Angela Messina: The first on the list is the New Faggot Cunts. They started up soon after Derek Schartung and I moved to Nashville in late 1998 and met up with Chris Davis. Chris had been playing in bands like the Cherry Blossoms, the Scallions, Frothy Shakes (whose sole LP is the infamous Killed By Death ..11), the Tiny Corkscrews, and drumming for Dave Cloud. So, we started hanging out and jamming with the line-up as Chris on drums and some vocals, Derek on guitar and keyboard, and me on guitar, some vocals and some bass. We did this for a couple of years or more with Matt St. Germaine (of Freedom From Records) as a sometimes guitar-playing road member. We did several small tours with bands such as Reynols and No Doctors, and we played more than a few shows with Wolf Eyes, Death Beam, Hair Police, Pengo, and Newton. Our shit was heavy, loud, droning-psych chaos with most shows breaking down after everyone began spazzing-out. Equipment was tossed and chords were pulled-out, creating a mess. Chris would stack his drum kit up, climb up on em and dive headfirst onto the floor. It was just a pile of guitars, pedals and people. After a while, Chris began focusing more on the Cherry Blossoms, and I think he and I were pissed at each other (at the time) for something that I cant even recall. We can both be very sensitive folks. Its okay. Were making sounds together these days, and everyone is behaving. Anyway, Derek and I went back to doing the duo project, which at that time was called Sweet, Small Children.
Okay. So, I should back up a bit; I forget things, and when getting it all down, it all starts to blur and the chronology gets tossed aside. Before moving to Nashville and playing with Chris, Derek and I lived in Memphis, playing together under several monikers since 1994. The longest lived being Cornfed, a three-piece bratty garage-influenced, Fall-influenced, and too-influenced band that managed to hammer-out several 7-inches and a full-length CD on Shangri-La Records. That shit fell through when the drummer quit, and our mostly girl band became a mostly boy band, and the shtick was no more. This was fine for Derek and me; we never had a lot of heart for the music we were making. It was all a little too straight for both of us. No love lost -- we just started doing a lot of duo recordings at home and very little playing out. Eventually, Memphis got old and stale, and we both needed to get away from its terrible clutches. That town has a way of sucking you in and sucking you dry. Its cheap, easy and lawless, and that has its momentary appeals. But after a while, you get sick of all your shit getting ripped-off and seeing the depravity of the drug-addled all around you. Its too easy to do nothing. A fun town to visit, but I wouldnt recommend sticking around for too long; it will seize you.
During and after the New Faggot Cunts, Derek and I had continued on doing all these unnamed duo recordings and occasionally bringing it out live under Sweet, Small Children. It was both improvised and prepared. I should also mention that we each have solo projects. Derek originally began as Taiwan Deth, named after an SK-1 he tweaked-out. His solo stuff is loud, beat-centric, very damaged electronic music, and sampling. He is the brains behind the robot shit you hear in Taiwan Deth and Tan as Fuck. The Vegan Brand is my solo stuff, which ranges from super-duper pop to ambient guitar-scapes to twenty-minute psych-jams. The name is just something that makes me giggle like vegan-brand meat products, vegan-brand Vienna sausages and vegan-brand tenderloin -- silly stuff.
In the summer of 2002, Derek and I met up with Josh Elrod (of Phase Selector Sound) and began jamming and recording almost constantly that summer. This was and is the current Tan as Fuck. In the fall of that year, we started getting out on the road -- touring as much as possible for the next year and half. During this time, we released several CD-R's including Skully, UVA/UVB, and Heavier than Excitement. Then the Audiobot label (out of Belgium) released (SARS)chasm, and the U-Sound label (here in the States) put us out in the form of U Sound Archive ..17. Josh then moved to New York in 2003, and we started working as a tour-only project as we still do today. Oh yeah, the line-up is Josh on vocals, samplers, and drums; Derek on vocals, keyboards, and sax; and me on vocals, guitar, and flute.
After Joshs move to New York, Derek and I returned to our duo project, and this time we just adopted his Taiwan Deth solo name. So, then more recording and playing-out as the two of us, which is just easier. Derek and I have been playing together improvised and planned for more than 10 years. We kind of know where each other is heading. It is our favorite musical endeavor to date.
Now this is a totally glossed-over and lightly detailed account of musical things here in Nashville. Im leaving off a dozen other projects Derek and I have been involved with together and separately. This glib overview is merely a portal into a much larger thing, one that involves art, performance, as well as, music. This is really a skeleton -- a small portion of my musical family tree.
This is my music video for "It's Not Easy When You're Me"
You guys, I've been told I need to do a better job of promotimg my band, so I'm trying my hand at ye olde myspace spamming... Have you ever been friends with a myspace spammer? Have you ever woken up next to a myspace spammer? I figure in the future we'll all probably be robots anyway, so I'm cool with it...
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kimora just wanted to say thank you for the birthday love and the love you guys give me.
