The late Helmut Von Kleivedge, in his classic DAS VASTUGUUDFILM (1958), was perhaps the first to note the influence of Four Piece Suit on the audio-aesthetics of contemporary cinema when he wrote: "The decadent, postwar American sow's ear of late Eurodollar capital, however epitomized by the haunting serialism of Internationalist composer Falon Gobeum, was perhaps colonized most successfully by postmodernity's own, Four Piece Suit, and their diachronic reversal of enjoyment's very premise" (981). As Kleivedge suggests, and their numerous Golden Globe nominations affirm, Four Piece Suit's contribution to recent cinematic history has been, shall we say, instrumental, so subconscious a presence in the psychic gymnasium of millions of innocent filmgoers. Who can forget their on-screen turn as British punk-band "The Dinks" in the Gen X epoch-making EL NINO (director: Oliver Wendell Stone, 1984) or their role as Joe the Bartender opposite Kitty Poole in OLD CAPE COD (Ritchell Peem, 1947)? But it is their work "behind the scenes," if you will, for which we are most indebted, for where would the sonics of cinema be without their pioneering work in the genre-defining BOMBASTEROID: LEGEND OF DOOM III (Spazi Guowa, 1999) or the Henry Winkler-directed, made for TV event, YEAH YEAH?
Few critics remember that Four Piece Suit first met during the orchestral sessions for Aaron Copland's THE WALL (Birken Stock, 1917), a lost work of which only 180 minutes survive. "I got blisters on my fingers," drummer Lorne Entress recalls. Deciding to form a collective, Entress, along with former pencil-maker Milt Reder (strings), Finnish emigré Dean Cassell (oud), and heir to the Foote fortune David "Inner" Sholl (reeds), soon began taking out ads in the trade weeklies as "Four Piece: Suites," though their first major success, backing Eva Gabor's famous dance number in THE WILD LIGHTHOUSE (Victor Cleveland, 1935) resulted in their present moniker. ("I thought she was drunk," Sholl explains. "But it turned out she was Hungarian.") Work, at first, was inauspicious: an eight-minute porno film (Vincent A. Reamer's BLOW-AIR-OH) and a commercial for Laurence Olivier's failed chain of family restaurants (ROMEOVILLE) constituted their only paying gigs for some time. However, the new medium of television soon provided the band with a steady stream of work, often as session musicians for composers such as Mike Post and Hugo Montenegro. Among the themes they recorded are such late-night classics as SNEAKY, starring Emmanuel Lewis and Gary Coleman as daredevil window-washers turned international jewel thieves, and MONKEY SUIT, the wacky adventures of a chimpanzee turned Cornell Law professor. ("I thought he was Hungarian," Milt gestures. "But it turned out he was a chimp.")
Following a brief stint as house band for NIPSEY RUSSELL'S AMATEUR BOOTY SHAKE (1972), the group returned to the big screen with the blaxploitation film ELEVATOR SHAFT (Robert Duncan-Heinz, 1968), starring Ted Lange as private dick/callboy Gawayne Downs. The murky soundscape composed for this lurid thriller, particularly during its infamous 180° aerial panty-raid sequence, was a surprise hit at Cannes that year, and the group briefly found itself the toast of French New Wave cinema. Alain Robbe-Grillet cast them as bamboo wind chimes in his experimental L'ONCLE MERDE (American title: DAVE'S HAPPY PLACE, 1954) while Jean-Luc Goddard's SANS CULOTTES (1978) interspersed clips of the band in the recording studio with footage of the United Che Guevara Impersonators Union strike. ("I thought they were all chimps," Cassell exudes. "But there were guerrillas in the midst.") However, the band soon found themselves in political hot water. Their affiliation with Goddard marked them as communists during the ultra-conservative early '80s and this, combined with their refusal to feather their hair, ensured blacklisting by the Hollywood establishment. Furthermore, their French visas were revoked when Sholl attempted to make a deposit on the Left Bank. ("I was drunk!" he maintains. "And it isn't very well labeled either.") Penniless, the group was compelled to accept work backing David Hasselhoff on his REGRETTABLE tour until they earned enough money to return to the States.
A brief period of inactivity followed, during which the band went on a massive BENDER. Fate smiled on the foursome once more, however, when they were cast as members of the Time in Prince's PURPLE RAIN. This renewed interest paved the way for their 1990s return to cinematic prominence, scoring a series of box-office smashes: GLAUCOMA BEACH (Hilda Mounds, 1991) starring Dolph Lundgrin as surfing optometrist Lenz Sellucien; Robert Altman's READY TO WHERE? (1995) chronicling a group of incredulous cartographers during the Korean War; and THE REPLACEMENT FILTERS (Chin Tse-Gai, 1998), Chow Yun-Fat's American debut as a Brita pitcher salesman trying to close a deal before Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule. Their music will feature prominently in SLOPPY SHOPPING, Spike Lee's upcoming romantic comedy starring Whitney Houston as a prostitute hired to take two businessmen (Tom Selleck and Wesley Snipes) on a cross-country tour of outlet malls. Future plans include CAPITAL!, a musical life of Karl Marx (Walter Mathieu) premiering on Broadway in the year 2000, and CAPITAL, Quentin Tarrentino's slick noir about the founding of Washington D.C., starring Kevin Costner as James Madison and Chris Rock as his trash-talking sidekick Maurice.
This CD is a selection of some of Four Piece Suit's finest soundtrack performances over the past few decades. Their indifferent critical reception during their immediate historical moment notwithstanding, the band's enduring influence on the sonics of cinema can be little fathomed, proof once more of Kleivedge's enduring maxim: "The Postmodernist always rings twice" (981).
Mr. Rexroth's latest book, THE PONY TALES OF TRAVIS ORTIZ, is available as a tattoo in specially marked packages of PANTPLUMS.
Milt Reder: guitar, electric sitar, Hammond B-3 organ, Steinway piano
David Sholl: saxophone, squeaky toys
Brother Cleve plays Wurlitzer electric piano (for one wonderful bar) on Bombasteroid
Tom West provides a little T.W. magic, playing Hammond B-3 organ on Sneaky,Yeah Yeah, Elevator Shaft, Blow-Air-O, and Regrettable
Craig McIntyre plays drums on It Came From Ipanema
Ducky Carlisle sings(loudly) on Go Ahead and Burn
Slappy the Dolphin appears on Old Cape Cod courtesy of Aquarama of Saugus
Horn arrangements on Yeah Yeah and Granada by Milt Reder and David Sholl
Produced by Milt Reder
All tracks recorded at Rear Window Recording Service, Brookline MA, by Ducky Carlisle and Sean Carberry with additional recording by Milt Reder, except:
Old Cape Cod, recorded by Darron Burke with additional recording by Sean Carberry at Rear Window
It Came from Ipanema, recorded live at the Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain MA by Todd Winmill
All studio tracks mixed at Rear Window by Ducky Carlisle and Milt Reder except:
Go Ahead and Burn, Regrettable, Yeah Yeah, Cara, Granada/Blue Pavillion mixed by Ducky Carlisle, Sean Carberry and Milt Reder
Roxotica, produced by Lorne Entress, mixed by Ducky Carlisle and Lorne Entress
Blow-Air-O, mixed by Ducky Carlisle and David Sholl, edited by Sean Carberry
Romeoville mixed at Room Nine from Outer Space, South Boston MA by Ducky Carlisle and Milt Reder
Mastered by Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital Recording, Inc., Southboro MA.
Art Direction by Jeff Mellin @ Big Blue Ox, Boston MA, jbmellin@tiac.net
Front & back cover photographs by Brian Corbett, assisted by Mark Medoza, Brian Doben, Nancy Corbett, and Jeanette Corbett
Model: Amy Lyn Harootian
Back cover color inset photo by Kathy Chapman
Street shots by Jonas A. Kahn
Posters by Jeff Mellin with band photographs by Kathy Chapman & stock photographs by PhotoDisc
Guitars and Basses set up and trained by Wolf Ginandes at Musical Instrument Service Center, Boston MA.
Gear made Fab by Roy M. Goode at Goodesound, Cambridge MA
Thanks to Alma Cummings, Marianna Helin, Barbara Entress, Bob Kavin, Isabella, James, Henk, Hanna-Mia, Milt, Brad Benedict, Michael Frondelli, Gary Stamler, Andy Vogel, Jeff Shibley, Bob Kempf, Lisa Reed, Rhonda Kelley, Chris Pleim, Scotty Morris, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Blue Hawaiians, Dave and the crowd at the Midway Cafe, Laurie Gail and WFNX, Patrick McCarthy, Barrence Whitfield, Robin Lane, Tara Cadinelli, Officer Mike Flynn, and the Capitol Theater
Soundtrack Suites for Four Players
Few critics remember that Four Piece Suit first met during the orchestral sessions for Aaron Copland's THE WALL (Birken Stock, 1917), a lost work of which only 180 minutes survive. "I got blisters on my fingers," drummer Lorne Entress recalls. Deciding to form a collective, Entress, along with former pencil-maker Milt Reder (strings), Finnish emigré Dean Cassell (oud), and heir to the Foote fortune David "Inner" Sholl (reeds), soon began taking out ads in the trade weeklies as "Four Piece: Suites," though their first major success, backing Eva Gabor's famous dance number in THE WILD LIGHTHOUSE (Victor Cleveland, 1935) resulted in their present moniker. ("I thought she was drunk," Sholl explains. "But it turned out she was Hungarian.") Work, at first, was inauspicious: an eight-minute porno film (Vincent A. Reamer's BLOW-AIR-OH) and a commercial for Laurence Olivier's failed chain of family restaurants (ROMEOVILLE) constituted their only paying gigs for some time. However, the new medium of television soon provided the band with a steady stream of work, often as session musicians for composers such as Mike Post and Hugo Montenegro. Among the themes they recorded are such late-night classics as SNEAKY, starring Emmanuel Lewis and Gary Coleman as daredevil window-washers turned international jewel thieves, and MONKEY SUIT, the wacky adventures of a chimpanzee turned Cornell Law professor. ("I thought he was Hungarian," Milt gestures. "But it turned out he was a chimp.")
Following a brief stint as house band for NIPSEY RUSSELL'S AMATEUR BOOTY SHAKE (1972), the group returned to the big screen with the blaxploitation film ELEVATOR SHAFT (Robert Duncan-Heinz, 1968), starring Ted Lange as private dick/callboy Gawayne Downs. The murky soundscape composed for this lurid thriller, particularly during its infamous 180° aerial panty-raid sequence, was a surprise hit at Cannes that year, and the group briefly found itself the toast of French New Wave cinema. Alain Robbe-Grillet cast them as bamboo wind chimes in his experimental L'ONCLE MERDE (American title: DAVE'S HAPPY PLACE, 1954) while Jean-Luc Goddard's SANS CULOTTES (1978) interspersed clips of the band in the recording studio with footage of the United Che Guevara Impersonators Union strike. ("I thought they were all chimps," Cassell exudes. "But there were guerrillas in the midst.") However, the band soon found themselves in political hot water. Their affiliation with Goddard marked them as communists during the ultra-conservative early '80s and this, combined with their refusal to feather their hair, ensured blacklisting by the Hollywood establishment. Furthermore, their French visas were revoked when Sholl attempted to make a deposit on the Left Bank. ("I was drunk!" he maintains. "And it isn't very well labeled either.") Penniless, the group was compelled to accept work backing David Hasselhoff on his REGRETTABLE tour until they earned enough money to return to the States.
A brief period of inactivity followed, during which the band went on a massive BENDER. Fate smiled on the foursome once more, however, when they were cast as members of the Time in Prince's PURPLE RAIN. This renewed interest paved the way for their 1990s return to cinematic prominence, scoring a series of box-office smashes: GLAUCOMA BEACH (Hilda Mounds, 1991) starring Dolph Lundgrin as surfing optometrist Lenz Sellucien; Robert Altman's READY TO WHERE? (1995) chronicling a group of incredulous cartographers during the Korean War; and THE REPLACEMENT FILTERS (Chin Tse-Gai, 1998), Chow Yun-Fat's American debut as a Brita pitcher salesman trying to close a deal before Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule. Their music will feature prominently in SLOPPY SHOPPING, Spike Lee's upcoming romantic comedy starring Whitney Houston as a prostitute hired to take two businessmen (Tom Selleck and Wesley Snipes) on a cross-country tour of outlet malls. Future plans include CAPITAL!, a musical life of Karl Marx (Walter Mathieu) premiering on Broadway in the year 2000, and CAPITAL, Quentin Tarrentino's slick noir about the founding of Washington D.C., starring Kevin Costner as James Madison and Chris Rock as his trash-talking sidekick Maurice.
This CD is a selection of some of Four Piece Suit's finest soundtrack performances over the past few decades. Their indifferent critical reception during their immediate historical moment notwithstanding, the band's enduring influence on the sonics of cinema can be little fathomed, proof once more of Kleivedge's enduring maxim: "The Postmodernist always rings twice" (981).