Frumpies News of April 2000

listen to "We Don't Wanna Go Home" mp3

Frumpies have just finished recording our next single "Frumpies Forever" which will be out next summer and features the songs `Frumpies Forever', `Don't Wanna Go Home', `Turn Off the Faucet' and `Tell Me'. The basic tracks were done in late '98 and were recorded by the Frumpies in the basement of the Kill Rock Stars house with the use of a fabulous vintage microphone that Paul Schuster (Internal/External) let us borrow. We saw him at the coffee shop on the way to the recording session and he drove it up to us in his green muscle car (a comet?) "Hey Frumpies, I'll be back to pick this up later!" It was an absolute life saver--we had my 1979 Cassette 4 Track (Tascam)--and a couple of SM 58 and SM 57s, three small Fender amps, two with reverb, and four or five guitars (1965 Fender Mustang, two Rickenbackers--one new and one classic--, the white Corrections guitar with a lot of switches and a red balsa wood shiny Kay guitar with a white plastic pick up built into the pick guard. Molly used my early 60's silver sparkle Ludwig kit. It sounded great. If only we could get the actual sound in the basement on to tape. But first we needed a PA. We were still making up the songs and weren't sure if we wanted to record the vocals direct or through a speaker. We didn't know how many times to play the parts and for the most part didn't have lyrics or even song titles (a frumpies first), mostly we had riffs and singing style ideas and maybe a slight intuition of the subject matter we wanted to address, but we needed to be able to hear vocal cues so we hunted for a PA to use. Luckily Otto Matic and Nikki Holiday had just moved in next door. "Can we borrow your PA?" "I guess so but don't break it!" Hmmm...somehow we did. We plugged everything in and sparks flew in between my mouth and the microphone. No sound came out except for "shhhiiittt!" We just started playing without it and the cops came immediately. So much for day one. The next day we were prepared and piled up LP boxes and T Shirt boxes in front of all the doors and windows as sound insulation. We used broken bits of woods and extra doors to block any light from outside, this time the cops wouldn't be able to get in: A FRUMPIES FORTRESS!! Time to actually tape the songs The SM 57 and SM 58s were rendered useless in the face of the awesome vintage "Schuster" mike We placed it near Bill's amp and the drumset but it picked up our two guitars as well and seemed to mix everything perfectly on to one single track. We did have a few amps miked directly as well but didn't end up using this too much in the final mix--I taped over this track by accident on two separate songs by selecting the wrong track to record my vocals on to. In one instance this bounced the original guitar track over to an early vocal track combining the two on to one, and in the other case my vocals were doubled live on to two tracks at once: oops! But we went with it, it worked out for us in the end. So what you will hear on the record for the most part is a single room mike and three vocal tracks, all of the music was recorded live. We finished the vocals this week in the historic Martin Apartments which are located in downtown Olympia--this was done mostly during Artswalk--we took a break to check out Tina's photo show and to see Mike Kunka's band Enemymine. Mike Kunka was taking a break from screening Frumpie T Shirts in order to play the show by the way! On Sunday we decided to record an extra song in the apartment with no drums --Molly isn't here yet--We did a version of "Tell Me" by the Rolling Stones, a comic rendition that was perhaps a result of me being most familiar with the Termites version of the song (see Girls in the Garage Volume 2) and Kathi knowing the original--so we were singing it both ways simultaneous with hilarious (to us anyways) results. It is not a straight version of the song by any means. We hope it interjects a critique of the semi-bogus `take me back I'll be good I promise' sentiment of the song--which as Kathi pointed out is pretty much directly oppositional to the Frumpie way of doing things. We predict it will cause certain classic rock loving dudes, both male and female,to cringe and that it will mystify and offend the professionals of the world who's viewing of culture is all about protecting the male rock canon. It makes me think of Bad Dream Fancy Dress and of this I am very proud. As for the other songs: there is a sentimental/anti sentimental duality at work. The A side is looking back and the B side addresses the futility, dangers and absurdity of this. The title track and "We Don't Wanna Go Home" were inspired by hanging out with Huggy Bear, Blood Sausage and Comet Gain in the UK in 1993, this was a formative Frumpies experience though sadly Molly was absent. She had her own fun times with the Brits that year touring with Lois and Bratmobile. The cover of the single features a polaroid of a film still from the black and white early 60's British film "A Taste Of Honey". This film has also been referenced by the Smiths and TV Personalities. There is a really good scene in it where the mom is talking to her daughter and says " Oh Jo,why can't you learn from my mistakes, it'll take a lifetime of living to learn from your own". The Frumpies are currently working on a mini rock opera inspired by this statement that looks at the young girl/old man dichotomy, the Lolita phenomenon, from both the perspective of the young girl and the seasoned Frumpie. It's called Mohawk Toupe' and we are lucky if we ever actually finish it. We also recorded a six and a half minute instrumental called "Battle of the Super Bored" that is very Go Team/Corrections/Feebles and was mostly improvised on to tape. Look for a single of this sometime in the next six months. There are three other new songs in the works, two of which show the Frumpies going in a new direction, utilizing our individual and distinct guitar styles and is bringing Bill into the songwriting process. Previously most of the Frumpies songs have been strictly Vail/Wilcox creations.

We are all in one place by the way because we are practicing for our upcoming Italian tour. Bonjourno! Andiamo al Frumpies concerto!! We play Olympia on Saturday: Frumpies For Free!
xoxo Tobi

PS look for the Frumpies song "Wrong Way Round" to be featured in a student made public service announcement for a dinosaur museum located in Glasgow,Montana, There is a chance that it will be shown on PBS in that area.