JD King & The Coachmen-American Mercury, E#99C CD $5.50
THE COACHMEN are a significant factor in Sonic Youth’s history. In 1976 an 18 year old Thurston Moore was shopping for records at New Haven, Conecticut’s very hip, very well stocked Cutler’s Record Store. As he bee-lined to the Velvet Underground section, always an oasis of disinterest from the plethora of hippie-squares milling about, he caught sight of a tall, geeky short haired artist-type fingering through the not-very-many VU LPs available. “Not a lotta Velvets records here, huh?” Thurston broached, curious as to see if this fellow indeed was “hip” or just an accidental tourist as such. An amazing conversation took place where all kinds of arcane points were hit from the Flamin’ Groovies to Punk Magazine and back again. The next few months had Thurston pen-palling with this cat who turned out be J.D. King, a graduating artist from The Rhode Island School of Design, the same art school the Talking Heads came from. Following David Byrne and company’s lead, J.D. and some other like-minded aesthetes moved to NYC to do art and create punk bands. J.D. invited Thurston to move there as well and play and HE DID and they started The Coachmen, played some art loft gigs as well as a CBGB and Max’s Kansas City show or two. Some great T Heads/Television/Modern Lovers style songs were written. The first few were recorded and subsequently in the mid 80s released by Thurston through Ecstatic Peace via New Alliance, the Minutemen’s imprint at SST. That record, “Failure to Thrive”, is what J Mascis tells Thurston is “the best record you ever made”. Ha! J.D. King, Thurston and bass player Bob Pullen were each 6’6” tall, in fact Bob was actually 6’10”! (The drummer Dan Walworth was “normal” sized). The Coachmen rumbled/rambled through the no-wave scene of downtown NYC and broke up in late 1979. J.D. went on to become a celebrated illustrator/cartoonist and Thurston went on to form Sonic Youth. The Coachmen as an entity was reborn through the creative whatsis of J.D. in the 90s and through Thurston’s sporadic and wildly dynamic Ecstatic Peace imprint released the oddly bent "Ten Compositions: New Frontiers in Free Rock" which came with a staple poetry journal sprung form the same question-marked mind which made the music. Some more years pass and on the Ecstatic Peace doorstep lands a second installment of post 70s Coachmen action. And here it is, even more left-field and even more uncategorizable then it ‘s predecessor. A completely bizarre out-of-all-known-voids sound/music/junk/chance/noise/don’t-ask-us compendium of Coachmen goodness. Ecstatic Peace is only too happy to be there with Thurston’s first band, long may “they” never break up.
"American Mercury" is a deft and erudite blend of Cagian principles,
psychedelic vortexes, free-jazz explosions, fuzz-toned ragas, gut-bucket
blues, deep
twang and garage-rock stomp.
The anarchy of their previous release, "Ten Compositions: New Frontiers in
Free Rock," is now tempered with instruments in tune, playing genuine chords
and
melodic shards.
Besides JD King (guitar), current members are: Valerie Boyd (guitar), May
December (bass) and Simone Kwik (drums).
Art direction is by David "Duplex Planet" Greenberger.
The cover and interior illustrations are by JD King.
Production is by digital wizard Chas Leland.
JD King & The Coachmen can be reached at: GreenDolfy@AOL.com
