Today marks the 25th anniversary of Noise 292’s first performance: May 26, 1983, at the Che Cafe with the Answers and the Odds. I can think of no better way to celebrate that silver anniversary than with a powerful performance by the brilliant Kristin Martin.
“Stupid Future” showcases everything that was so special about Kristin’s songwriting and performing, even at 19: arresting hooks, great lyrics and fantastic vocals. She’s one of the most innovative creative forces I’ve ever had the privilege of collaborating with.
This luminous rendition comes to us from Nov. 17, 1983, when Noise 292 performed with Hair Theatre and 11 Sons at the Che Cafe. Kristin Martin (vocals, rhythm guitar); David Rives (lead guitar — check out that solo!); Wendell Kling (trash percussion); Joanne Norris (drums); Matthew Rothenberg (bass).
The photos of Kristin and original percussionist Hobie Hodge as well as David Rives, Matthew Rothenberg and substitute drummer Dave Fleminger were taken by Andy Hunt, probably in July 1983. Happy anniversary!
Great tape. Great photos.
If you want to hear more awesome Kristin vocals, she features prominently on many Lemons Are Yellow tracks. “Afuegal Pitu” displays her singing particularly well, I think.
Random observations and queries:
>Hobie is playing the BBQ grill, which looked great but lacked the tone or durability of some of the other components in the percussion set. I think it was pretty much wrecked by the time Wendell took over and promptly discarded it.
>In the picture with Kristin and Dave, whose bass speaker had the lion stenciled on it? It’s right on the tip of my skull. …
>The photo of me was taken during “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” which was the moment in the set when I’d try to break all the bones in my hand with the tambourine.
>Kristin’s playing my Musicmaster bass; I’ve always remembered her in that Joy Division T-shirt.
>RE the Casio keyboard in the foreground of the Dave Fleminger picture: I totally forgot that I (sort of) played keyboards on our cover of Joy Division’s “Decades.”
Oh! And Paul: Kristin does indeed sound incredible on Lemons Are Yellow’s “Afuegal Pitu,” which I think out-Mutantes Os Mutantes.
Thanks guys for the nice comments!
Too bad no one else stopped by here to say hello!
I think this song is great! It has that hypnotic feel that I really loved about Noise 292.
Who’s playing what part on this? I didnt remember that you guys switched instruments so often.
I didn’t meet Kristin until after Noise 292 but we did some stuff together in the Synaesthesia/Apparition days … Stupid Future is a great song; 25 years later, we have all seen the future, and a lot of it was pretty stupid, after all.
I still have a strange affinity with BBQs, small engine parts and oil drums. So, about 24 years ago, Malia sent a small stack of flyers to me up in Arcata, I just located them in a pee chee folder in an old file cabinet recently. I’ll see if I can scan a few at work if you don’t already have them posted. One is from this very May 26th show, with pic of punk eating a vinyl record with fangs (don’t recall the source of that graphic) -- one whole dollar admission. 33 1/3 cents per band.
@Hobie: a strange affinity for BBQs… ??? I have a bunch of gig flyers, too, we should compare notes!
@Dave Ellison: Regarding instrumentation on this version of Stupid Future, 11/17/83 — Matthew has outlined it in the main post above. I played rhythm guitar on this song and bass guitar on some of the other songs in our set. After Noise 292, I switched playing to bass guitar (and vocals) in my other bands Synesthesia and Apparition. I hope to post some songs from those two groups soon.
@Jandro: Thanks for stopping by and for the nice comment!
Happy Anniversary everyone. This indeed an excellent track. I trying to remember/decipher what I was doing with the percussion.
So, when is the reunion gig at the Che?
I think you should definitely post some music from those other bands you were in, Kristin… looking forward to hearing it!
That is a great song. I remember it. It was one of those moments when the wonderful chaos and cacophony of Noise 292 coalesced into a more ordered sound. Kristin, it would be cool if you could post the lyrics to this. I was trying to decipher them. I guess as middle class kids we weren’t in as much danger of having No Future, but the pursuance of survival does seem pretty stupid these days. The internet is cool though.
Kristin was probably playing her brown (60’s?) Jaguar with the red roses on it seen in the liner notes of Lemons Are Yellow’s Destroy All Music. I used to jam with Kristin in the pre-N292/LAY days. Contemporary songs by the Eagles, Boston, Led Zeppelin and so on were the material for those sessions. Yeah we’re goin’ waaay back here. In fact, it was Kristin who turned me on to hard rock, I was into radio pop before that.
This song is a good example of how Kristin could put out a candle flame ten feet away.
Noise 292 were way ahead of beginningless time … I like noise bands.
Months ago, I’d mused about whose speaker cabinet bore the lion-head stencil in the picture with Dave and Kristin. I got the answer I expected when I connected with Gerald Turetzky, former drummer for the Trowsers now living in the Bay area: “That is [Trowsers bassist] Y-Lee’s Bass Cabinet. Between that and our Che Banner, we made our statement!”
Here’s hoping we can add a Trowsers page to our related bands.