| music
by memorial garage (free mp3's)  memorial garage summer 1987 1.
the atmosphere  mootland summer 1988 1.
my main objection in nyc, the late '80s:
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Memorial Garage was a rock band that lived from 1987 until 1989. It was the brainchild of musicians Philip Price and Tony Widoff, who met and started creating music together at Bennington College in the mid 1980s (Philip is now the lead singer/guitarist for Winterpills.). Before Memorial Garage was born, Philip and Tony had orbited around several musical entities with names like Fold, the Customers, Big As A Hut, and Zpam Delila, usually with Tony's younger brother Adam Widoff and a drum machine providing flesh, and playing their own songs as well as covers of songs by the Minutemen, Roxy Music and Japan. You can sort of see where their minds were going. In early 1987, Doug Ryan joined the fray and Memorial Garage was born. A friend named Lisa came up with the name by accident when Philip, describing his project with Tony, told her he wanted to make music with "more of a garage band sound." She nodded and said, "Who is Memorial Garage?" She had her answer.The band released only 2 albums on cassette in the time period they existed, consisting of 16 songs -- but much of the all-original material they played live was never well-recorded or released, comprising over 40 songs and hours of more experimental things. A lot of that material exists on rehearsal and live tapes, and an archival attempt is being made. Soon, perhaps, both the Memorial Garage official releases and a collection of archived stuff will be available online, here on this very page. Email us here if you're interested in getting some of this music. what was it? The music was angular, jagged, self-deprecating, hysterical, with a weird soft-pop side that would emerge on occasion. The lyrics were emotionally distant, self-referential and often hilarious. The sound was dense, with a trebly-twang bass kick playing off two very different sounding guitars (one, a basic Fender Telecaster jangle, the other, a technically frightening and shrill Kramer), all this working hard with imaginative and rocksteady drumming. On top of this pumice-filled bed, the lead vocals were, as stated, hysterical, Irish-tenor, sometimes pretty, mixed with the throaty harmonies of the bassist.The band played frequently in New York City and occasionally in their home town of Woodstock, NY. They were a decisively non-commercial band, on one level having no inkling and little inclination to market themselves "properly" and on another being rather politically opposed to the whole notion. It might be safe to say they were a very "art for art's sake" kind of band, though not everyone would agree. A June 16 1988 Woodstock Times article about the band said: "Memorial Garage is hard to describe. The high level of musicianship here is played down. No one takes lengthy solos. All shine through the ensemble playing. Challenging and rhythmically chaotic passages are sandwiched betwixt bozo dance sections. Price and Widoff's neurotic vocals demand your attention constantly -- yep, this has 'indie' stamped all over it. Never fey nor arty, Memorial Garage juxtapose sub-Gang of Four aggression with exceptionally beautiful moments. 'The Goriest Art' in particular is a testament to the group's sense of prudence and melody. 'My Life As A Priest is Coming Apart' displays equal skill in the jerky pop department." is it true that Camden Joy wrote about Memorial Garage? Apparently it was a minor obsession of his for a bit. Here is the text of the poster he made about Memorial Garage, unedited. It was part of a bigger rant he was doing against CMJ:
Followup: a friend who knew him got him a tape of Memorial Garage in 1996, and there was perhaps a typically anti-climatic reaction. Oh, well. who played in it Philip
Price was the lead singer, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter.
Since the demise of Memorial Garage in early 1989, he has made music
in such projects as feet
wet, the
bobbins and currently his band, the
maggies, is trying to be a big rock star. He is also in a
country band with Chris Collingwood (Fountains
of Wayne) called the Gay Potatoes.
Tony Widoff was the bassist, backing singer (and occasional lead singer), co-songwriter and co-arranger. His other projects since memorial garage have included his own musical environment called weak, another band called peckslip, writing music for dance, performance, theater and video as well as doing programming for U2's Zoo TV shows. Check out his online artistic enterprise rompu. Adam Widoff was the lead guitarist. Since memgog, as it was occasionally affectionately called, he played guitar with Lenny Kravitz and has produced an album or two. He also has studied Indian music extensively and was a student of sitar master Ustad Jamaluddin Bhartiya. Currently he is the guitarist for Toshi Reagon's band Big Lovely. Doug Ryan was the drummer. He currently lives with his wife and daughters in Vermont and is a writer. He also plays tenor sax quite well and wrote a wealth of his own songs that Memorial Garage never even thought about playing, stupidly. He used to play in NYC bands Rotating Dogs and The Woofles. a memorial garage setlist, from nov. 1988 1.
the tenant |
