- We've been scooped by an article in the WSJ about various dealings over at EMI. The bit relevant to us is that Capitol is currently in talks with Plaastik to alter the terms of their contract. If it surprises you that Capitol is so keen to keep the band when their performance of late has been so poor, and they cost the band millions of promotional dollars by dropping COOL COMMUNITY in April, read carefully: The label says nothing about keeping the band onboard for future recordings... they just want to keep the Plaastik back catalog! Which they stand to lose in two years unless they do some serious sweet talking. The renegotiation currently being discussed between the band and the label is essentially that Capitol would receive a ten-year extension to the current license, on the condition that every release of any Plaastik material is approved by the band.
- The Journal goes on to state something they know that we don't: "Earlier this year, Plaastik co-opted an existing reissue program when they discovered from internet fans that Capitol was planning to refurbish five of their studio albums without their input. 'We don't relish their ability to put out shoddy product in our name,' frontman Nick Parker explains. 'We canceled a vacation to work with them on this, and not out of some innate desire to do so, more to protect our reputation from becoming any more tarnished than it already is. They shoved out this awful singles collection a few years ago without us and it was the worst, shoddiest thing they could have done. We gave them a single for it that we hated to try and discourage anyone from buying it. That's how disturbed we were by that episode.'"
- The only mention of new recordings comes from a quoted Jeff Jooce: "We will not be issuing any further studio albums on Capitol Records, and possibly not on any other label either. I see no reason why we cannot release any future music ourselves. That's why Capitol issuing more of our records isn't part of the deal we want. They can issue our old stuff to their heart's content provided they do it in a tasteful way, and provided we get the funding to pay for whatever new recordings we feel like selling directly to our fans." More radical stuff on the matter than we've ever heard from anyone in the band!
- The front page of Plaastik's site currently reads, in Fixedsys font in the style of Microsoft circa 1991, "WATCH THIS SPACE." Perhaps not coincidentally, a concurrent rumor across the Internet -- the source of which can't seem to be determined -- states that a new one-off Plaastik single will be released online only on Christmas day. I've not heard from the band in several days, but I do know for a fact that they are no longer in Miami.
- I'm not discounting the possibility of a new single, and Christmas seems like a logical release date, maybe even for that Christmas carol we've never managed to get out of them! But I stand by my prior notion of remasters being underway.
- Jeff Jooce gave the following brief interview to WFMU last night by phone from Miami; you can stream at their website. but here's a transcript:
Thanks for joining us on such short notice tonight, Jeff.
Yeah, nice to hear from you guys again.
We've been running some stuff from Ross Verdict tonight because, as you're probably aware, it's twenty years old in a couple of weeks. That must feel weird.
It does, man. I mean, that was definitely the turning of the tide for us. Pretty much nothing was the same after that. And I really think it's a good, strong record to have as our most successful. "Cloud," "Everything," "The Fresh"... those are great songs.
What was your role on these sessions, generally?
Well, these songs were almost all written in a jam format so I did actually, for once, stick in large part to rhythm guitar. Probably a few keyboards and such on the final master.
So when I play you a song like "Feel Numbered Tree," what do you think of? What pops into your head first all this time later?
Ah, we didn't know the half of it! But really, the main thing is how much I miss Tina Singleton's contributions.
It's been said that you didn't get along much.
We didn't, but she was so important to us, man. We will never recover from her loss. And she is all over that album.
A brief promotional junket aside, Plaastik hasn't toured since 2001.
Haha... god. It's been too long, we all know it. But you know, things keep happening. We had dates in '04 but we couldn't make our rehearsals work. We tried last year but when Tina passed, it seemed very inappropriate.
What's next on the horizon? I mean, I hear these songs this week and I wonder where this great band went. They're still together but where are they, you know what I mean?
Oh, that's totally a valid question. We are as baffled as anyone. We thought we were doing great, vital work in the '90s. But I will admit as quickly as anyone, when I hear those records now I hear the '90s, I don't hear the music. With every record that comes along we do our best and think it will revitalize us. And this last time I felt like we got so damn close, you know? But that ship's sailed. We may get it back someday but hey, we're fat and old now, you know? It's not our place to supervise what's being done in the music world now. There's another generation. But we'll keep making music all the same, because it's what we do.
Your most recent album was canceled shortly before it was to be released. An uproar resulted, and then considerable speculation over whether it would be rescheduled. WIll it be?
It was really good to know people still cared. But I can't say. Meaning I don't know. People will have to accept that we had our reasons. We were very happy with the album, and it pains us that it isn't in the world for people to enjoy. There's a rough mix circulating, and I'm fine with that, but it's got barely anything to do with the finished album. We spent years of our life on that record, as we do on all the records, and there's a hole in us because we didn't get to issue it. I can't explain how it feels. But there was absolutely no way we could release that after one of our best friends died. I'm sure we'll do something with that music eventually. We have to.
What's currently in the works?
We're officially on hiatus right now. But all we do is work, even on hiatus. We're actually making an announcement in a week or two about what we're up to. It's not as thrilling as it sounds. I'm guessing 2010 for our next proper album. We haven't written or recorded a note of it. When it comes along, Jerry Mull will be involved, finally.
I heard Plaastik cover Barry White at an Information show in 1987. Do you ever do that anymore?
Oh, wow! That was "You're My First, My Last, My Everything." I know we played it at least once in the acoustic set we did in '94. We actually did it at the last Science show in the encore. The second encore of that show went on for over an hour and a half. We played so many covers. When we tour again, mark my words, there will be more such tomfoolery, because that's the only relief from the dregs of touring for me.
(Jerry Mull has been confirmed as NOT a participant in whatever's going on in Miami.)
- The memorial to Tina on Plaastik's website (www.plaastik.com) has been moved to a tab atop the page; the whole site's been redesigned yet again. It now has a curious plain white design and lots of generic helvetica typeface. They finally added the "Ballad of a Lost Cause" video, at least. There's no mention of Cool Community anywhere... or of much anything else new.
- The Capitol albums and the three best-ofs have now been out of print for two months. Whatever they're doing, the band had nothing to do with it as of a month ago, but now I'm not so sure, after Jeff dropped what sounds like a clue in his last message: "PS - You know what song is in my head? I Thought I Loved You." I wouldn't be surprised if the big mystery in Miami is... REMIXING. It would fit with everything if Capitol invited the band, shortly after I spoke to Jeff about the deleted records, to participate in reissues. Neither Kevin nor Jerry would likely have much interest in working on the production end of remasters, so you heard the possibility here first: I'm going with it!
- Jeff Jooce emailed quickly (though the note is signed "Jeff + Nick") to shoot down any wild theories yesterday and I can't explain much beyond this: Cool Community is still not going to be released and the catalog number is bogus, it still being reserved for whatever the next Plaastik release turns out to be (and if the band has their way, it will apparently be a compilation of some sort; "WE DO NOT WANT TO RELEASE ANOTHER ALBUM ON CAPITOL RECORDS!!! But we can't stay away from each other! *wink*"). And there is some more vague suggestion that the band is logging studio time, though with no album on the way, it remains to be seen what the project or purpose is.
- I emailed Kevin to find out if he's with the rest of the band and hopefully get some idea if Jerry is as well. No answer, which likely means either (a) they're all there and Jeff is trying to throw us off what's really happening or (b) they're not and the four Plaastik members in Florida are working on some type of side project. I'm looking at the latter option, which would offer freedom from the label. But never in my life have I heard of Plaastik recording material in Miami.
- In conclusion, we know nothing, but at least something is (maybe) happening.
- I hoped the last entry here would be a sign of a more fertile period of news on the way, but it's been nearly a month now. I do, however, have a tidbit from Capitol. In something called a "pop catalog" they have sent to various critics and industry people, Plaastik's "back catalog" is listed... It excludes the deleted albums but inexplicably adds Cool Community, and tantalizingly lists it with a catalog number! (T-154736) I'm guessing this is some kind of a slip but who knows, maybe there will be more to reveal.
- Strange email from Jeff, but he gave me permission to forward it to all of you.
"Well, yeah, Miami is band-related. Jay and I are there right now too. It's kind of a composition retreat. And right now, dear reader, I'm sitting and listening to a new record of us playing and it's really good to hear us again. These are new new songs, but I emphasize this isn't Plaastik, this is friends hanging out. It's new stuff, but it's not New Stuff."
So in summary... there are new songs... but there aren't. But all but two members of the band are together at the moment, which is highly significant. Anyone in the area... we know how this band works. If you see a local listing for a band you've never heard of... it may be worth digging into.
- Continuing the odd globehopping trend, an anonymous reader saw Janet and Nick together in Miami on September 14. It's possible that this is band-related, though I really have no business speculating. "They were walking down Market St. on their phones." FYI.
- Dave Hall's been less in the Plaastik loop these last few years than in the past, but he's reappeared on forums lately and we're happy to announce he's fully come back into the fold with an upcoming book, to be published by Trouser Press! "I Don't Know: The Life and Death of Christina Singleton" will, Dave tells me, "double as the first half-decent study of Plaastik in print thus far, I hope." The book will be released in the latter half of 2009.
- Capitol's reply to me finally arrived and is a masterpiece of vague: "There are plans for the albums you mention, which have been permanently taken out of print in current form, but which will continue to have new life." Since we know they can't be remasters, this sounds like some lame repackage job to me.
- While searching out info about this and about the From the Vault vinyl reissues, I discovered that the 1997 Meat 3-LP vinyl boxed set is now worth $1000 or more. Geeeez. At the time, it was considered an incredibly shoddy release! Dave Hall wrote the following year: "Never has it been clearer that this band doesn't care about the vinyl format anymore. Completely nondescript and muddy-sounding." My point being, don't buy this.
- And speaking of this, after the new LPs were announced someone emailed me to take me to task for claiming On Such a Night was the first Plaastik album not issued on vinyl, as neither Sodas in Hell nor Olives & Such were pressed domestically. But they do exist! French and German pressings abound. Sodas in Hell is a stunningly cool 45rpm 10" box with three records, and it isn't $1000. Go get it! For the record, you can find foreign presses of Child as well. But Cartoons and Love simply were never made on vinyl and never are likely to be.
- Acting on tips from our readers, I've discovered that the following Plaastik albums have been deleted -- i.e., orders can no longer be placed for them, by Amazon or anyone else:
Projection Consistency
Meat
Cartoons
Fun
Science
Child
Love
Recent Activity: Singles Collection
I have no clue why this has happened. I'm waiting to hear from Capitol about it. I've already heard from Jeff Jooce, who says: "I have no idea. I would expect it's Capitol meandering; the only weird thing is that they've taken down the first two best-ofs, which are our biggest sellers now. Unfortunately, they have a complete license to do whatever they want with the pre-Capitol albums and Cartoons until the end of 2010, and the rest for some time after that. We have absolutely no say. The entire band wants all the albums in print. Even Cartoons!"
My guess is this is either some economical issue or Capitol is planning to remaster these albums. I don't know, though, how far their rights extend for something like that with anything more than ten years old.
Edit: Jeff emailed again to correct the above as follows: "They can't remaster anything because we own all the tapes, even for the recent records. That's why they couldn't issue Cool Community... they weren't in possession of a final mix; for this very reason, we always withhold final mixes until the last possible second so we can maintain our little illusion of control."
(He adds: "Things are good in Connecticut." Yay! "But I'm afraid there is no Plaastik news." Boo!)
- Some of you are undoubtedly aware of Capitol's recent "From the Vault" campaign for 180 gram vinyl reissues. These are well put together and sound quite good. Plaastik joins the flock with the label's second wave in November. Four Plaastik titles are being offered: Fun Goldfish Toys (first unadorned reissue in years), Mr. Evil Breakfast, Mr. Ross Verdict, Gadabout, and most enticingly, On Such a Night. This will be the first vinyl issue ever for that last one, the first Plaastik album not made available on LP (since then, Meat, Fun, and Science have made it to wax). Apparently when our reader MickB caught Nick in LA, he was there to supervise new artwork for this reissue. Interestingly, none of these four albums was originally released by Capitol, but they currently have an exclusive license from the band for the rights (which expires in just over two years). FGT will be a 10" record, unlike the original LP-sized version; Nick Parker has been involved in securing the original elements of the art to reproduce for this.
- An email to us and to all of you from Tina Singleton's longtime friend Jimmy Fales:
To all Plaastik and Crisis fans and to the denizens of the various internet sites: Thank you for your outpouring of support over these last months. It has meant so much. In return, I can promise you that our friend's legacy is in good hands, and you've hardly heard even the beginning of all she had to offer. There will be so much to hear from Tina in the coming years, you'll be dizzy. We will always miss her but we will always have these songs. - JF
- Jimmy told me that Capitol expressed interest earlier this year in possibly distributing the charity Tina compilation; this appears to have stalled due to "profit concerns." Who'd have thought!
- Plaastik's hiatus continues, but in the meantime, we do hear that one of our readers, MickB, spotted Mr. Nick Parker lounging in a chair outside a restaurant -- Stella by Starlight -- in Los Angeles. Attempting to be polite without fawning, Mick greeted Nick and shook his hand but intended to move on, until Parker invited him to sit down and proceeded to tell him that Plaastik is completely fragmented at the moment but that "we have four or five more albums in us." He claimed there is absolutely no current activity in the studio for the band. The business offices are presently staffed by Jeff and Kevin. Janet is in Italy. He doesn't know where Jerry and Jay are. "Everyone's taking a very long vacation," Nick is reported to have said. Asked when he guessed we'd hear more from them, Parker said "optimistically, not until 2010. It's recharge time." There are also no plans to release Cool Community anytime soon. We know this sounds a bit dodgy but we have no reason to doubt Mick on any of this. He's been a friend to us for some time.
- It is not unreasonable to assume that the 2010 date has to do with the end of Plaastik's Capitol contract. As I've mentioned before, the band is less happy with the current arrangement than they are willing to let on publicly.
- Several people are emailing me to inform me that Amazon has suddenly run out of stock of several recent Plaastik albums. I'm guessing this is just a temporary shortage -- all the band's albums picked up sales after Tina's death -- and they'll reappear shortly.
- I've been asked to give an update but I'm sorry to say there is really nothing to report. I'm updating simply to respond to a few inquiries I've gotten. I haven't heard officially from anyone in the band or at the label in over a month. Everything is currently in limbo, I'm afraid. Keep checking back though.
- Last night's event was far from low-key. The tribute to Tina at the Bowery struck a good note, more celebratory than sober. Mitchell Blank absolutely stole the evening; he was the first person to take the stage with his old "one-man band" getup occasionally seen on the Diplomacy Tour and explained that he used to peddle ice cream with it and talked about how he initially met Tina this way. He then played his ice cream song, a very cute song he said he wrote for Tina for her prom night, Tina's song "Breathe," and his own "Ow." Tina's parents then came up from the crowd to give their blessing to the evening and gave a very emotional talk about the music in Tina's life.
- The Crisis show was interesting; Jimmy Fales played keyboards, Ben Freeman played bass, and aside from that the band was essentially Plaastik, sans Mitch and Jerry Mull, who was not in attendance. No Plaastik songs were played except a couple of Tina's, "Blank Page" and "I Don't Know," until the very last two songs, Nick and Janet playing the ancient "Words of Comfort" and Janet alone with another stunning performance of "Words I Remember." Aside from that, Tina's all-time favorite songs were the feature of the evening; they ripped through the Knickerbockers' "Lies," Joe Jackson's "Fools in Love," Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," and a startling version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." The highlight was a defiantly raucous and completely unexpected "Girl From Ipanema." Others:
We Three (Patti Smith)
Eating It (Crisis)
Odd (Crisis)
Get the Facts Straight (Crisis)
Hawaii Dream (Crisis)
Northerner (Crisis)
Flying on the Ground Is Wrong (Buffalo Springfield)
Girl (You Captivate Me) (? & the Mysterians)
Still I Dream of It (The Beach Boys)
Motel Blues (Loudon Wainwright)
Mr. B's Ballroom (Devo)
I'm Losing You (John Lennon)
Maybe the People Would Be the Times (Love)
That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate (Mission of Burma)
Fragile (Wire)
Goodbye Seventies (Yaz)
Rain (The Beatles)
As (Stevie Wonder)
Factory Girl (The Rolling Stones)
Long May You Run (Neil Young) - The band were very conversational, telling stories in between songs; every band member had at least one lead vocal, and significantly, Nick only sang the main vocal on five of the songs. The atmosphere was festive, the general feeling being of sincere appreciation for Tina and her work (though it seemed very clear that she never had much to do with choosing the songs Plaastik covered). The intention was obviously not to dwell on the negative in a funeral-like setting. The show was very deliberately not recorded or videotaped. It was a very special night, and I feel I must say it once again: We miss you, Tina.
- On very (intentionally, it would seem) short notice, a officially sanctioned Tina Singleton tribute show has been announced at the Bowery Ballroom in three days. This is the invite-only event I mentioned on Sunday. If you ask around enough you can get tickets, though they are pricey, as the show is intended primarily for friends and family. That said, I will be there and so will Dave Hall; we were both very kindly invited by Janet Kieran, who told us "Plaastik will NOT be there. But the members of Plaastik will be."
- A beautiful surprise last night at Max's Kansas City in NYC, well known as one of Tina's absolute favorite venues. (She tried to get Plaastik to play there in 2001.) The show was advertized as a local tribute to Tina and her work for charity, with many local acts participating, and this held true until the last performer: Nick and Janet stood up with acoustic guitars and took the stage for over an hour, playing several of Tina's songs and several tasteful, at times somber Plaastik songs, including the unexpected "Words I Remember," during which Janet reportedly "almost broke down." There finally was a pained cover of Leonard Cohen's "If It Be Your Will," one of Tina's favorite songs. (She participated in some of the sessions for the album it is on, VARIOUS POSITIONS.) I wasn't there but many of our readers were, and it was reported in the NYT the following day that the entire show was recorded, so hopefully others will be able to enjoy what was regarded as a magnificently stripped down, intimate performance soon. Bravo to Nick and Janet for doing this.
- One conspicuous absence from the tribute show was any representation of Crisis. Today comes word that they will be playing their last show next week at an invite-only event -- also in New York City -- with Tina's family in attendance, the details of which will be revealed soon.
- Most of the fans who have talked about the latest shock of spring 2008, Mitchell Blank's departure, do not feel it is particularly unexpected, with many making an observation I had long ago, that as much as I love Mitch, Plaastik with Mitch and not Tina doesn't make a whole lot of sense. They really were a package. In a notice on Rolling Stone's homepage, the anonymous writer mentions that Tina's recent death "undoubtedly" led to Mitchell's decision to jump ship. I can't entirely disagree or agree with that; certainly the awful turn of March probably put things in perspective for him. For his part, in a brief comment made to the NME today, he calls it "retirement, not qutting," and he has a point; he is 71 years old, and I wouldn't consider it an unreasonable notion that he always planned COOL COMMUNITY as his last Plaastik record. The lack of a tour simply bumped up his plans. I am just beginning to realize how much his presence on stage will be missed... but I believe he has done what will make him happiest, and that's all that matters.
- It appears the breakup rumors earlier in April had some basis in reality; Mitchell Blank is leaving Plaastik. This information comes from Capitol, not the band, but I am certain it is legitimate. Mitch is expected to speak about it himself very soon. His actual departure from the group occured several weeks ago, at the beginning of April, but for business and confidentiality reasons he asked it to be kept under wraps until he had time to speak to friends and family and settle other matters. Capitol says that the end of Blank's tenure with the group is highly amiable and that he simply wishes to remain in Grimes, Iowa, his hometown. On behalf of everyone reading this I want to say that we will miss Mitch and his presence within the group, and wish him the very best in his life and career.
- Earlier in the week I spoke (informally) to Janet Kieran on the phone about some of the recent events. She didn't say much about what the band's plans are, admitting that no one in the band currently knows what is going on either, but she was more than willing to make clear that Plaastik will continue, will tour again, and will release more music, but also related that "if the record [COOL COMMUNITY] had been released, we couldn't have gone on." I'm paraphrasing here but she added that the decision the band made was the one they had to make. She apologized for the lack of recent communication with hangers-on, although I personally don't think it's something they need to be sorry about. She promised more information and enlightenment to come very soon, and repeated that we all should keep Tina and her family in our thoughts or (if we are so inclined) prayers.
- Plaastik is not breaking up. This is per Plaastik (e-mails from management, Jeff Jooce, and Janet Kieran, all of whom were responding to my post yesterday; apparently they had not caught wind of the rumor and don't seem to know how it started) and Capitol Records. However, they are announcing a six-month or longer hiatus, to begin at an indeterminate time in the near future; exact "length and nature" of this vacation will be "fully disclosed" to fans very soon. What that means I have no idea but it was passed along to me in nearly exact phrasing from three different people. Capitol, meanwhile, unequivocally says "no tour." But the absolute bottom line is the band "has not disbanded and has no intention of doing so. We are simply in many kinds of limbo at the moment." Which, again, can only be expected.
- In the aftermath of the album's cancellation, illicit fan searches for a complete copy of the album have intensified. The acetate version -- which, to be perfectly honest, is magnificent -- is now circulating wildly thanks to several enterprising fans and the band does not seem to mind, but they also are refusing to even discuss the possibility of letting the final mix leak out or releasing it in any form. Eventually I will update the website with information on the songs. This seems to be the first time, by the way, that an actual bootleg of any Plaastik studio material has managed to find its way out.
- At the moment I cannot confirm anything but numerous regular sources are reporting that Plaastik is breaking up. I urge everyone to treat this as rumor for the moment, but it has more traction than the dozens of previous stories in this vein, so my guess is there is some truth somewhere in it. However, I imagine that if Plaastik had actually made the decision to break up, the last thing they would do is allow it to leak before making an official announcement. There was ample speculation yesterday that this was the next step after cancellation of album and tour. I will say I am having an incredibly difficult time reaching anyone from the band, which frankly I don't find that bizarre considering what they've been through in the last month, but I also must mention that Capitol/EMI knows nothing about the rumor, and I continue to assume that, at the core, it is not true. But do keep in mind that some very legitimate people are telling me otherwise, so basically, as you have probably already learned from being a Plaastik fan lately, prepare yourself to be shocked. But don't waste time fretting until more is known.
- Considerable fan outcry has ensued since Monday's cancellation of what would have been Plaastik's eighteenth album, COOL COMMUNITY. Typical sentiment at the boards is that while the postponement of the album and tour was understandable, to shelve the project altogether seems rash and hugely disappointing. One fan wrote "There could be no better tribute to Tina Singleton than for her band to continue to make this kind of positive music to thrill and enliven millions of people." I have already made my point on this matter, and I think Plaastik has made the proper decision and fully expect they will make it up to us this time. No one wanted the album released more than me (outside of the band), I have been a cheerleader sicne I first heard the new songs, but no one understands more the need to change direction after what has happened. You can kind yourself and say that nothing is different, but even if Tina would have argued this, everything is different now. COOL COMMUNITY is no longer ready. Please, please trust that the band has their reasons, and I will sympathize with all of you despite my apparently minority opinion.
- Quickly today: Someone at Rolling Stone leaked what they are calling "Plaastik's dirty laundry," that being excerpts from a 2004 interview with the band in which, off the record (but taped!?), they sniped at Tina and said that she brought the band down, that their future was ten times brighter without her, and specifically Jeff Jooce said "Musically, we do not miss her at all." Whether this is true or not I consider irrelevant; unless the tape is produced, I assume it's a lot of distasteful fakery, as Plaastik were never shy about talking about divisions within the group even when Tina was still in the fold, including during their extensive interview for this website. But if it is true, so what? Honestly, no one would bat an eye at any of this if Tina were still alive, and the fact that the band had easier time when she was gone really says nothing either way about her talent or her greatness as an individual. And it's certainly an interesting coincidence that all of this comes out after her death, after being swept under the rug for four years, a very long time for celebrity gossip to stay behind locked doors. I'm calling bullshit on this.
- I had a feeling this was coming. Today Plaastik and EMI jointly announced that COOL COMMUNITY is cancelled. "We do not wish to rule out the possibility that we may revisit this material in the future," says Nick Parker in the press release, "but for now, the record is not to be rescheduled and I would not expect any change to that policy." This means more or less what I said two days ago, that the album is dead for good. Sorry, folks, but in many ways, you have to understand the decision. It does suck, though. Damn.
- The latest print edition of Rolling Stone contains an excellent, lengthy article by David Fricke, "Tina Singleton: American Tragedy" which contains the most information I have ever seen about Tina's pre- and (especially) post-Plaastik life, constructed with interviews of her family, Plaastik and ex-Crisis bandmates, and many of her own friends, including this site's former webmaster, Dave Hall. The major source is, of course, the interview with Tina's parents mentioned here recently. It is a very sad but very informative read, highly recommended. My only criticism is that the descriptions of Tina's departure from Plaastik remain distressingly vague, with Fricke's depiction of a mutual and amiable disillusion not coinciding particularly well with what the band itself told me back in 2004. The timeline also remains muddy; it appears that the gap between her dismissal from the CHILD sessions and the official announcement of her severing ties with Plaastik is even wider than we previously thought, though the implication is that there may have been some sporadic collaboration after a major blowup. I hope that at some point we are able to set the record straight with the band on exactly what led, in an immediate sense, to Tina's estrangement, especially now that we know (or at least, this article suggests) her separation from them may have had an enormously negative effect on her lifestyle. At any rate, do not miss this article.
- Some selected comments about the Plaastik e-mail posted here yesterday, which circulated quickly around the internet:
- Dave Hall: "The bravery of Plaastik's decision about COOL COMMUNITY is hard to overstate. I expected that either the album would be dumped in a low-key fashion or entirely reworked. For the band to decide to let it pass into oblivion is unprecedented in their career and in the career of many bands of this caliber. They did not have to take this measure, and certainly they stand to lose a lot from it. Whatever publicity they may gain from the decision, which I'm sure will inevitably be seen in some quarters as a stunt (but I don't buy this interpretation for a second), they have sacrificed a good deal of money in the bank and a lot of press that was shaping up to be -- judging from the few reviews that hit the press in time -- uniformly positive. This is much more than a business matter, it is a group of people deciding to do the right thing for their friend."
- David Fricke: "I am amazed that Plaastik has essentially scrapped an album for the moment, voluntarily. Ther is no shade of a rock star motivation to the choice, which is rather remarkable. Unlike many others, I do not feel that the positivity of the new songs would be inappropriate in the new environment created by Tina Singleton's passing. They may understandably be taken as an act of defiance against death, and not inappropriately or tastelessly. But Plaastik has taken what can only be considered a road of great personal import to them, choosing not to make the best of things as they are, and as in record company terms they essentially must be, but rather to do what will be the best for the family and fanbase Singleton left behind. It is a momentous occasion.
- Flood, via the guestbook at Plaastik's official page: "It is a spit in the eye to everything pallid and ordinary in the world that Plaastik would give so much away for the sake of a loved one no longer in their ranks. You continue to be class acts. I am missing Tina already."
- As for me, while I cannot quite praise the band to the extent some have simply because I do not feel the options were as wide-open as many suggest, I applaud everything the band has done to try and honor Tina as tastefully as possible, and there is no doubt that the tasks of promoting a new record would have surely interfered with this agenda. The thought of a low-key, "dumped" release had not dawned on me, and I must say I am not against the idea, particularly since given Plaastik's history, I have a bad feeling that COOL COMMUNITY does not stand as much hope of being resurrected as many are assuming. In fact I would not be surprised if Plaastik let some of its ideas run off into other projects. Note that for now, they are still referring to the record as being simply "postponed," whereas Capitol's webpage has ominously removed all references to the album. We can only wait and see, I suppose.
- On the heels of my note from Mitch yesterday, I've received an official notice from Plaastik apparently composed by Jeff Jooce and specifically tailored for this website and the forum. It reads: "COOL COMMUNITY is an album we are all immensely proud of and hope to release when we can. For the present time, it is inappropriate. We have lost a treasured ally and the record would by default be positioned as a response to this tragedy, something neither we or the record can truly withstand. It's not our intention to trivialize the issue of Tina's passing by suggesting that any recording could complement or allay our pain or the pain of her many friends and family members, not to mention that of her fans as well as ours. However, to allow our business to pass through as if nothing had happened would be far more painful than the course we have taken, which is to accept with regret that we cannot in good conscious allow COOL COMMUNITY to be our statement for the year 2008, nor can we allow the record which we all love to be born into this moment and forever tainted, nor most of all can we allow Tina's life to be given a coda that is not fitting in any meaningful way as an epitath to someone we loved far more than we care about any recording or about our band. Because of all this, the album will not be released for the forseeable future, but we hasten to add that no further work will be done on it. COOL COMMUNITY is finished, but time will tell when it is time to let it out. - Plaastik, 4/3/08"
- A surprise this morning for me, an email from Mitchell Blank. Much of it was of a personal nature dealing with plans regarding Tina's legacy and Mitch's own feelings about the press that has circulated about her death and about his reaction. But he wished me to pass this portion along:
I need to make it clear to anyone who is interested in this story that while Tina's parents were never fully comfortable with her entrance into Plaastik (as opposed to her becoming a musician, which they applauded), they did not allow it to interfere with their relationship to her or to me, and in many ways they entrusted me with her, and expected me to keep sort of an eye on her. I can't help feeling somewhat inadequate, but I know that what is, is what must be, and they have been nothing but gracious to me and accepting of my grief during this horrible time. I just don't want anyone to speak ill of the Singletons, who are dear friends and deserve all of our respect.
- David Fricke informs me that Tina's parents recently granted a long interview to Rolling Stone, where they sadly revealed many of the details of Tina's personal downfall and disclosed that she had been suffering with addiction for a number of years, especially in the last several months. She had reconnected with them in the fall and apparently they were more privy to her situation than any of her close friends, and were trying to help, but couldn't finally bridge the gap. Fricke's impression is that she was having a horrible time throughout the winter and, for various personal reasons, had become "inconsolable." This compounds our sadness; to know of such great suffering and unhappiness makes Tina's death that much more difficult to take. Our only hope is that she found some consolation in how much her work meant to so many, but such an idea is ultimately trite in the scheme of personal difficulty. Our best wishes continue to go out to the Singletons and all of those close to Tina.
- You may have noticed that stray copies of COOL COMMUNITY pressed before the recall have begun to sporadically show up on ebay, where they reach ridiculous high bidding prices before being pulled by Capitol. Not one of them has gotten all the way to being solid so it looks like EMI is watching very closely. To the best of our knowledge, no one has heard the final album outside of officials, which these days is something of a feat. The acetate version will surely be circulating online before long if it's not already. In the meantime, the label (and/or the band) seems determined to grab every escaped disc from the streets. We have no choice but to support this, to be blunt.
- There's been some talk about the reportedly hours of songs Tina had been working on at the time of her death, including somewhere around a dozen Crisis songs and at least 30 solo demos she had long been treating as a future pet project, according to several of her friends and family members. A rep from Merge Records tells me that an attempt is being made by the label to learn what can potentially be done with the tracks. Interestingly, I'm told they are thinking of LOVE as a model. However, this is all very much dependent on Tina's family's wishes. I know that they and Mitchell (who is most assuredly also involved) know how much the fans would want to hear all of this. Someone somewhere is talking up Tina's demos as "masterful" but it is very doubtful anyone except Tina and her immediate family has heard them (in their recorded form), so I have no clue where all of this is coming from. As for the Crisis songs, Merge has recordings of six of them in their vault. Others may exist among Tina's own collection. Stay tuned for further info as time passes.
- To continue to address recent concerns about what will happen to COOL COMMUNITY, I don't believe anyone, including the band, knows at this point. I would like to come and tell you something official, but communication with the band has been understandably difficult to get underway lately. I figure there are three possibilities: The album is completely cancelled, the album is postponed until this fall at the very earliest but more likely 2009 (and the longer they wait, the more I would think a tour is likely afterward), or the album is substantially altered and issued in probably the same timeframe. I think the last option the most likely. I don't see any reason as of now to believe that this is any kind of doomsday, although that is the widespread prophecy. And to be fair, if Tina had not left, I would be more inclined to suspect that this was something they would be unable to reach beyond.
3-29-08: *BREAKING*
- For the last couple of days, there has been lots of talk about the unprecedented nature of COOL COMMUNITY's posponement or cancellation. I just want to point out it is not without some context. Powerman 5000 pulled an album in 2001 after it had already been reviewed by critics with a single on the radio (extremely similar to the current situation). Of course, most of you probably don't need to be reminded that both the Beatles and the Beach Boys came within inches of releasing albums in the late '60s that were then cancelled, in both cases with artwork already designed and printed. And obviously, Prince has recalled albums many times, the most remembered example being 1987's THE BLACK ALBUM. So yes, it has happened before. And if I may say so, it is not the end of the world.
- On the heels of yesterday's comments from Capitol, all copies of COOL COMMUNITY that had managed to ship before the postponement have been recalled; rumor is that they are to be destroyed, at considerable cost to the company. Any boxes with copies missing will result in hefty fines issued to the vendors. There is NO Plaastik material on Capitol's release schedule at this point. It looks like for the moment, CC is a bust altogether, which is quite remarkable considering that several reviews had gone to press and a few hundred shipments had made it out.
- Expanding on this, word at the forum and among insiders is that the future of both Plaastik and their next album is in the balance, for many reasons, mostly hinging on consequences (including, surprisingly, financial considerations) from Tina's death. For the most part, however, the suggestion is that the band does not feel the release would be in good taste at the moment, which is somewhat understandable. However, it is difficult to grasp whether this change of intent is temporary or permanent, with some suggesting Plaastik is feeling their very existence as a band to be in poor taste for now, and probably for some time. I can't imagine how the release of COOL COMMUNITY will now be handled, frankly. Tina's death is obviously a horrible tragedy, but it's hard not to take note -- and I am not the first to say this -- that if it had happened one month earlier or later it's unlikely it would spell as much disaster for her former band. I have basically heard the album, at least in acetate form, and I can say it would be very discomforting if Plaastik released such an unabashedly uplifing collection of songs week after one of their major creative lights of the last two decades perished.
- I must amend my comments yesterday by saying I don't intend to suggest that Capitol wishes anything but the best for Tina's family. I'm sorry if I seemed to say otherwise.
- This page has become kind of an endless march of press releases and suchlike, and I'm sorry for that, but I must at least acknowledge that Capitol Records has just issued a major one about Tina, Plaastik, and COOL COMMUNITY. It mostly explains things we already knew and mentions the charity album forthcoming as well as pointing out that Plaastik is working to do "the best things to honor Ms. Singleton's memory." The part we have not previously heard in any official capacity is that "Plasstik is tentaively scheduled for additional work on COOL COMMUNITY before rescheduling for a new release, possibly retitled." The label apologizes to consumers and vendors for the album's delay but states that "Postponement is the only serious option Capitol Records and Plaastik feel able to take at the moment, in both a business and emotional sense." It's all rather vague and faintly crass, but it is an improvement on the minimalistic initial PR Capitol/EMI issued, which practically screamed "buy Tina's records with Plaastik today!" I have a rant about all this on the forum if you're interested.
- Mitchell Blank, after admitting he felt incapable of speaking about Tina shortly after her death, has released an extensive statement which can be read at Plaastik's website. Here it is in full:
What I want to say is I have known Tina since she was born. I was the neighborhood fixit guy, sort of an eccentric, in my mid-twenties at the time, running ostensibly an auto repair shop but really I did everything from fixing bicycle wheels to driving an ice cream truck around. And I had my own washboard and banjo and a set of percussion instruments. The Singletones were some of my best customers. So I knew Tina her entire life. She was a lovely girl from the beginning, and we egged each other on musically. She encouraged me to try and start a band, a really unusual and strange band, much more off the wall than the one that made me my fortune, so to speak.
It's often said Tina always wanted things her way. Well, that was good for her. She was an incredibly shy person growing up and still was. If she was overly forceful when trying to get things done, it was by necessity, because it really killed her to do anything that might hurt people. Once she really trusted you, you kind of became her guardian in lots of ways. She always asked me if she was doing the right thing when we were in Plaastik together. The answer was always the same.
Not only did she talk me into The Blank Collective, she later talked me into going into Plaastik with her; I was very unsure about it but it was the right decision. It was the one time she really urged me to go against my insticts. I'm still grateful for it.
We never lost touch, really. I wish we had been able to talk more the last few months; things have just been heating up. It was a very tough decision for me to stay in the band without Tina. Because not only am I here because of her, I am close with her family and it was very much important to me that I had her blessing if I continued with them. I assimilated far better than I thought I would, especially in terms of jamming and writing songs, in some ways more than she did. I was a middleman between two factions in a way, but the sense that we were fractured at all is not really all the true. We got along as well as seven people in a band can.
I have not really come to terms with this yet. Some of the problems that led to her dying I was aware of, some I wasn't. I am stunned it got this bad. I cry for her every night, and for me for losing the little girl who was my best friend for all those years.
- In the latest in a series of developments that seem more or less inevitable, Crisis -- which has for some time now consisted solely of Tina Singleton and whoever happened to be available at the moment -- have announced their demise. Crisis began as Tina's side project in 1997 and a revolving door of membership ever since finally whittled down to Tina and guests in recent years. The announcement was distributed on behalf of the band's label, Merge, with several ex-Crisis players as well as Mitchell Blank making the final decision. The band's two albums will remain in print, and reportedly the original lineup sans Tina will play one last show in tribute to her in May.
- A $50 contribution to the American Addiction Society will apparently get you a CD copy of LIFE AND SONGS, beginning in the summer. Learn more at Plaastik's official site.
- Nick posted to the official Plaastik board yesterday evening on the 218-page thread about Tina's death. He wrote: "We want you all to know that everyone appreciates your respect and love during this time and we have passed many of your messages on to Tina's family. We are blessed to have such a wonderful group of fans. Thank you for mourning with us. I miss Tina unbearably, as we all do. Love, Nick P."
- It appears there will be an online-only special tribute album for Tina, THE LIFE AND SONGS OF TINA SINGLETON, including downloadable cover art, with both original versions of her songs with Plaastik and Crisis and covers of same. It is to be issued sometime over the next few months to the various e-music services. The following Plaastik songs are included; this seems to be nearly all of Tina's Plaastik tracks. Note that one of them -- the one on top -- is previously unreleased.
01. Punkers (demo w/ janet kieran)
02. Cabinet (from Fortunate Smiles)
03. Pool (from Fortunate Smiles)
04. Give (outtake from Fortunate Smiles)
05. I Don't Know (outtake from Fortunate Smiles)
06. Touch Me (from Today's Cajun Spice)
07. Special (from Today's Cajun Spice)
08. Blank Page (from Herd Politics)
09. Noises (from Herd Politics)
10. Breathe (single version)
11. Breathe (album version, from Olives & Such)
12. Debbie Called (from On Such a Night)
13. r.e.t.r.o. (from On Such a Night)
14. 54-40 Galileo (outtake from Cartoons)
15. Cut (demo)
16. Cut (from Science)
17. Scarlett (from Child)
18. Look (Time) (from Child)
There are then eight Crisis tracks, mostly the singles (including three tracks not on either LP). Finally, there are five covers: "He's Jesus" by The Murder Weapon (Plaastik's openers on the Science Tour), "I Don't Know" by Mitchell Blank (!), "Two" by Hooverphonic, "Blank Page" by Great Lake Swimmers, and "Killed" by Surprise Your Pig. This will tentatively be followed by several home demos Tina recorded shortly before her death, which are surely the centerpiece of the project. The album officially is released by Merge Records through special arrangement with Capitol. Kudos to both companies for putting this together. All proceeds will go to Tina's favorite organization, Women Who Rock Out Like Nobody's Biz. - UPDATE: I have just learned that LIFE AND SONGS contains liner notes by our own Dave Hall, the busiest man in the world it appears. Incidentally, we thank everyone who voiced their opinion on Dave's piece yesterday, but must disagree with a number of you who claimed Dave's tone was flippant or disrespectful. No one on any of the boards knew Tina the way Dave did, and I would venture to guess no one is more upset or less in the mood to be flippant. If we laugh a bit, it's out of love for Tina and nothing else.
- The former webmaster of this site has contributed his thoughts on recent events.
Tina: A Fan's Perspective by Dave Hall
I became a Plaastik fan after a friend of mine spent all week trying to convince me MR. EVIL BREAKFAST was worth listening to in 1985. I hated all of their early hits so I took a lot of work to get me to pay attention to the band. The upshot is I never saw the Playtime Tour and thus can't really speak about Tina's presence then, but I've been told -- and can see from the Playtime videos -- that there was an almost elemental clash between her musical nature and Nick's band dominance, something that foretold a collaboration that, in spite and because of its weaknesses, would produce a lot of stunning music in the twenty years to come.
Despite the disclaimer above, I have followed Plaastik since well before Tina was a part of the group; in fact, I can remember when it wasn't clear whether Jeff Jooce and Jay Kay Ray were going to re-join the band after SALT, which incidentally is the album that solidified my fandom. That my two favorite Plaastik albums both predate Tina's existence as a full-time member is a moot point, because the peak of the band as an actual powerhouse of brilliance and forward momemtum owes, I would argue, nearly everything to Tina. Plaastik's best-selling album is MR. ROSS VERDICT, GADABOUT, which arguably is the best place in the world to hear Singleton's pure virtuosity with keyboards and synthesizers, a savvy and taste that completely fails to date the project. Somehow, Tina always knew what would sound good in twenty years.
It amazes me that twenty years have gone by (nineteen and a half, to be precise) since MR. ROSS VERDICT was released. I vividly recall buying it on the day George Herbert Walker Bush was elected president. Plaastik had recently inaugurated two new members, Christina Singleton and Mitchell Blank, in time for their enormously well-received Information Tour, which ran from August to December 1987 and found the band sprinting the whole of the Western world for the first time to unexpected goodwill. The lineup augmentation had been quiet; Plaastik mistakenly thought no one would notice that there were seven people on stage instead of five.
"The truth is," Janet Kieran later recalled, "it was like we were on the road for the first time. We didn't know what we were doing." It's easy to believe it. The secrecy came out of a certain cluelessness over how the band was to be received after having avoided playing live for nearly four years. I was at the first show, in New York City, at one of the band's favorite venues, the Bowery; the line was so long that I missed half of the opening band's act. The five core members of Plaastik looked like a typical band; Nick had a bass guitar, a vast amplifier, and a handy electric piano. Janet had a ragged, well-loved prop of a guitar with others waiting in the wings, a wall of intimidating amps, and an array of distortion pedals. Kevin had a conventional drumkit. Jay had a second guitar. Jeff, who has hated standing since his awful experience on the first major tour, sat off to the side with a keyboard and a third guitar, the tri-axe attack having been an early trademark of the group.
But then, out came Mitch, whose "instrument" looked like a chemistry class on wheels, containing an assortment of vibes, stringed instruments, brass, a xylophone, bongos, various other percussion items, and a mixing board to keep it all cohesive, which was and is a strange thing for a band member to have in his possession. But this had nothing on Tina, with a literal stack (five-deep, three-to-three-to-three) of synthesizers and drum machines ranging in age (I later discovered) from weeks earlier to twenty-five years prior. Her unit also contained, at the center, the first personal computer I ever saw on a band's stage, and the last I saw for some time. She, too, had distortion pedals and an amp, which for her role in the band was unusual. Indeed, it was rumored she controlled the house lights, wired to one or another of her synths, and considered them part of the music. I was seated near her and on one track ("Thumbtack") her duty consisted of toying in rhythm with wires in the back of the computer connected to the amp, which produced a terrific buzzing as she held down one key of one keyboard with her left knee. It was a hell of a sight. The most vivid memory of that evening is the very first performance, when a Plaastik gutsy beyond our current imaginations opened with a song none of us had ever heard, one in a long line of live tracks that have become beloved and that Plaastik has subsequently left off every album and essentially ignored, "The Blowoff System." The explosion of noise that evening was indescribable. Seven people were giving every impulse, every bit of fire embedded in their skulls, to their role on stage. And what held all that marvelous noise together was what Tina offered by filling it all out and allowing the rest to make sense. Her part of the game was disproportionate to her official role as sideman.
To be fair to Plaastik, Mitchell Blank's role is one that had previously been filled in a similar enough incarnation by Jeff Jooce, just without the novelty. Blank's contribution was freeing Jeff up to play his guitar and make the band that much louder and more of a center of chaos. "The more people on stage," Jeff told me, "the more we can each relax and make the music good." And it has to be said that Plaastik's sheer spirit of adventure is what allowed Tina Singleton to happen that night and every night after on that tour, then to bring her in as a permanent member of the band (during the sessions for the single "Chill Bumps"), then to churn out their most accomplished effort as a band (rather than as songwriters), MR. ROSS VERDICT, GADABOUT, which has chief claim above all others as Plaastik's classic album, and is a record we enjoy in the manner we do thanks to Singleton.
There was never another album that integrated Tina as beautifully as that one. The songs were written, in a series of jams, as a collective; everyone found their own way to contribute. Tina's flourishes are everywhere, captured by John Cale like lightning from the sky. By the time work began on what became FORTUNATE SMILES, Tina had determined she did not care for his style of writing. I asked her why in 1996. "The way most of our songs work is that someone has a slight kernel of an idea. It may be a lyric or a fragment of a melody. If Nick comes to us with it, it's usually something like half a song. At any rate, everyone then mutates it and works on it and everyone's fragments collect until it's something else. My ideas are more fully formed when I get them and I like to put them all together, and we all feel that it works reasonably well if I offer myself to the band in that way." They may have been right, and certainly it was an ideal way to keep the peace between two opposing leaders (Nick loves having his work distorted, Tina does not, and undoubtedly there was pressure in both directions), but you can sense the cohabitation of two creative personalities (Tina quickly earned a position of leadership in the band, much as Buckingham and Nicks did when they joined Fleetwood Mac) in a manner that is absent from all nine of the remaining albums recorded with Tina.
And as for the tour, the balance of where to put Tina and how to use her was never resolved to anyone's satisfaction, hers least of all. She was a massive part of Plaastik's stage presence on the 1987 shows. In 1994, during Diplomacy, she wasn't used enough; she was stripped of her synth wall and given a single keyboard plus an acoustic guitar. She sang on the Diplomacy tour, often a great deal, and got to sit at an actual piano at least once each night, but her musical intuition and power had no place in the purposefully democratic setting. The Science Tour, the one project in the band's history most explicitly conceived and controlled by Tina, arguably brought too much Singleton. Her love of flat, emotionless wordplay took over the songwriting and even the image of the time; Nick was in a subservient mood. Onstage, Tina had her own cubbyhole raised from the others, where she was literally surrounded by keyboards and other oddities like a mad scientist in a very public lab. She wrote the setlist that was rarely amended from night to night, and everyone left her alone.
The peak of Tina's level of involvement with Plaastik's creative decisions ironically led almost instantly to her retirement, dismissal, or hiatus (depending on whose anonymous account is read) from the band. Her other projects simply cannot match the volume of what she achieved with Plaastik, nor can it match the quality of those collaborations, even those that were such in name only. Her focused, intimate songs from the early '90s are almost undeniably Plaastik's most sophisticated music of that era. Surely her influence, properly measured, could have saved CARTOONS if she'd been given the opportunity. And at no point has her mastery of electronic music come into play in her work with Crisis, dominated by a kind of simple pop that never had much of a venue in her more popular outlet. Her relationship with fans, sometimes rocky but always sincerely grateful, was given a kind of connectivity in Plaastik that she never would have explored in her alternate career as a session musician or in Crisis.
Tina's entrance into Plaastik was never controversial among their followers. It just happened, coincidentally at a time when the band's popularity was heating up and reaching what was to remain its peak. It was certainly controversial among band members, some more than others. To be sure, she was an exotic presence. Janet loved her. Jeff, though he'll never admit it (especially not now), loathed her. Kevin preferred not to say. Jay brought her in and usually, but not always, was glad of it. Mitchell arguably was the love of her life; I don't know if they were ever a couple, but if they were, it was perfect. Nick was all of the above; no one in the band save Mitch loved Tina as much as Nick, and no one, no one, hated her as much. Tina told me that their relationship was so full of fireworks that she "sometimes expects him to drop his pants."
There is essentially no way that two extraordinarily creative people like Nick and Tina could come together without some sort of explosion of tension. It could have been a sexual explosion or one that, as with Tina and Janet, subsequently led to an everlasting and improbably intimate friendship. For Nick, it was all professional but no less heated and passionate. When I met the band in person for an interview for the first time (in 1992), I can remember how the others gravitated around the two of them, how there always would be a certain amount of distance betwee them, but never anyone standing in between, as if for some fear of what might be lobbed back and forth. But the two of them could make love, real love, on stage together.
When this website became a sort of portal for fans around 1996, when the Web truly exploded, Tina spent a day with me to see how the page worked and what its day-to-day operations consisted of. She later told me she learned everything she needed to know about the Internet from me and offered me a job as Plaastik's official webmaster, which I declined due to the feeling that an unofficial website was extremely integral and necessary. (I now regret this decision, for financial reasons!) She credited me constantly during her years running Plaastik's homepage and more recently Crisis'. She had me help her get Crisis on Myspace a few years ago, and we ended up chatting for several hours about nothing specifically to do with music. My impression of her was that she was astonishingly friendly and open, if slightly melancholy; her issues with the others in the band were left very much at work until the end, when they obviously became too much for her. During my time with Tina, with and without the rest of the band, I was never able to reconcile the image of the domineering lady who wanted an overzied piece of the pie with the person I was seeing. I have no idea whether the others exaggerated this aspect of her personality or whether she simply knew Plaastik was not the best creative outlet she could have had (regardless of whether it actually was the best she would have, which I think she knew was the case). She never had a negative word to say about the other members of Plaastik. I was happy to call myself her friend up to the very end of her life.
The controversies through the years about Tina were fueled by many people, myself included. I felt mildly guilty about it but as a fan, what could I do? I never knew what to blame Plaastik's decline on. For all I know, it was Tina that fragmented everything, but I have little doubt that the disillusionment most of us feel now would have come a couple of decades earlier if Singleton hadn't reignited Nick's restless creative passion along with that of the others. And what really says it all to me is that in 2002, when I finally decided I could no longer maintain this website, Tina was the one person who called and wished me the best. This says nothing about the other members of Plaastik. They are all good people and there is no reason to expect them to say anything directly to me, whether I knew them or not, after I make a life decision that reflects poorly on them. But it says a lot about who Tina was. She was eternally and fatefully true, I think, to everyone but herself.
I didn't know the extent of Tina's troubles. I feel I would be lying whether I said I had no idea she was in a bad situation or whether I told you I had suspicions. I really, frankly, had not noticed a difference from the demeanor I had always known, and it bears mentioning my last talk with her was well over six months ago. I can tell you she was utterly at peace with Nick and everyone else in Plaastik and had very kind words for all of them. I know she was thrilled that Crisis opened for Plaastik. I know very little else, personally or professionally, about her life since the fall of 2007. I wouldn't claim that I'm having anything close to the kind of trouble with Tina Singleton's death that those who knew her mroe intimately are. I am sure that everyone in the band is going through hell at the moment, and even that -- Mitch, Nick, and Janet excluded -- has nothing remotely on what her family is probably feeling. I don't want to make any grand statements about her life or death, but I want to say that I am deeply saddened and that I considered Tina a very dear friend. We talked for maybe two hours each year since the mid-'90s, and even more sporadically before that, but I will miss those conversations. I have been listening to her Plaastik songs -- her Crisis material is fine but does not do the trick for this occasion -- repeatedly for the last week. I will miss that part of her too, more than I even realized. "Two," "I Don't Know," "Cabinet," "Pool," "Scarlett," "Breathe," "Special," how can we ever forget them and how much they now say?
We thank Dave Hall for his generous donation of time.
- It was a very low-key, somber affair yesterday, with no members of the press attending except for Tina's personal friend Rob Sheridan, who wrote a short piece about it in his blog (robsheridan.net). A few reporters were allowed to view the reception, at which Mitchell Blank (on piano) and Janet Kieran (singing with guitar) played "Long May You Run," a Neil Young song that seems a surprisingly appropriate choice given Jeff's Buffalo Springfield anecdote a few days ago, and Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey," reportedly Tina's favorite song.
- Sheridan says that Nick Parker, Jeff Jooce, Kevin Keys, Jerry Mull, and Jay Kay Ray were also at the funeral along with Jimmy Fales, plus Flood, Brian Eno, and Jerry Harrison. Parker was unable to attend the reception. All appeared somber, but Mitchell Blank was particularly emotional, until his performance with Janet, when he was "solid as a rock." Surely Tina would have been moved.
- It seems mildly callous to ask this question at a moment when emotions are running so raw, but it's a recurring theme in the e-mails and forum posts we've been seeing: What of Plaastik's future now? Even though Tina left the band five years ago, her association with them was so close that her absence will be more shattering than we or they (save Mitchell) imagined. This is already obvious. With the fate of COOL COMMUNITY very much in the air as of now, we can only speculate as to how Plaastik will find a way to continue in the wake of this.
- My own thought is that we will not be hearing anything from the band for some time unless they choose to directly address the tragedy somehow (tribute show or suchlike), which they may feel is too flippant an idea. Otherwise, whatever they do choose will undoubtedly be judged in the capacity of how it relates to what happened to Tina, which I'm sure would be painful for all concerned. In my opinion, you should not expect COOL COMMUNITY to be given a new release date anytime soon.
- Tina's funeral is taking place this afternoon. We expect to hear something about it tomorrow.
- We apologize for the sensitivity of the information that follows, but we feel responsible to report what we know.
- The exact cause of Tina's death is now known. She went into cardiac arrest a few hours before she was found last week, resulting from an apparently accidental overdose of prescription pills and heroin. (Reports that she committed suicide appear to be disproven, although by all accounts, she had been suffering from considerable depression and was unstable in her final days, which probably did not help matters in taking care about mixing drugs. Singleton's parents, famously decribed in her interviews as "cartoonishly pious," are publicly blaming "narcotics and the business" for her death. We know now as well that Tina's body was discovered by her son, Gore Jimenez, who has been continually shielded from the public eye by Tina since his birth in 1994. Plaastik, Tina's representatives, and her parents are asking that Gore be left alone to grieve, which would surely have been Tina's own wish.
- The pastels of the recent redesign to Plaastik's homepage have given way to a stark black background, newly accompanied by a beautiful photograph of Tina at age 22 -- during her first tour with Plaastik, before she was an actual member -- and tributes from each band member, which follow.
Jay Kay Ray: I saw Tina perform for the first time with some friends of mine [Moment in Time] in a studio in L.A. in the late '70s. She was a prodigy with the most intimidating wall of synthesizers I had seen, and she was completely independent with no kind of label backing or budget. She was basically a session player but a very important one. The band I was there to work with was huge in the area and they had never seen anything like it. She went to town on those keyboards and I never forgot it. I wasn't the only one. As time went by I learned she was a legend, and she was so modest in her work she hadn't really taken advantage of that. When Jeff and Kevin had to leave the Plaastik tour for NO PARKING, we needed a drummer and a keyboard player. Janet knew a drummer, an ex-boyfriend of hers [Jimmy Fales] who ended up befriending then dating Tina then breaking up with her and finally joining her band, and I knew Tina. She didn't get along with Nick and Janet all that well. In fairness I had a lot of disagreements with her too; we just weren't ready for her. But the feeling I always had was that if we didn't get this person under our wing, someone else was going to and we needed her. She had so much to offer us. She knew we couldn't handle her at the level she normally would be playing at. On that tour, she would have left us in the dust. But we waved money in her face and she went along with us, and hated every second of it as far as I know except the time she spent with Jimmy. I guess it was ominous in retrospect how for those two months we were in two separate camps, never really mingling or discussing anything, but what can you say? We were fractured.
Between '83 and '85, I don't know what Tina was up to; she gathered more and more of a kind of enigmatic drive. She was everywhere, in lots of other bands' videos, but I caught up with her in The Blank Collective which had a big cult following and who blew me away. She was so gracious to me. I am not the most quickly recognizable person in the world. People never really notice me in the street as the rhythm guitarist from Plaastik. But she lit up when she saw me and we started talking about the tour and about Nick and Jimmy and all sorts of stuff. She couldn't have been more pleasant to me. I wanted so much to work with them, and that was how the Murder Weapon came about, which was all I did while the others did SALT, and then, of course, Plaastik wanted a bigger crew for the Information Tour and I brought Mitch and Tina along and suddenly it made sense.
From then on, Tina became a de factor leader of the band along with Nick and Janet; she considered herself one of the big attractions, having certainly added a huge amount to our overall sound, and I didn't have the same relationship with her that I once did. Once in the early '90s Mitch and I were thinking about doing a Murder Weapon record again and she just wasn't into the idea. Now I wish I had spent much more time with her. I'd give anything to have made the effort. I now discover all this pain she's been in since long before any of us had any idea, and I want those years back more than anything to tell her how much she meant and how much I admired her. I hate letting a friendship lapse, it kills me that I know Tina and we changed one another's lives and yet I hadn't had a long conversation with her in probably eight years. I have missed her. I will always miss her.
Nick Parker: I stepped into Tina's apartment building one day a year ago, stepping past security and a myraid of other obstacles, to try and give her something I'd wanted her to have for years. In 1983, we were fighting, which was what we did most of the two months she was in the band then. You wouldn't believe the caliber of stupid things we fought about. Arrangements, usually, if you can believe that. She wanted this fill or keyboard hit in this part of "Hot Glass" and I wanted it somewhere else. Idiotic shit, and it was all my fault; I couldn't believe how much control she wanted over how the songs were played, but at the time, you see, I didn't know how respected and important Tina was. I only knew her through Jay; I had no idea she was so venerable. If you aren't aware of it already, most of the people who worked in the business in L.A. then firmly believed she was the best keyboard player working. We were fucking amateurs. We weren't the venue she wanted or needed. That was why she threw the keys.
I was yelling at her and I honestly believed she was trying to hit me, so I ducked. We were at Red Rocks. The theater was already filling up. We were arguing over "Oil and Water" that time, I believe. My car keys were sitting idly on her keyboard while I attempted to explain why I wanted her to use this note and this midi setup and not the other one. Finally I took the most condescending tone I could muster up -- I was young then, we all were -- and said, exact quote, "I'd think you would know all this by now, honey." That was when she picked up my car keys and threw them straght at my face, at which point I dodged them and they flew into the crowd. I spent the next fifteen minutes attempting valiantly to fish them out of the gathering mob of people, to feel around on the ground for them myself, finally to beg and plead whoever had picked them up to give them back.
The person who got them, whoever it was, did not, in fact, give them back. I had to call a cab that night. I was lucky not to be completely stranded; no one was speaking to me that evening, as the lost keys did not improve my mood any.
In 1999, during a lengthy hiatus from the band, I received a strange package from someone in Colorado Springs. A mother of three teenagers had found my car keys in a box in her attic and suddenly remembered the fit of immature giddiness -- not dissimilar to my own immature angst -- that had led her to grab them from the ground and keep her mouth shut. She recalled how amazed she was to learn years later that the woman who threw them at me that day was Tina Singleton, by then a full-time and nationally beloved member of Plaastik. She couldn't believe she had kept them all these years. She asked for forgiveness and wished us all well.
I had nearly forgotten the whole matter and was thrilled to get this package. I couldn't wait, I thought, to show Tina. Then, as time passed, I decided to reserve them for a special occasion. I often forgot about them again only to find the whole package in a corner and get newly excited about handing it all over. Finally, in late 2006, I decided that Tina's 46th birthday would be the big one. I hadn't seen her in a while, and it seemed that this level of surprise would be quite difficult to muster up again. So I ventured over to her door, lit up as expected by a glow-in-the-dark Pixies poster, and knocked five or six times.
No one answered. I sighed. It seemed Tina and I were always playing elevated games of tag. I debated what to do and ultimately placed the sealed envelope under the crack of her door; the key kept it from sliding all the way under but it crept halfway. I stood for a moment to see if it moved; it did not. I didn't hear music, so I assumed she wasn't home.
Some months later, I saw Tina backstage in Waco when we were playing with her band Crisis at a small club there. One of the only other witnesses of the key incident, Jimmy Fales, was there also, and I looked forward to remembering the whole ordeal with them. She was sweet and happy and generous all night, as lovely as I've ever seen her, but there was no word about the keys. Periodically she glanced my way with an awkward half-smile on her face as if she wanted to say something but wouldn't. Was she torturing me on purpose, I wondered?
I still wonder now, and moreover I wonder if she ever even got the envelope, then if she ever opened it. I never will know. I hate that. Why can't I ask her? Why can't I ask her or tell her a hundred things I never did? If I had all the time in the world, I would never understand that.
Janet Kieran: We were women in a boy business, both of us, and we shared more secrets than anyone realized. I already missed Tina, I missed her ever since she left, even though we all knew it was better for her and for us. I missed discussing things with her; it was always so separate from politics of the band, which we all know I wasn't consistently on the same page with her on. But she knew things about me no one else did. She was one of the best friends I ever had, I can't believe that after twenty years of her consistently being there, despite the occasional lapses, she's gone. There's nothing right about it at all.
Kevin Keys: Thought she was brilliant. Always. To me the fights between Nick and Tina were so frustrating and so unnecessary, it was just two geniuses who couldn't see the forest for the trees sometimes. It drove me crazy. No slur on the others but Janet is the band's other genius and she always found a way to align herself, to lay her ego down and compromise and find what worked best for the group. I was in awe of Tina, always. I enjoyed playing with her on stage, always, I was always happy to make her songs sound the best I could, and I had no illusions that I had a better idea of how to handle them than she did. I loved her interludes in the show, it gave us a lot of life too. On the records as well. I skip to "Blank Page" when I listen to the record it's on. I still regret we didn't put "I Don't Know" on an album. I used to speak to Tina at the end of every show, every session, every day. I'm going to miss her so much. I'm so frazzled right now, just kind of overwhelmed. I can't digest the news still.
Jeff Jooce: Tina and I weren't the closest two people in the world; I remember regarding her with a lot of suspicion when she was brought in for the Information Tour (I hadn't met her before like the others). I never quite got over that and I was exasperated when she insisted on being separate from the rest of us on so many of our processes. I remember saying she was going to break us up. But it was when we were fighting Sony that I got to really understand her, when we all suddenly had this communal uprising against a commercial force that was out to crush us. It brought out the best in all of us but especially Tina. I remember always after that I felt this respect for her that never subsided. I ended up being a sort of messenger boy between the two camps at times, when I wasn't a participant in this or that fight.
The other moment I really remember that will always be with me is when everyone else had left the studio one night when we were working on HERD POLITICS. I stuck around to do some overdubs and she was developing one of her songs ("Noises" in this case) separately, as she usually did. I was fucking around and I tapped out this waltz thing on one of the keyboard and she happened to be wandering by and, without me knowing she was there, had started noodling with a guitar, one of Janet's. She had intended to just use it to record some extra feedback or something she wanted. But after I started playing nothing in particular she kind of spontaneously joined in and we ended up playing "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing." She did the vocals. I never imagined she would care enough about folk-rock to know that record. I would give anything to have that on tape but unfortunately I don't. I would give more to have Tina back. I'm not ready yet to accept that this is as impossible as getting a recording of our performance together that evening.
Mitchell Blank: I don't know what to say. I am 71 years old. I never used to hate this world. I hate it now. This is incomprehensible to me. I have known Tina since the year she was born. I was with her the day she bought her first guitar. You can't understand what her life meant to me. I don't know what I am going to do but I don't see how I can live in a world like this that would take Tina away. That's all I feel like telling you right now.
- All six members of Plaastik plus Jerry Mull have convened in Iowa for Tina's funeral this Thursday. The funeral is closed to the public. We haven't heard anything from the band, but they are all reportedly, and not surprisingly, devastated. I wouldn't expect further comment from them anytime soon.
- Current rumor suggests that a Singleton tribute concert will take place in Grimes involving members of Plaastik and Crisis. As of now this is unsubstantiated.
- Quickly today, an announcement most of us have been expecting ever since the terrible news broke. Capitol and Plaastik have jointly announced that COOL COMMUNITY has been postponed indefinitely, its release now marked for an indeterminate future date. Reviews of the album have already appeared in many publications, so I would expect the album won't be delayed for long, otherwise the threat of piracy would become invasive. More sobering is the total cancellation of the "Squandered Messiah" EP, which had not yet shipped, and the planned tour, all dates of which are now off, with no plans to reschedule. This is another in a long line of cancelled shows and tours, but this time I think we all can understand the band's reasons. I will keep everyone updated on COOL COMMUNITY and what, if anything, will happen in place of the tour and EP.
- A very long article about Tina's life and career is in the current Chicago Reader. It contains some interesting comments from ex-Crisis member Ben Freeman about Tina's volume of recent output: "Every time I saw her in the last six months, she had dozens of new songs ready. She was saving them for something big." It's hard not to be crushed at the thought that whatever it was, she won't get to finish it.
- Obituaries and tributes for Tina appear in today's New York Times and L.A. Times, as well as innumerable other papers across the country. The best obit I've read is at the New Musical Express webpage. Excerpt:
Her mystique and cathartic irony never fit in with Plaastik, but both were all the better for it. She was the missing puzzle piece they never knew they needed. The conflict her agenda created with that of schizophrenically minded leading man Nick Parker, sometimes with her and often not, breathed phantasmagoric life into a band that would otherwise have long ago grown stale.
- A special guestbook has been opened at Plaastik.com devoted to memories of Tina. We invite all of our readers to contribute; the suggestion came from Dave Hall.
- We still know very little about the circumstances behind Tina's death; as soon as I hear anything, I will let you know.
- We are all still in shock. Here is Plaastik's statement:
On March 12th, 2008, our friend, Tina Singleton died. Her loss was sudden and unexpected. We have all been close to Tina for over twenty years, and our hearts are most sincerely with her family during this tragic time. We simply do not know what to say, except we do ask the public and our fans to please respect our need to mourn. And please always remember Tina for the beautiful music she made on her own, with her band Crisis, and with us; no one so immensely lovely and talented could ever be forgotten
- Mitchell Blank (Grimes, IA)
Jeff Jooce, Kevin Keys, Janet Kieran, Jay Kay Ray (Memphis, TN)
Nick Parker (New York, NY)
March 13, 2008
- (Note: Mitchell is in Grimes to comfort the Singletons, as he is a longtime family friend, and Nick was already in New Jersey and has traveled to NYC after learning of Tina's death. The statement took some time to complete, I am told, due to much struggling to find the right words. Capitol, by contrast, had a press release out almost immediately:
Capitol Records and EMI Music Group regret to announce that Christina Singleton, former keyboardist and continued business partner for multi-platinum Capitol artists Plaastik, has passed away in New York City on March 12. Our prayers and condolences are with Ms. Singleton's family. We are shocked and saddened by her loss and regret there will be no further opportunities to work with her.
- Merge Records, who distribute Crisis' recordings (except the 1999 debut ODDS, which is on Capitol), have not issued a statement so far but it's expected they will before the day is out.
- Meanwhile, the outpouring from the fan base has been as dramatic as expected. I have received over two hundred email messages expressing a myraid of emotions from disbelief to distress. I agree with all of them, with everything they dwell on. I have seen every aspect of Tina celebrated today: her musical brilliance, her sensitivity, her gentle humanity (according to those who were lucky enough to meet her more than the one time I did), her beauty. For my part, I will never forget her songs and her voice, which will continue to comfort and haunt us forever.
lookin' in your eyes at 17
like a waltz
like a new beginning
we know so much
we shouldn't know
I want to be a clean slate again
we walk together up the steps
so many secrets
so many plans
we know so much
we shouldn't know
I want to be a blank page again
young and innocent
and tomorrow you'll be gone
the next day I'll be running
in the other direction
I want to be a blank page again
Today's news is devastating beyond anything I could have imagined. Yesterday morning at 5:10am, according to reports, police responded to an anonymous 911 call to discover Tina Singleton, 46, leader of Crisis and former keyboardist of Plaastik, dead in her Manhattan studio apartment, of an apparent overdose. (Of what, we cannot say.) This has been confirmed by Tina's publicist, by Plaastik's, by Plaastik themselves, by Capitol, and by Mitchell Blank personally, who informed me yesterday before I posted my last item but asked me to keep the information to myself until Tina's family could be alerted. As of now, little else is known and everyone feels desperately sad and helpless. Tina, we loved you. We will never forget you. It hurts to lose you, especially so young.
Words fail me today. I do wish to thank everyone for their help yesterday afternoon. Mitchell, who is understandably wounded, has told me that information he gained from visitors to this website helped piece together what happened. (A cop recognized Tina and leaked the information to some New Yorkers before the press or family learned of Tina's death.) I'm afraid there's not much else I can say right now. Please keep Tina and her family in your hearts tonight. I will report more as soon as I possibly can. 3-12-08: *BREAKING*
- Since early this morning, we have been hearing vague rumors across the internet about Tina Singleton, raising concerns about her well-being. The most widespread version is that she has had an accident at home and is gravely ill; more details are elsewhere. The information is spotty and may be entirely incorrect, but please stay alert and if you have anything you can tell us, please e-mail me. As of now I'm tempted to just categorize this as a meaningless rumor, but I have heard from the band and Capitol and they are very worried, as they are unable to verify anything and cannot seem to reach Tina or anyone associated. I'm posting this call-out for information at their request. If you know ANYTHING, don't hesitate.
- Update (3:28pm): Plaastik's publicist has stopped answering calls; I am no longer taking information, as I assume they have regained communication with Tina's people.
- Update (5:15pm): We hear that Mitchell Blank is flying to Tina's family home in Grimes, IA. Check back tomorrow for all the information I'm able to get.
- SPECIAL REPORT: Plaastik's Label Future??
To those who've been trying to make sense of Plaastik's now long-running battle with Capitol Records and when and where it will end, you are not alone. The main confusion stems from a lack of clarity in how long their contract continues. We (Dave Hall and I) had understood it would expire at the end of 2007 even if all seven albums had not been delivered. That obviously is not true, but from what we can tell, it was at one time. Jeff Jooce told me about a year ago that Capitol had taken up a clause to extend the window through December 31, 2009 because the five albums already released had not met a certain quota of sales. This was completely within their right. But it looks like Plaastik is free after COOL COMMUNITY; even though I had once assumed that RECENT ACTIVITY did not count, it actually did, though this was a matter of some dispute at the label (which originated the compilation project) until very recently.
Plaastik has been on four major labels now: Geffen (later DGC), Epic, MCA, and Capitol. Presumably this leaves Warner Music Group for them to sign with if they still want to be part of a major. But it's entirely possible they won't care for such an arrangement and will sign with an independent group. This could prove difficult, because Plaastik insists on at least 50% ownership of all of their recordings, with the rights to revert entirely to the band after ten years or at their discretion thereafter. (This is why Plaastik owns all of their music prior to 1997; Universal and Sony own the artwork of their older albums, however.) How many labels are likely put up with this given Plaastik's greatly diminished standing in the marketplace is something we'll want to watch closely.
A label change will cement one thing that's long been expected: under a new contract, it is almost guaranteed that Jerry Mull will become a full-time official band member. The contract with Capitol still considers Tina a member (a consequence of some of Plaastik's unique business methods), and thus she earns considerable income even from records she is not involved with. This will remain true for CHILD, LOVE, and COOL COMMUNITY but will likely change to a more complicated setup afterward.
One thing for certain -- if the band stays together after COOL COMMUNITY, and my thinking is they undoubtedly will, they will find a place to release their music. Something that may rightfully concern fans more is what will happen to the band's catalog material. Widespread speculation is that Rhino will be reissuing the first thirteen albums with bonus tracks after Capitol's window expires. (FUN, SCIENCE, CHILD, LOVE, and CC will stay under Capitol's umbrella for several more years.) This is based purely, however, on Plaastik's licensing of their pre-EMI singles to Rhino after Capitol lost interest in distributing them, nothing more. It's equally possible -- and highly likely, in my estimation -- that Plaastik's very popular catalog will be a wedge on their side in contracting them to record. Sure, you can own the rights to MR. ROSS VERDICT, but only if you pay for us to record our next five albums. Etc. I'm going to venture to guess that unless COOL COMMUNITY is a massive success, Rhino -- and the opportunity for lavish reissues along with them -- is out of the picture.
And what, exactly, went wrong with Capitol to begin with? The band joined in 1997 with high hopes, major success, and cart blanche to do anything they wanted. EMI paid a sum that can very modestly be described "handsome" to bring in Phil Spector to work on CARTOONS, not by most accounts so much because Plaastik wanted to work with him as because they liked the idea of having his name on their CD. But since then, the band, and more importantly the industry, has changed. Plaastik doesn't sell large quantities of records anymore, even during their bursts of considerable popularity. But no one does. And the eight figures Capitol laid down for Plaastik's seven-album-plus-reissue-program deal now feels elevated and almost comically excessive. Again, Plaastik needn't feel alone in this. It's a business-wide problem and, as has been pointed out in Rolling Stone, it's still only the beginning of this apocalypse.
But through it all, we can count on music to continue to get our attention as much as ever, and in that regard, I think Plaastik still has a good chance of delivering well into the years to come.
- If you have a question for Plaastik for our regular interview dealing with COOL COMMUNITY, submit them now! E-Mail me today! Remember we are very lucky to have this opportunity; please take advantage! I'll ask every good question I get.
- Some fans, even those with open disdain for CARTOONS, SCIENCE, CHILD, etc., are raising their eyebrows over a writeup of the forthcoming COOL COMMUNITY in this week's edition of the highly mainstream and visible Time magazine. Among the less vicious quotes: "Plaastik were not only no longer fun, they had become as boring as a senior citizens' cocktail party. Anyone who argued that CHILD was worth listening to usually was put right the second or third time; otherwise one had to conclude they were related to the band members." Lord knows I'm not much of a CARTOONS etc. supporter but it seems kind of harsh for a news magazine to be as frightfully vindictive as this for three full pages, particularly since with the band's previous project they found some of their greatest radio success to date (admittedly short-lived and now three years gone). They do say COOL COMMUNITY is a welcome change for the better and a blurb on the cover declares Plaastik "Back from the Dead." Those among us with good memories will recall hearing this same thing about CHILD from equally trustworthy sources.
- Jeff Jooce tipped me on the article and adds: "SCIENCE was an experiment, it was the kind of things bands are supposed to do when they're growing. It was largely a mistake but I'm glad we did it." I completely agree.
- COOL COMMUNITY is receiving excellent mainstream press, generally at the expense of the band's last few albums, which to be fair isn't entirely unreasonable. The theme of most of the press coverage is slanted strongly toward a back-to-roots model, which I don't think is the most accurate representation of what CC is. Janet Kieran appears to be responsible for most of the publicity this goround, as she's quoted in the lion's share of the articles, but it's worth nothing that they are mostly just editorializing. See NME, Rolling Stone, Spin, Magnet, The New York Times (2/25), The Washington Post (2/25), and L.A. Weekly (cover story) if you're curious. Please note, none of these are actual reviews. You'll start seeing those in about two weeks.
- By popular demand I have queried Jeff Jooce as to the absence of "Laboratory" on the album, when it was assumed it would not only be there but also see release as a single. He replies: "We still are having problems recording 'Laboratory' to our satisfaction. We promise you'll hear a version as soon as we put down one we're fully happy with. It is an incredibly hard song to pull off in the studio, as it requires a sort of B-52s savvy we don't tend to have in our old age. The take that almost made it on this record will be a b-side if Nick's mood about it doesn't change again (it was on the tracklist up to about five minutes before EMI's press release went out). Hopefully a definitive version will be on the next album. Sorry folks."
- Like all of you, I remain disappointed about this, not least because I heard the CC version and liked it tremendously. I have to go out on a limb and assume that when Jeff says "they" are not fully happy with the recording, "they" = Nick.
- In a brief conversation with Janet Kieran via telephone last week, she mentioned in passing how strange it was to hear a song from the SCIENCE period in the running with the rest of the CC material and wondered if it would have been better to issue it as a stand-alone single. I rather like this idea, but I can't imagine Capitol would; really wish they'd had the song ready in time for that shit compilation in 2005. But that seems like another world now, and as Janet herself said, SCIENCE seems like another universe.
- Some tourdates in April have been added! A five-night stand in San Francisco's Delicious Theater -- the smallest venue Plaastik has "officially" played since 1982, I am told -- will occur beginning April 2nd, the day after the album is released. Later in April the band will be running through the midwest and stopping to work on rehearsals and marginal new material before the official start of their tour May 22nd. See Plaastik's official tour page for details.
- Quick update on yesterday's news: The "Squandered Messiah" EP won't be released until April 1st, the same day as COOL COMMUNITY. I actually sort of like the idea. One stop shopping and all that.
- More exciting stuff! The tracklist for the "Squandered Messiah" EP has been officially issued to me by Capitol. Release date is unclear as of now, but I'm told the second single from CC will be "Unanswered Calls" (very wise choice IMO) and the third is tentatively "World as One," which I find a relief because I think we can take it as confirmation that the latter has improved from its skeletal stage origins over the summer. Here's the intriguing tracklist, in the fine tradition of the LOVE maxis:
1) Squandered Messiah (LP version) [4:21]
2) Squandered Messiah (dub) [4:19]
3) LowRYDE (live in waco) [5:08]
4) Laboratory (dub) [3:36]
5) Laboratory (hoppin bijou mix) [6:12]
6) An Anomaly (internet version) [2:25] [it appears that the album version will be different after all]
7) Unanswered Calls (demo) [3:15]
8) Stand by Me [Ben E. King cover] [3:00]
9) Squandered Messiah (dance mix) [8:40]
This leads me to believe that we will be seeing the original version of "Laboratory" somewhere or another in the very near future. Here is the cover art for SM:
- Something extra cool for you folks today! COOL COMMUNITY (April 1st, don't forget!) cover art:
... and tracklist!
1) World as One [4:02] (Parker)
2) Knife2 [3:19] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
3) Lovely Hunger [6:30] (Parker)
4) The Flowing Stream [2:10] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
5) As a Child I [3:42] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
6) Squandered Messiah [4:21] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
7) The Way It Burns [7:07] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
8) An Anomaly [2:22] (Parker)
9) Stories of You and I [2:58] (Kieran)
10) One Breath to Life [4:31] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
11) Unanswered Calls [4:30] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
12) Nowhere to Go [3:55] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
13) We Are the Earth's Circle [10:26] (Blank/Jooce/Keys/Kieran/Parker/Ray)
"Squandered Messiah" and "An Anomaly" are already released. We heard "World as One," "Knife2," "Lovely Hunger," "As a Child I," "The Way It Burns," "Stories of You and I," "One Breath to Life," "Unanswered Calls," and "Nowhere to Go" at the Hellers Club residency in August '07. I assume "The Flowing Stream" is the same as "Stream," which was a jam we heard. This leaves only one of the above songs -- the last one -- as a mystery. There are some interesting changes from the tracklist of the COOL COMMUNITY acetate I have, and I must confess I'm disappointed with a few of them. Here is the version I was given (before the Texas shows):
Unanswered Calls
I Thought
Lovely Hunger
Squandered Messiah
As a Child I
I Can't Swim
LowRYDE
The Way It Burns
Laboratory
An Anomaly
One Breath to Life
Nowhere to Go
You'll notice that "I Thought" (new full band version), "I Can't Swim" (also heard in August), "LowRYDE," and "Laboratory" have been deleted in favor of "World as One" (which seemed like b-side material to me), "Knife2," "The Flowing Stream," "Stories of You and I," and the new closing song. I'm trying not to prejudge but I feel a bit apprehensive about this. "Nowhere to Go" was the perfect closer and everyone, everyone was excited about "LowRYDE" and "Laboratory," two of the most popular songs Plaastik has written in years. But if these changes did indeed make the album cohere more properly, as has been reported, I'm willing to give the band the benefit of doubt. But you best believe I'm clinging tightly to my acetate disc. - "Squandered Messiah" has garnered a certain level of notice from the press as a major back-to-basics venture for Plaastik, which is causing a lot of former diehards to take note. Whether they will be excited or disheartened by this latest in a long line of new directions remains to be seen.
- Most of you have heard "Squandered Messiah" by now. It's being cautiously well-received by most everyone I've spoken to! All are anxious, of course, to hear the more radical material. And trust me, you will love it. I can report that SM isn't all that different from the acetate version issued to me last summer, but I understand a bunch of the other songs have been revamped since then, but I'm confident you'll be pleased with what you hear.
- "An Anomaly" is also getting a fair amount of radio play, though Nick Parker's hope that it would be heard on country stations appears to be in vain.
- AAAAND the big news: Plaastik will be touring in support of COOL COMMUNITY beginning in April. This is the first leg, with more date sure to come. Tickets will go on sale for most of these shows February 1st, all at Ticketmaster outlets except the Denver show. More details at Plaastik's official site.
May 22nd - Vancouver (Deer Lake)
May 28th - L.A. (Hollywood Bowl)
May 30th - Berkeley (Greek Thatre)
June 2nd - Denver (Red Rocks)
June 5th - Chicago (TBA)
June 7th - Toronto (TBA)
June 9th - Raleigh (Walnut Creek)
June 10th - Washington (TBA)
June 12th - Boston (TBA)
June 13th/14th/15th/16th - NYC (Bowery)
June 18th - Philadelphia (Mann Center)
June 20th - Atlanta (Lakewood)
All of the TBA dates will be at "smaller venues" (Capitol). If you're keeping score, this is Plaastik's first major tour since 2001 and their first nationwide set of non-arena shows (though there are certainly some stadiums above) since 1994. Definitely be ready to purchase your tickets ASAP.
1-14-08
- Capitol has leaked that the first single from COOL COMMUNITY, to be simultaneously issued as an EP, is "Squandered Messiah." We heard this song at the secret gigs in August, as you may remember. It was probably the most "Plaastik-like" of the songs we heard; despite some mild worldbeat elements it was very similar to the band's early '90s material, I'd put it most solidly in the FORTUNATE SMILES vein. I think the band would acknowledge the title as being very Tina-influenced! Anyway, I'm sure everyone is looking forward to hearing a studio version of the song, which ought to show up in the next few days on the Internet and radio.