by Frau_Blucher » Sun Jul 09, 2006 6:04 am
From the NY Times archives. Pretty cool...
ROCK: PULSALLAMA, WOMEN AND RHYTHM
By JON PARELES
Published: December 22, 1982
WEARING prom gowns and miniskirts, and carrying enough percussion instruments for a couple of samba bands, the seven women of Pulsallama came onstage Sunday at the Underground for a set that was silly, spirited and full of ingenious noise. The rock group mixes campy recitations, girl-group poses and cheerful vulgarity into mockrituals that hold nothing sacred.
Since the group plays only percussion and electric basses, Pulsallama's songs are built on rhythms. The songs borrow from the B-52's - rhumbas, soul music and the kind of ''Egyptian'' or ''Aztec'' music a cheap 1950's movie might use, and are orchestrated with some care; if one verse deploys rattles and shakers, the next may switch to cowbells and tambourines.
Over the rhythms, the women variously sing and shout such narratives as ''The Devil Lives in My Husband's Body''; sometimes they even harmonize. The songs are in English, fractured Spanish and even more fractured French; most of the leads are sung by Wendy Wild, who works herself up to screams, and Kimberly Davis, who plays with and against the role of dewy-eyed ingenue. Jon Pareles
And from Jean Caffeine's web page...
n 1980, this damsel moved to New York to become a fabulous nightclub D.J. and stumbled upon Club 57, church basement which was a clubhouse to Downtown celebrities such as the late, John Sex, Keith Haring and Wendy Wild where the Ladies Auxiliary of the Lower East Side (founded by Ann Magnuson-star of stage, screen and Bongwater) were banging on percussion instruments and hanging up meat bones in preparation for their''Rites of Spring Bacchanal''. Jean joined on drums and Pulsallama was born. Pulsallama toured the East Coast as well as England and opened several shows for the Clash. They released a controversial, yet comical ditty,''The Devil Lives in my Husband's Body'', for London`s Y Records which was a hit on alternative and college stations . Pulsallama was beloved for their rhythmic cacophony, theatrical stage antics, props and costumes, and their primal, yet glamourous absurdity. They had lots of fun, got their picture in Interview magazine and had15 minutes of fame.
All good things must come to an end, as did Pulsallama,when their record company ran out of funds during the last stages of recording their Mark Kamins produced/Butch Jones engineered album. Jean formed a group, Clambake, with some Austin expatriates, Cathy Crane , Liz Gall, and Holly George (now Holly George-Warren, of Rolling Stone and Option fame). The prerequisite for being in Pulsallama was knowing how to play, Johnny Cash's, ''I Walk the Line'', and the Zero's,"Wimp" in addition to original songs by all four songwriters. Another band ahead of its times, yet a beat behind, Clambake fell by the wayside, leaving it's Alex Chilton mixed E.P. collecting dust.
Sensing that Austin would be a better place her rural rock, our heroine moved to Texas where she found happiness in swimming holes and watering holes, playing ''electrified porch music and garage country'' for 6 years in honkytonks, beer joints, back porches and ''alternative lounges as Jean Caffeine's All Night Truckstop'.' As a post punk rock wannabe-country gal- she put her Yankee Jewish spin on a brand of country more akin to the Stones, ''Faraway Eyes'', or Rod Stewart's , ''What Made Milwaukee Famous'' than Tammy Wynette's,''Stand by Your Man''.
Caffeine's All-Nite Truckstop consisted of mainstays Mick Buck and Dennis Ku, and included at times Seth and Amy Tiven (Dumptruck), Mark Rubin (Bad Livers), Charlie Llewellin (ex-Gourds), and a veritable cast of thousands. The Truckstop covered a lot of ground, playing the SXSW 4 times, N MS, BID in Berlin, Harbourfront in Canada, High Sierra Music Fest in Calif as well as East Coast Stints, and Southwest club dates and radio performances. Her epynonomous CD came out on the German Blue Million Miles label. Her second cassette only venture, ''Hard Work and a Lot of Hairspray'' included Austin tracks produced by Gurf Morlix and other tracks backed by Dumptruck, recorded at Studio Red in Philly. The title track, was a Diesel Only/SOL 45 and the B side, ''Hoedown in the Sky'' was featured on the Diesel Only Truck Stop CD. Jean appeared as "Roadkill" in the movie, Slacker. Furthermore if you listen carefully, you can here the strains of "Jesus is Coming Soon...'' in the movie.