Category Archives: True High Fidelity

A FAVORITE PHOTO


Posted by Brian


Easily one of my favorite photos in my collection, this snap was taken after the three week tour Franklin and Fracture undertook in August of 1994. Our very first. We had just played our final show of the trip in a garage in Virginia Beach and before packing the vehicles to head home, we stopped to grab this shot.

Featuring everyone on the trip save for Chris who was being grouchy (including Rod and the guys from True High Fidelity) it’s one of those great moments that you’re just as happy to have captured at age 20 as age 38 and beyond.

Starting from the lower left hand corner, we’ve got:

Ralph
Greg
Jesse
Mark
Tim
Rod
Jeb
Roy
Staley
Atom
Me
Josh


SOME OLD FLYERS AND RANDOM PHOTOS


Posted by Brian

Dug up some oldies…this flyer was for a show at the thunderous 508 House in Tom’s River, NJ. This was the final show of the Fracture/Franklin summer tour of 1995. That’s actually a picture of me singing for Astir-Few on the flyer.

These two photos of Franklin playing a Cabbage Collective Show at the church at 48th & Baltimore appeared in a zine that I no longer have. Looks like I just kept the photos. The ego, I tell ya.

From what I can recall, these photos were taken from a show we played with Hoover and Hose.Got.Cable but I can’t be sure.

These two photos were taken in a basement outside of Baltimore, MD. in the fall of 1996. Franklin went on a 2 month US tour taking Atom and Schumow with us. Fracture had disbanded, so Atom had been spending time learning how to use sequencers and 4-tracks to record his own music. Atom booked the tour for us so we wanted him to also play some of his songs before we played on the tour. So, at each show, he’d perform 3 or 4 songs.

This was the start of Atom & His Package and this show here in this basement, I believe, was Atom’s first, actual performance as Atom & His Package.

Another flyer I found of a show that was held out in the Philadelphia suburbs. While we didn’t play the show that’s me playing guitar in Franklin on the flyer.


TRUE HIGH FIDELITY – FINAL RECORDING


Posted by Brian

Oh lordy, the hits don’t stop. To start the week off right, we have the final document in the True High Fidelity canon.

Last week, I was dumbfounded to discover a hidden shoe box full of cassette tapes and DAT tapes. All of which contained some truly tasty gems that I hope to get to sooner than later. When I found this cassette tape, at first I thought it might be the full recording of the True High Fidelity demo with Mark Scott. However, I quickly realized, that it was in fact the final (and what I believe to be the best) recording True High Fi made.

After the True High Fidelity 7″ on Energy Network, the boys were quickly altering and adjusting their sound. In addition, recent vocalists Chris Staley and Josh Mills were getting more comfortable howling into a microphone. With the boys being not as pleased with their first 7″ as they had hoped they would have been they were very eager to record something new. Their goal being to be release the songs via Energy Network or thru some other, poorly run, record label.

The gents headed down to Virginia, I believe, to record in a studio where bands such as Maximillian Colby had unleashed their elephant sized sounds. The result is a recording that honestly and genuinely reflect True High Fidelity at its very best with all of the boys sharing vocal duties.

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to turn this up.

Song 1

Song 2

Song 3

Song 4


TRUE HIGH FIDELITY DEMO


Posted by Brian

Thanks to Atom and his summer break from teaching for unearthing this long thought lost gem!

True High Fidelity, when originally formed, featured Mark Scott of Fracture on singing duties. It was short lived, but this iteration of the gang recorded a demo. At the time, sadly, I recall people thought Mark’s singing sounded odd which is odd in itself because, listening now, it sounds pretty fucking righteous. I had believed there were three songs recorded for this demo, but Atom only came across two. Two is of course better than none.

I shot Mark an email to fill in some of the details and here’s what he had to say:

“Following the first Fracture and Franklin tour of 94, I’d become acquainted with the boys of True High Fidelity. Liked them all. Dave and Josh were hilarious. Chris was charmingly psychotic. Tim was the world’s nicest guy. When they asked if I’d like to sing with them, I was a) honored, b) excited to work with new personalities, c) excited to sing, and d) excited to work on music that was stylistically very different from that of the other band I was in and loved. We got along famously for a while, and in December of 1994, sojourned to Baltimore to record three songs at Social Services with the great Tony French. As happened with Chris O’Neil during the recording of the Fracture LP, I lost my voice from a combination of too many cigarettes in the freezing cold and too much barking into a microphone. We scrapped my vocals, and I resolved to record them back home at Chill Factor. My vocals were recorded by Eric Horwitz.

Shortly after the recording, I was dismissed from the band. With the benefit of hindsight, I think there were two factors. For one, I’d gone batshit crazy. For the other, the boys were moving away from their DC influences and gravitating (pun intended) towards the San Diego destructo sound, and were eager to scream and be crazy. In all honesty, they were much better at this than I was, and I think I enjoyed watching them after my exit as much as I enjoyed performing with them. I did, however, miss it.

My final show with True High Fidelity was on my birthday, March 2, 1995, opening for our heroes Trenchmouth at Haverford University. I drank two 40′s and smoked a joint with Staley in the van just prior to our performance. I was most likely horrible, and hope no video exists, but I did enjoy it. I do think back on my time with those guys fondly. (Ed. note – I forgot all about this! I think Mark spent a good 40 minutes passed out in his mother’s mini-van from being too mucked up!)

Thanks Mark! Enjoy!

True Hi Fi – Mark 1

True Hi Fi – Mark 2


I AM HEAVEN – S/T LP


Posted by Brian

One thing that is difficult about running a blog such as this one is trying to remember details. I’ve said it before in previous posts, but in regards to certain musical projects or time periods, my memory is pretty much void. An obvious solution of course would be to go to other interested parties and ask them to contribute their thoughts or memories. Believe you me, I have…unfortunately, what I get is a lot of ballooey.

Fortunately, I did see Mike Parsell last night, and he was able to give me a little background information about today’s subject, I Am Heaven.

I Am Heaven was a very short lived band that formed somewhere in the area of 1995. As Mike explains it (and I summarize), after Frail broke up, he teamed up with Eric Wareheim and Fred Coldwell who had been playing in a band called Elements of Need. Brian Hutchinson (a fella who had played in a band called Lollycolumn) was looking for a band and thus, I Am Heaven was formed.

Mike, who had been playing drums for Mandela Strikeforce, would stay on the drums, Eric played guitar, Brian would play bass and Fred would sing. They started practicing pretty steadily and began playing shows pretty quickly. One thing I Am Heaven was known for was their equipment. Believing in the idea that, “more volume meant more awesome”, I Am Heaven boasted the following gear when they played live:

2 – 8×10″ Marshall guitar cabinets
2 – 2×15″ Fender bass cabinets
2 – Mark II Marshall guitar heads
2 – Ampeg bass heads

Mind you, this was potentially enough wattage to power a small radio station, but I Am Heaven, only being around a short while, rarely played outside of basements. Needless to say, a typical I Am Heaven show (while visually impressive because of the sheer amount of equipment) rarely sounded like anything more than ear-splitting noise. Which was a shame since they had a great bit of talent between the bunch of them and some righteous grooves.

That’s why it was such a pleasure when they recorded this 12″ LP. To this day, I don’t think anyone can say for sure if it was ever officially released, but I managed to get my hands on a copy of the vinyl, sans cover. Was there a cover? I don’t know.

The record was recorded at Snugfit Studios by an older fella who lived with his Mom. Several bands would record there over the years and it’s understandable why. The ride cymbal on this I Am Heaven recording sounds great. It’s really difficult to get a good ride cymbal bell on recording so when you find a person that can, you stick with them.

Of course, following I Am Heaven, Mike and Brian would go on to form Goodbye, Blue Monday with Tim and Chris from True High Fidelity. Eric would form Ink & Dagger with Don Devore and Sean McCabe and Fred would kind of groove out for a while.

Sorry, no song titles on this slab of wax. Enjoy!

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