Nothing Painted Blue - Swivelchair (1992) [Kokopop, KOKO 1, CD / 7"]
There were two versions of this one: 7" and CD.
Tracklist on the 7":
A - Swivelchair
B - Blooming, Buzzing
Tracklist on the CD:
1. Swivelchair
2. Blooming, Buzzing
3. El Niño
This text appears on the packaging of both releases:
K. Brodie - strategy; F. Bruno - tactics; J. Burns - munitions.
Pdocued October, 1991 by R. Vodicka, engineered by E. Westfall.
Songs published by Stopgap Measures (BMI). Front Photo by D. Brodo.
Thanks to: D. Rothblatt, R. Griffin, K. Katkin, D. Callaci, G. Sand.
Contact the band at Jupa Records, P.O.Box 1243, Upland, CA 91785-1243.
"From now on, the analysts are in the streets. Lucidity is not their only weapon." - R. Vaneigem
That "D. Brodo" is very possibly an early-bird appearance by Daniel Brodo, who would play double bass on Franklin's La Radia EP in 1997, then join Refrigerator on Glitter Jazz in 1999 and become a permanent part of their lineup.
"G. Sand" is a good joke, referring to Giant Sand. Joey Burns knew Westfall from working with Giant Sand. (Joey Burns also met John Convertino by way of Giant Sand, which eventually led to Calexico.) Franklin & Kyle's label Jupa Records also put out a Giant Sand 7".
The Raoul Vaneigem quote is from his 1967 book The Revolution of Everyday Life (in French: Traité de savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations,"Treatise on Good Manners for the Younger Generations") which we'll get context for in a second.
All three songs associated with this release were compiled to Emotional Discipline. Accompanying text about these recordings from Emotional Discipline's liner notes:
Swivelchair:
FRANKLIN: Still our most requested song,
probably because the 7" was
widely distributed. Written dur-
ing my situationist-influenced
transform-the-quotidian phase
(I was an office temp most col-
lege summers).KYLE: Mike leaves California to
teach English in Taiwan. Joey
Burns steps in on bass. In 1992,
he convinces longtime Giant
Sand engineer Eric Westfall to
record a few songs with us...The
studio was nothing spectacular-
-$30 an hour, decent micro-
phones, small room. The sounds
he managed to achieve amaze
me to this day.PETER: The third time I saw 0PB, I
caught the line about the "Chino
Industrial Park" and it occurred
to me that I should be paying
more attention to this band (my-
self being a native of said former
dairy community).
Blooming, Buzzing:
KYLE: One of the few songs that's
been through all three of our bass
players. We still play it regularly.FRANKLIN: Lyrics largely culled from notes
for a course on perception and
cognition I nearly failed my senior
year. I didn't notice the homonym
of "appear amid" and "a pyramid"
until long after the song was writ-
ten.JOEY: I loved doing these recordings -
-I think they were our peak, more
than the recordings with Kramer.
El Niño:
FRANKLIN: This started life with a full set
of lyrics, but turned into a surf
instrumental after a mind-
numbing presentation on tropical
atmospheric disturbances during
my college freshman orientation
week.KYLE: Joey had this idea that he
should scream on every ØPB re-
lease (see "Register").JOEY: One of my favorites. I want to
name songs after other weather
disturbances, but there's not
much happening out there.
Kyle's reference to "Register" points to Power Trips Down Lovers Lane.
Note Peter's use of "0PB", Kyle's "ØPB", elsewhere you may see "NPB". Zero, null/empty set symbol, letter N, all of these stand in for the "Nothing" when abbreviating Nothing Painted Blue.
While I'm here: we have Franklin's "situationist-influenced" note here, and the subject matter of "Swivelchair", and the quote from Raoul Vaneigem from his time in the Situationist International. To offer a small note on the Marxist/Surrealist movement of situationist theory is all I can do, I'm no philosophy expert and in fact largely a dullard. But to my knowledge, the situationists generally tried to describe the massive psychological damage caused by everybody increasingly relating to each other through objects and commodities, instead of experiences. Besides Vaneigem's book quoted here, generally people will cite to Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle when discussing the SI. As if you don't have enough books to read already. (You probably should read Society of the Spectacle to see what Debord was getting at. The particular bit about how commodities are so tied to aesthetic value, many of them have to add as an afterthought that they have practical use---that use value has become secondary!---man, he should see how wild it's gotten out here.) Franklin also mentions "Debordian guile" as a characteristic of the subject of "The 101st" on the Shrimper 7" Sand Dollar Relief Map. Have I mentioned elsewhere on the site that Franklin has a Ph.D in Philosophy?
Click any thumbnail below to view a full size scan from the CD release:
Click any thumbnail below to view a full size scan from the 7" release:
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