This week launches Tape-Gun zine #4 and as a result
this weeks MP3 will also act as an announcement. In this issue
are a few written pieces (including the long version story of
the name "Five Seventeen") along with an interview with
Jenny Toomey and an interview and artwork by Tyler Clark Burke
(designer of endless record sleeves and co-founder of Toronto's
Three
Gut Records, home to Royal City, The Constantines, Gentleman
Reg, etc).
It's been a couple of years since the last issue
and while interviewing Jenny Toomey, I asked her if she would
be alright with using this track for the site, and she agreed.
What follows is a section of the interview from the Tape-Gun
4
July
11th 1995
In some circles, certainly mine, Liquorice was a super-group.
It featured Jenny Toomey, Dan Littleton (of Ida), Trey Many (of
His Name is Alive / Velour 100) and, though not credited as a
member, producer Warren Defever (His Name is Alive). It was certainly
his production that established the sound of Listening
Cap, which would turn out to be their only album.
Originally commissioned by 4AD label founder Ivo Watts-Russell,
for a label subsidiary that was never to be, the album ended up
on 4AD. Despite its all star line-up, and perhaps because of its
unusual, warbled production, which would lead Warner to contact
the group and say "something is terribly wrong with the masters,"
the album was equally endearing and confusing to fans.
It was the songwriting that shone through above the wow-and-flutter
and the warm blasts of static. One imagines that, of the remaining
20 recorded songs and the 60-67 remaining unreleased mixes, each
one contains the charged lyrics and song-crafting that makes this
album stand out years after its release. The album was perfect,
and there is not another album like it. Grenadine's
Nopalitos [SMR 23 / TB 155], also pairing up Toomey
and Defever, comes closest. Listening Cap
would be the meridian accomplishment of Toomey's career for the
next six years, when she released her first solo album.
Art director Vaughn Oliver approached Toomey and asked her to
pose nude for the cover of Listening Cap
while wearing an elaborate hat by artist Julia Bardsley.
At
the time, Toomey declined. In an interview with Theodore Defosse
of Splendid E-zine, she states, "I didn't want to do that
because PJ Harvey and Liz Phair had done naked things recently,
and the press had done nothing but talk about how naked they were…
I wanted them to pay attention to my music, but it's stupid that
I have to make those kinds of choices." She went through
a period afterwards when she posed nude for art classes, and by
doing so proved that she could....
—
from Tape-Gun #4. For more info visit MyMeanMagpie.com
Jenny Toomey has performed in Tsunami, Liquorice, Grenadine (on
Teenbeat), So Low, and co-founded and operated Simple
Machines Records. She now performs under her own name and
is co-director of The
Future of Music Coalition.
"Baby, Would It Matter" was originally slated as a
track on the "lost" Liquorice follow up album. Several
tracks were recorded by Trevor Kampmann (hollAnd) and Warren Defever
(His Name is Alive) and were sent away for mixing. There may very
well be demos of the album floating about that I hope will one
day surface. This version of the song was re-mixed by hollAnd
and is quite different from the later released version (though
all of the basic tracks are the same) on Antidote (Misra
Records).
This track is still in print on a Sounds of the Geographically
Challenged CD (TRR 07) that was pressed out of frustration
over "high bids on eBay". It is available from Temporary
Residence Limited.
Thanks to Jenny Toomey.
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