Here is the download - Chapterhall Demo
Thanks to Jack Saturn, former Huntsvillian/Atlantan/Thee Autobots guitarist/www.atlantashows.org designer/cool guy, for sending me this demo of Chapterhall, the band from the same part of Atlanta that I grew up in, and the first band where I first saw Lee Corum play drums. The band I was in at the time, Chocolate Kiss, played twice with Chapterhall, once at Under the Couch and once at Sprockets (see flyer above). I always remembered them as an instrumental band, which was the trend at the time, however Jack Saturn was recruited for a show or two as a lead vocalist. I guess things didn't work out, as they never invited him to any more practices or shows, which is always a classic way to kick someone out of a band. I love hearing all of the stories about how someone is kicked out or leaves a band. Matt Mauldin quit Bloodspoon by writing a letter to the guitarist Danny Grady. I think he also tried to quit Car vs. Driver through an answering machine message, but I could be remembering that incorrectly. Please tell me all your quit/kicked out of band experiences, they make great reading.
Chapterhall was around in the 1997-1998 era, and part of the mid-90s Roswell scene that I have covered in a previous post (e.g. The Strange Death of Silas Deane, Pax-13, Kossabone Red). If I remember Lee Corum drumming lineage correctly, he went into Mock Heroic after this, then Some Soviet Station, then Copa Vance, then Home of the Wildcats, then Lay Down Mains, then Gold Standard, which he currently melts faces in on a regular basis. I'm sure I have left out several bands in the meantime, as I am generating this list as I write this post. This demo was recorded at Under the Couch, and never released in any format, so it's great that we can enjoy it in the modern era. I think this might have been the best recording Under the Couch has ever produced, it sounds pretty damn good. But then again, they were good musicians who knew what they were doing, which is amazing given the fact that the musicians were in their late teens at the time.
One other topic I wanted to mention in this post is the existence of Sprockets as a place to have shows in suburban Roswell, and in my opinion how critical it was to the development of the Roswell hardcore/postpunk scene of the mid to late 90's. The older I get, the more I appreciate the fact that places like Sprockets existed, as a safe all-ages venue in the neighborhood where younger bands could play for their friends, and get exposed to some incredible national bands that would inspire them to make records, go out on tour and play music well into adulthood. How else would some of these kids have seen Ink and Dagger literally play down the street from their house?
No, I tried to quit to Car Vs. Driver by calling and saying I wasn't driving down to the Driverdome for practice because I was quitting. Steve wouldn't let me quit though, so I ended up driving on down to the Driverdome for practice.
ReplyDeleteChapter Hall was my first real band, in the sense that we actually had regular practices and it was the first band I was in that played a show. This band started when I was working at the North Fulton Hardcore Nerve Center that was the North Point Mall carousel (yes, an actual carousel ride that kids rode on) while I was in high school. When I started I worked there with Matt and Mike Haynes, and Casey Turner. We had loads of fun. But, North Point mall is also where I met Matt Miller (not of Gwinnett hardcore fame). Matt was working at Wolf Camera and I had the hots for his tall, redheaded coworker. I would go in and talk to her and that's how I met Matt. We instantly hit it off and became quite possibly the most hyperactive and annoying duo ever. We both shared a really ridiculously silly sense of humor and I remember us doing prank falls all the time in the mall foodcourt. Anyway, we decided to play music together and Matt recruited his friend Seth Barham to play bass. We wrote songs pretty quick and soon added my friend David Axelrod on 2nd guitar. Most of the songs were Matt's ideas, if I remember correctly, but we all contributed quite a bit. We wrote and structured the songs to have vocals, but Matt was a horrible singer and no one else wanted to do it. We tried out a few people and Jack was probably the best fit, but not the perfect fit. We had enough songs to play out and people started asking us to play shows, so we ultimately just played the songs instrumentally, with Matt maybe singing here and there. So, I think a good singer really would have helped us along and I don't think the songs stand very well as strict instrumentals. This band, through Matt and Seth, introduced me to the East Cobb kids and ultimately brought about the formation of Some Soviet Station. When Matt moved to go to Vassar, David, Seth, and I continued on playing and called it Mock Heroic. We tended down a more math rock path and then I joined Some Soviet Station. I always thought of Chapter Hall as a weird sort of pop band and we seemed to stick out like a sore thumb on most of the shows we played (us opening for Assuck at Under the Couch comes to mind.)
ReplyDeleteBetween my tenures in Chaper Hall, Mock Heroic, and Some Soviet Station, I probably played at Sprockets more than any other musician. I remember seeing some great shows there - At the Price of the Union, Akarso, Lynx, Chisel Drill Hammer... Some good touring bands of the day.
I'm glad Jack still had a copy of this stuff. It's been a while since I've heard it as I can't find my copy.
Hey Lee - thanks for the backstory. I always liked Chapterhall, from what I remembered at least, because it was like a regular postpunk/indie band without a singer. It worked well on the bills with Chocolate Kiss. I guess it was two words - Chapter Hall? Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Chapter Hall demo was recorded by the lovely Lewis Lovely.
ReplyDeleteMatt and James -
ReplyDeleteI don't remember this episode of Matt trying to quit by phone. Around when was this...early or late into our time at Driver Dome? I do remember after starting to plan another week or two week tour for spring / summer 95 before we were to break up, right before as show we were playing at the Driver Dome I learned from someone outside the band that Matt and Jonathan had decided we weren't doing that, but they hadn't decided to tell me directly. So after the show I called a band meeting in my bedroom where I yelled at everyone (less at James because he still wanted to do the tour also). I was very domineering and authoritative in the band sometimes, so I can see though Matt calling and trying to quit and me just being like flat out "No your not. No get your ass to practice."
Steve
Sorry that should have been "Now get your ass to practice."
ReplyDeleteSteve
I seem to remember a practice at the Driverdome where Matt wasn't showing up, and when we called him, he said that he wasn't coming to practice because he wanted to quit the band. We convinced him to come down so we could work out our final string of shows including the mini-tour with The Crownhate Ruin and ending with the Braid show, which was our last. It worked out for the best anyhow, with Jon heading off to Montana (after the vehicular homicide, of course).
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the nuptuals, by the way!