Good Citizen Progress Report
1995 was a year of great progress for the Burlington, Vermont music community. Bands from our little town started packing clubs in far away lands. Bands from our little town got major kudos in big league industry press. And bands from our little town made some serious friends in serious places, setting up what should become a banner year for Burlington music. Join us as we track down twelve local bands who made big dents in the biz last year in our progress report 1996.
James Kockalka Superstar
1995 was a super big year for our own multimedia superhero and Good Citizen contributor James Kochalka Superstar. On July 1, the former crooner/lounge lizard front man for UVM’s late, demented Jazzin’ Hell married his longtime sweetheart Amy King and celebrated the release of his first compact disc The True Story of James Kochalka Superstar on the nationally distributed New York indie label Dot Dot dash. A brilliant collection featuring the greatest hits of Kochalka’s long career, the album stormed up the college radio charts and gave us certain;y one of the finest national performances of a Vermont album for the year: trade journal CMJ (the bible of college radio) reported Koahclka sighting on radio playlists all over the country (including #1’s in Pennsylvania and California and #2 at Yale’s holier-than-thou WYBC,) allowing our hero to spend six weeks on the charts, eventually peaking at #132. Two college radio disc jockeys (one in Connecticut and one in Alaska) even named their radio shows after his hit single “Magic Finger”.
His new comic book “Little Mister Man” was released via the (again) nationally distributed Slave Labor Graphics. And his sometimes backup band, the Philistines Jr., released their new album on Dot Dot Dash that included a song called “Last Night James Kochalka Got Really Drunk and Swears That He Saw a UFO.”
As 1996 began, the Philistines Jr. (also featuring Jazzin’ Hell alumnus Peter Katis, the band behind much of the music on TTSOJKS) were being hotly pursued by a very big record company, allowing the inevitable fame of James Kochalka Superstar yet one more road to travel.
The Pants
Local alt-rock heroes The Pants had a phenomenal year in 1995, foe in part to a management deal with Dennis Wyhmans and Toast Artists International that focused on taking them from being a small-town band with lots of friends to being a regional club favorite with one hell of a demo tape. On the concert side of things, our boys made forays to NYC, Portland, Albany, Northampton and Boston. Guitar-guy Pistol Stamen became producer-guy on a number of projects, including the amazing CD release from The Fags. 1995 saw the release of the second Pants CD, and their first as a quartet, the amazing, self-recorded Fred Sex, and saw their first selt-titled sic earn them a licensing deal with Hipster Records in the UK. Their re-recording of “None of That: for the Good Citizen Soundtrack kicked some serious ass, and in January of ‘96, The Pants hit the world class Bearsville Studio in Woodtock, New York to record an excellent three song demo with Phish axe-man trey Anastasio playing the role of producer-guy. The band also released a cassette-only project recorded live at the Last Elm Cafe. And with that kind of year under their belts (sorry, guys) you can expect to hear a lot more from our Panted ones in ‘96, including a Phish cover on the upcoming Burlington Does Burlington album.
The Fags
Eugene Nikolaev, who recently became a full fledged American citizen, is without a doubt the most punk-rock guy we know. And as leader of Burlington’s The Fags, Eugene has been waving the DIY banner since his days as Epitaph’s final bass player, mostly to small crowds and deaf ears. The Fags have seennumerous line-up changed and played a lot of barely-coherant shows that endeared them to reckless youth and made them feared by sound guys everywhere, but also made them a hit-or-miss live attraction; some Fags shows rocked the world, others didn’t. And then in 1995, the Fags got their shit together. The addition of bassist Jason Cooley (see Puzz in Good Citizen #2) made a distinct improvement, and Dana Shepard’s drumming got noticeably better as an apparent result. By fall of the year, the Fags were giving up some of the most explosive performances in town: Eugene’s stagger seemed less drunken and the music became a lot more focused. Their contribution to Split Record #6, the wonderful “Pills of Patience,” rocked in a new hi-fi kind of way, and then the album that they promised all year, No Fleas Lunch Money and Gold Teeth, finally came out around year's end. A punk rock tou-de-force, No Fleas (see Reviews section,” recorded by the band and 8-track wizard Pistol (The Pants) Stamen at “Buck’s House” mastered with Joe Egan at Eclipse, is al album that every kid should beg, borrow, or steal to get their hands on. Let’s hope that the rest of the world will be smart enough to catch on.
Five Seconds Expired
Burlington hardcore heroes, Slush became the artists formerly known as Slush when they discovered a band in Los Angeles with the same name. The artists now known as Five Seconds Expired broke big in 1995 on the strength of their killer live performances all over the east coast and an amazing 4 song self-released CD. Already radio favorites with their first cassette and the Split Records “Worthless Fool” single, Slush hit the ground running with the self-produced Step Inside, recorded at Joe Egan’s Eclipse Studio. College radio nationwide went nuts for the record and the EP spent six weeks on the CMJ Loud Rock charts, finally peaking at #62, an amazing achievement for an independent self-distributed release. Rave reviews from every trade that matters came pouring in…Gavin, CMJ, Har Report, Foundations and Hits magazine all salivated over the brutal twin guitar attack of Todd Dunn (Peg Tassey & Proud of it, CHin Ho!) and Denny Donovan (see Twelve Times Over)and the brittle barking of vocalist Jeff Howlett. And the band somehow got their beat up old van to shows all over the northeast and saw huge crowds start to develop at stops like Mama Kin, the Middle East and the Rat in Boston and Coney ISland HIgh in NYC. The band went through some major line-up changes,replacing Donovan with another Proud alumnus, Josh Cooper, and adding Shawn Narvey on bass guitar. But it was a CMJ showcase in September that sealed the fate for our boys from East Hardwick (and Burlington and Montpelier and, well, Virginia) and opened the door to their January 1996 signing to New York’s Another Planet Records, a subsidiary of the famous rap label Profile Records, and home to Murphy’s Law, Cro-mags and Leeway. National distribution (via Caroline) of their new recording Null produced by Canadian Glen Robinson (Wide Wail, Envy, Gwar,) should be the final hook the Five Seconds Expired boys need to conquer the world and make Vermont as well known for it;s loud rock as it is for it’s snow capped mountains. A single from the album, “Puzzle” will be released in March, backed with a live recorded of “Toss and Turn” captured at Club Toast by engineer Sergei Ushakov, leading up the the May release of the album. And the band contributes a live recording of Black Hairy Tongue’s immortal “Awake to Steak '' to the upcoming Good Citizen CD Burlington Does Burlington, due for release in May also. With plans for a summer tour and the support system finally in place, 1996 looks like a mighty good year for Five Seconds Expired. And it couldn’t happen to nicer guys.
Tamah
The staunchly independent folk-singer known as Tamah accomplished some mighty goals in 1995: she recorded her debut album in February at the studio formerly known as White Crow and released it on her own label in May. A beautifully packaged collection of original songs she called You’ll See, the album made friends for Burlington’s hard-working songstress everywhere we she went, including a performance on Dick McCormack’s “On the Veranda” radio program on VPR. 1995 saw Tamah signing a management deal, selling her car and buying a truck ft for traveling, and playing high exposure shows like Discover Jazz Festival and Pride Day at the Queen City’s Battery Park. Calling herself “very ambitious,” Tamah plans to break out of the coffeehouse circuit and drive that truck to bigger rooms with bigger audiences in 1996. And while she wistfully talks of finding the right band to work with to allow herself more freedom of movement on stage, we know that all Tamah really needs is Tamah…and of course her truck.
Tammy Fletcher
No Way’s Tired: The Rising Star of Tammy Fletcher
By Amber Older
Tammy Fletcher is peeling potatoes at her kitchen sink. “I had a craving for latkas,” she explains when I call to begin our interview. “I normally wouldn’t bother peeling them,but these potatoes are kind of yukky on the outside.” “I grew up really poor,” she continues as if to justify her actions. “We didn’t throw anything away unless it was dead.”
Such is the background for the thirty-four old Tammy Fletcher. Vermont’s reigning queen of blues and gospel-and the brand new winner of the annual Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in New York City- is all too familiar with the Struggles of Life. Let’s face it: a single mother without a college degree who lives in the Northeast Kingdom town of Eden, Vermont is not necessarily bound for success. But the hardship she has known- poverty, prejudice and unemployment-is precisely what gives Fletcher her winning edge. And at midnight on January 21st, the tired restless audience at the Apollo recognized this edge at once.
“I stomped my foot when the music began and it sounded like a clap of thunder,” recalls Fletcher, still reeling from her victory. “The audience really freaked out. It was like an out-of-body experience.” Out of body, maybe-but not out of heart. Fletcher consciously chose to sing a song with which she strongly identifies: the Barrett Sister’s “No Way Tired.” “That song means so much to me,” says Fletcher, who belted out a 90-second rendition of the piece. “The words really talk to me-” I’ve come too far from where I started from and no one told me the road would be easy/I can’t believe you brought me this far to leave me “-that’s the bottom line in my life. No matter how far I go or how much despair I feel, the Lord won’t leave me. It gives me a sense of poetic justice- it has been my struggle and it will be my triumph.”
Triumph, indeed. Not only did she beat out the house favorite (a New Jersey guy who had won the title twice before); not only did she avoid being hauled away by Sandman sims (the notorious in-house clown who bodily removes unsuccessful competitors from the stage)- she did so when the Fates seemed dead set against her. Fletcher was stuck inside the Apollo for over 11 hours before she performed, while her entourage of a dozen friends and family were stuck in line outside the theater (they never made it in.) She had no one to talk to, almost nothing to eat, and a growing sense of paranoia that she was being tested by the heavens. lLus, she thought the looked “fucking terrible” - a native New Yorker had taken control of her hair and make-up and she felt like a store-front mannequin.
By the time Fletcher finally took the stage, she was tired, she was terrified-but she was tenacious. “When I finally got to the stage the stage that a;; my idols have stood on- I felt like I was having a baby. It has been an excruciating wait and the labor was intense but it was all worth it. I was exhausted, but I recognized the crowd was tired, too. I think competitors are judged solely by the decibel level of the audience’s response.) “It’s a strange feeling to have someone applaud for you-that’s what makes me a performer. If the audience doesn’t like me, I really care/ If they aren’t happy, then I’m not doing something right.”
Since she began singing publicly in 1991, that’s a mere five years ago, folks-Fletcher has been doing a lot of things right. As a child, she always dreamed of being a performer-but the ethos in her family was, “sing to yourself, not in public.” She adhered to that motto until the end of a Community College of Cermont course five years ago, when she sang “Me and Bobby McGee '' in front of her classmates. By the time she had sung the last line. Fletcher knew a change had come. “Everybody went nuts,” she says with a laugh. “People applauded, they hugged me. They loved me.”
And so they should. Today, as the lead singer of the gospel-influenced band Disciples, Fletcher brings a whole new meaning to the word “soul” in the nation’s whitest state. Her recent theatrical debut as the singing muse in David Budbill’s “Little Acts of Kindness was heralded across the Green Mountains; her 1992 a cappella rendition of “the Star Spangled Banner” at the Johnson Mud Bog is till the talk of the town and her passionate performance at the annual Discover Jazz gospel tent is an undisputed highlight of the week.
And as for her night at the Apollo-what more could anyone ask for on their first trip to the Big Apple? “It was more than I ever dreamed it would be,” declared Fletcher passionately. “I always thought New York was a mean, cruel place filled with rapists and liars and rude people. But it was completely the opposite-people were kind and funny and the city was magnificent. I’m sure there are bad sections -there are bad sections in Vermont too. I’ve seen more despair here than I ever saw there. Inside me, I felt like New York City. That feeling may be understandable. As a big woman, Fletcher says she is “constantly aware” of her size and of the “big fish-small pond” syndrome in Vermont. In New York such feelings disappeared, replaced by the comforting yet exciting sense of being “totally among the masses.” “Here, I often feel like the Forgotten Woman,” rues Fletcher. “I want to feel young and sexy and vivacious. But the only clothes they make for women my size are matronly. That kind of mediocrity was gone in New York-everything was just so incredible.” Does this mean Vermont’s queen is going to abdicate for the Big Apple? “My body and voice will be moving around a lot more in the future,” Fletcher predicts, “there just aren’t enough opportunities in Vermont. But I’ll never forget where I’ve come from. My heart will always be here.”
Amber Older is the program coordinator for Burlington City Arts and a free-lance writer. She hosts and produces Artbeat Sunday, a magazine style showcase of local arts and culture on WEZF.
Belizbeha
1995 saw the members of the acid jazz/mobile party called Belizbeha get serious, get busy, and get organized. Already one of the most popular club attractions in Burlington, the seven piece band expanded their touring base and won over big crowds in Boston and New York at clubs like Mama Kin and Wetlands. In May they and released their debut album, the Joey Sommerville produced Charlie’s Dream, to rave reviews and incredible sales (over 4000 copies,) finishing the rear as Pure Pop’s #2 selling CD for the year. A deal with Alex Fredrucjs of As-One Management has helped the hard working band create the team necessary to jump up to the next level as a national touring outfit. The Belizbeha web site is a popular stop for net-surfers these days, and the respect the band has won from the Burlington music community was earned the hard way: this band works for a living, They average 15 to 20 shows a month and their regional success has allowed the band members to quit most of their day jobs and focus on their music; spring on 1996 will find the band touring the east coast and southern US, reaching as far west as Texas, and playing bigger and more prestigious venues like the Knitting Factory and Irving Plaza in NYC. They’ve got their merchandising act together and even hace Belizbeha condoms courtesy of the band and Vermont Cares. The band contributed a track to the new Good Citizen Soundtrack Volume Two called “Respect Due” and in early 1996, Belixbeha will appear on the Live From Club Metronome CD, a benefit for Vermont Cares. And they’ll cover the Pants song “High Water Mark” for the Burlington Does Burlington disc. And sometime this spring, they’ll start work on a new recording to follow up the success of Charlie’s Dream. Tired yet? This one band that ain’t afraid to get busy.
Chin Ho!
Chin Ho! had a pretty damn good year, like it or not. The band that seems to change in some major way every year but still make progress and define itself better than before did it once again in 1995 by adding lead guitarist Bill Mullins to the fold. Yeah, you’ve probably heard the stories about Mullins being Dave Navarro’s love slave during the Jane’s Addiction days… yeah yeah yeah, the important thing is he can play up a dark storm and he added something pretty significant to the angst-ridden Ho! pop noisefest, already headed to a harder land with the able assistance of bassist David Barnett (twelve Times Over). Chine Ho! was already on a roll with the EP Big Crowd charting on over 100 college stations from Maine to Alaska and the son “Jan Michael Vincent” (featuring special geist Jan Tofferi, then of Hover, now of Starlight Conspiracy) spending a couple of months on the WIZN rotation. They got reviewed all over the place and appeared on the Good Citizen Soundtrack to the ‘Zine Volume One. And with Mullins firmly in place, Chin Ho! spent the summer recording their finest album to date, the thirteen song Exhaust. Major radio stations WFNX, WIZN, WEQX, WNCS, and WAAF have already been spinning the disc, with the songs “Strong Street” and “Vincent’s Head: leading the pack as singles, and the national release just started. A northeastern touring machine, Chin Ho! added Boston’s Middle East and NYC’s Wetland to their list of regular stops, and 1996 finds them adding drummer Dan Allen and heading south for a spring tour. And they’re on the upcoming Burlington Does Burlington and the Live From Club Metronome benefit disc for Vermont CARES. Have Ho!, will travel.
Dysfunkshun
The long running groovesters known as DysFunkShun finally came into their own light in 1995, when addition of JSC music student Ben Dunham on bass solidified the sound and locked in tight with the massive drums of Troy Pudvah to provide the dropdead backup for Richard Bailey’s scathing guitar and Marc Daniels’ sneering raps. Years of preparation and exhaustive practicing finally paid off with the release of their first CD Home on the Range, a seven song groove-fest that delivers the necessary kick and ultimately shows off the finesse of a band that has settled into an apparently comfortable niche.
The DysFunkShun of today has matured lyrically and musically, laying back on the hardcore and pumping up the funk; Richard, Troy, and Mark mix their vocal stylings and the dynamics of the band are more accentuated than ever. And with a new web page, new management with Nicole Hegeman, and gigs along the east coast at clubs like CBGB and Under Acme, DysFunkShun plans to hit even harder than ever in ‘96…they are a band who’s time is now.
Rocketsled
1995 was the year a bunch of nice guys with a brutal sound forged their post-Black Sabbath alternative metal into a force to be reckoned with. Matt, Gred, Eric, and Casey added 1995 Essex Junction Educational Center graduate Daryl and the band they called Rocketsled was complete: a powerful assault on the senses topped by Casey’s dry sense of humor (see Anton Levay or Ronnie James Dio) and enough volume to give you a stomach ache from 100 feet back. They spent the year practicing at 242 Main and working towards the release of their fine first CD, the thick, abrasive mini-epic 71 Nova. The album featured a stylin’ package designed to look like a magazine for satanists everywhere and the music packed enough punch to have “Main Man” blasting out of WFNX in Boston a few weeks after its release. Almost too smart to be mere metal, the Rockettsled sound is intricate and rhythmically challenging. They were featured on Good Citizen Soundtrack to the Zine Volume One and the ensuing video release, and they traveled extensively throughout New England, devouring a lot of time to the Boston area. After mini-tour with Slush (see Five Seconds Expired) and Sam Black Church, Rocket Sled laid down a killer live concert at Eclipse Recording for an upcoming Good Citizen Radio Hour and a cover of Madelines’ “Finder'' for the Burlington Does Burlington album, due out on May. Get on the Rocketsled while you still can. It’s a wild ride.
Wide Wail
The band with the biggest buzz in Burlington in 1995 might very well have been the foru[ known as Wide Wail, five friends from UVM who started as a hippy-groove kind of project and somehow melted into the ethereal introspective group who released an incredible self-titled album produced by Canadian Glen Robinson (Slush, Envy, Tea Party.) The record industry started grounding these folks after the song “Help Wanted” appeared on the first Good Citizen Soundtrack to the ‘Zine, and the pestering hasn’t stopped since. Wide Wail, the album, gave us only a hint of what the band proved itself capable of in subsequent live performances: the dreamlike state induced by the often-synchronized guitar work of David Rosenstein and Josh Mechem combined with the cryptic imagery of vocalist/lyricist Amanda Gustafson to form a sonic cold medicine…heavy, thick, and brooding but with a sense of artistic integrity and high minded clarity rare in musicians so young. By early 1996, Wide Wail had become a CMJ Jackpot! pick, signed a management deal with Toast Artists International, played a variety of high exposure Boston and NYC gigs and negotiated a development/production deal with bit-time producer Paul Fox. Fox was behind the boards for a number of major label hits (Phis, The Sugarcubes, 10,000 Maniacs) which bodes well for the Wailers, and the fact that he’s worked well with strong female vocalists like Bjork and Natalie Merchant should mean that Wide Wail will still be Wide Wail when he’s done.
Twelve Times Over
The on-again-off-again Burlington hardcore supergroup doing business as Twelve Times Over erupted again in 1995, miles ahead of the original early 90s version. Denny Donocan (late of Peg Tassey & proud of it and Slush) re-formed the popular band with original bassist Dave Barnet (Chin Ho!) and vocalist Chris Muniz, grabbing Colorblind’s mouth Sterling Dew and drummer Erik Sherman for good measure. In May of last year, the band spent a few days down at Low tech Studio and crafted a powerful six song cassette 12 Times Over that kept local hits like “Don’t Tell Me” blasting out of car stereos (and 242 Main) all summer long. After the release of the tape and an amazing performance at Burlinton’s COntois Auditorium during the Good Citizen Takes Over City Hall showcase in August, Donovan, and Barnett left the group to pursue other projects (the former to Starlight Conspiracy and Drowningman and the latter continuing his work with Chin Ho!) and were replaced by Eric Burdo and John Bravman on guitars and Jason Us (Colorblind again) on bass. Since that time, the band has taken the road every seriously, finding open arms at bif city clubs like CBGB and Coney Island High in NYC, The Rat in Boston and Club Babyhead in Providence, and landing rave reviews for the tape in major urban zines like the Pit Report and In Effect. 1996 fins the band with label interest (after Steve Lemcke penang A&R report via the Los Angeles based trade paperGordon’s Flash clued the clueless) and planning to record five songs in March for a possible CD release. “Harcore’s back but it was here all along '' might stand as more than just a great lyric in the continuing adventures of Twelve Times Over…