Parasol July 1999 Newsletter

SPOTLIGHT!

Joe Algeri-Sings Everything Under the Sun CD
(Par-CD-037) $10.00

With the release of Everything Under The Sun Joe Algeri detours off the rock n' roll freeway and takes the old dirt track back home. The 13 songs are delicately delivered with a home-spun folk-i-ness... simple, sparse, melancholic and crooning. So why does Joe temporarily shut down the generator on Jack & the Beanstalk's familiar power-pop? Well this is the type of trip back to the country that Joe has been taking ever since he started playing music. This disc represents a collection of highlights from his early solo releases, available for the first time ever on CD, together with 10 new recordings. After the spilt of his former band the Stonemasons in 1994, Joe pleasantly surprised everyone with his first solo release 10,000 Sunny Days. Only available locally on cassette, we can now hear for the first time ever a clear re-mastering of "After The Rain" and a new, live-in-the-studio version of a long time favourite, "Apricot Girl". Following his first European trip in 1995, Joe then produced a 18 song cassette called The Summerhouse Bootlegs which featured many demos for what was to become the Jack & the Beanstalk album, And Other Stories, plus some more acoustic gems like "Your Song" and "Far" which are both represented here. In 1997, 10 new solo tunes, were recorded for the somewhat darker The Loneliest Man Alive cassette. From that release "Lee Hazlewood" has been re-recorded here with a string arrangement, however the listener is still no closer to finding out what the song is actually about. After Jack & the Beanstalk's European tour in 1998, Joe grabbed an acoustic guitar and hung around to play more solo concerts. He also recorded a number of live demos in a French studio, the haunting "Unreal" is featured here. Later that summer he headed to the US and a chance meeting with Adam Schmitt resulted in "Yeah... No" written and recorded the same warm day at Adam's house in Illinois. Back down under, Joe reminisces his northern adventures with new tracks, "Endless Summer" and "Lonely With A Smile". The highlight however, is the Beanstalk's easy going beat to the serene "Awkward" and "The Airport Song". So this is Everything Under The Sun, over 4 years in the making, in 5 different countries. Now it's time to relax, listen and bring it all back home.

Steve Pride & His Blood Kin-Pride On Pride CD
(Spur-CD-004) $10.00

Wilco's Jay Bennett (with the engineering assistance of Adam Schmitt) spent time in early 1999 compiling 21 tracks from the Steve Pride and His Blood Kin sessions in which he participated as a band member in the early '90s. Only two songs (in different versions) from Steve Pride's well-received (MOJO, No Depression, Dirty Linen) 1997 solo release Haint appear here. The Blood Kin's bassist Don Gerard encapsulates the band's career arc below.

When Jay and I were compiling this collection I couldn't help but think, "Damn, this stuff ain't bad". Why not? The core of the band consisted of Jay Bennett (Now a "Grammy Nominated" artist with WILCO) and myself (survivor of Roadrunner Recording Artists Moon Seven Times). We had a string of talented back beaters: Brendan Gamble (Poster Children, M7x), Bob Rising (Poster Children, Seam), Pat Hawley (lots of bands), Alex Moore (ditto) and Mike Hazelrigg (Titanic Love Affair). After we had sifted through all of the band demos and finished patting ourselves on the back, I happened across a tape of just Steve and his guitar...It was every bit as powerful as the most raucous cacophony we ever mustered as a combo. Round about the turn of the decade Steve asked me if I'd be interested in playing bass in a country band. I liked Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle well enough, but it wasn't exactly the coolest thing around...Uncle Tupelo were up and coming, but the whole "insurgent country" buzz was still quite a few years off. Steve thought he might have a shot at scoring a minor publishing deal and figured he might as well give the tunes the stage test as well. By the grace of good fortune (and an ample supply of Jaegermeister) we wrangled Jay into doing some side work on the early demos...He never left. Our boots hit the boards along with just about every rootsy act of the era: Jayhawks, Bottlerockets, Uncle Tupelo, Reverend Horton Heat, American Music Club, rockabilly legend Robert Gordon and a slew more I've long since forgotten. Steve kept knocking out one great song after another (although time tends to make one a bit amnesiatic when it comes to the clunkers...) and he was pretty fast and loose with the cover selection as well (Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Trad Arrang, etc). While our contemporaries were preparing to "tribute" Gram Parsons to the point of tribulation, Steve was lauding Townes Van Zandt. Like Townes, Steve could tell a story. His songs always seemed like Jim Thompson novels or Raymond Carver short stories set to music. The songs included on this disc were never meant to be released on a CD and most of 'em were recorded on sketchy equipment in a dusty basement with no "engineer" (Jay would run upstairs, turn the tape machine on, run down and start playing). Most of 'em were meant for somebody else to cover. Somehow maybe that is why these songs hold up so well. The guard was down, the beer flowed and we barreled through any mistakes or miscues.

Now Available on Vinyl LP

Wolfie-Where's Wolfie $7.50
An LP release for Where's Wolfie just in time for their July tour. New artwork (!) a treat for Wolfie fans and vinyl collectors.

Mark Bacino-Pop Job…The Long Player $7.50
Plug your record player into a tinny car speaker and hear how this album was MEANT to be heard.

Bikeride-Thirty-seven Secrets I Only Told America $8.50
THE Summer album of 1999. "Blue Jeans, "A Wet and Watery Blue," "Peeling an Orange," +11.

COMING SOON

Nick Rudd-One Track Mind CD due in July

Quickspace-Precious Falling CD due in July

Very Secretary-Standing In The Shade CD due in July

June & the Exit Wounds-"a little more Haven Hamilton, please" LP including bonus 7" with two new songs! Due in August

Boot camp-As You Were CD-EP due in August

Life On Mars-TBA (New project featuring Brian Leach) CD due in August

Doleful Lions-TBA CD due in September

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

…(and judging from mail order sales many of you have) this latest Bikeride CD is really something special folks. Summery and intricately arranged but not overly produced, the album is appealing to both indie-pop and power pop fans. Whenever I want to just sit and smile I put on the opening track "Erik & Angie," and turn up the speakers as loud as the Parasol neighbors will allow. Thirty-seven Secrets I Only Told America also includes a gorgeous cover of South American Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Wave." It cracked the CMJ Top 100, Chris Carter is playing the album on his Y107 show in LA, and Jerry Rubino is spinning it on WLIR-New York's "Left of Center." AVERSION.COM says, "Wandering from laid-back lounge tunes ("That's Math") to shag-carpet pop ("Jennifer") to mellow acoustic and moog pairings ("A Wet and Watery Blue") Bikeride pulls much of the legacy of the `70s under its belt" Highly, highly recommended.

SOME PARASOL RELATED ARTIST ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS

Life on Mars' John Ross

1. Mixing session you wish you could have attended-" It's a toss up between the original Broadway cast recording of Hair (was there really that much mixing?) and Jehovah Kill by Julian Cope."

2. Songs you think you probably shouldn't like but just can't help yourself -"'Precious and Few' by Climax. I'm sure that's the only one (unless you count songs by the Partridge Family, The Cowsills, The DeFranco Family, The Osmonds, etc.)."

3. Favorite record that you can't find on CD- "2nd Honeymoon and Don't Stop the World by Deaf School. They were issued together as a double album in the U.S. I think they would both fit nicely onto a single disc."

4. First Concert- "Cheap Trick at the International Amphitheater."

5. Favorite Bass Player-" Jean Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers."

Life On Mars is the new Chicago-based project from John Ross, drummer Tom Curless, and Sugarbuzz's Brian Leach. Ross & Leach have been friends since their days growing up in Park Forest, Illinois, and it's quite amazing that this is their first commercially available CD as collaborators, though a song they co-wrote appeared on Leach's The Sunrise Nearly Killed Me album. Ross has a rich musical history having played in a band with Soundgarden's Kim Thayil, recorded early demos for Veruca Salt, and released albums as part of the bands Monica's Interval and Vivian Section. The debut Life On Mars CD, is slated for an August 17 release on Parasol.