Make-Up (band)
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Make-Up was a band from Washington, D.C. formed in 1995, consisting of Ian Svenonius on vocals, James Canty on guitar and organ, Steve Gamboa on drums, and Michelle Mae on bass guitar. Previous to the formation of The Make-Up, Svenonius, Canty, and Gamboa were members of Nation of Ulysses and the short-lived Cupid Car Club. Before joining The Make-Up, Mae played with the Northwest group The Frumpies.
Make-Up combined garage rock, soul, and self-styled liberation theology to make a new genre they called "Gospel Yeh-Yeh." They released three studio LPs, two live LPs, and a compilation of singles and B-sides.
The Make-Up were joined in late 1999 by a fifth member Alex Minoff (of the group 'Golden'), who played guitar with the group until their dissolution in early 2001. The group were known also by their many community activities which included a nite-club called Cold Rice where they disc-jockeyed every week, a harbinger of the soon ubiquitous weekly nite-club band-DJ scene.
The Make-Up dissolved in 2001, reportedly "due to the large number of counter-gang copy groups which had appropriated their look and sound and applied it to a vacuous and counter-revolutionary forms."
Svenonius and Mae are now part of Weird War. Svenonius has also released a solo album under the pseudonym David Candy. Canty now plays in the group French Toast.
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[edit] Ideology
The Make-Up is a group that, years after their dissolution, still divides listening society. They were one of the most beloved and controversial bands of their era, and were highly influential in terms of aesthetics, performance, and philosophy.
Formed in late 1994, The Make-Up seem at first glance to be a Rascals-style, "blue-eyed soul" group, but they were actually more complex. Make-Up's intent in the beginning was to create ad-lib narratives over danceable 'vamps' so as to address imminent situations onhand, and to re-energize the often stale, bland, and formalistic ritual of rock 'n' roll. Appropriating Gospel music's use of the congregate as a "fifth member" The Make-Up was bent on audience inclusion through call and response vocals, lyrical "discussion" techniques, and destruction of the fourth wall via physical transgression.
Discussing the appropriation of the form of gospel music (as opposed to the content), Svenonius said:
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Our music is gospel-based. Its rhythm-based, with a subverted guitar. And that's because the guitar exists at the same tone as the voice. Its the same frequency as the voice. We don't want those things to compete. We want to make a gospel, oratorical, sermon-based, ad-libbed form of music. Gospel music seems the most immediate, the most passionate and bendable form. We want to revitalize rock'n'roll and make it a communicative thing, rather than an alienating theme; the rise of dance music seems to be because rock bands seem to be increasingly dropping the ball in terms of making their music relevant to anyone but themselves." |
One concern of the group was to keep their music "stripped down" and minimal. This hinted at their aversion to letting communication be upstaged by technology. As Svenonius explained: "People think that we invented the car and we control the car, we drive the car, but really the car drives us! The car made us build enormous parking lots, parking garages, streets everywhere. The entire planet is now paved because of the car, so who rules who? ... Similarly, in a band sooner or later your amplifiers start taking over and the sound becomes cataclysmic and there’s no communication. That’s why rock’n’roll’s so alienating, because guitarists got so loud..."
The Make-Up always wore matching uniforms on stage which they commissioned mostly from a company called Baby-Teeth. There were at least a dozen distinct uniforms during the group's existance, in a variety of colors and styles. When asked if wearing these uniforms was a ideological statement, Svenonius explained: "Of course it is. The way we look onstage is to minimize this association with our individual personalities, to exhalt the higher ideology and the meaning of the band."
[edit] Recordings
While The Make-Up released both "live" and "studio" records, all were created with an eye toward spontaneity. Most studio songs were cut as they occurred to the group at the moment. Therefore, their studio records themselves were in a sense, quite "live."
The Make-Up released records through a large variety of independent or "indie" labels, most notably the K and Dischord companies.
The Make-Up's single Free Arthur Lee was a major factor behind the new awareness and subsequent rehabilitation of that star's career. They were also involved with anti-embargo pro-Castro groups and other anti-imperialist aggregates.
Make Up recorded with many producers including Brendan Canty, Calvin Johnson, Guy Picciotto, Royal Trux ("Adam and Eve"), John Loder, and Ian Mackaye. They toured extensively across five continents with many other groups such as Dub Narcotic Sound System, Royal Trux, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Ted Leo, Slant 6, Lung Leg, Mr. Quintron, Blonde Redhead, and several other rock 'n' roll organizations.
[edit] Style
Due to The Make-Up's consideration of their audience and the special techniques they applied to performing, their live shows were legendary and became the much-copied convergence of soul, surf, skronk, and stomp. Make-Up were highly influenced also by bubblegum music, particularly the French variety called Yé-yé music. The factory style of production that this sort of music had utilized interested the group, who were dedicated to expanding the workforce as opposed to the rock 'n' roll trend (begun by The Beatles) toward self sufficiency and "downsizing" labour. Through the synthessis of these two highly disparate and contradictory forms -Gospel and Yé-yé - The Make-Up devised a hybrid style they labeled "Gospel Yeh-yeh."
[edit] Live Performances
The Make-Up's expansive gospel attitude was related to their utilization of the "congregate" or audience as a group member.
This attempt to co-opt the vitality of the 90's dance scene was typical of The Make-Up. Svenonius on the rise of dance music said "We're not interested in countering it. It makes sense to me that techno, rave, and dance music should go over in the face of rock and roll because it's democratic for everybody to express themselves. Whereas a lot of rock and roll isn't even entertaining at all, let alone allowing people the voice for expression. That's what the Make-Up has come to remedy. We want to be at once entertaining and inclusive in terms of using the gospel form to sort of breathe life into the old Frankenstein monster."
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Destination: Love - Live! At Cold Rice (Dischord) (1995)
- After Dark (Dischord) (1996)
- Sound Verite (K Records) (1996)
- In Mass Mind (Dischord) (1998)
- Save Yourself (K Records) (1999)
- Every Baby Cries The Same - Hey! Orpheus b/w Grey Motorcycle / I Am If... (Slowdime Records) (1999)
- I Want Some (Singles Compilation) (K Records) (2000)
- Untouchable Sound - Live! (Drag City & Sea Note) (2006)
[edit] 7 Inch Singles
- R U A Believer b/w Version (Dub Narcotic remix) (K Records) (1995)
- Blue Is Beautiful b/w Type U Blood (Black Gemini Records) (1995)
- Trans-Pleasant Express b/w Meta-Matics (Black Gemini Records) (1995)
- We're Having a Baby / This is ... Young Vulgarians b/w Slant 6 (Time Bomb Records) (1995)
- Substance Abuse b/w Under The Impression / Have U Heard The Tapes? (Time Bomb Records) (1996)
- Free Arthur Lee b/w Version (Dub Narcotic Remix) (K Records) (1997)
- Untouchable Sound b/w I Didn't Mean 2 Turn U On (Woo Me Records) (1997)
- I Want Some b/w The Cranium (Slowdime Records) (1997)
- Wade in the Water b/w Remix (The Designer) ([All City Records) (1998)
- POW! To The People b/w (Lung Leg) (Southern Records) (1998)
- U R My Intended b/w The Choice (K Records) (1998)
- I Want Some b/w Pow! To the People (Giant Claw Records) (Australian release) (1999)
- Born On The Floor b/w Little Black Book (K Records) (1999)
[edit] DVD / Video
- Blue Is Beautiful (by James Schneider) (Dischord) (1998)
- In Film / On Video (Dischord) (2006)
[edit] Appearances on Compilations
- Selector Dub Narcotic (K Records) (1998)
- Chicken Bomb (1995)
- Illuminati (Geographic/Domino Records) (1999)
- Harpsichord (S.H.A.D.O. Records) (2001)
[edit] References
1Interview taken from The Hedonist, November 1996.
2Make-Up & 'Gospel Yeh-Yeh'
3The Make Up Interview
