December 2000 Parasol Newsletter

Issue #37

Thank you for a great year. You hear about Parasol label releases first and are the main source of our band's word-of-mouth successes. "Hits" like June & the Exit Wounds and Sarge start with you. Occasionally I hear from a Parasol Mail Order customer with suggestions, tour itinerary questions, upcoming release inquiries, and band tips, and the correspondence is always appreciated. If you have any Parasol (and that includes Mud, Hidden Agenda & Spur) artist questions, feel free to e-mail me at promo@parasol.com or call me at the Parasol Mail Order phone number. With a new Bettie Serveert EP planned, June & the Exit Wounds' second album, the double CD debut from Kevin Tihista's Red Terror, and other releases too early to divulge, I can't wait for 2001 to begin.
-Michael

SPOTLIGHT

Various-Parasol Presents Christmas Singles CD
(PAR-CD-064) $10.00

We started talking in earnest about releasing a holiday CD sometime during March of this year…then promptly forgot about it until July when it was nearly too late to finish in time. Major kudos (I actually don't like that word) to all of the participating artists who fired up the home studio, or begged for free time, to be involved in Parasol's first full-length Christmas offering. It is an eclectic mix for sure, but one that we feel represents the spirit of who we are and what we do. The CD leads off with Erik Voeks' classic Parasol 7" and this compilation's namesake, the song "Christmas Singles" is available for the very first time on the CD format… You are welcome! Ex-Sarge ELIZABETH ELMORE's rendition of the classic Bing Crosby carol "White Christmas" is dreamy. Mark Bacino's orch-pop "Merry Christmas, I Love You", goes over-the-top and then down the chimney! Angie Heaton's "Hard Candy Christmas", cover of Dolly Parton's song in "Best Little Whorehouse In Texas". "Last Days of December" by seductive synth-poppers Vitesse just sparkles, like snowflakes & streetlights. White Town's blistering bah-humbug guitar-spasm "Merry Fucking Christmas" is all about noise & bombast. Friends Of Sound's "Christmas Light, End a Fight" proves something special always happens at Christmas! Sparkling Sarah-esque electro-pop, Southern hospitality, and the deepest darkest play of light and shadow… Elk City's folk-wave "Deer Crossing" is full of good cheer, it will have you singing along until New Years. Philo's surprisingly Phil-o Spector-ish "Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday" is awash in echoing pop-strangeness. Kayla Brown (singer from Feaze now solo) offers the teen-angst touching (but depressing) "All I Want For Christmas". Toothpaste 2000 go sonically nutso on "I Wish That Everyday Was Christmas", which could give Santa a stroke! The Signalmen's "Holiday Wine" is an inebriating Television-meets-Americana-fueled Midwestern pop-grind… Shalini (joined by Let's Active's Mitch Easter/Eric Marshall) does Kim Fowley's "Nutrocker", a yuletide-surf instrumental. Seattle popster Matt Bruno finds about 15 different ways to phrase "Merry Christmas," they're all good. The Doleful Lions offer the traditional holiday season close "Auld Lang Syne"… And a Happy New Year!

Hot Glue Gun-The Life and Death of… Double-CD
(MUD-CD-004) $10.00

Did you catch that catalog number?! Mud CD 004. That's right, it fits between the self-titled Uptighty album and Honcho's Pour Another Drink, which was released in 1994. We've been holding this space for Hot Glue Gun for six years. Where've you been guys? Two incarnations of Hot Glue Gun existed during its 1986-1991 existence. Mike Clayton and Randy Seals (Tommy Flake) formed the band with the idea to play music that was high energy and danceable, Clayton describing them as "funky rockin' smart alecks with tongues firmly planted in our cheeks." The fertile Champaign-Urbana music scene, which included Hum and Poster Kids, helped fuel their success and Hot Glue Gun took off as an opening act for such national headliners as Throwing Muses, Primus, Royal Crescent Mob, and Smashing Pumpkins. After a move from Champaign-Urbana to Madison, Wisconsin Hot Glue Gun V 1.0 broke up and Mike Clayton moved to San Francisco. He returned to Champaign-Urbana several months later, where he put together the best known lineup with Nick Macri (C-Clamp, Euphone, Blue Man Group, Sunny Day Real Estate) and Matt Payne (Cath Carrol). With the encouragement of Poster Kids' Rose Marshack, Hot Glue Gun began recording and touring the Midwest delivering a heavier sound, still dependent on the big bad groove. They became more popular than ever, consistently selling out their local shows. But, in 1991, the band broke up for good, each member moving to different parts of the country to pursue other interests. The Life and Death of Hot Glue Gun chronicles the complete recorded history of the band. It is a two CD set that contains their entire studio-recorded output, plus a bonus disc of unreleased live tracks. The studio CD contains five songs recorded anew in 1999 with Hum's Matt Talbott producing. Most of the live tracks are culled from a Bloomington, Illinois show that epitomized the atmosphere of Hot Glue Gun live set; smart loud pop, frenetic funk, caustic punk and everything in-between to keep the pogo-happy crowds pogo-ing and happy. Your Champaign-Urbana music scene collection will not be complete without this double dose chronicle (at a single CD price!) of one of the area's most incendiary combos. Contains genius pop-obscurities like "I'll Kill You", "Dive", "She Calms Down", and a Devo cover, of course…

Velvet Crush-Rock Concert CD
(AMCD-101) $11.00

The Velvet Crush nudges awake their well-rested Action Musik label for this long-awaited 8-song live album, The Velvet Crush group live on stage in Chicago! It was recorded at Chicago's fabled Cabaret Metro, by Metro Mobile Unit back in March 1995! Tracklist: "Window To The World", "My Blank Pages", "Ash & Earth", "Time Wraps Around You", "Atmosphere", "This Life Is Killing Me", "Hold Me Up" and a cover of 20/20's "Remember the Lightning". This live set also features guitars and harmonies by sometime Velvet Crush sideman and acclaimed power-popstar in his own right, Tommy Keene!

Coming Soon...

Mezzanines-Underground Aces (Mud) CD due in December
Toothpaste 2000-Va-Va-Voom (Parasol) CD due in December
Twin Princess-Complete Recordings (Hidden Agenda) CD mini album due in January
George Usher Group-Days of Plenty (Parasol) CD due in January
Steve Almaas-Kingo a Wild One (Parasol) CD due in January
Various Artists-Shoe Fetish: A Tribute to Shoes (Parasol) CD due in February
Kevin Tihista's Red Terror-Back to Budapest Vol. I & IV (Parasol) Double CD due in February
Fonda-The Strange and the Familiar (Hidden Agenda) CD TBA

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

…June and The Exit Wounds' Todd Fletcher has launched a band website. But that's not the news. The news is that Todd is keeping an e-diary on the progress of the new June & the Exit Wounds album, and I think it's laugh out loud funny. Go here for some good ol' belly howls, and Vince Guaraldi charts: http://fletch16.home.sprynet.com/. Keeping Todd double busy is the Japan-only EP that will be released to coincide with the shows June & the Exit Wounds is playing in Osaka and Tokyo in early February. Expect some demos, new cover versions, 7" single tracks and other odds'n'ends. This is not a proper follow up to Haven Hamilton, but it'll be fun nonetheless. Parasol Mail Order will likely get a handful to sell, at slightly lower than Japanese import prices. Speaking of a little more Haven Hamilton, please, it just won't go away. The version released by Marina Records in Germany earlier this year was chosen by UNCUT magazine as one of the year's top albums. Still only $10.00 from your friends here at Parasol.

SOME PARASOL RELATED ARTIST ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS

St. Christopher's Glenn Melia

1. Mixing session you wish you could have attended-
"It would have to be for one of the early albums by the master, David Bowie - probably Aladdin Sane, as most of the songs seem to be as near perfect as I can imagine, with the most melodic & inventive piano playing I've ever heard."

2. Songs you think you probably shouldn't like but just can't help yourself-
"Oh Gawd, my record collection is full of such secrets!... 3 that are guaranteed to give me goosebumps, whilst resulting in sniggers from others, are Englebert Humperdinck's 'A Man Without Love,' Edison Lighthouse's 'Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)' and Trini Lopez's 'If I Had A Hammer.'"

3. Favorite record that you can't find on CD (or CD you can't find on vinyl)-
"Until recently, it's been Queen's 2nd album, er, Queen II, but, having acquired same (legally, of course), I'm after a decent Bobby Fuller Four compilation."

4. First Concert-
"Wizzard (of Roy Wood fame), back in around '74, who, I realized even in my pre-teens, were not exactly up to the mark. I'd still like to see Roy Wood, though, as he's still doing the rounds, and is up there with the pop geniuses (gennui?) Actually, we get a lot of nostalgia tours here 'up north' - tomorrow night I'm going to see the Manfreds (Manfred Mann, but without Manfred, if you know what I mean, although with both original singers, Paul Jones & Mike D'Abo, not to mention 3 other founder members.) Appearing with them are Alan Price & Chris Farlowe, so I hope to God it doesn't turn into a pub blues night."

5. Favorite Bass Player-
"Musically, it'd have to be Trevor Bolder, bass player with the Spiders From Mars on the most important of Bowie's early albums. Otherwise, I dream of sharing a sleeping-bag with Tina Weymouth, circa-1980!"

St. Christopher's first studio album since 1996, Golden Blue, was just released on Parasol Records.

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