beyond tomorrow news: recent happenings with stan ridgway or this site

hey, man, want the inside skinny? sure you do!
In case you weren't aware, Stan Ridgway has his own mailing list: the Stan Ridgway Dis-Info Dis-Patch. Anytime there's news, they send out an update; usually no more than once or twice a month. It's run by Clark Price of Stan Ridgway Dis-Info, and you can subscribe to it by sending email to ridgwaymusic@attbi.com and asking nicely. If you'd like to see what previous Dis-Patch mailings looked like, you can browse an archive here.

Click here to see current tour dates.
(updated July 27th, 2002)

june 20th 2002

you will attend an unusual party
Just a quick note—I'm leaving now to head down to Los Angeles. My plan is to hit the first two Ridgway shows... the Coach House show, and the first Largo show, and then head back. I'll be incommunicado until my return next week. Until then, keep watching the skies, and I hope to see you at the shows.

Since the June 11th update, there have been a bunch of minor touch-ups to the site, mainly fixing some minor fiddly little things in the news stories, and adding a new small video of Wall Of Voodoo at the US Festival. If you were daunted by its hulking 60MB size before, why don't you give the slender 11MB download a try.

As for the unusual heading for this news update, that was (no joke) my fortune from a fortune cookie at lunch yesterday. I suspect they may be on to something...

june 11th 2002
we're back!
Yup, finally, an update here at Beyond Tomorrow. In case you're curious why we haven't updated, I'll cover that in a minute. But right now I suspect you'd rather hear the Stan Ridgway news... that is why you're here, after all.

holiday in dirt—it's out!
When we last left our hero, Holiday In Dirt was on the precipice of release, and had already gotten some rave reviews. Holiday In Dirt was officially released to retail on February 12th, 2002. I've got the lyrics up here:
Holiday In Dirt lyrics
Thanks to John Trivisonno for puzzling out and typing up the lyrics to the new songs. As a special bonus, I also typed in Stan's liner notes for each song. We go the extra mile for you here at Beyond Tomorrow!

stan's four  live dates
You read that right! Stan is set to play four live sets over June and July. You can read all the details here, but the short answer is that June 21th, Stan plays at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA, and June 25th, July 2nd, and July 9th, Stan plays at Club Largo in Hollywood, CA.

Rumors have been flying about the nature of the show, but I've got the Official Skinny from the man hisself. Peep this: He plans to stick to the last three albums (for those of you keeping score at home, that'd be Black Diamond, Anatomy, and Holiday In Dirt). The first part of the set will be solo acoustic, but at some magical point he'll be joined by a trio: Pietra Wextun on keyboards, and new faces for drummer and bass player.

more media
I've got a bunch of new files, mostly piped to me from Drywall HQ. There are two new tracks on the main Media page, Roadblock (Original Version) and the live performance at the Kurt Weil tribute in New York, as well as the short film The Keening featuring original music by Stan Ridgway. But that's not all! There was so much important new stuff that I had to make four new pages:

Stan Ridgway Music Videos
Most of the music videos Stan has appeared in to date. Seven so far, and most of 'em in both big and small versions.

Wall Of Voodoo: Live At The US Festival, May 28th, 1983
This is extra-special, because along with the MP3 (!) and the concert footage (!), Stan sent along his side of the story about why he left Wall Of Voodoo a week after this performance. I am thrilled he chose Beyond Tomorrow to finally break the silence.

The Song Stylings Of Jackie "Teak" Lazar
I don't know what that a-hole Ridgway thinks he's doing, but he's not the only one with some "golden pipes." Strike it up, boys, I'm ready to sing!

SR Lives Again!
I've got a tape of the complete concert from Stan's Coach House show last June, and I've been sitting on it for a while as per Dis-Info's request. Well, it's time to let out at least a little of it, so here are the first four tracks: The Big Heat (Hip Hop Mix), Man Of Stone, The Last Honest Man, and Act Of Faith. If you're any kind of fan of Stan Ridgway, you need these four tracks—The Big Heat (Hip Hop Mix) is just plain awesome, Man Of Stone has some great riffin' in it, Stan goes with his alternate second verse in The Last Honest Man, and I actually prefer this live performance of Act Of Faith to the album version... though that may just be sentimentality, as I had it on tape eight months before it came out on Holiday In Dirt.

two live albums back in stock at cdbaby
That's right! Stan's re-released two live albums at CDBaby.com.

The first one to go back into print is good ol' Stan Ridgway Live! 1991 @ The Strand, also known as "Poolside With Gilly". It's a great show from the Partyball tour. Put it on the stereo and sit down to a nice ribeye steak...

The second CD re-released is Live! 1989: The Mosquitos Tour, also known as "The Ancient Town Of Frankfurt". I'm told this pressing is actually sliiiightly different, as it's been remastered to remove those little gaps between tracks. Of course, the serious collector will want a copy of both pressings. (Also: observant fans who pick up the "Frankfurt" CD will notice the booklet was designed by John Trivisonno, longtime friend of Beyond Tomorrow! Way to go, John!)

marc moreland, r.i.p.
Sadly, not all of the news I have to report is good.

On March 13th, 2002, in Paris, France, Marc Moreland passed away of complications following a liver transplant. Marc Moreland was the co-founder of Wall Of Voodoo with Stan Ridgway, and the way he played the guitar was unmistakable. No-one before or since has ever had that virile, tangy sound—music has lost one of its stars.

John LeTourneau's Wall Of Voodoo open forum web page quickly became a place for friends and family of Marc to talk about how they felt, to write their own personal obituaries for him. All the surviving members of Wall Of Voodoo posted their thoughts on this sad occasion; I reprint them here for posterity.

stan ridgway

To the Moreland Family and Friends—

It's hard to know how to say how much someone has influenced your life. One thread is like a deep sewn seam... and the other is frayed and needing repair. This was Marc and me. I'm deeply sorry and saddened. I am flooded with memories. It's a shock. We were hoping and praying for the best. I always thought Marc and I would play together again sometime. We talked a few years ago about doing just that. But I guess life and its complications got in the way for both of us. Cryptic, I know, but it never happened. But all the music Marc made will still be heard by all who listen. Young and old. Marc and his music will always be here for the familiar and the new.

Marc Moreland was very important in my life and he changed it and my perceptions of music. We met in a time when music itself was changing. And I'll always know I ran into the most original guitar player I ever met. Being a bit of a guitar player myself, I to this day, do not know HOW he played certain things, feedback, fingerings and chords. Genius and mysterious—style and substance, truly original! And everyone respected him. Especially musicians and artists. Marc worked very hard at his music, although he made it look so easy. He always hid the strain and practice somehow. Marc in full performance was simply a person you could not take your eyes off of! Marc had it all. And was always a sweet, loveable, and charismatic person, that was very shy at times, extremely talented and intelligent and always had a wonderful sense of humor... even though he could be a very passive-manipulative creature at the same time. Hey! who isn't? You wanted to take care of him. And champion him. He needed encouragement as we all do, and I hope I gave him some in the time we had. I loved him really... but then... everyone did it seems.

To all who knew him and loved him, Bonnie and Bruce and Freddie and Family especially, I send our sympathies, and we are sad too. With deepest regards—

Stan Ridgway and Pietra Wexstun

chas t. gray

Marc - I'm sorry you had to leave so soon. Thanks for being my best friend and roomie through the most artistically stimulating and fun-filled years of my life and thanks for just being you. You'll always be in my thoughts. Chas

bruce moreland

I am so overwhelmed at the outpouring of sympathy, compassion, encouragement, dedication, love and strength exhibited on this web site since that fateful morning of March 13 when I first posted the passing of my brother. Yes, Elizabeth, technology is an amazing thing and so are you, your dedication has allowed my family and myself to heal so much sooner and more completly. This web site is an amazing tool for healing. I would like to thank all who have written and all who are going to write after this, everybody that Marc played with in L.A. has checked in—Skulls, Johnette, Nervous Gender, Wall Of Voodoo and all HE Played with in France are with his wife in Paris helping and assisting in a most difficult time. There are people Marc went to school with that are touched by his life and in all places like Norway, Canada, England, France, USA and I'm sure many other countries will check in soon after. Every one of you who have writen have contributed to the process of healing. We thank you all. Gayle I hope you too have Found healing in this web site and I am deeply sorry for your loss as well. Let's hope Marc and Joe are together now. Bruce Moreland

andy prieboy

Tonight, I sat at the piano and played Marc's guitar lines from The Passenger, Red Light, Far Side and others. I sang his songs. Songs that were released. Songs that never were. I guess I was looking for my friend. I was looking for the sweet, apologetic man who changed my life for the better. I found him at my fingertips.

As Marc's work rolled out, I was yet again amazed by his musical grace. The delicate balance between the mournful and the majestic are in all his melodies. Haunting. Deceptively simple. Eloquent. Even in his most frenzied moments, there always was a subtext, an elegant touch, that alluded to his inner torment and fragility.

Marc's work stands on its own. His handiwork is timeless. I loved him. I loved his work. I loved his humor and gentility. I miss him.

However, any loving testimony I give pales in the light of Frederique Moreland's dedication to Marc.

I want to express my gratitude for the care Freddie gave Marc over the past two years. With Bonnie and Bruce, Freddie applied an unbreakable faith that helped Marc sustain the will to live, to keep fighting and creating.

I am deeply indebted to you, Freddie. Music, for all its ups and downs, is ultimately a joy. Caring for and encouraging the terminally ill is the work of real heroes. So, thank you for keeping the daily vigil. Thank you so much for loving our friend and brother the way you did.

I send my love and sorrow to Bonnie, Bruce, Stan, Ned, Chas and everyone in this extended Wall of Voodoo family. God bless you all. With that, I'll go back to the piano and look for Marc.

Yours, Andy Prieboy

You can read an obituary from Billboard magazine here. The following people have made tribute pages to Marc Moreland:

Elisabeth, aka Ms. Vieuxdo
NapalmZappa
TobyDammit

more marc moreland music
You can buy a copy of Marc's final album at marcmoreland.com. All proceeds from the album go to Marc's wife Fredrique, who supported him through his final days. It's also available at CDBaby.com, where you can also buy the Department Of Crooks CD Plan 9 From Las Vegas featuring Marc.

Stan had this to say about these two CDs:

He's got two more cds out there with his guitar and songwriting on them that people should be aware of if they don't know all ready... Marc not only played "twangy" but he had an artist's mind for the abstract when it came to coloring a song. He could coax sounds from the guitar that were really spectacular and exciting and it's really a mystery how he did it. These two records are really good and I think people should root 'em out and go buy 'em.

the passing of a family friend
I had the good fortune to talk to our esteemed Mr. Ridgway, and he told me something he wanted to tell you all... but he wasn't sure how. He asked me to take a stab at it... so here goes.

There are a couple of reasons why Stan and the band didn't tour earlier this year when Holiday In Dirt came out. At the time, Stan talked mainly about how he was tired of playing the same old songs the same old way, and was looking to break out of his live-performance rut, and he just wasn't ready to face the audience yet. But, sadly, there was a more important reason why, one which Stan couldn't bring himself to talk about publically.

Bart, Stan's faithful dog and constant companion, was sick. Bart was sixteen years old, and he'd had a good life, but now he was in his final days. Stan and Pietra were sure Bart wasn't long for this world. They desparately wanted to be there for him when he passed on, so that he wouldn't die alone or with strangers. They were genuinely afraid to leave the house for more than an hour at a time.

It was during this period that Marc Moreland passed away. Emotionally, a tour was out of the question... with all that was going on at the time, rehearsals and music were simply not possible.

After a couple of close calls, Bart was visibly suffering, and Stan made the heart-wrenching decision to have Bart put down. Bart, beloved family member, died on Saturday, March 16th, 2002; three days after Marc Moreland's passing, and right around the time when a tour would have started.

Stan sent me this postscript to share with y'all:

Both Pietra and I are so very grateful we were able to have such a lovable dog like Bart for 16 years. He was quite a personality, a maltese with a dash of poodle... and he was always up to something funny. So it's quite an adjustment not having him around, under the keyboard listening intenetly or sniffing out some "intruder" at the door. He was loved by both of us and everyone in the family of friends, and had a full life and was never really sick the whole time we had him until the end. Rest in Peace pal... you were always faithful and "man and woman's best friend". No condolances need be sent please folks... just love your pets and give 'em a hug!

If you'd like to see a picture of Bart, click here. That's Bart up there, looking up at you from over one of Stan's music keyboards. You can see the same picture on the back cover of the Holiday In Dirt CD booklet. Bart also appears in the first few moments of the Bel Air Blues music video, now conveniently located on our Stan Ridgway Music Videos page.

Beyond Tomorrow extends its condolances to the Ridgway family on their loss, and hopes that you, the fans, will be understanding, now that you know the truth.

jumbo had a baby, lives on blueberry hill
But the cycle of life goes on... when one door closes, another opens. Zoe Frances Gillingham was born June 9th to her adoring parents John and Amy. John Gillingham, aka "Gilly", is Stan's friend and often road manager.

A little bundle of joy for has arrived for our close friends and Ridgway road manager John "gilly" Gillingham and his wife Amy! Life keeps comin' and we're so happy for them. Although Gilly looks like he is getting ready for the WWF... don't wrestle with her yet Gilly... she's too small! Happy, happy and congratulations from Stan and Pietra and all the folks!

You can see pictures of Zoe and Frances here, here, and here. Sadly, viewing them may also inflict Gilly's ugly mug on you—this is a chance you'll just have to take.

everybody does what nobody does allow, archived
In more bad news, Adrian Oates had to close down his Stan Ridgway web site Everybody Does What Nobody Will Allow. But the good news is that it's archived here at Beyond Tomorrow, as per Adrian's request. You can find it here.

a review of... anatomy!
Here's a review of Anatomy sent along by David Burman (thanks David!). It's from December of 2000, from the online version of the publication "Pulse Of The Twin Cities". I'm not sure how to interpret the name of the column, but here goes:
They Play Like Girls

so where have i  been, anyway?
Eh. You know how life jostles you along. I've been under work-related stress, and work-related depression, and now I've got work-related unemployment. I've been happily unemployed for about a month now, and after decompressing for a couple weeks I realized it was time to update the site with everything that's happened—and everything I've been sent to share with you!

I feel a little funny at times maintaining this "news" page, as Stan has an official mouthpiece at his official site, and breaking stories generally show up on my message board within a few hours. Anyone who wants to stay current on Stan Ridgway probably reads one (or both) of those, making this page mostly redundant. But for now, I'll swallow my funny feeling, and keep soldiering on from time to time. If nothing else, this is a good place to let y'all know about additions to my site (new movies, new music, new pages, etc). So keep watchin' the skies.

february 11th 2002
media—it's not just sounds anymore
There's been a media downpour as of late! Stan has kindly sent me five QuickTime movies to share with everybody. As a result, I've renamed the "sounds" page to the "media" page. The movies are the second entry on the page, underneath the "albums" category. (Which I hope everybody has checked out already, too... you did realize I have a whole live performance up there, didn't you?)

Head on over and check it out. And kids, this is just the beginning...

Beyond Tomorrow Media

holiday in dirt out this week
It's late, and I gotta put this update to bed (and myself soon after!), but I thought I'd remind y'all: Holiday In Dirt comes out this Thursday, Valentine's Day. Just the thing to get that sweetheart in your life.

holiday in dirt reviews
I've been sent four separate (and all positive!) reviews of Holiday In Dirt, and I thought I'd post 'em here so you guys could nod your collective heads in approval and say "finally! the popular press is figuring it out!"

First is Mark Deming's review for the All Music Guide (owned by Barnes And Noble):

Stan Ridgway's lyrical voice is every bit as distinctive as the way he sings, and that's saying something—the unmistakably dry but rubbery Southwestern twang of Ridgway's voice is the perfect instrument for his tales of lost souls and puzzled losers, and his songs chart a path that suggests a midway point between aural film noir and Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Western scores. A clearly underrated talent, Ridgway's post-Wall 0f Voodoo solo work has never attracted the audience it deserved (partly due to a long string of bad luck with record companies both large and small), but anyone who doubts the strength of the music he's been making since the late '80s only needs to give a listen to Holiday in Dirt, a collection of B-sides, rare tracks, and outtakes that have been gathering dust in Ridgway's closet. While odds-and-ends compilations like this are usually made up of stuff that didn't make the cut because it wasn't up to snuff, that's not the case with Holiday in Dirt—as a matter of fact, this is as strong a set as anything Ridgway has released since Mosquitos in 1989. Whether he's writing about teenage guitar manglers ("Garage Band '69"), low-level mob leg-breakers ("Bing Can't Walk"), or a washed-up long-in-the-tooth actress ("Beloved Movie Star"), Ridgway makes his characters human and worthy of compassion even at their most ugly and pathetic, and the dry Southwestern clatter of the music is both bracing and the perfect fit. And even though these tracks were assembled from material recorded over the space of a dozen years, these 12 tunes (one appearing in two versions) fit together beautifully, which says a lot about the consistency of Ridgeway's vision. While Stan Ridgeway already has a strong career overview compilation (The Best of Stan Ridgway: Songs That Made This Country Great), Holiday in Dirt shows that he's left more than a few gems behind as well, and this album is a treat for fans and not a bad introduction to his body of work.
Next up is the official review from Tower Records:
Though Stan Ridgway first made his mark in the early 1980s with new wave synth-rockers Wall of Voodoo (one of the most distinctive bands of their era), his subsequent solo career has continually shown that his talents extend far beyond his former band's lone hit (the semi-novelty "Mexican Radio"). Over the years Ridgway's recordings have marked him as a crafty songwriter with a gift for exploring the dark side of America via sardonic narratives that nod to Randy Newman and Donald Fagen. HOLIDAY IN DIRT is a collection of b-sides and other rarities from the extensive Ridgway oeuvre, but Ridgway's songwriting knack is such that none of these tunes feel like castoffs. As always, Ridgway's melodic invention transcends genre in an often-successful search for original-sounding, distinctive musical frameworks nevertheless bound to conventional rock hardware. Though his penchant for film-noir creepiness and his sui generis voice will strike a familiar chord with Wall of Voodoo admirers, this eclectic, ambitious batch of songs is as worthy a part of Ridgway's canon as any of his "proper" releases.
Third we have the staff review at Amazon.com by Kim Hughes:
Roaming a psychedelic no-man's land where Tom Waits and Jack Kerouac might converge, Stan Ridgway is an inimitable singer and precision essayist whose song characters wear life's grit under their fingernails. It's doubtful Ridgway ever broke the legs of a no-goodnik named Bing, but gosh darn if you're not thoroughly convinced of it by the end of "Bing Can't Walk," one of a handful of creaky, ramshackle gems gathered together on the odds-and-sods Holiday in Dirt. He may scribble outside the lines musically, but Ridgway's harp-goosed, art-rock vignettes are enormously detailed—witness the bloopy, futuristic "After the Storm," the eerily straight-faced midtempo rocker "Whatever Happened to You?" or the unlisted cover of Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors," cheekily delivered in a character that might have been crafted by Bill Murray circa Caddyshack. Admittedly an acquired taste, Ridgway repays diligence with cartwheeling, consistently unexpected, possibly true parables sucked straight out of the twilight zone that is contemporary America. If Jackson Pollack paintings had sound, they'd probably sound a lot like this.
Finally there's this long review by Joseph Taylor at Soundstage.com:
Stan Ridgway’s lone brush with stardom occurred in 1983, when his band Wall of Voodoo had an unexpected hit with "Mexican Radio." The song and its accompanying video were inspired examples of avant-garde loopiness. MTV put it in rotation, and it was the kind of video you’d eagerly wait for—it had the bizarre kick of something like Un ChienAandalou, Buñuel's and Dali's classic surrealist film.

The promo sheet that accompanied my review copy of Ridgway’s new disc, Holiday In Dirt, puts some distance between him and Wall of Voodoo. "That was then. This is now," the sheet tells us. Fair enough. If Wall of Voodoo was bracing and strange fun, the music Ridgway has recorded on his own has been much more than that. Beginning with 1985’s The Big Heat, Ridgway has produced a series of records of almost indescribable depth and strange beauty. He’s retained the sense of fun that he exhibited in Wall of Voodoo, but added to it uncanny storytelling ability. Critics often compare him to Raymond Chandler, but his stories remind me more of Raymond Carver or Tobias Wolfe.

Holiday In Dirt is a collection of rare and unreleased tracks, but it hangs together well. While there’s no unifying concept to the disc, it’s cohesive and has a strong sense of place. Ridgway is to Los Angeles as Lou Reed is to New York—no place else could have produced him. He mixes the traditional with the new and has an openness to music as pure sound that comes, I think, from growing up in a city whose major industry is movies. Working in that atmosphere (at least one website indicates that Wall of Voodoo was formed to write music for low-budget movies) may have suggested to him the dramatic possibilities of sound—a particularly important discovery for someone whose narratives are so complex.

Whatever his influences, the salient feature of Ridgway’s discs is their sonic richness. The quality of his recordings is especially impressive given that the last three have been independent releases produced, one assumes, on limited budgets. His discs have a lot going on in them, but everything’s spread out across a wide soundstage in a kind of aural Cinemascope. For all the sonic detail Ridgway puts into his music, it rarely feels crowded. When a song does seem densely packed, as does "End of the Line" here, it sounds intentionally so.

Holiday In Dirt contains two versions of "Beloved Movie Star" that shed some light on how Ridgway works. The first version, which opens the disc, is a lush arrangement that features a Duane Eddy-like guitar, drenched in reverb and tremolo, and a strummed harp. Synthesizers and other keyboards create a wash of sound that carries Ridgway’s voice along. The second version is an earlier, demo recording of the track. It’s much more spare. The harp still plays a prominent role and some of the keyboard touches that made their way to the finished track are hinted at in this version, but, overall, it’s less focused.

Ridgway says in the liner notes that he prefers the demo, which is a little longer. I disagree; his instincts were correct when he revised the lyrics and altered his approach. He changed one verse and removed another altogether and sings in a less-inflected voice. The result is not just a tighter recording, but a stronger, more compassionate story. The vocals on the demo feel condescending, and the original verses needlessly restate some harsh observations about the perils of the movie business.

What I found striking when I played the two versions side by side is how, even in a demo, Ridgway knows sonically what he wants to achieve. Certainly there are musical elements that are more developed in the final recording and details are added, but the overall feel is there at the beginning. As the music became more clearly defined, Ridgway toned down the vocals and cut some lyrics, in effect streamlining the story and allowing the music to evoke a deeper story than the words tell.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Ridgway’s music is his willingness to bring in ideas from sources far and wide. If a surf guitar is what will put his idea across, he’ll use it. A particularly strong influence appears to be film composer Ennio Morricone—listen to the way Ridgway uses harmonica in a tune like "Time Inside." He doesn’t recycle ideas, though. He borrows techniques in order to create an atmosphere for the story he’s telling. In that sense, there’s an almost cinematic quality to his work.

The recordings for Holiday In Dirt come from several sources and they vary in quality from very good to DIY. Ridgway is so sure of his goals that he isn’t going to let our notions of audiophile sound get in his way of creating an effect. For instance, one of the tunes, "Amnesia," was "sung through a three-inch, battery-powered speaker from Radio Shack. I really liked the sound." He’s right;it sounds great. So does the rest of the disc.

Makes your mouth water, doesn't it? I know I'm looking forward to my copy...
january 9th 2001
debut of the beyond tomorrow forum
I've added a new feature to Beyond Tomorrow: a web-based forum. Head on over and join in the chat. Seeing as how the main chat board is down, maybe y'all can settle in over here for a stretch.
Beyond Tomorrow Forum
january 3rd 2001
www.richardmazda.com
Richard Mazda, co-producer on Wall Of Voodoo's Call Of The West album and various later (post-Stan) tracks and albums, has put up a new web site. On it he has a couple of paragraphs on his contributions to world culture, and mentions that of all the work he's done he's proudest of good ol' Call Of The West. (And who wouldn't be!) Read about it here:
http://www.richardmazda.com/
january 2th 2001
welcome back to the future
Beyond Tomorrow was down for several months due to over-the-top server trouble, and before that I hadn't updated the site in about a year. Well, it's all past us now... hold on tight, here is the news!

sounds page
It's still a work in progress (as what web page is not?), but I now have an official sounds page up, with all (or nearly all) of the sound clips (and full songs! and even some full "albums"!) from Beyond Tomorrow all organized into one place. No more fooling around with Napster; now you can just point and click with your web browser. I've got plenty up there already, and there's More To Come, Hint Hint Hint. Head on over and take a look:
Beyond Tomorrow Sounds

holiday in dirt
Stan will release a new solo album early next month. The title is Holiday In Dirt, which strikes me as very much his style. I don't have any information on it, but I'm guessing that the new track he played last June will be on it: An Act Of Faith.

stan played in joon
And speaking of that live show, yep, Stan Ridgway was back at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano last June. He played a different set than usual, including one brand-spanking-new track (mentioned above). I was there, and with his permission I taped it, and... well, you figure out the rest.

the way i feel today—buy it today!
Stan's album of classic covers, The Way I Feel Today, is now available through Stan's official online e-tailer CD Baby. You can get anything that's in print, and maybe one or two special extras now and then. Keep checking back! Who knows what might become available... like, f'rinstance, the next news item here.

live at the strand
Oof! Stan released a special handmade (and signed!) double-CD set of a live show from 1991: Live At The Strand. It was available at CD Baby, but only thirty-five were ever made, and they all sold out. And Stan swears up and down that it'll never be available again. I hope you got one; I did, and it's a great recording.
january 7th 2001
bootlegs! good ones!
I attended Stan's concert December 16th at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. And, once again, I taped the whole concert. This time, though, I took special precautions to ensure that I'd get a good tape of the concert. And you know what? They worked.

So how do you get your hands on the concert? For now, I've put them up on Napster. My account name is beyond_tomorrow, and all the tracks have the name Coach House in 'em for easy searching.

Please, oh please, people, do me and my tired DSL router a favor: share amongst yourselves as much as possible. If you successfully download the tracks, leave your Napster running so other people can download from you. And when you go to download, please try downloading from someone besides me first.

notes on the concert bootleg
Here are some odds and ends on the tracks.

track listing for the coach house
  1. The Last Honest Man
  2. Man Of Stone
  3. (Band Introductions)
  4. Factory
  5. (Seeking A Volunteer)
  6. The Big Heat
  7. (Holiday Cheer - Angry Tirade)
  8. Train Of Thought
  9. Big Dumb Town
  10. (Burning Hair - Jay)
  11. Mission Bell
  12. (Bob The Happy Swagman)
  13. Valerie Is Sleeping
  14. The Passenger (2001)
  15. (Burning Hair Too)
  16. Don't Box Me In
  17. Down The Coast Highway
  18. Lonely Town
  19. (Requests - 2001)
  20. Camouflage (2001)
  21. Ring Of Fire

  22. (First Encore)
  23. Drive She Said
  24. Mama Had A Stove
  25. A Mission In Life

  26. Sixteen Tons (Second Encore)
  27. Big American Problem

marc moreland in failing health
Elizabeth Vieuxdo posted to the Wall Of Voodoo message board with some bad news about WOV's virile guitarist Marc Moreland:
This is Elizabeth (a.k.a. Ms. Vieuxdo) and I have a serious announcement to make about Marc Moreland. A friend of the Moreland family (a very nice man named Doug who I thank profusely for contacting me) emailed me yesterday to inform me that Marc has been very sick for the past three months and has been confined to a hospital in France. Well, all you regulars here know what a skeptic I am about people appearing out of the blue claiming to be family friends (and sometimes even band members), so I decided to check his story out before bringing it to the rest of you. This morning I talked to Marc's mother in California for over an hour while she filled me in on what's been going on. Here's the straight scoop.

For the past three months Marc has been hospitalized in France with liver problems and other ailments they haven't quite figured out yet. Since he doesn't speak much French it's been a nightmare for him because he understands little of what the doctors and nurses say to him while he's being poked, prodded and tested. His wife visits him daily and his family and friends call when possible, but he's still a stranger in a strange land and very weak. No one has told him about Joe Nanini's death yet because they don't want to upset him right now.

So now you're all asking "Is there anything we can do to help?" Well, yes there is. His mother thinks it would be a fabulous boost to his morale if his many fans would send him cards and letters wishing him a speedy recovery. I will post an address of a friend of his where you can send things to in France and they will be delivered to him in the hospital. You're also welcome to send Get Well emails to me over the next week and I will print them out and send them off on January 8, 2001. His mother hopes that a show of support from his fans will give him the extra boost he needs to get to the point where he's well enough to fly home. She also asks that you please not mention Joe Nanini in your letters. He'll be told about Joe's death when he's feeling better, but his mother doesn't want to put any more pressure on him at the moment.

There are a lot of you here on The Wall who have known me for years and know I would never bring something like this to you if it wasn't totally legitimate. If you remember, I'm the one who made Bruce prove to me he was actually Bruce a while back when he posted to The Wall. I would not be posting this here today if I wasn't sure it was legit. Mrs. Moreland will be calling me if there's any updates to Marc's condition that you all should know about and I will post them as soon as I hear. We just lost Joe without being able to tell him how much he meant to us. Let's not let the same happen with Marc. No one's asking you to send money. All it will cost is the price of an airmail stamp. I'll be posting all this to various WoV related mailing lists and such. Please feel free to pass the word on anywhere you think it will help.

Here's the address where you can send cards and letters:

Marc Moreland
PO Box 1384
Coos Bay, OR 97420 
So get your pen and paper out and get writing. Marc has meant a lot to all of us over the years. Here's our chance to give back a little of what he's given us. His mother says all he wants is to get well and maybe we can cheer him up enough that the healing process speeds up and he can have his wish. Also, Marc's birthday is January 8th, so birthday cards are welcome too!

I can be contacted at vieuxdo@bigfoot.com. Feel free to email any time.

Stan Ridgway himself followed up with this:
Ms. Vieudo, this info on Marc is appreciated. We've talked over the years, of course, but not for a few. The world needs Marc's guitar and wonderfully askew world view now more than ever. Thanks for the address.

And to someone here who's favorite song was "They Don't Want Me"—that's Marc's song all the way, I think I added a line here or there, but it was Marc's grand metal opus to "?" and I was simply the singer.

I always took the song as an answer to some of the critical swipes the band was getting at the time. You know ..one week you're IN. the next you're OUT. But that was my take. Marc has the real answer..so let's get him well and then we can ALL ask him what it REALLY meant?

a happy new aluminum to all,
Stan Ridgway

threadspotting
In case you're not reading the various Stan Ridgway-related message boards, here are recent snippets from some other interesting threads.

Richard Mazda and Stan Ridgway reconcile

Richard Mazda co-produced Wall Of Voodoo's Call Of The West album, and he recently showed up on the WOV message board. Someone asked what it was like working with WOV; here his response:

In response to the request for explanation of my comment that Joe was amongst the most unique yet difficult drummers:

During the recording of Call of the West and Mexican Radio Joe & I had one or two run-ins. For example, the original drum machine pattern for M Radio had been written by the band long before I came on the scene. Although I loved the pattern I thought that we should comliment it with the real drums that everyone is now familiar with. In particular I came up with the idea of a massive sounding snare back beat for the chorus. The idea being that this would lift the chorus and help to distinguish it it from the verse section. It was like trying to stip paintwork with tweezers to persuade Joe to do this. Obviously I won the day in the end. I never resented Joe for his contrariness but often felt that we could have tried things first then argued about it. Another example is the tambourine part on Interstate 15, again since this was a direct country & western/cowboy toon it seemed to me that tambo was highly appropriate. Although the whole band agreed Joe would not play it. I ended up doing it. Incidentally the quote where Joe says 'I could have been somebody' was for real and definitely not scripted. During the recording I used as many Machiavellian methods including hidden microphones to capture all kinds of stuff. Joe's nickname during the recording was 'Mr Negative', he had a habit of saying No at least six times in a row rather than just saying it once. There is a reference to this on 'Spyworld'. There are many more stories but the biggest story was Joe's talent and though we clashed I had the highest regard for his musical ability. I'll certainly never forget him, people like him deserve to be celebrated for their heart and passion. Lastly I feel I should point out that Crystal Meth/Rocket Fuel caused all kind of upsets and helped us make a classic record. We all stand guilty as charged.

Once again, Stan himself showed up to reply:
Yes Richard, please allow me now twenty years later to apoligize for firing you that day from Call Of The West...i was out of my gourd! BUT..then YOU had locked me OUT of the mixing of "They Don't Want Me", twisting dials and pushing buttons like some sonic shamanistic madman, looking for the "lost chord"..which left me nothing to do except drink more and more liqour, and re-fuel myself with various studio medications of the day,.. and get very paranoid, (more than normally) about losing control, and thinking about the album budget, and mind wrestling with our beloved, but very, very angry and unstable Joe Nanini, not to mention the stoopid record label goons, and.. and ..and..hold it!.. I'm getting all worked up again.

THE big reason WOV's Call of The West turned out so good is because Richard Mazda was our producer. He was the fifth member of the band and his talents and experience were the crucial elements in getting it all down on tape. (yes..it was tape then..big bulky tape..) He really knew and felt what we were trying to capture.

Our dark, absurd and decidedly cynical vision was not lost on him to say the least and he was critical in helping us build a real "world" that the album existed in. Thanks Richard, and all the best to you.

Stan Ridgway

Mr. Mazda's final posting concludes what was rapidly becoming a great big love-fest:
Hey Stan

I Lurve You too Maaaan!

Seriously, thanks for your comments. I don't have time for more stories today except to say that life is way too short and that i am too painfully aware of my own mortality to forget that i am the limey bro of one of the most original bands that ever crawled outa west hollywood and that it was an honour to be a part of it.

mazda

Bruce Moreland is now clean and sober

In one of Elizabeth Vieuxdo's messages about Marc Moreland, she included a postscript about his brother Bruce (who was in and out of Wall Of Voodoo):

Even though the news about Marc wasn't what we like to hear, I'd like to share good news about Bruce. His mom tells me he's at long last drug and alcohol free! He's in excellent health and living and working in San Francisco right now. The brothers are very close and Bruce has been to France to visit Marc in the hospital. He'll return to France when Marc is well enough to come home to make sure he gets back in one piece. Bruce has been through hell in his life as well, but with the love and support of his family and friends, he's been able to turn things around. He deserves a round of applause for doing what many thought would be impossible!

december 11th 2000
full obituary for joe nanini
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published a full obituary for Joe Nanini. Because they'll expire the article pretty soon, I've cut and pasted the full text below.
OBITUARIES: ATLANTA: Joe Nanini, 45, drummer, played for Wall of Voodoo
Kay Powell - Staff
Thursday, December 7, 2000

Pots, pans, a gun, laugh box and tire iron all became percussive instruments in the hands of Joe Nanini, drummer for the Wall of Voodoo in the 1980s.

"His style was so innovative. No other drummer could have worked with Wall of Voodoo," said Stephen May of Savannah, former owner of 688 Club in Atlanta. "Nobody could sound like that."

Oliver Joseph Nanini, 45, died of a blood clot in his brain Monday at his Atlanta residence. The body was cremated. Memorial service plans in California will be announced. H.M. Patterson & Son, Oglethorpe Hill, was in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Nanini, born in Japan to a military family, got his first drum set when he was 7 and performed with punk bands and jazz groups in California before joining Wall of Voodoo in 1979, said his wife, Gayle Nanini of Atlanta.

"He was extremely talented. He found he could add little percussive parts to Voodoo," she said. The group is best known for "Mexican Radio" featured on its 1982 album "Call of the West."

As his music evolved, Mr. Nanini rarely played traditional drums. "He took all my pots and pans and drilled holes in them to mount them on the drum," said his wife. "Police was on the same label and started using pots and pans after they saw him do it."

Mr. May booked Wall of Voodoo at 688 quite a few times. Mr. Nanini, he said, was very intelligent and witty and had incredible stage fright.

"He was always very shy before he went out on stage," said his wife. "He had the jitters and threw up, but once he was out on stage, he was funny. He was on. He added to the ambiance of the group."

Part of that ambiance can be heard on Voodoo lead singer Stan Ridgway's first solo record. "Joe shot a gun into a pan to get that whistling spaghetti western sound," said Mr. May.

After Mr. Ridgway left Wall of Voodoo, Mr. Nanini didn't see a future with the group and wanted to go in a new direction, said his wife. He played with the eclectic country band Lonesome Strangers through 1984, then was ready to give up touring.

He did studio work and recorded with various bands for Dangerhouse Records and worked on other projects with owner David Brown of Palm Springs, Calif., before moving to Atlanta a year ago.

He was a history major in college and loved reading about the Civil War, said his wife. "History and facts, that's what he enjoyed. We played Trivia every Tuesday night at Maggie's, a bar around the corner, and we won quite often. They were about to make us quit playing because we've won something like 10 or 12 weeks in a row."

"He was a flamboyant person," said Mr. Brown. "He was extremely committed to the easy life. He appreciated life. Whatever it handed him, he took."

Survivors include two brothers, Raymond Nanini and David Nanini, both of Santa Maria, Calif.

we took a drive down the palisades parkway...
Longtime Beyond Tomorrow friend John Trivisonno has contributed a full article to the mementos section. It's called We Took A Drive Down The Palisades Parkway..., and it's a travelogue of attending three Stan Ridgway live shows over a single long weekend this past March. (For the record, John sent it in a while ago; I just kept fumbling the ball in posting it on the site.) Jump right to it here:
We Took A Drive Down The Palisades Parkway...
That reminds me. If any of the rest of you would like to submit articles for the mementos section (or anywhere else on the site for that matter) please feel free to do so. It was always my intention to take submissions, particularly for the mementos page.
december 6th 2000
joe nanini has passed away
Charles Wilson of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (thanks Charles!) sent me email with some unfortunate news today. I'll quote it here, clipped from Atlanta obituaries for December 6, 2000:
OLIVER JOSEPH NANINI, 45, died Monday. Memorial service plans in California will be announced; H.M. Patterson & Son, Oglethorpe Hill.
Yep, that's Joe Nanini, former drummer/percussionist of our beloved Wall Of Voodoo. I don't have any more details than that.

My condolances goes out to Mr. Nanini's family and friends.

beloved movie star
Stan put a song up—for free!—on Music Blitz in August. It's called Beloved Movie Star, and Music Blitz still has an internet exclusive on the MP3. But! I've got an exclusive on the lyrics (just 'cause I went to the trouble to type 'em in). You can find 'em below:
Lyrics to Beloved Movie Star

listen to stan live—from the comfort of your living room
On Saturday, May 13th, 2000, Stan played live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. And Radiosonic was there! Now you too can enjoy selections from Stan's set, without even getting up out of your chair.
Stan Ridgway Live in Vancouver, BC, Canada!
They link to the files in a strip down the left side of the page. Unfortunately, they don't tell you what songs are in which files. So I'm gonna do it for you, in an ultra-convenient format:

  1. Opening Remarks / Luther Played Guitar (2:40) lyrics
  2. Gone The Distance lyrics
  3. Camouflage lyrics
  4. Ring Of Fire / Band Introductions, End Of Set (I Love You) (4:50) / A Mission In Life (Encore) (8:45) lyrics ring of fire a mission in life
  5. Train Of Thought lyrics
  6. Big Dumb Town lyrics
  7. Factory lyrics
  8. Don't Box Me In lyrics
  9. Man Of Stone lyrics

The players:

Joe Berardi: drums
Rick King: lead guitar
Stan Ridgway: vocals, harmonica, guitar
David Sutton: bass guitar
Pietra Wextun: keyboards
p.s. They spelled his name with an "e" in every single link. Will the great unwashed masses never learn?

news... from the future!
Stan and Chapter Eleven play The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on December 16; you can buy tickets here.

more film score news
There's lots of little newslets here:

johnny cash in good health
(This isn't directly related to Stan Ridgway, but Johnny Cash was and remains a big influence on Mr. Ridgway's work, and I bet the two artists have a lot of fans in common.)

Johnny Cash was previously diagnosed with Shy-Drager Syndrome and Parkinson's Disease. Miraculously, it seems that both of these diagnoses were incorrect. Mr. Cash reported in October that he was "in better health than [he had been] in a year or two."

Unfortunately, all the links on this story are dead, but honest, it really happened.

no need to re-sign up for the mailing list
They found the original mailing list a while ago, so crisis averted, eh.

woah, an update!
Yeah, it's been a while. Since my last update, I quit my old job, spent a month off, got a new consulting job, quit that, and got another new permanent job. Honest, I'll try and stay on top of this stuff more in the future.
may 12th 2000
article about stan on abcnews.com
Stan got written up on the ABC News web site (part of the GO Network!), in an article titled Masses Manipulated, mainly about his work in soundtracks. It was written by the obviously highly-cultured Lynn Margolis. Fans of this site won't learn any news from the article, but there are a couple of enigmatic quotes from Mister Ridgway hisself. Read it here:
Masses Manipulated

Misspelling count: one, but this time it's just in the URL, not in the article itself.

new tour dates, including paris
I've updated the tour list through mid-June. Read it here.

Also, to quote from a recent enthusiastic Dis-Patch mailing:

Stan Ridgway and Band will also be in PARIS, FRANCE at the fabulous
CHESTERFIELDS CLUB in SEPTEMBER 2000!
A SPEACIAL EXCLUSIVE BOOKING!
Sept. 18th thru the 30th...ahhh..the city of light...UK TOUR in the
works babe,  around the same time...
Clearly, no first dates yet, but we'll report 'em as they come in. Great news for Europe—I don't believe Stan has toured over there since the Mosquitos tour in 1989.

please re-sign up for the mailing list
In case you missed it, they announced on the Dis-Info web site that they lost all the names on the Dis-Patch email mailing list. Look at the top of the page under hey, man, want the inside skinny? sure you do! to learn how to re-subscribe (or to subscribe for the first time).

Note: Crisis averted; they found the missing mailing list. Phew!

march 22nd 2000
bootlegs! lousy ones!
One thing the Stan Ridgway fan base hasn't had access to is lousy-sounding bootlegs. Sure, your Peter Gabriels, your Rushes, your Neil Youngs, they all have 'em, why not Stan?

So I took matters into my own hands. At the Roxy concert last month, I crept in to the concert and lurked near the front & center of the stage... wired for sound like a stool pigeon. I taped the whole show, using equipment borrowed from a friend, not really knowing what the hell I was doing.

Even though I taped the whole show, nearly all of it has headache-inducing levels of distortion. Pretty much any time the esteemed Mr. David Sutton so much as touched his bass, my poor little microphones cried for help.

But! A couple of songs were almost sort of salvageable. And here they are!

Mission Bell (live)
By Stan Ridgway
Published by Dis-Information Music (BMI)
Performed February 25th, 2000, at Slim's, San Francisco, California

The Big Heat (live)
Lyrics by Stan Ridgway, Music by Wall Of Voodoo
Published by Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs (BMI)
Performed February 25th, 2000, at Slim's, San Francisco, California

Factory (live)
By Stan Ridgway
Published by Big Talk Music / Illegal Songs (BMI)
Performed February 25th, 2000, at Slim's, San Francisco, California

Before you listen to 'em, there's something I should probably explain about the above bootleg of The Big Heat. If you've read my story about The Pharoah Sanders Thing, you know that Stan has started handing a one-note flute to an audience member for The Big Heat. Well, that audience member at Slim's... was me. Again. And since I personally was wired for sound, you can hear all sorts of things in the background:
random audience member: Get on stage! It's your chance, you should get up there, man!
another random audience member: Alright, go to town there, chief!
And you can even hear me introduce myself to Mister John Gillingham (Stan's road manager) when he leaned down off the stage to mic me:
me: I'm Larry Hastings.
Mr. Gillingham: What's that?
me: I'm Larry Hastings!
Mr. Gillingham: Oh! Hi, Larry!
me: Hi!

Plus! You can hear for yourself my wild one-note flautery! In fact, it's kind of hard to avoid, 'cause the microphones picked me up way better than they should have...

tour dates
Rather than keep mentioning new dates here, I've started a new page to list the stops on Stan's guerilla-warfare tour. I'll keep it up to date, honest, and with all the bells and whistles (links to the venues' web pages, phone numbers, ticket prices, anything I can get my hands on).
Upcoming tour dates

dis-info dis-patches
Since my last update, there have been six Dis-Info mailings. Hoo boy! I've archived them all, just in case you were foolish enough to not subscribe.
The SR Dis-Info Dis-Patch Archives
february 16th 2000
dis-info dis-patch
Tonight saw another installment of The SR Dis-Info Dis-Patch, the official Stan Ridgway email newsletter. It talked mainly about three things: the Free Of It All MP3 (available exclusively here at Beyond Tomorrow), the video archive (see next story), and the upcoming tour dates. I've already archived a copy of it here:
The SR Dis-Info Dis-Patch Archives
Since some of the tour dates were different, I went ahead and updated the stan on tour item below to match.

sr videos on the web
They've gone and done it! Those damn dirty apes! The official Stan Ridgway web site, StanRidgwayDotCom, has put up QuickTime movies of six of Stan's music videos from various points in his career. The titles are, in chronological order (see, now I'm just showing off): Mexican Radio, Don't Box Me In, Drive She Said, Camouflage, Big Dumb Town, and Knife And Fork.

They've got a short preview (usually about 2MB) and the whole thing (usually about 10MB) for each song. You'll need QuickTime (or a compatible movie player) to see 'em. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to:

The Stan Ridgway Video Archive
february 12th 2000
free of it all
Welcome to the year 2000. Sorry I've taken so long to update the site, but I was waiting for this to arrive...

We kick off our first update of the year with a web site exclusive: I have permission from Mr. Ridgway hisself to put up an MP3 of his latest song Free Of It All. The song is from the soundtrack to the 1999 motion picture Simpatico, which stars Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Sharon Stone, Catherine Keener, and Albert Finney. Free Of It All is the third collaboration between Stan and Stewart Copeland for film (the first was Don't Box Me In, the second Don't Drop The Soap (For Anyone Else But Me)).

They didn't publish the proper credits on the CD, so here they are straight from the horse's mouth:

Free Of It All
By Stan Ridgway and Stewart Copeland
Published by Dis-Information Music BMI and Copeland Music BMI

stan on tour
Stan's still touring for Anatomy, and has announced a slew of dates.

(Note: I've moved the tour dates here.)

For what it's worth, I plan to be there at Slim's, and maybe I'll head down for the House Of Blues show too.

the open road on haloween
Last Haloween, Stan appeared on the KCRW radio program The Open Road with "Scary" Calamar. And the wonderful folks at KCRW have put up a web page with a summary and a complete Real Audio stream of the show.

If you don't finish the whole two hours, make sure you listen to Stan's reading of The Raven, starting at about 17:00 and ending at about 20:30.

Stan Ridgway on The Open Road
summary
Complete KCRW playlist for October 31st, 1999

Misspelling count: one, they add the usual E to his name in the Real Audio stream.

ridgway rarities
Like a good little Stan Ridgway collector, I've been slowly collecting all the odd missing bits from his discography. And, like a good little Stan Ridgway site maintainer, I've made MP3 files out of 'em so I could share them with you. Here we go:

car phone
Stan appeared on the 1991 album Back From Rio by Roger McGuinn, on the track Car Phone. Not as a singer, or a musician, just as a "telephone voice". He and Kimmy Robertson, as "Mark" and "Stephanie", have the following gripping conversation:
Stephanie: Hello?
Mark: Hi, Stephanie, this is Mark.
Stephanie: Hi, Mark, how are you?
Mark: I'm fine, I was wondering if you'd like to come over to my house for dinner tonight.
Stephanie: Oh, I can't, I'm on my way to the airport right now.
Mark: What? Are you in your car?
Stephanie: Uh-huh! I put my home phone on call forwarding so it rings in the car. I'm just gonna pick up an old friend who's flying in from Rio.
Mark: Who do you know from Rio?
Stephanie: He's a guitar player, his name is Jim McGuinn, and he's back from Rio.
And unfortunately that's where it ends. The compelling saga of Mark and Stephanie, and their conversations via the staggering technological advancement known as the car phone, are never continued. Will they have dinner together another night? Will Jim draw Stephanie away from Mark? And who is Jim, anyway? I thought his name was Roger McGuinn. Sadly, these burning questions remain unanswered to this very day.
Car Phone (excerpt)
By Roger McGuinn
Copyright 1991 McGuinn Music (BMI) / Wild Gator Music, WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)

Misspelling count: two, the usual E, and they never spell his name correctly.

excuse / booker tease
Another inadequately explained cameo. Let me take a stab at it, and see what I can infer: Stan Ridgway was supposed to contribute a song to the 1996 Residents tribute album A Stab At The Residents. But he didn't get anything together in time. So he left an apologetic phone message to the organizer (nicknamed "Dread"?). A group called J.E.D. incorporated this phone message into a cover of an instrumental song called Booker Tease, immortalizing Stan's extemporaneous apology.

Here's the text of what Stan said:

Well, Dread, it's Stan Ridgway, and I'm afraid I did not get it together. You probably figured that out... I think I'm going to nail myself to the cross of, uh, the Residents now, and just become a mole-man. But I didn't get anything together. I'm just not happy with what I had. I wish you good luck with your record, and um, maybe there were other people that, uh, this happened to. I tried, but it just wasn't in the season, or something. Sometimes music is, is, is seasonal. Maybe if this, this'd, uh, started, uh, now, we'd-a had it by summertime. You see how these things go. But, um, let's keep in touch, and um, once again, I'm afraid you're going to have to count me out. It's kinda like I wish I could, but, it's, it's just not appearing. Like a, like a slight-of-hand magic act that suddenly, is not happening. But, well, good-luck-to-you, and the giant ant farm. We'll talk soon. Bye.
excuse / Booker Tease
By Stan Ridgway / J.E.D.

rio greyhound (edit)
For reasons that have never yet been explained, one of the releases of the album The Big Heat had an alternate mix of Rio Greyhound. Instead of the 3:12 version that I'm sure you're all familiar with, it had a 1:59 edit mix. Why? Who knows? It's not like they were short on space on the vinyl (my original theory), as this release was CD and cassette only. Anyway, here it is, in all its stunted glory, for you to puzzle over.
Rio Greyhound
By Stan Ridgway
Copyright 1986 International Record Syndicate, Inc.
Published by Mondo Spartacus / Illegal Songs, Inc. (BMI)

doubledrive
It seems Wall Of Voodoo has its share of fans in the hard rock group doubleDrive. Their 1999 album 1000 Yard Stare has eleven songs, then eighty-seven tracks of silence (five seconds apiece), and finally a ninety-ninth track: a cover of Mexican Radio. Given its extra-super-dooper-secret hidden-track nature, they didn't include proper credits, but they did at least tack writing credits on.

To give you a sense of what the cover is like, I've ripped a 45-second chunk of it. You can find it here:

Mexican Radio (excerpt)
as performed by doubleDrive
Copyright 1999 MCA Records, Inc.

lost america
And here's another fan of Stan Ridgway's work: Troy Paiva, a photographer in California, chronicles the deserted towns of America. In a posting to the Stan Ridgway message board, he said that he likes to think of his work as a visual interpretation of the album Mosquitos. I quite like his work, and I highly recommend you check him out yourself:
Lost America
november 9th, 1999
voice chat—you're soaking in it!
I work at a company previously called Mpath Interactive, now in the process of changing its name to HearMe. HearMe is positioning itself as the industry leader in voice chat on the web. Our goal is to voice-enable every web site out there.

Knowing that, it comes as no surprise that I'd voice-enable my own site. And look! There it is, lurking in the upper-right corner. So far, I've only added it to this news page. But in the coming weeks I'll probably spread it all over. (But don't worry—no matter which page you're on at Beyond Tomorrow, you'll be talking in the same group.)

This assumes, of course, that it works for everyone, and everyone likes it. Please let me know what you think.

november 8th, 1999 — roxy show update
the apartment party
or: the visible stan ridgway emotional roadmap

Note: This news item has a bit more opinion and supposition in it than I usually go for. I generally try to stick to the facts on my "news" page. But somehow that wasn't enough to do the evening's experiences justice. So I indulged myself a little. Hope you don't mind.

The November 6th show at The Roxy in Hollywood has come and gone, and according to the fans it was an unparalleled success.

At its onset, Stan characterized it as an "apartment party", seemingly in part because he and the band were feeling rusty (not having played live for two and a half years) and he wanted to lower expectations. And, yes, "mistakes were made" as the saying goes. But everyone I talked to had a blast. The mistakes didn't matter—hey, they were part of the show, and fun in their own right. Hell, Stan could probably read from the Barstow residential telephone directory and make it entertaining.

But Stan seemingly took it all too much to heart, and felt like he'd screwed up the evening. He wove this into his running commentary throughout the show; for instance, early in the show he nicknamed his binder of song lyrics his "Book Of Scars". And then at the end of the show he said this:

I feel like I've personally fucked each and every one of you.
Of course, that was said in the heat of the moment; hopefully, Stan has since realized that everyone who went had a great time, and we were estatic just to see him live again, and hey! next time just bring printed lyrics to all the songs and everything will be fine.

roxy show set list and personnel
Here's the list of performers at the show:

rick king
Electric guitar, backup vocals
ivan knight
Drums (kit)
stan ridgway
Acoustic guitar, vocals, harmonica
david sutton
Standup acoustic bass
pietra wexstun
Keyboards, backup vocals, mini-disc
john gillingham
Stage manager, and bongos (now and then)

Here's the set list from the show, or at least as it was planned:

Acoustic guitar solo
Entire band
Encore #1
Encore #2 (acoustic solo)
Encore #3

Ah, but the best laid plans of mice and Stan are e'er fall to ruin. I didn't take notes on how it actually went down, but here's what I can recall:

jackie "teak" lazar—fired!
Yes, it's true. Stan has gotten rid of Jackie "Teak" Lazar. He was the grand prize at the raffle, ignominously handed out to a lucky (if anonymous) concertgoer. He wore a noose around his neck the whole time, and before handing him off Stan took out some of his aggression on the dummy—
... you worthless fucking woodchipper reject! You haven't done anything for me—my career is in exactly the same place it was before I met you! You took my money and gave me nothing!

But the last chapter has apparently not been written. Stan said after the show that "Jackie has lots of brothers and sister... I see a big conflict coming... think 'eBay'."

musical insights
It's not often that Stan shares the meaning behind his songs. We at the Roxy were privileged to hear stories behind several of 'em. I'm not going to do the stories justice, unfortunately, but I'll try to get the gist of it across. Check it:
overlords
This grew out of Stan reading the writing on the wall at Geffen during the making of Partyball, his second and last record for Geffen. He remembers having lunch with David Geffen, and they're having spinach salads and David is telling Stan how much money he had to pay Neil Young or something. The germ of the song is in the Overlords representing the high mucky-mucks in the music industry.
longarm
At one point in his life, Stan had a job working at a warehouse. He'd been looking for a "monkey job", where he didn't have to think... putting the cellophane on the boxes or something. But soon after starting, the boss at this particular job took a liking to Stan and gave him the job of dispatcher—speaking to the trucks over the CB radio and telling them where to pick stuff up and where to drop it off.

So, this boss, having picked out Stan as his confidant, would go and hang out with him and tell Stan what was on his mind. One particular day, the boss was telling Stan that he was going to have to fire a lot of his dockworkers. "But why?" Stan asked; after all, a lot of these guys were Stan's friends. "Because their arms are too short," said the boss. This was when Stan decided that the boss was definitely insane.

The problem, in the boss's mind, was that his workers couldn't pick up a whatever and hoist it directly into the truck—their arms didn't reach. So clearly he needed employees with longer arms.

So that's the kernel of this song came from. "Big talk" represents Stan as the dispatcher. And the boss really wanted to replace his short-armed employees with ones with longer arms.

man of stone
Like most of us, Stan has his moments of self-doubt, where he thinks "what am I doing? I'm just screwing this up". This song was originally about confronting your own self-doubt, but it changed into this science-fictiony time-travel thing.
luther played guitar
In the early 90's, Johnny Cash was accepting submissions for new songs to go on his "American Recordings" album. Stan, thrilled at the prospect, wrote Luther Played Guitar. Johnny Cash "wound up using... something by Danzig."
picasso's tear
To approximately quote Stan:
      This is about a bunch of guys that I... fuck it, it's just a song. It's just a goddamned song.

other sites about the roxy show
One or two new sites have popped up after the show at the Roxy:

random other items
Quickies that don't bear their own heading:

anatomy... of a murder
As a friend of mine points out, the title and artwork of Anatomy is a clear homage to the 1959 film Anatomy Of A Murder soundtrack by Duke Ellington. Decide for yourself:
Anatomy cover art
Anatomy cover art
Anatomy Of A Murder cover art
Anatomy Of A Murder cover art

october 18th, 1999
early anatomy lesson for you...
Anatomy is released domestically in the states in three days. For those of you who can't wait, you can already buy all the tracks online in Liquid Audio format at this page:
http://alliedchemical.com/blackops/ridgway/projects/anatomy.html
There are also free one-minute Liquid Audio and RealPlayer samples of each song. And they all have the lyrics! (Of course, so do we.)

...and for me too
Clark Price of Dis-Info mailed me an Anatomy press kit which showed up this previous week. It includes the press release, some mug shots of Mr. Ridgway, a couple of Black Diamond matchbooks, and an Anatomy CD. I've been listening to it for days, and I'm really enjoying it, here in this apocolyptic night...

recycling
Some of the tracks on Anatomy will be familiar to the hard-core Stan Ridgway fan:

linkage
The back cover of Anatomy lists three web sites to visit for the Stan Ridgway fan:
To those of you who found me from there, welcome, and be sure to check back periodically for news.

lyrics updated
I've finally retouched the lyrics pages, adding the lyrics to Anatomy, all the recent corrections and (finally!) some graphics. See the new pages here.

twa is dead
Sadly, I noticed this morning while compiling my news that TWA (The World's Address), Stan's record label in Australia, has "ceased trading" as of August 27th. If you never bought a copy of Film Songs, it may be too late, as all the online stores have dropped it from their catalogs. Their main page is now a dead end, though links directly to pages in their old site still work (like my link to their Stan Ridgway pages on my links page). Browse while you still can...
october 11th, 1999
anatomy
It's official—Stan's new solo album is called Anatomy, and it will be officially released in the US on October 20th.

This is the final cover art (I got it off Amazon.com). Click on the thumbnail for a larger version:

Cover image from Anatomy

Here's the track listing:

  1. Mission Bell
  2. Deep Blue Polkadot
  3. Train Of Thought
  4. Murray's Steakhouse Story
  5. Susie Before Sunrise
  6. Sweet Pig Alley
  7. Valerie Is Sleeping
  8. Mickey The Priest
  9. Mama Had A Stove
  10. Whistle For Louise (MP3: 4:27, 4.3MB) (lyrics)
  11. Picasso's Tear
  12. Sixteen Tons

The CD also contains three live tracks from Stan's Black Diamond tour, as CD-ROM data encoded in Liquid Audio format:

  1. Camouflage
  2. I Wanna Be A Boss
  3. The Roadblock

And as if that weren't enough, once Anatomy has been fully released there will be three more live tracks released online:

  1. Harry Truman
  2. The Last Honest Man
  3. Sixteen Tons

cd release show/party
"Stan Ridgway and friends" will be playing at The Roxy in Hollywood, California Saturday, November 6th. And according to the official site:
"One of a Kind Merchandise" will be sold at the ROXY gig... t- shirts , posters. rare cd's and videos..
I've ordered my ticket (online, through TicketMaster)... hope to see you there.

stan ridgway interview
Clarke Price has posted an official interview with Stan at the original site. Rather than try and describe its unconventional style, I'll just point you towards it:
http://www.mindspring.com/~drywall2/New/New.html
june 7th, 1999
www.stanridgway.com
Stan Ridgway now has his own top-level domain, complete with website. It's owned and operated by UltraModern Records, Stan's new record label. The site is almost 100% Shockwave Flash animation, and boy it sure jumps around a lot.

From the website, it looks like Stan's upcoming solo album will be titled Anatomy. However, I asked Clark Price about it, and he said the title wasn't set yet. Clark is da man, and he ain't steered me wrong yet, so we'll just have to wait and see.

www.StanRidgway.com

step aside, we're coming through again!
The Big Heat has been re-released on CD! It's available everywhere. Including my usual favorite, Cheap-CDs. Snap 'em up while you can—it's gone out of print before, it probably will again.
april 16th, 1999
keeping my day job
Stan's birthday was last Monday. To wish him a happy birthday, I finally got my act together and recorded several of my covers of his music. They're all instrumental, and for the most part are written intending to accompany a singer. (In other words, tape 'em and sing along to 'em in the car.)

I pressed it on CD for Stan and myself, but I also set up a web site. The web site probably won't be permanent, but for now you can read it (and listen to MP3s of all six tracks) here:

Keeping My Day Job
march 2nd, 1999
stan goes ultramodern
It's official: Stan Ridgway has signed with a new record label, UltraModern Records, a small label from Minneapolis, MN. Stan's first release with UltraModern will be the solo album he's been working on (see the June 30th, 1998 update below). Chris Strouth of UltraModern estimates it may be released by late spring / early summer, but they'll have samples online perhaps a month before it is released. They already have samples up of Black Diamond, in "Liquid Audio" format. They've got his sites up, in one form or another, here:

the soundtracks just keep on comin'
Stan's doing soundtrack work for yet another movie. This one is called Desperate But Not Serious, it stars Claudia Schiffer and Henry Rollins, and is being directed by Bill Fishman. And! it co-stars Paget Brewster, who went to high school with a friend of mine.

Also on the soundtrack front, I've added an MP3 file from Stan's performance on the Pecker soundtrack. Click here to listen to thirty seconds of Don't Drop The Soap (For Anyone Else But Me) (586k, stereo, CD-quality MP3).

out of stock
Sadly, Stan Ridgway's Dis-information has run out of stock of the Stan Ridgway video collection Showbusiness Is My Life, though the page says there may be a "volume II" later this year.

Dis-Info has also run out of copies of The Index Masters, WOV's original EP plus a bazillion early WOV live tracks on one CD. But! You can still buy it from most online CD retailers, including my favorite: Cheap-CDs. Buy it while you still can—two other Stan Ridgway releases (Stan's first solo album The Big Heat, and the WOV sophmore release Dark Continent) are out of print and unavailable. (And there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth...)

However: Dis-Info still has some copies of The Way I Feel Today for sale—get 'em while you still can.

high-quality trivia
Here's something I've been meaning to do for a while. I've re-encoded all the sound files on the trivia page. They used to be low-quality mono WAV files. Now they're all high-quality stereo MP3 files, ripped straight from the CDs (where possible). And they're only sliiightly bigger for it. I also tightened up the transcripts a little. If you never got 'round to listening to 'em, you should definitely try 'em now. Enjoy!
november 30th, 1998
pun gets a second chance
This one harkens back to the ol' pre-recording-contract days of WOV. I just saw today a video gaming news web page with a preview of an upcoming futuristic war game called Wargasm:
Wargasm preview at The Adrenaline Vault

I wonder if I should send 'em a tape?

In case you'd never heard of it: one of the songs from the early WOV demo tapes was Wargasm, featuring the catchy chorus

I wanna have a wargasm
I wanna have a wargasm right now!

the way everyone feels today
Most people should have their copies of The Way I Feel Today by now. My little sister's copy showed up while she was on vacation last week, and mail usually takes about a week to get up there. If you don't have your copy yet, well, I recommend you wait a couple more days and then email ridgwaymusic@attbi.com and ask what's up.
november 24th, 1998
the eagle has landed!
My copies of The Way I Feel Today arrived today! With the super-cool alien intrigue cover and everything.

If you haven't gotten your copies yet, be patient—I'm on the west coast, so I'd expect packages from Dis-Info HQ to get here a little quicker than most areas. Hold tight, and in no time at all you'll be crooning along with Stan.

black diamond reissue?
Eagle-eyed Professor of Ridgwayology Sam Ulmand sent this in (thanks, Sam!): The December 1998 issue of ICE: THE CD NEWS AUTHORITY lists a release of Black Diamond from Ark 21 records. For those of you, like me, who are woefully uninformed about the music biz, Ark 21 is Miles Copeland's new label for re-releases. Miles Copeland was one of the cofounders of the now-defunct IRS Records, where Stan found a home in the mid-80s.

Update: I just got email back from Dis-Info HQ, and they say there are no planned releases from Ark 21. Stan and Ark 21 were in talks six months ago, but apparently nothing came of it; the listing for Black Diamond is simply in error.

november 20th, 1998
minor updates to this site
I've added a Dis-Patch Archive of all the Stan Ridgway Dis-Information Dis-Patches from about the last year (all the ones I had handy). If you've got any older ones, send 'em in.

I've also revamped the Beyond Tomorrow links page so it looks more like the rest of the site, is easier to maintain, and has all the links people have sent me recently.

the way i felt last week
There have been two Dis-Patch mailings this month apologizing for how late The Way I Feel Today has been in coming out. I haven't seen my copy, and I haven't heard a yelp from my sister either. I don't know any more about it than you do, folks. But hold tight. I'm hoping we'll get 'em by Thanksgiving...
november 5th, 1998
concrete facts on new releases
Tonight's Dis-Patch let loose with some tasty news: the new Stan Ridgway solo album will be released in February of 1999! If you haven't heard about it, you can read what I know so far down here somewhere. Since then, I've made a nice pretty page with the lyrics we've got so far here.

Next year (he didn't say when) will also see the next "apocalyptic document", the second Drywall album with Ivan Knight and Pietra Wextun. In an interview, Mr. Ridgway said this one might be ambient techno.

Finally, Pietra's group Hecate's Angels will have a new album next year too.

okay, the way i feel today isn't out... yet
Dis-Info thought they were gonna get those The Way I Feel Today CDs out last month. But sometimes life just doesn't go your way. The CD pressing plant was late on delivering the CDs, so the plan is to mail 'em out early next week. (And, yes, I'm merely rewording the text from the Dis-Patch.)

soundtrack fever
Tonight's Dis-Patch also mentions another film soundtrack—Stan's fourth for this year. The film is Speedway Junky, starring Jesse Bradford and Daryl Hannah, and directed by either Gus Van Zant or Nikolas Perry (depending on who you believe, Dis-Info or the iMDB).

Speaking of soundtracks, I've got the Pecker soundtrack, and have typed up the lyrics to Don't Drop The Soap (For Anyone Else But Me), and you can read 'em here.

i wanna be a big star...
...with three agents, and a business manager, and a press agent. And then I would fire all of them and hire new ones because I am such a big star...

(Does anyone place that quote? I've got it on one of my CDs and I have no idea where it was sampled from.)

Cafe Eighties, the web/print magazine of the Al Franken Decade, has asked me if I'd mind giving an interview. No, I don't mind. We haven't done it yet, but that's okay, as it won't be out until March of 1999 anyway.

I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille.

the grays are taking over
Tuesday, California elected Gray Davis to the office of Governor. Not a month beforehand, conspiracy theorist talk-show host Art Bell mysteriously vanished from the airwaves. Coincidence?

Just don't be surprised when the fair-skinned, egg-shaped-head aliens show up at your doorstep with their mind-control lasers, that's all I'm saying.

october 9th, 1998
the way i feel today is out!
(Boy, when he said "soon", he wasn't kidding—see the update for October 5th.) Clark Price sent a Dis-Patch on Wednesday the 7th announcing that The Way I Feel Today is now available for purchase! (Look at the top of the page under hey, man, want the inside skinny? sure you do! to learn how to subscribe to the Dis-Patch mailing list.)

The release is limited to 500 CDs, and each CD comes with an autographed picture of Stan. Each CD is $25 + $2 S/H for orders inside the US ($5 for orders outside the US). To order a copy or five, send mail to ridgwaymusic@attbi.com to pre-order, and Clark will send you details on how to place your order.

I've been enjoying this CD for months now, and it just keeps getting better and better. The MP3 samples I've got up are only the tip of the iceberg—you need to hear the full versions of Send In The Clowns and Witchcraft, not to mention tracks you've only read about like One For My Baby and Old Man River. I cannot urge you strongly enough—if you're a Stan Ridgway fan, you want, need, must have this CD.

Be sure to check out Stan Ridgway's Dis-information web site and see the new cover art—it's hysterical.

And hey—once you've got your own copy, drop me a line and let me know what you think, and maybe I'll put your comments up on the The Way I Feel Today web page!

october 6th, 1998
when it rains, it pours
Adrian Oates, who runs the internationally renowned Stan Ridgway site Everybody Does What Nobody Will Allow, sent along these two links (thaks, Adrian!).

First is the more conventional page. Jim Ludtke is an award-winning computer graphics animator. His current project is a short film titled Dr. Colossus, set to music by Stan Ridgway:

Jim Ludtke
Second is this page. The Combat Railfans of Arizona are heavy-duty trainspotters who find particular inspiration in Stan's Mosquitos album:
The All Stan Ridgway All The time Birthday Weekend
If you're not sure what being a "Combat Railfan" means, this article from the Tuscon Weekly might shed some light on the subject.
october 5th, 1998
indie art and lee marvin
Stan Ridgway contributed an article to indieWire.com, an online magazine serving the independent artist community. It's a fun read, as I invite you to discover for yourself:
Indie Art And Lee Marvin
That was sent in by alert reader David Burman (thanks, David!).

john waters demonstrates uncommon taste
Stan Ridgway performed a song used in the recent John Waters movie Pecker. The song is called Don't Drop The Soap (For Anyone Else But Me), with music by Stewart Copeland and words by John Waters. Clark Price had this to say:
Copeland scored the movie and since they all be hangin out lots lately...Stewert asked SR to sing this bit of "barroom background song" for the flick. Hey! its even on the CD they just released on RCA! It plays near the end of the flick at a bar on Baltimore when all hell breaks loose.

Says Stan..."When John Waters wants you to sing ...you sing...a great honor indeed! He told me he wanted a kinda Johnny Cash delivery mixed with bad disco. I did my duty for god, country, and ironic disposistions everywhere."

Stan Ridgway completists will be happy to note that the soundtrack is already out—and cheapskates like me will quickly discover it's available at Cheap-CDs.

the way i feel... soon
Good news: The Way I Feel Today is definitely going to see the light of day. Again, straight from the man, Clark Price:
Its coming out as LIMITED RELEASE just through the DIS INFO website soon... Everyone who has emailed dis-info will be emailed back when its all ready to go but not before. WE wanna have 'em here and manufactured before we tell people they're for sale.

We and SR want to thank everyone for their interest in this CD. We hear you loud and clear. ITS COMING OUT! Sooner than ya think!

If you want to make sure you can get a copy of this miraculous CD (and trust me, you do), best send email to ridgwaymusic@attbi.com with all due speed.
august 10th, 1998
they've got an awful lot of coffee in brazil
This isn't really Stan Ridgway news, but I thought it was interesting. Those of you who have been listening to the MP3 files from Stan's standards CD surely know how rampant coffee drinking is in Brazil. But according to CNN, all they drink down there is really crappy coffee:
Brazil Is Land of Coffee, but Good Luck Finding Tasty Cup to Drink
Update: CNN apparently deletes their news after about a week. But I've left this news item here for posterity.
august 3rd, 1998
spent
Ever-vigilant reader John Trivisonno (thanks, John!) got a hold of the names of the seven tracks Mr. Ridgway created for the film score to the movie pent. They are:
(Stan, get some sleep!)
july 24th, 1998
music for film
I've put up a web page covering Stan's film-industry-hepcats-only CD release. You can read about it, and listen to a couple of tracks, here:
Music For Film (Sampler 98)
Speaking of film music, alert reader Bill Latham (thanks, Bill!) saw in the current issue of Film Score Monthly that Stan is doing the scores for three upcoming movies. Regular Beyond Tomorrow readers already know about two of them: Melting Pot and Error In Judgement. (Both of these scores also appear on the aforementioned CD Music For Film (Sampler 98).) But the third one is news: pent, starring Rain Phoenix. Bill said it best in his email: Doesn't the man ever sleep?

Our final note about Stan Ridgway, Film Score Author Of Destiny, is that he now has his own entry in the IMDB (the Internet Movie DataBase). I'm sure you already know more than they do about Stan's movie work, but in case you're interested you can browse their incomplete listings here:

Stan Ridgway at the IMDB
july 13th, 1998
stan ridgway—not just a fellow, but a sundance composer fellow
Stan Ridgway was one of six up-and-coming film composers selected to participate in the Sundance Composers Lab at The Sundance Institute. In case you haven't heard of it, The Sundance Institute is a non-profit institute, dedicated to support independent filmmakers, and was founded by Robert Redford in 1981.

Here's the coverage of the announcement from the entertainment industry trade magazine Daily Variety, June 25th, 1998 edition (reprinted without permission):

Sundance takes 6 composers for lab
The Sundance Institute has chosen six composers to participate in the Sundance Composers Lab (June 22-August 17).

As part of the revamped program, composer fellows will be paired with those from the Filmmakers Lab (which runs simultaneously) in Sundance, Utah, to collaborate on the musical scores for film projects.

As an introduction to the summer program, Robert Redford and composer Thomas Newman will discuss their collaboration on The Horse Whisperer after a screening of the film.

Next month, the composers will assemble in L.A. to meet with creative advisors, music editors, music supervisors, soundtrack and record producers, agents and technical specialists.

Established film composers will serve as creative advisors and mentors to lab participants. Advisors include Stewart Copeland (Rumble Fish, Fresh), Jerry Goldsmith (Patton, L.A. Confidential), Trevor Jones (Last Of The Mohicans, In The Name Of The Father), Michael Kamen (Mr. Holland's Opus, Lethal Weapon), Thomas Newman (The Horse Whisperer, The Shawshank Redemption), Graeme Revell (The Saint, Chinese Box), Shirley Walker (Escape From L.A., Turbulence) and Christopher Young (Copycat, Jennifer 8).

This year's selected composer fellows include Brent Michael Davids, Camara Kambon, Rebeca Mauleon, Stan Ridgway, Carlos Rodriguez and Michael Wolff. All are accomplished musicians, but have not yet scored a major film. —Vanessa Torres

(Thanks to Clark Price at Dis-Info for sending along a copy of the article.)
june 30th, 1998
new solo album news
Dis-Info HQ sent me some dis-info about Stan Ridgway's upcoming solo album. The album still doesn't have a title, and Mr. Ridgway hasn't committed to a label yet. All I really know for sure is these three tracks:
By special permission of Mr. Ridgway, I've got an MP3 file up for you:
Whistle For Louise (4:27, 4.3MB)
Be sure to listen to it on headphones at least once—it uses stereo separation to good effect with the steel guitar. Also, in usual Beyond Tomorrow style, here are the lyrics.

Remember, this is a different project from The Way I Feel Today.

reorganizations afoot
If the news seems a little slow, it's because I'm reengineering the whole site and I'm trying to minimize the changes I make in the meantime. At this rate, it'll probably be another couple of weeks before you see any changes.
june 20th, 1998
added another track from the way i feel today
Sure, I've been listening to the whole album, but for the past couple of days I've been stuck on this one particular track. In fact, you could say it's gotten Under My Skin. Anyway, I just had to turn it into an MP3 file and put it up so y'all could enjoy it too. And while I was at it I added two more excerpts: Angel Eyes and What Now My Love. You'll find them all here.

By the way, Clark Price tells me they're getting tons of letters and email regarding the new album. Keep that support pouring in, folks— it'll help the Ridgway organization decide how best to release this great new album.

june 13th, 1998
new album news! including sound clips!
Stan Ridgway has cut a new album, and he sent me a copy so I could share it with you. I've got sound files and liner notes and questions and answers, and you can read it all here:
The Way I Feel Today
So go! Right now! Time's a-wastin! Get a move on! What are you waiting for? Go on, git!
may 16th, 1998
new stan ridgway site: everybody does what nobody will allow
Just a quick update—I haven't got my network connection working from home yet, so I haven't been able to do much with the site.

But! Adrian Oates has started a Stan Ridgway web site of his own, and I had to put up a quick note about it. Check it out—it looks great:

Everybody Does What Nobody Will Allow
may 6th, 1998
importance of quality backups
As you may have noticed, we were down for a couple of weeks, because our web server had a disk crash and I didn't have the time to deal with the restoration. I now have some more time (I've moved in to my new house!) and will be fixing up the web site.

Please let me know if you see anything that's not working properly. Thanks.

april 5th, 1998
When it rains, it pours. Two months of nothin', and now five news items all at once! Bring it on!
the making of big dumb town
Longtime Beyond Tomorrow booster John Trivisonno has hit the jackpot: he's gotten a copy of the rumored videotape The Making of Big Dumb Town. The first time I heard about it, I didn't believe it was real—but now John's 's actually got it!

Here's what John has to say about it:

[...] it’s a hell of a lot of fun... more than just a “making of.” We of course get to see the Big Dumb Town video (which you’ve seen on Rare Diamonds) and then it goes on for about half and hour with Stan’s home video footage and running commentary on everything from how they put the video together to Playboy’s Playmate of the Month. Also featured: Pietra Wexstun sitting around reading books at the video editing facility, and Chris Lamson (who also appears briefly in Showbusiness is my Life) as he cuts the video together. Stan does a few funny bits as the voice of Jackie “Teak” Lazar.
John's got a copy winging its way to me—I'll do a nice writeup of it when it arrives.

ridgway rarities
John's also sending me an audio cassette with some rare Ridgway tracks, including:
Then, late last week, I turned up copies of the 12" singles for The Big Heat and Camouflage at RPM Records. (You know, now that I've been running a Stan Ridgway web site for a while, I don't think I'll ever misspell "camouflage" or "mosquitos" again.)

I'll look into sampling some of this stuff for the web site when it comes in.

wall of voodoo rarities
Speaking of net searches paying off, just this week I turned up the following rare Wall Of Voodoo releases (note that these are all from the post-Stan WOV):
Given how many people have been looking for Happy Planet, I'm surprised that I found a copy. But then I bet most of those people have been looking in the wrong places. Here's my secret: there are a lot of used-record stores that list their entire inventory on their web pages, so a simple web search will automatically find 'em for you. I went to AltaVista and searched for
+"wall of voodoo" +"happy planet"
The plus-signs mean "the next word must appear in all documents found", and the quote marks keep those words together. That search turned up only about fifty pages, and the Moby Disc link was in the first twenty.

Oh, that reminds me! One reader named Ray has volunteered to sell his spare copy of Dark Continent. If you're interested, email him at CDcollectr@aol.com. And please let me know when it's sold, so I can take this down and save wear and tear on Ray's mailbox.

new links
While doing some of those searches recently, I turned up the two following links:

all quiet on the ridgway front
If there aren't any updates for a month or so, it's partially because there isn't that much Stan Ridgway news, and partially because I'm in the process of buying a house—in Silicon Valley, no less, for three times what it would cost most other places. And I'll be moving, regardless of whether I get the house or not. But I'll still be reading my email, and if I get wind of any news flashes I'll be sure to update the page.
february 4th, 1998
wall of voodoo mentioned in tv guide
The Cheers & Jeers colum for the February 7th-13th, 1998 issue of TV Guide offers Cheers to the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer sings Mexican Radio to himself. Here's the complete text, with their formatting:
Cheers to musical allusions. "The Reverse Peephole," the Seinfeld episode about fur coats and wallets, contained two witty throwaway jokes involving pop music. First, Jerry bragged of his prowess as DJ at a party. His repeated boast, that he was "getting jiggy with it," the episode's running gag, was borrowed from a Will Smith song. What does it mean? We don't know, and we suspect Jerry doesn't, either. Secondly, as Kramer happily installed a reverse peephole in his apartment door, we distinctly heard him singing the chorus of "Mexican Radio," an odd ditty from the obscure '80s group Wall Of Voodoo. That's what we love about Seinfeld: It finds humor in the strangest places.
Will Smith gets bold and Wall Of Voodoo doesn't? And WOV gets stuck with the label "obscure"? Feh. Yellow journalism. At least we can fix the first one here at Beyond Tomorrow:
Wall Of Voodoo
january 18th, 1998
dis-info update
Dis-Info sent out an update last night with three news items:
The email contained info on how to buy the car, and a lovely picture, and you can see 'em both if you follow the link below:
(picture of car) Stanard Cab for sale!
january 15th, 1998
kramer's on a mexican radio
(Minor, minor trivia here, but as long as I've got a news page I might as well put it up. At least this way no one will mail me about it.)

I happened to watch Seinfeld tonight, and they made a throwaway reference to Mexican Radio. As Kramer is reversing the direction of his apartment door's peephole, he's singing to himself I'm on a mexican... radio... woah woah woah-ohhh... Then, at the end of the episode, over the Castle Rock Entertainment flying logo, they played two seconds of the original song (the clip was of Stan singing the same line).

With Seinfeld going into permanent syndication, I'm sure this will mean thousands and thousands of dollars in residual royalties for all those fresh-faced boys in Wall Of Voodoo.

january 11th, 1998
holy cow, three projects?
My spies tell me that Stan is actually working on three projects simultaneously:
  1. The complete soundtrack and score for the movieMelting Pot
  2. A new Drywall album, and
  3. A new solo studio album to boot!
Ladies and gentlemen, the drought is over. They're comin' fast and furious. Isn't it good to be alive!

dark continent still available?
There may be one place where you can still buy Dark Continent, Wall of Voodoo's first album. CD Europe has Dark Continent listed as available imported from Holland, for $50. Now, half the time CD Europe lists something rare, it's listed in error and they can't get it anymore. So if you order it, please mail me and let me know whether it actually worked or not, and I'll pass the information along.

They've also got a listing for an album called Wall Of Voodoo, also imported from Holland, also $50. As much as I'm wondering what that might actually be, I'm not curious enough to spend $50 on it.

minor updates
Thanks again to John Trivisonno, I've got samples of the complete aside from Drive She Said on the Trivia page. And I've got the lyrics to After The Storm up too. Keep that stuff flowing in, everyone!
december 21st, 1997
stan joins in on cover of luther
This just in from Skip Heller (thanks, Skip!):
Rockabilly singer Ray Campi's forthcoming (Jan 98) on Rounder/Mouthpiece records, Train Rhythm Blue, features a cover of Stan's Luther Played Guitar—with Stan on rhythm guitar and harmonica, and a version of Blackie Farrell's Don't Forget The Train with Stan taking a gorgeous harmonica solo. Other players on the album: Dave Alvin, DJ Bonebrake, Tony Gilkyson. I produced and did most of the guitar playing. Probably my greatest joy was asking Stan in, his saying yes, and then playing nose-to-nose with him. Okay, I was nervous, but thrilled.
If you're interested, you can already advance-order Train Rhythm Blue at CD Now. Search for Ray Campi, then click on Ray Campi Quartet.

Update, January 18th: The CD is out, and available everywhere. The perfect gift for the Stan Ridgway completist.

minor updates
Since the launch, I've rebuilt the lyrics with some corrections, and added Big And Heat And The to the Trivia page. Plus, John Trivisonno sent in the complete aside to Drive She Said! Thanks, John!
december 6th, 1997
launch
This web site, Beyond Tomorrow, is brand new today.

upcoming projects
According to Stan Ridgway's Dis-information (as of 1997/7/25), Stan is working on a new studio album. For a while, the site was taking submissions for suggestions of a title, but that was taken down almost immediately. It's not clear whether it's a new Stan Ridgway solo album, a Drywall album, or something else new.

On another note, in an email to me, Clarke Price of Dis-Info mentioned that Stan is in the studio working on soundtrack music for an upcoming movie: Melting Pot starring Cliff Robertson.

cheap mosquitos
After a dry spell lasting years, Mosquitos and Partyball are back in print! What's even more pleasant is that they're cheap. Although you'd do more to support Stan's music by buying directly from Dis-Info, Dis-Info charges $15 for any Stan Ridgway album—but you can buy these two at retail for $7, and CD Now is selling them for a shocking $5.49 apiece! Do what I did—stock up before they go out of print again. Keep one at home! in the office! in the car! in your gym locker! Never go without A Mission In Life or Uba's House Of Fashions again!

australian releases
It's not often that I'm jealous of Australians—they get wicked lightning storms, and they're forced to eat shocking things like Vegemite—but when it comes to Stan Ridgway releases, they've got us Americans beat. Stan's label in Australia, TWA Records, has released no less than four special items that aren't available anywhere else.

You can order directly from TWA, or through other distributors like CD Europe

The four things are:

dark days for dark continent
Dark Continent, Wall of Voodoo's first full album, is sadly out of print, and Dis-Info has run out of stock. You can't buy a copy for love or money right now, unless you find it used or in a dusty corner of a music store. Though you can still hear live versions of four Dark Continent tracks on The Index Masters: Animal Day, Red Light, Back In Flesh, and Call Box (1-2-3).

(Wall of Voodoo's first release wasn't a full album, but an EP—the six-track eponymous Wall Of Voodoo. Those six tracks make up the first twenty minutes of The Index Masters.)


A note about the news: Don't expect updates too often, simply because there usually isn't much news.
Beyond Tomorrow News / Larry Hastings / larry@hastings.org