Enormous Richard, "Warm Milk on the Porch"

More fun with my dead rock band Enormous Richard! - to hype the inaugural Local Indie Rock Swag Swap Meet going down this Friday, January 9 from 7-9 p.m. at The Schlafly Tap Room, 1221 Locust, with Thomas Crone and me spinning cassettes of dead local bands before The Lettuce Heads kick it with James Will and the Delusions of South Grandeur, and Last to Show, First to Go.

These free mp3s are from our second CD, Warm Milk on the Porch, which actually landed us a national distribution deal from the same outfit (not ... making ... this ... up) that distributed Charles Manson's folk album as well as Kinky Friedman ("They Don't Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore"). The distributor was called Fruit of the Tune, and it went belly up pretty much the day we shipped them our CDs. Welcome to show business.

Our rep at the distrubutor risked life, limb, and lawsuit by basically breaking into the warehouse (which had been sealed under bankruptcy law) to liberate several hundred of our CDs and return them to us, since he loved us so much. He had nothing much to lose - he took the next thing smoking out of New York to Puerto Rico as a tax refugee. I got a postcard from him soon thereafter saying he had opened a fish taco stand on the beach and was surfing every day. Nothing from him since.

(Note to self: try to remember this man's complete name; search for him on FaceBook.)

Warm Milk on the Porch was recorded hurriedly by Meghan Gohil in his basement. Fools that we were, though we had a really tight working band that had been touring nonstop for two years, we reformed a much earlier version of the group to rehearse and record in one weekend the one record we ever did that had national distribution.

But, then, the record only had national distribution for three blinks of an eye, until Fruit of the Tune bit the big one. Who knows what happened to our "product" after that. Guitar Johnny Minkoff reports seeing copies on Amazon, so someone must have bought a bunch of Fruit of the Tune inventory on auction and ended up with our dead record, along with Manson's and Kinky's. Ain't that America? For you and me? Home of the free, baby!

Free mp3s

"Wendy's Got a Wedding Ring"

Ya been there - poem of your childhood gets hitched, not to you.

"Not a Thru Street"

Fun with extended metaphors and crunchy guitars.

"Big Surprise"

"Would I be so surprised/if I had paid more attention to your eyes?"

"Reading in Bed"

This song comes with a free reading list! Get your bookmarks handy!

"Jim Boddy and Bob"

Hey? Can you play? Another man with three legged dog song?

"Untitled"

There is a very specific piece of local music scene history behind this scurrilous song, involving Joe Edwards of Blueberry Hill and his then-tenant, Cicero's Basement Bar (renting what is now basically The Duck Room). Come to the swap meet and I'll tell you.

Personnel: Chris Bess (accordion, piano), Matt Fuller (drums), Chris King (vocals, acoustic guitar), Jay Lauterwasser (bass), Lij (fiddle, banjo, vocals), John Minkoff (electric guitar), Richard Skubish (acoustic guitar, vocals).

Cover image of my cousin Cathy Redmond and her big dog.

Guitar Johnny says he has a stack of these CDs in Chicago. First come, first served: they are free. Let me know.

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Also in this series:

Enormous Richard Answers All Your Questions