1994 - Beat Your Heart Out
How do you know if a drummer is at your front door? The knock speeds up.
What do you call a drummer whose girlfriend has left him? Homeless.
The recording sessions for Answer the Phone, Dummy began in June of 1994. This record features no less than 6 different drummers.
Rusty Willoughby - Waste of Time, On the Wall, Old Address of the Unknown, And You, I'm Cold (5)
Jason "Mr. 3 %" Finn - Went for a Swim, On Your Hands, T.H.I.N.K. (3)
Dan Peters - Back to Nowhere, Future Right (2)
Mike Musburger - I Found the Star, Trumpets Are Loud (2)
John Moen - brd "COATED", In the Observatory (2)
Nate Johnson - Meet the Author (1)
Amongst trying to coordinate a chaotic practice schedule was trying to figure out which drummers would play which songs. As illustrated from above, Rusty received the lion share of songs that would ultimately end up on the record. Each drummer got anywhere from 4-6 songs to learn. Kurt states, "People would sign up for their songs even though they didn't know how they went." Two
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weeks of rehearsals were set-up (5 nights a week) and then a recording schedule was made. Practices sometimes consisted of early and late sessions, where one drummer would attend the early session and another would come for the late session, but it was always one drummer per session. Overall, there were approximately 27 songs divided up amongst the 6 players. When it came time to record the songs, often times it would only be Kurt and the drummer in the studio to lay down the basic tracks. Despite the somewhat haphazard way of learning and recording these songs, Answer the |
Lyrically, the record employs a rather sarcastic, contradictory and aloofly pessimistic point of view (themes not too unfamiliar to Bloch songs of past and future), almost to the point of not caring about not caring. The opening track introduces our newest cast of characters: "They said it was such a good time for everyone to not get along - And how was everyone so right if only everyone was wrong . . . And then it called for opinions and no-one cared to call - And so they all cried "apathy" and no-one cared at all." Bloch's apathy regarding apathy extended itself into a personal space in Back to Nowhere, "Back to nowhere I am going - Back to nowhere I'll be there - Nowhere is where you'll find me - Because I'm there all the time." The record is like a surreal day at the races. It's almost like a Blochian Alice In Wonderland. The listener is taken from swimming in a lake that has no water, to daydreaming about being at home listening to records. Next is a trip through an observatory that you've seen a million times before, to a book signing where you fall asleep and dream about a party that you can't leave, only to find that the party is going on inside your head. The final realization is that the ordinary is only uninspiring, and by this point it's quite an obvious epiphany.
Answer the Phone, Dummy also marked the first time the Fastbacks recorded over a set amount of consecutive days at a 'big' studio (Hanzek Audio) with the actual intention of creating a full-length release (all previous albums were started with much less than a final product in mind). It only took them 14+ years to finally get to this point in their career. The resulting sound of the record is crisp and full, while still maintaining all of the aspects that make the Fastbacks so distinct: powerful songs that are well crafted and vigorously performed. The whole album was recorded and mixed in about 12 days, from June 16 to June 28. After finishing the record, the Fastbacks took 4 months off. During that time Lulu married her longtime boyfriend, David Wild. It was also around this time that Mike quit the Posies. His permanent tenure in the Fastbacks was quickly approaching.
Outtakes from the ATPD sessions yielded 4 UK Subs covers, all of which would later get released (3 on the Gearhead split single with the Meices, and 1 on the Home Alive Compilation). They also recorded a stunning version of Tommy James "Ball of Fire". That track remains in the vaults, and we can only hope that it will someday see the light of day. Those lucky enough to order ATPD initially through Sub Pop were rewarded with a bound book that included hand written chord charts and lyrics to every song. Many of the other songs that didn't make it onto the ATPD final cut were later released on the Alone In a Furniture Warehouse EP (a few were dusted off and polished for New Mansions In Sound and various 45's).
To promote Answer the Phone, Dummy, Sub Pop also released a promo only CD5 for the song "Waste of Time". Lulu directed the video and it features cameos by many of the drummers, along with various friends and relatives of the band. The CD5 also features a blazing cover of the Pixies "Allison" (with Lulu on lead vocals) along with an 'unfinished' number called "For Tomorrow" (which ironically was the first song recorded during the ATPD sessions).
Answer the Phone, Dummy was released on October 25, 1994. It features a nifty 16-page full color booklet, complete with pictures and hand written lyrics. The first show after its release was at the Crocodile on October 28. This was followed by a short tour down the West Coast and through Texas (with Canadian popsters Zumpano). Critical reception to ATPD was good, with Spin magazine even writing, "Assimilating anything that strikes their fancy without need of irony, Fastbacks seem that much more generous, unpretentiously inclusive in another great Northwest tradition dating back to garage kinds such as the Sonics." The year concluded with a final show in Seattle at a club that used to be called Moe (now Aerospace).
1995 - "Goals are the enemy of creativity. A goal can only serve to fail."
For the most part, 1995 started off like any other year in the Fastbacks. A local show at Green River Community college was followed up by a quick jaunt to San Francisco for the annual Noise Pop
| Festival (an event they play every year). By the end of '95, however, the Fastbacks would play 3 shows in front of more people than they ever had before (and I would venture to guess that more people saw them in these 3 shows than the combined audience of their previous 15 years). The second Midwest/East Coast Fastbacks tour began in March of 1995. After a quick stop in Minneapolis, the Fastbacks stormed into Chicago. On March 2nd they played the famed Lounge Ax. This show is foot-notable for a few reasons: 1) It was the live debut of Ben Weasel's Riverdales, and 2) It was the first time I got to see the Fastbacks perform live (6 years after I first heard them). The rest of the tour took them through many of the major East Coast metropolitan cities and then back through the Midwest with a final show in Kansas City, MO on March 22. June of '95 saw the Fastbacks going to Spain for three quick shows. If the pre-show events were any indication of how this trip would turn out, the Fastbacks were in for an interesting journey. In an e-mail from Kim, she writes "This Spain thing is |
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"So, I finally got out from under all the stuff on my desk, so now I'll try and tell you all about Spain. We got there on the morning of the 15th and were promptly whisked away by Rosana, the booking agent that brought us. We went from the airport to her office and hung out there for a while and then she took us to our hotel where we all took very long naps, 5 hours. Once awake and feeling almost human, we went out to dinner and then to this club called Templor Del Gato because this guy that we know, from there, works at the bar and they were having a birthday party for this girl in a band called the Pleasure Fuckers. This bar was great because they had a live DJ that played only the best punk music, and tons of FBX. "Rat Race" never sounded so good. Tres punk. I called it a night fairly early, but not Kurt. He stayed out till 7:00 am and was so hung over the next day I thought he would die. So the next afternoon we left for Zaragoza, a 3 hour drive, but we were really late getting going so we didn't get a soundcheck. And the place we were playing was a HUGE coliseum like place. Giant. Like Metallica would play there. It was a festival and because we were late we had to go on last. Last was 3:00 am and Lulu got so drunk she fell over onstage and finally had to leave and not finish. It was pretty awful and she was really embarrassed and was crying. Ick. But an okay show for us, anyway. That city is so beautiful. Before the show we all walked around and took in the sights. Then Saturday morning we get up to drive the long drive (12 hours) to Vigo, which is on the coast up north. Finally got there at 11:30 pm, checked into our hotel and went and ate. Got to the club and played at 1:30. . . Then Sunday we drove back to Madrid, which only took 8 hours. But we got to see the most beautiful countryside, castles and everything. We got to the club and found that the amp Kurt would be using wouldn't work. It worked but he hated it so they had to find something else and the PA was just a joke. But that show was wild. People went crazy for us and were even singing along! I've never signed more autographs in my life, well, maybe Japan. We had to finish by midnight and afterwards we went out for dinner and then to this bar where some friends of ours were spinning records. Kurt and Mike went back to the hotel and I went to another bar with these people. I got pretty drunk which leads me to the funny/scary part of this story. I took a cab back to hotel and went to bed. When all of a sudden, the next thing I know I wake up, standing in the hall in front of my hotel door, with nothing on except boxer shorts. Nothing. Nada. I look down and realize I'm pretty much naked and locked out and I start laughing. I sometimes sleepwalk when I'm drunk. So I, somehow, find a hotel phone and call the front desk and tell them I'm locked out and the guy says, "okay, come down and get a key." And I say to him, "um, I can't. I'm naked." So I wait for him to come up and let me in. Weird, huh? The next day we had a lot of interviews, the best one being National Radio in Spain. it was cool cause we had to have a translator. How rock n roll. Then the rest of the day Kurt and I just walked around and visited some folks and record shops. I finally went back to the hotel and waited for everyone to get home. About 11:00 that night we all decide to go out to dinner, but not before Mike tells Kurt and I that he lost our airplane tickets home. Great. So, we call up my travel agent and she faxes all the info to my hotel room. I had to get really early and take a cab to the airport and get our tickets re-issued and wait around until the rest of the gang showed up. Plus, it cost $60 US dollars to re-issue them. But the good news is that we made a lot of money. And I had a great time! They want to bring us back in October. Also, right down from our hotel a car bomb went off killing a policeman. Weird. But I loved it over there and I can't wait to go back. Now I'm just really tired and jet-lagged and want to go home and go back to bed."
The Fastbacks played their next show at the Crocodile 8 days removed from Spain on June 26. This show was recorded and would come out in early '96 on Lance Rock Records (The Fastbacks Live at the Crocodile Café). For those who've never seen the Fastbacks live, this recording is a good approximation of their live show. Formula One tempos, no gaps between songs, and an everything goes/nothing is sacred approach (14 songs in just over 30 minutes).
The final three shows of 1995 would take place on November 1, 2, and 4th. The Fastbacks wouldn't find out about these shows until mid October. Kim writes, "It looks like we're playing 3 dates with Pearl Jam, Nov. 1 and 2, in Salt Lake City, UT and then Nov. 4 in San Jose, CA! I can't believe it. The two shows in Salt Lake City are in a place that holds 12,000 and the CA show is outdoors and holds 35,000. That's 35,000 people! Sometimes we're the luckiest band in the world, I think." The Fastbacks had indeed come a long way from playing the Rascals "Good Lovin'" at Aurora Records some 10 years prior to their arena rock debut.
Of the shows, Kim writes: "This will be the most difficult e-mail ever. So much happened and we had so much fun it's really hard to write everything down, but for history's sake, I'll try. Let me just say that Eddie Vedder is an angel, there's no doubt in my mind. And all the people that work for Pearl Jam are equally nice, all the way down to the road crew. All nice and not bogus Spinal Tap. Just the fact that we got an hour soundcheck the first night in Salt Lake City was
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mind-blowing enough. They made it a little less scary for us. But the real amazing show was for sure in San Jose! 38,000 people watched us and liked us. Imagine this. Before we went on, I'm standing on the side of the stage and Eddie rides up on his little sting-ray bike to watch us. He asks me how I'm doing and I tell him I'm so afraid that people will start chanting, "Eddie, Eddie." So, he asks me what he could do to help me and then he decided to open the show, just him and an acoustic guitar singing some new song he'd just written and then he'd introduce |
Ten months later the Fastbacks would find themselves as the support act for Pearl Jam on a 3-month North American and European tour.
1996 - Let the instruments tell YOU how they want to be played
The beginning of 1996 saw the Fastbacks release two EP's: Alone In a Furniture Warehouse (Munster - 8 songs) and the Live at the Crocodile CD-EP. On February 11 they started recording what would later be called New Mansions In Sound. A quick 5 show tour (including Rusty substituting for Lulu) with the Muffs occurred in March. April and May saw them putting the finishing touches on the New Mansions as it was released on June 18th.
New Mansions is a peculiar record. The 15 songs included feature some of Bloch's strongest to date, amongst them are "Fortune's Misery", "No Information", "Stay At Home", "Just Say", and "Banner Year". The production of the record took the next logical step for the Fastbacks. Each record got more polished as Kurt became more familiar and comfortable in the producers chair. He was already accustomed to producing a variety of records by many different bands (and basically made a living by doing so). New Mansions was the slickest Fastbacks record to date, but therein lies my biggest criticism. While still a very strong effort on behalf of the band, New Mansions suffers from a bit of over-production. It's almost as if they were consciously trying to be too meticulous in their execution of the songs. The result is a record that sounds a little bit 'canned'. Don't get me wrong, the record is still excellent (and worthy of a spot in any Fastbacks collection), but it did lack a certain something that was present on the previous efforts. There was one video released for the record. It was for the song "Just Say" and Lulu's husband directed it. Eddie Vedder makes a harmony vocal appearance on the Fastbacks cover of the Who's "Girl's Eyes" (written by Keith Moon).
The lyrical evolution of New Mansions is evident from the second song:
Used to be afraid of what I liked
Used to be afraid of what was right
Never thought I'd get too far in life
Never thought I'd last another night
And then morning came and with it a new light
I'm telling you it wasn't all that bright
But it helped me to perceive all that I might
Put off for so long that I lost sight
Of the reason why I started this to write
Why is it so hard sometimes
To keep feeling sorry for myself
And finish ruining my life
The apathy of songs past has been replaced with the realization that while things aren't necessarily perfect, they could be a lot worse. At the same time, fighting the urge to stay optimistic is a constantly uphill battle when the grand realization is that mediocrity is the plateau from which we measure success. It's not exactly Depak Chopra, but it's definitely a lot happier than "and so they all cried apathy and no one cared at all." Still, there is more than a tinge of self-doubt when thinking about what is being said, but placed in the context of what has been written before, it's downright feel-good. The ironic titled of this opus is "Which Has Not Been Written". This mixture of depressed optimism is also evident from "Banner Year". The song starts off, "Tell me what's been going on? It's been a good year this far along. And a banner year for things gone wrong." The ending, however, shows the light at the end of the tunnel, "And it looks like I might get my way." A song that is too overtly positive can often time come off as contrived. Kurt never seems to run into this problem.
June saw the Fastbacks going on tour as the support act for the Presidents of the United States of America. The tour brought them through the Midwest and East Coast in venues ranging from 300-1,000 seaters. They took July off before playing a handful of shows in California in late August. Pearl Jam was next.
The Pearl Jam tour started on September 16 in Seattle's own Key Arena. I vividly remember attending this show and being awestruck with seeing the Fastbacks on the big stage in front of thousands of their hometown residents. Kim had a special "space suit" designed for the tour and she christened it that night. Prancing onto the stage in this silver skintight jump suit, she looked primed and ready for an evening of rock. They played a nervous and energy filled 30 minute set, finishing off their Seattle arena debut with a blistering version of AC/DC's "Riff Raff".
With the next 3 months the Fastbacks played all sorts of places and venues. Places they never imagined they'd be able to play stared them right between the eyes. Cities like Budapest, Istanbul, Zurich, Warsaw, Barcelona. They even got to play Wembley Arena in London. The tour ended on November 25 in Lisbon, Portugal.
The last show the Fastbacks played in 1996 was at Moe in Seattle. It was on December 7 and it was clear for most audience members that the weeks on the road had helped to perfect the power of their live show. With opening bands Brody, Sourmash (now Once For Kicks), and the Meices providing an adequate introduction, the Fastbacks sizzled through an evening of punk rock nirvana.
1997 to present - I Want Rock N' Roll
The last three years have been very laid back for the Fastbacks. 1997 saw them play 11 shows, with only two of them outside of Seattle. 1998 had 17 shows and also saw the released of the "Win, Lose
| Or Both" EP on February 13 of that year. This release marked their return to Popllama Records. Having been dissatisfied with the direction of Sub Pop through 1996 and 1997, the Fastbacks made the decision to leave the label. Popllama's Conrad Uno offered to release the EP and they gladly accepted. It's a 4 song EP with 9 bonus live tracks. The studio material includes a cover of the Mr. T Experience as well as 3 other songs pulled from the sessions from the last two full lengths. Amongst the live bonus material is a hair-raising 9 and half minute version of "Always Tomorrow". It features 3 guitar players (Kurt, Andrew McKeag and Rusty) and 2 drummers (Mike and Jason) all playing in cacaphony. |  |
In December of 1998 the Fastbacks began working on their next record. Going back to a more 'live' approach in the studio (and perhaps a reaction to the somewhat tepid results of
NMIS), the Fastbacks tracked 15 new songs live in the studio (at Stone Gossard's Studio Litho). I think there are a total of 3 guitar overdubs (and some keyboard) on the whole album. In total, the record required less than 2 weeks to record and mix. 14 of these songs will appear on their record that is tentatively scheduled for an October release on SpinArt Records. As of the writing of this article, the record is titled, "The Day That Didn't Exist". Despite having played drums for the Fastbacks for the better part of the last 5 years (and also playing on more songs than any of his predecessors), this is the first album to exclusively feature Mike Musburger on drums. It is also the first record since Zucker (recorded in '91 & '92) to only have one drummer. The results are
astouding, and when the time comes to scrutinize TDTDE as part of the Fastbacks legacy, I firmly believe it will go down as one of their strongest recordings (I refrain from reviewing it until its release).
It has taken me four parts and over 6 months to write this 'article' for Hit List. I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I'm sure there are many things I failed to mention in my critique, but something's are best left for the listeners/readers to discover themselves.
A band as eccentric and as wonderful as the Fastbacks can never be completely unmasked, my only hope is to understand them as much as I can within the confines of my own experience. Thank you for your time.
It's bird time!
Hit List Article
Part One (1959 - 1981)
Part Two (1981 - 1989)
Part Three (1989 - 1994)
Fastbacks Timeline
