LOVE CHILD - SOFA (MUSIC VIDEO)

LOVE CHILD
"Sofa"
1990

Directed by Eric Fischer.
Pixelvision footage: Patrick de Fontnouvelle.

From a genesis as the mascots of New York's art-hipster scene, this Vassar College-spawned trio built itself a reputation as one of Gotham's most mercurial bands, able to leap from twee pop tunes to galvanizing skronkadelic constructs in a single bound. Part of that chameleon-like nature derived from the complex creative tension between bassist/singer Rebecca Odes, drummer/guitarist/singer Will Baum and guitarist/singer/drummer Alan Licht, who joined the other two in progress.

Love Child's debut EP didn't allow for much in the way of digression; its six songs chug in a palatable (if derivative) early-Velvets manner, with only the amiable "Sofa" making much of an impression. On the follow-up, which actually postdates Okay? and does not involve Baum, Licht and Odes tackle four songs (most provocatively, the droning "All Is Loneliness") from the repertoire of legendary New York street singer Moondog. Okay?, which reprises several songs from the Trash Flow record, can be seen as an exercise in guileless solipsism — an oxymoron that nevertheless fits the disc's 21 brief tunes. Odes' opalescent ditties run the gamut from faux-naïf ("He's So Sensitive") to faux-decadent ("Church of Satan"), while Licht uses his center-stage turns mostly as frames for some breathtaking (if abridged) solos. Baum, who wrote and sings over half of Okay?, opted out of Love Child between the album's recording in February 1990 and its release late the following year. The band's drum duties were taken over by Brendan O'Malley, freeing Licht to dedicate himself to guitar.

Licht gets a chance to stretch out a bit more on Witchcraft; while his expansive sorties dexterously fuse free-improv atonality and hammer-down rockism, the songs' connective tissue is a bit too frail to sustain the recurrent tension. Love Child broke up soon after its release.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Love
• Child
• Alan
• Licht

[kkatkin]

The final few (unused) copies of the 1989 7"EP on Trash Flow Records that contains the original version of this song are, amazingly, still available online from Drag City Records Web Site!

[mrowsan]

VOID t-shirt sighting

[blackyfloyd]

tube bar!

[kenricashe]

Hell to the yes more videos from Okay?! What is this from?!

[matthewzin]

this band rulz. trying to track down their shit to download.

[flyngsnow]

i'm looking for a song called church of satan by these guys. but this is cool too