slamdek.

Sunspring was also hoping to do a seven inch in the near future. And both bands were especially anxious to see themselves on vinyl. So I pushed the idea of an Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″ on Duncan and Rob. Endpoint and Sunspring had very different styles, and didn’t necessarily belong on the same record together. But John and I were eager to get Sunspring rolling as a fully functioning band. As we ourselves were Endpoint fans, it perhaps made sense that while the two bands weren’t alike, perhaps their audiences would have common members.

By March 1991, Sunspring had only been together about three months. We still had Chad Castetter as a temporary bassist, had played only four small shows, and all things considered, weren’t fully prepared to go into the studio. Despite the recently smoothed compunctions of several involved parties, the Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″ was released April 5, 1991. Having the record in stores just two weeks after Sunspring recorded for it, was another demonstration of the agility Slamdek enjoyed as a small label. The five song record became very successful, outselling every other Slamdek release in its first year, and being the first Slamdek title to enjoy multiple distributors; Cargo, Resonance, Caroline, Blacklist, and Dutch East. Though the printed labels on the record read, “Limited Edition of 500,” it was repressed twice more. This brought the total units in circulation to 1,500 when it was let go out of print in late 1992. Each was hand numbered on the Sunspring side of the record as “___ of 500,” even after the numbers had passed 500. And to disprove anyone claiming to have copy #1, an unknown quantity of records from the second batch were inadvertently shipped without numbers in late 1991. Susan Leach, a friend of both bands and earlier member of Sunspring, is the owner of the genuine #001 of 500. So go call out any of your show-off friends who wrote low numbers on their second pressing copies.
In March 1993, Slamdek Singles, a short lived two cassette set of compiled EP’s, included the five songs from this seven inch. Sunspring’s Poppy CD in June 1993 included their three split 7″ songs as bonus tracks. And when Endpoint’s If The Spirits Are Willing came out on CD in late 1994, it included their two songs as well. This brings the total circulation of these five songs to about 4,600 units.

Over the course of its pre-bonus track life, as an individual release, it was subject to
several cover art redesigns. Those are illustrated on these pages.

The Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″ also created an underlying bond between the two bands that lasted until both of our final shows. In the summer of 1993, the two bands did a lengthy, tiring tour of the United States together. Sunspring unknowingly played our last show on this tour. It was August 15, 1993 in Rapid City, South Dakota with Endpoint, Shelter, 108, and Hellbender. December 4, 1993, a second split 7″ by Endpoint and Sunspring was released. On that record, Written In Rock, the two bands paid tribute to Rick Springfield, an unlikely, but common, early inspiration for members of both groups. And when Endpoint played their final show, December 30, 1994, the definitive 1991-92 version of Sunspring [Hayden, Ritcher, and Weiss] reunited to open the show with a ten song set.

The two tracks on the Endpoint side are “Promise” and “Priorities.” This version of “Promise” also appeared on the 7″ compilation A Change For The Better from Vicious Circle Records in Baltimore. “Promise” was rerecorded later for their Catharsis album on Doghouse, released in fall 1992. And a hilariously uninspired version of “Priorities” was recorded for the compilation album Only The Strong MCMXCII on Victory Records, released in late 1992.

Sunspring’s three tracks are, “Don’t Just Stand There,” a reworking of a Patty Duke single from 1964 that went to #14 on the Billboard chart, “Silver Spring,” and “Kendall.” “Silver Spring” was rerecorded for Sunspring’s Sun cassette on Slamdek in August 1991. A sample that begins the Sunspring side is from the TV movie version of Call Me Anna, the autobiography of Patty Duke. The quote is from a moment right after she received one of the 1970 Emmy Awards. She had given her acceptance speech in sign language, which was out of camera range and it had appeared to viewers as if she were just were just staring off into space saying nothing. As soon as she walked off stage, reporters hounded her with questions, to which she blankly replied, “It’s meaningless. Acting is meaningless. Television is meaningless. My life is meaningless. I’m gonna start a whole
new life.” The song “Kendall” was the oldest of the three, having been carried over from Cold Mourning.

A couple weeks after the release of the record, Chad was growing tired of playing in both Endpoint and Sunspring, and working an early morning job at Paul’s Fruit Market. He retired his temporary bass playing position in Sunspring. Jason Hayden, who played bass in Endpoint, coincidentally replaced him. After about a month of practice, May 10, 1991, the two bands shared a stage for the first time. The frenzied, controversial, animated, energetic, uproarious, and (perhaps) legendary show took place in the auditorium of Louisville Collegiate School. Collegiate is a private K through 12 school in the Highlands with a notoriously effective field hockey program.

The show began with an alternative cover band, followed by Long Arm which was a short lived hardcore band. Sunspring played third as our first show with Jason Hayden on bass, and the new line up seemed to gel instantly. I announced to the crowd of hundreds at Collegiate that the following day would be ear X-tacy’s one-year anniversary in their Tyler Park Plaza location and there would be free pizza. Endpoint’s ferocious set (including a cover of Minor Threat’s “I Don’t Wanna Hear It”) threw the evening out of control by inciting the crowd to move too much. Despite the school’s mixer-esque “No Slam Dancing” signs, rebellion lurks in every young child’s heart and movement erupted. This prompted school officials to threaten to pull the plug if it didn’t stop. And, of course, it didn’t stop. The school pulled the plug, but drummer Lee Fetzer kept playing and the kids kept singing along to the beat.

Collegiate’s school newspaper, Pandemonium, ran a story about the melee. The article by Amanda Wagoner and Karla Millan tried to clear up the rumors about what had actually happened:

… Despite the rumors recently buzzing in the school hallways, no one was hurt. Neither Upper School Head Jay Selvig nor the band he unplugged blame one another for the sudden halt of the party.

This was after the audience “started getting crazy,” said Lee Fetzer, Endpoint’s drummer.
By this time the audience had already received several warnings to calm down, this was reiterated by Selvig and Endpoint. The audience obviously ignored these notices, and seemed to test their authority…

A separate editorial called “After the Battle” was also printed:

…The band threw certain objects into the crowd and did not shut down when instructed to do so by Head of Upper School, Mr. Jay Selvig. It took the actions of pre-hired police to finally shut down the band, putting an end to the slam dancing…

The fact that the event did not run as smoothly as hoped cannot be blamed entirely on Endpoint. The Upper School Senate is equally, if not more, to blame for its naivete in hiring bands that often play for slam dancing crowds… The Senate could have easily bypassed the problems by hiring bands that are followed more by Collegiate students. Certain planners of the concert obviously knew that slam dancing and objects being thrown into the crowd occur at Endpoint performances…

Endpoint was paid the $200 they were promised, and the incident ended with no hard feelings. It turned up again (in a big way) by accident in January 1992 when a young girl named Shanda Sharer was murdered after a Sunspring show at Audubon Sk8 Park. Part of a Sunspring interview as the first story on WHAS-TV’s 6:00 news program included a clip of “Sunspring” playing at Collegiate. Newscaster Chuck Olmstead had cued the video to the most menacing-looking part. In doing so he inadvertently showed part of Endpoint’s set on the air and identified them as Sunspring. The chaotic, riotous scene, however, did go nicely with his slant on the story. The 11:00 news included an apology for the mistake.

LINER NOTES:

Endpoint side:
Promise
Priorities

Endpoint:
Duncan Barlow, guitar
Chad Castetter, guitar
Lee Fetzer, drums
Jason Hayden, bass
Rob Pennington, vocals

Sunspring side:
Don’t Just Stand There
Silver Spring
Kendall

Sunspring:
Chad Castetter, bass
K. Scott Ritcher, guitar & vocals
John Weiss, drums

Recorded at Sound On Sound. Endpoint produced by Howie Gano and the EPA, November 1990. Sunspring produced by Howie Gano and K. Scott.

Endpoint thanks: Andy, Matt from New Zealand, K. Scott, EPA, Dennis, Shelter, and Vans.

Sunspring thanks: Endpoint, Kendall, Joey, Kim and Jay, Sister Shannon, Betsy, King G + J Krew, Susan, Simon, Jon, not-so-little Dave, Christi, Tishy, Mary Verna and Techno-Poppy, Tim, Will, Kelly Sue, Marcy, John and Susanne, Lettuce Prey, Don and the Wednesday group, the fellowship, Fullout, Anne and Allan Weiss (patience and tolerance), Bill, Dan, Erica, Carrie and Layla, Max, Dale, and Crawdad.

The Slamdek Record Companyslamdek.com
K Composite Media,

February 2, 1991

7 More Seconds

February 2, 1991

7 More Seconds
The 7 Secons Tribute Band cassette
[SDK-7.CTC-1] photocopied inserts, dot matrix labels

Sometimes when you look back on things you did years ago, it really makes you wonder who was pushing the buttons upstairs. 7 More Seconds was born as the child of long winter nights at Lee Fetzer’s. His Main Street apartment, two blocks east of the Zodiac, was a meeting place and hang out during winter months after the Parking Lot had been officially shut down by the Law. As Endpoint’s practice space, there was always a wealth of musical equipment and plenty of hands to put it all to good use. Seemingly every weekend, a new combination of the same fifteen or so people on different instruments would start a new band.

A few of these groups lasted longer than a single night and lived long enough to play shows. Kill The Man With The Ball was one, Shovel was another, and so was 7 More Seconds. The idea of the band had been a joke for several months before a practice actually materialized. From the beginning, there was no doubt that Lee would sing. And Chad Castetter was an obvious shoo-in for guitar. I was also a big 7 Seconds fan, but didn’t have the necessary guitar skill. On early 7 Seconds albums, before every song became a Steve Youth bass solo, the bass was more straight forward. So I took the bass position. Duncan Barlow walked into the room and instantly picked up another guitar. Thus, one night in November 1990, 7 More Seconds was born.

I stopped by Endpoint practice one night in December to record their “Endpoint Outro” for the 1990 Christmas tape. After practice, it was quickly decided that with the DAT recorder set up, this was 7 More Seconds’ opportunity to actually become reality. A few times through the 7 Seconds classic “In Your Face” from Walk Together Rock Together, and it was recorded for posterity. The following week, Lee and Duncan visited my apartment to add vocals to the recording. And a couple weeks after that, it appeared on the Christmas tape.

The inclusion of the 7 More Seconds song on the Christmas tape seemed to light the fuse. After that it was only a matter of time before the band would begin practicing on a regular basis, learn an entire set of classic 7 Seconds material, and play a show. Since Lee couldn’t play drums and be the front man at a live show as he could on tape, the drumming of another 7 Seconds connoisseur, Will Chatham, was enlisted. And Duncan dropped out, making it a four piece. As you might have guessed, it happened on a Slamdek Nite at the Zodiac, January 30, 1991. Crain and the God Bullies were scheduled to play, though the latter didn’t make it due to van problems. It was a typical Slamdek Nite, about forty people showed up and had a really good time. Since the God Bullies cancelled, there was a lot of time to goof off. During this time, sound men David Taylor and Cary connected my DAT recorder to the mixing board. The full sets of both bands were recorded. 7 More Seconds opened the show and it was everything it was supposed to be.

The recording is frenzied, hilarious, and nothing short of brilliant (on opposite day). One of the highlights is the very end when Will Chatham stands up, throws his drum sticks into the crowd, grabs the microphone and shouts, in a voice that implies his certainty that the audience got double their money’s worth, “Thank you very much!” Crain followed with a phenomenal set.
After the show, when the audience had dispersed, we ran through the entire 7 More Seconds set again for another DAT recording. It was mixed specifically for the recorder, rather than for the PA. A separate microphone was set up for a cast of back up singers (including Tim Furnish and Joey Mudd) who piped in all of 7 Seconds’ trademark woh-oh-oh’s. I took the DAT home, edited it, made some Xerox tape covers, and on Saturday (three days after it was recorded) the cassettes were in stores. The cover art was stolen straight off The Crew album, with the 7 More Seconds logo stuck on it. The cassette was ten songs and was limited to 52 numbered copies. It was 52 copies because, as Chad and I joked, if we could sucker somebody into buying it once a week, it would only take a year to sell them all. Four of them were on blue paper and the other forty-eight on white. They’re all hand numbered.

Christi Canfield, a friend of nearly everyone, was a huge 7 Seconds fan as well. A stock joke at the time was comparing things to Christi. As in, “Wow, that girl over there is really hot… compared to Christi!” or “That food smells really good… compared to Christi!” So, as a special tribute not only to 7 Seconds, but also to their biggest fan, the 7 More Seconds cassette was “co-released” on Compared To Christi Records. The catalog number was also a tribute, SDK-7 & CTC-1. It was actually Slamdek’s twentieth release. The band members also paid further tribute in the credits by taking the last names of the members of 7 Seconds who played on The Crew. 7 More Seconds only played this one show.

LINER NOTES:

Side one: [recorded after show]
Regress No Way
Young ’Til I Die
This Is The Angry, Part Two
New Wind
We’re Gonna Fight

Side two: [live]
You Lose
Colourblind
In Your Face
New Wind
We’re Gonna Fight

Lee Seconds (Fetzer), vocals
Chad Pozniak (Castetter), guitar
Will Mowat (Chatham), drums
K Scott Youth (Ritcher), bass

Produced by Cary Zodiac. Special thanks to the Zodiac, Compared To Christi Records, Crain, and Slamdek. Dedicated to Hardcore, the Kids, and 7 Seconds.

Compared To Christi Records, a Fuckyougoddammit Communications Company, generously dispensed to the people of the world by SLAMDEK/Scramdown.

January 17, 1991

Slambang Vanilla – Video Hits Volume One

January 17, 1991
Slambang Vanilla
Video Hits Volume One videocassette
[SDK-1800] color copied inserts, Disney-size VHS boxes

Slambang Vanilla
Video Hits Volume One videocassette
January 17, 1991
[SDK-1800] color copied inserts, Disney size VHS boxes
In modern times, utilizing the advantages of ordinary common sense, whenever conversation turns to Video Hits Volume One, the word that comes to mind more quickly than any other is why. Why go through the time and effort of compiling music videos for the least popular “band” on a label whose owner can barely pay his rent. But for Joey and me, anyone who asked logical questions about our “clients” (a.k.a. alter egos) Jesus Rosebud and Goober The Baptist, quickly got glared at as if they were insane for asking. Anyone who doubted the “success” of any Slambang Vanilla venture obviously had
absolutely no fucking idea what they were talking about.
For these reasons, and because a jet pack had been attached to the joke-turned-obsession engine, and because I was working in the Chenoweth Plaza Red Giraffe Video store (with scenesters Lee Fetzer, Christi Canfield, Amy Guyton, and Michelle Tupper), Slambang Vanilla’s immanent debut into the picture tube format was the next logical step. Not Endpoint or Hopscotch Army, who had both sold bunches and bunches of units, but rather Slambang Vanilla who racked up sales of a whopping 34 copies of their debut cassette, became Slamdek’s first (and only) “act” to put out a video.

Certainly, in the numbers department, no one was surprised or let down by the way Video Hits Volume One “performed” on the sales charts. That is, sales of the “ground breaking” Slambang Vanilla video release tallied up to a mesmerizing total of 8 units (one more than 7, one less than 9). Though, just as with their Memphis Sessions cassette in 1989, more than twice that amount were given away. Perhaps as many as forty units were actually produced. And in true form, virtually no one who knew Joey or me in this era escaped being subjected to the fifteen minute “program” of masterful video editing. Unfamiliar, recent friends have continued to be tormented with it by seeing the box sitting there, simply being curious, and asking, “What’s Slambang Vanilla?” “You had to ask, didn’t you?”

Video Hits Volume One contains three “concept” videos, interspersed with video segments accompanied by portions of eight other Slambang Vanilla songs. One of the full length songs is “Pixagogo House Remix Baby” from The Memphis Sessions, while the other two, “Dragonfly Prayer” and “Birth of the Goober,” were advance tracks from the 98-song Sideburnin’, which had then been about 1/4 completed. “The Colonel’s Secret Recipe for Rock…” is the subtitle scrawled in Joey’s beautiful chickenscratch across the back cover.

I had a full size VHS camcorder with an on-board editor. Nearly all of the video was shot, edited, and compiled with this camera. The only video footage that the we didn’t shoot ourselves was a short compilation of NASA disaster films. This sequence depicts twelve rockets exploding shortly after lift-off accompanied by the track “Burnin’ Up the Sides.”

Above, title screen from the opening sequence. Jason Noble (left) getting KO’ed by the Baptist at Highlands Kroger from “Pixagogo House Remix Baby.” Below, “Dragonfly Prayer” with Middletown Bigg’s under construction in the background and “Pixagogo House Remix Baby.”

The box opened to expose an inside panel with liner notes, and a videocassette labeled with an SDK vinyl sticker. The liner notes were on the inside of the clear box and read, “TeleDEK Pictures Presents Slambang Vanilla! Video Hits Volume One.” TeleDEK was a combination of “Slamdek” and “television,” and used only on this release. “This fifteen minute preview of heaven bestowed upon you consists of the following pleasures,” followed by a program listing. The credits across the bottom read, “TeleDEK Pictures Home Video, A Fuckyougoddammit Communications Company – Dispensed generously to the people of the world by SLAMDEK/Scramdown.”

Considering the means by which they were created, the concept videos are pretty good. Most of the editing is fairly clean. Scenes generally change with the beat. And the visual portions that are directly linked to the music all match up accurately with the sound. Video Hits Volume One, was of course, created on a whim and took about two weeks to shoot and compile. Within another week the packaging was finished. ear X-tacy was then located in Tyler Park Plaza and couldn’t sell videos because of part of their lease as Blockbuster Video’s neighbor. Most of the videos were therefore sold hand to hand, and a few through the mail. Dozens were given away free or at cost, which was about $4.00.

Slambang Vanilla played a total of two “shows” while they were together. One was acoustically on a Slamdek Nite at the Zodiac, January 16, 1991. This was an all acoustic night at which Simon Furnish, Dewey Kincade, and Lunge Engage also performed acoustic sets. The performance was interrupted about halfway through as the crowd of about fifty moved into the back room of the Zodiac Club and gathered around a television set. There was already an uneasy feeling in the air and everyone had been listening to eerie news radio reports on their way to the club. President George Bush came on television and announced that our country was declaring war in the Middle East. “The liberation of Kuwait has begun,” he said. The air in the Zodiac Club that night was frightening.

A second Slambang Vanilla show was scheduled for the Slamdek Nite of March 13, 1991. A videocassette release party, two months after the release. This show was billed as the Slambang Vanilla Orchestra, and featured Jesus Rosebud and Goober The Baptist trading off on guitar, bass, and vocals. Jeremiah (Kevin Coultas) on drums, Loverbones (Breck Pipes) on trumpet, Mark Ritcher on the PolyMoog synthesizer, and Jeff Goebel on banjo. The opening act was the Magic of Will Chatham. Will had practiced magic for years and performed at parties, city events, Hawley-Cooke Booksellers, you name it. Additionally, Will was one of SBV’s biggest fans. The telephone poles were flyered like crazy for this show. An average show would have normally used about 100 flyers. The Slambang Vanilla Orchestra show used 300, many of which were huge, multi-page flyers which had to be assembled on the pole. On the day of the show, when we all arrived at the club, Dave Ellenberger and Cary, the sound man, obviously didn’t want to have a show. They made excuses on why the PA didn’t work and wasn’t able to be fixed for the show. It was cancelled.

In late March, the “band” was stripped down to three members and changed their name from Slambang Vanilla to Muffin. Muffin was Jesus Rosebud, Goober The Baptist, and the bearded Jeremiah. The only show Muffin ever played was at Will Chatham’s birthday party, April 20, 1991. For a relatively uninterested audience of about twelve people, Muffin played a collection of nine hits from Sideburnin’ and The Memphis Sessions. The amplifiers on Muffin’s stage (in front of the Chatham’s fireplace) had copies of Video Hits Volume One stacked on them. Will faithfully watched the entire show.

Muffin broke up some time during the summer of 1991. Scott and Breck moved from 1312 Everett Avenue into a house at 1919 Bonnycastle Avenue with Greta Ritcher and Robin Wallace. This became known as the Slamdek House and became a practice space for Sunspring and Rawhide, a post-Sister Shannon group of Greta and Breck on guitars, David Ernst on bass, Rodney Bell singing, and Jon Causey on drums. The house also hosted a New Year’s show on December 31, 1991 at which Crain, Sunspring, and No Comply played. Within a few months of settling, Robin moved out and Joey moved in. Then Joey moved out and Will moved in. In March 1992, while I was on tour selling shirts for Jawbox and Shudder To Think, everyone moved out. And moved my stuff back out to my parents’ house in Middletown.

LINER NOTES:

Videocassette program:
Nitro Intro
Rock’n’Roll Metal Epilogue (Television Edit)
Dragonfly Prayer•
Pixagogo House Remix Baby•
Dragonfly Prelude (Video Edit)
Naturalist Pithouse (Cable Version)
Birth Of The Goober•
Burnin’ Up The Sides
Pleasure Chest
Hot Sassafras
Fishin’ For Love Baby (Credits Edit)

•=full length concept videos

Drums on “Dragonfly Prayer” by John F. Kampschaefer. Guitar on “Rock’n’Roll Metal Epilogue” by B. Loverbones. Additional furnace cover on “Pleasure Chest” by Mark Denny. Special thanks to John F.K. and Susanne Butler for additional lyrics in “Birth Of The Goober.” 1991/Color/VHS/-Monophonic/Not Rated.