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July 2001 Parasol
Newsletter
Issue #44
Hey, we're getting ready to move closer to
Downtown Urbana! Look for an address change in the August update. Upcoming
release note: Adam Schmitt's Demolition and Jeff Kelly's Indiscretion will both
be in-stock mid-month. I am saving my write-up for Indiscretion so I can pair
it with another psych pop pselection by Orange Alabaster Mushroom. If you've
not heard of this Canadian band you are in for a Nuggets-like wallop. Very
tryppy.
Live show note: PARASOL NIGHT AT METRO-CHICAGO
August 2-Absinthe Blind, Autoliner, Beauty Shop, Neilson Hubbard
SPOTLIGHT
Adam Schmitt - Demolition
CD (PAR-CD-033) $10.00
It was in October 1997, Parasol Newsletter #2 to be
exact, that I announced the impending release of a new Adam Schmitt CD. 42
issues later and here we are! For the uninitiated, Adam kicked off the 1990s
with two records on Warner Brother/Reprise and great national press from the
likes of Rolling Stone, Billboard, Trouser Press Record Guide, etc. Everyone
keyed on the shy, 23-year-old wunderkind angle. His friends and acquaintances
here in Champaign-Urbana just plain loved his songs; "Elizabeth
Einstein," "World So Bright," "River Black," the list
goes on. After Warner Brothers passed on the opportunity to release a third CD,
Adam retreated to his home studio - much of the gear was purchased with his
recording and publishing advances - to record other acts. Many of those albums
comprise the early Parasol record label catalog. In between his
engineering/production sessions (including tracks/albums for Tommy Keene, Hum,
Robynn Ragland) Schmitt continued to write and record more songs. He had a
standing offer from Parasol label head, Geoff, to release anything he wanted.
In late 1998 Adam set about compiling tracks for what was to be his third
album, the aforementioned Parasol Records release, The Race of All Races. The
plan: as he transferred songs from his 24-track analog tapes to his new ADAT
machines he would "clean up" a few tracks. One quick fix led to
another and soon enough it was 1999 and Adam had re-titled the album
Treefalling. More production jobs intervened, new songs were written, and
pressure to deliver an adequate follow up to his critically acclaimed major
label releases mounted. At the end of 2000 Adam released the self-imposed
pressure. He decided to go back to his original set of songs, give 10 of them a
fresh mix, and release them under a new title, Demolition. And here it is. 10
songs written, recorded and mixed at Adam's home studio between 1993 and 2001.
This may be all in my own mind but the songs seem to suggest a storyline to the
album's creation. "See Me Fall" and "Brilliance In Failure"
could be an introduction to Adam's world circa 1993, while the heavier
"Visited" suggests a nod to his production work with Hum.
"Second Story," "Let's Make This Easy," and "Want
Ad" fill up the middle part of the CD and harken back to the implied
optimism of World So Bright. All is not well though as "Alone on a
Crashing Plane" and "World As Enemy" follow. And just as you're
wondering if there could ever be a Demolition 2 Adam pulls out the beautiful
waltz "Timeless," and ends with a cliffhanger as he goes
"Looking For Fate." I know Adam put that much thought into the
sequencing of Demolition, I just don't know if that's what he was
thinking.
Club 8 - Club 8
CD (AHA!024) $11.00
We love this band and CD! A breathtaking
collection of shimmering pop, the long-awaited masterpiece from acclaimed
Swedish duo Club 8, the vanguard of the Swedish independent pop scene. This is
Club 8's third full-length album and their first for Hidden Agenda/Parasol.
From the playful Astrud Gilberto romp that was their debut album, Nouvelle, to
the more Euro-dancefloor-friendly A Friend I Once Had, Club 8's latest is about
mood. Bittersweet and beautifully arranged popsongs buoyed by supernatural
production and Karolina's sensual female vocals, melancholy songs full of
elemental, sultry Scandinavian atmospheres (imagine the sea caressing beaches
lit by the aurora borealis, really) and stoic European allure, with guest
appearance on vocals by Swedish Pop Hero Lasse Lindh. Both Johan and Karolina
were in the band Poprace and Johan is still a member of anorak-godfathers the
Acid House Kings. Johan answered a few questions regarding the new
album:
Q: How did you approach the recording of
the new CD compared to Club 8's first two CDs, and how did you choose these
songs for the album?
A: We were really into changing our sound when we started working on
this album. I've been writing songs since we released The Friend I Once Had,
but none of the songs I wrote in 1999 ended up on the new album. They were just
too much like the songs on The Friend... We wanted our new sound to be both
organic and a bit electronic at the same time. And, we didn't want to include
any "hit"-songs at all. No catchy
"hey-ho-let's-go-to-the-sea"-songs. We wanted all the songs to be
warm, soft and cozy. No fast songs, no songs that could be labeled as
"twee." I presented the songs I wrote, which I was happy with, to
Karolina and she chose the songs.
Q: What new and old music are you
currently listening to that influenced the new songs and recordings?
A: We've listened a lot to Leonard Cohen. Our style is miles from his,
still some people have actually said that we sound a little bit like him, which
makes me rather happy. I like the way he writes songs. I've listened a lot to
Bonnie Prince Billie, Montgolfier Brothers, Granada, Felt and Velvet
Underground lately, but those influences will probably show up on the next
album. The fact that there are so few good bands that don't use the classic
guitar-bass-drums line-up influenced us as well. We wanted to fill that missing
part of music.
Coming Soon...
Jeff Kelly-Indiscretion (Hidden Agenda)
CD due in July
Orange Alabaster Mushroom-Space & Time: A Compendium of…
(Hidden Agenda) CD due in August
The Soundtrack of Our Lives-Welcome to the Infant Freebase (Hidden
Agenda) CD due in August
The Soundtrack of Our Lives-Extended Revelation (Hidden Agenda) CD due
in August
The Soundtrack of Our Lives-Behind the Music (Hidden Agenda) CD due in
August
The Melody Unit-TBA (Hidden Agenda) CD due in September
The Witch Hazel Sound-This World, Then the Fireworks… (Hidden
Agenda) CD due in September
The Green Pajamas-The Carolers' Song (Hidden Agenda) CD EP due in
October
June & the Exit Wounds-TBA (Parasol) CD due TBA
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
…last week, in an incorrectly labeled box,
we found 100 copies of Atmosphere, the 1994 Parasol Records CD by Jupiter Sun.
The band's album has been unavailable for a few years, so its good to have sale
copies available again! This trio from San Jose played an excellent blend of
early-Ride meets early-Velvet Crush inspired guitar pop. Some of you may
remember these guys from their inclusion on the Slumberland Records CD Why
Popstars Can't Dance or their 5 song EP on I Wish I Was A Slumberland
Records.
"... delightfully tuneful, trippy, fuzzy
pop... with a remarkable melodic freshness... Admirers of the Creation label
can't go wrong with Atmosphere..." -Alternative
Press
SOME PARASOL RELATED ARTIST ANSWERS SOME
QUESTIONS
Signalmen's Mike
Brosco
1. Mixing session you wish you could have
attended-
"The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Just to be there and
hear 'A Day In The Life' take shape would have been magical."
2. Songs you think you probably shouldn't
like but just can't help yourself-
"I like a lot of GWAR songs. Some of them go overboard and are in bad
taste but most of 'This Toilet Earth' really rocks. Definitely a guilty
pleasure."
3. Favorite record that you can't find on CD
(or CD you can't find on vinyl)-
"Meet John Doe."
4. First Concert-
"My first official rock concert was Alice Cooper. However, when I was
pretty young my mom and I went to an Edgar Winter concert in search of my half
sister who was living with the band. I remember standing there while my mom was
asking a security guard if she could speak with Edgar. Somehow she got us in
for a while before they kicked us out. We never did find my sister. But I got
turned on to Edgar Winter and bought They Only Come Out At Night (which my
father smashed and threw away when he figured out that that wasn't a woman on
the cover)."
5. Favorite Bass Player-
"Paul McCartney."
Mike Brosco is one half of the twin-guitar and
songwriting team that comprises the pop quartet Signalmen. He was a driving
force behind the '80s cult band Proof of Utah, and continues his assault on the
pop underground with the new Signlamen release Falsetto Teeth. Sample a song on
the forthcoming Parasol's Sweet Sixteen, Volume 4 collection, or on the CD that
will accompany Comes With a Smile's Autumn issue.
The Archive
June 2001 May
2001 April 2001
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September 1999 August
1999 July 1999
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