Whatever

Welcome back to the Love Lounge, my fuzzy little friends. We’ve had a busy winter, and I’m here to tell you all about it. Since we last talked, our little universe has evolved quite a bit, and we’ve made a lot of progress towards whatever the hell out goals are. Well, to be honest, our goals kind of evolve with everything else, so by the time we get there, we need to go somewhere else, know what I mean? The subject of progress is one near and dear to our hearts, as our stated mission to “Acknowledge and Support Vermont Music” includes the intent to document our history as a community of musicians banded together by whatever crazy things band us together. So, for our first anniversary, we’re bringing you our Progress Report 1996. We’ve picked a few artists who we believe made great progress during our first year of operation, and we celebrate their successes in this, our fifth issue. And, as our cover might suggest, this issue features a most amazing interview with the man we stole our name from, the former singer for Johnson, Vermont’s late, lamented Pinhead, and the writer of the song “Good Citizen,” Mister Dug Nap. Our pal from Low Tech, Gus Ziesing, knows Dug well and captured a very cool conversation twixt the two of them one day at Speeder and Earl’s. 

The fall and early winter saw us working on a lot of long range projects, but it also saw us hosting some really cool parties, too. If we never accomplished anything else, we threw some great parties. In November we threw two such events: a premiere for our first video The Good Citizen Video To The Soundtrack To The Zine. We took over City Hall again and the kind folks at Champlain College lent us a large screen VCR to show the Karen McGregor produced concert, filmed at our Volume One Release Party at Club Toast in May. It’s a cool, king og ethereal viewing experience and it’s available on video at yer local record store. So, then two weeks later we had a great Good Citizen Photo Exhibit/ Calendar Release Party at Magic Hat Brewery on Flynn Avenue. We had hundreds of folks show up and live music provided by Richard “The Clarinet Man” Haupt. We want to sincerely thank Allan Newman of Magic Hat who has been a most generous and gracious host on several occasions; Allan is someone who gives many great things to our community and we really appreciate him. 

The third great part we threw was on December 15 when Club Metronome hosted a Champagne Reception and All-Star Acid-Jazz Jam called One Party Under A Groove to celebrate the release of our Good Citizen Soundtrack to the Zine Volume Two: Jazz and Acid Jazz from Burlington, Vermont. The fine food was catered by Sara Farr and the music included live performances by the Gordon Stone Trio featuring Jamie Masefield and Andy Cotton, Viper House, Chatterbox, Lar Duggan, Low Tech Wrecking Crew, Belizbeha, Orange, Baby’s Nickel Bag and New Nile Orchestra and the spun sounds of WRUV’s popular DJ EK. The album is so cool it makes us glow, and the party was a great communal gathering of friendly folks. 

Somehow we’ve managed to get this great vibe going at our parties…and I’m going to give a huge chunk of the credit to the bands involved.

The final Good Citizen party for 1995 was a rocking, champagne soaked affair, too. The Good Citizen Holiday Party at metronome featured an acoustic Chine Ho! performance that got really weird when our young friends Bethany and Matthew brought their entire block to the show and we had twenty elementary school kids on stage dancing to “Hippygirl.” Way cool. Dave Morency got trampled because he was the only one in the band foolish enough to sit down when surrounded by twenty dancing 12 year olds. Then our pals DysFunkShun got up and rocked the house with their solid funk grooves. The kids came back on for two very long electric sets. I did the egomaniacal big-fish-small-pond-rock-star thing and ran over to Club Toast to join Peg Tassy-Ayer and the Velvet Ovum Band for a singing og “Ethan is Stoned” to welcome back visiting former-Hollywood Indian Ethan Ezarian. Then, Peg and her husband Trevor and Ethan himself came over to Metronome to join Chin Ho! On our version of Ethan’s “Country Song.” What a cool night. Follow all that? We promised a ‘weird’ night on the flyers…

I’m pretty sure that one of the reasons that our parties are so much fun and get so packed has to be attributed to some of the great people who have worked for Good Citizen over the past year. PatriciaBraine, who was an integral part of our first nine months, has moved on to new challenges, as we wish her well and offer our gratitude for all of her efforts. Stepping in to rescue me have been the amazingly organized and talented Nicole Hegeman and Melanie Nunnink. There’s no”hedge” in Hegeman, and there are 4 “n’s” in Nunnink, thank you. I can’t even begin to tell you how they’ve kicked my ass to get things in shape at Good Citizen, and we’ve made some pretty incredible progress already. You’ll see the effects shortly, trust me, and when you do, remember those names because they’re largely responsible. It's very cool to work with your friends. 

And speaking of which, the photography of Matthew Thorsen has had a tremendous effect on the look of our magazine. He’s a very humble, very talented photographer, as many musicians in Burlington can attest, and we hope that you like his work as much as Rocketsled and Wide wail and The Pants and Starlight Conspiracy and Mid-Life Chrysler and countless other bands do. 

Associate editors Matt Tayler and Stve Lemcke have really helped a lot with the ‘zine load, and they’re responsible for bringing some new faces to us. And hey, we’re always looking for writers… It's how we make friends. Rob Hegeman (again, no “hedge”) made the assembly process a new and painless thing, no small talk, and James Lockridge of Industrial Typeworks has been gracious with his talents also. Todd Dunn of Todd Dunn has been a graphic god to us for a year now. Mike Fiocello helped us out with last minute ad sales . George Webb of Big Heavy World, Inc,. is a freak and that’s all there is to it. Freaks are good, we’ve discovered. Everyone else is boring. 

So, uh, what’s next? We just unveiled the Good Citizen Radio Hour on WIZN. Every Sunday night at 11 we’ve got an hour of Vermont-made music blasting out at 106.7 fm on yer dial. Joe Egan of Eclipse Recording has been recording bands out at the studio for exclusive live concert segments, and so far we’ve done Wide Wail, Rocketsled, The Pants, Barbacoa and Chin Ho! It’s a pretty cool show although I think that I kind of sound like a dork. I can’t get that “radio guy” thing out of my voice. Try to ignore me and listen anyway. The show started February 18, and on the March 3 show we’re unveiling a brand new recording from the Band Formerly Known as Slush, now Five Seconds Expired. We’re playing all kinds of music, and lots of Vermont classics, too. 

On the Radio Hour, we’ll be premiering some of the tracks from our upcoming compilation disc Burlington Does Burlington. This album is going to be an amazing experience. Imagine, if you can, Steve Blaur and Andy Hildebrandt of Freefall and Science Fixion covering the Artist formerly known as Slush’s “Kill Your Idols.” How about DysFunkShun doing Chin Ho!’s “Hippygirl?” try the Channel Two Dub Band’s version of Ninja Custodian’s “Rock and Roll is My Weapon.” Rocketsled doing a Madelines sone…James Kolchalka Superstar is recording a Headlock tune. Martin Guigui is doing the N-Zones. And we’re not going to tell you whether any of those rumors are true…you’ll find out soon enough. There are going to be something like thirty or forty bands on this thing, from jazz to punk rawk and everything in between. Mark your calendars now…May2 and 3 Club Toast, Burlington, Vermont. Burlington Does Burington, The Party. And we’re working on the Good Citizen Video Hour with our friend Karen mcGregor. We’ll be running the Video Hour in Burlington on Adelphia Cable. That’s Channel 15 in Burlington. Karen has been filming bands around the Burlington area for the past couple of years and we’re really excited to bring some of these performances to you. We’re also interested in including video from some other sources…if you’re a local musician with some cool video to share, send to us at Good Citizen. We’re into it. We’re on it. We’re soaking in it. Soak with us, won’t you? Okay, as you were. Go see a band, will ya? And, be a Good Citizen.