Love, Execution Style
Custom Made Music

One Song Not About Pain
Commissioned by Brian Weitz for Ruth Fertig's birthday (October 1999)

Wrestling Mayhem Federation Theme Song
Commissioned by Mister Carlo for the WMF television show (July 2000)

Rock and pop have never been immune to grand gestures and high-concepts, but a humble genre like indie pop would seem to be mutually exclusive with anything resembling a press angle or marketing hook. And yet, some of the most outsized ideas sprang forth from bedroom popsters in the '90s. Sufjan Steven concocted the fifty states/fifty albums project, the Magnetic Fields released the self-explanatory 69 Love Songs double CD, and LMP recorded a cover song for every year between 1900 and 2000. The little guys, it seems, like to dream big too.

Love, Execution Style, a one man band based in Tennessee, coined his own unique proposition in 1997: custom made music. The man behind LES has made a half-hearted effort to hide his identity (which I will honor here), although he freely communicated with many of the people who took part in his project, some of which include Dark Beloved Cloud label owner Douglas Wolk, Brian Weitz from the Animal Collective, and many TV producers looking for a cheap theme song.

The deal was that a customer could provide specifications—as few or many as desired—for a song, and LES would write and record an original song and send it to the person, all for only five dollars. From 1997 to 2007, LES recorded nineteen custom made songs for the project. Tracks were commissioned for two television shows, a radio program, and two short films, one of which was broadcast on the Documentary Channel. One track served as the theme song for an Internet service provider; another ("Punk Rock Comedian") was used as runway music for a man in a bachelor charity auction. Other songs were used as love tokens or birthday gifts.

There are a few songs that have a particularly interesting history. "One Song Not about Pain," was requested by Brian Weitz for his friend Ruth, a huge John Cusack fan who later started a film career. Another track, made for a weekly radio show in Chattanooga, changes genres every few seconds as a tribute to "Speedfreaks" by Naked City.

The song commissioned by Wolk is particularly bizarre. It was requested for a friend who had just earned her PhD in mathematics. After discovering that her thesis was about Markov chains, LES used a random number generator and probability matrices based on "Pomp and Circumstance" and "Y.M.C.A." to create the melody. The details are in a paper entitled "Faster than a Calculator—or Using Markov Chains for the Construction of New Wave Music" which may be read here.

Mustard – Trampoline
1996

Most bands don't take 11 years to release their debut album; then again, most bands don't name themselves after a condiment either. According to Daryle Goldfarb, who formed Mustard with Steve Tousand and Sean Whitley in 1985, the band was christened at Santa Monica Place, a mall in West LA. "We were throwing out names of random items around the mall," he said. "After tossing out things like Fork, Spoon, and Ketchup, 'Mustard' just stuck as a cool, 70's-sounding food name for a band."

The band recorded sporadically for the next few years and one of their projects included scoring a student film at Crossroads High School starring Jack Black. Before they all left for UC Santa Cruz, the band released a 7" single which somehow landed in the lap of a Rolling Stone editor who put the band's picture and bio in a college-music special.

In 1996, the trio finally got around to releasing a proper album, which was recorded between 1994 and 1996. Unfortunately, the trio was not able to capitalize on it at this time because they were all beginning to scatter across California after graduation. Mustard still occasionally gets together to record and Goldfarb is still threatening to release the follow-up.

Rex Aquarium - Remember
2003

Rex Aquarium were an LA band that seemed to be poised for success in 2004. They had broken out locally and their song "Alicia" was hotly tipped by the press. The song was indeed one of the highlights of their uneven debut. However, the band's second album sank with barely a trace and the bank broke up a few years later.

Like many LA bands, Rex Aquarium had members with showbiz ties. Guitarist/vocalist Charles Wadhams and his brother Christopher were the children of Bill Wadhams, the singer and songwriter from Animotion. The band bears no traces of a new wave influence, instead sounding more like an unholy fusion of Steely Dan and the Strokes. "Remember" leads off the debut CD and is a sleepy, sly tune that has a way of staying in your head for days.

Here is a link to the video for "Alicia."

Henrietta's Lovers - Monkey Barrs
1990

Henrietta's Lovers were a part of the same late '80s Gainesville scene that included NDolphin and Aleka's Attic, although nowhere near as popular as either. They shared the stage with both bands and were also on a compilation (Gainesville Can't Dance) with both bands.

Led by charismatic frontman and trumpet player Alexander Davidowski, the band was formed at the University of Florida in 1988. The band didn't fit into any particular scene, as their sound was an odd collision of Joy Division moodiness, jazz-funk, and Davidowski's warbling croon.

Guitarist Matt Herrero came up with the band name, which referred to a mythical Henrietta who had many lovers, the band members included. He also came up with the title of their only release, The Pagoda Woman, which was recorded in August 1990 at Mirror Image studios in Gainesville. According to Davidowski, the cassette sold a hundred copies or so. The band didn't really tour outside of Florida and after recording one last song "Crystal Castles," the band broke up.

Although uneven and amateurish at times, The Pagoda Woman is an engaging and unique album that gets by on the band's enthusiasm and wealth of ideas. Side one leans towards atmospheric jazz-funk and quirky pop while side two features a live set that veers from carnival barker trippiness ("Cat's Eye") to goofy garage punk ("Itomni"). The album closes with a minor-key, new wave dirge.

"Monkey Barrs," named after the slap-pop-happy bass player Ceb Barrs, is the quintessential Henrietta's Lovers track, showcasing Davidowski's unhinged vocal antics and the band's eclectic range of ideas.

Billy Crosbys - Ashtray
1996

Inspired by DIY label Shrimper, John Gleason formed the Billy Crosbys in Metuchen, New Jersey in 1992. By the late '90s the band's ranks swelled to include two female singers and a violin player, but the core always remained John Gleason and Jeremy Benson.

Like Shrimper, the Billy Crosbys primarily released handmade cassettes, issuing five of them on their own imprint Gugliano Family Picnic Records. They also released a string of singles, a cassette on Brassland Records and appeared on numerous compilations.

According to Gleason, "Ashtray" was inspired by the film Gorillas in the Mist. "I had seen it when I was younger and never forgot the image of an ape's hand being used as an ashtray. So, ‘that makes for a hell of an ashtray’ is actually a disapproving statement."

Russell Hoke - Someday Among Flowers
1984

In 2003, Chris King of Eleanor Roosevelt passed me an odd, mysterious CD-R by Russell Hoke called Magic of My Youth. It has a xeroxed cover and very little information beyond the song titles and dates. I later posted a song by Hoke on this blog, lamenting the fact that he never released anything on vinyl. Hoke soon got in touch to let me know that he did in fact do a tiny vinyl edition of another collection called Cosmic Outlaw. Pressed in an edition of 100 copies with handwritten song titles, the album is now hopelessly rare.

In 2009, Hoke belatedly released Magic of My Youth on vinyl, again in an edition of 100. The only place to buy copies is directly so contact him at at Russnbus@yahoo.com for for more info.

Kurt Vile: The Early Years


2003: "Me and Work"
2004: "Ocean City"

2009 is looking to be Kurt Vile's breakout year. He just released God is Saying This to You (Mexican Summer) and word of mouth has been mostly of the drool variety. This April, Woodsist is rereleasing Constant Hitmaker, Vile's sleeper disc from last year, and there is also a big label deal in the works.

I have been listening to Kurt Vile's homemade cd-r's for the past few years and it's been a pleasure to see him grow. Of course, that growth isn't always apparent to recent converts. Both God and Constant Hitmaker are actually compilations, handpicked from Vile's vast catalog of bedroom recordings. So what the new listeners don't get is the wider palette and occasionally rough edges of Vile's earlier work. "Detoxanne," from Kurt's 2003 debut Ten Songs, features clanging percussion and a vaguely klezmer feel. Rarities and Rejects, also from 2003, features a very indie cover of Pavement's "Zurich is Stained."

Still, these were diversions. Many of Vile's key songs from the early period (many of which have now been compiled) were his acoustic ones. At the time, Vile was most comfortable in Fahey mode, casting lonesome and haunting melodies over fingerpicked guitarlines. He also tended to write more direct lyrics. "Me and Work," from Ten Songs is a classic example, with Vile articulating a sense of purpose out of passivity.

Vile continued to broaden his sound on 2004's 9 Recordings with the Syd Barret-like "Ocean City" and the droning, sample-based "Best Love." By 2005's Trial and Error, Vile began experimenting with ambient and electronic elements and tightening his compositions. A prime weakness on his first two albums were overlong songs.

Vile really turned the corner in 2006 with the remarkable Accidents EP, which featured his strongest songs to date. By now he'd replaced the loner folk vibe with warped, cryptic pop and it fit him well. On "Don't Get Cute," he sang "I wanna be a success, give me my style." He emphasized the word "suck" as he sang "success," as if to make a point of the inevitable dilution of talent that comes with the territory. Perhaps he'd grown bitter, or maybe he could feel it coming. Either way, it was here that Vile finally synthesized his influences into a refined, cohesive aesthetic.

It will be interesting to see Vile move beyond his bedroom recordings. As the appetite for his work grows, Vile will have to create new material on cue, a challenge that often stumps emerging artists who have had so much time to tinker with their initial batch of compositions. When he does, I'll be the first in line to buy whatever this fascinating artist delivers.

Discography:

Full Lengths:
2003 - 10 Songs (Self-released)
2003 - Rarities and Rejects (Self-released)
2004 - 9 Home Recordings (Self-released)
2007 - Constant Hitmaker (Gulcher)

EP's:
2005 - Trial and Error (Self-released)
2006 - Accidents (Self-released)
2009 - God Is Saying This To You (Mexican Summer)