Monday, April 07, 2003


Stump


One of my more treasured records is the album A Fierce Pancake by the band Stump. It’s a really cool record, sonically inventive and whimsical, and entirely unlike anything else I was hearing at the time (circa 1988.) I believe I first came across the band when MTV’s old “120 Minutes” video program (back in its 1980s, pre-suck incarnation) played the video for “Chaos,” which was riveting both sonically and visually. On the strength of that single and an extremely positive review I read somewhere (memory fails me), I picked up their one and only US album. I didn’t know that bassist/arranger/etc. Kev Hopper had a website until today. It’s fascinating, and shows what he’s been up to musically since Stump dissolved.

If you ever happen to run across a copy of the album in a used bin, tackle it on sight. It was only in print for a millisecond, it seems, and is quite sought after among collectors. It would seem to be a natural subject for a reissue, but what do I know?


:: Dave Walker 17:34 (EST/EDT) [+]

:: [/entertainment/music]
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:: Comments (3)

Comments:

Jenny J. wrote:

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Hey Dave, there's a really great used music store in Ann Arbor called Wazoo Records, they have a lot of rarities. The next time I'm there I'll keep my eye open for that album.
d.w. wrote:

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Good to hear that Wazoo is still around. I probably haven't been there since I graduated, but it was always a great place to blow an afternoon.
Jenny J. wrote:

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Not to mention blow a wad of cash. I could go bankrupt there...



The feeling persists that no one can simultaneously be a respectable writer and understand how a refrigerator works, just as no gentleman wears a brown suit in the city. Colleges may be to blame. English majors are encouraged, I know, to hate chemistry and physics, and to be proud because they are not dull and creepy and humorless and war-oriented like the engineers across the quad. And our most impressive critics have commonly been such English majors, and they are squeamish about technology to this very day. So it is natural for them to despise science fiction. -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr., "Science Fiction"