Here’s a late but significant contribution to the Noise 292 set list. “Mr. Pumpkin” by guitarist David Rives appeared on a four-song demo we recorded at Mira Costa College, I believe in April 1984.
The driving metalwork percussion is classic Wendell Kling, and I’m under the distinct impression that the drums on this session were generously contributed by the multitalented Sergio of Hair Theatre. Dave sings lead, and I’m on bass.
More Noise 292 MP3s:
Noise 292 plays “The Assassin”: Listen now!
Noise 292 plays “Chanson Dada”: Listen now!
Noise 292 plays “Stupid Future”: Listen now!
Noise 292 plays “Talking in Circles”: Listen now!
Noise 292 plays “Subterranean Homesick Blues”: Listen now!
Noise 292 plays “Sister Ray”: Listen now!
Cool! I had missed this part of the band’s history. This will be a big hit at the reunion 😉
Thanks, Paul … I find this period in the band’s history more problematic, but some good songs came out of it. And Dave Rives did some great work during that stretch.
In my own aesthetic development, I’ve come to regard it as the period just before Dave Ellison played me Jonathan Richman’s “Back in Your Life” and I learned to lighten up a tiny little bit. 🙂
Haha… I was a big Jonathan Richman fan back then… I still am.
I like this a lot… the rhythm’s got a good groove to it. I like Dave Rives’ guitar sound too… he came up with some pretty good guitar parts on a lot of your songs.
Dave Ellison: I got to watch a lot of great guitarists in our circle — yourself included! — and in retrospect, it’s amazing how different each one was. (The dynamic between Dave Ellison and Sam Wilson in the Rockin’ Dogs alone is a testimonial to the 31 flavors we were able to sample.)
If I were to pick one guitarist who consistently made me say, “How’d he do that?” it’d be Dave Fleminger. Rives was the guy who most often made me say, “How’d he think of that?”
That cut was great. I’d never guess that that came out of SD (no slight at all) as it sounds very different from what I’d heard for there in that era.
I guess it sounds like you’d mix well w/ 11 Sons from about that same time come to think of it.
Thanks, Scott … I know what you’re saying about 11 Sons, who I do think had a very compelling sound.
Again, really a haunted, morose quality -- with all that energy too. I think you can’t make music like this, unless you are under 24. Later, the energy departs… 😉 Between 15 and 25? These songs are important. For making them, for listening to. How else could saying “What do you do?” feel so imperative?
Ever alert, I hear Rives’ love of Echo and the Bunnymen here.
Jeremiah: “Ever alert” puts it mildly!
I was going to mention Dave Rives’ Echo and the Bunnymen influence (which I believe was shared by 11 Sons), but then — I swear! — I thought, “I’m going to hold off and see if Jeremiah nails it.”
And of course you did.
Nice clean recording, first time I’ve heard it. No Kristin in this one? cuz I only see 3 dudes in the accompanying photo. You’d think I’d had heard this music -- and of 292 organizational news and such back when it was current, but I reckon distance was longer in ’84, being a freshman living in McKinleyville, 800 miles from San Diego.
Hobie: The Noise 292 bio on the SD Reader Web site covers some of the timeline. Short answer — we proceeded as a 3.5-piece through most of 1984, with Dave, Wendell and myself as a gradually softening core. Some good music got made … This is one notable example.
I’ll skip the blow-by-blow, but I described my subjective recollection of the end of the road in an earlier post.
Looking back at an uneven path, I’m grateful I had the chance to play with Kristin, you, Joanne, Wendell, Dave Rives — and also Sergio, Dave Fleminger, Dave West, Andy Grossberg Jeff Lucas, Annie, Leighton Koizumi and others who helped carry the Noise 292 torch. Despite all the amputations …
Oops! I don’t know if I ever really thanked Chris Gessel, another San Dieguito-alum-turned UCSD student, for filling in on drums during our earliest days. We even got to practice in his dad’s shoe store in Encinitas.
I was under the (perhaps erroneous) impression that Chris regarded the whole thing as a bit of a freak show, but he was generous with drumming and facilities when we sorely needed both. Thank you, Chris!
Never thought of it as a freak show. I have great memories of our first Che show. Didn’t we videotape some songs at the comm department. I seem to recall that Kristin’s mom worked there.
Chris!! Wow, it’s great to see you here! Yeah, we did indeed practice at the video studio at UCSD, courtesy of Kristin’s mom. Was there video?? Oh, I’d kill to see that.
I dig!
I really like the tight groove on this one, those rhythm guitar parts and the way the tom-tom pops up every so often. But, gosh, I hope it wasn’t too messy when Mr. Pumpkin spilled his guts, breaking right next to y’all ‘n’ all. I’m not a-tall sure what I would do; but the randomization feature on my computer screen sure did some interesting things just now. At the end it was a crazy sunflower that broke into kaleidoscope shards. I think I’ll play the track again. The starting instant of it is great, and it’s great how steady the track is, all the way through. Also: Matthew is developing some kind of interesting quaver…do I detect a slight Neil Young influence in the voice? While the band in general sounds more like the Velvets but with a competent ’67 a-go-go beat--I love it; more Mitch Mitchell than Mo Tucker, though we love her. The Eighties-est thing about the song might be the melodic bass part in the breakdown sections, but it’s cool. No, the eighties-est thing is the keening eighth-note rhythm guitar parts when they go high and then descend a half-step, you know the spot? Anyway, Really like the powerful restraint contained in the thing, it all adds up to quite an embodiment of mood.
I mean the young Neil Young of course. I only mention it because it seems so unlikely in a way. What were you listening to at the time, Matthew? Actually, the way the thing moves along, I almost do get a feeling like the Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul.” You know, just a touch. Let’s send Mr. Pumpkin a letter. That’s what we’ll do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwpT_X3Prr0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWTqj5lvkFs
But don’t get too lost in the wonder of youtube or you’ll be on there all day….
Isn’t it absurd that this stuff was less than twenty years old in 1984…like me…born in 1967. ’84 is going on a quarter century ago now.
Tom: Funny you should mention Buffalo Springfield, since Noise 292’s last Halloween performance included a half-hearted attempt to masquerade as that great band. Typical of our dissolution, the plan devolved into a couple of cowboy hats; a fringe jacket; and a truly bilious version of “For What It’s Worth,” which I always found kind of dreary. We SHOULD have done “Mr. Soul,” dammit!
One more Buffalo Springfield tangent I always enjoyed: As some of you know, Neil Young and Rick James were in the Mynah Birds, a Toronto band ca. 1966.
It’s documented that before joining Young in Buffalo Springfield, Steven Stills auditioned for the Monkees. Rumor also holds that Charles Manson hoped for a Monkees role.
So I always figured that — if history had been just a bit different — Manson, Stills, James & Young could have been HUGE!
You know, until I started talking, this was a fascinating discourse. Don’t let me bend the thread too much. We were talking about Mr. Pumpkin, Eleven Sons, guitar tone….
Tom,
Don’t ever apologize for “bending” a thread. The most interesting threads around here are twisted like pretzels.
Good! You won’t mind if I mention Bent Fabric? I never quite realized that “Alley Cat” could fit into the “world music” rubric. The man is Danish! I never knew. Here he is in the modern world, in two radically different settings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMU_J-AAycc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Nmt2bAIes
I was genuinely fooled, thought the Bent Fabric monicker was one of those constructions americaine like “Dusty Rhodes” or maybe Rip Torn.
Here’s the classic that started it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lIxJTV0ZSo
If I could somehow relate this to the Buffalo Springfield I would really be completing a loop of the pretzel, but I just can’t!
Unless, perhaps, everyone concerned has shaken hands with this man: Nicky Hopkins. Read the bio attached to this clip, it manages to take in everybody from Screaming Lord Sutch and Cyril Davies to Prairie Prince of The Tubes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8tEPqtpoPw
Jamming With Edwards, mentioned in the bio above: features Nicky Hopkins, too, although I note some counter-story; which one is Spartacus? I propose Noise 292 “Jam With Edwards” in the form of Dave Wallflower and Leighton Morlock trading verses on this tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDfaBQiAuog
Everybody c’mon and do the Pretzel! Some kind of nookie-pretzel. Can’t get no nookie-pretzel. Sacred rites of the great god pretzelcoatl.
“Alley Cat” by Bent Fabric on the Atco label! I’m a little too young to remember the sixties well--I’m more of a product of the seventies--but “Alley Cat,” one of the few records we had laying around in those days brings back some serious memories of my formative years. Thanks, Tom!