Make-Up (American band)

Last updated
The Make-Up
Origin Washington, D.C., United States
Genres Post-punk
Years active1995–2000, 2012-2013, 2017, 2019-present
Labels Dischord, K, Southern, Drag City, Black Gemini, Au Go Go
Past members Ian Svenonius
Michelle Mae
Steve Gamboa
James Canty
Alex Minoff
Mark Cisneros

The Make-Up is an American post-punk band from Washington, D.C. formed in 1995, consisting of ex-Nation of Ulysses frontman Ian Svenonius on vocals, James Canty on guitar and organ, Steve Gamboa on drums, and Michelle Mae on bass guitar. [1] The Make-Up were joined in late 1999 by a fifth member, Alex Minoff (of the groups Golden and Extra Golden), [2] who played guitar with the group until the band's dissolution in early 2000. [3]

Contents

The Make-Up combined garage rock, soul, and a self-styled liberation theology to make a new genre they called "Gospel Yeh-Yeh". [4] This style led to an emphasis on live performances and interaction between the band and their audience, incorporating the audience into the performances as a "fifth member", creating what one reviewer described as ""highly energetic and participatory live shows". [1] [3] Parallel to the band's gospel musical stylings, the Make-Up produced music under a communism-influenced political philosophy that they saw as counter to the capitalist form of modern rock and roll and pop music. [5]

The Make-Up released four studio albums, two live albums, a compilation release collecting several singles and B-sides, and a number of vinyl singles, all released on independent record labels such as Dischord Records, K Records, and Southern Records. [6]

Svenonius, Mae, and Minoff would go on to form Weird War, who released three albums on Drag City. [7] Svenonius has released a solo album under the pseudonym David Candy, [8] as well as records with the groups Chain & the Gang, Felt Letters, and Escape-Ism. Canty would go on to play with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and French Toast.

The Make-Up reformed in 2012 to perform at All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival), and has continued to tour sporadically in the U.S. and Europe with drummer Mark Cisneros (Des Demonas, Kid Congo Powers and the Pink Monkey Birds) replacing Gamboa. [1] [9]

History

Before the formation of the Make-Up, Svenonius, Canty, and Gamboa were members of The Nation of Ulysses and the short-lived Cupid Car Club. [10] Before joining the Make-Up, Mae played with the Northwest group The Frumpies. [11]

In a post-Nation of Ulysses interview, Svenonius explained the formation of the Make-Up: "Nation of Ulysses broke up because the epoch changed with the advent of digital music and the Nirvana explosion. We were faced with what's now known as indie rock, a sort of vacuous form. We had to determine our next move and this [the forming of Make-Up] is it". [12]

The Make-Up released records through many independent record labels, most notably Dischord Records, K Records, Southern Records, and their own Black Gemini Records. [3]

In 2000, after releasing their fifth studio album, the Make-Up dissolved, reportedly "due to the large number of counter-gang copy groups which had appropriated their look and sound and applied it to vacuous and counter-revolutionary forms". [3] Svenonius also added in retrospect, "[The Make-Up] went on for five years. We had a five year plan like Stalin. It was becoming redundant and people were copying us. That's fine. We don't have to do it anymore because they can". [13]

Recordings

During the Make-Up's five years of activity, they released four studio albums, a live album, a compilation of singles and B-sides, and a number of singles and splits. [6] A posthumous live album was also released in 2006. The band was also the subject of the short film Blue is Beautiful by James Schneider, later repackaged as part of In Film/On Video in 2006. [14]

While the Make-Up released both "live" and "studio" records, their recordings were all created with an eye to spontaneity. Most studio songs were cut as they occurred to the group at that moment. Therefore, the Make-Up's studio records were in a sense, quite "live". [3] [12]

The Make-Up's first release in 1995 was "Blue is Beautiful", a 7-inch single released on the band's own Black Gemini Records–a label which only released a handful of the Make-Up's releases, many of which used a characteristically simple single-color album sleeve. [6] Their second and third releases were also 7-inch singles: a split with the Meta-Matics, again on Black Gemini, and another split with Slant 6 on Time Bomb Records.

The band's first full-length studio album, Destination: Love - Live! At Cold Rice , was released in 1996. The album was touted as a live release, though it was actually recorded in a studio with "live" sounds added into the mix later. [12] In 1997, the band released two more albums less than a month apart: After Dark , a live-recording from London, and Sound Verite , a studio album. The two albums shared a number of tracks, recorded either live or in-studio. The same year the Make-Up released "Free Arthur Lee," a 7-inch single promoting the release from jail of Love singer Arthur Lee, who was incarcerated in 1996. [1] [15] Also in 1997, the Make-Up were the subject of James Schneider's fictionalized tour-documentary Blue is Beautiful . [14]

The following year, The Make-Up released their fourth studio album, In Mass Mind , as well as a split 7-inch with Scottish band Lungleg. [1] In 1999, the Make-Up released I Want Some , a compilation album of previous singles and B-sides. A month later, the band released what would be their fifth and final studio album Save Yourself . [1]

A posthumous live album, Untouchable Sound , was released in 2006 by Drag City and Sea Note. The album included the addition of Alex Minoff on guitar. [3]

Politics

As the Make-Up's frontman and mouthpiece, Ian Svenonius often contextualized the band's music in terms of larger socio-political themes. Svenonius typically described the band and its gospel attitude in Marxist and socialist terms, in opposition of what he saw as the capitalist, bourgeois, machismo paradigm of rock and roll. [5] [16] [17] This political position was typically presented during live performances and interviews with Svenonius, rather than in the music itself or its lyrics. Svenonius compared the Make-Up's ideology to the Situationist International group of the 1950s and 1960s, since both presented a critique of the modern, capitalist lifestyle, specifically of capitalism's effect on popular and consumable culture, such as rock and roll and pop music. [18] When asked if, in line with the title of The Nation of Ulysses' 1991 album 13-Point Program to Destroy America , he still hoped to "destroy America", Svenonius responded simply: "Of course". [19] This aversion to American culture was crystallized through their self-style musical genre "Gospel Yeh-Yeh," a belief system through which they advocated to their audience to "get theirs" and to "off the pigs in all their forms". [20]

The Make-Up's aversion to capitalist American culture was echoed in the 1998 short film Blue is Beautiful , in which the band starred. The film follows the band's fictionalized escape from America as "cultural refugees", where they are hunted by mysterious government agencies and find refuge in coffeehouses and underground night clubs. [5] Much like the assumed personae and personalities of all of Svenonius' bands and projects, a make-believe mythos and back-story surrounds the Make-Up, primarily based on the band's gospel approach and its pseudo-political, socialist aesthetics. [21] The political identity of the Make-Up was ideologically and semantically similar to Svenonius' other bands and projects, all of which culminate in his collection of essays, The Psychic Soviet , published through Drag City Press in 2006. [22]

Musical ideology and style

The Make-Up intended to create ad-lib performances in order to re-energize what they saw as the stale, bland, and formal ritual of rock and roll. [3] Appropriating gospel music's use of the congregate as a "fifth member", the Make-Up incorporated audience participation through call and response vocals, lyrical "discussion" techniques, and destruction of the fourth wall by physical transgression. [3]

Discussing the appropriation of the form of gospel music (as opposed to its content), Svenonius said:

Our music is gospel-based. It's rhythm-based, with a subverted guitar. And that's because the guitar exists at the same tone as the voice. It's the same frequency as the voice. We don't want those things to compete. We want to make a gospel, oratorical, sermon-based, ad-libbed form of music. [18]

Gospel music seems the most immediate, the most passionate and bendable form. We want to revitalize rock'n'roll and make it a communicative thing, rather than an alienating theme; the rise of dance music seems to be because rock bands seem to be increasingly dropping the ball in terms of making their music relevant to anyone but themselves. [23]

One concern of the group was to keep their music "stripped down" and minimal. This was indicative of the Make-Up's aversion to letting communication be upstaged by technology. Svenonius explained that "the problem is that the high creatures are the server mechanisms of the technology and the system they have created, meaning that we're dictated to as much by cars. We've turned the world into a parking lot. Similarly we use musical technology that we create, and it finds a use for itself". [12]

Due to the Make-Up's consideration of the audience and the special techniques they applied to performing, their live shows exhibited a convergence of soul, surf, and punk – an example of which is their single "I Want Some" from their 1999 album of the same name. [3] Citing the Make-Up's soul influences, one reviewer stated "If you didn't know it, you'd swear that the four members of The Make Up had stolen the soul from James Brown himself". [1] The Make-Up were also highly influenced by bubblegum music, particularly the French variety called Yé-yé. [18] The factory style of production Yé-yé music had utilized interested the group, who were interested in expanding the labor force involved in the production of pop music, a movement which they saw as in opposition to the rock and roll trend (begun by The Beatles) toward self-sufficiency and "downsizing" labor. [16] Through the synthesis of these two disparate and contradictory forms – gospel and Yé-yé – the Make-Up devised a hybrid style they called "Gospel Yeh-Yeh". [4]

Live performances

Michelle Mae and James Canty wearing one of the Make-Up's many matching uniforms. Make-Up outfits.jpg
Michelle Mae and James Canty wearing one of the Make-Up's many matching uniforms.

The Make-Up's gospel attitude was related to utilization of the audience as a group member, [23] which Svenonius likened to the rise of the 90s dance music scene: "We're not interested in countering it. It makes sense to me that techno, rave and dance music should go over in the face of rock and roll because it's democratic for everybody to express themselves. Whereas a lot of rock and roll isn't even entertaining at all, let alone allowing people the voice for expression. That's what the Make-Up has come to remedy. We want to be at once entertaining and inclusive in terms of using the gospel form to sort of breathe life into the old Frankenstein monster". [24] Svenonius would often interact with the audience in a number of ways, including call and response lyrics, direct address, and leaving the stage and going out into the crowd.

Despite the band's "gospel" and "ad-libbed" approach to recording, the Make-Up's live performances were often quite structured, as opposed to the typical "jam session". Svenonius explained that "there's a skeleton that we create and the form of our shows is unchanging - there's an intro, an outro, a middle break. It's very vaudevillian in form". [12] The Make-Up always wore matching uniforms on stage. Like most of the Make-Up's identity, the uniforms were an ideological statement, meant to "[destroy] individualism. Instead of there being this person [or] this member, and them having their separate personalities, or having them as separate entities. We're trying to create a unification. A one-ness. That's basically what it is: they're uniforms". [18]

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations

Live albums

DVD/video

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian MacKaye</span> American singer and record label owner

Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye is an American musician. Active since 1979, he is best known as the co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label and the frontman of hardcore punk band Minor Threat and post-hardcore band Fugazi. MacKaye was also the frontman for the short-lived bands the Teen Idles, Embrace, and Pailhead, a collaboration with the band Ministry. MacKaye is a member of The Evens, a two-piece indie rock group he formed with his wife Amy Farina in 2001 and in 2018 formed the band Coriky with Farina and his Fugazi band mate Joe Lally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dischord Records</span> American independent record label

Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release Minor Disturbance by their band The Teen Idles. With other independent American labels such as Twin/Tone, Touch and Go Records, and SST Records, Dischord helped to spearhead the nationwide network of underground bands that formed the 1980s indie rock scene. These labels presided over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock that were emerging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fugazi</span> American punk band

Fugazi was an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They are noted for their style-transcending music, DIY ethical stance, manner of business practice, and contempt for the music industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rites of Spring</span> American punk rock band

Rites of Spring was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in late 1983. Along with Embrace, and Beefeater, they were one of the mainstay acts of the 1985 Revolution Summer movement which took place within the Washington, D.C. hardcore punk scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shudder to Think</span> American rock band

Shudder to Think was an American alternative rock band. Formed in 1986, they released three albums on the Washington, D.C.-based label Dischord Records, and two on Epic Records. Their early work was largely influenced by post-hardcore although they gradually drew upon a wide range of stylistic influences, including pop music and glam metal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scream (band)</span> American hardcore punk band

Scream is an American hardcore punk band from Washington, D.C.; they originally formed in the suburb of Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia. Scream originally formed in 1981 within the vanguard of the Washington Hardcore explosion. In 2009, the band reunited, and as of January 2012 were on tour in Europe. As of 2017, the band was still touring in both America and the United Kingdom.

Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period. The genre also began to incorporate more dense, complex, and atmospheric instrumentals with bands like Slint and Unwound, and also experienced some crossover from indie rock with bands like The Dismemberment Plan. In the early- and mid-2000s, post-hardcore achieved mainstream success with the popularity of bands like At the Drive-In, My Chemical Romance, Dance Gavin Dance, AFI, Underoath, Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, The Used, Saosin, Alexisonfire, and Senses Fail. In the 2010s, bands like Sleeping with Sirens and Pierce the Veil achieved mainstream success under the post-hardcore label. Meanwhile, bands like Title Fight and La Dispute experienced underground popularity playing music that bore a closer resemblance to the post-hardcore bands of the 1980s and 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington, D.C., hardcore</span>

Washington, D.C., hardcore, commonly referred to as D.C. hardcore, sometimes styled in writing as harDCore, is the hardcore punk scene of Washington, D.C. Emerging in late 1979, it is considered one of the first and most influential punk scenes in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Nation of Ulysses</span> American punk rock band

The Nation of Ulysses was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in spring 1988 with four members. Originally known as simply "Ulysses," the first mark of the group consisted of Ian Svenonius on vocals and trumpet, Steve Kroner on guitar, Steve Gamboa on bass guitar, and James Canty on drums. Tim Green joined the band late in 1989 as a guitarist and the band became "Nation of Ulysses." Nation of Ulysses disbanded in the autumn of 1992, having failed to complete their third album. After the breakup, Svenonius, Canty, and Gamboa went on to form the short-lived Cupid Car Club and The Make-Up. Tim Green went on to help create The Fucking Champs, a mostly-instrumental trio out of San Francisco, and later Concentrick, a solo project with a focus on ambient music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Svenonius</span> American musician

Ian F Svenonius is an American musician and singer of various Washington, D.C.-based punk bands including Nation of Ulysses, the Make-Up, Weird War, XYZ, Escape-ism, and Chain and the Gang. Between his numerous projects, Svenonius has released more than 22 full-length albums and over 20 singles, EPs, and splits. A published author and online talk show host, Svenonius' projects share a tongue-in-cheek, radical left political ideology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weird War</span> American indie rock band

Weird War, briefly known as Scene Creamers, is an indie rock band based out of Washington, D.C. The current lineup consists of Ian Svenonius on vocals, Michelle Mae on bass guitar, Alex Minoff on guitar, and Sebastian Thomson on drums.

Christina Billotte is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, known for her involvement in the punk music scene in Washington, D.C., as a performer and organizer. She is included in Venus Zine's list The Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time.

<i>13-Point Program to Destroy America</i> 1991 studio album by Nation of Ulysses

13-Point Program to Destroy America is the debut album by the American post-hardcore band Nation of Ulysses. The album's title is in reference to the Black Panther Party's Ten Point Program and J. Edgar Hoover's propaganda pamphlet "Red China's Secret Plan to Destroy America." The title of track #13 was inspired by Frank Sinatra's album Love is a Kick.

<i>In Film/On Video</i> 2006 film

In Film/On Video is a collection of video and film of Washington, D.C., rock band The Make-Up released in 2006 by Dischord Records. Included on the DVD:

Dischord Records is an independent record label specializing in the punk rock music of the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene. The company is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded the label in December 1980. Before founding Dischord, both MacKaye and Nelson were members of the Teen Idles, and the label was initially meant to only foster a single release from the defunct band, the Minor Disturbance EP. By the time Dischord #1 was finished, many new bands had emerged from the same music scene, and like the Teen Idles, also began releasing their records through Dischord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cupid Car Club</span> American post-hardcore band

Cupid Car Club, also known as Cupid Car Club M.P., was a short-lived American post-hardcore band consisting of Ian Svenonius on vocals, James Canty on drums, Steve Gamboa on guitar, and Kim Thompson on bass and vocals.

David Candy is a pseudonym of Ian Svenonius. Only one album was released under the name David Candy, Play Power. The character of David Candy was part of a series of "Magazine-Style Records" conceived by Mike Alway, which included other imaginary acts such as Death by Chocolate, Maria Napoleon, Mild Euphoria and Lollipop Train.

Nation of Ulysses was a Washington, D.C.-based band formed in 1988, consisting of Ian Svenonius, James Canty, Steve Gamboa, Steve Kroner, and Tim Green. During the Nation of Ulysses' four years of activity, they released only two full-length albums: 13-Point Program to Destroy America in 1991 and Plays Pretty for Baby in 1992, both released on Dischord Records. After releasing Plays Pretty for Baby, the band began recording a third full-length album, but Steve Kroner separated from the band before recording was completed. The remaining quartet continued to record, but the group eventually dissolved before the record's completion. In 2000, six songs from those sessions, in addition to four new tracks recorded live, were compiled and released posthumously as The Embassy Tapes.

<i>I Suck on That Emotion</i> 2003 studio album by Scene Creamers (Weird War)

I Suck on That Emotion is the second studio album by Weird War, recorded and released under the short-lived name Scene Creamers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Make-Up discography</span>

The Make-Up was a Washington, D.C. based band formed in 1995, consisting of Ian Svenonius, James Canty, Steve Gamboa, Michelle Mae, and for a brief period Alex Minoff. During the Make-Up's five years of activity, they released four studio albums, two live albums, a compilation of singles and B-sides, and a number of singles and splits. A posthumous live album was also released in 2006. The band was also the subject of the short film Blue is Beautiful by James Schneider, later repackaged as part of In Film/On Video in 2006.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gale, Thomas (2005). "The Make-Up Biography". eNotes. Archived from the original on 2006-11-15. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  2. ↑ "Thrill Jockey –- Artists". Thrill Jockey. Archived from the original on 2007-03-01. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Make Up –- A Biography" (PDF). Drag City. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  4. 1 2 "Make-Up and "Gospel Yeh-Yeh"". Southern Records. Archived from the original on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  5. 1 2 3 Svenonius, Ian and James Schneider (2006). In Film/On Video (DVD). Dischord Records.
  6. 1 2 3 "Make-Up discography". Southern Records. Archived from the original on 2008-02-23. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  7. ↑ "Mommy, What's a Weird War?" (PDF). Drag City. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-01-17. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  8. ↑ Ashlock, Jesse. "David Candy". Epitonic Records. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-15.
  9. ↑ "I'll Be Your Mirror London 2012 Curated By Mogwai". All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival) . Retrieved 2012-02-15.
  10. ↑ "Cupid Car Club". Kill Rock Stars. Archived from the original on 2007-06-09. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  11. ↑ "Frumpies". Kill Rock Stars. Archived from the original on 2007-06-12. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 "Steady Diet fanzine –- April 98". Steady Diet, April 1998. Archived from the original on 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
  13. ↑ Laurence, Alexander (May 2003). "Scene Creamers Interview". Free Williamsburg No. 37. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  14. 1 2 "In Film / On Video DVD". Southern Records. Archived from the original on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2006-06-02.
  15. ↑ Greenwald, Matthew (2001-12-12). "Arthur Lee to Be Free". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
  16. 1 2 "Damn You Fanzine". Southern Records, Damn You Fanzine. Archived from the original on 2007-11-02. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  17. ↑ "The Hedonist –- February 1998". Southern Records, The Hedonist. Archived from the original on 2007-12-22. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "The Make-Up Interview". Archived from the original on 2004-08-20. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  19. ↑ Interview with Ian Svenonius (Primetime). London: Beware the Cat. May 1997. Archived from the original (QuickTime) on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
  20. ↑ Ankeny, Jason. "The Make-Up Biography". Allmusic . Retrieved 2007-11-01.
  21. ↑ "The Rock N Roll Comintern". Southern Records. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  22. ↑ Twerdy, Saelan. "Illuminated by the Light". CITR-FM. Archived from the original on 2008-01-19. Retrieved 2007-06-08.
  23. 1 2 Hughes, Tom; Pat Long (September 1997). "PI Magazine". PI Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-11-02. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
  24. ↑ Thornton, Stuart (March 15, 2007). "Ian Svenonius brings post-punk spoken-word revolution to Big Sur". Monterey County Weekly. Retrieved 2010-06-11.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.