-xo love, dann medin ox-

TELEGRAPH: who are you?

AARON OPPENHEIMER: The lineup includes Miss Lily Banquette singing and playing the bongos and other provocative percussion, The Millionaire on the electric guitar, Mr. Peter Dixon on the hi-fi organ, Nick Cudahy on the double bass, and myself (Aaron Oppenheimer) on vibes and traps.

TG: how did y'all come around?

AO: Here's the official history: Once upon a time, the Millionaire wrote something called "The Tiki Wonder Hour" which was a two-hour cabaret explosion, featuring an exploration of the seven wonders of the cocktail hour, hosted by Satan himself. It had a huge talking easter island head, a bubble-blowing volcano, literally dozens of performers, and above all, a 14-piece band called the "Combustible Edison Heliotropic Oriental Mambo and Foxtrot Orchestra." It played two sold-out shows in Providence and one in Boston in the fall of 1991. Lots of fun, but getting 14 people who aren't getting paid together to practice turned out to be a little unwieldy. After the TWH was done, the five of us who consistently showed up to rehearsals decided to stay together. The name was shortened appropriately, and here we are, the dynamo you see before you.

TG: what's in the name? (besides 10 consonants and 7 vowels)

AO: Well, we like to think of it as conjuring up nutty turn-of-the- century nicknames of the Devil, like "Old Nick" or whatever. In reality, it's been a name in search of a band for several years that finally found something to stick to.

TG: how long have you been together/have any of you previously been a project we may have heard of? (is lily really john coltrane or kurt cobain in disguise?)

AO: Well, Combustible Edison in it's current form has been together for two and a half years, give or take. The Millionaire and Miss Banquette were involved in a "rock 'n' roll" act called "Christmas" for many years. Mr. Dixon was the original third member of that group, and Nick was also in that act for a time. I myself was never in Christmas, which makes me the special one!

TG: how do you describe your music?

AO: I've given up trying to describe it to people; it's easier to hand them a tape. Of course, that doesn't work in print. Maybe this should be a multimedia interview. We'll answer to "lounge music," "leisure music," or, in our first attempt to coin a phrase to capture the cross between exotic moods and metropolitan flair, our personal favorite, "Metropical."

TG: major influences?

AO: I think for most of us, our parents' record collections was our first influence in this kind of music. In some ways, playing what we play is us returning to our "roots," such as they are. Watching a lot of television our whole lives has been another major influence. Martin Denny, Esquivel, Nino Rota, Henry Mancini are obvious. Indian and Spaghetti Western film scores, the Rat Pack, etc.

TG: favorite lounge party pastimes?

AO: Pin the tail on the hostess is always popular. If you know what I mean.

TG: what's the story w/the compact touring c.e.?

AO: Peter and I, having actual jobs, are remaining in the Boston area to hold the fort, while the rest of the band takes the country by storm. Duly authorized audio-animatronic replicas will be taking our places.

TG: just where did the millionaire get that winning wonder of a white smile?

AO: More importantly, where did Miss Banquette get her beautiful long hair? The answer is a secret, but here's a hint: Prosthetics.

TG: cocktail suggestion?

AO: Drink in moderation. Nobody likes a sloppy swinger.

TG: how on earth did you get signed to sub-pop?

AO: And it came to pass that we made a demo tape, called "This Is Combustible Edison," which was handed out to about five people at the New Music Seminar in New York. Somehow it ended up in the hands of the College Music Journal folks, and showed up on the cover of CMJ. After that, it's all just a blur of industry types throwing money and begging. Sub Pop just seemed like the right place to be, and it's worked out very well - they're great to work with.

TG: any live stories?

AO: The strangest shows are the ones where we're sandwiched between loud rock bands. We opened for Yo La Tengo at CBGBs a year and a half ago, and there was basically dead silence when we came out wearing our fabulous outfits. When we played at Lollapalooza last year, half the crowd really got into the show, and half suddenly remembered that they liked Fishbone. We played at the party after the New York premiere of the new Roman Polanski movie, which was, uh, interesting. Lots of schmoozing. Tina Louise was there, but I didn't see her.

TG: you mentioned outfits?

AO: Yes, dressing the part is a large component of the lounge scene. We have several matching ensembles designed for us by Miss Tamara of Winchester. We also encourage our audience to dress more fabulously; we recently played at the Luau Hut in Providence and the crowd really went all out to dress up. It really enhances the evening; it gets everyone involved in the show.

TG: plans for the past or future?

AO: Well, we've gotten this far without an actual plan, so we're not about to start now. The touring band (or "ejecto-pod" as we call it) is on the road now, and hopefully we'll be recording again soon.

TG: fun bands to play w/?

AO: Playing with the Coctails was fun. I guess we haven't really played *with* too many other bands; usually we'll play by ourselves, two sets or so. We've also opened for Shonen Knife and Yo La Tengo and a few others, but that's about it.

TG: best bad habit?

AO: The number one Combustible Edison Rule of Conduct: Be Fashionably Late. This includes being late to practice and gigs.

TG: what kind of airplay are you getting?

AO: Good question. I haven't heard anything from "I, Swinger" (our just released Sub Pop tour-de-force (plug, plug)) on the radio here in Boston, though I've seen it show up on college radio playlists that get posted to the net. We recently met a band goal by having some of our music used as background to a story on NPR. We've done a video for "Millionaire's Holiday" which has apparently been shown on MuchMusic (Canadian MTV) and a few local video shows. That was fun to do.

TG: anything else?

AO: Just be fabulous! We also like getting mail - 21st century on- line types can send mail to comed@subpop.com, or write to the address listed in the CD. If anyone out there sees the touring band, drop Peter and me a note and tell us about it so we can pretend we were there.

Editor: Mark Cornick (mcornick@nyx.cs.du.edu)
Subscriptions: Sean Murphy (grumpy@access.digex.net)
Archives: Chris Karlof (karlofc@seq.cms.uncwil.edu)

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