Jamie K. Sims - songwriter, lead vocals, wooden spoons, Jaguar and Ace Tone organ Nel Moore - vocals, harmonica, sticks, pans Mitch Easter - guitar, drums, pies David Itch - guitar, vocals Evan "Funk" Davies - drums and looks Cathy Harrington - keyboards Jeff Dedrick - keyboards Robert Crenshaw - drums Will Rigby - drums and former dancer Judy Monteleone - rhythm guitar, vocals, keyboards (tour & live shows) The Cosmopolitans on Facebook
Influences
Debbie Drake, cats. Actual pet cats, that is, not that stupid Broadway show. Surfing, beaches, Louis Falco, the Left Bank, the Shangri-Las, Sam the Sham, the Ronettes, Dick Dale, Jefferson Airplane, Elvis Presley, Bela Bartok, Indian food, summer.
Sounds Like
ALL MUSIC GUIDE (2006)
. . . "(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy," . . . a brisk, tight-ass groove of a number that has more going on in under three minutes time than most bands' careers. Brilliantly sarcastic spoken word delivery, a great arrangement with further help from Mitch Easter, complete immediacy throughout -- it's a perfect song then and now.. . . the tearjerker-paced "Doug," the tale of a moldering corpse looked after by his widow, feeling like they could be soundtracking some great lost John Waters musical. [Ned Raggett]
THE NEW YORK TIMES – Nov. 21, 1980
Three worthwhile new singles have come this way recently. “(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy” (Shake Records, 186 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010) is the first release by the Cosmopolitans. It’s a very funny dance number with an exercise-class chorus . . . [Robert Palmer]
MELODY MAKER – Dec. 13, 1980
The Cosmopolitans’ three-track single “(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy” is already a turntable hit in Manhattan discos. . . . [David Fricke]
NEW YORK POST – Dec. 12, 1980
The Cosmopolitans . . . will be at the Peppermint Lounge tomorrow night . . .Jamie was named after a racehorse in the Kentucky Derby, spent much of her early childhood in a green cardboard box in the backyard, . . . worked as a maid in a motel and drives a Chevy Malibu 307. . . Sounds like they walked off the set of a John Waters movie.
[Lisa Robinson]
CREATIVE LOAFING - May 30, 2006
. . . Sims’ party-out-of-bounds concept of “Shangri-La’s meets the Fleshtones,” wedded to some genuinely bizarre ripped-from-tabloids lyrics, ensured no shortage of wild shows. “The audience would throw things like socks and stuffed animals at us,” Sims recalls. . . . [Fred Mills]
TROUSER PRESS - 2006 -
Blend the B-52's with the Fleshtones and multiply the resulting lunacy by a factor of ten and you'll come up with something close to the Cosmopolitans . . . "(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy" b/w "Wild Moose Party" (named after Sims' gargantuan house cat, a truly massive beast judging from his photo). One of the most unhinged party singles of the new wave era, it remained the evidence of the group's existence until the long-belated Wild Moose Party, which augments the single with demos and live performances. It's all amazing stuff, frantically out-of-control party music that makes bands like the Lyres seem as staid as James Taylor. The enhanced disc also contains the gloriously primitive lo-fi video for "(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy." This combo lived fast, died young and left a great-sounding corpse. – [Brad Reno]
THE VILLAGE VOICE – Nov. 19-25, 1980
“(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy,” the Cosmopolitans’ first single on Shake Records, is perfect, chirpy DOR, all squrirrely keyboards, clattering percussion – and vampy tongue-in-cheek checklist lyrics . . . They’re new wave pom-pom girls, with brains. [Debra Rae Cohen]
RECORD WORLD Single Picks – Nov. 29, 1980
. . .marvelous slice of fun . . . the ladies play and sing with unrestrained innocence.
OUI MAGAZINE – Aug. 1981
. . . They jerk, stomp, frug, and monkey with choreographed precision, then unleash a flurry of manic, made-up dance steps. With a single called “(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy” . . . you can imagine that the rest of their material runs on the odd side. “Party Boy”, “Bullworker” and “Chevy Baby” (about a couple who sells their child for a Chevrolet) are mere warm-up exercises for “Rockin’ Doctors” and “Wild Moose Party.”
[Margy Rochlin]
HARP MAGAZINE – (August 2006)
In 2006 the notion of a bouncy femme-pop number inspired by an early 60s TV exercise queen may seem irredeemably kitschy. But in 1980, when New York’s Cosmopolitans stormed the college-rock airwaves with “(How to Keep Your” Husband Happy,” no one winced. They were too busy dancing, chanting the Cosmos signature mantra (“Shape up, firm up, tone up – with Debbie!”) . . . the Cosmopolitans . . . bum-rushed a downtown club scene eager for a dose of hi-nrg, choreographed new wave. . . .
RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER – Apr. 27, 2006
One of the most gloriously goofy slices of cheese the new-wave era produced, "Husband" was based on an exercise record by Debbie Drake, the late-'50s queen of televised fitness. It's perfect tongue-in-cheek kitsch right down to the chanted chorus of, "Shake up, firm up, tone up with Debbie!" [David Menconi]
GARAGE AND BEAT MAGAZINE (“Sept Reviews” 2006) They were only around for a few years, but probably could have set the world on fire if they had kept at it and had been able to keep a steady lineup.
New Retrospective CD OUT NOW!
"WiLd MoOsE PaRTy - New Wave Pom Pom Girls Gone Go-Go, NYC 1980-1981" Includes Previously Unreleased Recordings + VINTAGE 1980 VIDEO!
Los Angeles-based Dionysus Records has just released the long-awaited retrospective CD of this acclaimed early-80s New Wave party band! Titled Wild Moose Party: New Wave Pom Pom Girls Gone Go-Go NYC 1980, the enhanced CD features all three classic out-of-print Shake Records tracks, many unreleased studio and live recordings, and -- perhaps best of all -- the original pre-MTV video of "(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy," featuring Mitch Easter and Faye Hunter (pre-Let's Active!) and footage of the band playing on New Jersey's legendary Uncle Floyd Show!
The CD can be found in stores and online now! Visit your favorite music store, and ask for it by name!
about The Cosmopolitans
The Cosmopolitans were a nifty little dance troupe-turned-rock combo that caught the fancy of swinging New Yorkers at the height of the punk/New Wave era. They are best-remembered for cutting one of the most infectious singles of the era: "(How to Keep Your) Husband Happy" b/w "Wild Moose Party" and "Dancin' Lesson," on the same Shake Records label that put out early releases by the dB's, Richard Hell and others.
As the Seventies bled into the Eighties, the Cosmopolitans' delightfully absurd and danceable party-rock creations inspired normally sedentary, shoe-gazing clubgoers to move their two left feet to the beat. Old Sixties dance steps like the Frug, the Jerk and the Swim were reborn, and hot new Eighties inventions like the "dB Drop" and the "Fleshtone Flank Step" - consult the aforementioned "Dancin' Lesson" for further elaboration - were brought to the floors of the hippest downtown rock clubs, including CBGB's, Max's Kansas City, Irving Plaza, Club 57, the Ritz, the Peppermint Lounge and Tier Three.
The group also ventured uptown (Hurrah) and over the river (Maxwell's, in Hoboken). In the anything-goes Eighties, these high-stepping terpsichoreans helped many a young man and woman make a splash at their next New Wave cotillion.
If Sam the Sham had been Samantha, if the Kingsmen had been Queens, if the Swingin' Medallions had been sorority sisters instead of frat boys, and if all of them had a schooled background in modern dance, then you might have some idea of the devilishly unique space the Cosmopolitans occupied. Think Shangri-La's meet Fleshtones, if you can wrap your mind around such a concept. The Cosmopolitans simultaneously referenced Sixties girl-group pop and party music; the DIY spirit of late-Seventies punk and power pop; the angular, driving minimalism of early-Eighties New Wave; and a timeless, well-cultivated sense of the absurd. And during their brief lifespan as a band, people got it. And now, you can too. Use the links above to get your copy of Wild Moose Party now!
Portions of the above text taken from Parke Puterbaugh's liner notes; check the blog post above to read the liner notes in their entirety
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
I love your music! I will play another tracks in the next party :) I would like to be there to see your show... Good luck and good vibrations from Brasil!
You've got it. . I figured out all you have to do is use "load in," "sound check" (or "extended sound check"which = practice) & "packing up" as reasons or excuses for anything. Call everything you do in the rest of your life (appointments, jobs, meetings, dates) a "gig" and know that the person that gets you in at a club is a "talent buyer" and EVERYONE will believe you are in the "biz".
I can certainly handle a banner. . . or even keyboard as long as it isn't like this -
of course I wouldn't trust the stage at the Cradle to deal with it either! LOL
I will bring work cloths. . . looking forward to seeing the show and honored to help. (let me know when you plan load in . . Mr. Dixon sometimes neglects such trivia;-)
Looking forward to it! Will be there with bells on and I will be there early (load in). If you need any help at all, just let me know! (so I can bring some flat shoes. . I am pretty useless for physical labor in 4" spike heels but the "boys" like them and it is.. Rock n' Roll :-)
It would be my pleasure.
Dixon will vouch for my experience and dependability . . . Well. . .at least for my enthusiasm ;-)
So glad to see you guys play again, even if it's for one night. But my hopes are ...following August 1st, hopefully you decide to do a mini tour (like up in the DC area).
Looking back, the last time I saw you play was around 1980/81ish. That's a few years ago.
Not sure I can make it down to NC. But I really really would love too.
Thanks for the add and the cool comment! Glad to hear that you're gonna do a reunion show August 1. I really, really like you, too! I agree: Plan 9 From Outer Space forever --- especially Vampira and Bela Lugosi! You never know --- perhaps some dark and stormy night, Lurking Fear will rise from its cardboard grave and walk the earth again...
I hear rumors that you're doing a show in North Carolina. Is that true? Where and when? I also read about you in Wikipedia. What was the Peppermint Lounge like? Fun, I bet!!
