From: "Jeremy L. Orr"To: Multiple recipients of list 4AD-L <4AD-L@JHUVM.HCF.JHU.EDU> Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 22:59:03 -0600 Subject: Re: East Ash Wow. It certainly is rewarding to see praise for East Ash from other 4AD-L'ers. I often wondered if their music had any impact outside of the local area. Anyway, on Thu, 30 Mar 1995, aLFRED dOUGLAS wrote: > I LOVE EAST ASH!!! Do they have any other material aside from "Crushing > A Flood"That album is brilliant. Any other info from those who know > more about them please, tell me. Well, they got their name from the street that they all lived on in Columbia MO. At their early gigs, vocalist/bassist Jeff Rogers would occasionally dress up in a clown suit. I never saw this with my own eyes, but have heard stories (and he himself would talk about the clown as if it were another person; talk about someone who took way too much acid). They released a second album (also on C'est la Mort) called _Ellie_ (Bob Brass's nickname for his keyboard) in September of 1991. I don't think it's as consistently good as _Crushing_a_Flood_, but it has some of their best songs ("Break Your Back", "The Alone Song", "Nobody", and "Virgil Who?" which should have been called "The Verge of Tears", except one of them kept misunderstanding Jeff, and they decided to vandalize the song by turning what was a drug-induced, not-really-all-that-funny joke into the title). They made the mistake of going for slicker production, which doesn't always work to their advantage. Also, the way the songs are arranged on the album is terrible (thank god for programmable CD players). But it's still well worth getting. > I assume that they have since broken up. Yes, sadly. They moved from Columbia to Chicago in the summer of '92 with their pals Currer Bell (whom I've always thought of as East Ash's sister band, as they played out together many times, and Jeff and CB guitarist Ronna were - are? - an item). Both bands thought that they might find recognition in the bigger city, but both ended up disbanding within a few months. EA guitarist Rob Durando and CB drummer Rob Lawford (I hope I'm remembering the latter's name right - and they're both *incredibly* imaginative musicians) are now in a band called Waterworks with a female singer (her name escapes me) that has listened to far too much Sarah McLachlan and Kate Bush. But their music is still good. They've self-released a mini-LP on CD which was reviewed in Option a few months back. I have no idea what the rest of the band is up to, which is a pity, since all four of them were easily the most talented and distinctive musicians this sorry state has ever seen. ---Jeremy