Love Camp 7
Love Camp 7 zig-zags and twirls around the stylistic map - stay on if you can!
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
It all began when Ollie North was dodging questions on the floor of the Senate. Was it high treason or extra-added patriotism laced with corn flakes, johnnycake and apple pie on a wooden porch as the sun sets and the mosquitoes take aim? Every American had come unglued. At that precise moment in time, we went to the hardware store to pick up a roll of gaffer's tape. That was all that separated us from the proceedings and our music.
At about 8:30PM on July 22, 1987, while sentimentalists were commemorating the 53rd anniversary of the betrayal of John Dillinger by the lady in red and subsequent shooting/killing of Dillinger by federal agents outside the Biograph Theater, we went to the studio and said our hellos. Dan, Bruce; Bruce, Dave; Dave, Dan. With that out of the way, we whipped out our roll of tape, plugged in the instruments, dimmed the lights and took out a loan from Con Edison. First run-through: Blues in E. (The composer of that song must have made a fortune in royalties, but alas, he probably didn't made a penny.) Then we moved on to some originals: Ruby Slippers, Huxley in Hollywood, A Polka Dotted Girl, Surfer Drowns, Lawns of Hawthorne, Water is My Child, A Carol in July, Myra Breckenridge and Take Love Where You Find It. At that point we had to take 5. It was hot. The electric meter was running wildly out of control. Everything was on overload. The floor was shaking. We were breaking new ground.
Reviews and tours followed. Albert Garzon of Community 3 Records called Take Love Where You Find It one of his favorite songs of all time. Pylon, Spin Doctors and Antietam had nothing but kind words for us out on the open road and a gentleman in Marseilles decided to fly the band to Europe to see how the Mediterranean flora and fauna would take to this new breaking sound from Brooklyn.
An EP, two 7"singles and 3 full-length feature CDs followed in close order and bohemian types on two continents tried to figure out how to get their hands on any of the above. One independent label in Frankfurt served the needs of all 300 million people in Europe and our garage in Brooklyn took care of the North American market. The A&R Consortium called Love Camp 7 the most unsignable band in America. Immediately thereafter, Billboard magazine gave Love Camp 7's first two CD's starred reviews and a writer in Option named Love Camp 7's third offering, Live in Las Vegas, his 3rd-favorite record of the year, right behind Dylan's Time Out of Mind and some other record. The A&R folks in America were having some imagination problems, but critics were having more fun than they'd had in decades. They actually looked forward to reviewing our new records. Good thing Frank Zappa wasn't just getting started. He would never have been invited to the floor of the Senate to give testimony to the second lady and her PMRC. Same hallowed chamber Ollie North had visited a few years earlier.
The band finished mastering record # 4, Vacation Village, last summer when the French were upsetting the Brasilian gods of soccer. The record has not yet been released. We're still playing with finger paints to get the colors just right for the cover. Material for record #5 (tentatively to be called: The End of the End of the End of the End and its Beginning) is now being rehearsed underneath a fruit stand in Hell's Kitchen. We're probably one half the way to the end. So far, there's a song about Phil Schapp; one about the UConn basketball team; another about elephants; and one about a telephone girl. A little something for everyone. Be on the lookout for the big bang. And don't pay any attention to the astro physicist if he starts going on about the Earth falling out of orbit and crashing into the sun. Nothing will happen before the 15th of March next year. No need to cause a crisis in faith just yet.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
Live in Las Vegas! On a bill with Shirley McLaine and Buddy Hackett. What a stint. We did that for about 15 years before we made it to NY. Now it's mostly Arlene's Grocery, Baby Jupiter, and Europa and clubs like that.
Your musical influences
The Beatles, Kinks, Frank Zappa, Rogers and Hammerstein, Captain Beefheart, Byrds, Johnny Cash, Duke Ellington.
What equipment do you use?
Fender, Fender, Fender, Ludwig.
