OK. I think I can say relevent things today. Craw CD is going to a second pressing. Milkmine and Morsel recording sessions apparently went very well, thank you. Expect to see the final products sometime in April/May. Will keep everyone updated.
Our friend up in michigan has set us up on the WWW. you can browse,
and I quote:
"craw/choke stuff now available on the world wide web . . .blah ...
find it at http://zapruder.pds.med.umich.edu/uwi.html under the
'UWI Shopping Maul' section ..."
i will be updating the catalog as soon as the new releases get out. have fun. thanks, jon.
Choke, Inc. pool hustler, Phil Tory took on Albini and Yow the other day and got slaughtered (unconfirmed), but will be meeting with the pair on a regular basis to try and learn how to be a good loser. For those unfamiliar with Steve, he has a standing double or nothing wager with any band he records - beat him at pool and get recorded for free, lose and pay double. noi one has taken him up on this offer yet, but by the large collection of billiard books in his bathroom, one need not stretch their imagination to see how good he must be. And now our label man Mr. Tory can attest first hand to the skill of Steve on the Slate. Steve is now considered very big in two catagories in chicago, and the second one has nothing to do with recording bands (unconfimed, with reliable sources).
Speaking of Yow, apparently the scrambling stage man is a scrabble king to beat. local craw scrabble champ, dave mcclelland, has formally challenged Mr. Yow to a scrabble duel, but no messages from their camp have returned. rest assured i will keep you updated on these events.
Our apologies to the craw friends in athens, Ga. we lied and are not going to be able to make it that far south in march. we have lots of shows (see below), but not for you.
Lucia, booker for Milkmine and Morsel, has this to say about Choke, Inc. 'They (Brendan and Phil) are great guys, but Phil is terribly neurotic and should put me on salary if he wants me to be the booker for Choke, Inc. and slave.' Brian Barlow, booker for craw, seconds the opinion of 'great guys', but tends to favor geffen if given the choice. craw likes choke, inc. milkmine likes choke, inc. morsel likes choke, inc. I guess its pretty unanimous. choke, inc. is good. until those royalty checks get back to us.
This paragraph is the 'rag on john nash from Milkmine' paragraph. It is true that being on the road for extended periods of time will take its toll on a person's reasoning and judgement. a recent show in baltimore has a scene with john very angry on the phone with their booker, lucia, about the fact that their contract says no draft beer, only bottled beer, and the bar was not cooperating despite this written law in their rider. needless to say, rumor has it that john was told that he wasn't anywhere near as big a rock star as geddy lee and should be happy that they were getting paid AND were getting free beer. i tell ya, the next club we play at that doesn't have my cheese platter and hors d'ourves served to me with evian and lime i'm not even going to get on stage :) he's never gonna hear the end of this one.
You have to look hard sometimes, but there are a few amazing bands to be found in the anals of cleveland underground music. here are some of the most promising of late.
Derek Hess, booker of the famous Euclid Tavern, who started an entire era of music, local and national, in cleveland by starting to bring in great bands to the Tavern, will be stepping down within the next few months. He has apparently had enough of the booking life and is going to concentrate on his artwork, which is beginning to boom. He began by doing his own flyers for the Tavern shows, and then began to do art for bands, beginning with craw and their first 7" on hit and run records. Today he is doing t-shirts, albums, flyers, etc. for bands like season to risk. He has just finished flyers for a string of fishbone shows in new orleans and just been contracted to do flyers for a string of pink floyd shows in texas. he has a book coming out sometime this year on an indie publishing co. his work has decorated all the craw ads in magazines and all our shirts, including the new ones which will be ready be the time we hit chicago on the 4th. Stepping in for Derek at the Tavern is long time cleve scene supporter and drummer for cleveland's electric mayhem, Chris Anderson. He's also the bartender and my boss at the restaurant that i wait tables at. needless to say he should continue the fine tradition started by Derek with no problem.
NEW BOMB TURKS, SHORTY and CLAY
Grog Shop, cleveland 02-25-94
Clay from columbus was brought up by the turks and you could tell.
entertaining live-wise, but not much musically. i'm a big shorty fan,
so of course they rocked. apparently their van caught on fire on the
way to the show, but that was a touchy subjet and they didn't want to
talk about it. New Bomb Turks are very good at what they do. straight
ahead live, sloppy punk rock. Personally i'm not really into this
style, but they do it well.
GODPLOW, WIG and GLAZED BABY
Euclid Tavern, cleveland 02-21-94
Glazed baby i'd seen like a year and a half ago and was impressed
enough to buy a single. this time around was as good. heavy sounds
and lots o' distorted bass. Wig features morsel guitarist Sean on
lead vocals and i must say i was pretty impressed. a bunch of songs
played back to back made for a cool, trippy 25 minute jam before they
stopped and took a break. pretty straight forward stuff that jams
like good jane's addiction did. very down to earth, nice indiviuals,
also. godplow didn't impress that much. metalish riffs that didn't
really go anywhere.
ERIC'S MOTHER
Stache's, columbus 02-16-94
This ended up being eric's mother's last performance, slightly
unanticipated. personal problems, other bands and a whole range of
typical band grievances sent this great band from columbus six
feet under. but they sure did put on a helluva performance to go out
with. i will completely miss this band.
HAMMERHEAD
nyabingi dance hall, huntington 02-19-94
one of the livest bands in history, and one of a few good bands on
AMREP, totally wiped me and the rest of the crowd out of town. some
of the funniest guys on the road these days, too. We all crashed in
an empty Karma To Burn house. they were out of town, but their new
singer, Curtis, let us all in to their house. I've never seen
anything like that in my life. they were no cats present, but the
place was covered with litter and shit. the place was a total
disgusting mess. there was life on the bathroom ceiling. we all made
the best of it and watched blue velvet before trying to clear a place
to sleep.
MILKMINE and BURIED ALIVE
grog shop, cleveland 02-27-94
OK, the post nirvana thing is totally out of hand. This band buried
alive is local cleveland and did originals that sounded like bad
megadeth, helmet and rush. they even covered rage against the
machine, helmet, and - get this - fudge tunnel. that floored me, that
a typical mtv generation x alternative sounding band covered a fudge
tunnel tune. granted it was their mtv hit grey, but i am still in
shock. will wonders never cease? i think i'll quit music while i'm
ahead. milkmine ruled as always. we got to hear new excerpts from the
forthcoming album. very sweet. even one destined to be the hit pop
song. but they forgot a tape of the recording and told me to buy it
when it hits the stores:)
craw
March 3 chicago
5 lexington
11 cleve
12 kent
17 lexington
18 knoxville
20 norfolk
21 NYC
22 buffalo
23 philadelphia
24 baltimore
25 richmond
April 1 new hampton -loud music festival
2 NYC -IMF festival
15 Dayton
March 31 baltimore
April 1 new hampton -loud music festival
2 NYC -IMF festival
4 philly
9 richmond
12 St. louis
14 des moines
15 muncie
16 warren, oh
17 cleveland
18 kalamazoo
22 atlanta
March 25 huntington
26 dayton
27 cleveland
28 kalamazoo
29 cincinatti
30 richmond
31 baltimore
April 2 NYC
3 albany
5 louisville
6 st.louis