26
Imprint,
Friday,
November
Arts
8, 1991
’
Have you seenyour mother,baby? d
by Sandy Atwal Ylnprint staff
it, he’d do it for free, So someone phoned Don and told him, and Don phoned Steve . . . but it’s a casual thing. Pyle: Before I phoned him, the week after we read the magazine, we kind of talked about this and said, “Well we’re going to Chicago, maybe we should get in touch with him.” Then a week later, we got a fan letter from him. So we decided “Let’s phone him now.“
This week, the exciting finale to the Shadowy Men on a Shadow Planet This week: stupid interview. stupid waiters, and newspapers, Steve Albini.
Why do you think you ire been mm-e succmful whi/e other bands Iike the Dik Van L$kes and Huimlich Maneuver have gone under?
hpint:
Imp: I though1 il might be because Cargo distributes Sub Pup, and Albini has produced some Sub Pop bands.
Don Pyle: Well, more successful sort of depends on your definition of successful. Reid Diamond: In terms of being able to make a living. we’re making a living basically because of Kids in the Hall. All the other bands that have been around, if they had’ve been doing Kids in the Hall, they’d have been making a living too. A lot of bands split up because they get so frustrated. It might have been a big sort of frustration for us too, playing the same pub that we played seven years ago. Diamond: But we’ve been lucky, too, we’re not a rock band. Because we have to write so much stuff for Kii& in the Hall and we’ve done some other TV and film work so it’s not that we have to rely on the rock club shows. Tmp: Iguess Kids in the Hall is both CI
blessing and a curxe. I mean it Lrhelping youjnancially. but now it seems like it’s tied to your cureerx Diamond: It takes a lot of time, too. It drains a lot of creativity from the band. We have a tough time learning all the new songs, and k?& in the &II seems to always be the priority. When we had day jobs, we were probably less busy than we are now working for the Kids in the Hail because the band is so busy doing tours we work all the time at running the band now and it’s actually busier than when we had jobs and just did it for fun on the weekends.
time and go out to Vancouver and Calgary. Those other bands never really tried to expand places to play that much. I think we were more organized in some ways. Also, a lot of the other bands, their lives weren’t necessarily going in the same direction. So not ail of them were really committed to touring and stuff like that. Pyle: Luckily
we all had lousy
jobs. ,
Yyle: Because we backed out after two years when it was supposed to be four months. Imp: Twu years seems Iike a pretg lollg
time
for a soundtrack.
Diamond: Yeah, sure does for ody $2,000, whoops, did 1 say $2.ooO? Pyle: I don’t think they heard you say $2.0@.
Imp: So how &ii you end up opening for bands Eke Husker Du and the Jesus and Mary Chain?
Imp: I’ll make sure Ron Mann gets a copy. Is that lVvpical uf how ,VOU‘W been treated by “big business’?
Diamond: incredible
Diamond: Ill tell you a story. Craig McGuiness of the Toronto Star was going to do an article on us, and he phoned me up and said, “Well Reid, I can’t do the article because we had an editorial meeting yesterday and the editor-in-chief of The Star entertainment section said we’re not allowed to talk about independent bands anymore.” So Craig asked why, and the editor said “Because people don’t know about them.“And I said to him, “Well you’ve got a goddamn newspaper, isn’t that what it’s for?” Plus the editor told them that they were no longer allowed to use the word “indie” because -people didn’t know what it meant, except for Indy 500. It’s like you can’t use your newspaper to try and educate people, you just talk about the same thing you want to get the advertising, and A&A Records sees that you’re talking about Bon Jovi and that’s who they’re advertising in the same issue, so why waste your breath talking about things that aren’t making money.
The band has had an amount of good luck The Kids in theHall was luck. Here’s luck: Don didn’t have any drums, Carson at the Rivoli came into his record store and said “Look, I’m entering this Mu&Music contest to win a drum set from Helix, but I need a couple of answers, and if 1 win, Ill split them with you,” and he won. Then he gave them to Don. Don just bought a new set this year, but for years he had a beautiful set of drums. E’yle: The first year I had them, it still had the Helix logo on it with the flaming wings and ‘Fritz” written on it. Diamond: That kind of luck, people phoning us, things have really panned out, in a way that’s getting bigger but still within control. We’ve only really had two runs of bad luck.. . Glass Records, . . Pyle: . . . and Ron b’hM. imp: Working on Comic Book Con-
Pyle: Just as any self-employed person will tell you, when your office is in your home, it’s like “well, I gotta do this” and you spend 18 hours working.
fiden tial?
Diamond: Also, when you talk about the Dik Van Dykes, even though we didn’t start the TV show until a few years ago, we were one of the first bands to actually start leaving the city and going out and playing live. We did tours on $100 and $200 guarantees in ‘86; we’d take our vacation
Pyle: It took up way more time than it was supposed to. Diamond: A year or two years? I forget. Pyle: Two, and he didn’t even put oul name on the video box.
Diamond: Well it was just a lot ok work for a not really very rewarding experience . . . and very little money.
Diamond: anymore.
Because
he didn’t
like us
Imp;
So the rzdmtair is
thatyodl
be
doing some sessiuns with Steve Albini. bond: Well this is another example of a stroke of good luck. They asked him in some magazine, well, what do you charge to produce? And he said, “Well if Depeche Mode asked me, I’d charge them a million dollars,” because he doesn’t like them. He said he’d pay to produce the Jesus Lizard, but i&had&y Men asked him to do
Diamond: No, Cargo is sort of a licensing/distributing thing. It’s not really a big record company. It’s just kind of nice because we never have worked with a producer before and well try it. If it works, well use the tapes, if it doesn’t, well we throw out tapes all the time. Pyle: He has a very dtierent perspective from what we do, so I mean it could be something really exciting. But he also’ is very aware of what we’re about.
Diamond:
We‘ll see.
Imp: Lk you still get usked why JJOU dun ‘t have a vocalist? Diamond: Very rarely, actually since we’ve started I’ve had maybe three or four people ask me. I would’ve thought it would be a lot more. Pyle: More when people really didn’t know who we were. Now that people pretty much know who we are, they come not expecting to see a singer. But the songs are structured in such a way that you could never have a singer. We were playing at Queen’s University and of course it would be at that show that someone would ask me that. And he goes “Why don’t you have a singer. 7” It was a waiter, and 1 said “Did you see us tonight? The guitar plays the melodic line all night.” and he goes “Oh, I didn’t really notice that.” So I’m like, “Well where would you put the words?‘, he’s jus like “Well wouldn’t it be better?” I’m just sitting there like “But. . . you . . , I . 1 . Oh, just get me a beer!” ml
.
Crazy rn - the City Crazy
in the City
The Last Temptation November
1,191
by Pauline Olthof Imprint staff Picture the setting - the back room of an intimate Toronto bistro called the Last Temptation, a small and cozy affair for both the band and the audience. Good food and drink, comfortable chairs, and plenty of atmosphere played supporting roles in the overall experience. In this scene, the musicians were the stars of the evening. Members of the band Crazy in the City include Bill Lasovich and Monique Barry, a husband and wife music team who are occasionally joined by a guitarist named Ken. The setting and characters were in perfect coordination and soon the music began. The songs are written by Bill and their lyrical content is extraordinarily realistic but never dull. Dealing with relationships, unemployment, and guilt, he brings a ~efr&shing new
insight to these topics which is brought to light through the voice of Monique. Her sound is sweet and melodic and at the same time strong and firm. The addition of a guitar gives their sound more diversity since they use only a synthesizer and Monique’s voice to create their sound. Because the sound is not marred by loud guitars, obnoxious drums or orchestras, the music comes across clearly and simply, but this is not to say that it is dull. There is much to say about simplicity as it allows the audience to hear the words and music more clearly without being bombarded by excess noise.
Excuse the cliche but Monique and Bill have been making beautiful music together now for over a year. They’re really just starting to get serious about expanding their careers and have made a couple of demo tapes and are starting to play at more clubs around the area. I. think if this band keeps progressing as they have done and continue to play quality music with insightful lyrics, Crazy in the City have a good chance to do well. Go see them if you have the chance, go Crazy in the City.