No Outside Food or Drink...Don't Try to be Sneaky! No beer allowed to take out building. No slam dancing!

Above: Jon Parker and Kevin Crothers of Sea 7 States at The China King

The China King on Knoxville's strip has a storied history as a music venue, though not originally under that name. Sea 7 States became the first band to play there under Mr Lu's ownership in the late 1980's.* This is a combination board and room mic recording made to four-track cassette recorder (the Cutec of previous-posts legend) though at this point in time only three channels were working. I think the room mics were an amazingly-cheap Realistic stereo mic. Based on who is in the crowd, I'm guessing that the Taoist Cowboys might have been the opener - this was sometime in 1988 (Sea 7 States Mark II) and to my ears is the sound of a band falling apart. Shortly after this we took a long sabbatical and regrouped after replacing departed drummer Todd Eaton. I do like the "Oh Darling" cover, and it's nice to hear the first performance of "Shiva Shuffle", which was one of mine (with Jon). Heck, I've got five songs in this batch!

A big thank you to Bob McCluskey for the intro!

A technical note: apparently the direct channel disappeared on the third tape, so it's just the room mics.

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Set List:
The Beauty of Fire/Calypso
(Just Before The) Break of Day
Winterset
Broken Guitar String Jazz Groove/George Bush Rap
Spinetingler [partial]

Spinetingler (con't)
Choice
Wild Wild West
Sake Of Me
Life In A Love
Easterlies
Where The Wild Things Are (partial)

Distant and Narrow (partial)
88
Schizophrenia
Swan [this is the "Trainwreck Special Version"]
Modern As Summer
The Incline [just barely partial]

The Ice Age
Calendar
Oh Darling
Shiva Shuffle
Beating
Salvation [tiny partial]

*from a Philip Wolff-penned bio of the band:

That same summer, Mr. Lu, owner of the Strip’s China King, approached Wolff, who lived just behind the restaurant in a typical-of-the time Ft. Sanders subdivided house on 19^th Street. China King had decided to host bands, Mr. Lu told him, and wanted Sea 7 States to break the ice. Wolff tried repeatedly to warn Mr. Lu that the band scene would nothing but heartache for his restaurant. But Mr. Lu saw only potential revenue.

As the bands and their followings got rowdier and rougher, new hand-written signs would appear from time to time taped to China King’s walls. You could read entire unfortunate scenarios between the lines of these signs. “No Outside Food or Drink...Don't Try to be Sneaky!” was one of the first to appear, followed soon after by, "No beer allowed to take out building," and "No slam dancing!" (posted on the ceiling above the dance floor).

So Long, Farewell, Until We Meet Aga...In 1996

In retrospect, the signs were obvious. We had had a rough and ragged series of road trips with some remarkable mis-steps by our "booking agent" (renting a Lincoln Town car instead of a van for a trip to Nashville, for example), we were getting bored with songs and adding random rearrangements, we were being willfully discordant/arrhythmic, and our fashion sense went all to hell (much in evidence on this video). We had conflict with the soundman, as well (you can hear me yell at him at one point) - he seemed incapable of curing the recurring feedback problem. Ella Gurus really probably wasn't the best venue for us - we were much more at home in the echoing confines of the Cityside Cafe. This, then, is a document of a band breaking up - this was the final show for Sea 7 States. In fact, I don't think we ever even practiced again.

I had never seen this tape before this year, though I remembered that Judybat Jeff Heiskell was there with his camera (you can briefly see him in a shot at the very end). I'm shown packing up a cassette recorder at the finish, so apparently an audio recording was made, but perhaps it was so bad that I destroyed it (very unlikely for this OCD archivist). Regardless, it seems to have vanished.

There is still a core of valiant dancers struggling to have a good time despite the efforts of the band. (If you recognize yourself, drop a note in the comments!) One of them is former drummer Todd Eaton, who occasionally interjects some cowbell playing from his place on the dance floor.


Sea 7 States @ Ella Gurus 8-28-89 (the final show)


3/4ths of this version of the band did meet again in 1996, when Brett, Jon, Phil, and Kevin gathered for a weekend of recording in Charlotte, NC that also served as Kevin's bachelor party. A couple of tracks from that session ended up on the Incompleat CD.

Sea 7 States (almost) on the (Un)radio

I mentioned in an earlier post that I thought that this video existed somewhere in the archives.

This is some pre-air silliness and rehearsal/recording preceding a live session on Knoxville's WUOT-FM "Unradio" program.

The audio seen being recorded in this video was previously posted here.

The audio of the actual broadcast as well as a description of the session was previously posted here.

Sea 7 States on WUOT-FM "Unradio" (pre-air)

Three dollar cover Saturday night

Continuing in the ME!ME!ME! series, here's a couple of Sea 7 States sets from the Cityside Cafe on Market Square circa 1986/87. Although it sounds like the recorder was situated on a mountaintop miles away, it actually was sitting on the sound board, about 12 feet from the stage. Yes, that wash of echo and reverb apparently was what that rectangular room actually sounded like to anyone not onstage (where it actually sounded OK). Sorry about that, those of you who were there. This is Sea 7 States original/version I, with Jon Parker, Philip Wolff, Kevin Crothers, and Brett Norton. 

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Lost at Sea 7 States

I've got a bunch of UnRadios and New Airwaves almost ready for posting, but there has been a computer malfunction, so as a placeholder I offer a portion of a 1987 Sea 7 States show [one set (possibly the first) usually of 4] from The Cityside Cafe on Market Square (back when it was still a mostly-boarded up wasteland, before its current urban hipster status).

Brett sent me this VHS tape, and upon viewing it I had absolutely no recollection of the event. Based on the musical breakdown/musical terrorism at the end, I'm guessing that there was a specific reason for that loss of memory, and that it probably afflicted the rest of the band as well.
This is probably Brett's penultimate show with the band, with only a gig at The Library to follow for him.

Sea 7 States - Cityside Cafe 1987