The Late as Usual News
June 2006
It must be hard to be a Leaving Trains fan. You have to be lucky to know that we even exist, and then you have to work like an archaeologist to find our old CDs (the recent ones, of course, are always available through Steel Cage Records, www.steelcagerecords.com).
Many blue moons pass and hundreds of youth cultures grow old & wither in the years between Leaving Trains tours and albums. (And it takes even longer to update this news page!) It's not that we don't care. It's just that time moves so differently for many of you, and you have expectations, dreams, hopes, plans and goals, people waiting for you. We have none of those things, nor the natural skills to outrun our predators. We are always caught in time's armor, or at least having to make a U-turn in one its narrow cul-de-sacs. Playing one or two shows a year, releasing two or three albums per decade . . . it's a lot of work for some of us in the band. And the concept of "us" right now is vague and ever-changing. Even in slow years, there was always some version of the Leaving Trains who could play if there was an emergency, like at a benefit for spring-break-shark-attack victims, say, or against a war with no end, necessitating the formation of domestic protests. (Luckily, we live in a time free of war and stupidity and thus we don't need to rally behind peace-seeking musicians preaching to the converted. The world has been saved; we can go back to enjoying rock & roll as a primal, esoteric mating ritual.) But what if?
The Leaving Trains have never broken up since starting in the summer of 1980, but there have been dozens of lineups, with me being the one ongoing member. At the moment, I'm also the only member, which makes it hard to play in public since no one wants to hear just me with an acoustic guitar (and that includes me). I need the purity of volume and the illusion of being part of a gang.
Unfortunately, Melanie and Andrew are now expecting their second baby, and have even less time to play in a band, while drummer Dennis Carlin and bassist Miss Koko Puff have their own projects and commitments to the point where I don't feel like I can wait for them anymore. I know I've sounded like Sylvia Plath writing blithe, falsely happy letters to her mom in previous news pages here, chirping so happily about playing with Dennis and Koko and sometimes Melanie after this or that delay or another. And all of that was true. I really was sincerely giddy and happy to be playing with them -- they're some of my all-time favorite musicians -- but I was also hoping that everyone would somehow find more time for the band. Which was unrealistic and I was probably the last to notice it. Now that we've all had it out and moved on, I can look for other musicians, even if I fully realize that it's not going to be easy to find sarcastic and intelligent people who are easily fascinated by getting to play loud guitars and drums in public and then drive on to the next city like uncommon criminals.
Before splitting up, the most recent Leaving Trains lineup -- with drummer Dennis Carlin, bassist Miss Koko Puff and me -- did get in one more show on Friday, January 27, 2006, at Annie's Social Club at Folson & Fifth streets in San Francisco, at the site of the old Covered Wagon. The other bands were good, the staff was nice to us (which is rarer than you'd think), and the club was appropriately dark and shadowy. We were loud and raging but raggedy, though I think there were some good moments. I was frustrated that we weren't always in control, and that we'd had to drop some planned new songs and obscure oldies because we didn't have enough time to rehearse. It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, as hardly anyone showed up to see us, except for a guy named Jello Biafra, who stuck around afterward to say some kind things -- although he did point out that we obviously sounded less powerful as a trio without Melanie Vammen. He was right, but what can you do when rock legends turn into moms? (I mean Melanie's a mom, not Jello.)
What a short, strange trip it was to San Francisco, more like a rude, quick military action than a proper visit. We drove up interstate 5 after leaving late in mid-afternoon, straight through the San Joaquin Valley and leaping the Altamont Pass and sliding downhill to Oakland and hopscotching across the bay. We barely stopped along the way and got to the club with little time to decompress or learn the local accents enough to incorporate them into our onstage patter. After the show, we loaded out and drove straight back home to Los Angeles like fire-fighting prisoners, stopping only a couple times for gas. That's no way to travel or live in the moment! That's not what the very name Leaving Trains is about, the possibility of change or renewal by traveling . . . This is one reason why I'm hoping that the next lineup of the Trains comes down with some rampant wanderlust and curiosity about the outside world, and realize that's probably the best part of being in a band.
The Trains were also booked to play in early May at Alex's Bar in Long Beach with Jukebox Zeros, and in April at a tribute to the Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce at The Scene in Glendale. We even had a couple practices with Melanie Vammen, who intended to play, but we ultimately had to cancel our part when we couldn't get it together in time.
The Leaving Trains are still around, and always will be as long as I'm humming in unison with the voices in my head, or intoning echoes while walking in a tunnel under the street. There are Leaving Trains concerts all the time, but I'm usually the only one around to hear them. It'll probably be a few whiles before I find three other infamous villains to help me through your musical nightmare, but I'm hoping that we (whoever "we" turns out to be) can start recording the new songs and ideas I've saved up in late summer or fall, if not sooner. But do keep after me if I forget to do this! I am a space case and tend to forget things.
With so much free time even before the latest lineup officially split apart, I've been working a lot more on my writing, some of which can be found in L.A. WEEKLY. I also get to obsess about my favorite obsessions in the arts/music/culture/wrestling magazine CARBON 14. Some of my strange, lost writing is buried on various pages throughout this website. And, if you're really looking for Leaving Trains stuff to do, go out and get AMPLIFIED PILLOWS, the band's first-ever live album, with previously unreleased tracks by several lineups, and comprehensive bonus tracks from the 1980s, as well as a 2002 radio broadcast with the classic longtime lineup. Our most recent studio album, EMOTIONAL LEGS, is also available on Steel Cage Records. You can't always see "us," but we're here, keeping things running, hidden behind this flashing neon billboard.
Hey! Keep an eye out for the American debut of Australian legends Radio Birdman in late August and early September 2006. Some of you might remember that one of the most productive things the Leaving Trains did get around to doing in recent years was backing Radio Birdman/New Christs singer Rob Younger in a pair of solo concerts in San Francisco and Hollywood in 2003. Those were the only times Mr. Younger's ever performed live in America; now he's bringing the original version of Radio Birdman to the States for a who-would've-dared-expect-it rock & roll circus. In case you didn't already know, Radio Birdman were one of the first punk rock bands in the entire world, along with the Ramones and fellow Australians The Saints. Their music is a heavy-rocking punk fusion of Motor City idols like the MC5 and the Stooges (a connection that was so strong, several Birdman served time in a supergroup with members of the Stooges and MC5). Just add in some Stones-twisted riffs, a wisp of Doors-y darkness and maximum Who power, and you have the band responsible for such essential early punk classics as "New Race," "Do the Pop," "Murder City Nights," "Crying Sun," "What Gives?," "Descent into the Maelstrom," "All Alone in the End Zone" and the notorious Hawaii 5-O homage, "Aloha Steve & Danno." I hear they'll be playing with the BellRays in Los Angeles and San Francisco in late August, before heading to the East Coast in September. Don't say nobody didn't warn you none! Cuz we just did.
--Falling James
Silver Lake, Los Angeles
June 2006
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