Various artists
The Attic Tapes (cassette, Burlingtown, 1984)
Here's a little something that was sitting on a shelf collecting dust until someone (named Todd Lockwood at White Crow Audio) got the brainy idea to turn it into a future collector's item. It's a bit o' this and a bit o' that from Burlington musicians early 1980s-ish and includes material by Wild Rice, The Mercuries, Pinhead, The Decentz, Michael Oakland and an all-but-unknown named Sterz.
That's right, folks, it's all your favorite local artists--Tom Freiheit, Pamela Polston, Peter Persechino, Derek Semler, Mark Spencer, etc., etc.--doing songs you probably never heard and never will hear on vinyl. It's short, sweet and full of surprises--like the Everly Brothers-meet-Bo Diddley sound of the Mercuries' "All I Got," Wild Rice's Beatle-like "It Ain't Right," and Pinhead sounding a lot like Marlene Dietrich on the chorus of "I'm Not a Piece."
Word has it this material will only be available in the state of Vermont and only in cassette form, so buy now and laugh later.
-- EVANNE WEIRICH, Vanguard Press, February 24, 1985
- The Decentz: Brett Hughes, Pamela Polston, Jim Ryan, Gordon Stone, Peter Torrey.
- The Mercurys: Tom Freiheit, Henry Huston, Bob Keepin, Jim McGinnis, Bruce McKenzie, Peter Reilly, Gus Ziesing. Not sure of a couple spellings: Peter Riley?, Gus Zeising?
- Michael Oakland.
- Pinhead: Tor Borgstrom, Bill Kinzie, Doug Knapp, Jeff Spencer, Mark Spencer.
- The Sterz: Tom Berd, Peter Persechino, Jeff Salisbury, Don Sidney, Sterz. Not sure of one spelling: Tom Burd?, Tom Byrd?
- Wild Rice: Tim Baker, Derrick Semler, Derrel Woodward. Note: Derek Semler? Could someone out there help us with the spelling of the name, Daryl Woodward?
Pinhead, Where Are You (B Sharp, EP), in which Vermont is shown to be as rich a repository of deadpan gags and beauteous stupidity as attenuated Manhattan or hardcord LA. Even the songs that use the Official Rhythms of Pop Bohemia--clipped reggae on the title track and Latino funk on "Don't Dance"--have a lightness and clarity that sets up the transparent ruses of the lyrics; the same goes for the careering white noise behind the (relieved?) elegy to "Nature" and the robot cadences behind "Be a Good Citizen." And from the hilarious last one, we quote trenchant advice to prove that Pinhead love you: "Move your bowels twice a day." Thanks, guys.
-- MARK MOSES, compiler, "Off the Record," Boston Phoenix, May 15, 1984
- Pinhead: Tor Borgstrom, Bill Kinzie, Doug Knapp, Jeff Spencer, Mark Spencer.
-- Alan Lewis
Pinhead
Please let us know if you have an e-mail address or a snail-mail address for Evanne Weirich, the author of the Vanguard Press notice.-- Alan Lewis
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