Monday, December 7, 2009

Ice Skates With Arms


A very good friend recommended this to me last spring as something he had been recommended - but hadn't heard, and so I picked it up on a lark as I had never heard of it before either and was enchanted by the awkward name. The jacket furthered my anticipation, which had guessed that the musical product would be some kind of scuzzy bar-wave along the lines of Ghostdance, or maybe at best an arty 80s DIY tinker-fest like the Department Store Santas. To my surprise, the needle dropped on 'Buy This Album and No One Gets Hurt' and it was pure and unadulterated acoustic folk music. The first choruses unwound, "You've got money, you've got time..." and things seemed to click into focus. Strong agile vocals that weren't pretentious, or shy, but strangely ambitious - stoned, no doubt - but clear and with a kind of forthright deliverance rare in private press folk records. Then I noticed the guitar playing - swift, earthy, finger-picked licks darting all over the place yet actually quite immaculate. What looked like a total low-ball amateur hour something or other via the jacket gradually knocked me on my ass by the end of side 1. All original songs, and really good ones! The kind of stuff guys spend months and months trying to get right for some stupid coffee-house performance and these guys just completely nail it in this off-hand manner that speaks to true musicianship and class. Lyrics too were jumping loudly out of the woodwork, and right off the bat... "I checked the time, the time checked me..." and I thought, I feel like I know these guys! It's a weird beautiful sensation, I only get now and again, and I was jumping all over the place by the time I got around to spinning it a half dozen more times. What's impressive about the Ice Skates is that they eschew alot of potentially disastrous camps for folk musicians at the end of the 70s... this record could just as easily be yet another vaguely hippie-ish knock-off, or an agitated acoustic punker, or worse - some kind of John Cougar Hometown Hero crap. Yet the more I played the Ice Skates the more I was struck by how little folk music actually sounded quite like this without devolving into tired emotional cliches or bland hooks. There was truly something special in their grist, and that golden sparkle of the knowing how good it is without it dripping all over into the sauce. It's simple stoned-ass beautiful losers-play-ball folk music and I think it's one of the better straight up acoustic records of the 70s, by anyone. Seriously.

Crambark and Szwank - Mystery Men of KC, Missouri

There's nothing really experimental or edgy about any of it, and yet it rules so concretely for just that reason - that, and the fact that they could actually write songs. Side 1 closes with a 6-minute guitar instrumental, but other than that every other cut is a piece of delicately worked song-craft, 7 wonderful slices of hazy late-night air from a basement or back-porch just the other side of over there. I don't know much about the Ice Skates, other than a few tid-bits care of Dante Carfagna, an old friend of the group who sold their records out of the Kansas City Music Exchange in Missouri. Apparently they performed in other capacities on CD, and are still playing in the KC area now and again, though probably not under this moniker! Having said more than enough I'm gonna turn you over to the endlessly flaxen and highly vaporous strains of Ice Skates with Arms. I hope you dig them, too.
Note: I've been asked to remove the download link. Here is a small taste, and hopefully this will see a proper reissue sometime in the near future.








'Wilma'

13 comments:

  1. Loved And Then The Chimney Spoke and love what you're doing here, and above all else LOVE LOVE LOVE the music. Can't thank you enough.

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  2. like the track a lot, what a shame you got asked to take the album down, you'd think people would be happy their music is being revived and brought to a new audience, anyway like you say, lets hope for a reissue :)

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  3. Frank -- Thanks for the kind words.

    Anonymous -- Sorry about this. The album is not terribly expensive if you can find a vinyl copy. I paid around $25 for mine.

    Best, JDF

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  4. Thanks, i'll keep an eye out for it :)

    great little blog you got here btw, I used to enjoy andthenthechimneyspoke and was sad to see it go, so i'm glad you're back :) still listen to the albums you posted there, the sad white people comp you put together still gets lots of plays here too :)

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  5. Hahaha! I've been planning a re-launch of that mix here sometime in the near future. It was a surprise hit!

    --JDF

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  6. "The album is not terribly expensive if you can find a vinyl copy"
    ... well, it is, sort of. sold for almost $200 on ebay today.

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  7. I had this album from the band when i was young. These guys were crazy. My copy got lost years ago. Would love to find in cd form or be able to download. Sherri

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  8. Way back in the 90's I played several sets with half of ISWA at the Paradise Lounge in San Francisco--the other band member was a blow up love doll! We performed such jewels as "Smurf Porn' and 'Dressed Out Like a Deer'--Big Secret: Ben Juneau (check YouTube)was the guiding light for ISWA. I know both of the Skates and they are far out! Nobody ever got shot either though I think the temptation was strong.

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  9. One last tid-bit from Max W and then I'm spent!
    Since there seems to be so much international(figure that!) interest in the ISWA album, dedicated researchers might want to track down a very rare vinyl item(mastered in L.A.,there were only a couple of hundred pressed and had limited distribution in the 80's), by the Three Businessmen one of whom was a former Skate--Ben Juneau or Crambark as the case may be. Cram's distinctive playing, never misses a beat,and song writing talents are evident but he had to make, in my estimation,unqualified concessions to his backer at the time so there is a lot of junk on it; cover art by the artist Dan Snow is worth noting plus the fact that The Wall Street Journal of all things featured them on the front page. I think the last commercial exploit the boys tried as ISWA was a cassette tape also extremely rare issued sometime around '87/'88 but don't quote me I'm getting this from a trusted source, If 'The Music Exchange' still exists in KCMO they'd know. Max West

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  10. I have been listening to a Ben Juneau CD titled, "Let the Madness Begin", for many years now and it has been one of my favorites for those years. I also am enjoying a newer CD of Ben's titled, "The Giant Emptiness Revealed", which contains a remake of the song sample on this site titled, "Wilma". On this CD the name of the song is "Already I'm Losing You". Recorded in the same style (two acoustic guitars and vocals)the two tracks have completely different feels. I am just now learning of this guy's connection to Ice Skates With Arms and I thank you so much for such a cool blog to enlighten me regarding Juneau's earlier endeavors. I will be looking for this album. Does anyone know if there is a CD of this available?

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  11. Max -- Thanx for the extra info. I believe I've seen a copy of The Three Businessmen, but never heard it. Something to keep a look out for...

    Anonymous -- There is rumor of a reissue of this LP, but I don't want to confirm or deny anything.

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  12. have several copies of ISWA not to mention live tapes of 3 businessmen & a few of their "fans".

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