Jon longs for his youth, part 453.
The Wishniaks - Day To End All Days
From the Bloodmoney Records LP Catch 33, 1990
That the fine, fine Philadelphia combo the Wishniaks have not yet appeared on Little Hits is a shame both appalling and inexcusable. My negligence in this matter has nothing to do with any lack of esteem I hold for the band, but rather with the fact that I felt I wanted to say a lot about how much I loved the band, how much I enjoyed hanging out with them, and how fondly I recall that time of my life, and I was always certain I didn’t have the time.
January 1990. I had been playing in a Lawrence band called the Wilmas, who were on sabbatical at that point while our guitarist/singer Mark Johnson attended college in Texas. The Wilmas were spending a good deal of time in record stores in those days, and as we’d enjoyed the Wishniaks debut EP, “Nauseous and Cranky,” we were pretty excited when their new LP, Catch 33, appeared. I think I can speak for all of us when I say it exceeded all of our expectations and became a staple of the soundtrack for our slacker lifestyles for months.
March 1990. Lured by the promise of free lodging and lots of beer and live music, Wilmas’ drummer Dave Allman and I decided to head down to Austin for South By Southwest, as the now-popular music festival was not then a total pain in the ass to attend. Perhaps the single event we looked forward to the most (besides getting to see Mark) was the chance to see the Wishniaks. (Other bands I saw that year: Javelin Boot, Chainsaw Kittens, Dumptruck, Windbreakers, Material Issue, The Service, Charlie Burton and the Cut-Outs, Texas Instruments, Magnolias, who else? There must have been many more…) Despite some PA malfunctioning, the Wishniaks played a swell set, and we were very excited about getting to meet them. Contact info was exchanged, and we invited the band to stay with us if they were ever playing in our neck of the woods.
Well, they did. The Wishniaks used the apartments of the Wilmas and friends as a Midwest base of operations a couple of times on their swings across the country. They always had a few days off in their schedule so we had some time to hang out. We got to know Andrew, Jim, Dave and Marcelo (who had replaced Jim) a little bit, and they became friends as well as heroes, and we looked forward to their arrival like Christmas. We drank, (except Andrew, who was a tea-totaller), listened to records, walked around downtown, and one summer, endured the worst hailstorm I’ve ever seen. It makes me very happy to think back on it; it seemed monumental to us to be hanging out with a band who had accomplished the things we dreamed of doing.
Catch 33 is a great college pop record; by that I mean it’s a very accessible collection of catchy tunes with intelligent lyrics that are alternately wistful and snotty, which tend to concern themselves with parties and crushes. (See also: The Primitons). In my 20s I bought tons of records that fit this general description; this is one of the very best. It was also the first place I ever heard the Scientists’ “Frantic Romantic,” which the Wilmas then appropriated for our set as well. “Day to End All Days” was probably our favorite track, but “Monterrey” and Chestnut Hall” were great rockers, “New Zealand” revealed a reverence for a certain record label that resonated with me immediately, and “By the Lights” is a particularly touching snapshot of loneliness. The album is really pretty flawless.
Not too long after that record, lead singer Jim Hostetter left; he was replaced by Marcelo Romero. I liked the band’s subsequent releases, including an LP on Spain’s Munster records that featured some Mitch Easter production, but Catch 33 was my favorite.
Andrew Chalfen is now the songwriter behind the wonderful Trolleyvox, as well as a contributor to Little Hits. I saw Dave Frank some years back playing for Brother JT. (Have we done the Original Sins yet? Why the hell not?) Marcelo was in Shake Appeal, who have appeared on this blog. And Jim Moran is, I believe, out of music, but perhaps saner for it. I wish them all blessings and peace.
And you too Barry, for reminding me.
-Jon Harrison
Mark Johnson said,
August 5, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
Jon - great post. Those were good times, my friend. Here are a few more Wishniaks / Wilmas memories:
Shortly after SXSW and their later summer visit to Lawrence, the Wishniaks were written up in Tower Magazine. They told the story of “these guys from Kansas who drove 17 hours just to see us” and had a photo of the band in front of The Bottleneck. I took the photo, but it was credited to “Jon Harrison”. Sigh.
Catch 33 was released by Blood Money / Skyclad, a label collarboration partially funded by entrepreneur music lover David Snyder. The Summer 91 issue of The Bob had a nice reveiw of The Wilmas’ Songs About Girls written by…David Snyder. Yippee!
On the March 91 Lawrence visit, I played roadie for the Wishniaks when they opened for Alex Chilton in KC. Jim Moran and I were hanging out in the green room when Mr. Chilton and his entourage entered. They fired up a bowl and offered to share, but we declined. We could have smoked pot with Alex Chilton, but we were good boys. Sigh.
At SXSW Spring 91, the Wishniaks stayed over in my one bedroom apartment after their Sunday night set. Oh, and Dave, Chris, Leisha, and Michelle were there too! The floor looked like a sleeping bag farm. After their killer set at the Cannibal Club (which was attended by Peter Holsapple!) we went to late night breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe with along with Dan O’Neill from Javelin Boot and Seth Tiven from Dumptruck! My fanboy heaven turned to hell though, as my “girlfriend” Michelle freaked out and hid in the bushes outside the resturant front porch. I am not exagerating. When I finally coaxed her out and we went back in, everyone was done eating and the check was on the way. Sigh.
If you look closely at the back cover of All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, you can see the flyer for the Wishniaks/Wilmas show from the summer of 1990. Yippee!
Stewart said,
August 5, 2007 @ 11:07 pm
Actually, Jim is the brains behind Transit of Venus, a fine new label whose releases so far include the latest and greatest by the Trolleyvox.
Barry said,
August 6, 2007 @ 7:49 pm
Yay! Wishniaks!
Pete said,
August 8, 2007 @ 10:09 am
Thanks for posting this. I posted one side of The Wishniaks’ first single on my blog a while back for anyone who is interested:
http://floweringtoilet.blogspot.com/2007/03/wishniaks.html
I had booked The Wishniaks to play at my college, but the show fell through for reasons I explain in my post.
Andrew said,
August 10, 2007 @ 3:19 pm
I’m glad you remembered all that Austin ‘91 stuff, Mark, ‘cuz it’s all getting a bit hazy for me. I had no idea Holsapple was in attendance.
I definitely remember the freaky hail storm and you guys running outside to grab the golf ball-sized hail stones and shuttling them to the freezer. For years afterwards, I proudly displayed the dents on the van roof from the hail. I think Jon’s windshield was shattered by that storm, no?
The Wilma’s definitely lifted our spirits in ‘91. Half our tour had collapsed in Iowa and we decided to just drive down to SXSW and hang there all week. A good thing, too, as we had a blast. Bill Lloyd showed up at our set at that burger joint. I remember seeing Pylon, the River Roses (a future Little Hit post I’m planning), Dumptruck, Glass Eye, the Vulgar Boatmen, and the very last Let’s Active show ever, which was alarmingly great. Did the Reivers play that year? I seem to recall seeing them, too. Oh, and we were at the Daniel Johnston show at Tower, too. I just saw the Devil and Daniel Johnston movie and had no idea that that airplane incident was that very night. Yikes.
‘91 was fun, too. I think we were in Lawrence for nearly a week, but I only seem to recall hanging out in Jon’s room as he played me Bus Stop singles and all of us going to see Dick Tracy, which was perhaps one of the worst movies we’d ever seen!
Jon played me the ep by the David Kilgour project Stephen on Flying Nun. I’ve been looking for a copy ever since.
Barry said,
August 14, 2007 @ 9:53 pm
Anybody ever search for Wishniaks at Amazon?
Here’s what you get: http://www.amazon.com/Catch-33-Wishniaks/dp/B0009SQ62Y
Weird. Freaky, even.
I honestly didn’t remember the Wishniaks being a Swedish Death Metal group.
The more you know.
David M. Snyder said,
August 16, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
Bloodmoney started out as a label to be co-owned by me and Greg Beaudoin, publisher of magazine. We negotiated a p&d deal with Skyclad. As things went on, as is typical, Greg lost interest — just like he did with the mag, though it took him an extra ten years to admit that. Then Dave Hall, who owned Skyclad, started going nuts and hiding from the world. On top of that I soon became unemployed and put the label on permanent hiatus after doing the infamous Nixon’s Head single. In the meantime Dave Hall’s nuttiness caused him to not pay the rental on his storage room out in Pittsburgh. Thus all his stock was sold off at a Sheriff’s Sale, which no one bothered to call me about until months after the fact. That is why copies of have tended to be hard to find in the last fifteen years.
Jake said,
March 5, 2008 @ 10:23 pm
I saw the Wishniaks play a weeknight show at Club Soda in Kalamazoo, Michigan, when they were touring for Catch 33. Bought the album from the band, and they crashed at my pals’ place. I hung out for a while and then drove the hour back to Grand Rapids where I had to work my summer job in the morning. You can pull that shit off when you’re underage and sober.
Still have the CD. Just pulled it out tonight and decided to see whatever happened to the band. May have to check out this Trolleyvox…
Ron said,
April 17, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
This all reminds me of a night at the legendary JC Dobbs featuring The Wishniaks and Sex Clark Five. Both bands had releases on the Blood Money label I believe. What a fabulous roster and one of the best shows I ever saw.