'Real Thing' Official Lyric Video Released

The Strands of Time (The Making of the ‘Real Thing Video’)

Is there a reason and a purpose for everything? Maybe – maybe not. And maybe the reason’s just not clear at the time. Ten years ago I started scotch taping pictures into old phone books. The original idea was to create an image file for drawings, otherwise known as an Art Morgue. This turned into a sort of mega collage, while it’s original function was completely engulfed by Google images.

Around the same time I was writing music for documentary filmmaker Larry Johnson for things like The Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Texas and a museum exhibit about Buffalo Bill in Colorado. We also traveled to Vietnam twice together to work on Larry’s film ‘Ghost Money.’

Fast forward to the present. The Nu Shooz band had come back to life, rising from the swamp like the creature from the Black Lagoon. The creature wanted CONTENT, and it wanted it NOW. Valerie got busy making a series of short films about life in Nu Shooz-land; in airports, in rehearsals, in the studio during the making of Bagtown.

Now she wanted to make a “lyric” video for the first single – ‘Real Thing.’ Our dining room table was soon cluttered with scissors, paste, and magazines as she started cutting out letters and pasting them together to form the words from the song. But she needed a background. The phone book collage! It would be the perfect backdrop for this frenzy of fonts. Two days later, after 100’s of photos and video had been taken, she sat for 6 hours and started to edit. 30 seconds in and it became obvious that unless she wanted to cancel life (and upcoming gigs) this project would never be completed in time!

A call to Larry was made. Could he take over the editing chair? Does he have time to get it done in a week? Yes! He’s available and into it!

So there you have it. All these crazy strands came together – the collage book, Larry Johnson, Bagtown,the films, the songs. Sometimes you have to do these things just for fun, and let the strands weave together on their own.  - John

'How Two “Jazz Hippies” (and a Dutch DJ) Made Portland’s Biggest Song Ever'

'Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait" turns 30.'

By Matthew Singer, Willamette Week February 16, 2016

For a song to achieve immortality, it's going to need an especially sharp hook.

Sometimes it's a riff. Sometimes it's a melody. In the case of Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait," it's the sound of Donald Duck scatting through a vocoder.

God knows what the keyboard preset is actually labeled. But you'd recognize it before the prominent bassline, or even the title. It wasn't even the band's idea—a Dutch DJ threw it on a remix—but it was the missing piece that, in 1986, propelled a regional Portland hit into a global smash. Even in its original form, "I Can't Wait" is the platonic ideal of a classic '80s song: timeless in its blend of fat-bottom funk and R&B elegance, but with just enough retro-futurist kitsch to immediately evoke the era.

As two self-professed "jazz hippies," singer Valerie Day and songwriter John Smith admittedly had no idea what went into creating a pop single. So how did they end up writing the biggest song ever to come out of Portland? Turns out it was, at first, mostly an act of desperation.

By 1983, Nu Shooz was in a rut. It had been playing clubs since the late '70s, drawing good crowds but failing to sustain a lineup or a consistent musical direction. In December, John Smith dedicated himself to rerouting the band back to its R&B roots.

John Smith: The mission statement was to write the funkiest thing that I could, and kind of blow all the dust out of the exhaust pipe and get us back to what we're supposed to be doing. I rented a four-track machine for the incredible sum of $24 per month, and the first reel, "I Can't Wait," was on it. There were five tunes I was working on, sitting on a wooden box by the furnace in the basement with a nylon string guitar. In the summer of '84, we went into the studio, and the first thing I did was slow it way down. It laid there like a lump.

Valerie Day: It was slower than the live version we'd been playing. I remember coming into the studio the day it was my turn to record the vocals, and I hadn't heard he'd slowed it down. I get into the studio, and I was like, "I can't sing this."

Smith: For about six months, we tinkered with it. Then, on the way to the studio one day, I was listening to the Time, and they had this bottle part on "Jungle Love." I appropriated that, put it on the track, and then it started to move.

"I Can't Wait" ended up as one of five songs on Nu Shooz's second official release, an EP recorded at Cascade Recording in Portland.

Day: We get these five songs recorded, we put this on a cassette called Tha's Right, and we release it on our own, basically. And nothing, really, was happening. Except this music writer, for The Downtowner magazine in Portland, he wrote about the band and said we were boring live, but we had made this really cool thing, and it was a shame local radio wouldn't play it.

Gary Bryan, co-host of KKRZ's morning show: We read the article and went on the air. They mentioned Nu Shooz in the article, and we were like, "We'd love to play it, but we can't play it if we don't have it." No one ever brought it in.

Day: Our manager at the time, who was a bartender at the Veritable Quandary, he was a morning person, thank God. So he heard this on the radio. He jumped on his Vespa, he drove it to the station, handed them the cassette, and they picked "I Can't Wait" to play.

Bryan: The next day, we put it on the air. We made a big deal out of it. A lot of people started calling for it, and we put it into heavy rotation. It came up every hour and 45 minutes or something. We took it to No. 1 on our chart, and that meant we were reporting that to radio and record magazines, and to Billboard. And we thought, "Let's get these guys a record deal. Let's try to bust a band out of Portland!"

After hearing "I Can't Wait," Greg Lee, a local promo manager for Warner Bros., became a champion for the band in the Pacific Northwest, helping spread the song across the region.

Greg Lee: I took it to several Portland radio stations and played it for them, and they all agreed immediately, like, "You need to get this to us!" That was the impetus for myself. I wanted this to be on Warner Bros.

Day: Greg also got us a demo deal with Warner Bros. We recorded some songs we'd had for a while, and the label said, "Sorry, we've got Madonna already."

Lee: Usually, when a label passes, they don't offer you anything other than "C'est la vie." [Michael Ostin, head of Warner Bros. A&R] gave the band what was called a demo deal. That was a financial gift, so to speak—an honorarium given to the band to make another demo. It was sort of like, "We're passing, but we see there's something there."

Striking out with the majors, the band's manager licensed "I Can't Wait" to a service which would do limited pressings geared toward the international market. A Dutch disco label picked it up, and handed the song off to a young DJ named Peter Slaghuis for a remix. He didn't change much, but he did add a curious-sounding synth melody over the top.

Smith: We call it "the barking seal." The first time I heard it, we were playing the University of Southern Oregon in Ashland, and I heard it over the phone. Our manager played it. "Here's the remix, what do you think?" And I liked it because I never in a million years would've thought of that.

Day: We met Peter Slaghuis when he came to New York one time, and he tragically died in an auto accident when he was in his 30s. Much, much later, we found an interview he did where he said he actually didn't like "I Can't Wait" at all. He did as little to it as possible because he didn't really want to work on it.

Smith: The secret Nu Shooz cool test is, if they come up and sing the bassline, they're cool. If they sing the barking seal, they're less cool.

The "Long Vocal Dutch Remix" became a hit in the New York club scene, and finally landed Nu Shooz a deal with Atlantic Records. By June 1986, "I Can't Wait" hit No. 3 on the Billboard charts, leading to appearances on American Bandstand and Soul Train, an international tour and a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. It also opened up other, previously unfathomable opportunities.  

Smith: My manager asked me who I most wanted as a sideman, and out of my mouth came, "Oh, Maceo Parker," because he'd been my hero since I was 11 years old. So we recorded with him on the second Atlantic record. 

Day: One of our heroes at the time were Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and I think we met them at the Minneapolis Music Awards.

Smith: Jimmy Jam came up to me and said, "We wish we had written that song."

Nu Shooz followed "I Can't Wait" with two other charting singles. But its second album for Atlantic, Told U So, underperformed. A third album was never released.

Smith: They didn't even call us to say they were dropping us. We found out at a show. We met the new Atlantic rep, and he didn't know who we were. I said, "We're on the release schedule for September," and he said, "Uh, I don't think so."

Day: It was kind of hard for them to understand who we were and what we were about and what our potential was. We had three A&R people in that seven-year period, and one of them was the guy who discovered White Lion or whatever.

Nu Shooz in 2013. IMAGE: Phil Isley.

Nu Shooz went on hiatus, with Day and Smith concentrating on raising their son. Beginning in the late '90s, "I Can't Wait" began to take on a second life, appearing on movie soundtracks, getting sampled by Vanessa Williams and 50 Cent and, most recently, remixed by Questlove for a Target ad. Day and Smith are currently working on a new Nu Shooz album, due out this year.

Day: It's kind of a miraculous thing. This song is like our child. We birthed it and raised it to a certain point, and then it went out in a world and now it's doing it's own thing. We obviously had something to do with it, but at a certain point, it's not about you anymore. It's really about the song having its own life.

Happy Holidays from the Shooz!

Dear Friends,

There are as many ways to celebrate the Holidays as there are families and individuals to celebrate it. Call it Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Winter Solstice, it's a time to reflect on the people we hold closest to our hearts and hearths.

The Nu Shooz family has much to be thankful for, most of all YOU, our loyal listeners who have supported our band all these years. To all of you we send our wishes for a safe and lovely holiday season. Our gift to you...an intimate live video performance of 'Christmastime is Here' in our studio with our backup singers Tracey, Margaret, and Haley. You'll laugh - you'll cry - and not necessarily in that order. (Make sure and check out the outtakes at the end. They're the best part ;-) Enjoy!

Warmly,

Valerie & John

November News

Gettin' down to the end of 2015. What a year it's been! And the party's not over...

Last month we started cutting tracks for the 7th Nu Shooz album: BAGTOWN. (Songwriting began a year ago.) Our friend Sean Holmes was in our studio recording demo vocals over the last few weeks. Here's a little video of him cutting the backup vocals on the title track now...
 

We enlisted our son Malcolm Smith to do the cover art, and he did a fantastic job integrating the 'bag people' into his drawn world. It fits the music perfectly. And what is the music like? John says, "It's a cross between a 1979 Toyota and an American breakfast: two eggs, hashbrowns, and sausage patty...with a side of wry."

We're looking to serve that up around the 1st of May.

Watch as the artwork comes alive here...

In the meantime, if you're in the Phoenix area this month, we'll be at the Arizona State Fair with Lisa Lisa, Debbie Deb, Stevie B., and J.J. Fad. That's Saturday, November 7th. Should be a GREAT show.

That's all for now. For those of you who heard about Malcolm's car accident, we're happy to report that he's fine and fully recovered and suddenly has the ability to converse in fluent Croatian.

Just kidding.

Love,

Valerie and John

October News: The NU Record, Freestyle in El Paso & Another edition of Nu Shooz: On The Road

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(the BagTown gang hanging out in John’s studio control room aka the man-cave.)

We’ve FINALLY started RECORDING!
After a year of song writing, “Bag Town” is ready to roll into the studio. We actually started laying down some tracks TODAY. We’ll be sharing more of this adventure with you all as it progresses, so please stay tuned!

We have another mini-movie to share from our Nu Shooz On The Road series.

In this episode, we head to San Bernardino, CA, for a show with radio star Art Laboe and promoter Alan Beck featuring acts like The Manhattans, Heatwave, Zapp, and more. Every road trip is different, but this one even more so after we got a phone call that is every parent’s nightmare…(Spoiler Alert: Everything turned out OK...but MAN, that was WAY too close!)

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Super Freestyle Explosion in El Paso

Last but not least, we’re headed out on the road this weekend (10/10/15) for another Super Freestyle Explosion show in El Paso, TX. We’ve never been…and are looking forward to a little R&R after our last 'On The Road' adventure!

On The Road: Behind the Scenes Video from The Freestyle Tour w/Lisa Lisa, Exposé, Trinere and more…

From Valerie's iPhone it's our nu YouTube playlist - "NU SHOOZ On The Road." In this video it's the Super Freestyle Explosion Tour in Stockton CA w/Exposé, Debbie Deb, Trinere, Lisa Lisa, Johnny O, & Stacey Q and more...

On The Road

We had an amazing summer full of shows with both our full 8 piece band and the Super Freestyle Explosion Tour. We feel so lucky to get to travel and play with so many great acts and musicians. We wanted to share some of these experiences with you - so Valerie started making little movies on her iPhone. So far we've got Philadelphia, Stockton CA and Las Vegas in our "On The Road" playlist on YouTube. Hopefully we'll get YOUR city in the mix someday soon!
 

Freestyle AND Full band Shows in August PLUS a new video series: Q&A w/Valerie & John

Hi Folks,

As July slips into the rearview mirror, and Autumn is a billboard not too far up the highway - we're on the road again!

We'll be in Philadelphia, PA (8/1),  Las Vegas, NV (8/7), and Stockton, CA (8/14) with our Freestyle Explosion pals, and in Portland for our last gig of the summer with our whole band at a benefit for the Special Olympics  - The Bite of Oregon (8/8 at 7 PM) We've been trying to get to Las Vegas for years! So far, we've only been to the airport.

We've started a new video feature we call "Q&A with Valerie & John." We invited our Facebook friends to ask us ANYTHING. The response was great. So below is this month's Q&A freshly loaded to our YouTube channel. If your question isn't answered in the video, head to the post on our Facebook page HERE. All questions will be answered!

So that's all for now. Here's wishing you an August of sun & fun, family & friends, and plenty of barbecue!

Till next time,

Valerie and John

Co-Hosting the 80s @8 Show on 106.7 The Eagle w/Jim E. Chonga

We had a great time co-hosting the 80s @8 on 106.7 The Eagle w/Jim E. Chonga (on the right.) It was fun to go in the way back machine AND to talk about the NOW of Nu Shooz. Great to meet Bubba too! (on the left)

For those of you who missed the show, check out the tasty conversational tidbits below!

It Was 36 Years Ago TODAY

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Freestylin' in Fresno 2015

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Actually, we have TWO dates to celebrate this month. TODAY, Sunday, June 21st, is the 36th anniversary of the first Nu Shooz gig. You read that right. 36 years since that first show in 1979 at Colonel Sumners Park in Portland, OR. Yup. We're a summer solstice, baby! There were just four band members back then. (It would take another year before the Shoo-horns and I-Lets came on board.)

Also, last week, we played Fresno, CA, with the Freestyle Explosion Tour. Two years ago in Fresno was our first EVER performance on the tour that has taken us all over the U.S.. Nu Shooz has always had a soft spot for Fresno; friendly people and a great crew. It was one of the best shows on the 1986 tour too.

NOW it's on to...

San Jose, CA, with the Freestyle Explosion Tour on Friday, June 26, and then back to Oregon the next day for a show with the entire 8-piece band on Saturday, June 27, at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts.

We're rackin' up the frequent flier miles!

Hope to see you soon,


Valerie and John



     

It Takes A Universe

It's been interesting around here, a hundred projects going on at once. Carpenters are upstairs rebuilding the shower, while downstairs, we're working with our friend Mariecella on choreography for the horn section.

Somewhere on the other side of town, the finishing touches are being applied to our "nu" website by a guy named Daniel Webb (really - you can't make this stuff up!), and Tim Simpson is building a synth-guitar system so we can trigger piano sounds from a six-string.

We have a summer-ful of shows coming up and a million details to attend to; costumes, charts, drum heads, wires, vans...Whoever said it takes a village was only partly right.

It takes a universe.

In the next few months, you can visit the Nu Shooz planet, and we hope you do; we'll be playing from 7 PM to 8 PM at the Rose Festival in Portland, OR with the Crazy 8s and Sir Mix-A-Lot on May 30th. Then the Freestyle Explosion Tour w/Stevie B., Taylor Dayne, Seduction, Debbie Deb, and more...hits Fresno, CA, on June 12th.

For more Tour Dates, visit our SHOWS page. And while you're checking out the other pages on our newly revamped website, don't miss the ABOUT page. It comes complete with a groovy timeline that takes you from the band’s humble beginnings as a four-piece - through the heady days of the mid-1980s - to the current incarnation of the 8-piece live band. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll be amazed that we lived through it all and are still ambulatory today. We'd love to hear what you think...so please let us know!

Hope to see you soon!