ESOPUS MAGAZINE ::: Archive

ESOPUS CD #3: PRODUCT DISPLACEMENT

For our third invitational CD, we asked musicians to select an advertising slogan or jingle and “embed” it in a song, transforming and camouflaging it in a way that made it difficult for listeners to identify it or the product it was pushing.

TRACK LIST:

1. Scott McCloud, “Map”
2. El May, “Order in the Nothingness”
3. Sonic Boom & Delia Derbyshire, “Only the Loveliest”
4. Connie MacNamee, “B-Flat Blues”
5. Jad Fair, “Love and Laughter”
6. David Naugle & Joy Howard, “The Right Thing”
7. The Baptist Generals, “Raw from Self-Destruction...”
8. The New Black, “Don't Leave Home”
9. Western Keys, “When You Return”
10. Alan Licht, “The Whole Thing”
11. BONUS TRACK The Wrens, “This Boy Is Exhausted”
(from The Meadowlands, Absolutely Kosher, 2003)"

MUSICIANS' BIOS:

The Baptist Generals are songwriter/guitarist Chris Flemmons, bass player Ryan Williams, and drummer Jeff Ryan. Formed in 1998 in Denton, TX, the group’s albums include Dog (1999) and the 2003 Sub Pop release No Silver/No Gold.

El May is the solo project of musician Lara Meyerratken, who relocated to New York in 1997 to be the “right-hand lady” of fellow Australian songwriter Ben Lee. Since then she has also played keyboards with the bands Luna, Luscious Jackson, Nada Surf, L’Avventura, Clem Snide, and Seattle-based Crooked Fingers.

Artist and musician Jad Fair is perhaps best-known as the cofounder (with brother David) of the cult underground band Half Japanese. Recruited by Kurt Cobain as the opening act on Nirvana’s In Utero tour in 1993, the group is also the subject of the 2002 film The Band Who Would Be King. In addition to 20 albums with Half Japanese, Fair has released countless solo and collaborative efforts with the likes of J Mascis, Moe Tucker, John Zorn, Daniel Johnston, Kramer, Yo La Tengo, and Teenage Fanclub. Fair, whose paintings and paper-cuttings have been exhibited internationally, is currently based in Glen Rose, TX.

A founding member of the bands Love Child and Run On, New Yorker Alan Licht has performed and recorded with Tom Verlaine, Arto Lindsay, Royal Trux, Jim O’Rourke, Aki Onda, and Michael Snow, among others. He currently codirects the Text of Light project with Lee Ranaldo, for which musicians improvise with experimental cinema classics screened behind them. Licht also writes for The Wire, Time Out New York, and Premiere; his most recent CD is A New York Minute (2003).

Jazz singer Connie MacNamee, born into a family of jazz musicians in 1938, performs regularly at venues around New York City, which is also her hometown. For her track for this issue’s CD, she was accompanied by her frequent collaborator, the pianist Harry Whitaker.

Singer/guitarist Scott McCloud lives and works in New York City. For 12 years, he was the front man for the band Girls vs. Boys, whose albums include Tropic of Scorpio (1992), House of GVSB (1996), and the 1997 Geffen release Freak*on*ica. McCloud’s side projects include the band New Wet Kojak, whose most recent release was 2000’s Do Things. "Map," McCloud's track for the CD, was written with and engineered by Teho Teardo, an award-winning electronic music composer who lives in Pordenone, Italy.

David Naugle cofounded Atlanta band Delarosa in 1996; his friend and fellow Atlantan Joy Howard sang and played bass for the group in 1998 while also a member of Seely, whose albums include Seconds (1997) and Winter Birds (2000). Naugle, a photographer and artist who creates sound-based installations, currently lives with his wife in Kingston, NY; Howard and her husband recently relocated from Georgia to New Jersey.

Rugby, England–based Sonic Boom (a.k.a. Pete Kember) teamed up in 1986 with Jason Pierce to form the trance-rock band Spacemen 3, whose albums include Playing with Fire and The Perfect Prescription. After that group disbanded in the early ’90s, he formed Spectrum, whose releases include Soul Kiss and Forever Alien. He is also the driving force behind the Experimental Audio Research (E.A.R.) project, a configuration of musicians that includes My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. Kember’s track for the CD incorporates his collaborative work with the late electronic music composer Delia Derbyshire.

Austin, TX–based Western Keys is the project of Ben Dickey, John Troutman, and Daniel McIntosh. The band’s debut EP, Damage, was released on the Self-Starter Foundation label in late 2002.

Brooklyn-based photographer Brooke Williams records and performs under the name The New Black. She has collaborated with many other bands, including Beastie Boys, Sybarite, and Speedball Baby, and is currently working on her first full-length solo record.