PREVIEW
MAYFEST
Eric’s trip
Kicking off The List’s ten—page Mayfest preview section. Ann Donald finds out from Hole’s guitarist Eric Erlandson why he thought the band would never work.
it‘s a funny old game this musicjournalism lark. You note that Hole are playing Mayfest. You arrange an interview through their record company. (icffen. You receive a fax which states in scary legal terms that you (the ‘lntcrview') MAY NOT discuss certain topics with Hole (the ‘Attist‘) during said interview. You sign the fax. You receive a second fax telling you not to mention the existence of the first fax in said interview. WEIRD.
Eric Erlandson is feeling weird too. After the fandangos of l994 (deemed ‘()ff Limits‘ during the interview), Hole have re-relcased their second LP. [.1 re 'I'lzru This. and are on the Euro-road pressing flesh and co-operating with the press massage. This is why the ganeg guitarist is ‘lloating around right now‘. feeling a bit weird in a haze of Italian tour dates.
Due to a swollen hip sustained by a spot of heavy duty stage-diving and the obvious urnnentionablc anniversary. Courtney (‘Artist‘) is Off Limits as potential ‘lnterview‘ subject which is why the Hole co-founder has stepped into the breach.
Eric — ‘l'll stick with I’mda myself" ~ is ready to
Recalling his fateful meeting with Courtney back in LA in 1989, he says, ‘1 answered her classified ad and then she called me back two weeks later at 3am and talked my cars off.‘ Laughing. he continues. ‘Then. when I met her. I thought. “Oh. my God. this is never gonna work . . . she was really over the top and I didn't see much hope.‘
However. after a few rehearsals. Erlandson‘s reservations vanished and Hole were born. Alter the enigmatically-titled single on Sub Pop in l99l.
In fine fettle after a tiring shopping trip Italian-style.
indulge in a spot of Hole retniniscing and revelations.
‘llicknail'. a brain and soaring punkoid album. I’M/Iv (in '/'/1(' llH/tft'. appeared. 'l’hen. nothing. Marriage. gossip. flames Bean. gossip. suicides. more vitriolic gossip and llolc stalled. But now with the l'e-I‘elt‘ase of low 'I'I'H‘tr ///.'\'. the world is getting a second chance to appreciate the thrash pop classic positively glistening with strangled vocals and L'tliltl'ytltle 'l‘U'l'l’ hits.
I think that tension in a rock band and all the chaos in her life — or that she causes in her life -— and brings to the band is actually a good thing sometimes
With love portrayed as a ps_\ ehotie harridan by some and a highly articulate and well-read feminist by others. lirlantlson is in prime position to comment on the truth behind her media image. ‘I think both are true.‘ he laughs. ‘She‘s an interesting person. One minute she can be very intellectual. the next the pauses to choose his adjectives with care) she‘s doing something \ct‘y brasli.' So how does this filter
Hole in the throes of a sudden burst of energy
through to the band'.’ ‘We fight. we hate each other. She‘s always jumping the gun and moving too fast and I'm always moving a bit slower and this causes tension . . but i think that tension in a rock band and all the chaos in her life or that she causes in her life (laughs) and brings to the bantl is actually a good thing sometimes. It makes you hard on people but somehow i can cope with it. It adds something to the music.‘
But the trials and tribulations of l‘)‘)-l have obvioust seeped through to the laid-back guitarist and he's recently retttrncd to live in LA. ‘Yeah. ljust moved away from dark. gloomy Seattle,‘ he chuckles. ‘lt's good for me to be away frotn there.‘ (‘onnnenting on the media scatn that had Seattle down as the HQ of slackerdom couttcsty of Sub Pop. lirlandson pooh-poohs the existence of such a scene. ‘In 1002. when I moved there. there were live bands w ho all knew each other and that was it. It was still a fun place to be. but now people have moved there from all over America. All the bands got snatched tip by majors and are touring. so no one is left. LA is a whole different weird planet but I'm used to it.‘ WEIRD: there‘s that word again.
l/o/c play The Burrmr/uml. Glasgow ()Il Mon L
loz— Two’s company
The pop iazz duo Tuck and Patti have got to know each other pretty well over the years - sixteen years, to be exact (thirteen of them as husband and wife), and some 3000
L performances. That is how long they
guitar.
have been working in their highly unusual duo format, combining Patti’s soulful vocals with Tuck’s serpentine
Tuck Andress and Patti Cathcart first met at an audition, and began to play i as a duo almost immediately. They served a long apprenticeship in clubs and bars around San Francisco’s Bay : Area, working out ways to combine their particular musical qualities within the format they had chosen. ‘When we started out playing . together,’ Patti recalls, ‘we used to try ; 9 all kinds of ways to fill in the space, ’
explore that.’
until we eventually realised that the best way was just to try to get the most that we could out of voice and guitar. We both felt we had found the perfect collaborator, and we wanted to
Explore it they did, including three = successful albums for Windham Hill, and the recent ‘Learning How To Fly’ (Epic). The new album, which was made in their custom-built studio, tailored to the specific needs of recording the duo, contains a higher proportion of Patti’s own songs, and the arrangements are also hers.
‘I am writing more now, but for me a big part of what we do well is other people’s tunes, and that is also very much part of our jazz heritage - we take the tunes of the day and do them our way. In my own songs, I pretty much write about what I think and feel - I approach a lot of my lyric writing as if I were having a conversation with friends, which is maybe what gives them their particular feel.’ (Kenny Mathieson)
Tuck and Patti play The Arches on Sat 29.
16 The List 21 Apr-4 May 1995