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.