My blaster gun’s not a toy
Last month I posted a couple of songs by the Hypocrites, a band which, once upon a time, reigned supreme at Grinnell College. My high school band VIVID appeared alongside them on a compilation of Grinnell and Iowa City bands, released by Grinnell alum Tom Zlabinger on his upstart indie label HUM Productions.[1]
Anywhos, after that earlier post I got an email from Xander, the Hypocrites’ guitarist. He is the latest in a series of people around the world who’ve emerged from the Internets after stumbling upon my blog.[2] He expressed his pleasant surprise at finding mp3s of his old band online, and then asked if I had any VIVID mp3s to share.
Well, of course I did. I’m kind of surprised that, although I’ve posted songs by other old bands of mine, I don’t think I’ve ever ventured into the territory occupied by my first band, which flourished during that dark yet hopeful time to which we now refer, with not a little wistful anxiety, as the Early Nineties.
The short version of the story is that my three best friends and I formed a band and named it after Living Colour’s first album.[3] To a burgeoning catalog of originals we added a bevy of Primus and Nirvana[4] covers and in addition to shows in our friend’s basements, we began playing shows in various nooks and crannies around Grinnell College, and earned the admiration and/or curiosity of the students there. We were several years their junior, didn’t drink or do drugs, and were elated when Tom and the Hypocrites and the rest of that tiny scene validated us.
In April 1995, Tom booked us two days in Minstrel Studios, in its old location just off Dubuque Street. Our parents reluctantly, miraculously, excused us from school and let us borrow a couple of their minivans to haul our stuff to Iowa City. We were blown away by the prospect of being recorded professionally, by an actual studio engineer, doing actual overdubs, and having everything mixed to DAT (remember DAT?) and, maybe if everything worked out, appearing on an actual compact disc. There’s a hilarious amount of flanger and chorus on the guitars and mid-nineties reverb on the drums, and at several points we come perilously close to sounding like Phish, but we were pretty goddamn proud of ourselves. These are the three songs that resulted from those sessions:
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(mp3)
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In these days of iTunes, GarageBand, and MySpace, when pretty much anyone can record demos and post them online immediately and effortlessly, these little recordings hammer home how much the current system differs from the machinations of amateur music production as it operated twelve years ago, and they endear me to the blissfully naïve teenagers we were when we recorded them.
[1] Even typing these words and names elicits in the author a certain cognitive and temporal dissonance.
[2] Other people who’ve gotten in touch with me include an individual who found my review of a Starship album, someone whose last name is Nolan, the guitarist for the New Fast Automatic Daffodils, several high school classmates, and Ian Frazier’s publisher.
[3] The name VIVID always had to be printed in all-caps, and for the duration of the band’s existence we remained woefully ignorant of the adult video production company with whom we shared our name.
[4] And Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Led Zeppelin, the aforementioned Living Colour, U2, Fishbone, King Crimson, Stone Temple Pilots, Depeche Mode, fIREHOSE, The Police, The Breeders, The Smiths, Hüsker Dü, Van Halen, the Beatles, and probably several other bands I’ve forgotten about.
Posted: January 8th, 2007 under Grinnell, Iowa City, Music.
Comments: 12
Comments
Comment from John
Time: 8 January 2007, 19:41
Oh, remember when I had complete power over VIVID’s Grinnell gig? Those were the days.
“I think he may be a homosexual.”
Comment from Joseph
Time: 9 January 2007, 11:04
I remember when Mom let you out of school to go record in Iowa City, I was so jealous I wanted to burn all of my KMFDM CDs and Alien Workshop t-shirts in protest.
Comment from nell
Time: 10 January 2007, 10:40
soon hicken and i will rise up and demand simple barney tracks. watch out.
Comment from Jake
Time: 10 January 2007, 15:39
I would love to put all that stuff up here, but I can’t seem to locate the original HUM discs. They’re most likely in my mom’s basement back in Grinnell. Does anyone out there have the discs, and could maybe make a .torrent or .zip file of them for the Grinnell Diaspora?
Comment from Xander
Time: 11 January 2007, 14:46
This is great. My Grinnellian cognative and temporal dissonance is beings sublimated with each tuplet!
My dad has one of the only copies of OOZE that I know is still in existance. I think that arranging digital transfers of music files has a distinct generational cut-off line, so I’ll ask him to take advantage of the USPS. Remember them?
It may take a while, but I’ll do my best to rip a .zip of that old gem. Thanks for the stories and songs. Much appreciated. I think I’ll be laughing to myself today thinking about when I was in a band that “reigned supreme” on the Grinnell scene. Thanks :)
Comment from Jon
Time: 11 January 2007, 16:19
Oh, the memories… Xander pointed me to this post and it is a nice diversion from the daily grind of the Treasury Department (That’s right, a Hypocrite working for the man).
I also have one of the only copies of OOZE.
If you have any more VIVID songs please post them. You guys were great, knew what you were doing, and most importantly did it without attitude. Us Hypocrites were always happy to share the stage with VIVID.
Comment from Eric
Time: 12 January 2007, 08:36
I’m just another Hypocrites guitarist who’s been checking your blog and really enjoying it (both your writing and the reminiscence). I was really amazed by the request for FTB you got a little while ago. Still, there’s one thing that deserves mention: VIVID was by far the most unique and talented band in Grinnell, so we loved playing with you guys. Of course, we also owe you for letting us borrow Wes on drums for a while.
I also identify with your excitement in getting studio time back then. Despite my faded rock n roll memory, I will always remember the feeling of those little amateur musician moments for us. Keep on rockin, Grinnellians!
Comment from Xander
Time: 12 January 2007, 16:08
After referring my dad to this post, he wrote back:
“‘Lexi, that’s bitchen . . . I am listening to the Zoom compilation. John Mohan was the drummer in Vivid. Never forget that “Stubby” was formerly “Big Window !” Love, Dad”
There you have it. Never forget! Also – he is mailing me his copies of OOZE and ZOOM. I’ll send you the files, although by now I know of at least 2 people who might beat me to it. Zlabinger and HUM PRODUCTIONS live!
Comment from Jake
Time: 12 January 2007, 16:32
Hey, I think now I’ve heard from every member of the Hypocrites except Seth. But as far as I know he’s still in Japan, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t have the Internet yet.
Anyway: thanks, everyone, for the memories and kind words. Hey Jon: remember when we took Religious Studies together and decorated our notebooks with band logos? That was awesome.
Comment from Neil
Time: 12 June 2007, 18:13
I was at Grinnell College during the mightly reign of VIVID and was happy to find a recording of “A Match Made in Space” here. Rock on!
Comment from Josh
Time: 14 July 2007, 09:52
If you don’t like to get hold of Seth, email me at josh.hosler@gmail.com. I’m his brother Josh. I also have copies of ZOOM and OOZE, thanks to him. All hail VIVID!
Comment from Seth
Time: 7 January 2009, 17:31
A year late but here I am! Xander just pointed out this post to me.
I also, mysteriously, have lost my ooze and zoom CDs. Anyone have some mp3s to throw my way?
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