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VINCLAN
D : DELIVER THE ROCK
For the longest time, it was hard to tell what the fate of New York's
Vineland would be, but by their arrival in town, it should be pretty obvi
ous that they're on the right track. A lot of this can be attributed to the
addition of one-time-local-rocker Jerry Fuchs (ex-Martians, Space
Cookie) to the mix, and a more stable line-up in general. It also doesn't
hurt that the band is lead by Jon Fine, the guitarist for Oberlin, Ohio's
Bitch Magnet. But BM’s days are long since gone. Soo Young has gone
to Chicago and is currently breaking hearts in Seam (heard of 'em,
punk?). Jon has had a hard time getting things straightened out with
his musical pursuits. The good news is that since Jerry's arri val in NYC
over a year ago, the band has become much more stable. The bad news
is that I reallymiss seeing him play with Space Cookie. Oh, well, enough
of that bleeding heart crap. Vineland have two singles out and deliver
the rock wherever they go. Jon Fine being the cyber-oriented guy that
heis, I caught up with him and he gave me the lowdown as to Vineland
at the moment.
Flagpole: Name a musical moment that changed your life forever. Elaborate.
Jon Fine: There's a few: One was the first time I saw Sonic Youth at
CBGB's in the summer of 1986.1 was 18 and hadn't heard them in any
depth. Gone opened, the place was packed to all hell and hot as shit, I
was covered in everyone else's sweat, and I was absolutely transfixed.
They were fantastic in ways I couldn't explain — it clearly was an entirely
different approach to music than I'd seen before and a whole new tonal
language to boot. [Also,] Seeing Husker Du in January 1986, in terms of
sheer force, completely obliterated anything else I'd heard. I remember
the show as being so loud that I could barely think, and that no one could
tell one song from the ottier, and that the band did not pause between
songs or address the audience. All of which, I’m sure, wasn’t entirely true
in reality. But I hadn't been to many shows before, and the whole thing
was somewhere between absolute bliss and unimaginable terror, and I
was never really sure from moment to moment where it stood. I had
never been so excited at a show. But probably the most important, if note
the most transcendent, was being exposed to the band Pay the Man at
Oberlin. Pay the Man had Chris Brokaw on guitar and Orestes on drums,
and a motherfucker of a bass player named Michael Billingsley. They
were a spectacular band, some fusion of HC with hard rock and the Husk-
ers/Replacements thing, with a flair for real solid,
non-sentimental songwriting. Everyone expected
they would take over the world after they left and
moved to Boston, but Orestes quit after taking a
semester off and they never found a replacement.
The few recordings they have don't really do them
justice, and they never got a record out. They
played just about every weekend my freshman
year, and they and a host of other bands that year
made me realize that there wasn't much Tnore to
rock than just getting up there and doing it. This
was a revelation. At one party late in the year, Pay
the Man started vamping on “Hot Child in the City."
No one in the band knew the words, so I jumped
onstage and sang it. It is part an indicator of how
lame my freshman year was and part of an indica
tor of how much of a stiffy I had for rock, but that
was unquestionably the highlight of that year (hadn’t
started working at the radio station and it sure beat
the hell out of making out with Anne Hinckley or Stacey Flowers). It was a
good year or so at Oberlin before Bitch Magnet stopped being derided as a
Pay the Man suckoff.
FP: How would you describe Vineland's music?
Fine: Ten years ago, I’d have said “alternative,'' but that became a ter
rible thing to say shortly thereafter. Five years ago, I'd say “indie," but
now you think that means crap like Tsunami. Now, I honestly have no
idea. In my mind, there’s elements of punk and hardcore, hard rock and
metal, but none dominate... occasionally, we get a prog tag because we
don't just play in 4/4, but that's as cheap as calling it math-rock.
I can see us as an extension of the more adventurous American-indie
guitar bands of the '80s and '90s—Bastro, Stint, Squirrel Bait, Honor Role
and Breadwinner, that kind of thing — though if I
really think about it, I can't see exactly why. I can
think of almost no bands currently going I feel an
aesthetic kinship with. The ones in the recent past
— Don Caballero, Wider, Codeine and, to a de
gree, Pitchblende — have all broken up.
FP: What is it with the oft-heard rumor about
Vineland drummer history? Is Jerry Fuchs a
smokin 'drum dude or what?
Fine: I haven't heard the rumor. There’s been
five drummers [Lyle, Dave McGurgan, Doug
Scharin, David Tritt and, currently, Jerry Fuchs]
and five bassists [Gerald, Jenna Johnson, Eamon
Martin, Mike Mihaljoand, currently, Kylie Wright].
Go ahead, rub it in.
At the time of the band’s inception, I didn't
really have the notion of Vineland fully worked
out; as it did, the unsuitability of some of the early
rhythm sections became apparent. As if I need to
tell you, this is the best of all possible Vinelands.
Henry Owings
Vineland will be playing two shows in Georgia. The first will be at
BLTs in Atlanta on the 24th with Freemasonry; the second will be at the
Landfill (208-8823) on the 26th with a bill including Stunt Double, Elf
Power and Freemasonry. Earplugs will be necessary.
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