Category: Ennui

March 24, 1993

Slamdek Singles

March 24, 1993

Slamdek Singles
compiled seven inches and cassette EP’s plus unreleased material, 1989-1992
various artists two-cassette set
[SDK-32] transparent color copied covers, books-on-tape long box with inserted 8-page booklet

The Slamdek Singles box set was a great idea with beautiful packaging, but also a victim of bad circumstances. Its length of 35 songs in 101 minutes, took an average of nearly a half hour of machine time to record each set. Its expensive, transparent, full color packaging increased its price even more than its two tapes did. It became a specialty item as it had to be kept on the store counter. Its small size and high price tag of around $16 made it too easy to steal.

The diversity of the material it included took several months to compile and assemble for release as a single unit. Slamdek Singles had been in the works since late 1992. Its liner notes include the lyrics to all 35 songs, as well as complete discography, personnel, and production listings for each group. And other than the convenience and novelty of putting all the songs together, the set had a purpose.

“The Slamdek Singles two tape set is the result of several years of dedication, emotion, and hard work by many people. The short 101 minutes that it plays are miniscule in comparison to the time and effort needed to reach this milestone. The songs compiled here are provided as either previously unavailable, currently out of print, or never before issued on cassette. They have all been transferred directly from the original digital masters.”

Slamdek Singles compiled all of Slamdek’s essential EP’s released between 1989 and 1992. This consisted of: the Crain/Deathwatch 7″, the first Endpoint/Sunspring 7″, the Your Face cassette, Sunspring’s Slinky 7″, Ennui’s Olive 7″, and the Jawbox cassette. Its previously unavailable material consisted of two tracks by Sister Shannon, plus one from Christmas 1990; two tracks by LG&E, plus one from Slamdek Merry Christmas Is For Rockers; and two tracks from Ennui, combined with their track from Rockers and their Olive 7″, thus presenting all seven songs they recorded. And the Ennui tracks are incidentally presented in the order in which they were recorded, rather than in the sequence of their seven inch. Are you getting all this?

A production snag occurred when the Sister Shannon DAT could not be located. The unreleased Sister Shannon tracks were one of my main interests in putting the collection together. After several days of phone calls, it turned up at DSL. Another snag came up when one of my two DAT machines was not working properly. I asked John Kampschaefer for his assistance at the last minute, and he graciously obliged. A majority of the digital sequence editing was done in John Kampschaefer’s parents’ basement.

There are some Slamdek EP’s released between ’89 and ’92 which are missing from the collection. They are, the Cerebellum cassette, which was still in print when Slamdek Singles was created, and three EP’s which were left off of the compilation because they had been released to cater to the special interests of selective audiences, Crawdad’s Loaded, the 7 More Seconds cassette, and Sunspring’s $1.50 Demo. The back outside panel of the package has a brief historical introduction, “The Slamdek Record Company began in November 1986 with the release of a cassette by Pink Aftershock. Since then, a combination of thirty-one more cassettes, seven inches, digital audio tapes, videocassettes, and compact discs have been released encompassing a wide range of sounds and ideas. This two tape set compiles most of the cassette EP’s and all the seven inches from the past four years. Also included is a valuable amount of previously unissued material, as well as photographs and the lyrics to all thirty-five songs. Slamdek Singles is the small result of the huge amount of dedication the bands in Louisville (and beyond) share. The time, effort, emotion, and memories that are part of this milestone are things on which no one could ever put a price.”

The lengthy liner notes are synopsized here. And naturally, the discographies are no longer current. Any clarifications and lyrical excerpts are [in brackets]:

The very expensive, full color, transparent books-on-tape long box packaging of Slamdek Singles helped the two tape set meet an early demise. Back cover photo is of Robin Wallace, Todd Smith, and Scott Ritcher at Juniper Hill during the Your Face session in 1988.

SIDE ONE:

Deathwatch: Ignorance Downfall, Wool, Dignity.
Rob Pennington vocals, Duncan Barlow guitar, Greg Carmichael guitar, Rusty Sohm drums, Jason Graff bass.

These songs: Recorded at ARS, Barret Avenue, February 1988. Released as one side of the Crain/Deathwatch split 7″. The record was a limited edition of 300 copies which were given away at a Crain, Endpoint, and Sister Shannon show at the Zodiac Club, September 7, 1990. Deathwatch became Endpoint later in 1988.

Deathwatch Discography:
•Deathwatch cassette, self-released, February 1988, out of print
•Crain/Deathwatch split 7″, Slamdek No. 9790, September 1990, limited edition

[“Punk rock is now a fashion show. You’ve got your boots, so black they glow. Hair stuck up with a can of spray. Punk rock, hardcore, it’s all the same. You’ve got your boots, but what’s to show?”]

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

These songs: Recorded at Sound On Sound, Frankfort Avenue, November 1990. Produced by Howie Gano and the EPA. Released on the Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″

Endpoint Discography:
•If The Spirits Are Willing cassette/DAT, Slamdek No. 9 (prev. 1797), June 1989
•Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″, Slamdek No. 21, March 1991
•In A Time Of Hate LP/cassette, Conversion No. 10, June 1991
•Catharsis LP/CD, Doghouse No. 10, August 1992
•EP2 live 7″, Break Even Point No. 7, November 1992
•Idiots 7″ of cover songs, Doghouse No. 15, December 1992, limited edition

[“Love is gone, locked from your heart. Lust is strong, it’s all you feel. Close your mind to all commitment, you broke her will. Relationship, a mountain we climbed, fell to an immoral world.”]

Your Face: Magenta Bent, Old Hat New Hat.
Robin Wallace vocals, Greta Ritcher guitar, Tishy Quesenberry drums, Dawn Hill bass.

These songs: Recorded at Juniper Hill Creative Audio, December 1988. Released as a cassette single, this was their only release.

Your Face Discography:
•Magenta Bent cassette single, Slamdek No. 1550, January 1989, out of print.

[“Would it make you feel good to see tears running down his face? Howling with a mad delight, you put him in his place. Revenge is something you can touch, the water in his eyes. Throw it back into his lap, all those little lies.”]

Sister Shannon: Carolina, Haint, Goreman.
Robin Wallace vocals, Greta Ritcher guitar, Kevin Coultas drums, David Ernst bass.

These songs: Recorded in Kevin’s parents’ basement live to digital two track [DAT], December 1990. Produced by K. Scott Ritcher and Dave Ernst. “Goreman” appeared on the 1990 Slamdek Christmas tape, and the band broke up in early 1991. [Sister
Shannon was named after Sacred Heart Academy’s Dean of Students, Sister Shannon Maguire.]

Sister Shannon Discography:
•none released

[“Tied on her back, down on a quilt, where fear becomes a sweat stain. That’s all I know about tacks and thumbs. It’s the same as sex or being raped. The hot metal of his weapon says go girl go girl go girl. Dig the pelvic ditch. Carolina… The fetid swamp sits there on the fact that should be fiction. This cracked man dips into his gun powder, dipping in the handfuls of sweet sweet misery, to eat like rock candy and rot her teeth. Carolina… Too close now to examine the heat from his fingers. He pouts into the metal of his misogynist weapon, no one sees his mercy. This cracked man, oh this cracked man. Gonna take me down. Carolina…”]

SIDE TWO:

Sunspring: Don’t Just Stand There, Silver Spring, Kendall, Faceless, Magnet, Christmas Morning, Street.
K. Scott Ritcher guitar/vocals, John Weiss drums, Chad Castetter bass on 1-3, Jason Hayden bass on 4-7.

These songs: Recorded at Sound On Sound. “Don’t Just Stand There,” “Silver Spring,” and “Kendall” produced by Howie Gano and K. Scott Ritcher, March 1991. Released on the Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″. The other four songs produced by Howie Gano, November 1991. Released as the Slinky 7″.

Sunspring Discography:
•$1.50 Demo cassette, Slamdek No. 3950, April 1990, out of print
•Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″, Slamdek No. 21, March 1991
•Sun cassette, Slamdek No. 24, August 1991
•Slinky 7″, Slamdek No. 26, March 1992
•Action Eleven cassette, Slamdek No. 29, October 1992, limited edition
•Poppy CD/cassette, Slamdek No. 31, April 1993 [actual release in June]
•Poppy LP, Break Even Point No. 931213, April 1993 [actual release in September]

[“I want so much to own nothing. Give me just a piece of just what I want. I’ve had it easy but I’ve made it hard. I’ve thwarted my very own efforts. You are no one, you are nothing. I always knew you hated me. You were easy but I made you hard. I made you a street that I avoided. We are everything we want to be. We never stop to think. I was sure you were the mine I thought you were, but now I’m caught with my foot on the trigger.”]

LG&E: First, Second, Third.
Duncan Barlow instruments/vocals, K. Scott Ritcher instruments/vocals.

These songs: Recorded at Slamdek, Eastern Parkway, October 1992. Produced by LG&E, except “Third” recorded March 1993 on 4 track. “First” appears on Slamdek Merry Christmas is for Rockers cassette, 1992.

LG&E Discography:
•none released

[“In the open fields, kissed by fall’s cool winds, a boy shatters the horizon. Short and somewhat stalky, his red hair blazes like fire against the charcoal gray skies that hang over the field. The rain promised a better harvest for the townsfolk, but the harvest of the boy’s soul is dry and weary. A raindrop falls on his nose, breaking his world of tranquility,
but never his realm of fascination.”]

SIDE THREE:
Ennui: Slugs, Two Headed Cow, Ennui, Gun?, Alkaline, 34 Page Book, Translucent.
Matt Ronay vocals, Lane Sparber guitar, Tim Houchin bass, Forrest Kuhn drums.

These songs: Recorded at WGNS, 13th Street (Arlington, VA), May 1992. Produced by Geoff Turner and K. Scott Ritcher. “Alkaline,” “34 Page Book,” “Ennui,” and “Translucent” comprise the Olive 7″. “Gun?” appears on Slamdek Merry Christmas is for Rockers cassette, 1992. “Two Headed Cow” and “Slugs” are previously unavailable. Ennui disbanded during summer 1992.

Ennui Discography:
•Olive 7″, Slamdek No. 27, September 1992

[“Sometimes when I wanna go, I stop and stare and reflect back to the times when I was switching body parts on G.I. Joe’s and killing birds with guns. Leah’s birthday’s brownies we rolled them up, put them on a chair. Lunch ladies’ eyes always bearing down on us. Disobedient, carefree, irresponsible, and burning slugs with Tim.”]

SIDE FOUR:
Jawbox: Twister, Ballast, Bullet Park, Tools & Chrome, Secret History.
Jay Robbins guitar/vocals, Kim Coletta bass, Adam Wade drums.

These songs: Recorded at Upland Studio (Arlington, VA), January 1990. Recorded by Barret Jones, produced by Alferd Packer. All songs except “Bullet Park” comprised the first Jawbox 7″ on DeSoto Records which was released simultaneously with the Slamdek cassette. Slamdek’s extra cut is a tambourine-less mix of its recording for a Maximumrocknroll compilation. Jawbox is, so far, the only non-Louisville band to be released on Slamdek.

Jawbox Discography:
•Jawbox cassette, Slamdek No. 1782, April 1990, out of print
•Jawbox 7″, DeSoto No. 2, May 1990, out of print
•Grippe LP/cassette/CD, Dischord No. 52, June 1991
•Ones + Zeros 7″, Dischord No. 61, March 1992
•Novelty LP/cassette/CD, Dischord No. 69, August 1992
•Tar/Jawbox Static split 7″, Touch and Go/Dischord, February 1993
•Jackpot Plus! 7″, Dischord No. 77, February 1993

[“Blood marks the road where the animal left its life behind, in a red stain that the rain will wash away. Fall of night foretold, sky colors like a bruise, and I think of ones I used to know and the paths they had to choose. For we are born and we remain forever trapped inside our heads, alone. No human chords are struck without a resonance in other lives, but the echoes we hold onto seem as arbitrary as the times.”]

Crain: The Fuse, Proposed Production.
Joey Mudd vocals on “Proposed Production,” Tim Furnish guitar, Jon Cook bass, Will Chatham drums, Drew Daniel vocals on “The Fuse”

These songs: Recorded at Sound On Sound, January 1990. Recorded by Howie Gano. Released on the Crain/Deathwatch split 7″. Three other songs from this same 17-song session were part of the Rocket 7″ released later.

Crain Discography:
•Crain/Deathwatch split 7″, Slamdek No. 9790, September 1990, limited edition
•Rocket 7″, Automatic (Liability) No. 1, April 1991, out of print
•Speed LP/cassette, Automatic (Liability) No. 3, May 1992

[“They said the newspaper, it could never lie, but they hid the truth about the way she died. Asked mother how it happened, she said she wasn’t sure. It’s a strange disease that finds its own cure. I can project my own reasons, I can speculate, how grandmother fell into such a state. Mother made me swear I wouldn’t go that way. A promise is a promise is a promise that I shouldn’t have made.”]

After the four months it took to assemble, Slamdek Singles met an early fate after about two months of release. Fewer than fifty units of it had been manufactured when Sunspring’s upcoming Poppy CD helped to do it in, in more ways than one. The first way was financially, as virtually all the money coming in from sales of all Slamdek releases was being allocated to help pay for manufacturing the very costly Poppy discs, the first CD fully funded by the label. Another way the Poppy CD cut the life of Slamdek Singles was by duplicating all seven of its Sunspring songs. Additionally, the Grippe CD on Dischord was inclusive of four of the five Jawbox songs.

Slamdek Singles was then essentially desired only for its twelve exclusive cuts. This was hardly enough to warrant its elaborate transparent, full color packaging with twenty-three other songs. Each unit cost about $6.50 each to manufacture, the wholesale price was $10.75, and the few dozen units that were made sold for about $15.00. I stole the idea for the colorful, transparent packaging from the British CD single of “True Love Will Find You In The End” and the limited CD version of Soul Kiss, both by Spectrum. The same two CD’s were later sampled on Sunspring’s Poppy and Metroschifter’s New Mexico Drum Machine Demos.

The Endpoint and Deathwatch songs eventually ended up on the CD version of If The Spirits Are Willing the following year. LG&E’s tracks resurfaced on the LG&E cassette in December 1993. The exclusive songs by Ennui, Jawbox, and Sister Shannon disappeared from print, as did the reissued tracks by Your Face and Crain.

ADDITIONAL LINER NOTES:

Back cover photo: Greg Lynch. • Special assistance: Robin Wallace, Carrie Osborne, Matthew M. Ronay, Duncan Barlow, Jon Cook, David A. Stewart, Mark Ritcher, Mike Baker, and Chad Castetter. • Compilation and packaging: K. Scott Ritcher. • Additional digital sequencing: John F. Kampschaefer. • Thanks also to DeSoto Records, Automatic Wreckords, DSL, and Cosmic Software, for their much appreciated cooperation in this release.

December 12, 1992

Slamdek Merry Christmas Is For Rockers

December 12, 1992

Slamdek Merry Christmas Is For Rockers
various artists cassette
[SDK-29] color copied covers, books-on-tape long box with inserted 6-page booklet, laser printed labels

The 1992 Christmas tape documented several notable beginnings, but was ultimately more a product of habit than inspiration. Following the previous year’s super-creative Christmas effort was a tall order. And 1991 also had the advantage of a consistent sound by having its nine songs uniformly recorded in the same studio. But with or without comparison to the Louisville covers on 1991’s Merry Christmas cassette, 1992’s Slamdek Merry Christmas is for Rockers fell short of the mark.

It had all the typically big Slamdek names, Endpoint, Crain, Sunspring; it introduced several new bands, Rodan, The Pale Blue Star, and LG&E; and continued the work of others, Hopscotch Army, Ennui, Concrete, Lather, and Telephone Man. Its books-on-tape box packaging and full color cover were handsome, but costly, and it included a candy cane. Tim Furnish, who was DTP manager at Bardstown Road Kinko’s at Stevens Avenue, did the color scanning. And Carrie Osborne, Kim Sampson, and Mike Jarboe, who were also employed there, cut me a deal on the color copies for the covers. The color images were designed blindly on the black and white Macintosh Classic at my parents’ house, and printed on the 300 dpi color Tektronix printer at Kinko’s. There was now a 300 dpi black and white printer at the house, which was used for the black and white insert.

While the packaging was fairly elaborate, my apparent lack of enthusiasm for the release was demonstrated in the liner notes. “Traditionally, this pack of liner notes is filled with long-winded, overly informative ramblings that amount to a 95-paragraph pep talk essay on how great Louisville is and how cool our bands are. Since we’re all pretty much aware by now that Louisville’s shitty bands are much better than many other cities’ good bands, we’ll skip the speech this year. One major point that should be made, though, is that there are so many different kinds of bands doing so many different types of things here that narrowing it down to eleven songs is hardly fair. A lot of bands who wanted to be on the Christmas tape this year couldn’t because of scheduling problems and space limitations. To them we apologize. You can guarantee that next year’s will be much better scheduled and will be ALL Christmas songs!” [The following year’s Christmas tape was cancelled due to a lack of response from the bands. Pulse was the only one who actually completed a Christmas song for the tape, “Good King Wencheslas.” Endpoint was going to do “Silent Night,” Sunspring “Let It Snow,” etc.]

Slamdek Merry Christmas Is For Rockers insert, unfolded to 6 1/4 by 10 1/2 inches, copied on blue-gray speckled, recycled paper. Center photo above is from Christmas 1981, as Mark, Scott, and Greta Ritcher open their new Atari 2600 Video Computer System. Left photo below, from winter 1975, is Mark and Scott on a sled.

The back cover of Slamdek Merry Christmas is for Rockers also had a brief, and slightly more enthusiastic and comprehensive introduction, “For five of the past six years, Louisville bands have come together on the annual Slamdek Christmas tape. 1992 is no different. It’s a tape of songs which are compiled just to be heard. Each song is very different from the others around it. They’re all written by different people and recorded in different places, but they all came from the hearts and minds of the angst-ridden, wound-up kids of Louisville, Kentucky. And while they’re not traditional Christmas Carols, they are Christmas songs because they’re the gifts of reassurance we give to each other every year.”
It should be noted that the title, Slamdek Merry Christmas is for Rockers, is not a reference to the Slamdek Rockers field hockey team. That formed in late 1993, nearly a year later. If anything, perhaps the name of the cassette inspired the name of the team, but neither is directly responsible for the other. And, unusual for Slamdek releases, the tape also carries a dedication, “Dedicated to the four of us who left this year for the next life. You’re never forgotten.” The four, who were not named, were Karla Millan, Ramona Lutz, Shanda Sharer, and Tim Wunderlin.

The liner notes are straight to the point, and presented in a uniform order with band members [drummer, then guitarist, then singer, then bassist], products available [“available stuff” with postpaid prices and addresses], and each group’s plans [beginning with the word “And”]:

Sunspring “Roadburn”

Produced by Howie Gano at Sound On Sound on 16 tracks. Drums by Forrest Kuhn, guitar/vocals by K. Scott Ritcher, bass guitar by Jason Thompson, and guest sample by Layla Smith. Available stuff: Slinky 7″ or Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″ $3.50 each ppd, Sun cassette $6 ppd. [Slamdek’s address]. And they are working on an 11-song LP to be released on Break Even Point Records from Italy in Spring 1993.

[The LP referred to was Poppy, which became 12 songs and was recorded in January and February 1993. It came out as a Slamdek CD in June 1993, a Slamdek cassette the following month, and the European LP pressing on Break Even Point sailed in September. The guest sample is Layla saying, “I was walking down the street when I looked over at a brick wall that said Layla is fat and I laughed. Then I went home and I cried.”]

Crain “Coalmine #666”

Recorded on 4 track at the Rocket House by Jon Cook. Drums by John Causey, guitar/vocals by Jon Cook, guitar by Tim Furnish, and bass guitar by Jason Hayden. Available stuff: Speed LP $7.50 ppd. Monster 7″ $3 ppd. [Automatic Wreckords’ address]. And a CD of Speed plus lots of extra songs will also be out soon.

[The CD version of Speed never came out on Automatic. John Causey left the group
which soon signed with Restless Records. On Restless, they recorded and released a second album, Heater, named after a project band Causey, Cook, and Hayden had been in when Hayden joined Crain. The album Heater has Jon Cook playing drums, guitar, and singing, with Tim also playing guitar and singing, and Jason on bass and singing. The band Heater did two songs called “Crackhouse” and “Sleepwalker” on the 3 Little Girls cassette compilation Aftereffects of Insomnia. This same recording of “Coalmine #666” later appeared on Simple Machines Records’ Working Holiday 7″, October, with the Grifters on the other side.]

Telephone Man “Condensed”

Recorded on 8 track [cassette] by Tim Houchin at his house. Drum machine/bass by Tim Houchin, guitar/vocals by Matt Ronay. Available stuff: Telephone Man cassette $4.50 ppd [Cluewrench Tape Co. c/o Slamdek] see address under Sunspring. And they are planning a second tape for release in spring ’93.

[The second tape was never completed. Tim Houchin left to form Zugzwang with Ben Brantley. Zugzwang’s approach to recording was the same and they released a seven inch which became the only record on their own label, Sweetheart Records. Matt Ronay turned Telephone Man into a full band by changing the name to The Telephone Man, and adding Ashli State of Snakeater on bass, and Nick Hennies on drums. They recorded a self titled cassette for Slamdek in September 1993.]

Books-on-tape long box packaging. Special gift candy canes included inside Slamdek Merry Christmas Is For Rockers cassettes were purchased in bulk at Bigg’s Hypermarket in Middletown.

Lather “Sorry”

Recorded live at Tewligans. Drums by Brian Toth, guitar/vocals by Jeremy Podgursky, guitar by Sean Wolfson, and bass guitar/vocals by Brian Kaelin. Available stuff: Lather 7″ $3.50 ppd. Automatic Wreckords see address under Crain. And there is also an $8 ppd LP of Jeremy Podgursky and Brian Kaelin’s former band Dybbuk out from Self Destruct Records [address].

[Lather’s 7″ release was postponed and eventually came out on Self Destruct instead of Automatic. Between April and June of 1993, they recorded six more songs at Sound On Sound. Those tracks were compiled with their four 7″ songs as a CD on Self Destruct, A Modest Proposal, released in fall 1993. Lather broke up during the summer of 1994, having thanked Glenn Danzig on every release.]

Endpoint “Thought You Were” (alternate vocal take)

Recorded on digital 2 track by K. Scott Ritcher at Juniper Hill, an outtake from If The Spirits Are Willing, 1989, produced by Todd Smith. Drums by Rusty Sohm, guitar by Duncan Barlow, vocals by Rob Pennington, and bass guitar by Jason Graff. Available stuff:
If The Spirits Are Willing cassette $7 ppd and Endpoint/Sunspring split 7″ $3.50 ppd from Slamdek. Also: Catharsis LP $8 ppd, CD $10 ppd [Doghouse Records address]. And they have a 7″ picture disk of 4 cover songs coming out from Doghouse in 1993.

[This track was recorded on DAT while Rob was recording his vocals. It’s preceded and followed by short segments of dialog between Rob and Rusty who are talking with engineer Tom Mabe, who is in the control room. Endpoint was on tour in Europe when Slamdek Merry Christmas is for Rockers was released, and were surprised to see this song on it when they returned in January. The 7″ picture disk ended up being a standard 7″ called Idiots. Issued in a limited edition by Doghouse in 1993, it contains covers of “Building” by Embrace, “Attitude” by the Misfits, “Circus Of Pain” by Louisville’s Malignant Growth, and “Persistent Vision” by Rites of Spring. Doghouse reissued it on CD in late 1995… also to the band’s surprise.]

Concrete “Meaningless”

Recorded on 8 track [cassette] by Scott Walker in his basement. Drums by Scott Walker, guitar/vocals by John Causey, and bass guitar by Ramon [Scott] Bryant. Available stuff: Concrete/Sancred split 7″ $5 ppd John Causey Records [address]. And chances are you’ll be hearing more of their new sound during the new year.

[Concrete was a group John Causey formed after leaving Undermine. Both bands initially had a similar sound even though he played drums in Undermine and in Concrete he sang and played guitar. With “Meaningless” they introduced a revamped, less direct approach. It didn’t last long, as they were only together about a year, and this was near the end of their days.]

Hopscotch Army “If I Had That”

Produced by Dave Stewart at DSL on 16 tracks. Drums by Dave Hoback, guitar/vocals by Mark Ritcher, guitar by Jeff Goebel, and bass guitar by Scott Darrow. Available stuff: Belief or Blurry cassettes $6 each ppd, These Shallow Hours CD $9 ppd from Slamdek. And they have a new drummer, Kevin Coultas, who used to rock with Crawdad and Sister Shannon.

[Even though These Shallow Hours was completed and listed here as being available, it was never released. Kevin stayed with the group for about six months before leaving to play with Crain. Hopscotch Army played their last show May 8, 1993 at Butchertown Pub.]

LG&E “First”

Produced by LG&E at Slamdek [the Schuster Building apartment I shared with Chad] on 8 tracks [cassette]. Instruments and vocals by Duncan Barlow and Scott Ritcher. Available stuff: t-shirt $10 ppd from Slamdek. The Slamdek Singles EP compilation cassette box set, available in February ’93, will include two more LG&E songs.

[Duncan and I finally teamed up musically after knowing each other for five years, and I got the opportunity to use the name LG&E which I had been saving for a while. The duo featured dance-able drum machine rhythms overlaid with smoothly distorted guitars and whispered, reverb-soaked vocals. Slamdek Singles was released in March 1993 and included all three of our cleverly titled songs, “First,” “Second,” and “Third.” December 1993 we released a cassette on Slamdek.]

Ennui “Gun?”

Produced by Geoff Turner and K. Scott Ritcher at WGNS on 16 tracks. Drums by Forrest Kuhn, guitar by Lane Sparber, vocals by Matt Ronay, and bass guitar by Tim Houchin. Available stuff: Olive 7″ $3.50 ppd from Slamdek. Ennui is no longer together, but two more songs from this session will also be available in the Slamdek Singles set.

[This is one of seven songs recorded at WGNS in May 1992. Four others were on the Olive 7″, and all seven were on Slamdek Singles. “Gun?” was one of Ennui’s most
recent songs when it was recorded.]

Rodan “Toothfairy Retribution Manifesto”

Produced by Tony French and Rodan at the Hat Factory on 8 tracks. Drums by Jon Cook, guitar by Jeff Mueller, guitar by Jason Noble, and bass guitar/vocals by Tara O’Neil. Available stuff: Rodan 7″ $3.50 ppd, Jason and Jeff are also King G & J Krew members whose CD is $10 ppd. Automatic Wreckords see address under Crain. And they are also going to be on a 7″ compilation out from Simple Machines Records in January with Tsunami, Superchunk, and Unrest.

[This track appeared as their debut since changing their name to Rodan from King Kid International in early December. In fact, I had to reprint the master sheet for the tape cover to change it to their new name. The Simple Machines 7″, Inclined Plane, followed it, as did a self-released cassette, Aviary. John Weiss joined on drums after returning from American University for the Christmas holidays. Their 7″ on Automatic was cancelled and ended up as How The Winter Was Passed on 3 Little Girls Recordings. John Weiss plays on one side, and Jon Cook on the other. King G and the J Krew’s CD also moved off Automatic, and came to Slamdek in May ’93. Rodan went on to record an album for Chicago’s Quarterstick Records. Rusty garnered an unusual wealth of critical acclaim for the band, who toured the United States and Europe extensively in support of it. In the wake of Rodan’s success, King G and the J Krew fizzled out of existence. Rodan played their last show at the Lounge Axe in Chicago on September 25, 1994.]

The Pale Blue Star “I Fell”

Recorded on 4 track. Guitar/vocals by Joe Mudd. The band also now includes Bill Heideman on drums and Josh Peterson on bass guitar, though they are not on this song. As he’s an ex-member of Crain, you can hear Joe on the Speed LP. Expect shows and more recordings in 1993, and for more information write to Ford Records [address].

[The Pale Blue Star made their performance debut at Slamdek’s Louisville Summer Weekend at the Machine, July 1993. At that point, the band included Breck Pipes on guitar, Kevin Coultas on drums, and Jason Noble on bass. That line up didn’t last. Another arrangement, a year later, had Joe flanked by drummer Mark Ernst, and bassist Cassie Marrett. The band played a handful of stunning shows and evolved through some more members. Ford Records was a label Joe formed in 1991 which never released anything. The Pale Blue Star were scheduled to record a Slamdek 7″, SDK-40, but that was lost when the label folded in early 1995. See page 158.]

LINER NOTES:

Side one:
Sunspring Roadburn
Crain Coalmine #666
Telephone Man Condensed
Lather Sorry (live)
Endpoint Thought You Were (alt. vocal)
Concrete Meaningless

Side two:
Hopscotch Army If I Had That
LG&E First
Ennui Gun?
Rodan Toothfairy Retribution Manifesto
The Pale Blue Star I Fell

Digital master and sequence editing by Howie Gano at Sound On Sound, December 1992. Color photograph scans by Timothy R. Furnish. Assembly by Carrie Osborne, Chad Castetter, and Layla Smith. Package by K. Scott Ritcher. • Special thanks to: Tim Furnish, John Timmons and everyone at ear X-tacy, Guiliano Calza at Break Even Point Records, Sancred, Dirk from Doghouse Records, Ford Records, Automatic Wreckords, Mike B. and Self Destruct Records, Better Days, Mary and Allan Ritcher, J.F. Kampschaefer, Dave Gabe, Billy and Tewligans, Three Little Girls, Tucker Yingling, Sean Fawbush and Quest, Edward Lutz, Kim Coletta and DeSoto, and John Weiss.

September 29, 1992

Ennui – Olive

September 29, 1992

Ennui
Olive seven inch
[SDK-27] photocopied covers

The debut seven inch from Ennui was the start of what could be considered the second generation of Slamdek. Up to this point, most everyone who had released records on Slamdek had graduated from high school during the eighties. Ennui, and the crowd they were from, was next in line. They were all about five to seven years younger than members of bands like Endpoint, Sunspring, and Crain. However, as tightly knit as Louisville was, the age difference wasn’t enough to prevent everyone from already knowing each other. I had long been a fan of the hilarious Scalp fanzine made by two insane, hyperactive skateboarders, Matt Ronay and Josh Sachs. So naturally, when Matt became the singer for a new band called Ennui in early 1991, I was interested in the band.

The overall excitement and enthusiasm for the Ennui record was one of the most rewarding aspects of it. Essentially, Endpoint and Crain had gone on about their business with other labels, and in November 1991, Sunspring was the only band on Slamdek. The current releases on the label were the Slambang Vanilla video, 7 More Seconds cassette, and a cassette of unreleased Spot material. None of these could scarcely be classified as “anchor” records. Slamdek was drifting, and the door was wide open for new people with new ideas to come in and breathe new life into the label.

Spot played a reunion show at ear X-tacy on November 17, 1991 as part of Slamdek’s fifth birthday celebration, the Five Fest. At the party, Matt Ronay asked me if I’d be interested in putting out an Ennui record on Slamdek. Having only seen the band once, I said I’d love to. Since Slamdek was then five years old, it had become a big part of punk and hardcore in general for kids who had been attracted to the scene in those years. The kids who were in Ennui had grown into punk and hardcore with Slamdek as one of their guides. They were as outwardly excited about being on Slamdek as I was about having them, a new and active band, on the label.
The band was high school sophomores and juniors; Matt Ronay singing, Lane Sparber on guitar, Forrest Kuhn on drums, and Tim Houchin on bass.

Ennui shows were adventures into absurdity. Puzzled looks on the faces in the audience were abundant. Each show had a theme, and the band would decorate the stage with props and they’d dress according to the theme. By the end of each show, usually with the help of friend Ben Brantley, they would completely destroy their stage sets and Matt would do his best to make sure pieces of it came in contact with every audience member. If you walked in after a show was over and there was a mess all over the place, chances were that Ennui had played.

For an October 18, 1991 performance at Audubon Sk8 Park with Sunspring, Undermine, MFBS, and Step Down, it was a Mafia and gangster theme. The band constructed downtown buildings out of cardboard, simulating rough city streets, and they dressed in suits. At Robyn Craxton’s Big Surprise, it was naturally a birthday theme, for which they hung birthday decorations, wore hats, and threw Ben into a birthday cake. An exercise bicycle from Forrest’s house was damaged during antics at an Ennui practice, and the band had to pay for the damage to the bicycle, which they ended up buying. Since Ennui owned a broken exercise bike, the exercise theme was implemented for a
May 1, 1992 show at George Rogers Clark Park with Sunspring, Step Down, Sancred, and Shut Out. During the show, Josh Sachs and Dave Cook engaged in an exercise work out and, of course, by the end of the show, totally demolished the bike with baseball bats. For Ennui’s last show, June 21, 1992, at Tewligans with Crain, Diet Sunspring, and Sancred, they created several huge, inflatable bubbles out of garbage bags. The first few songs were performed with most of the band concealed inside these enormous, inflated bubbles.

May 5, 1992, Ennui at George Rogers Clark Park: the exercise theme. Above: Dave Cook and Josh Sachs. Below: Matt Ronay, Dave Cook, Forrest Kuhn.

Ennui recorded in May 1992 at WGNS Studio in Arlington, Virginia. This was a basement studio, operated by Gray Matter singer Geoff Turner. I met Geoff a few months earlier when I had been dropped off at the house for the Jawbox tour. DSL studio in Louisville was not fully operational for outside clients yet, and Ennui wanted to go for a different, and more unique sound than Howie Gano’s Sound On Sound was known to provide. While talking about the upcoming Ennui record one day, Matt and I decided it would probably be best to take the band out of town to record. As we were both Gray Matter fans and I had recently met Geoff, WGNS was our first choice. I called Geoff to see if he’d be interested in the project, and he was.

Having been lucky enough to get the opportunity to work with the first choice engineer, it would have seemed that the hardest part of the process was out of the way. To the contrary, some of the parents of Ennui members were concerned about their kids missing school to be taken out of state to a recording studio. They were also very curious about what Slamdek was, how big it was, as well as what kind of sales quantities and royalties might be coming along. So before Ennui was ever able to enter the studio, leave the state, or officially commit to making a record on Slamdek, a meeting had to be held. The meeting was held in April at Forrest’s parents’ house near Eastern Parkway and Baxter Avenue. The band and all their parents were in attendance to meet with me. The discussions covered the size of the label, copyrights, quantities, and all that sort of stuff. The parents had an inflated idea of Slamdek’s scale because of their children’s perception of it, and all of that was put into perspective. In addition, plans were made
for the extended weekend trip to the metro DC area, May 8-11.

For the trip to the studio, Dr. “Chip” Kuhn, Forrest’s father, drove their Mazda minivan with the equipment, Forrest, and Lane. Layla Smith again drove her Honda Civic to DC with Matt, Tim, and myself in tow. The first day in the studio was May 9, 1992. The band recorded the better part of seven songs, guitar overdubs and vocal tracks. The second day was mostly mixing. To everyone’s surprise Geoff took great interest in the songs and offered his ideas. He was originally going to be listed as an engineer, but the role he played during the recording process became so vital to the way the record turned out that he was listed as a producer. At one point he coerced Lane into trying a Marshall amplifier for extra tracks instead of his Fender combo. Lane was reluctant to deviate from his normal set up, but as soon as he was plugged in, he retracked every song with a Marshall track. Geoff also suggested an acoustic track on “Slugs” which in retrospect seems to carry the song, and the doubled vocal track on “Alkaline” was also his idea.
As it was Ennui’s first trip into a recording studio, Geoff was very easy to work with, and the band enjoyed the process. During a break, Geoff and I walked up to a convenience store from the house. We discussed bringing Sunspring to WGNS in the fall of 1992 to record our first full-length album.

Ennui broke up within two months of leaving the studio. And their seven inch, Olive, was issued two months after that. Having been seven months since the last Slamdek release, despite the break up of both our bands, Ennui and Sunspring, Matt and I hounded the records like crazy. It was all we had left and we wanted to make sure everyone in Louisville had a copy of each.

Ennui’s Olive seven inch sold 347 copies, and about another 150 were given away at Slamdek Rockers field hockey games or sold below cost after Slamdek shut down in 1995. The four songs were reissued in the Slamdek Singles box set in spring 1993 along with the three others from the WGNS session. As well, “Gun?” one of the three spare songs appeared on the 1992 Christmas tape, Slamdek Merry Christmas is for Rockers. Total circulation of releases containing Ennui songs is about 600 units.

Ennui played a reunion show at City Lights, January 22, 1993, with Crain, Sunspring, and Rodan. Guitarist Lane Sparber had gone to college, causing the break up of the band, so Chad Castetter of Endpoint played guitar for the reunion. Additionally, Matt had begun playing guitar after Ennui had broken up, so he played as well as sung at the reunion.

LINER NOTES:

Produced by Geoff Turner and K. Scott Ritcher.

Side one:
Alkaline
34 Page Book

Side two:
Ennui
Translucent

[instruments and last names not listed on record]
Tim Houchin, bass
Forrest Kuhn, drums
Matt Ronay, vocals
Lane Sparber, guitar

Some backing voices: Tim, K. Scott, Forrest.

Photos: Matt.

Thank you: Scott, everybody’s parents (especially Forrest’s and Lane’s), Herschal S., Scott L., Enette & David, Geoff Turner, Ben, Josh, Jason H., Layla & Tim F., Duncan, John W., Dave Cook, Chris H., Victor J., Alice, Andy L., Tony C., Matt L., Wanton, everybody at Audubon Sk8 Park, Cody G., Kim (Kinko’s), Carrie S., Thomas Harris, Macintosh, Robin C., McGee, Mindy, Rubbing Alcohol, Super America Bike Track, Sud, Dave and Curt and Chuck, Tewligans, Crain, Endpoint, Chico, Shawn P., Al Smith, Jeff and Jason and Gill, Derek, Brian, Sean Mc, Kevin K., Duke of Louisville, and you.

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