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MP3 The John Huss Moderate Combo - Lipchitz
15 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Roots Rock, FOLK: Power-folk
Details:
Lipchitz CD
15 gems from the inventor of Folk ''n'' Roll.
Lipchitz is the first full-length release from The John Huss Moderate Combo & is undoubtedly their finest. John Huss, singer-songwriter-guitarist, drummer J. Niimi (Ashtray Boy), & bassist John Greenfield (Slink Moss, John Greenfield''s Rock Band) teamed up with Boston producer Pete Weiss to produce a spectacularly varied pop album centered around Huss'' cross-eyed lyrical vision. The 15 tracks on this album were recorded at Lair in Chicago & at Zippah in Boston. Guest musicians here include:
Saxophonist John Upturch of the legendary (but sadly defunct) Coctails,
Violinist Susan Voelz (Poi Dog Pondering, John Cougar Mellencamp),
Brassman Dave Max Crawford (Poi Dog Pondering),
Morphine saxophonist Dana Colley &
Boston''s patron saint of rock & roll Charlie Chesterman (ex-Scruffy the Cat).
Following the release of this album were some circumstances & events that helped raise the profile of the band & the album:
*"Lipchitz" was named the #1 local album of 1998 by Chicago radio station WXRT-FM.
*"You''re So Basic" appeared on Local 101, a compilation cd put out by Chicago''s alternative station Q101, featuring cuts from Liz Phair, Pulsars, Wilco, Local H, & other Chicago bands.
*"Go", "Tire Tool", & "Use Your Head" grace the soundtrack to SXSW buzz film "Use Your Head" https://www.tradebit.com
*The band was the subject of a half-hour feature on National Public Radio''s nationally syndicated Anthem program, recorded at the NPR studios in Washington, DC during their 1999 East Coast Tour. https://www.tradebit.com
*Moderate Combo drummer/guitarist J. Niimi has recently published a monograph on the seminal REM album "Murmur" (Continuum, 2005).
*J. Niimi was recently interviewed by the Chicago Reader: https://www.tradebit.com
*John Huss'' article "Monty Python and David Hume on Religion" appears in the forthcoming "Monty Python and Philosophy" (ed. Gary Hardcastle and George Reisch; Open Court, 2005).
PRESS:
COLE PORTER + THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS = JOHN HUSS?
by MikeH, iTunes
OK, so it might sound far-fetched that anyone could write as cleverly as Cole Porter, but I submit for your review John Huss. Check out "Office Work," "Millenium," and "Suburbilly" and you''ll see what I mean. There''s a little bit of TMBG in here too, especially in the melodies and Huss''s vocals. You definitely want to give this album a listen!
"If there are thin lines between clever, stupid, and genius...they just got thinner!!!!" -Roctober
"Huss, mainstay of the Chicago indie rock scene, has been called ''Al Franken with a guitar'' for a reason... Sometimes there''s a serious method to Huss''s madness. In ''How Can You Say There''s No God When the World is So Bent?'' he gets away with singing about things usually best left in the lecture hall or science documentary. Only God can make a tree? Maybe, but God was wrong when She made clout./There''s one detail she never worked out.'' Our world is so off-kilter, there''s even a movie about Steven Hawking''s physics: ''Popcorn in hand, the Cosmos is grand./ It ends but expands without limits.'' The acoustic guitars happily churn away, a bluegrass violin dances on top, and Huss lands right on the line between comedy and philosophy: Mother Nature is a Frankenstein-or a Corvair. (''I''d like to meet whoever made her/ and jot down his name on a card to Ralph Nader.'')
"He even sings about math, but keeps his feet on the ground. That''s where Huss found a tire tool, lying by the side of Lake Shore Drive. It''s "a positive thing-it''s shaped just like a plus/unlike something like a dollar bill which is shaped more or less like a minus." Huss shares Jonathan Richman''s, and especially They Might Be Giants'', knack for seeing ordinary things in interesting ways. And his willingness to experiment with horns, sitars, and Mellotrons makes most of these songs compelling for sonic reasons alone." HHHH - Stereophile
"Diese Platte zu besprechen ist für mich in mehrfacher Hinsicht etwas besonderes: John Huss ist ein Freund von den Ether Frolics, Musik, Gesang, und Prägnanz der Texte liegen irgendwo zwischen Jonathan Richman und Mojo Nixon, den Schlagzeuger teilen sie sich mit Ashtray Boy, zu den Gastmusikern gehören Susan Voelz und Dave Max Crawford (Poi Dog Pondering) sowie John Upturch (früher bei den Coctails). Die Moderate Combo dehnt den Bluegrass vom Swing bis hin zur Metallica, ohne jedoch ernsthaft in Gefähr zu geraten, den Bogen zu überspannen-so hat das bisher nur der ehrwürdige Mojo Nixon hinbekommen, mit dem sich auch den spöttischen bis zynischen Humor teilen. Die ganze wird immer wieder durch die eher geschmeidige bis sanfte Stimme von John Huss ausgeglichen. Große Underground-Kultur also, die durch ihre freche Verschrobenheit überzeugt und nicht durch die Perfektion in den Einzeldisziplinen."
[Translation: "This record is in several respects somewhat special for me to discuss: John Huss is a friend of the Ether Frolics, the music, singing, and conciseness of the texts are appropriate for somewhere between Jonathan Richman and Mojo Nixon, he shares his drummer with Ashtray Boy, and the guest musicians Susan Voelz and Dave Max Crawford (Poi Dog Pondering) as well as John Upturch (in former times with the Coctails). The Moderate Combo stretches the Bluegrass of the Swing up to the Metallica, without however seriously in danger of being too turned out, the elbow too span so has that so far only the venerable Mojo Nixon gets, with which also divide the sneering to cynical humor. The whole becomes again and again balanced by the rather supple to gentle voice of John Huss. Large Underground culture thus, those by their impudent crankiness convinces and not by perfection in the single disciplines."]- Superstar (Hamburg, Germany)
"driving, literate pop" -Option
"charming, funny" - CMJ New Music Report
"great dancing music that will leave even the grouchiest sourpuss smiling ... a weird, tuneful trip into Huss''s unpredictable imagination." - The Onion
"rollicking folk rock that occasionally trips over jazz" - The Chicago Reader
"...an expansive and memorable musical persona... When you hear John Huss, you pay attention because it''s not much like anything you''ve heard lately." - Chicago Tribune
DISCOGRAPHY (incomplete)
Folk ''n'' Roll
John Huss & Weasel Parts
Format: audiocassette
Label: self-released
Country: USA
Release Date: ????
Length: ????
Notes: Huss first met producer Pete Weiss (Weisstronauts) in 1991 when he drove from Chicago to Boston to record these tracks. They were recorded in two sessions in 1991 and 1992 at Boston''s Zippah studio on 8-track reel-to-reel back when Zippah was called Zip-Loc. The Weasel Parts are composed of Huss'' Stoats bandmate (lead guitarist Tim Heffernan), as well as members (drummer Rob Rudin and bassist Matt Swift) of Heffernan''s former band from Simon''s Rock College, Four Out of Five Dentists. Special guests include Pete Weiss and legendary Treat Her Right harmonica player Jim Fitting. Never intended as an album, but merely as a way to preserve the songs on some kind of recording, the results of this session were eventually assembled into Folk ''n'' Roll, which was manufactured in two runs of 100, and sold at shows to recoup recording costs. The tapes were sold from the stage at Chicago venues such as Jimmy''s Woodlawn Tap, the Avalon, the Gargoyle, At The Tracks, the Elbo Room, and Phyllis'' Musical Inn, as well as CB''s Gallery, Brownie''s, and Sin-E in New York. Since some of the songs were recorded in two versions, the cassette includes both versions, with Side One the Folk Side, and Side Two the Roll Side. The tracks on the Folk Side feature Huss solo on acoustic guitar. On a couple of tracks he is accompanied by Weiss on sand blocks, twelve-string electric, or backing vocals. The tracks on the Roll Side were recorded with the Weasel Parts.
Tracks:
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Caught in the Zippah: A Collection of Zip-Loc Jewels
Various Artists
Format: cd
Label: Zip-Loc Recording
Release date: 1992
1. Ghost Shirts - 38th Subjective Rant (Song X)
2. Laugh at the Monkey - Blue Water
3. Flatdog - 7 a.m.
4. 23 Skidoo - Piercing George''s Ears
5. The Heylos - Hang Me (with the rest of my tribe)
6. Grant Bond - Much Too Much
7. Tequila Mockingbird - Iron Steed
8. Vayda - Tell Me Why
9. John Huss - Sand in the Chips
10. Brain Gods - Have Mercy On Junkies
11. Tin Fish - Seduction
12. Grant Bond - Seems to Me
13. 23 Skidoo - Blinding Flash of Light
14. Tequila Mockingbird - Hold on Tight
15. The Heylos - Beautiful Brains
16. Vayda - Hold Me
17. Brain Gods - Asbestos Worker
18. John Huss - Tire Tool
19. The Harmony Rockets - Thunderchicken
*************************************************************************
100 Watts - Songs from WHPK''s Pure Hype
Various Artists
Format: cd
Label: Atavistic
Country: USA
Release Date: 1995
Length: ????
From the WHPK website :
"In 1995, WHPK released a CD of live performances from Pure Hype. The CD focused on Chicago-based artists, some of whom were already famous, others who would become so, and a few more whose work might have gone relatively undocumented had it not been for an appearance on this compilation.
As the liner notes state, ''Few musicians make a living from rock and roll. They make some effort to find the time to write songs and to practice. The added time it takes to line up shows or to put music out makes conveying their ideas beyond the walls of their basement rehearsal spaces difficult. Pure Hype gives Chicago bands a place to perform and to talk about what''s on their minds. The show''s usefulness, however, extends beyond helping out working musicians. Pure Hype seeks to convey to listeners a sense of the variety of styles of rock in Chicago. Live local radio routinely digs beneath what is commercially available, offering the fresh, perhaps still not-fully-formed sounds of music being made.''
Pure Hype remains committed to the same ideals today, as you can see from our current schedule . Unfortunately, the CD is now out of print."
1. - The John Huss Moderate Combo - Go - 2:40
2. - The Handsome Family - Claire Said - 3:48
3. - Prichard - Prichard''s Lament - 1:59
4. - Toulouse - Battle of Rockets - 4:34
5. - Sput - Thurston''s Song - 2:14
6. - 0:09
7. - Scissor Girls - By Process E-limination - 4:21
8. - Eleventh Dream Day - History of Brokeback - 3:59
9. - Alkaloid - Precisely - 4:12
10. - Weedy - Unfrozen Punk Rocker - 2:46
11. - Barbara Manning & Brently Pusser - Eights - 2:57
12. - Hideaways - House of Cards - 2:22
13. - Velour Motel - Big T.V. - 3:57
14. - Goblins - Creature Feature - 2:34
15. - Tart - Shut Up - 2:53
16. - Three Blue Teardrops - Lincoln ''59 - 3:50
17. - Dingle - DC Song - 2:15
18. - Ashtray Boy - Val and Gina - 3:58
19. - Ting - Bikini - 2:39
20. - Galaxy of Mailbox Whores - Running Scared - 5:48
21. - Drag King - Narantanz - 1:49
22. - Coctails - Wheels - 4:00
23. - 3:52 -
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PUNK''NHEAD TRIBUTE FLEXIDISC
ROCTOBER Magazine
Various Artists
Release Date: October 31, 1995
TRIPZILLA
MCRACKINS
ROYAL CROWNS
GEEZERS
LIGON BROTHERS
JOHN HUSS MODERATE COMBO
JAKSHIT
SINGING COCKROACHES
GIRL TROUBLE
THE MILLIONAIRE
THE GOBLINS
A$$TROLAND
BUTTERGLORY
IGGY YOAKUM
*************************************************************************
Braying Mantis
The John Huss Moderate Combo
Format: 7 inch e.p.
Label: It Won''t Go Flat (Chicago)
Release date: ???
Tracks:
1. National Anthem
2. Delaware
3. That''s Unfair
4. Moderate Combo Theme Song
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Local 101: Volume 1
Format: CD
Label: Q101 LOCAL.101
Country: USA
Release Date: July 21, 1998
Length: 63:20
Notes: This CD from Chicago radio station Q101 was sold exclusively in the Greater Chicago area ( Blockbuster Music, Tower Records, and Sam Goody /Musicland locations) for $7.99, and proceeds go to M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).
Tracks:
Level On The Inside - Dovetail Joint (3:23)
I Know You Love Me - Smoking Popes (3:12)
Black Limbo - My Scarlet Life (3:26)
Pretty Little Orange - A Modern Joy (3:57)
You Are Ignored - Fondly (2:45)
Once Again - Claire (3:46)
Cool For Cats - Pulsars (3:26)
Nerve Gas - Kill Hannah (3:45)
Sitting On The Sidelines - The Rolls (3:33)
All You Need - Doris (2:59)
Freak Of Nature -Liz Phair (2:07)
You''re So Basic - John Huss Moderate Combo (2:27)
The Mattachine Society - The Aluminum Group (2:56)
Audacious - Atrixo (3:22)
Play - Certain Distant Suns (3:27)
Talking Smack - Local H (2:36)
Flesh:wound - Massivivid (3:23)
Passenger Side - Wilco (8:50)
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