Cold Water Army

Cold Water Army
Origin Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Genres Pop Music
Disco
R&B/soul music
Punk rock
Funk rock
Years active 1988–1995, 2011
Labels Manufacture Sound Output Co.

Cold Water Army was an American rock band that existed for several years in Tallahassee, Florida, and broke up over the summer of 1995. The band had two recordings that were released, the first a cassette-only release entitled 'Eliot Ness,' and the second (released by Manufacture Sound Output Company on cassette and compact disc) entitled Cold Water Army. The second release was remastered in 2007, and is available on iTunes. The band's sound combined elements of disco, punk rock, funk rock, pop and big harmonies.

Formation

Lead Singer David Morris (aka Man Baby) was initially in a band called 'Das Bellows,' which broke up after playing a party for the Florida Flambeau, a student newspaper. He met the editorial staff of the paper at that party, who, coincidentally, were all musicians. Cold Water Army formed, essentially, to fill in at the last minute for a Das Bellows gig, since Bellows had broken up and clearly weren't gonna be able to play the show.

Thus Cold Water Army, or "CWA" were formed. They usually got done with working on the paper around 10 or 11 at night, and then they and David would practice until two in the morning, fuelled by beer, thus explaining the ironic origin of their name. (The original Cold Water Army was a temperance movement, back in the days before prohibition.) Also, the size of the band lent itself to the 'army' designation.

Members

According to the group's guitarist Steve MacQueen, the original members of the band in those days were:

Though the band would go through many different lineups, Morris, Butler, MacQueen, and Kairies-Schardl would form the core of every subsequent incarnation of the band. In 1989, Richardson and Altman left the band, and were replaced by

It was this version that recorded their lone album.

Influences

Cold Water Army was influenced by Camper Van Beethoven, Glass Eye, They Might Be Giants, the B-52s, Oingo Boingo, Talking Heads, Jackson 5 and Motown. Cold Water Army was known for having elaborate stage shows, with mock fist-fights between members, including surprise appearances by Jeff Lynne's even-more-evil twin.

History

Cold Water Army's performances included:

As listed in the liner notes, the members of the band were:

Kevin Alexander (Lead Guitar), Paul Barnes (At this point an Ex-member, but he came back to play session guitar on Marty, Love Balm, and Dicksie), Pete Butler, Ann Fleet (Played Flute on 'Ann B. Davis' and gave the scream at the beginning of 'nice car' and is, coincidentally, David's wife), Kati Kairies (Backing vocals), Jennifer Kermeen (Vocals), Emily Kurtz (Played Cello on 'Pepper Angel'), Bland Lawson (an on-again/off-again member who played Keyboards), Kim MacQueen (Backing vocals), Steve MacQueen (Rhythm guitar), David Morris (Bass, lead vocals), Mark Morse (Helped the band go "hoo" and "ho" on 'South Dakota'), Pat Puckett (Of the Tallahassee band 'Casual T's', who played session guitar on Nice Car.), Stan Rosenthal. (Played Trombone on 'Jeffersons.')

Dave Murphy, the bassist for the Tallahassee band 'Casual-Ts,' produced the album. The band lineup stayed pretty much the same until '94, when Kevin Alexander left, and was replaced by Danny Foster.

The post-album incarnation of the band was when two additional percussionists were added, Joe Williams and Tim Schardl. MacQueen says, "With the three backup singers, two guitars, keyboard, bass, drum and percussionists, we had too many people on stage and it was just cacophony when the percussionists played in a small club. Seems like this lasted less than a year, and peaked with a pretty dreadful experience in Pensacola, FL." (E-mail 1/23/03)

Then the on-again/off-again Bland Lawson was replaced by full-time Keyboardist Ben Wilcox at about the same time. Ben was a Tallahassee rock legend, the keyboardist and 'only sane member' of the proto-punk 'Slut Boys', and member emeritus of a dozen other bands. Kim MacQueen left the band around then, because she 'preferred being in the audience to being on stage,' and she was not replaced.

The Breakup

In summer, 1995, the band broke up for a variety of reasons. David Morris (and his wife Ann) headed off to France for two years, but there was a one-shot-deal reunion on new years '97/'98, and that, as they say, is that.

Re-Release

In the summer of 2007, David Morris, Pete Butler, and Steve MacQueen formed a new band called Bag We Bag , and decided to completely re-master the Cold Water Army album.

References

  1. ↑ )
  2. ↑ Club Downunder » SHOWS - 1990

External links