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Margaret Explosion could very well be a shoegaze band. Far from an early nineties thing, our nephew, Eli, says the genre is bigger than ever. Apparently it all started with Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. Eli is writing a book about about shoegaze. We fed him band names trying to get a handle on who qualifies. Were The Feelies shoe gaze?

“Not quite, not enough distortion and reverb. But a band like Galaxie 500, who I guess are similar to the Feelies in some ways, are proto-shoegaze for the dreamy etherality of their vocals/guitar parts.” Damon, Galaxie 500’s drummer, told him that “they were always confused about their association with shoegaze, since shoegaze didn’t really start to take shape until 1990, by which point Galaxie 500 were about to break up.” Eli said you can definitely hear Dean’s ethereal vocals in many shoegaze bands, and the sunset-like atmosphere in their music has a kinship with shoegaze titans like Slowdive.

We mentioned “In One,” a Rochester band that called themselves “shoegaze.” Peggi and I did the 45 cover for them back in the day (1993.) I couldn’t find anything about them online even though the guitar player, John DePuy, is still active with Hinkley so I ripped the seven minute, yellow vinyl, small hole 45 and put it on line here.

Just a few weeks back Peggi and I were taking turns reading aloud The New Yorker article about Spotify. This morning we listened to Eli’s recent Endless Scroll podcast and found him interviewing Liz Pelly who wrote the book about Spotify that The New Yorker kept referencing.

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Margaret Explosion plays Skylark Lounge on Thursday, somewhere other than the Little Theatre Café, and it will be Phil Marshall’s last show with the band – until he fills in as substitute that is. We will miss him and we plan to do our best to make this performance a fitting send-off. With the five dollar cover we also plan to offer free copies of the bands’ first cd, recorded with the first line-up under the name “Invisible Idiot” because Margaret Explosion performing with different lineup by the time we got into the studio (our living room.)

We’ve been assembling copies of the Invisible Idiot cd all week so despite being twenty–seven years old we’re calling it a re-release. We had the cds printed at DiscMakers and we had the covers printed locally by an engraver, Paul Klem. You should be able to spot the blind -embossed “Invisible Idiot” title at the top of the front panel but it takes some work and is probably easier for a blind person to read. We lot along the score lines, glue the two flaps and weight the covers down under a stack of books while the adhesive dries.

Back When City was a newspaper they reviewed the cd as follows.

Fun with Father Time

by Chuck Cuminale — City Newspaper

Invisible Idiot — Outta Sight, Outta Mind

Invisible idiot is a first cousin of the Margaret Explosion, an otherworldly lounge band that, from October 1996 through June 1998, played an esoteric weekly Friday night happy hour at the Bug Jar. The ethereal soundtrack they provided cast and often eerie, slow motion effect on the just-out-of-work crowd’s revelries. The group’s improvised minor key melodies bathed the room in a melancholy glow, suggesting old 8-millimeter home movies, and blurring the lines between experience and reminiscence.

The music on Outta Sight, Outta Mind was made by many of the same musicians. Mostly recorded in six sessions during March and April 1997 in Paul Dodd and Peggi Fournier’s living room, the pieces collected on Outta Sight capture much of the same mood as their Margaret counterparts. A feeling of calm detachment pervades the disc along with a dreaminess that brings to mind Personal Effects’ (Fournier and Dodd were the forces behind that beloved Rochester band) gorgeous classic Don’t Wake Me.” Not every dream is a good dream, though, and I am pretty sure I heard a stifled cry or two coming from that soprano sax, and maybe an exhortation from old Father Time to keep things moving. Outta Sight, Outta Mind is a brilliant soundtrack, for whatever movie happens to come along. 

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I’d like to bring our cd poster to every gig but that would be rude to the rotating artists. The band barely fits in the photo above and the photographer would need an even wider lens to get us all in tonight when Jack brings his bass clarinet. Then again Melissa may not be able to find a sitter.

We and people in a dozen cities across the country watched the same version of the Eno movie last night. The one hundred year old theatre with the brand new sound system was packed. I’m pretty certain I saw yesterday’s date in the code that scrolled across the screen in one of the montage segues. Our version of the film opened with Eno previewing a loop on a monitor. He apparently was in his home studio, a brightly lit room with Albers like art on the white wall behind him. His work area, monitors and white Apple keyboard were impossibly clean and orderly but Eno was warm and immediately engaging. He had us laughing with his first story.

The film is compiled from a pot of over five hundred hours of potential material, some shot for the film, of course, and clips from performances and sessions with all the bands he worked with. Material is still being added to the database today. The pieces of the film are arranged by an algorithm created with guidance from the director, Gary Hustwit. We learned that this very Enoesque concept was the director’s idea and it was born out of desperation as Eno had made it clear he was not interested in one person presenting a profile of someone (him.)

The film is energizing. It feels so fresh you don’t want it to end. The clips cut across time and space and yet hold together perfectly. Eno is full of so many ideas and this presentation makes them all sound like fun. The movie is something like a joyride and I can’t wait to see a different version.

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Peggi and I came across a cicada coming out of its shell while walking in the woods years ago. I took some photos and a short movie and I was waiting for the perfect song to attach the visuals to. I found it in Margaret Explosion’s “Sleepwalk,” one of 17 songs on our new cd “Field Recordings.”

I put the video online yesterday and texted a link to Bob Martin because Chicago had an invasion of cicadas last summer. Bob replied” “In the first couple days they were fascinating to look at. I’d actually move them out of the way when mowing. 4 weeks later, they were deafening, at one time registering nearly 100dB on my Apple Watch dB meter, and a brief trip outside would have you brushing them off your clothes and hair before coming back in. After six weeks, as they were dying off, we were raking them into piles as big as leaf piles in the fall. And just when we thought we were done, itch-mites began multiplying, feeding on the eggs that the cicadas had laced into the tree branches (thus killing the branches) and then said itch-mites began feeding on us, leaving scars we still see. And then there was the smell of rotting carcasses. We didn’t have any concept of how crazy it was going to get despite the warnings. Ours had red eyes and grey wings, though there was the occasional blue-eyed ones, which we referred to as “Sinatras.”

The song was recorded live at the Little Theatre Café (naturally.) Peggi Fournier plays soprano sax, Jack Schaefer plays bass clarinet, Phil Marshall plays guitar, Melissa Davies plays cello, Ken Frank plays the double bass and I play the drums. Arpad Sekeres mastered the audio.

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My last post got 5 stars so I’m doing a second part. I’m happy to find Max Roach is featured in the book that Bennie recommended. He is rightfully everybody’s favorite drummer. The first jazz record I ever owned was Charlie Mingus’s “Town Hall Concert” from 1974. I was still in high school and didn’t know what to make of it at first but I eventually fell in love with it and Danny Richmond’s playing. Brad Fox could sing that whole lp.

My favorite drummer though is Ed Blackwell. Trained in New Orleans, he is what they call a melodic drummer. He plays on Ornette’s “Science Fiction,” an album that turned my head around. I got to see him playing with Don Cherry at a club in New York. I shook his hand even. I was talking to Hamid Drake when he played here and he told me he studied with Ed Blackwell. Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell recorded “Mu” first part and second part, released on a separate lp, in just one session! Just listen to a few minutes of the second track on “Mu First Part.”

And don’t you love the Actual label. The lower case, sans serif typography, the sparse placement of the image on a white sleeve and the logo! In a box with the stylized “A” next to it. The number, flush right at the bottom, indicating a whole series of recordings. Actuel albums looked like anthropoligists’ collections, carefully notated field recordings.

After Bennie showed me a few jazz licks Peggi joined us on sax. Bennie played her panadero, and I played drums. Any time you have two drummers you are jamming. It has to be the easiest path to “jamming.” I never liked bands with two drummers. It is so messy. The most valuable tool in a drummer’s kit is space.

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When my brother was in town for Christmas we stopped out to see Brad. We were sitting in his living room and I remembered when we used to set up our drum sets in the living room, that very same living room. We were in high school and Brad’s mom was at work. Brad had studied at the Eastman and he showed me all that I know – very little. His first lesson was I, 2, 3, 4, on the hi-hat, drop the kick in on one and then add snare on two.” I was sitting with Marc Weinstein a few months ago when he told me how little he knew of the fundamentals. Marc plays with Pat Thomas in Mushroom, he played with MX-80 after Dave Mahoney and he’s currently playing in a blues band in Buffalo. We were laughing and trying to outdo one another with what we can’t do, rolls etc.

Our friend, Bennie, has been studying Brazilian percussion. She was leading the drum section in the stadium at Flash matches when we met her and we’ve seen her play in various settings. She occasionally brings a Brazilian instrument to Margaret Explosion gigs and sits in for a few songs. The last time I saw her I asked if she would stop by sometime and show me a few simple jazz beats. She came over on New Years Day with a paper bag of IPAs and a soft pink case with her panadero inside (a tamborine-like instrument that in the right hands can sound like a whole drum set.) Bennie has the right hands.

Specifically, I wanted to learn how Al Foster does what he does with his left hand in the last couple minutes of of Miles’ “He Loved Him Madly.” That’s all! Bennie had me start with a brush in my right hand while she sang chic, chic, ch-chic, chic, ch-chic, chic, ch-chic, chic over and over and over and over. And she wanted me to keep my right hand over the ride, not pull back and drop beats like I do. I did this for a half hour or so while she scat sang. I had the other brush in my left hand and couldn’t wait to start using it but Bennie would snap, “no backbeats” when it touched the snare. No backbeat? I live for the back beat. When the cymbal pattern was relatively smooth she had me doing it with four on the floor. I tried a snare beat again and got scolded. Bennie suggested I place a quick snare beat just before one of the kick beats. She sang the beat and I tried it. It was exhilarating. I know there is a whole world in there, in and around that simple cymbal pattern.

Bennie had a book with her and I told her I didn’t know how to read the notated drum patterns. She said don’t worry about that just read what the drummers have to say.

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Melissa and Phil were both out of town last Friday so Margaret Explosion played with Bernie Heveron on guitar. Bernie is shown here playing keyboards, some twenty years ago, sitting in with Margaret Explosion at one of the holiday shows at the old Bop Shop. Phil Marshall, who joined the band about six years ago, is playing guitar on this minor key holiday song.

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When I first met Rich I couldn’t get over how he could ever have gotten through high school without a grounding in rock n roll. All my other friendships were formed over passionate responses to rock music. How exotic could Wantaugh, Long Island be that you could grow up without Mitch Ryder and the Stones? I found out when I visited him at his parent’s home. Later it was Rich who turned me on to Bitches Brew.

Rich was a guest dj on Howard Thompson’s WPKN “Pure” show yesterday. His theme-centered show looked at sisters, brothers and brothers & sisters who make music together. You know, Van Halen and the Ramones. I should have shared this link before the show but it will be archived here for the next two weeks. Rich has such a great radio voice. I told him so and he shared a few of his secrets. He used two vocal effects, plus a de-esser and he sped it up 5%. He sounded so smooth, like Adrienne Barbeau in John Carpenter’s Fog.

Madison, a young woman who has been coming to ME for the last six months or so asked me what I was listening to. I told her mostly 45s and she asked if I could share a playlist of them on Spotify. I have a short stack of 7 inchers, ones we’ve played recently, sitting next to the turntable so I limited myself to those. I found most on Spotify but I couldn’t find the single version of “Black & Tan Fantasy” so I had to skip that gem. And because I’m not a subscriber I can’t order the Spotify playlist so I’d recommend shuffling it.

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Speaking of winter, Margaret Explosion will celebrate the solstice on Friday night at the Little theatre Café. The holidays can take care of themselves. The solstice deserves top billing. We played on this same date last year with a different lineup. It is probably a good thing that the whole Margaret Explosion band doesn’t seem to ever show up at once but this week we learned that cellist, Melissa, will be out of town with family, Phil, guitarist, will be in New Orleans with his son and Jack, bass clarinetist, has work duties.

We have played as a trio a few times and resigned ourselves to do that again. Bob Martin, in fact, had already requested we send him a copy of the trio date so he could play along with it in Chicago. But then we thought we could try something new so we invited Chris Zajkowski to play piano. Chris was ready to do it until he heard the weather forecast calling for snow. He has snow-removal customers that take precedence. Bernie Heveron was on our mind because we had just finished the reissue of Bob Martin’s remixed Personal Effects “This Is It” album. So we contacted him via Facebook and he will join us on guitar.

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