8 posts tagged “robin davies”
BOAT RECORDS POP!s WITH KA-BOOM!BOX
Madison Punk Veterans Deliver Crossover Dance/Pop Synthesis
Available From Boat Records October 31
MADISON, WI -- Ka-Boom!Box detonates their first EP POP! Recorded with Coney Island’s Wendy Schneider, POP! is an exuberant blend of reggae, electronica and Afro-Caribbean grooves that sets carefully crafted songs against a wall of percussion and a swirling palette of rich synth and guitar tones. Created by a seasoned contingent of noted Madison and Chicago-based musicians, POP! recalls Bow Wow Wow, Steel Pulse, Lene Lovitch and Blondie.
Robin Davies (bass) and Dan Bitney (drums and percussion) recap their roles as the powerful rhythm section of Madison’s mighty Tar Babies, a Midwest punk/funk success story who signed with SST Records and released the landmark Fried Milk in 1987. Dan Bitney now plays primarily with post-rock pioneers Tortoise, and Davies moonlights as the drummer for Madison rocker favorites The Motor Primitives. (The third member of the original Tar Babies, Bucky Pope, frequently guests live on the Ka-Boom!Box cover of Madonna’s “Lucky Star.”)
DJ Christopher Robin (keyboards, vocals, turntables), a veteran of Madison’s Cruel and several San Francisco salsa bands, connected Laura Miller (vocals and melodica) and Eastside J-Dub (turntables and electronic drums) to Davies and Bitney. The group has quickly established themselves as a unique and electrifying presence on the party and DJ circuit, winning fans and rapidly ascending the club scene.
Rodney Anderson, who worked with Davies and Bitney in Booty Froot, joined in as guitar craftsman. Laying funk grooves against blistering solos, Anderson creates a thrilling counterpoint to the vinyl samples and scratches. Miller adds her own lo-fi human element, infusing the crackling mix with simple, honeyed vocal lines.
The band holds a residency at Mickey’s Tavern as the Ka-Boom!Box DJ Explosion on the first Saturday of each month, where they come armed with vinyl to produce a highly danceable flip side to their live set.
POP! Track Listing
1. "Let It Drop"
2. "Show Me The Way"
3. "Strange Girl"
4. "Coming In Threes"
5. "The Night The Stars Threw Down Their Spears"
Punk Rock Night
Special guest: Bucky Pope
My first set:
X Ray Spex - Oh, Bondage! Up Yours!
The Appliances - Neo-Fascist
Flipper - Brainwash
Articles of Faith - I've Got Mine
Discharge - Never Again
Hüsker Dü - In a Free Land
Die Kreuzen - In School
45 Grave - Black Cross
Angry Samoans - Steak Knife
Big Boys - Hollywood Swingin
Bad Brains - Destroy Babylon
Killdozer - Man of Meat
The Birthday Party - Sonny's Burning
The Replacements - Kids Don't Follow
Set two:
Public Image Ltd. - Theme
Killing Joke - Wardance
Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
Buzzcocks - Walking Distance
Public Image Ltd. - Poptones
Sonic Youth - Starpower
Killing Joke - Change
Buzzcocks - Boredom
So, we did the DJ Explosion! thing again on
saturday night. It's a monthly residency at the hip tavern in our 'hood
(the whole band lives within a six-block radius, which is great).
Instead of playing as a band with instruments--that seems like an
outmoded classification since one of the "instruments" in the band is a
mixer + decks
but anyway--all the band members have been showing up with vinyl and
doing consecutive sets. We've done this 4 or 5 times now, and it's a
blast.
This time out Bucky Pope was guest DJ.
The theme was PUNK ROCK!
I started off the night with a history lesson set, kicking things
off right with with Bowie ("Rebel Rebel") and New York Dolls
("Personality Crisis.") If I remember correctly, the rest of the set
was as follows:
Velvet Underground - 1966 bootleg with incredibly weird John Cale drone
The Clash, "Charlie Don't Surf"
Generation X - "Night of the Cadillacs"
Violent Femmes - "Hallowed Ground"
Replacements "My Favorite Thing"
Husker Du - "Crystal"
Sounds of History - 1981 newscast on degenerate youth
Black Flag - "Six Pack"
Mecht Mensch "Acceptance"
Blondie "Hangin' on the Telephone"
Tones On Tail, "Go!"
David Byrne/Brian Eno, "Regiment"
Robin Davies turned in an incredible set fed by his collection of punk and hardcore 45s and ...flexi-discs. I'd like to obtain his set list. There was a lot of Midwest hardcore--Killdozer and Imminent Attack. Killer.
Bucky's set was electic-o but very good, considering I was explaining
to him how to get a headphone mix vs. a room mix five minutes before he
went on.
One of the lesser-known bands on the legendary SST roster, the Tar Babies emerged from Madison, WI, with a distinctive brand of punk-funk that often drew comparisons to their labelmates the Minutemen, as well as the Texas-based Big Boys. Colored with bits of psychedelia, jazz, and avant-noise skronk, their music quickly progressed beyond their roots in hardcore and evolved into a scratchy but danceable, groove-centered hybrid complete with horns and George Clinton-style jamming. The Tar Babies were formed out of the ashes of Madison hardcore punkers Mecht Mensch, who disbanded in 1982. Guitarist/vocalist Bucky Pope, bassist Robin Davies, and drummer Dan Bitney debuted with the 1982 EP Face the Music, issued on local indie Bone Air. By the time of their second release, 1985's Respect Your Nightmares, their funk influence had begun to come into focus, which helped catch the attention of SST. The Tar Babies' first album for SST was 1987's Fried Milk, on which their punk-funk fusion truly crystallized. For the follow-up, 1988's No Contest, they played up that funk connection by adding horns -- most courtesy of woodwind player and multi-instrumentalist Tony Jarvis -- and even flirting with Washington, D.C.-style go-go. Their third SST album, 1989's Honey Bubble, also proved to be their last. After a brief hiatus, during which some of the band's personnel shifted, Pope reconvened the Tar Babies, now with second guitarist Bobby Vienneau and new horn player Andrew Lawton; this lineup cut one record, Death Trip, for the small Sonic Noise label in 1991. Following its release, the group disbanded permanently. Dan Bitney moved to Chicago and joined the seminal post-rock combo Tortoise as a percussionist and effects manipulator, also playing with Isotope 217 and several other local projects. Pope and Davies later reunited as the Bar Tabbies for local gigs, and Davies' son Jesse Collins-Davies was also a member of the preteen hardcore band Old Skull. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
A story song. Our young heroine inflicts unspecified disaster upon a small town. Told from the point of view of a foolish young man.
Rough mix for "Show Me The Way." I play keyboards and sing lead. This is an electro-gospel effort by my new band, Ka-Boom!Box.
KB!B lineup: Robin Davies, bass, and Dan Bitney, drums and percussion recap their roles as the powerful ryhthm section of Tar Babies, a Madison, WI punk success story who signed with ssT during their heyday in the 80s.
Bitney's main gig now is playing with Tortoise, the band credited with inventing post-rock. Pretty cool of him to hook up with us.
Rodney, of Booty Froot, cut a pretty shredding guitar lead in one take.
Miss LMNO'Pollyanna sings backups and plays melodica, and East Side
J-Dub was feeling experimental when he tracked his turntables.
All the tracks are "on," so there's a certain "kitchen sink" feeling
to this mix, but I don't think I'm going to radically alter anything
for the final mix, just remove some of the clutter.
