(updated Sat. April 16, 2005)
Latest update: 9 August, 2005.
OK I uploaded some MP3's, finally, of old Carsickness songs... maybe more will come if I have the space and time ...
On the way from Chicago to Princeton, I stopped off in Pittsburgh for a weekend, and went into the Digital Dynamics Audio studio, and worked with Francisco Rodriguez there, to master the Carsickness Volume 1 and 2 CD's.
Archie Werner is (WAS) setting up an "S" Corporation, for TMI Products.
"Falling Off Your Wall With Magic: Carsickness Volume 1 (1980-81) and Volume 2 (1982-83)" will (WOULD HAVE) contained the following material:
VOLUME 1 (1980-1981)
Also note: Francis James AKA "The Cold Warrior" has now released his own new CD "The Echoes of Decay", of previously released poetry with music, including 3 songs with Carsickness as the backup band: "Beatsickness", "Jean-Paul Sartre Is Dead", and "Vietnam".
At that time the band was:
On St. Patrick's Day in March 1980 (3 months after the first gig), Chris Koenigsberg was introduced to the band (mutual friend Gayle Eisner introduced Chris to Archie, because she thought Archie looked like Brian Eno. Archie was playing a solo piano gig at a Carnegie-Mellon student coffeehouse. Archie then took Chris to meet the rest of the band), at Allie's Bar across from the Krishna House on Forbes Ave.
Chris Koenigsberg joined the band, on Fender Precision fretless electric bass, that week. (the bass came from Carl Grefenstette's "Pittsburgh Guitars" store on Liberty Ave.)
In late summer 1980, the band recorded at Sound Seven Studios, a 4-track facility outside Pittsburgh, run by engineer Lee Hollihan. This was the studio recommended by "Pittsburgh Guitars" shop owner Carl Grefenstette.
The band soon released its first 45 RPM 7 inch EP, "Police Dog" and "Bill Wilkinson" b/w "When" and "Me & My Cruiser", on the new independent label TMI Products (Too Many Idiots, or Trust My Intuition, or maybe named after the nearby Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, which had recently had a major accident).
Towards the end of 1980, the band returned to Sound Seven Studios and began working on its first album. In the meantime, over Christmas break 1980, it released a second 45 RPM 7 inch, the limited-edition single "Happy Workers" b/w "Plastic People".
The first album, "Shooting Above the Garbage", was released in early 1981.
Around the same time, poet Francis James Lackey (now known as Francis James) used the band as his backup band for poetry with music, under the name Cold Warrior and the Mercenary Band.
At Sound Seven, they recorded the Cold Warrior's first 45 RPM 7 inch EP, "Jean-Paul Sartre" b/w "Vietnam" and "Beatsickness" (which featured world-renowned guest artiste Reid Paley, of the Five, on alto saxophone).
The Cold Warrior's "Jean-Paul Sartre" EP was reviewed favorably, in ??? (OP, maybe?) international music magazine.
Actually the 2nd Carsickness single "Happy Workers" and "Plastic People", plus the unreleased "Down In the City", and "Animals" which eventually made it onto the 1st LP, were recorded at the same Sound Seven session with the Cold Warrior's EP. Soon, in early 1981, when the 1st LP was released, alto saxophone player Don "Juan" Roehlich joined Carsickness.
The Cold Warrior and the Mercenary Band (now including Don Roehlich on saxophone) returned to Sound Seven Studios, to record a second 45 RPM 7 inch EP "Gucci Shoes" (with Don's immortal saxophone solo, that we used to hum to embarrass him) b/w "Dilettante Gorilla" and "Debt is Credit".
Also at the same studio session (? maybe there was another one?), Carsickness recorded an unreleased set of songs, the first recordings with Don Roehlich on saxophone. These included "Cancertown" (which although never released on vinyl, was made available to Carnegie-Mellon University radio station WRCT-FM, and received considerable airplay over the years there), "Cowboy Song", "Hungry Again", "I Don't Know", and "Shout". Note that the same Sound Seven Studio session was shared, by the band The Five, who recorded their first 45 RPM 7 inch single "You Excite Me" b/w "Napalm Beach".
Actually there was a big fight in the studio, the Five's guitar player Tom Moran tried to grab Carsickness bassist Chris Koenigsberg in a headlock, because Chris had brought a kalimba (African thumb piano) owned by his roommate to the session, and Tom claimed that it had been stolen from HIM.
Later, after a period of "war" between the two bands :-), Chris's roommate Ebon Fisher admitted that he (Ebon) had actually "found" the kalimba, while sweeping up the floor in the drawing studios of the Carnegie-Mellon University's Fine Arts building.... and Tom Moran of the Five had actually "lost" the kalimba there in the same room.... oops! so both Tom AND Chris had been right ... all was explained and forgiven.
In late 1981, the band went to a new studio, Linden Studios in Allentown Pa., with new producer Bob Bell, and engineers Vinnie Moos and Bill Mauchly (son of the Mauchly who invented the ENIAC computer! now Bill is a senior engineer at Ensoniq). Linden Studios even had a Mellotron, which featured prominently in some of the Carsickness sessions there.
These sessions resulted in the 45 RPM 7 inch single "For You" b/w "They Came Crawling".
"For You" was released at a Carnegie-Mellon University campus concert, where Carsickness opened up for Tom Verlaine (formerly of Television) and SVT (featuring former Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Cassidy).
Carsickness went on the "Nickel and Dime Tour" in summer 1981.
Back in Pittsburgh, they opened up for a number of major international acts including The Waitresses, U2, and Echo & the Bunnymen.
Carsickness decided to release a second album, in 1982. Working cheaply, they found an incredibly sleazy cheap 16-track studio (SoundMasters?) in East Liberty, where they could book a whole week for a fixed rate.
In addition to material recorded at SoundMasters, they had some unreleased tracks previously recorded at Linden Studios from the "For You" sessions.
They also remixed several songs ("Never Walk Alone" plus "Invisible Man", and an alternate, unreleased "For You"), at Ambler Studios in Allentown PA.
Finally the second album was released, "Sharpen Up for Duty", in late 1982.
In early 1983, a TMI compilation album was produced, titled "TMI 015" (no one can quite figure out what the title means, but a clue is that it was the 15th release on TMI Products). Carsickness contributed the track "Dream Factory", previously recorded at Linden Studios.
Also, with Francis Lackey as Cold Warrior and the Mercenary Band, they contributed the track "Beatsickness", previously released on the Cold Warrior's 1st EP.
In addition, bassist Chris Koenigsberg contributed a short solo piece, "A Quick Trip" (for two overdubbed basses). He recorded this track in the "MCR Studio" at WRCT-FM, Carnegie-Mellon University, Skibo Hall basement.
Note that the band Tripod Jimmy also had a song on the TMI 015 compilation LP (and they later released their album "A Long Walk Off A Short Pier" on TMI Products). Recently there has been renewed interest in this group, now that guitarist Tom Herman has rejoined Pere Ubu.
In 1983, there was friction and tension involving creative differences between organist/manager Archie Werner and the rest of Carsickness. Archie quit the band, in mid 1983.
At this point, to review, the lineup was
More friction had built up, involving personal matters, this time between Chris Koenigsberg and other bandmembers. At Christmastime 1983, after a night in Youngstown OH which saw [expletive deleted] run naked around a house in the snow, while inside the house a party full of people stared in horrified fascination), the band officially broke up.
In early 1984, after several months hiatus drying out at Gateway Rehab, ([expletive deleted]) re-formed the band, and everybody joined back again, except Chris Koenigsberg.
So they had to find a new bass player, thus beginning a pattern similar to Spinal Tap's "exploding drummer" syndrome....
Chris Koenigsberg was taking classical contrabass lessons from Pittsburgh Symphony member Rodney Van Sickle, and asked Rodney's son, Hank, if he wanted to replace Chris in Carsickness. He did.
But Hank Van Sickle only lasted a few months before he quit.
Chris Koenigsberg joined again briefly, on short notice, just to get them through a few gigs that were coming up.
Next they found new bass player Jeff ??? who played in more of a funk "thumb-popping" style, which was a big change in sound.
They added a horn section. Bob Wenzell joined, playing various saxophones. The dual-sax lineup produced a cassette-only release, titled "Release".
Only days before the release party at Graffitti for the "Release" cassette, though, bassist Jeff ??? suddenly announced that he was immediately leaving to join the army.
Once again, Chris Koenigsberg filled in, on short notice, learning all the new songs of the "Release" cassette in 2 practice sessions, and the release party went on schedule.
Meanwhile they needed a new bass player again. This time, Chris Koenigsberg was selling tickets to an Oliver Lake "Jump Up!" concert at the Balcony, and found that one of the ticket buyers, Bob Fusillo, was actually a bass player.....
So yes, Bob joined the band, and played with them for a couple of years before leaving town.
Chris Koenigsberg had formed the Morphic Resonance Trio, with alto saxophonist Ben Opie and bassoonist Jason Gibbs. Jason joined Carsickness now, on trombone and oboe. Then he left and Ben Opie joined instead, on saxophone, making a 3-person horn section.
Sam Matthews also joined, briefly, on rhythm guitar. This was the "big band" era for Carsickness, in 1984.
This "big band" produced a cassette-only release, "Tattoo the Wicked in Advance of the Crime".
Chris K. once again went to bat for his old bandmates, and spoke to Hugh Watkins, a bassist and sculptor/instrument builder he had known for years, who played folk music. Hugh was willing to take a chance and try playing electric rock music, and joined the band.
Hugh played with the band for a number of years, from 198?? to 198??. But even he had to leave, and once again they were without a bass player.
At some point while Hugh Watkins was the bass player, the band decided to change its name, to The Ploughman's Lunch .
Their next bass player was Scott ??? who lasted another couple of years.
Now (then, remember this was written in 1996) the Ploughman's Lunch has Rob Jacobs on bass, hope HE stays for a while! (they are gone now?)
Meanwhile Steve Sciulli, who played synthesizer with Carsickness, had switched to flute and tinwhistle with the Ploughman's Lunch. He appeared on the first PL CD, but left after that.
Now (then) Steve Sciulli does extensive studio production work with Michael Ketter, and also played (that was 1996) in the Pittsburgh Irish band Inish.
Note: all photos taken by Juicyfruit (Stacy Weiss)
This photo, taken at Carsickness's first public performance, shows Archie Werner on organ and keyboard bass, Dennis Childers on drums, and the right arm of Steve Sciulli on synthesizer.
Carsickness live at Market Square, Pittsburgh, 1980. I'm the one with the beard and funny LSD pants playing bass. I think this was a particular moment in the song "Bleeding" off the 1st LP when everything stops but the guitar and bass.
A photo of the band, after Archie Werner left, before Chris Koenigsberg left, sometime in mid-1983.
Other bands in the Pittsburgh and greater regional area were encouraged to release albums and EP's and singles, on TMI Products.
The compilation album, "TMI 015", was released in 1983.
Archie Werner left Carsickness in 1983, and for a brief time tried to turn TMI Products into a viable company (obviously doomed from the start :-).
By the time the label folded (in 1984? 1985?), there were 20 TMI Products in the catalog.