Inspired by the artsy side of the '70s New York scene and the anti-careerist stance of punk, Edinburgh natives Paul Haig (vocals, guitar), Malcolm Ross (guitar), and Ronnie Torrance (drums) formed a band with an apparently unmentionable name. Future Exploited member Gary McCormack came and went as the bassist, with the trio eventually renaming itself TV Art. David Weddell eventually filled the gap, with the band frequently playing in and around their town. By the end of 1979's summer, they had recorded a demo and changed their name to Josef K.
November of that year saw the release of the nervy 'Chance Meeting' single on the one-off Absolute label. Alan Horne and Orange Juice member Edwyn Collins struck a verbal deal with the band for their Postcard imprint, which released a series of the band's singles. The first was a double pack with the funk-/soul-influenced Orange Juice gracing one half, which helped break ground on the press-derived "Scottish Sound". In late 1980 the band recorded an LP's worth of material in less than two weeks. The somewhat slickly produced 'Sorry for Laughing' was canned by Horne and the band for tilting the sound toward the rhythm section, rather than highlighting the guitars and sounding live. A few months later, the band recorded another album, entitled 'The Only Fun in Town'. Committed in less than a week, this one was released officially, hitting the top position of the U.K. indie chart. Notably, it was the only full-length released by the band, as well as the Postcard label. Having released a record and playing a number of successful shows, Haig determined that the band needn't accomplish anything more and disbanded his group. Ross went off to join Orange Juice, and also spent time with fellow Scots Aztec Camera. Haig began a solo career, eventually working with such talents as Alan Rankine, Billy Mackenzie, Cabaret Voltaire, and Mantronix. Weddell and Torrance were part of the Happy Family with Nick Currie (better known as Momus).
A number of posthumous releases followed shortly after the band's departure. 'Young and Stupid' was issued by Supreme International Recordings in 1987, compiling singles, a session for the BBC, and stray tracks from the shelved first album (it has been reissued twice since then with varying content). Les Temps Modernes coupled 'Sorry for Laughing' with 'The Only Fun in Town' on CD in 1990 (since the original release, it has been reissued by Rev-Ola and LTM once again). Marina issued a compilation of the band's finer moments in 1998, entitled 'Endless Soul'. Domino did the same in 2006, with the excellent 'Entomology'. Despite the recurring levels of interest in the band and their work, unlike many of their peers, they have to date resisted the urge to re-form. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
The "Holly" in Holly and the Italians was Holly Beth Vincent, a singer/drummer/guitarist, who got her start playing in local bands in her native Chicago in the 1970s. Vincent was in California when she formed Holly and the Italians with drummer Steve Young (real name Steve Dalton) and bassist Mark Sidgwick. The band relocated to London in 1979, adding guitarist Colin White, and in November released their debut single, "Tell That Girl to Shut Up", which landed them a deal with Virgin Records in 1980. (Though the single did not chart, Transvision Vamp's 1988 revival of the song did). They spent most of the year touring in England, then recorded an album, 'The Right to Be Italian', during which Young left and was replaced by Mike Osborn (who later gave way to John LaForge). The LP spent a few weeks in the lower reaches of the U.S. charts in the summer of 1981, but by the end of the year, the group had broken up. Early in 1982, Vincent released a duet single with Joey Ramone on the old Sonny and Cher chestnut "I Got You Babe," and later that year, she issued a solo album called 'Holly & the Italians', even though the band no longer existed and the disc was credited to her alone.
During the next 11 years, Vincent was involved with various groups, including a tenure with The Waitresses and a band with her brother Nick called Bikey that played only one show. But none of these efforts produced recordings. In 1993, she was signed to Daemon Records, the label run by Amy Ray of Indigo Girls, and made 'America' under the group name Oblivious. In 1995, she paired with Jonette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde as Vowel Movement and made an album by that name. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Superstar side projects have always rattled around the music scene, one-off outings conceived for any reason you like -to scratch a creative itch, to fulfill a personal vanity, or simply just to confuse and confound an audience that has been growing far too complacent. Occasionally, however, it works. The art rock underground still thrills to the memory of the nights that Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Lydia Lunch, and Foetus came together as The Immaculate Consumptives in 1983; and the gothic crowd still trembles at the memory of The Glove, the similarly short-lived but superbly styled union of The Cure's Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Steven Severin.
The Glove wasn't that great a stretch of the imagination. The pair had been friends since they first met in the late '70s; The Cure undertook their first ever British tour as special guests of The Banshees, in late 1979, and when the headliners' guitarist went unexpectedly AWOL, half a dozen concerts into the itinerary, Smith was quick to fill the gap, playing two full sets every night.
The tour over, The Banshees ushered in a full-time replacement and Smith returned to The Cure. But when that band apparently broke up in June 1982, Smith's first move was to record a single for Flexipop magazine, alongside Severin ("Lament"), and when The Banshees once again required a guitarist, Smith stepped into the breach.
Over the next six months, of course, The Cure did creep back into action, even as The Banshees worked constantly, while Smith and Severin also birthed a project they had been discussing since 1981, The Glove (so named for a character in The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" movie).
With the "group" completed by vocalist/dancer Jeanette Landray, the duo's original idea was to cut a one-off single only. Their writing sessions, however, knew no such boundaries. Days turned to weeks, which transformed, in turn, to months. Smith later boasted, "when we went into the studio, we ended up with 15 songs after three days. And we put them on a record. An odd record".
In fact, the entire project consumed close to three months, but Smith was right about one thing. It was an odd record. According to Banshees drummer Budgie, he and Siouxsie "looked in on a couple of sessions, and couldn't believe what was going on...a situation obviously fuelled by parties and various substances".
The project was doomed to obscurity, however; by the time 'Blue Sunshine' was actually released, that late summer of 1983, both The Banshees and The Cure were enjoying their biggest hit singles yet ("Dear Prudence" and "The Lovecats," respectively); both were preparing to record new albums; both were appearing on British television on an almost weekly basis. The Glove was simply buried beneath the weight of its peers.
A pair of singles went unnoticed, and hopes of a Glove tour -or even a handful of concerts- were dashed. The group did make a couple of TV appearances, the first in October with a couple of Smith's Cure bandmates accompanying the lead trio through a version of the "Punish Me With Kisses" 45 and, with the entire thing completely forgotten by all but the most obsessive fans, the following March, when Britain's Channel 4 TV network invited The Banshees to take part in a new series called "Play at Home" -a series of rock mock documentaries that essentially allowed the lunatics to take over the asylum and present whatever they wanted to the watching millions. The Glove turned in a suitably addled performance, but that was the end. Although occasional rumors have resurfaced around a reunion, the band remains nothing but a memory. A very odd memory. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
The British new wave trio Fiat Lux notched a handful of hits in the U.K. before vanishing into the pop abyss. Fiat Lux formed in Yorkshire, England, in 1982 with Steve Wright (vocals), Ian Nelson (sax, keyboards), and Dave Crickmore (guitars, keyboards). Wright and Crickmore studied drama together in college. After graduating, Wright joined a theatre company called the Yorkshire Actors where he met musician Bill Nelson, the former guitarist of Be Bop Deluxe. Wright gave Nelson a demo tape he and Crickmore had recorded. Impressed with their music, Nelson produced and arranged one of the demo's tracks, "Feels Like Winter Again", and released it on his label Cocteau Records. In April 1982, Bill Nelson's brother Ian Nelson was added to Fiat Lux's lineup. They named themselves Fiat Lux, which is the Latin translation for the Biblical quotation "Let There Be Light". "Feels Like Winter Again" was the first of Fiat Lux's radio successes. In 1984, the haunting ballad "Secrets" drew comparisons to Depeche Mode's moody synth-pop; it became Fiat Lux's most well-known song. Fiat Lux's utilization of cello in "Secrets" broadened synth-pop's stylistic range. However, Fiat Lux never released a full-length album. The group's output was limited to several singles for Polydor. Fiat Lux disbanded in 1985. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
London, England-based art student Susan Whitby originally adopted the pseudonym Lora Logic during her stint as saxophonist in X-Ray Spex. After leaving that group following their debut single, she soon re-emerged in 1978 with her own outfit, Essential Logic, who quickly recorded a couple of hard-edged EPs, 'Aerosol Burns' and 'Wake Up'. One album was recorded, 'Beat Rhythm News' (1979), before Lora commenced on a series of solo recordings in 1981. Her quirky, occasionally arresting, vocals were in evidence on her sole album, 'Pedigree Charm', and she can be heard on a number of recordings by other artists including The Raincoats, Stranglers, Swell Maps and Red Crayola. Logic later joined the Hare Krishna cult, just like X-Ray Spex’s Poly Styrene before her. She returned to music in the mid-90s to play with the re-formed X-Ray Spex. She revived the Essential Logic moniker in the new millennium, teaming up with Gary Valentine (guitar), Dave Jones (bass) and Nick Pretzell (drums) to record a four-track mini-album. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
During their heyday in the late '80s, The Dead Milkmen led a crop of college-radio jokesters that also included Mojo Nixon, King Missile, and Too Much Joy, among others. Playing a basic, happily amateurish brand of punk-pop, the Milkmen skewered popular culture, indie trend-followers, and the intellectually challenged, while frequently indulging their taste for tastelessness. Critics alternately praised and dismissed the band as geeky, juvenile wiseasses -virtually every review seemed to contain the word "sophomoric," and either you found them funny or you didn't. But despite the mixed reviews, the Milkmen earned a devoted cult following (which famously included Detroit Tigers utility infielder Jim Walewander), a few novelty hits on college radio, and even an MTV hit with "Punk Rock Girl." As polarizing as their sense of humor was among critics, it was what fans wanted and came to expect, and attempts to move into more genuine, serious territory during the '90s effectively spelled the end of the band. Oddly enough, by that time, they were exerting at least a small measure of influence -perhaps more than any of their peers, they paved the way for the legion of smart-assed geek-rockers who ruled alternative radio for a brief period in the mid-'90s.
The Dead Milkmen were formed at Philadelphia's Temple University in 1983. Guitarist and sometime vocalist Joe Jack Talcum (born Joe Genaro) and lead singer Rodney Anonymous (aka Rodney Amadeus Anonymous, aka Rodney Anonymous Melloncamp, born Rodney Linderman) grew up together in the small Pennsylvania town of Wagontown. During high school, Genaro started writing a newsletter about a fictional band called The Dead Milkmen, and the exploits of its lead singer Jack Talcum. When Genaro graduated and enrolled at Temple, he and Linderman kept up a songwriting partnership through the mail. Through his acquaintances at Temple, Genaro met drummer Dean Clean (born Dean Sabatino), who played in a local punk band called Narthex, and bassist Dave Blood (identified only as Dave S.), with whom he struck up a songwriting partnership. All three started playing together in 1983, and with Rodney Anonymous joining them that summer, they performed their first gig as The Dead Milkmen.
Over the next year or two, the Milkmen recorded several live, self-released cassettes, and achieved considerable local notoriety with a live radio performance in 1984. They earned some attention in the punk magazine Maximumrocknroll, and the resulting buzz helped them land a deal with Restless Records subsidiary Fever. In 1985, they issued their debut album, 'Big Lizard in My Backyard', which consisted mostly of material from their cassette releases. The track "Bitchin' Camaro" -which featured a rambling spoken intro full of snotty putdowns and nonsensical banter- became a hit on college radio, and sloppy joke-punk tunes like "Takin' Retards to the Zoo" cemented their new cult following. The follow-up, 'Eat Your Paisley!', appeared in 1986, and while some fans considered it a letdown, they had some radio success with "The Thing That Only Eats Hippies." 1987's 'Bucky Fellini' was a return to form that spawned the underground smash "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance to Anything)," a spot-on satire of Britain's gloomy alternative music and the pretension of its attendant subculture in America. The song (and several remixes) served as the basis for an EP, and it also pushed 'Bucky Fellini' onto the national album charts for the first time in the band's career.
Poised for something vaguely resembling a breakthrough, the Milkmen expanded their cult following even further with 1988's 'Beelzebubba'. That was largely due to the single "Punk Rock Girl," a college-radio smash whose video was also aired fairly extensively on MTV. 'Beelzebubba' just missed climbing into the Top 100 and wound up as the group's biggest seller, also featuring fan favorites "Stuart" and "Life Is Shit." A second single, "Smokin' Banana Peels," was also released, and anchored another EP that featured five additional new songs, including the gross-out-fest "The Puking Song." The band's proper follow-up, 'Metaphysical Graffiti', appeared in 1990 and featured guest vocals from the Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes on "Anderson, Walkman, Buttholes and How." However, the album received a mixed response from fans, some of whom praised the beefed-up production but others of whom found the material erratic; in any case, it stalled some of the band's momentum. There were also reports that their record company was unhappy with the unlisted bonus track, "Cousin Earl," a near-seven-minute shaggy-dog story that piled on the Milkmen's gross-out humor to previously unimagined levels.
Whether it was the fault of "Cousin Earl" or the fact that Restless' parent company, Enigma, went bankrupt, The Dead Milkmen found themselves hunting for a new label after 'Metaphysical Graffiti'. They wound up on the Disney-run Hollywood Records, and in an even more bizarre twist, elected to play things mostly straight -with no pressure from the company to do so- on their 1992 label debut, 'Soul Rotation'. Perhaps signaling what they hoped was a new era for the band, Anonymous adopted the new name H.P. Hovercraft, while Talcum switched his to Butterfly Fairweather and took on a larger share of the lead vocal duties. Some critics -mainly those who'd never found the Milkmen all that funny- and a minority of fans embraced the record and its more eclectic songwriting, but the new direction simply wound up alienating most of the group's fan base. A second album for Hollywood, 1993's 'Not Richard but Dick', fared even more poorly, and the Milkmen were dropped.
The Milkmen did celebrate their tenth anniversary in 1993 by self-releasing 'Now We Are 10', a CD compilation of some of their early cassette-only recordings. They returned to Restless Records for 1994's 'Chaos Rules: Live at the Trocadero', a run through some of their best-known songs, and offered the new studio set 'Stoney's Extra Stout (Pig)' in 1995. It was virtually ignored, and the Milkmen elected to disband. All the members got day jobs, and most continued in music on a local basis in Philadelphia. Rodney Anonymous reverted to his given name and started a gothic-tinged Celtic rock band called Burn Witch Burn, which issued a self-titled CD in 2000. Joe Jack Talcum and Dean Clean reunited, also under their real names (Genaro and Sabatino), in Butterfly Joe, who also released a self-titled debut nationally in 2000. The two also gigged with several other Philly bands over the '90s: Genaro with The Town Managers, Touch Me Zoo, and The Low Budgets, and Sabatino with The Big Mess Orchestra. Dave Blood, meanwhile, gave up the bass due to pain in his hands, and went to graduate school to further his interest in the former Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, Restless issued the career retrospective 'Death Rides a Pale Cow' (titled after one of their early cassettes) in 1997, and 2003 brought 'Now We Are 20', an expanded reissue of 'Now We Are 10' given wider release by Restless. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Playing stripped-down, loud, and fast Ramones-inspired guitar rock, The Celibate Rifles were one of the earliest Australian punk bands to emerge during the post-Radio Birdman/Saints era. Taking their cues from these Aussie bands, along with the American hard rock of The Stooges, MC5, and Blue Oyster Cult, the Rifles were led by the twin-guitar attack of Kent Steedman and Dave Morris and the deadpan baritone of vocalist Damien Lovelock. They exploded out of the gates in 1982 with a series of records (released in Australia only) fueled by high-speed guitars, wah-wah-strangulated solos, and cartoonish, tongue-in-cheek lyrics.
Playing initially for crowds of hard rock-loving surfers, it didn't take long for the Rifles to develop a following. Outside of the continent, however, they were virtually unknown. That changed in 1985 with the release of 'Quintessentially Yours', a lengthy EP that was a collection of tracks from earlier albums. Although the Rifles didn't receive the attention of many lesser American and English bands, the releases kept coming, and they were all excellent. What didn't help was a seeming disinterest the band had in touring America. But when you're an Australian band, it's easy to see why: it's expensive, it takes forever to get there, and why bother when the records aren't getting the kind of reception they deserve? As a result, the Rifles last toured America in 1987.
As they continued recording and maturing, the Rifles were unafraid to take risks with their tried-and-true loud-and-fast sound. Soon, acoustic guitars entered the mix, tempos slowed, pianos tinkled in the background, and vocal harmonies were added. None of this increased technical skill and studio experimentation diluted the band's strengths (i.e., feral power); in fact, it may well have made the Rifles a better and more interesting band. Another development was the increased politicization and social consciousness of their material. No longer were they simply sarcastic funny boys. Rather, they were addressing serious political, environmental, and social issues, thanks to Lovelock's sharp, insightful lyrics, all without any condescension or simplistic rhetoric.
In 1989, Rifles albums were suddenly no longer available in American release, a fact that didn't help the band in its quest to develop an international following. As a result, their great album 'Blind Ear' was available (when you could find it) only as a high-priced Aussie import. Also, there were signs that the Rifles were nearing the end: Steedman and Morris were playing around Sydney with other musicians and producing new bands; Lovelock released a solo album ('It's a Wig, Wig, Wig, World') with members of The Church; and the time between Rifles releases seemed to grow longer. Another dispiriting sign was the 1992 release of 'Heaven on a Stick', which, despite a wonderful title, sounded tired and tossed off.
Fortunately, all this speculation turned out to be wrong, and in late 1994 the Rifles stormed back with 'Spaceman in a Satin Suit', an exhilarating return to form. A nonstop barrage of power, volume, and sharp songwriting, it shreds virtually every effort by the '90s generation of guitar-based alterna-rock careerists, and is easily the band's best record since 'Blind Ear'. They may be a grizzled bunch of punk rockers, but there's nothing The Celibate Rifles couldn't teach young rock bands. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Favoring chaotic squalls of guitar noise and avant textures over the dynamics of conventional songcraft, the New York-based Band of Susans formed in 1986 around the core duo of singers/songwriters Robert Poss and Susan Stenger, longtime friends who reunited only after pursuing dramatically different musical paths: while Poss became a fixture on the N.Y.C. punk scene in The Clash-inspired Tot Rocket before joing Rhys Chatham's guitar ensemble, Stenger relocated to Prague, where she studied the theories of John Cage. Originally, Band of Susans featured Poss on lead guitar and Stenger on bass, rounded out by guitarists Susan Tallman and Susan Lyall (hence the outfit's name) and drummer Ron Spitzer; four months after forming, they issued their debut EP, 'Blessing and Curse'.
In 1988, Band of Susans released their first full-length album, 'Hope Against Hope'; both Tallman and Lyall departed soon after, and were replaced by Page Hamilton (a former student of Glenn Branca, a frequent Susans reference point) and Karen Haglof. After 1989's 'Love Agenda', Hamilton too left the group to found Helmet; he was replaced by Mark Lonergan, and following Haglof's exit, Anne Husick stepped in for 1991's 'The Word and the Flesh', which employed a more focused attack, typified by a lesser emphasis on reverb and feedback, to arrive at a more accessible sound.
Without the usual attendant line-up changes, Band of Susans issued 1993's dense, droning 'Veil', followed two years later by 'Here Comes Success', a uniformly strong collection of lengthy pieces including the instrumental "In the Eye of the Beholder (Song for Rhys)," a tribute to Poss' mentor. In mid-1996, Band of Susans dissolved, although Stenger and Poss continued working with Wire's Bruce Gilbert in the trio GilbertPossStenger in addition to mounting other projects. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
The Adult Net was a British indie pop band formed by British-based American singer and guitarist Brix Smith in 1985, while she was a member of The Fall. The group initially included other several other members of The Fall, including Simon Rogers, Craig Scanlon and Karl Burns. The group issued four singles in 1985/86, with Scanlon departing after the debut single, and Burns leaving a single later. In 1988, the Smith/Rogers duo recruited former Smiths members Craig Gannon, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce to fill in the line-up, but by the time the group recorded their only album in 1989, Rogers, Rourke and Joyce had all left. The final Adult Net line-up was a quartet of Smith, Gannon, former Blondie member Clem Burke and then-current The The member James Eller. After the band's 1989 debut album, 'The Honey Tangle', failed to chart, their label Fontana Records released them in 1990, and the group disbanded.
American singer and guitarist Brix Smith joined the British post-punk band The Fall in 1983 and later married the band's founder, Mark E. Smith. While remaining with The Fall, Smith formed The Adult Net along with fellow Fall member Simon Rogers in 1985 when they released a cover version of the American psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock's 1967 hit single, "Incense and Peppermints", on Beggars Banquet. At the time, the official band line-up was credited as Brix on vocals and guitar, Ottersley Kipling (i.e., Simon Rogers) on bass, Silki Guth (a.k.a. Craig Scanlon) on guitar, and 'Mask' Aiechmann (a.k.a. Karl Burns) on drums. This meant that the official Adult Net line-up was essentially The Fall without Mark E. Smith, although Smith did appear as a guest on a few Adult Net recordings credited as 'Count Gunther Hoalingen'. Also, producer John Leckie was credited as Swami Anand Nagara, a pseudonym he would also use for his production work with psychedelic revivalists The Dukes of Stratosphear, who released their debut single the same month as The Adult Net debuted (April 1985).
"Edie" –a tribute to Edie Sedgwick, the American actress and one of Andy Warhol's superstars– was released in November 1985, with the line-up down to a trio of Brix, Kipling and Aiechmann. (For the first few years of the band's existence, Brix Smith was billed simply as "Brix", although in the writing credits she used the name "Brix E. Smith".)
Two singles were released in 1986, "White Nights (Stars Say Go)", a cover version of "White Night" by the English band The Lines, and "Waking Up in the Sun". "Waking Up in the Sun" was the first single by the band to chart when it reached number 95 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1986. For both 1986 singles, the group was officially credited as being simply 'Brix' and 'O. Kipling'. An album was recorded for Beggars Banquet in 1987 called 'Spin This Web' but remains unreleased.
In an attempt to sign with Geffen Records, in 1988 Smith and Rogers recruited ex-Smiths members, Craig Gannon (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums) to The Adult Net. Around this same time, Rogers dropped the "O. Kipling" stage name, and Brix added the last name Smith to her official billing. However, this line-up did not issue any material, and Rogers, Rourke and Joyce all left the band after only a few months together.
The Adult Net were eventually signed by Phonogram Records subsidiary Fontana Records with a somewhat revised line-up –Smith and Gannon were joined by James Eller on bass, and ex-Blondie drummer Clem Burke. This quartet recorded the 1989 album 'The Honey Tangle'. The album was recorded at The Church studios in London and produced by Craig Leon. Three singles were released from the album: "Take Me", which reached number 78; "Where Were You" (a cover version of the American rock band The Grass Roots' 1966 single "Where Were You When I Needed You"), which reached number 66; and a re-recorded version of "Waking Up in the Sun", which reached number 99. Shortly after the release of the album, Smith left The Fall, having ended her marriage with Mark E. in early 1989. The album failed to chart and the band were released by Fontana in October 1990, dissolving shortly therafter.
In his 1987 interview with Brix Smith, Richard Cook for Sounds, described The Adult Net's debut single as psychedelic revival and noted that Smith "seems captivated by the innocent spirit of an older sort of pop". The American music journalist Ira Robbins described the band's music as "a flower-powery side project to The Fall". He noted that some songs took "a pointless country turn" but that 'The Honey Tangle' was a "catchy power-folk-pop collection that sounds like a flashback to 1981 Los Angeles". While reviewing 'The Honey Tangle' for Allmusic, Stewart Mason said that the band's early singles were "spiky marriages between guitars and electronics that owed much to the raincoat-clad heyday of Factory Records". Stewart went on to describe 'The Honey Tangle' as "glossy, jangly, sweet-natured pop music that would sound perfectly at home in the Top 40 radio play lists of some alternate universe".[SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Yung Wu was a late 80s offshoot project of US band The Feelies. On 1987’s 'Shore Leave', the mid-period line-up of The Feelies’ (co-founders Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, percussionist Dave Weckerman, bass player Brenda Sauter, and drummer Stanley Demeski) were joined by keyboard player John Baumgartner, a member of The Feelies’ side project The Trypes. Weckerman switched from percussion to sing lead vocals in Yung Wu. 'Shore Leave' had a pastoral sound, with acoustic guitars and brushed drumming. The set provided an interesting contrast to The Feelies’ edgy angst, although it was slightly undermined by worthy, but unexciting, cover versions of songs by Neil Young, The Rolling Stones and Brian Eno. Mercer, Demeski, Weckerman and Baumgartner reunited on 9 December 2001 as an opening act for Yo La Tengo. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
