Sunday, September 11, 2011

ONE FELL SWOOP - The Whole Works




After the demise of the much-beloved Cat Machine (9/90 - 9/91) ,Ed ,Joel ,& Chipmonk started up this fine indie/college-rock band ,with much experimentation ,and exploration of underground punk stylings. I will document this band,in the same fashion as Cat Machine ,ie. post the tapes on the day they were recorded,20 years to the date! This is the amazing first release ,a mostly instrumental affair ,tho' vocals do appear on a few tracks. All their influences are covered in "one fell swoop" ,hence the band name. There is much to come,even though their run (9/91 - 3/92) was shorter than that of Cat Machine ,they played many live gigs,all of which will be posted to this series eventually.They broke the downtown Ft. Myers scene wide open by securing a string of gigs at The Draft House ,on Dean St. ,the first band to really play gigs downtown. And look at it now! Shitty cover-bands rule downtown FTM now,and I will not take credit for that shit! When we got the scene kickin' ,it was all diy /punk bands playing , and drawing a nice little crowd. As new venues opened ,more bands and kids ,started frequenting the downtown area. It was quite a fun time ,and I long for those days to return. But,alas ,we are older ,the scene has changed ,and nobody is really interested in that anymore. There is a supposed new noise scene beginning in FTM tho' ,spearheaded by Tree ,Whitey and others ,and old-timers like Sean Burch/Monson and Jamie Hake ,are also contributing to the scene. Most of the people I just mentioned ,along with Noisekillr and a bunch of other performers ,will be playing at Cafe Bohemia ,in St Pete. on 10/29/2011 ,the 4th Annual St Pete. Noise Fest! And Noisekillr and Tree are about to release a disc of their recent collaborations! But back to OFS , there are no hits on this tape,nothing that ended up on their set-lists ,but there is the spirit of their jamming ways. Just gettin' toasted ,and playing improv jams! You will also notice the strange drum sounds on some tracks. We did use drum machines ,but we also created a drum kit ,exclusively built for useage on OFS recordings. It consisted of an empty type writer case , and a deep-dish pizza pan ,inset into a snare drum rim. Which we played with a hammer and pliers ,as "sticks". A unique sound ,which no other band had, plus we used guitars ,keyboards ,and a variety of "found" objects ,which would become "instruments" , in our diy/indie rock world of sound. Live we used a "real" drumset ,and 2 guitars (no bass) ,sometimes keys. It was a whirlwind life for OFS , who should have achieved alt-rock fame , but it was not to be. Chipmonk went off to form The Apples(In Stereo) ,who became media darlings ,after they kicked him out ,and then they wrote a song for the Cartoon Network series ,"The Power Puff Girls". Joel and Ed ,formed even more off-shoots from the Cat Machine/OFS axis ,as well as solo efforts galore. This series of their recordings will continue thru March of 2012. Collect them all! As with Cat Machine ,there will be a tribute disc for OFS ,after the series has run it's course! This music will open people's eyes and ears to the magic that was One Fell Swoop!! It would be cool if Joel and Chipmonk and others who saw us live ,left some anecdotes and comments in the box below! Recorded 9/10/1991 ,20 yrs ago ,yesterday!
CLICK HERE:
http://www.mediafire.com/?hmv08oq3e3po7h1

3 comments:

kaagootaabaa said...

fuck yeah man, glad to hear they'll be more!

Anonymous said...

right on. I never heard these guys before... thanks for this

G O D said...

Stay tuned for much more from this trio! There's a wealth of recordings as this series continues for the next 6 months or so. OFS gets better and better with each new release. Thanks