Steve Westfield Discography: Chronological; as of 4/24/99.
1982 Pajama Slave Dancers: All U Can Eat, cassette only ,( with booklet). Pajamarama (unavaliable)
Out of Nowhere Massachusetts, roadies for a local punk band, (The Vandals), record and copy their own cassettes of "Fun Core" music with titles like: Defreeze Walt Disney, Farm Rap, and Scoutmasters From Hell. They perform in rented halls with 80's "old school" punk bands such as; Flipper, the Big Boys, Jody Foster's Army; and a lot of fun is had. They get to hang with their hero
Jello Biafra backstage at the Rusty Nail,(R.I.P.) Hadley,Ma. and get their photo in "Maximum Rock 'n' Roll." Everything is very cool.
>Jim-Joe Greedy, Dave Montovani, Steve Westfield, 1983, Northampton, Massachusetts
1983
Pajama Slave Dancers: Problems With Sects, cassette (w/ booklet, matches, army men). PajamaramaTheir first cassette sells out (300), so the guys make another 20 song tape, and buy a better tape deck. The Lineup settles to Dave Montovani on vocals and guitar, Steve Westfield on vocals and guitar, Scott Blood on bass, Dirk Futon on drums, Daxe Rexford (King of Men) on keys/guitar. (This lineup, minus Daxe, has lasted for 15 years, as of now.) They start to play in real bars, ( you know, blues and cover band bars; There was no Indie rock scene at the time, so P.S.D. often had to open for themselves as a secret band; Chocolate Submarine, the Purple Helmeted Warriors [metal], Dax Rexford Overdrive, Squad Car [surf], Grey Fist <[old age punk],etc...).. They have too much fun. At one show the band is 11 members strong, including 3 trumpets, and a second singer dressed in Nazi drag. When the club disrespects the band, one singer smashes many cases of empty beer bottles in the dressing room, and quits the band. The Pajama Slave Dancers are told never to return, and escorted from the building; a trend that will follow them forever. Gerard Cosloy who publishes Conflict fanzine, wants to release a Pajama Slave Dancers LP on Homestesd Records, but they refuse to make the changes in production he wants, and decide to self release an LP. Cosloy goes on to sign fellow valley scenesters Dinosaur jr, and build Matador Records.1984
Pajama Slave Dancers: Cheap is Real, vinyl LP only, Pajamarama (rare)
>The second cassette sells out and so they press a vinyl LP. They start to learn their instruments. Much beer is poured on them at shows, and they request that no one applaud their shows; aggressive heckling begins. The record gets a good review in Spin, "...triumphantly silly, so satirically on target that they rise to brilliance." Whoa.
1985
Pajama Slave Dancers: Train Wreck on Prom Night bw Miss You, vinyl 45, Pajamarama (rare)For some reason they press a crappy, out of tune, but touching 45. There are still 200 in the garage. The guys play in the big city, Boston, at a groovy dive, Chet's Last Call, and get asked back! Full blown fake hatred by audience members confuses latecomers. As soon as the band is introduced, the abuse begins. Band begins "the Seapigs" part of the set, where audience members are forced to play. (There is a story of a tripping hippy held at the microphone by two band members).
1985
Pajama Slave Dancers: Pajama Beach Party, clear vinyl LP only, Pajamarama (very rare)Band is booted out of Chet's when a fight breaks out with the groom of a wedding party there, and the soundboard is broken. Steve Mathewson has something to do with the trouble. National press rolls in. "The Pajama Slave Dancers are unquestionably the funniest band in the world.", Saturday Review
Dirk (w/ hoof) and Dave.
1986 Pajama Slave Dancers: Blood, Sweat, and Beers; LP, cassette, Restless Records. (available)
The Dead Milkmen move up a notch in the record world and Restless needs another "funny" band. There is a small buzz in Boston and PSD gets the call, and gets a five record deal, never mailing a single demo or taking their music seriously. They open for everyone's heroes, the Ramones, in front of 5000 people in Connecticut, and the world is not so bad.
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Stiv French (G.S.Orchestra), Steve Westfield, Tim Saldo (kneeling), Johnny Ramone (overjoyed), Dave + Liz Montovani, 1986
Visit Daxe's 'Blood Sweat and Beers Virtual LP!'
The whole album online in RealAudio with lyrics!
1987 Pajama Slave Dancers: Heavy Petting Zoo, LP , Cassette, Restless Records. (discontinued){note: this LP is listed for sale here: http://www.boltbeats.com/bolt-p.html.)
Steve gets his first royalty check for $4.87, for the song "Homo Truck Driving Man". The band decides not to tour with Mojo Nixon cause they think he's hokey. Label is disappointed that the band's own East coast tour is a fiasco, (they are ejected from every venue).Strange rock things begin to occur. At the 930 club in DC,dangerous teenage girls offer deals for merchandise. One pulls off her t-shirt, revealing her breasts to the startled group, and asks to trade for a PSD t-shirt. Even trade. Back home the band is kicked out of one club after another for destroying giant stuffed bears, (the foam pellets are hard to remove from the monitors), spraying beer on electronics, nudity (Daxe got into a regular habit with this so that the audiences' chant, "Daxe's dick!", became part of the show), Seapigs trouble, and of course, Slam dancing; but always in the name of fun. The band decides not to tour because only the first show is good, and then it goes quickly downhill. Too much fun,(read: Alcohol). Still, they garner decent national press: "Perfect music for a twisted Pajama party.", People Magazine
Scott Blood, Dirk Futon, Steve Westfield, 1988?1989 Pajama Slave Dancers: Full Metal Underpants, CD only, New Rose Records(France), (discontinued){offered by German Mailorder at this site: http://www.cybercd.de/ccd_e.cgi?id=3590cfa9&cmd=sf&pattern=Pajama+Slave+Dancers).
Some problems develop. Daxe (nude), unable to stand at a show with the Violent Femmes smashes his keyboard, then Dave's guitar. The rest of the band goes into adrenaline o.d. and smashes their stuff. The police ban them from campus. There is officially no place to play. Daxe is carried off stage at Sheehan's bar and put into a hospital for months. The word: stop it or die. Restless Records dumps the band. New Rose goes bankrupt. Some of the guys get married.
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Steve Westfield, Glamour shot 1989
1990 Captain Testosterone and the Gypsy Stretchmark Orchestra, Getting Fucked Up and Loving It, Cassette . Pajamarama
Steve quits drinking and releases the aptly titled Funk-core, semi offensive Stretchmarks cassette. Lead by Jerry Bernardo (of ESPN2), this 7 piece band with trombone, trumpet, and sax (longtime sidekick genius Steve Mathewson), kind of sounds like Frank Zappa meets the Chili Peppers. The bass player joined the Marines and nobody else could play like that; so it ended (for now).
1991
What is Radio?, The Best of What is Radio?, cassette only, Space Monkey RecordsThree year college radio project based on live sound montages with Stiv French.
1993 Gypsy Stretchmark Orchestra, Driven by Booze, Big Fish in a Little Sea (compilation), (extinct)
1994
Steve Westfield: Mangled, CD, Bib Records/ Glitterhouse Records(Germany)Yes, the now famous Lou Barlow played some guitar and co-wrote a tune here. He's a good player and a nice guy. Joey Santiago \ plays a bizzarre Guibanjo with his two brothers in a studio session that I'm sure he hasn't figured out yet. This is a lo-fi recording, before it was a trend. Steve Mathewson, Lou, Chris Colbourn, and Steve perform Clappy Birthday in the cellar of a house in Boston, with an oil drum for percussion. Glitterhouse rejected it as "difficult", but now, years later, they are releasing it; mail order. For some reason it got a lot of good French press, even though it was barely released in the just the U.S. on tiny but friendly label, Bib. This album captures a certain, well, difficult mood."...he's made a helluva record.", CMJ
Lo-Fi-sters S.Mathewson, Chris Colbourn (presently in Buffalo Tom), Lou Barlow, and S. Westfield, recording something for the Mangled CD, down cellar. Note paint can drum. Boston,1993
1995 Steve Westfield Slow Band/Scud Mountain Boys, Sitting on the Bottom of the World/Television, vinyl split single, Chunk/Subpop Subpop squashed this. Lou sent them the original single recommending they check out "Sitting". They immediately flipped it over, and signed the Joe Pernice and the Scuds, bought the rights to the single and killed it. The problem with well known friends is that NME wrote this up as Lou's secret pseudonym band. At least it started Joe's career. 1996 Pajama Slave Dancers: It Came From the Barn, CD only, J-Bird Records (Internet only) Live. Local. Captured that feel. Guest artist, J Mascis, plays a massive guitar solo at the end before he is wrestled to the floor by some drunken musician. PSD starts playing bi-annual gigs. "Music made by extremely perceptive gonzos whose charm outweighs their bad taste.", Boston Globe
Check out the J-Bird site for PSD. You can listen to a 30 second soundbite of surf-core.
This alt-Country-ish record did well in Europe, even before this kind of thing caught on again. The Slow Band emerges as Kevin French on drums, Mark Turcotte on Trombone, Steve Mathewson on sax, Joe Hoye on tuba, and JimJoe Greedy on bass. The band plays gigs in Switzerland. In Chaux-de-Fonds there is trouble. Too much whiskey (2 botttles), and the set starts off with Steve on bass making up surf music. It deterioates from there. They are asked to leave when Steve is standing on the piano, and Steve Mathewson is "playfully" strangling his "girlfriend". Later he "playfully" strangles the Agent. In Biel they play 3 hours, ending with 5 encores including one version of "Light My Fire" by a very wasted Italian. Steve fails to finish "Wonderwall". At the El International Bar in Zurich, Switzerland, a small shrine is placed exalting the "guru-ish" power of Westfield (honest!).
"...individualistic, cream-of-the-recent-crop. The Leonard Cohen of alt-rock.", Entertainment Weekly
Gunter Binder (Austrian drummer), and S.W. on the first European tour. Holland, 1995
1996
Steve Westfield and the Burnouts, Brainwreck, CD, Bib/Glitterhouse
If you know burnout Rich Gilbert(pictured above with Frank Black), (He's played with Uncle Tupelo, Zulus, Concussion Ensemble, Steve Wynn, Frank Black), you know why this record was made. He is the best lead guitar hero in the world. One tune from the Cd made the top ten list for High Times magazine.
To buy any Steve Westfield Stuff , click here.
The Slow Band did a crazed Southern USA tour supporting Sebadoh. Not able to afford a van rental, they deliver a car for an elderly couple to Florida from Massachusetts, stopping to play gigs on the way. They lose their gig money the last day. Various audience members play a solo on a broken trumpet supplied by the band. Steve is roughly removed from a show in Orlando, when he begins to play "Crystal Rainbow" for a third time. Check out this touching, teenage review.
1997 Steve Westfield Slow Band, Underwhelmed, CD, LP, Glitterhouse/ Pandemonium/ Last Call(France)
Glitterhouse says this is "the strangest record we have ever released". Some Keyboard action, and spontaneous stuff, but not really a weird record. There is a guest track by Heather Pighetti, which is a nifty concept, and more tuba than normal. Some random French press from 1997:
L'INDIC THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF ROCK ...He has passed from the times his punk group, Pajama Slave Dancers, to his solo career, which has the beautiful additional sounds of acoustic guitars, trombone and tuba, all seasoned with an odd organ or pedal steel guitar...His group, (The Slow Band!), often follows the trail of the ballad on "Underwhelmed", but they transform this classical exercise into a completely mastered art...The band displays an acceptance of mistakes, that shows a love of ease, and little impressionistic touches that would make Lou Barlow blush. .. ------------------- MIX, May 97
Steve Westfield has in fact made a choice, to take his time rather than waste it. It must take you some time to get into his music, the time for taking in his comfort. But Voila! you are comfortable and mellow in his cushioned leather couch hands.. --------------------- Magic, June 97 ...But the peak of this album is a incredible cover version of Flood...the punk instrumentation is replaced by an organ and the brass gleams resplendently, and the chorus is enveloped in a choir, for the most beautiful effect. 4 Stars . --------------------- More tours of Europe follow. The band plays in front of 1,200 screaming teens waiting for Tocatronic in Dresden. Austria becomes a haven for the band, normally playing 3-5 hour gigs, with much improvisation. One gig in Salzburg ends at 5:00 am with only Steve W and Steve M lying on the floor still singing, to 3 or 4 people wandering around. The band plays until 6:00 am in Biel. In Norway kids come onstage and sing the encore, "Officer Jesus". Things are happening. The band plays on Belgium national radio, in a daze from a gig at Paradiso in Amsterdam the night before. NEW
1998 Steve Westfield Slow Band, "Destroy Me"/Backed with "Crystal Rainbow" live from Switzerland, with Steve "Medfield" Mathewson on vocals. vinyl 45 single, Vinyl Overdose records (Swiss)
Steve Mathewson, Mark Turcotte, Joe Hoye. Switzerland, 1996. Photo by Manuela.
Spring 1998 Fiasco tour. Martin, the new Austrian bassman wants to quit after 1 week of a 5 week tour. He stays. Stress. Van keys lost. Out of gas on the autobahn, 3 am. Van broken into in Italy, all locks broken. New rental van not availble. Paranoia. Serious border searches. No sleep. 5 days sleeping on a loveseat. No money. Rock and Roll!
1998 Steve Westfield Slow Band, StuporStar, on Glitterhouse, Last Call, Fire, (and a possible Japanese label). *****(five stars) from Music Express magazine. Lots of guitar. A swingin' jazz tune. One "Van Halen meets Sabbath" track by Steve Mathewson. Band does a fall tour,(35 shows; Norway - Spain),October snowstorms send the van spinning. The band (6), piles into a Golf , buys tire chains, and drives 7 hours into the Arctic storm; alone; but we make the gig in Bergen, Norway. Two hundred drunken vikings show their appreciation by shaking their booty and making a ruckus.We make history in a small German town <(Witten)>, during an ice storm. Zero people come out to the YMCA gig. We play 2 hours anyway for the soundman and barkeep below the "God love Teamwork" posters,( Frenchie debuts as a rap artist). 3 hour pure magic concert in Salzburg. Super audience/band groove. Music Touring at it's best.
Barcelona is totally plush. One night we sleep in the van. Harsh.
2001 2002 410'rs Live (Soul Shakedown) Little Records. No Slow Band CD's for a few years, but Steve Westfield, Lou Barlow, Steve Mathewson, and Sophie Williams tour European capitals in June as "The Four Tenors"
CD includes 3 songs from each songwriter, recored mostly in Holland and Switzerland, including a lo fi techno version of "Think". This MAY come out on CDBABY eventually.
December 2003 Swiss label, Little Records releases compilation with Steve Westfield and the Lonesome Brothers track ,"Every Goodbye", written by Jim Armenti, recorded in 2003.
Compilations:
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No CD this year but Steve tours Europe with the Electric Circus, a mishmash of mostly Swiss poets, art rock, vaudeville, and chaos. First time in Slovenia.
2005 Live benefit for Autism CD released 2005 with Sonic Youth, J Mascis, Sebadoh, and Steve Westfield tracks. This is only available at some live shows. MAY be on CDbaby.com.
Slow Band officially retired June 2005.
Slow Band
"Characters '97"
RELEASED: 08/05/1997 LABEL: Last Call, France
"Big Indie Beats '98"
RELEASED: 08/04/1998 LABEL: BIB (Best In Boston)
Ray Mason Tribute Cd. "I'm Only Human", Released: 4/99 (Tar Hut)
Northampton Music Festival CD."Clappy Birthday", Released 4/99 ()
Other
Astron Ami, "summertime Love", "A Place to Call Home" benefit CD, available from Zippa Records, Alston Ma.
Jan. 99: Slow Bands' "Stuporstar" track released on Musik Express compilaton CD, included with magazine.
Note: I have Vinyl copies of a lot of this stuff if anyone is interested: E me.