The Days of Lore

World of Barbara Manning

Friday, December 3rd, 2010 | musiX, pdX | 1 Comment

Barbara Manning has kept a low profile over the past few years—playing shows mostly in her home base of Chico, California—but those who are in the know, know (and are all very beautiful, intelligent people).

With no new records to speak of you might think she’d called it a day. Impossible—I’ve seen her notebooks and tapes filled with pure pop gold. Manning has recorded and performed songs with new bands like The Sleaze Tax and Champion, and more recently a short-lived power pop band called Rocket 69 that performed with her NZ heroes The Clean in San Francisco to rave reviews. Her latest endeavors have kept with the spirit of her past lives in SF Seals, World of Pooh and her first band 28th Day, which reunited for one show in Chico back in August. Of course, Manning continues to spin obscure, weird, under-appreciated records on her radio show Radio Detour while performing occasionally, reinventing her own songs and those of other obscure, weird, under-appreciated artists.

In 2009 she sent me a CD with some recent recordings, one of which was “Wishes Don’t Tie You Down,” a dark and stunning psych-pop number that still gives me chills, and is arguably one of her best. I’m counting on hearing it this weekend when Manning makes a rare trip to the Pacific Northwest (her first in almost a decade) for a pair of solo performances—one in Seattle and one here in Portland with Michael Hurley. Expect an arsenal from her own songbook, as well as some obscure, weird, under-appreciated surprises. Does it get any better?

Barbara Manning performs Friday, Dec. 3 at the Sunset Tavern in Seattle, and Saturday, Dec. 4 at Slabtown with Michael Hurley and Flash Flood & the Dikes.

“Wishes Don’t Tie You Down” - Barbara Manning

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Tags: "Wishes Don't Tie You Down", 28th Day, Barbara Manning, Michael Hurley, Portland show, Rocket 69, SF Seals, the Clean, World of Pooh

Gunge, not grunge

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 | musiX | 4 Comments

Chico is a northern California college town nestled among almond orchards and Red Staters. It gets most of its notoriety from being the place where Sierra Nevada is made, and where people (particularly students) party like it’s 1999 while drinking Sierra Nevada (and dollar Kamikaze shots served in beakers).

But it should be pointed out that some damn fine bands have come out of this cozy little Gomorrah with a farmers’ market. Most notable was 28th Day, the jangle-pop four-piece that featured a young Barbara Manning on bass and vocals. Around the same time Vomit Launch was also making pop songs that were much prettier than the band’s name may have indicated. Harvester and The Mother Hips also got their starts in Chico in the early-’90s. Not to mention the lesser-known bands that have popped up over the past couple of decades: Deathstar, The Makai, Cowboy and Severance Package to name a few.

For some reason most documentation of Chico’s musical history only goes back as far as 1976 with the eternal, better-late-than-never Flower Power of Spark ‘n’ Cinder. But the crate-diggers at Frantic Records spent 12 years searching for long-lost musical relics from northern California, and Chico in particular. Last year the label (also responsible for the great 2002 reissue from Sacramento proto-punks Public Nuisance) released Up From the Grave, a collection of 30 unreleased songs from northern California bands that lurked beneath the purple haze in the mid-to-late ’60s, including The Boy Blues, Psycho and Drusalee & the Dead, whose lead singer emerged from a coffin during shows.

Along with Up From the Grave Frantic also released albums by two more Chico bands—Colours‘ Voluptuous Doom, Christian’s Good Vs. Evil, and Feel It! by a noisy five-piece called Gunge. While most bands of the time clung to British Invasion, Gunge was feeling the doom and blues of Blue Cheer and Cream. In 1968 the band rolled their gear over to Chico State and recorded seven songs with engineer Wayne Leathers. Feel It! leads off with “One of These Days,” a stoner-riffed monster with the cheery opening line: “One of these days I’m gonna shoot everybody.” Of course, this was back before kids actually acted on it. Damn video games.

Gunge only lasted a year. And the Feel It! tapes were lost (probably in the drummer’s underwear drawer) for 40 years, collecting dust, mold, grime … which, of course, adds to the experience. The fidelity is low. But isn’t that all the rage with the kids these days? Stick around for “Chico Chicks,” a funny little tape-recorded interview with fans at a Gunge show in 1968 where one groovy concert-goer accidentally refers to the band as “Grunge.” Sorry, Mr. Arm, we now know where the term really started.

“One of These Days” - Gunge

“Chico Chicks” - (short interview with fans)

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Tags: 28th Day, Chico, Chico State, Christian, Colours, Drusalee & the Dead, Feel It!, Frantic Records, Gunge, Psycho, Up From the Grave, Vomit Launch

Barbara Manning: From me to you

Monday, December 1st, 2008 | musiX | 1 Comment

I always thought you were supposed to get starstruck on that first encounter with someone you admire. Barbara Manning made it difficult. She was sweet and approachable. She liked my band. This was the woman who played with New Zealand indie rock royalty including The Clean’s David Kilgour and Graeme Downes of The Verlaines, had Calexico as her backing band, recorded a string of albums for Matador Records. Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore even called her one of San Francisco’s best songwriters. Despite all that, I ended up befriending her rather than fawning over her.

I met Barbara a few years ago through some mutual friends. All I could think of was The San Francisco Seals‘ cover of The Verlaines’ “Joed Out,” which appeared on 1993’s No Alternative with bands like Pavement, Beastie Boys and Nirvana. That was my first introduction to her music.

Name-drops aside, Barbara Manning simply writes amazing pop songs. Any critical acclaim—from her early years as vocalist and bassist for Chico indie band 28th Day, through her solo albums and rock bands like S.F. Seals, World of Pooh and The Go-Luckys!—is deserved. She’s never had tremendous range, but her voice is pure, strong and comforting. Sometimes it sounds like she’s singing to you in conversation, her voice floats and her words slip into these sort of poetic stanzas.

Barbara Manning’s name isn’t all over magazines these days. And sometimes I don’t think she’s appreciated enough in her hometown of Chico. But those who are in the know know better. She’s still writing songs, and has loads of notebooks filled with lyrics and probably more than a few tapes with hummed melodies that may or may not see the light of day. But I have a feeling there’s something on the horizon …

Aside from performing solo Barbara Manning is fronting two bands—pop-punks The Sleaze Tax and twang-janglers Champion, the latter of which recorded a cover of Portastatic’s “Through With People” set to be released on Merge Records in January to honor the label’s 20th anniversary, along with Apples In Stereo, Okkervil River, Death Cab For Cutie and Times New Viking. She regained control of her back catalog and recently launched a new Web site. Barbara also rejoined Calexico during the group’s sold-out September 28 performance at the Fillmore to perform her song “Better By Bounds.”

I’ve known Barbara Manning for almost four years now. We ended up becoming good friends. I played in a band with her. Wrote a song with her. We worked together. Finally, I get to fawn over her.

“Better By Bounds” - Barbara Manning (Champion)

Tags: "Better By Bounds", "Joed Out", 28th Day, Barbara Manning, Calexico, Champion, David Kilgour, Graeme Downes, Matador Records, Merege Records 20th Anniversary, No Alternative, Sonic Youth, the Clean, The Go-Luckys!, The San Francisco Seals, The Sleaze Tax, the Verlaines, Thurston Moore, World of Pooh

Rock in the sticks

Thursday, November 6th, 2008 | musiX | No Comments

I used to live in Chico, Calif. Yes, that Chico, Calif. The Chico, Calif., where parents send their kids for cheap education and where the kids spend their parents’ money on cheap drink specials. It’s an interesting place.

A fair share of notable bands have come out of Chico. Portland’s own Kelly Bauman fronted noise-pop outfit Deathstar in the ’90s. There’s Barbara Manning and 28th Day. Vomit Launch (which featured Tape Op’s Larry Crane on drums and Exiled Records‘ Lindsey Thrasher on the guitar). The Mother Hips. The Downsiders. And there are still some rockers and rollers there who keep it real like The Shankers, The Secret Stolen, Aubrey Debauchery and The Makai.

“Up the hill,” as Chicoans like to say, is the town of Paradise, a small bedroom community whose main street is lined with antique shops, where retirees go to escape the bustle of the Bay Area and L.A. Needless to say there’s not much going on there, although I think the town is getting a Wal-Mart soon.

About a year ago I heard about The Kevin Reid Project, five teenagers barely out of high school who were recording some spiffy pop songs in the pine-needled speck of Paradise. It started quietly in 2006 as the solo project of the band’s namesake guitarist, who soon recruited his brother Jacob and a few friends. Over the last couple of years The Kevin Reid Project has recorded about a dozen songs, played shows in Paradise and Chico and have taken more than a few hiatus (hiatuses? hiatii?).

The band just recorded a couple of new songs, which should find their way to a new EP soon, including an eerie little number called “Death”—clocking in at 1:21, no lyrics—easily my favorite. The production alone gets me on “Leave Me Alone” (recorded more than a year ago) … oh, and the hand claps. I promise you this: You might find yourself singing the song at inopportune times throughout the day. Trust me. You don’t want to scream “leave me alone” to the person handing you your coffee in the morning.

“Death” -The Kevin Reid Project

“Leave Me Alone” - The Kevin Reid Project

Tags: 28th Day, Aubrey Debauchery, Barbara Manning, Bear Hunter, Chico, Deathstar, Kelly Bauman, Larry Crane, Lindsey Thrasher, Paradise, Tape Op, The Downsiders, The Kevin Reid Project, The Makai, The Mother Hips, The Secret Stolen, The Shankers, Vomit Launch