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In 1986, Atlantic Records sent Valerie and me on a promotional tour of Europe. We were jet-lagged, shell-shocked by sudden fame, and completely unprepared for what we would find across the pond. We appeared on over a dozen radio and TV shows in England, France, and Italy, including a little BBC thing called…TOP OF THE POPS.
Welcome to the pre-Internet era of rock stardom, where you could conquer Europe and have no clue you were doing it.
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Did you know 'I Can't Wait' was originally much faster? When we slowed it down to 104 BPM in the studio, the band thought John was crazy! But that slower groove, combined with some engineering magic and creative percussion (including wine bottles!), helped create the sound y’all know and love.
Read moreMAGIC & MUSIC COLLIDE! Watch our spellbinding new video for "YOU PUT A SPELL ON ME" from Kung Pao Kitchen! Portland's wizard of weird, Mike Wellins (the genius behind Portland’s PECULIARIUM), works his visual magic with a clever magician's rabbit as the star. This trippy journey perfectly complements John Smith's "answer song" to Screamin' Jay Hawkins' classic. As Mike says, "The future is here" - and it looks delightfully strange!
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Image by Bruno from Pixabay
Remember cassettes? Those humble plastic rectangles that revolutionized how we listened to and created music? While they may seem primitive by today's standards, these analog warriors played a crucial role in shaping the Nu Shooz musical landscape. From mixtapes and portable music to DIY recording, cassettes weren't just storage devices - they were magical little time machines that changed everything. Let us take you back to an era when the hiss of tape was the soundtrack to innovation...
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What do granny glasses, pet rabbits, and wonky cassette players have in common? They're all part of our adventures in the analog recording world. Get ready for some studio stories that'll make you grateful for digital.
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The Key Largo calendar circa 1984.
It's our humble opinion that Portland, Oregon, for a brief period in the 1980s, had the best music scene IN THE WORLD.* I should qualify this by saying we only had New York and L.A. to compare it to: New York, where famous jazz guys were making fifty bucks a night, and L.A., where you had "Pay to Play." [I.e., Sell tickets to get a slot on the club stage, where you'd get exposure and hopefully gain the attention of an A&R man from a major label. People die of exposure.]
Portland was different. For a Golden Period, from around 1980-86, dozens of clubs opened. There was a brief relaxation in Oregon’s strict liquor laws. This came at the exact moment when Nu Shooz changed from a struggling four-piece to a nine-piece band with four horns.
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Recently, we had a delightful interview with the one-and-only Teddy Bear from Night Traxx Radio, and what a teddy bear he is: a big man with a velvet voice. We liked this one a lot, partly because he didn't ask the usual questions. Instead, he wanted to talk about the creative process and, most interesting of all, how a person maintains their mental health in such a crazy business.
Read moreDive into the creative process behind Nu Shooz's 'Driftin,' an 80s song that embodies Austin Kleon's philosophy of artistic influence and transformation.
Read moreAndy writes, "Hey guys - I hope you can answer this for me. Was Gary (Fountaine) the original bass player from back in the early 90’s?”
Great question! Read on to discover the untold history of Nu Shooz's bass players, from the band's beginning to their last performance in 2017. Head into the time machine with tales of funky gigs, band shake-ups, and unforgettable music. This piece pays special tribute to Gary Fountaine, the band's longest-serving bassist, who brought joy to every performance.
We lost a good friend recently. Our beloved Bass Player Gary Fountaine died of cancer on Dec 28, 2023, at the age of 66.
There are certain players and singers who put out 110% every night, whether there’s five people in the audience or 50,000. THEY LEAVE IT ALL ON THE STAGE. Gary was one of those people. Joy emanated from his corner of the stage, whatever band he played with. He was so happy to be there. He loved his instrument. He loved the music and the audience. It was never fake.
Everybody knows the real thing when they see it, and Gary Fountaine was the real thing.
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