Michael Louis Wells: Buy
"Go Negative" - Bipolar Explorer
"Guitar-driven, hyper-literate indie rock. Melodic with punky echoes." (CDBaby)
GO NEGATIVE is the debut from Bipolar Explorer - Michael Wells (guitars, bass, vocals) and Yves Gerard (drums, vocals)*.
It was recorded by Gerard and Tommy Uzzo, who also did the mixes, and features 12 new tunes by Wells, the former guitarist, singer and chief songwriter for NYC-based pop-punksters, Uncle. Gerard, former Patti Rothberg and Better Days drummer, also produced.
The highly infectious melodic, punk-laced, hyper-literate, guitar-driven, "please-don't-call-us-Emo" sounds bring to mind echoes of The Replacements, Husker Du, Guided By Voices, Pavement and mid-period Clash.
It might added that some very healthy mixture of Anglo-American influence, a trans-Atlantic vibe, can be found in much of the music. Possibly one fan may have been put his finger on it recently describing the results as sounding "like (Paul) Westerberg rocking out with the guys from Wire or something."
Yes, that's a GOOD thing.
* Sean Lahey (guitar) and Elizabeth Rossa (bass) round out the BPX live line-up, natch - they're awesome!
GO NEGATIVE is the debut from Bipolar Explorer - Michael Wells (guitars, bass, vocals) and Yves Gerard (drums, vocals)*.
It was recorded by Gerard and Tommy Uzzo, who also did the mixes, and features 12 new tunes by Wells, the former guitarist, singer and chief songwriter for NYC-based pop-punksters, Uncle. Gerard, former Patti Rothberg and Better Days drummer, also produced.
The highly infectious melodic, punk-laced, hyper-literate, guitar-driven, "please-don't-call-us-Emo" sounds bring to mind echoes of The Replacements, Husker Du, Guided By Voices, Pavement and mid-period Clash.
It might added that some very healthy mixture of Anglo-American influence, a trans-Atlantic vibe, can be found in much of the music. Possibly one fan may have been put his finger on it recently describing the results as sounding "like (Paul) Westerberg rocking out with the guys from Wire or something."
Yes, that's a GOOD thing.
* Sean Lahey (guitar) and Elizabeth Rossa (bass) round out the BPX live line-up, natch - they're awesome!
"Moving On To Solids" - Uncle
"MORE fun and more drunk than my real uncle. And that's saying a lot..."
That's how legendary Fleshtones drummer, Bill Milhizer, described NYC's pop-punkers, Uncle. "Moving On To Solids" is the 1998 follow-up to their '95 debut, "Thanks For All The Lemons", and the band's favourite. "We grew up," guitarist/singer Michael Wells says. "Sorta."
Following two years of regular gigs around NYC, up and down the east coast as far north as Montreal and as far south as West Virginia, the band took their act across the pond for a brace of gigs in the UK including a show at The Orange in London, which proved to be British-born drummer Simon Braund's last. "They wouldn't renew his visa. The State Department or The Home Office or whoever was responsible. I dunno who. Just we were about to fly back to play Mercury Lounge in a week and start the new record and suddenly we had no drummer."
Former Better Days and Patti Rothberg drummer, Yves Gerard, was quickly enlisted and the band reconvened at Brooklyn's Mission Sound knocking out basic tracks of 17 tunes in 10 hours. "All the live shows for like 20 people who had never heard of us before, crashing on somebody's floor and then doing it again made us get our s*** together. We just got a lot tighter. Ya know? And we kinda knew what we wanted to do (recording) this time. The songs were better. And we remembered to like not start drinking til playback. That mighta helped."
And Yves. "Joe Strummer famously said 'you're only as good as your drummer'. And no disrespect to Bruce or Simon but Yves just made an enormous difference, I think. We had to get better. Ya know? Like so we wouldn't embarrass him."
Of the 14 songs that made the final sequence for "Moving On To Solids", 10 were written by guitarist/singer, Michael Wells, with 2 contributions each from lead guitarist Chas Milton Braun and bassist Gregg Rochman.
"Some of the stuff we'd been doing live for awhile, but a couple of 'em - 'Kinderlacht' and 'Nothing At All', I think - I wrote like that week we went in. And 'Thanks To You', which I guess is my favourite. Gordon Smetherhurst from Cementhead said he liked it because that's exactly what we sounded like live. It's also the most shamelessly Replacements-influenced."
"It took awhile to mix. We wanted to try some new things. So, that's why there's three different engineers" - mixes are by Charlton Pettus, Oliver Strauss and Michel Sauvage. With mastering by Drew Lavene, "we forgot that part the first time."
"Moving On To Solids" proved to be the group's swan song. Uncle disbanded in 1999. "People wanted to do other things. So, ya know, they did. It's a good record, tho'. I'm proud of it. And there's not like any bad blood. At least... I dunno. I don't think there is."
Meanwhile...Michael Wells and Yves Gerard with Sean Lahey and Elizabeth Rossa have gone on to form a new band - Bipolar Explorer - whose debut, "Go Negative" has recently been released. "You'll like that, too, I think. I mean, Yves's on it, right?"
That's how legendary Fleshtones drummer, Bill Milhizer, described NYC's pop-punkers, Uncle. "Moving On To Solids" is the 1998 follow-up to their '95 debut, "Thanks For All The Lemons", and the band's favourite. "We grew up," guitarist/singer Michael Wells says. "Sorta."
Following two years of regular gigs around NYC, up and down the east coast as far north as Montreal and as far south as West Virginia, the band took their act across the pond for a brace of gigs in the UK including a show at The Orange in London, which proved to be British-born drummer Simon Braund's last. "They wouldn't renew his visa. The State Department or The Home Office or whoever was responsible. I dunno who. Just we were about to fly back to play Mercury Lounge in a week and start the new record and suddenly we had no drummer."
Former Better Days and Patti Rothberg drummer, Yves Gerard, was quickly enlisted and the band reconvened at Brooklyn's Mission Sound knocking out basic tracks of 17 tunes in 10 hours. "All the live shows for like 20 people who had never heard of us before, crashing on somebody's floor and then doing it again made us get our s*** together. We just got a lot tighter. Ya know? And we kinda knew what we wanted to do (recording) this time. The songs were better. And we remembered to like not start drinking til playback. That mighta helped."
And Yves. "Joe Strummer famously said 'you're only as good as your drummer'. And no disrespect to Bruce or Simon but Yves just made an enormous difference, I think. We had to get better. Ya know? Like so we wouldn't embarrass him."
Of the 14 songs that made the final sequence for "Moving On To Solids", 10 were written by guitarist/singer, Michael Wells, with 2 contributions each from lead guitarist Chas Milton Braun and bassist Gregg Rochman.
"Some of the stuff we'd been doing live for awhile, but a couple of 'em - 'Kinderlacht' and 'Nothing At All', I think - I wrote like that week we went in. And 'Thanks To You', which I guess is my favourite. Gordon Smetherhurst from Cementhead said he liked it because that's exactly what we sounded like live. It's also the most shamelessly Replacements-influenced."
"It took awhile to mix. We wanted to try some new things. So, that's why there's three different engineers" - mixes are by Charlton Pettus, Oliver Strauss and Michel Sauvage. With mastering by Drew Lavene, "we forgot that part the first time."
"Moving On To Solids" proved to be the group's swan song. Uncle disbanded in 1999. "People wanted to do other things. So, ya know, they did. It's a good record, tho'. I'm proud of it. And there's not like any bad blood. At least... I dunno. I don't think there is."
Meanwhile...Michael Wells and Yves Gerard with Sean Lahey and Elizabeth Rossa have gone on to form a new band - Bipolar Explorer - whose debut, "Go Negative" has recently been released. "You'll like that, too, I think. I mean, Yves's on it, right?"
"Thanks For All The Lemons" - Uncle
"You can't resist having these guys play your party - even though you just know the cops will come and shut it down. With their garage crunch and musical insanity - just listen to "Lemon Lip Gloss"! - and featuring punchy and playful songs like "Shut Up And Bite Me" (about a vampiric, presumably ex- girlfriend), (the self-explanatory) "Flakey Girl" and a shambolic, Ramones-inspired cover of The Beatles' "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party", Uncle have a knack for recording their personalities as well as their music on tape. Garage as garage can be, Uncle forfeit polish for passion on "Thanks For All The Lemons", making it obvious they are a band that plays because they love to."
- ORB Confidential Spring 1996 cover feature and starred review.
Recorded, mixed and produced by Michael Sauvage at Brooklyn's Mission Sound, "Thanks For All The Lemons" is Uncle's 1995 Slugg Records debut, featuring 8 songs by guitarist/singer Michael Wells, 3 by lead guitarist Chas Milton Braun, 2 by bassist Gregg Rochman and 1 by drummer Bruce de Torres.
"The drunk record", Wells calls it, "with everything turned up to 11. I guess there's some good stuff on it". The 15 tracks (plus an uncredited bonus of Braun's "Too Lazy") are an accurate representation of their live sets of the time. Raw, quirky and, well, inebriated, it includes signature tunes "Flakey Girl", (the would-be single) "Lemon Lip Gloss" and the shambolic cover of "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" they routinely closed their shows with.
Although Wells prefers Uncle's '98 follow-up, "Moving On To Solids", he admits this record remains something of a favourite to fans. "Both of them."
Recorded, mixed and produced by Michael Sauvage at Brooklyn's Mission Sound, "Thanks For All The Lemons" is Uncle's 1995 Slugg Records debut, featuring 8 songs by guitarist/singer Michael Wells, 3 by lead guitarist Chas Milton Braun, 2 by bassist Gregg Rochman and 1 by drummer Bruce de Torres.
"The drunk record", Wells calls it, "with everything turned up to 11. I guess there's some good stuff on it". The 15 tracks (plus an uncredited bonus of Braun's "Too Lazy") are an accurate representation of their live sets of the time. Raw, quirky and, well, inebriated, it includes signature tunes "Flakey Girl", (the would-be single) "Lemon Lip Gloss" and the shambolic cover of "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" they routinely closed their shows with.
Although Wells prefers Uncle's '98 follow-up, "Moving On To Solids", he admits this record remains something of a favourite to fans. "Both of them."