Tonight’s selections from Seattle’s Fastbacks first full length, 1987’s ...And His Orchestra. Formed in 1979, the band released a few singles and EPs leading up to their first LP. Punky power pop. Girl vocal harmonies. Good stuff.
Also, more bands should have promo photos shot at the Sears Photo Studio. How cute!
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Light's on You
With Kurt Bloch providing the kicky pop songs and formidable rock’n’roll guitar power, Seattle’s Fastbacks — formed in 1979 and, like many bands of that time and place, able to claim future Guns n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan as its onetime drummer — made irregular contributions to the world of recorded music throughout the ’80s, turning up on numerous compilations and occasionally issuing records of its own. Always good and never trendy, the band is a beloved and reliable fixture in a city that has seen lots of spectacular rises and falls.
Guitarist Lulu Gargiulo and bassist Kim Warnick play hit-and-miss with the melodies on the casually unpretentious …and His Orchestra, but everyone winds up sharing a fine time anyway. (For reasons too frightening to contemplate, Bloch takes no part in the band’s vocal exercises.) Besides Bloch’s charming pop-rock ditties, drummer Richard Stuverud chips in with one number, and the group does an impressive if incongruous cover of Sweet’s “Set Me Free.” — Trouser Press
If You Tried
Where to file the Fastbacks has always been a problem for record store employees, and it’s indicative of some of the challenges of being a Fastback. They formed in 1979 at a time when the Northwest music scene was “pitiful,” Kurt says. Kim and Lulu were 20, Kurt was 19, and they were all filled with youthful energy. And it’s still that adolescent jubilation that is at the center of their sound.
Kim’s voice sounds like something from an early Phil Spector production, and when mixed with Lulu it sounds like a whole rock and roll high school. Kurt adds the guitar and writes the weird songs. Mike provides the beat, which sometimes really is punk. “I hate adult music or music that is targeted to adults,” says Kurt (walking past a display of Celine Dion CDs). “That’s always a bad idea.” When asked to name any other Northwest band that has lasted as long as they have, the Fastbacks are quiet for the first time. [...]
Kurt suggests that one of the reasons the Fastbacks have lasted so long is that they’ve cut out the unnecessary ingredients. “Sometimes I think that our band is based on what we don’t want to be as much as it’s based on what we do want to be. We try not to do the stuff that other people do that we think is stupid. And if you take out all the stuff that we think is stupid, you’re only left with five percent of the pieces. Then you have to put a few of them back that seem stupid to only one or two people.” — Alive in the Nineties
In The Winter
The Onion: The band never seems to have gotten its due. Do you think that's ever going to change?
Kurt Bloch: I don't know. If we had a chip on our shoulders, something like that, we would have broken up a long time ago. At least for me, this is just something I have to do. In some ways, it would happen no matter what. It ties in with everything. It's for fun, but it's a little more than that, I think. Exactly what else is kind of hard for me to relate: It's more than just a hobby, yet it's certainly no one's prime source of income.
O: What do you guys do for a living?
KB: Kim [Warnick, bass/vocals] is a bartender. I tend to record records for other bands, and Mike [Musburger, Fastbacks' umpteenth drummer] plays in bands as much as he can, but he also does kind of anything. He's very good at organizing stuff, so he gets assistant sort of jobs and does some construction work. And Lulu [Gargiulu, guitar/vocals] is a camera assistant. She works on mostly commercials, not too much on feature films and stuff like that. She's a camera assistant or assistant director of photography, so she ends up working quite a bit. — AV Club
Wrong Wrong Wrong
KB: Yeah. There's an interesting thought, too. If we had been world-famous in 1986, maybe we'd be making shitty records right now. I don't know. I was thinking about how some people will complain that they don't want to play their own songs, or they don't want to do this or they don't want to do that. But there are so many bands that don't have songs that anyone wants to hear again. If you have even one song that anyone wants to hear again, you're doing pretty good. If you have a record that people want to listen to over and over again, even if it was made 10 years ago, that is still important to people… I can see where it's not good to live your whole life around the fact that you wrote one good song, but still. If you're looking for an impetus after 20 years to get out there and rock and have a good time… If nobody ever told us that they liked our band, it might be kind of hard.
O: I like your band.
KB: [Laughs.] Thanks. The fact that we've not gotten our due is not the fault of the people who do like our band, and those are the people who usually talk to us. — AV Club
K Street
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Rob McElhenney, Chris Stapleton (R 4/17/24)
Jimmy Fallon: Millie Bobby Brown, Gordon Cormier, ScHoolboy Q (R 2/29/24)
Stephen Colbert: Carol Burnett, Waxahatchee featuring MJ Lenderman (R 3/26/24)
After Midnight: Moshe Kasher
Seth Meyers: Tim Robinson, Wendell Pierce, Lindsay Mendez, Fred Armisen (R 4/2/24)
Watch What Happens Live: Gabby Prescod, Lindsay Hubbard
The Daily Show: Kyle Chayka, guest hosts Ronny Chieng & Jordan Klepper
LAST WEEK'S POLL: TYPE OF LIQUOR?
Brandy 0%
Gin 10%
Rum 15%
Tequila 5%
Vodka 5%
Whiskey 40%
Other 10%
Sobriety 10%
Pie 5%