After a short break following the PROJECTION CONSISTENCY session, Plaastik immediately set to work on their debut album for Epic, spending two weeks in rehearsal and demo stages. A few songs were picked up from the Information Tour, but the majority were kicked out just before or during the rehearsals. For the first time, the entire band -- including Mitchell Blank and Christina Singleton, playing on their first Plaastik LP -- shares writing credits on all but the salvaged live cuts.
It took some time to decide on a producer. The group planned to work again with one of their old comrades, Mitch Easter or Brian Eno or Steve Albini, but all three were busy with other projects. For a time they chalked the new album up as a self-production, then Eno recommended John Cale, famous producer of Patti Smith, the Modern Lovers, Squeeze, and others, and formerly of the Velvet Underground. Cale contacted Plaastik and the new sound of the recordings was discussed... Cale has recalled the band wanted to refine the squealing feedback-funk approach to "stabbing minimalism." Cale agreed to come onboard, and aside from a couple of days throughout which he insisted the band should change its name to Gay Guys, working with him was "a breeze." The band was comfortable enough with Cale to spend several hours at a time utterly unfocused, recording for the first time ever one of their infamous extended medleys in the studio, and even drunkenly covering "Sister Ray" in a "pop version" with Cale on bass.
Most of the songs on ROSS VERDICT were recorded in very few takes, and it was not long before the sessions had produced more than enough material for an LP. Plaastik took a week off and held meetings with Geffen about their greatest-hits set, then reconvened at the studio in Memphis, where Cale had put together all the master recordings. There were 23, including a couple of covers and some instrumentals and marginalia. The band liked what they heard, but felt the record needed a single. Nick Parker and Janet Kieran spent a few days toying with ideas and came back with roughly half of "This is Not Here" written. The remainder was fleshed out by the band... and the album was finished.
Epic did an excellent job promoting the album, perhaps because the concurrent PROJECTION CONSISTENCY had been arranged by Geffen to coincide with the new LP release and it was seen as competition. There was, in the end, no contest, as the ROSS VERDICT single "This is Not Here" toppled the final Geffen single, "Chill Bumps." It was more than that, though. "This is Not Here" had some sort of magnetic appeal the band hadn't experienced in ages, and it simply kept climbing. By the time of the album release, it was in the top 10, and after the album shot directly to #1, the single did the same -- and stayed there for a month and a half. Suddenly Plaastik was more famous than ever. The pressure mounted to do a tour, and it was actually considered, but the band felt they'd spent enough time on the road. As such, the band's shocking popularity most likely did more for Geffen than it did for Epic, as catalog sales for Plaastik picked up 300%. Jeff Jooce, among others, has argued that this indirectly led to the disastrous falling-out between the band and its second major label. At any rate, MR. ROSS VERDICT, GADABOUT has sold over seven million copies to date.
The first three songs on MR. ROSS VERDICT were each sung by a different member of the band, and the fourth was an instrumental. This marked the beginning of the more democratic approach the band has taken since expanding their lineup to seven members. Never again would Nick Parker sing all lead vocals on an album, nor would he even be the singer on the majority. The band was even splitting the writing credits seven ways now since songs were largely written from jam sessions. Beginning with FORTUNATE SMILES, Singleton would secede from this agreement and write two or three songs per album separately, explaining that she disliked the jam approach... but for this album, the synergy was in full swing.
Every year since 1983, Plaastik had released an album, and with the money now securely rolling in, they felt entitled to a break. Although they regrouped in Nashville at the beginning of 1990, the next Plaastik LP wouldn't surface until a year after that... and the band would never again be as prolific as it was in the '80s.
