Handwriting (30th Anniversary Silver Vinyl)

Originally released in 1995. Jacket and LP inserted custom screen printed by Dexterity Press. Also includes a 16 page booklet. Silver vinyl limited to 500 copies. 

 

The Rachel's band began when Jason Noble joined forces with Christian Frederickson. Within months of their meeting on a crowded trolley, they had formed a small ensemble to perform original compositions. Tony French, who ran a warehouse studio called the Hat Factory, accepted a piece of wood, glass & shellac artwork, for payment and the first  Rachel's tune was complete. In the next three years however, madness ensued. In it's span, Christian finished his degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, traveled to Switzerland to study, returned to his home in Port Townsend, WA. then wound up in NYC to attend the Julliard School. Jason didn't finish his degree, moved back to Louisville, began employment as an artist by day, dishwasher by night, and began working with friends in a band that would become Rodan.

 

This insane, all over the world life-style, led to a barrage of telephone, demo tape, notepaper, sheet music & mail communication. This, combined with sporadic two week or two day person to person collaborations in whatever city was central enough, became the bizarre process of the music. During this long gestation, Rachel Grimes became involved,  first assisting Jason in his brute comprehension of written music, then joining as a pianist & confidant. Soon she was fully entrenched, providing the strange coincidence of possessing the name "Rachel," and an incredible backbone to the project. Several recordings had been finished, some with Tony French in the studio, hundreds of 8-track cassettes, a few jambox cuts, but the time for a concentrated attempt at an LP seemed far away. Finally, Rachel, Christian, & Jason began assembling musicians who they respected; John, Mark and Barry from the Chicago supergroup The Coctails, Kevin Coultas from Rodan, Bob Weston, a close engineering companion and ex-Bassist for The Volcano Suns & The Julianna Hatfield Band and several other string players from various walks of life.

 

The result was a group of semi-vagrants, some reading from sheet music, some rambunctious noisemakers, working from an equally improvisational and tight-assed way. The real character comes from the musicians involved, participating in what can only be called a "labor of love." 

 

Track Listing:

Side A
Southbound to Marion
M. Daguerre
Saccharin

 

Side B
Frida Kahlo
Seratonin
Full on Night
Handwriting