Zero Effect: Dan Bern's Unreleased Title Track

Above: Dan Bern, circa 1997-1998.

As part of the Chronological Snobbery coverage of the tenth anniversary of the film Zero Effect (which was actually released ten years ago this very day), today's post profiles folk musician Dan Bern and his 1997 song, also called "Zero Effect." Never released, the song exists only as a 1997 live recording in those corners of the Internets where such unauthorized recordings may be found. In an interview with this site, Bern reflects upon the song and its origin as a tune told from the point of view of Gloria Sullivan, the character played by actress Kim Dickens in the film, and sung to the character of Daryl Zero, played by Bill Pullman.

By the mid 1990s, Bern had released three self produced cassettes, a self titled full length album, and an EP called Dog Boy Van. His friendship with director Jake Kasdan led to his song, "One Dance" being played over the closing credits of Kasdan's 1998 directorial debut. Just two months after the release of the film, on March 31, 1998, Bern's new record, entitled 50 Eggs and produced by none other than Ani DiFranco, would hit stores. (The full version of "One Dance" would appear on this album.). Somewhere along the way, though, Bern composed a song, "Zero Effect," which includes these lyrics relevant to the film's plot and premise:

All your fancy words
Your well-constructed theories
Everything that you wore
Everything that you swore
Was what brought me to you

It was nice - all of it
It was sweet - all of it
But it was not the thing that made me come to you

It had zero effect--on me
It had zero effect--zero
It had zero effect--
The thing that brought me to you
Was you

You coulda looked for the clues
Till your magnifying glass was worn out
You coulda talked to everybody that you've ever known
Collected evidence--found a lot of evidence
Everything you think was there - was there
Everything you think took place - took place
But it was not what made me come to you

Bern played the song publicly, perhaps only once. On May 11, 1997, during a gig at Portland's Aladdin Theatre, Bern played the song and introduced it as follows:

I wrote this when I - when I - when I heard my friend was going to make his movie. So I'm going to try to do it. It's actually - it's not to him - in fact if - if - like - if something inspired this song it was reading the script and thinking about it from the woman's point of view - in that thing. So that's really what's in this song, but my vice isn't high enough to approximate it, so it will sound like me still. [Laughter].

In an email interview with Chronological Snobbery a decade later, Bern confesses that he has but "a vague recollection of playing it at that show; it was probably the only time." He recalls:

i am pretty sure i wrote the song "zero effect" as a pitch to jake for his film. i might have performed it once, and i think i recorded it well enough to give to him as a possibility for him. my guess is that it was too literal, in that it was the name of the film and all. as a director, it seems he wanted things that would resonate with his picture more obliquely than to have a song with the actual film title....somewhere in my vaults i may have the recording, but i can't even be sure about that.

Kasdan did, however, choose Bern's "One Dance" to be prominently featured in the film. The track was also released as its own promotional single. Bern remembers:

obviously, it was cool that jake used "one dance" over the end titles for zero effect. it was a really cool movie, i thought, and i was thrilled when "one dance" would come up at the end. i remember writing it in the stairwell of some hotel at a music conference somewhere, and i used it for my second sony/work album, 50 eggs, that ani difranco produced, and we did a special edit for the movie....it was my first foray into having a song in a movie, and it was awesome. especially that it was jake, who i had become good friends with a few years before, when we met in a coffeeshop in LA through a mutual friend. what a great guy. funny, smart, and incredible instincts about many things. when i first met him he was just a kid really, and we both had lots of free time for sitting around, playing scrabble, and musing on things. now he has, let's say, just a little more on his plate (!), but a great guy always. that's what i remember about zero effect, the song and the movie.

But over ten years later, Bern admits that his memory of the song "Zero Effect" is not very strong as it once may have been:

i'm sure i read the script, and i may have also seen footage; i also got to see one or two days of shooting (in portland, by the way), so any of that may have contributed to writing the 'zero effect' song. BUT...i really don't remember when i wrote it, in the timeline of the movie itself.

Bern and Kasdan have certainly kept in touch since Zero Effect. Recently, the two worked together on 2007's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. The December 15, 2007 Bern Bulletin (his periodic email newsletter) notes:

As many of you may know, Dan has been dedicating a lot of time and energy working on the film "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story." Dan has written, or co-written, a great deal of the songs that "Dewey Cox" performs in the film. And from what I've heard, if you appreciate the song writing style of Dan, you'll really get a kick out of hearing his contributions to "Walk Hard." So, please go out and see the movie, and support this project which Dan has been so proud to work on!

But will anything ever come of his song about Daryl Zero and Gloria Sullivan?

"Maybe I'll dig up the song and use it for something else sometime," says Bern. "That's how these things work sometimes. you just never know."

Tomorrow: In tomorrow's coverage of the Zero Effect tenth anniversary, Chronological Snobbery focuses on the ill-fated 2002 attempt to turn the film into a TV pilot and series.

Zero Effect: The Soundtrack (Tenth Anniversary)

As part of the Chronological Snobbery coverage of the tenth anniversary of the film Zero Effect, today features interviews and commentary on the film's soundtrack., including new interviews with Esthero, Neil Gust of Heatmiser, Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers, and Chris Stillwell and Michael Andrews of the Greyboy Allstars). Released in January of 1998, prior to the premiere of the film itself on January 30 of that year, Zero Effect: Music from the Motion Picture boasted as its executive producers Jake Kasdan (the director of the film, Zero Effect), Manish Raval, and Happy Walters. Featuring fourteen tracks from twelve artists, the album, at a decade old, features a number of artists still rocking and thriving a decade later.

Above: Elvis Costello in December 1977, during his infamous "Saturday Night Live" set.

1. "Mystery Dance" - Elvis Costello

Originally from 1977's My Aim Is True, "Mystery Dance" plays over the film's opening title sequence. Twenty one years old at the time of the film's release, the song is also the oldest track on the album. (For completists, an acoustic "honky tonk" version of "Mystery Dance" was included on a recent reissue of My Aim Is True, Costello's very first album.).

Dan Bern, circa 1997-1998.

2. "One Dance" - Dan Bern

Perhaps the musician most closely associated with the film and with director Jake Kasdan, folk musician Dan Bern was rising to fame in the mid to late 1990s, even being compared to Bob Dylan. His 1998 album Fifty Eggs, released two months after the film on March 31, 1998, also featured "One Dance," which plays over the closing credits of the film. Produced by Ani DiFranco (who is mentioned in the song's lyrics), "One Dance" was released as a promotional single for the film, and Bern even penned an as of yet unreleased tune, titled "Zero Effect" (more about which in tomorrow's entry on that rare title track).

3. "Starbucked" - Bond

These days, if you Google "Bond," you'll find this "Australian/British string quartet," most certainly not the band which perpetrated "Starbucked" for the Zero Effect soundtrack in 1998. Thus, tracking down information about the decade old band is a Herculean task, as the band's name is not the most Google friendly; nor is that of the song, searches for which lead to either coffeehouse culture or "Battlestar Galactica." Members of 1998's Bond included Steve Eusebe, Jimmy Hogarth, Scott Shields, and Martin Slattery. On his official MySpace page, Eusebe notes:

[B]y the summer of 1996 I had formed a new band with accomplished musicians that I’d met on the road, service stations, Venues and Airports. I wrote some new songs at the time with Scott Shields (Gun & Shakespeare’s Sister), Jimmy Hogarth (Shakespeare’s Sister) and Martin Slattery (Black Grape) and within 3 months we were being courted by Record Companies in America. By the end of the year we had jumped the UK ship and signed to Sony/Work Group in Los Angeles, which became our new home and the Band Bond was formed. We produced the Album ‘Bang out of Order’ with Matthew Wilder of No Doubt fame and courted the services of the legendary Grammy award winner engineer/mixer Andy Wallace of Jeff Buckley, Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame. Bond toured the U.S extensively with Spacehog and on our own before Fatherhood forced me to make a decision to stay in America or come home. I came home. The band split . . .

The opening bars of "Starbucked" played as one would access the official Zero Effect website.

4. "Into My Arms" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

In the film, just as Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman) and Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens) have shared a vanilla malt and bonded as only they can, the camera begins to drift away from their table and the deep voice of Nick Cave abruptly overtakes the film. He sings: "I don't believe in an interventionist God. But I know, darling, that you do," which, really, is a distracting sentiment. Originally from 1997's The Boatman's Call, "Into My Arms" is perhaps the only song in the film which makes its presence known with such authority that its breaks the aesthetic distance.

Above: Mary Lou Lord, circa 1998.

5. "Some Jingle Jangle Morning" - Mary Lou Lord

In the mid to late 1990s, alternative rocker Mary Lou Lord was most famous for her alleged dalliance with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's subsequent trashing of her during online chat sessions. Also on 1998's Got No Shadow, "Some Jingle Jangle Morning" makes reference not just to the phrase from Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," but also Guns N' Roses, with its reference to "Mr. Brownstone," slang for heroin. Since 1998, she has offered the world acoustic covers of both Van Halen's "Jump" and Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road." Lord did not respond to a request for an interview.

Above: Brendan Benson, circa 1998-1999.

6. "Emma J" - Brendan Benson

Now a member of The Raconteurs along with Jack White, Jack Lawrence, and Patrick Keeler, in 1998, alt-folkster Brendan Benson was a relatively unknown commodity. He had but one album, 1996's One Mississippi, under his belt, and it was from that record that "Emma J" came.

The Greyboy Allstars, circa 1997-1998.

7. "The Method Pt. 2" - The Greyboy Allstars
11. "Blackmail Drop" - The Greyboy Allstars
14. "The Zero Effect" - The Greyboy Allstars

If any artist's music defines the film, it is that of The Greyboy Allstars, the funky jazz or jazzy funk San Diego based group that scored the film with their upbeat and offbeat contributions to its score. In an interview with Chronological Snobbery, GBA member Michael Andrews remembers being "contacted after Manish Raval had been listening to our West Coast Boogaloo cd." But no tracks from that album were used in the film.

"All the music we made specifically for the movie," says Andrews. "None of the stuff existed before ZE."

Andrews remarks on the process:

The approach was....watch the film, write some music. We all wrote stuff separately and brought it in after seeing the film. We started at my studio in San Diego for about a week just writing and adding to what others had brought in. Then we holed up in a small theater to see how the themes would work with picture. The music editor [Jonathan Karp] was there to help us find the right tempos to work best with picture. Jake manipulated the arrangements. Once we had most of the main themes penned, we spent ten days in the studio recording directly to picture.

Also interviewed by Chronological Snobbery, GBA bassist Chris Stillwell remembers the film being a new experience for the band:

Being it our first experience-we were pretty green. We knew as far as what mood was needed per music cue-as dictated by Jake's score notes. Some things were easier than others. The longer & trickier cues required tweaking and refitting. Usually it's just one guy composing, and then he gets an orchestra to perform it. We were a basic line-up of sax, drums, bass, guitar, and keys. You'd think it would be limited, but there's a pretty wide palate of sounds you can get with something that simple.

The basic rules for scoring a film is a main theme, and thematic material for the main characters, love scene, chase theme etc. I was starting to get into film music around this time. I loved espionage/detective/spy music, so there was a piece I had written that had a sort of surf/spy melody well before the film was offered to us. It fit perfectly, and was easy to reharmonize and shift the melody around to suit whatever the main character (Darryl Zero) was up to. Everybody came up with tons of ideas. We actually ended up with too much material, so we had to ditch some cool things. As for myself, I thought everything fit well, and was well written.

...

I listen to what we did every year or so from a CD that was given to us by the music editor. I think it's pretty interesting stuff. Of course, it was Mike's introduction to his movie scoring career. For a big movie company to take a chance on us was a gamble, and I think both parties ended up happy.

"I think it was one of the most creative things the band has ever done together, and for me it was the beginning of my involvement in film music," Andrews notes.

Above: Jamiroquai, circa 1998.

8. "Drifting Along" - Jamiroquai

In early 1998, Jamiroquai was chiefly known for its single and video, "Virtual Insanity," which had become popular the year before. But what can be said about Jamiroquai's contribution to this film when that band will be remembered in far more detail for its contribution to a later quirky comedy: Napoleon Dynamite (which was, incidentally, a previous alias of Elvis Costello, also on the Zero Effect soundtrack with Jamiroquai)?

Above: Candy Butchers.

9. "Till You Die" - Candy Butchers

Candy Butchers began as the brainchild of Mike Viola and Todd Foulsham. In an interview with Chronological Snobbery, Viola recalls his experience with Zero Effect:

Jake was into my band Candy Butchers and asked if "Till You Die" could be included. Of course...I was thrilled. When I went to the New York premiere I LOVED the movie and couldn't believe how cool the song worked in the diner scene.

As to how the song fits into the film, Viola replies that "it's kind of perfect" as well as "dark and funny." Looking back, he relates that "the song kind of wrote itself" and "always had a life of it 's own." Describing the origin of the song, Viola points to, of all people, Dostoevsky:

I was living in Quincy a blue collar town south of Boston and making pizza's for a living. I had to get up at 5am and walk to the restaurant (didn't have a car). on my way one snowy morning I happened upon a box of books somebody was throwing away. a few inches of snow on top of ackie collins novels and their ilk. it was still dark out side....freezing cold.... but I dug into them....and pulled out Crime and Punishment. never read that book before. I was so busy playing live shows in rock bands that I barely made it through High school. so I took the book...went to work....and on break started to read it....soon I devoured it. and out popped Till You Die. and I swear...that song alone landed me a publishing deal and subsequently a major label record deal......right there for the taking on the side of the road one snowy morning at 5am 15 miles south of Boston. WAY too much info for you...but it just came back to me....

In November of 2007, Viola released to the Internets "Girly Worm" from his new album, Lurch. He was also involved with the soundtrack for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, released in late 2007 and directed by none of than Jake Kasdan. Viola provided the lead vocals for the song "That Thing You Do!" as a part of the 1996 Tom Hanks film by that name.

Above: Esthero, circa 1998-1999.

10. "Lounge" - Esthero

At the time of the release of the Zero Effect soundtrack, Canadian singer Esthero had been nineteen years old for less than a month. In an interview with Chronological Snobbery, she remembers the early days of her career and her involvement with the film:

I had just signed with WORK GROUP records, and EMI had my music publishing. I'm not sure if the song was something pitched through EMI or from the co president of WORK Jeff Ayeroff. What I DO remember was the experience of being escorted to the premier with Jeff, my very FIRST movie premier, btw....and being a country bumpkin of sorts, it was also at the after party for the event that i experienced sushi for the first time. A California roll. Ha!

I thought it fit in just fine - but I'm biased. I remember thinking it was a lil quiet - but I'm also biased on that one too. I'm just glad i liked the movie, I've had songs in movies before that weren't necessarily directed towards my own demographic. But this was something i could be proud to be a small part of. I really dug the film. I briefly met Jake the evening of the premier, and he was so young - I remember thinking "this has got to be such a big deal for him, he must be so stoked" and I was so happy for him. Especially after seeing the film. 'He did good, real good', as they say.

Her first full length record, "Breath from Another," was released three months later in April of 1998.

12. "Three Days" - Thermadore

Thermadore's "Three Days" came from that band's 1996 release, Monkey on Rico (to which Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard contributed). Somewhere along the way, the band folded, and its legacy, if any, is left mostly unpreserved on the Internets.

Above: Heatmiser.

13. "Rest My Head Against the Wall" - Heatmiser

Composed of Neil Gust, Tony Lash, Sam Coomes, and the late Elliot Smith, Heatmiser rose from the streets of Portland, the city in which the film is set. By the time the Zero Effect soundtrack was released, the band had already self destructed. Although Smith is remembered for his contributions to such films as 1997's Good Will Hunting, "Rest My Head Against the Wall" was a song by Gust. In an interview with Chronological Snobbery, Gust recalls that Kasdan requested the use of the song after hearing it on their 1996 Mic City Sons album:

I got a call from someone who was putting the soundtrack together and he asked me if he could use the song. I was blown away, and very excited to be asked. At the time, my band mate Elliott Smith had a few solo songs in Good Will Hunting and was having enormous success from it. I thought it was cool that one of mine got to be in a movie, too.

I remember I went to see the movie by myself at a multiplex in Portland, it was out at the same time as Good Will Hunting, and I walked passed 3 theaters showing GWH, all the way to the very end of the hall where the smallest theater was, and sat down with about half a dozen other people to see Zero Effect. I thought the movie was awesome.

Heatmiser broke up shortly after we made that record and I started a new band called No. 2. I used the money I made from having my song in this film to pay for the recording sessions of our first record "No Memory."

Gust recalls the scene in which his song is used in the film:

[I]t's played in a scene where Ben Stiller is sitting at the bar, and the song sounds like it's coming from the Juke Box. they filmed it at this grimy club called Satyricon that had a magnificent juke box of all-local bands. It was a triumph for a band to get one of their records on it. Ironically, Heatmiser never actually made it on to the real juke box.

It took me a while to realize it was my song when I was watching the movie. My first reaction was that my voice sounded way off key. It was almost impossible for me to pay attention to the movie while it was playing, I was so distracted by how weird I thought it sounded.

Looking back ten years to the song's inclusion in the film, and twelve years to its official release on the Heatmiser album, Gust appreciates his musical work product.

"I like that song, I like the way we recorded it, and I like the story it tells," Gust recalls. "I read a description of the song in a record review that I really liked, they said the song sounded like a cowboy hanging his hat on a hook at the end of a long day, and his head comes off with it."

Tomorrow: In tomorrow's coverage of the Zero Effect tenth anniversary, Chronological Snobbery focuses on Dan Bern's unreleased song "Zero Effect" and offers a new interview with folk musician Bern thereupon.

R.E.M. - Automatically Live (1992)

For charity, and to exhibit some of their newest material, R.E.M. performed at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia on Thursday, November 19, 1992. Just a month before, the band had released Automatic for the People, arguably the finest album of its career. Two weeks before, Bill Clinton had been elected to the presidency (at whose inaugural R.E.M. would play two months later at an MTV-sponsored event). It was a different time, and a different R.E.M (when perhaps the band was at its most relevant). Writing of the special show, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution noted:

Athens homeboys R.E.M. opened and closed their 1992 world tour with a single performance Thursday night at their hometown 40 Watt Club. The invitation-only event was a benefit recording for Greenpeace, which set up a solar-powered recording van for the occasion. The band played an 80-minute set for a capacity crowd of 600, showcasing tunes from their new album, "Automatic for the People," including a starkly rhythmic rearrangement of their current hit, "Drive."

"This is an exclusive," announced vocalist Michael Stipe, garbed in his trademark baggy pants and backward fishing cap. He said none of the songs had ever been performed live. Though obviously not too rehearsed, the group gathered steam and wrapped up the show with looselimbed versions of Iggy Pop's "Funtime" and their first recording, "Radio Free Europe." Guitarist Peter Buck, looking madrigal in a Renaissance-era pageboy do, hauled out his folksy acoustic instruments, including mandolin and dulcimer. Somewhere in the back in the dark, a blond woman, alleged to be Kim Basinger, swayed.¹

Kim Basinger swayed? The show has been very often bootlegged, under various titles, such as Automatic People, Boreal Equinoxia, Consider Life, Live in Athens 1992, It's a Free World, and even Losing My Religion and Man on the Moon. Although they are all mostly the same (save for different bonus tracks), I write today of Automatically Live, the back cover with track list of which is as follows:

In fact, I have included below an annotated track listing, the original album on which the song first appeared, and, just for fun, the banter and stage dialogue of Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, which features stories on alternative titles for "Losing My Religion" and Stipe's inability to remember certain lyrics to certain classic R.E.M. songs.

1. "Drive" (From 1992's Automatic for the People ("AFTP"))

MICHAEL STIPE: Thank you, you're very generous.

2. "Monty Got A Raw Deal" (AFTP)
3. "Everybody Hurts" (AFTP)
4. "Man On The Moon" (AFTP)

STIPE: Thank you, you're very generous. I think Mike has a story to tell. You can use my mic.

MIKE MILLS: Peter and I just spent a week in Israel. We did a couple of days of press in Tel Aviv, and we used the opportunity to rent a Jeep and go riding about the countryside in Israel. We ended up on the Dead Sea at this strange resort hotel called Nirvana, of all things. (Laughter). And we were there talking to our friend, Karen Rose, who used to live here and now lives in Israel. And she said that she deejays sometimes and she wondered why nobody ever requested "Losing My Religion" over there. She asked a friend of hers, "How come nobody asks for 'Losing My Religion'"? And the guy said, "They do, all the time, they just don't know the English - they don't know what to call it, so they always ask for 'Oh, Life.'" (Laughter). So, that was our watch word while we were in Israel. Anytime something would happen, we would go "Oh, life." So now, for you, "Oh, Life."

5. "Losing My Religion" (From 1991's Out of Time)
6. "Country Feedback" (Out of Time)

STIPE: We're going to play four more songs, three of which I don't have the words to. So, I'm going to ask anyone who knows the words really well to please come down to the front. If it looks like I'm faltering, just holler the first word and I'll pick up from there.

MILLS: Holly?

STIPE: You know, my first cue is silence, that's a very important one. Here we go.

7. "Begin The Begin" (From 1986's Life's Rich Pageant ("LRP")

STIPE: I really might need help on this one.

8. "Fall On Me" (LRP)

STIPE: Thank you.

MILLS: Some people think that using the capo is cheating. I'm not one of them.

STIPE: Baby.

MILLS: See, if it's not cheating, it doesn't work.

STIPE: What's that about capos, Mike?

MILLS: See, I hate these things. Okay, it is cheating.

9. "Me In Honey" (Out of Time)

STIPE: Is Gwen O'Looney in the house? This song goes out to Gwen O'Looney.

10. "Finest Worksong" (From 1987's Document)
11. "Drive" (AFTP)

STIPE: We don't really know what to play now. (People shout requests). We've never played that before. (More shouts for requests). You're going to have to take turns. I can't understand you. We've never played any of those songs before, and we've - actually we haven't played most of the songs that we played tonight before, so this is kind of an exclusive. You should feel very special, because you are special. We're all special. We have a new government. (Cheers.). At least on the national level. I hope everybody here knows that on Tuesday, which is November 24, we have to go and vote for Wyche Fowler for U.S. Senate. He's really a good man. I mean that. This next song has absolutely nothing to do with senatorial races or Wyche Fowler. In fact, I don't even sing lead vocal on it. Mike Mills does.

12. "Love Is All Around" (Written by Reg Presley, originally performed by The Troggs)

(More shouts of requests).

STIPE: I have nothing to say.

13. "Fun Time/Radio Free Europe" ("Fun Time" originally recorded by Iggy Pop; "Radio Free Europe" originally appeared on R.E.M.'s debut album, Murmur)

STIPE: Thank you, good night.

14. "Losing My Religion" (Bonus Track from MTV performance).

CONTEXT AND COMMENTARY: From one reason or another, the gig was culturally significant enough to live on in the public memory. Marcus Gray, author of the R.E.M. biography, It Crawled from the South: An R.E.M. Companion, mentions the gig in his book:

Taking a break from acting local in order to think global, on 19 November R.E.M. played only their second show of the year at the 40 Watt Club. It was organised especially for Greenpeace, the organisation using the solar-powered mobile recording studio Cyrus to tape the show. A version of 'Drive", specially funked-up for the occasion, was chosen to join 15 similarly recorded songs by other artists on the compilation album Alternative NRG, released in January 1994.

An Internet poster named Beatcomber described the history and context of the gig in a June 28, 2002 Usenet post:

Before too long a DAT audience recording of the show was put out on bootleg-CD (remember, this was the heyday of CD-bootlegging). If I recall correctly, 'Automatically Live' on the legendary Kiss The Stone imprint (KTS 141) was the first to hit the streets. Countless other discs would follow, the best of which (and the most complete) being 'This Is It' (Red Phantom RPCD 1117). The popularity of the show is hardly surprising, given that the band gave a sterling performance that night and did no other gigging in support of 'Automatic for the People' (the then-current album). To boot, Buck & co were in great spirits, entertaining the homecrowd with amusing in-between banter, AND the available audience recording was remarkably clear (if, ultimately, a bit dull sounding).

In due time, a soundboard recording of the first song played at the gig (a great funked-up version of Drive) appeared on the aforementioned Greenpeace CD (January 1994). The bulk of the show was later released in the form of bonus tracks on the four CD-singles released to promote the Monster album (three tracks apiece). However, while the songs themselves sound incredible (especially 'Country Feedback', which by late 1992 had not yet been turned into the pompous dirge it became during the 'Monster' tour), the end result did not add up to a complete presentation of the show: apart from the first take of 'Drive', one more song was left off (a not particularly strong version of 'Love Is All Around', the Troggs cover which the band had performed so well in acoustic guise during the promo-tour for 'Out Of Time'), as well as the major part of the great chats in between songs.

Remember Usenet FAQs? The rec.music.rem official FAQ (posted on May 10, 1994) mentions the show as well:

On November 19, 1992, R.E.M. gave an invitation-only, solar-powered performance at Athens' 40 Watt Club to record a song for an upcoming Greenpeace album that will promote solar energy. Along with two takes of "Drive" (electric versions, one of which will appear on the album), the band performed "Monty Got a Raw Deal", "Everybody Hurts", and "Man on the Moon", followed by classics including "Losing My Religion", "Begin the Begin", and a "cattle-call" version of "Radio Free Europe". Accompanying R.E.M. was John Keane, who provided assistance on bass, pedal-steel guitar and acoustic guitar. In response to questions about a tour, Peter Buck said: "This is it. This is the tour. And after this we are going to take a long rest." This show has been bootlegged on CD under several titles, the best sounding and most complete version being "We Support Greenpeace." A well-shot video of this performance was also available at one time in the underground market.

Tracks from this performance would also end up as b-sides on future R.E.M. singles. "Country Feedback" and "Losing my Religion" would later appear on the 1995 "Bang and Blame" single. "Drive," "Fun Time," and "Radio Free Europe" would appear on the 1995 "Strange Currencies" single. "Fall on Me," "Me in Honey," and "Finest Worksong" would appear on the 1995 "Crush with Eyeliner" single. "Monty Got a Raw Deal," "Everybody Hurts," and "Man on the Moon" would appear on the 1994 "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" single.

Just two months after this gig, R.E.M. would play the MTV inaugural ball in Washington, D.C. Gwen O'Looney, to whom Stipe dedicates "Finest Worksong," was the mayor of Athens, Georgia in 1992. Elected the previous year, she served for eight years, all the while receiving the support of the band. (Later this month, O'Looney will participate in a panel discussion sponsored by the Athens Historical Society on the history of R.E.M.). Wyche Fowler, whom Stipe endorses prior to "Love is All Around," was the incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator for the State of Georgia in 1992. On November 3, 1992, Fowler won a plurality of the popular vote, but not the majority, which forced a run-off election, held three weeks later. On November 24, 1992, just five days after this concert, Fowler was defeated by Republican Paul Coverdell, who would die in office eight years later in 2000.

During the band's rendition of Iggy Pop's "Fun Time," Stipe alters the lyrics slightly to note that he saw "Dracula" at the Beachwood Cinema "last night." Bram Stoker's Dracula, featuring Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Gary Oldman was released the previous Friday, on November 13, 1992. (One wonders if Stipe returned to the theatre the day following this gig to see Bad Lieutenant, which was released on Friday, November 20, 1992).

Apparently, I am not alone in my 1992 R.E.M. nostalgia. Earlier this month, the popular music blog Stereogum released Drive XV: A Tribute to Automatic for the People, a free online tribute album featuring covers of every song on the 1992 R.E.M. record. It features performances by The Veils, Rogue Wave, the Meat Puppets, The Forms, the Shout Out Louds, and others. You can find its official track list here.

1. O'Briant, Don with contributing writer Steve Dollar. "Peace Buzz: Rice's Tour is delaying her viewing of 'Dracula," Atlanta Journal Constitution, November 20, 1992.

The Morgans

Who were the band known as The Morgans, and what became of them? The question has been asked before. You might be familiar with their limited oeuvre if you've purchased a punk or goth compilation from the bargain bin in the last decade, including: Flesheaters, Femme Fatale: A History of Women in Popular Music, Undead: 50 Gothic Masterpieces, among others. But, if exposure through those comps piqued your interest and curiosity, you'll be disappointed to learn that there is very little, if any, information about the band on the Internets.

If you're unfamiliar with them, the titles of the aforementioned comps should suggest, slightly, the genre of their music. Based on the scant amount of information available online, one can piece together only that the band existed sometime in the mid-1990s and that they played a harder version of a sort of goth-influenced alternative rock. Deciding to investigate a bit, I tracked down Chloe LeFay, one of the band's vocalists, who gave me a wealth of information.

To answer the question, The Morgans were: Chloe LeFay (vocals), Lucy Cotter (vocals), Russell Pay (guitars), Pete Dixon (guitars), Eddy Brimson (bass, later replaced by Kevin Browne), David Axford (drums, later replaced by Steve Holland). Here they are in concert:

Using information gained from LeFay and some online resources, I have also created a discography of sorts of the band's official releases, which is made up of three singles.

The Morgans Discography

Tell Me What You Taste (1995) (Diversity Recordings)
1. Tell Me What You Taste (Radio Edit) (Pay, LeFay)
2. Tommy (Dixon)
3. Joyrider Boy (Pay, LeFay)
4. Simon Says (Dixon, LeFay)

Half Girl-Half Jesus (1995) (Diversity Recordings)
1. Half-Girl Half-Jesus (girl version) (Dixon, Cotter)
2. Half Girl Half-Jesus (jesus version) (Dixon, Cotter)
3. Half Girl Half Rant (Dixon, Cotter)

Teenile Dementia (1995) (Rented Life)
1. Teenile Dementia (Pay / LeFay)
2. Red or Dead (Pay, LeFay)
3. Say (Dixon)

Videos were shot for all three of the singles listed above, and "Tell Me What You Taste" received airplay on dear old MTV (although it is unclear whether it was broadcast on the American version of that channel). Pictured above is LeFay during the shoot for the video of "Teenile Dementia." According to her, the video for "Half Girl-Half Jesus" was banned due to her being dressed as a bald pregnant Jesus riding a horse with burning crosses.

Today, LeFay compares The Morgans' sound to the Yeah Yeahs Yeahs and notes in an email:

[W]e were really out of time to be honest. Brit Pop (yuk) was huge and there were no girl fronted bands with any balls except Skunk Anansie, only fucking Echobelly and Elastica so we were fighting a losing battle. . . . . I have always suffered from being a bit too ahead of my time, as arrogant as it sounds.

Based in London, the band released the singles listed above and recorded a full length album in the mid-1990s. Interestingly, the band's initial tracks were produced by Andy Gill of Gang of Four fame and at his home, no less. However, LeFay recounts that the London-based band was not satisfied with the sound so they bought Gill out of producing the subsequent album with their advance. The band toured with Theatre of Hate, and "Tell Me What You Taste" appeared in a trailer for the early 1995 cult flick Tank Girl (although it did not appear on the official soundtrack for that film). A planned album was recorded over seven months in Ealing during night sessions over seven months, but it was never released. Instead, the singles were released piecemeal. They, along with some tracks that were recorded for the album, would ultimately end up on the aforementioned comps. But fame was not to be, for as LeFay noted, "as many bands do, [The Morgans] imploded due to sordid affairs, jealousy, too much booze and a rip- off manager." In essence, it was your basic Behind the Music narrative with all the novelties and cliches of a band's self-destruction. The band played its last gig with Theatre of Hate in November of 1996 at Camden Palace. And they were then no more. Notes Cotter in a recent email: "In the brief history of The Morgans there were many stories to be told, not all I’d wish to be printed but we had a lot of fun and some very happy memories stem from that period. "

LeFay and Dixon continued to collaborate musically under the name Morgans Baby (with other members Nick Lloyd Webber (son of Andrew Lloyd Webber), Senser's Paul Soden on drums, and Josh Town on bass). After several brief tours and the recording of a never to be released album, Morgans Baby, in LeFay's words, "withered and died," as so many things do. She now lives in Austria and writes and records for the band, Audio Medical Device.

Lucy Cotter, for her part, emails to note what her post-Morgans projects have been:

When The Morgans split up Russell and I formed an acoustic project called ‘Dust’. After this I did a hit dance single called ‘Breathe in You’ which went under the alias ‘Tekara – featuring Lucy Cotter’ with top dance producer Matt Darey. I then carried on working with 3 Beat Records to try to come up with another hit, but failed! One can but try! I’ve done various session vocals and lots of acoustic projects which is really what I enjoy most, guitar and vocals – bliss.

Cotter now works in the television industry in the United Kingdom. She is currently rehearsing as a country duo with Paul Offord of The Starts. Dixon (who also appears to have a site here) is a member of Who's Who, a tribute band of The Who.

For good measure, here is another picture of The Morgans in concert:

So how is it that the only artifacts remaining of this band are the various songs and singles on the bargain bin compilations collections? LeFay blames the band's manager, who she says sold the songs for inclusion on them without adequately compensating the band. But for that, though, would there be any evidence at all for we in the present to discover? The officially released singles appear to be long out of print and very difficult to locate for sale online.

I myself discovered the band shortly after purchasing the aforementioned Femme Fatale compilation, which features "Teenile Dementia" "Red or Dead" (credited to LeFay alone), and "No Man's Land " (credited to Cotter alone). I Googled "The Morgans" and found very little about the band (and the name is not very Google-friendly, as there are many families with the surname Morgan with personal websites.). I did find one or two of blog entries similarly wondering about the band, its origin, and its ultimate fate, which prompted me to seek out information on the group. (It was on those pages that I learned that LeFay and Cotter were members of the band, as the Femme Fatale compilation did not list individual members or any other biographical information on the band).

Interestingly, my out-of-the-blue inquiry seems to have prompted some nostalgia in LeFay, as she was kind enough to scan in the concert photographs and album covers above for my benefit and use. She is also now considering creating a MySpace profile for the group and uploading the band's three videos to YouTube when she can find the time to do so.

I think that would be very interesting to see.

(All photographs courtesy of Chloe LeFay.).

UPDATE (9/15/07): I have incorporated into the post an excerpt of an email from Lucy Cotter, who emailed me to alert her to her recording projects and career following the Morgans. Elsewhere in the post, I also included a quotation from her about the legacy of the Morgans. Also added was some information about Pete Dixon and his current goings-on. I also embedded a few additional links into the story, including one to the official site of Eddy Brimson. Further, in a comment posted here, LeFay mentions the possibility of "a re-release if there appears to be enough interest." This week, following the initial publication of this post, she established a MySpace page for The Morgans.

UPDATE (10/4/07): Radio personality Nigel Barker, who was with The Morgans from 1994 to 1995, emails with some "missing facts" to complete the historical record:

I was in the Morgans right up to the release of the Tell Me What You Taste EP and I also co-wrote both that track and "Joyrider Boy" from that EP with Chloe (additional bits from Russ [Pay]). The Manager decided that since my departure occurred weeks before the EP release that Russ would be given the credit for the songs (which caused huge grievences between myself and the rest of the band).

However, this release wasn't the first Morgans release and a limited run 12" was pressed featuring a track called "Say" by Chloe and Pete Dixon and "Television" written again by Chloe but with music by The Morgans (I think it's a bit blurred as to where the initial idea for the song came from).

Tell Me What You Taste was recorded by Andy Gill in Smokehouse Studios in Wapping and then overdubs and vocals were conducted at Gill's house.

...

The whole project was destined to implode from the onset and end in beautiful chaos. There was a very prodigious set of talents in the band and with proper management and direction then it might have been possible to make the whole thing work but with the guidance available it was always doomed to fail.

Barker notes that after The Morgans he joined HipJam, a group which featured Steve 'Smiley' Barnard and Andy Marlow. The group recorded some tracks for Channel Four TV and had a track featured in Hard Men, a 1996 British gangster movie. Barker now produces his own late night radio show in Cornwall and as well as several local bands in that city.

"Baby, Let's Be Methodists Tonight"

What the early 1990s wrought, in addition to the Clintons and the Internets, was a plethora of satirical, acoustic alt-rock parodies of Christianity. Among them: "No Resistin' a Christian" by the litigious Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie, which appeared on the late 1991 SST Acoustic compilation and the far more amusing "Baby, Let's Be Methodists Tonight" by Fish Karma, from 1991's Teddy in the Sky with Magnets. I first heard Fish Karma's tune on a college radio station sometime in the early 1990s, although I never caught the name of the artist. Time was, when a radio listener would catch a snippet of an interesting song on the radio, he could not simply race home, Google the lyrics, and determine the tune's title or artist. I assumed though, from its refrain, that the song's title was "Baby, Let's Be Methodists Tonight." I remember laughing with a friend as we heard the following over the car stereo:

M is for the meat loaf I'll eat every Wednesday,
E is for entropy, I don't know what that means,
T is for the tempo I'll drive to work,
H is for the hours I'll spend working on my putt,
O is for oat meal, orange juice and oregano,
D is for the dishwasher singing in the morning,
I is for the ice cube maker in my freezer,
S is for the spice wracks nailed to the wall,
T is for the trump card that I'll play, when I'm doing contact bridge with all my friends and neighbors, AAAH!

We referenced the "entropy" line for weeks and weeks until it ultimately fell from our memory, as such things inevitably do. Years later, the lyrics resurfaced in my mind, and I turned to the search engines to discover the band that had years earlier released the song. The Internets offered little information on Fish Karma, but I managed to determine the album on which the song appeared and somehow found a copy on eBay for an acceptable price.

Unlike Jethro Tull, "Fish Karma" is the name of a guy in the band, albeit it an alias for Terry Owen. Produced by Mojo Nixon and released on Triple X Records, Teddy in the Sky with Magnets managed to snag a single paragraph review in the November 1991 issue of Playboy:

Fish Karma intermittently suffers from obviousness on teddy in the sky with magnets (Triple X). Anyone who ridicules working-class culture by mentioning K mart, as in Swap Meet Women, can make no claim to unadulterated originality. I nonetheless like his song titles (e.g., Baby, Let's Be Methodists) and his free association: "Love is like a large piece of cheesecloth attached to a revolving bowling ball covered with fructose and postage stamps."

(Far be it from me to correct sixteen year old typographical errors, but the Playboy review, by one Charles M. Young, misnames "Swap Meet Woman" and truncates the final word from the title of "Baby, Let's Be Methodists Tonight," oversights which were probably noticed that year only by Fish Karma himself.). In the album's very brief liner notes, he offers special thanks to Ronnie James Dio (to whom he would later pay tribute in "Poodlecide" [MP3 excerpt from Deep Shag Records] in 2001) and Jello Biafra, who would later describe Fish Karma's music as "your basic FUGS-style electric grunge folk, and his lyrics feature some of the meanest put-downs of American consumer culture I've heard in years." After two more albums in the 1990s, Fish Karma released Lunch with the Devil on Deep Shag Records in 2001 and The Theory of Intelligent Design on Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label in 2006.

Fish Karma dabbled at blogging, apparently, but his blog is now long deceased. A email to him asking about the "Baby, Lets Be Methodists Tonight" went unanswered.

The Violent Femmes Lawsuit

Do you think that in 1980, when the Violent Femmes were formed, that its members ever wondered if they would reach such a level of success that they would be suing each other like the Beatles had only a handful of years beforehand? Earlier this month, VF bassist Brian Ritchie sued vocalist Gordon Gano in what has now become typical for bands of that era: a dispute over royalties. This was widely reported in the music press and on the Internets.

Not skimping on the legal expenses, Ritchie has retained the services of three big firm Texas lawyers to file a federal lawsuit in New York. They are: Stacy Allen, Lawrence A. Waks, and Emilio B. Nicolas of the Austin office of Jackson Walker, L.L.P. (Nicolas, pictured on his profile on the JW website, looks young enough to have been but a toddler at the time of VF's self titled debut album in 1982). Attorney Daniel Scardino is also assisting with the prosecution of the case.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero (who has addressed more important issues of the day but is, in fact, no stranger to music industry lawsuits). However, preliminary matters will be addressed by U.S. Magistrate James C. Francis.

Violent Femmes completists (of which there are many, presumably, after all of these years) can review Ritchie's complaint and supporting evidence as follows:

1. Brian Ritchie's Complaint for Declaratory Relief, Equitable Relief, Injunctive Relief and Damages and Demand for Jury Trial (1 of 2) [PDF].
2. Brian Ritchie's Complaint for Declaratory Relief, Equitable Relief, Injunctive Relief and Damages and Demand for Jury Trial (2 of 2) [PDF].
3. Exhibits A and B to the Complaint (Exhibit A is an 11 page list of "Disputed Compositions and Recordings", while Exhibit B is an October 14, 2001 agreement between Ritchie and Gano/Gorno music which Ritchie claims is null and void).
4. Exhibits C, D, and E to the Complaint (Exhibit C is the United States Trademark Registration for the mark "Violent Femmes," Exhibit D is a November 30, 2006 email from Alan N. Skiena to Howard Comart, and Exhibit E is a letter from Skiena to Daniel Scardino).
5. Rule 7.1 Corporate Disclosure Statement of Brian Ritchie d/b/a Violent Femmes [PDF]

You've got to love the fact that Brian Ritchie, who is identified in his complaint as a member of a "folk-punk" outfit, was required to file a "corporate disclosure statement." The real question presented by this lawsuit is not whether Ritchie is greedy or whether Gano is withholding royalties from his longtime bassist. The real issue is whether the judge (or rather, his law clerk) can insert as many references to VF songs in his rulings a la this 1987 judicial opinion in which the same was done for songs by the Talking Heads.