GILMORE TAMNY: ROCK, ROLL AND REMEMBER!!!

The Yips' Gilmore Tamny talks to Lynnfield Pioneer Mike Janson

The following is a hatchet job done on a series of emails between she and I circa November/December, while she was visiting a friend in Atlanta.

Mike Janson: How'd you hook up with Jon [Davidson, Yips drummer]?

Gilmore Tamny: I met Jon one night after playing solo, in-between bands (I used to be in a band called Chanel #5) and a friend of his introduced him to me. He kind of looked like a wild beast in ski instructor clothes and I thought he might even (horrors!) be a frat guy and agreed to try more out of politeness than an instant connection. It was one of the best decisions I ever made because he is the BEST.

What was Chanel #5 like?

Chanel #5, so long ago. It was good, but a little bit like running through glue, because I'm not really bossy enough to be a good dictator nor a good enough delegator to let others go their own ways so we had a good time. Misun and Jenny are so cool, I hope they get in another band some time, but I was ready to do something else. It's sort of more . . . no, it's less rock than the Yips. We've talked about having a reunion. Boy, that band was REALLY unpopular. I used to play out of a teeny-tiny Gorilla amp, to the horror of many a rock dude. Ha. Misun would wear aprons and tiaras on stage and stuff.

Where'd you get the name for the Yips? Do you play golf?

No, I used to be a little bit sneery when it came to golf, but now that Tiger Woods is making the scene, I've softened (decided it's got interesting proportions: teeny-tiny ball, giant pastures, skinny but vicious clubs). Yeah, I liked the golf term, knew it intimately, thought it'd be a good name. Jon's dad was like, "What the hell did you name the band that for?" He thought we were shooting ourselves in the foot.

How'd you meet Mike Rep [musician, Bonfire producer]?

I met Mike through an old boyfriend, who talked to him at the record store and then I got on board in that version of the Quotas (the "Quit Talkin' " single). My job in the Quotas was pretty simple backup chord progressions, so I don't think Mike knew I could play okay till I started playing a song I wrote. Then I think he got the idea I could like really really play guitar, even noodle-y style. In the middle of a song, he stopped and motioned to me like, "go on, solo" which was and pretty much still is the last thing I know how to do. I looked at him a la yer proverbial deer in headlights. He was alot of fun to work with. I think we were a good band.

What about Tom Lax [Siltbreeze owner]?

I first met T.J. at Ron [House, singer for Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments] and Trina's wedding, after Mike sent him our first tape. He said "hey," I said "hey." I kind of thought he might be more animated or something because he liked a few songs enough to put out a single, but I didn't realize he's just not a gushy type, generally dry like a martini. And then we sent him the second batch of stuff, which he liked a lot and decided to put a record album out. Sometimes I feel like T.J. is my long-lost older brother. He's really smart, I am often laughing at his jokes, trying to get his attention.

Tell me more about Ron's wedding!!

Ron's brother not only looked like him but danced exactly like him in that giant toddler way. Ron wore a suit and tie, Trina looked lovely in a floor-length black velvet sleeveless gown. I wore blue, and tried to style my hair '40s-ish with mixed success. Everyone got very drunk. Coats got stolen. There was a kind of open mike and various people got up and did songs, including TJSA.

What do you do in Columbus?

I worked at a coffee house for the past year. It was pretty okay, I never was very gourmet about the whole thing, but it was nice. We were on this little block with a tattoo shop, book store and a pizza place, everybody would come in, say "hey." Lots of intrigue going on (affairs, rivalries, fights, etc.). I don't know how actually intriguing the intrigue was, I was always a little out of it . . . I seem to be rotating office work and waitressing every couple of years so I think I'm due in for some time as a temp when I get back . . .

Read any good books lately?

I just finished an Agatha Christie called The Moving Finger and still don't know why it was called that, although I enjoyed it alot. Actually, one of my dream jobs to try to hook people up with books they'd like, a book doctor if you will. So if I could ask you a few questions it won't hurt a bit . . . well, actually I'd have to ask you a lot of questions you probably don't have time for. Fifteen by Beverly Cleary is one of the best books of the last century. I don't really expect you'll read this, as most people snort derisively at the idea but, listen man, I tell you, it's the shit. Ever read any Denis Johnson? Highly highly recommend. Jesus' Son, grim, but hilarious and beautiful and everything. Housekeeping by Marilynne somebody Robinson (it was made into a movie). Starts a little slow, but is totally worth it; about two orphaned girls in the north who are helped out by their drifter aunt. I like Raymond Chandler a lot, too. And Jim Thompson's thrillers. Bastard Out of Carolina is sad and difficult but very great. It's about a girl growing up very poor who is sexually abused by her step-dad. And P.G. Wodehouse and E.F. Benson if you are in the mood for funny stuff. I wish sometimes I could talk like Bertie Wooster.

Tell me more about Columbus. Seems like a Boys Town, how do you fit in, rockwise?

Wow, that is a subject I have thought about a lot. I don't even really know where to begin. I think the thing is that even though we do fit in, we don't fit in, because for some folks, especially some rock guys, even nice ones, it doesn't matter how good you are, you're just not part of things. It's not even like they despise you; it's like it doesn't matter what you do, you don't apply. I think women are much more used to seeing male performers and wading through the experience of seeing someone who is not of the same sex doing something they love, hate or whatever and aren't thrown as much by the experience as the dudes are. Some people have been really supportive, though.

I wish there were more women in bands. I've put on shows of all-women performers. The latest one--a punk rock women's ice cream social--was really successful, I guess it's cool now but when I started doing them, I got some very unfriendly energy.

Do you ever think of moving?

Last time I was in NYC, I had a fantasy of living there and writing for t.v., a la the Dick Van Dyke Show and getting paid outrageously well. Or better yet As The World Turns. Jon is from Jersey and wants to move back east, we've talked about Hoboken, NYC and mostly Philadelphia. Sigh. I wonder how I'll feel when I get home.

Where does Wiglet [Gilmore's now-defunct zine] fit in?

Wiglet was before I ever really thought I could be in a band. It was after college where I had been writing a lot of stories and my teacher was encouraging me to send 'em out, but I found myself really hating the setup of trying to get someone to publish your stuff. My boyfriend at the time was real into 'zines, and once I got an idea what they were I knew I wanted to do that instead of trying to get published through literary mags or whatever.

I think a lot of women come to it [music] a lot later (role models and all that) and have to fight back some of that you-suck-cause-you-can't-play-stairway-to-heaven-on-the-first-try stuff (I had this guitar lesson from this insane guy that would have set me back about two years if I hadn't been at the point I was at). There's more of a precedent for women writing.

What did you write about?

Interviews (funeral home director, P.I., old french lady who raised show poodles, etc.) short stories, essays. I had a comic character called Fancy Fox. Some confessionals. I did a lot of graphs and charts in the last issue that in retrospect, probably look kinda crackpot. It was a variety 'zine.

Did I tell you I got a wee book of poems coming out in a couple of weeks?

What's it called?

It's called The Small Time Smirker (or In Nevada I Was Rabbity) and Fluffy Clouds. My friend who had her own punk rock bookstore for a while, read it and said you should make this into a book and we had bake sales (made $100 bucks at a Guided by Voices show) and a benefit (which the Yips did a dance routine at, to the tune of "Ain't that Loving You Baby" by Link Wray). She now works at Barnes and Noble and got them to carry the book in Columbus, har-har. She nearly strangled me on how long it took me to finish Fluffy Clouds, though.

[The Small Time Smirker is yours for a measly seven bucks. Gilmore Tamny, P.O. Box 8072, Columbus, OH 43201]

Your voice reminds me of Heather from Beat Happening. Do you like them?

I think "Our Secret" is my favorite song of all time. Or close to it. (The Go Team I love, too.) I've never thought about it, but yeah I guess I do kinda sound like Heather. That's nice, I'd rather sound like her than a lot of people. I have been real ambivalent about my voice.

Do you have like a Top Ten for '96?

I don't think I bought one record this year, or listened to ten new ones. I liked the Grifters record. And Cat Power. Lots of local stuff. And Mike Rep's. And Dead C, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apts. Scrawl's record. And the Cannanes, very beautiful. I have a feeling I'd have really liked the new Bikini Kill if I'd heard it more than once. I don't think I've ever heard Sebadoh although I thought his radio hit was great. I'm so out of it. I tend to like everything. I liked the Alanis Morissette record. Or was that last year?

What about older stuff?

I've become intrigued of late by the Kinks. One morning last spring my radio alarm had fallen off the fan and landed on Rock, Roll and Remember!!! with Dick Clark, and I was lying in bed half-asleep, listening to this goopy poppy stuff from the '50s and '60s that I'm not crazy about for what seemed like hours when "All Day and All of the Night" came on (which of course I'd heard a million times before) and I suddenly felt like somebody had grabbed me by the collar and shook me and I realized I was really and truly and probably permanently in love with electric guitar. It sounded SO fucking good. Dick Clark talked about their fuzzbox sound, and I was thinking maybe I should get a fuzzbox if it's a thing or a fuzzbox sound if it's just a sound. So I got up, went to my guitar and figured most of it out, something which I'd never do. I mentioned it to Mike Rep and he wants us to cover it (I'm also hoping to do "Ol' Man River" with him on organ as well). But I don't really know anything of theirs but the hits. It is disappointing the Columbus classic rock radio station doesn't play them more.

What is your songwriting process? Are you riff based or rhyme based?

Sharp as a tack, bright as a star: I putz around alot until something just jells, usually add the words later.

Tell me about the new album. What's it called? What's it like?

New rock album: The Blue-Flannel Bathrobe Butterfly. No 15-second long ear-piercing feedback beginning and ending each track (sell-out!). Two songs over seven minutes. Jon sings, too, in his beautiful gravelly voice. More and less personal. I think it might be arty but I'm not sure. Yeah, I bet it is.

We're going to give Mike Rep a hammock to thank him for doing our record. He did such a good job.