Young Fresh Fellows rejoice 40 years since ‘Fabulous’ debut

They’re thought of one of the crucial influential bands to emerge from Seattle within the Eighties. And whereas they will not be as well-known as a few of their “grungier” counterparts, the Young Fresh Fellows are nonetheless going robust, and this week, they’re marking the fortieth anniversary – and new remix reissue – of their debut album “Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest.”

The Fellows predate that entire “grunge” rise by practically 10 years, and thru reputation on school radio stations – probably the most highly effective outside-the-mainstream musical tastemakers of the pre-Internet period – they grew to become beloved across the United States and in different components of the world, together with Spain, as an illustration.

The band and their albums, unique songs, and stay exhibits don’t fairly match into some other area of interest, although the selection covers they play and the friendships they solid with different musicians over the a long time elevate the Young Fresh Fellows to a aircraft (or part of the file bin) which may additionally embrace the Velvet Underground, NRBQ and Mott The Hoople.

This week’s historic celebration kicks off with the primary date of a cross-country tour: a sold-out present Friday evening on the Tractor Tavern in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Then, it’s on to Portland for a present Saturday evening. Next month, the tour continues to Chicago; Madison, Wisconsin; Cleveland; New York and Massachusetts.

Four a long time after their vinyl debut, a number of spots round Seattle already qualify as historic locations the place essential moments in Young Fresh Fellows (YFF) historical past occurred, like the Mural Amphitheatre the place they performed a number of landmark exhibits, the previous location of Cellophane Square in Seattle’s U. District the place YFF singer/songwriter/guitarist Scott McCaughey was supervisor within the Eighties, and the previous house of Egg Studios within the metropolis’s Ravenna/View Ridge space, the place lots of the band’s albums have been recorded.

‘Fine. But there’s no less than yet another location we wished you to listen to about.’

But first, a little bit extra historical past: The earliest incarnation of the Young Fresh Fellows dates to 1981. That’s when Scott McCaughey and Chuck Carroll – two mates from California’s Bay Area who had moved to Seattle in 1979 to launch a music journal, however discovered somebody had already beat them to it with The Rocket – recorded an early cassette-only model of “Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest.” The identify of the cassette, and the narrator excerpts between the songs, got here from a promotional file issued by Pacific Northwest Bell in 1965.

“We assume sounds are about one of the best ways of speaking there’s,” that narrator says at the start of the 1965 cellphone firm disc and years later, repurposed for the unique YFF recording. “So, we’ve assembled a set of typical sounds of the Pacific Northwest. Now, sit again and pay attention.”

In 1983, McCaughey and Carroll’s buddy Conrad Uno supplied to provide and file an album-length model of the fabric in his studio and launch it on Popllama, the file label Uno was within the technique of launching. Headquarters for Popllama and for the studio was Conrad Uno’s home on a facet avenue in North Seattle.

But this wasn’t the well-known Egg Studio within the Ravenna/View Ridge space. That location, which Uno shuttered when he retired in 2017, hosted a whole lot of bands over the a long time, and might be finest recognized for being the place the place The Presidents of the United States of America recorded their debut LP. That file finally was licensed Triple Platinum.

Where was the unique, mostly-forgotten Egg Studio situated?

‘Here, in a setting as inexperienced as England’s turf, 1000’s of holiday makers come to hearken to phrases that can by no means die.’

“The humorous factor is, Conrad couldn’t even bear in mind the deal with,” stated Scott McCaughey, standing in entrance of the modest, post-war Seattle house on a wet Tuesday afternoon. “We needed to go on the Google satellite tv for pc and look. He stored throwing out addresses and none of them have been proper. And then lastly, one thing clicked in his mind and we discovered this.

“Oh, yeah, that’s it,” McCaughey stated, recreating the aha-moment when he and Conrad Uno tracked down the fitting home. “’That’s it, that’s completely it.”

McCaughey lives in Portland lately. He flew to Seattle Tuesday afternoon prematurely of Friday evening’s present to get in just a few follow periods with the remainder of the band, together with bass participant Jim Sangster and guitarist Kurt Bloch. With drummer John Perrin in tow, McCaughey got here straight from the airport to satisfy and reminisce concerning the recording of “Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest” and do it only a few muddy steps away from the place the tape – sure, analog tape – truly rolled.

“Conrad Uno lived right here,” McCaughey stated. “And that was the basement,” he continued, pointing at storage door on the decrease stage of the home. “The storage was the management room, and the recording room was straight again within the basement, I believe.”

“That’s how I bear in mind it,” McCaughey stated. “It’s been, like, 40 years since I’ve been right here.”

Depending on what occurs inside its soundproofed partitions, recording studios can turn out to be one thing like supporting characters within the usually irresistible narratives round a band’s early days, or about the whole musical group of a specific place and time. Even informal music followers can see names like Muscle Shoals, Abbey Road and Electric Ladyland and never really feel a have to seek the advice of Wikipedia.

Egg Studio – even the unique, nearly-forgotten one, which was solely Egg Studio for just a few years – has seemingly earned an identical place within the recording venue pantheon.

‘And when the final bronc is busted by these good guys of the West, you’ll be able to drive from cattle nation to the large mountain slopes, the place timber communities maintain their very own competitors … within the Logger’s Carnival.’

The first YFF album included Scott McCaughey singing and enjoying bass; Chuck Carroll singing and enjoying guitar; and Chuck’s cousin Tad Hutchinson on drums. The YFF acquired assist from different musician mates with extra vocals, and each McCaughey and Carroll additionally performed keyboard.

“We fancied ourselves being Mott the Hoople, or The Who, or The Kinks, and if you pay attention again to it doesn’t actually sound like that,” McCaughey stated. “It feels like we’d have wished it to sound like that, however it’s type of nice as a result of it grew to become its personal factor. It’s a really unique sound, .”

Listening again to “Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest” on unique vinyl is a bit like time journey to an easier period earlier than MP3s and laptops. The recording expertise is all analog, and the sound is fairly uncooked. But above all, McCaughey’s songwriting – with an eclectic mixture of punk, people and rock opera – stands the check of time and largely defies simple categorization.

The identical might be stated of Scott McCaughey himself. He has masterminded or has been integral components of numerous bands and musical tasks, and might be finest recognized internationally for touring as a guitarist with R.E.M.

However, the Young Fresh Fellows is clearly his flagship band, and Egg Studios – brainchild of Conrad Uno, who recorded most of their albums and constructed a file label across the YFF – is the protozoic humdrum spot on the map, tucked away on a quiet avenue in North Seattle, the place all of it started.

‘There’s a drum filled with different colourful sounds, too.’

“Wow, that is brings all of it again,” McCaughey stated, surveying the entrance yard, driveway and porch of the largely non-descript residence. “If we go inside, Uno stated to test and see if there’s any egg cartons on the wall” within the basement, “as a result of that’s why we referred to as it Egg Studios, as a result of that was the factor again then, that was the high-tech soundproofing.”

“I don’t assume it does something, truthfully,” McCaughey defined, dismissing the worth of the egg carton materials which was as soon as ubiquitous on the partitions of lo-fi studios in all places.

“But yeah, all people did it,” McCaughey stated.

Like the reliance on these overvalued egg cartons, one of many secrets and techniques of “Fabulous Sounds” was a sure naiveté or possibly even innocence pervading the whole course of.

McCaughey says Conrad Uno’s supply to file the album free of charge and to launch it on his label was a no brainer.

“So, we’re like, ‘Oh yeah, that sounds superior,’” McCaughey stated. “We didn’t know that he didn’t actually know what he was doing, however we didn’t know what we have been doing both. So it labored out actually good. It labored out nice.”

“And he truly acquired actually nice sounds,” McCaughey continued. “I imply, I simply remixed the file, which is correct right here.”

McCaughey had with him a vinyl copy of the brand new remix of “Fabulous Sounds” which is due for official launch in June. The entrance cowl options barely up to date art work of the unique launch and consists of extra photographs of the band members; the again is a photograph taken inside the unique Egg.

“That’s in there,” McCaughey stated, holding up the brand new LP and pointing down the driveway. “That’s Uno proper there (within the photograph), and that is the room proper contained in the storage there, it’s proper on the opposite facet of the storage door.”

“And (there are) photos of us within the monitoring room, too,” McCaughey defined. Then, pointing on the photograph on the again of the LP once more, he continued, “But later these cabinets have been fully lined with tequila bottles, largely Arandas Tequila, which is the most cost effective tequila we might purchase. We went by way of so many bottles of tequila, he simply had them lined up throughout this whole studio. It was superb.”

Unfortunately, no person was house on the previous Egg Studio home on Tuesday – or, no less than no person answered a knock on the door – so we weren’t in a position to get inside and test for egg cartons. Chances are fairly good that the present occupants most likely do not know of the historical past that occurred on the decrease stage of their house, alongside their trusty furnace and water heater.

‘What’s that, not sufficient motion you say? Listen.’

Still, even being exterior jogged Scott McCaughey’s reminiscence of indelible events there. He pointed to a retaining wall forming one facet of the driveway, under the walkway to the entrance porch, with possibly a five-or-six-foot drop from walkway stage to driveway stage. Forty years in the past, McCaughey stated, they at all times entered the home by way of the entrance door as a result of the driveway at all times had Conrad Uno’s previous truck parked there. Uno’s day job meant the mattress of the truck was crammed mowers, trimmers, edgers and different garden care gear.

McCaughey stated Conrad Uno and the band threw a giant occasion there someday in November 1983 to rejoice the file being completed. Early within the night, Scott says he was already handed out within the entrance yard.

‘Well, now the rating right here within the Pacific Northwest.’

“At some level, I awakened within the bushes and the occasion was raging inside,” McCaughey stated. “And I dragged myself up and I simply staggered and I fell over backwards off this precipice, and landed within the behind Uno’s truck filled with garden mowing gear.”

“I believe I’m fortunate I didn’t die,” McCaughey continued, explaining how he did find yourself fairly bruised from the autumn. “I believe if (Uno’s truck) hadn’t been there, I might need been even worse.”

“But yeah,” McCaughey stated, chuckling 40 years later on the reminiscence, “it is a actually proud second for me.”

‘Uh-oh. Here’s one we missed.’

Though they’d performed in bands collectively within the Bay Area, Scott McCaughey and Chuck Carroll hadn’t thought of making music a profession. McCaughey says it was Conrad Uno providing to file that first album free of charge after which launching a file label and mailing copies of “Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest” to school stations across the nation that modified all that.

Word of the band’s rising reputation unfold slowly in these days, on the pace of the U.S. Postal Service, with mailers arriving from faraway and unique locales.

“We acquired one from this place in Bloomington, Indiana, the faculty college station there and we have been No. 1,” McCaughey defined. “We’re No. 1? We can’t even determine it out, , we’re like what the hell? It’s such a bizarre file, too. It’s a humorous little file. But I imply, on the time we thought it appeared like (The Who’s) ‘Quadrophenia.’”

Over the years, the lineup of the YFF has modified, and McCaughey has taken on many different tasks with a head-spinning eclectic vary of artists and topics. He additionally bounced again from a well being scare just a few years in the past.

“I by no means, by no means deliberate on it being a profession or something like that. I simply by no means thought it will be potential,” McCaughey stated, taking one other have a look at the standard-issue Seattle home, the rain coming down and the late-spring grass wanting effectively watered and a bit overgrown.

“So it’s type of superb that I truly did, or do, have a profession, and it type of actually began proper right here,” he stated.

‘Those are only a few of the sounds of this large nation.’

You can hear Feliks Banel each Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read extra from Feliks right here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast right here. If you may have a narrative thought or a query about Northwest historical past, please electronic mail Feliks. You may also observe Feliks on X.