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Photos by Malcolm J
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Band Biography
The Cool Mothers meld the music spectrum into their own genre. Elements of funk, soul and jazz come together with the intensity of punk creating a music that is truly unique and memorable. The Cool Mothers are all veterans of the local London Ontario music scene and wield their instruments with the confidence and joy de vivre of golden gods descended to earth. The band will be releasing their debut CD at the London Music Club January 23/10.
The Cool Mothers is
comprised of four former members of the band Idiot Savant/Suffer Machine
(Greg Rinehart, Stephan Beckhoff, Ted Peacock and
Peter Tangredi) as well as three other local musicians (Joel Gehman, Ernie
Leitch and Carrie Devine).
Peter Tangredi was
an early fan of the local London punk scene and avid follower of local
punk heroes the Demics. He formed his own punk band the Crash 80's in
1979. When that band eventually folded he was asked to join with four
friends (Pat Eynon, Greg Rinehart, Stephan Beckhoff, Chris Serratore)
who up until that point had just been jamming in their basement. This
band (with the addition of
Lisa Patterson) went on to become Idiot Savant and eventually Suffer
Machine
(1982 -1993).
In 2003 Stephan Beckhoff, Greg Rinehart, Peter Tangredi and Ted Peacock (Ted had replaced Chris Serratore on drums) decided to start making music together again. Ernie Leitch was brought into the fold on guitar. Ernie and Greg had been working together in the local band Ten Heads. Ernie was also a veteran of the local London Scene playing with The Waiting. Next, Carrie Devine, a local singer/songwriter from the band Creature Cantina, was brought in to counterbalance Peter's sandpaper vocals with a little honey.
The last crucial part
of the puzzle was added when the band realized that another guitar was
needed to reflect some of the multi-guitar parts that Ernie was laying
down in the studio. Ernie suggested Joel Gehman, who was also a fixture
of the local scene, playing in many bands. Joel's guitar stylings made
an immediate positive effect. Although Joel came in late to the recording
sessions, he was still able to add some sweet parts to the band's debut
CD "Fall to Earth".
C
Pete Tangredi talks about the ideas behind Fall to Earth
When I was a young man in 1977 I threw myself whole-heartedly into the punk rock scene of London Ontario. This album is largely a reflection on that time when I was eighteen years old and suddenly initiated into a whole new world of emotional extremes. Fueled by multiple intoxicants, my body, mind and soul were set ablaze by all the new concepts and experiences that were introduced to me by the beautiful freaks that inhabited the Blue Boot hotel on any given night to see London's first and foremost punk band the Demics. Of course it could be called drugs, sex and rock and roll, but that cliché seems so superficial and trite. These were real flesh and blood young people, many who seemed damaged to me. They were contradictions costumed in their intimidating punk regalia, but with their heart on their sleeves. Young kids really, embracing a nihilist "live for today" mantra while at the same time delving into idealistic politics and utopian religious philosophies (Now don't get me wrong … of course there were those that were just there for the drugs, sex and rock and roll, but for others it was much more than that.) and of course falling into sexual relationships that left many with hearts bloodied and battered. During that time I experienced soaring highs and soul sucking lows. There seemed to be no middle ground. My laughter and tears were at extremes. I suppose this story in many ways is not very different from what many young people go through, grappling with conformity, ideology, sexuality, morality … and trying to come to terms with what kind of person you eventually want to become, but those days at the Blue Boot hotel seem like a perfect storm of elements coming together and focusing on a tiny little scene in London Ontario. It seemed like worthy material for an album.
See also: Song and Lyric Notes
Making
the Album
In March of 2005 the Cool Mothers started a recording at Andy Magoffin's
House
of Miracles in London Ontario. Over the next 3 years the band would
record on weekend sessions averaging one every couple of months.
In the years that it took to make this album there were many highs and lows, and it sometime seemed like it would never be completed. There are multiple reasons for the length of this project: the first being that the band had only been together for a short while and really didn't have a solid sound or direction established at that time. Some of the songs we originally took into the studio were abandoned and some were changed radically such as First World Blues and So Damn Blue. We also spent a lot of time fine tuning parts that should have been done at practices; however our practice time was limited, and most of the band preferred to work on new material as apposed to looking at the minutia of older material. Some of this new material was also recorded at the House of Miracles including the song Cool Mother. There was also much time spent on adding horn and vocal overdubs. The musicians who added these parts often did so with little or no pay and we owe them a great debt of gratitude.
When we finally got
around to the mixing process we decided to go with an old friend, Peter
Moore, who produced The Trinity Sessions by the Cowboy Junkies. Peter
was very enthusiastic about the project, but because we couldn't afford
his normal fee, our project couldn't be a high priority. This caused close
to another year of delay. Money in general, was a huge reason this project
took so long. We just did not have the cash to get things done expeditiously.
We parted ways with Peter Moore on good terms and then turned to Nick
Blagona. Our drummer Ted had previously worked with Nick and was very
confident in his ability to do an excellent job. The band members were
very enthusiastic once the mixes started coming in from Nick, and are
now looking forward to the CD release scheduled for
January 23, 2010.
C