bill whitten - grand mal/st. johnny - s/d

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ok. suspect a few of you people may hate'em, but all the stuff i have heard i have totally loved. from the machine driven noises of malediction to the easy sleazy sonic youth rip offs of st. johnny, through to the stuff that aint yet released (produced as ever by dave fridmann - so far unreleased - more details upon request) that totally bypasses 2005 and heads straight to 1972/3.

so tell me .. does bill play around NYC a lot .. is he a good live act .. or does no-one but me care anymore ..

mark e (mark e), Monday, 25 July 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

Bill makes Dean Wareham look animated on stage..and he got on th cool train before it was cool so noone cares but his diehards..I always thought he was a tortured junkius.but he's clean and roper now so maybe he will wiggle more..I got to portray Fridmann on piano in th St Johnny Scuba Diving video..come to think of it maybe I am th reason for ennui surrounding..

dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

I kinda liked St. Johnny's first single, and thought their final grab for the brass ring (or more specifically dollar-on-the-fishhook) "Scuba Diving" was totally fantastic.

Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

ah ha .. glad to see i aint the only one who is aware of the coolness. i would love to catch him live however laid back he is these days.

the new stuff is by far the best stuff he has done IMHO of course .. relaxed and easy but very classic sounding.

mark e (mark e), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

seven months pass...
the album thats been on my shelf for nearly a year finally gets released !

and not only that but there is to be a fucking great concert/party thing in NYC.

http://www.newyorknighttrain.com/recordings/gmrecrel.html

lucky bastards.

mark e (mark e), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 21:17 (twenty years ago)

eleven months pass...
ahhh, i'm so glad to see i aint the only one who enjoyed this 'bands' last album, love is the best con in town.
was one of my faves last year and probably topped my non-existent list for 2006.

mark e, Monday, 26 February 2007 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

nine years pass...

9 years on and still listening ..

not sure if that makes me the ultra sad f*ck, or, the ultimate dedicated listener who needs to move on.

or .. the world has yet to catch up.

mark e, Thursday, 21 April 2016 22:02 (nine years ago)

ha, i had some friends in high school who loved st johnny -- they even tracked down whitten's phone number and called him up, which i'm sure was a funny experience for him. i liked a few things, but never dug in too deep.

tylerw, Thursday, 21 April 2016 22:35 (nine years ago)

two years pass...

https://iheartnoise.bandcamp.com/album/william-carlos-whitten-burn-my-letters

bill is still making albums that mean more to me than anyone else, however, clearly someone else has succumbed as this is available on cassette.

mark e, Thursday, 9 August 2018 23:15 (seven years ago)

Hi Mark:

That's us/our label!

How it came about - I talked to Bill on Twitter for years without realizing who he is. Somewhere down the line he said he's looking to release a solo album.

And that's how I learned about St. Johnny and Grand Mal and The Silent League.

We tried contacting Geffen about reissuing St Johnny material, but it was a no-go, so here we are :)

BML is a great album - could've been a radio hit in Geffen's hands.

iheartnoise, Friday, 10 August 2018 11:04 (seven years ago)

bill was involved with the silent league ?
did not realise that.
maybe I should dig the cds out and look at the credits more closely.
shame re st johnny reissues, but to be fair, suspect there would not be much demand, and the original albums are relatively easy to pick up.

mark e, Friday, 10 August 2018 11:11 (seven years ago)

six years pass...

nearly 20 years on from when i started this non-thread,
bill is about to release the strangest album of his career so far.
lo-fi drum machines/guitars/synths vs girl-vox.

https://iheartnoise.bandcamp.com/album/ihn012-william-carlos-whitten-diana-crash-telepaths

mark e, Wednesday, 16 July 2025 21:00 (seven months ago)


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