DATELINE: JANUARY 1995

EXCUSES, EXCUSES. We know how angry many Gazette subscribers are but we really have been busy on actual legitimate projects. First of all, our new record, Electr-o-Pura, is completed, 14 new songs, about an hour long. We spent November down in Nashville, Tenn., recording it, once again recruiting tall, talented producer Roger Moutenot.

In September, we open three shows for Johnny Cash in our acoustic disguise (that episode of "Colombo" will never be the same for us). We played a few new songs, bantered with some hecklers, got some albums autographed and had a swell time.

We also did a ton of recording with Jad Fair, improvising under the man's guidance. We played live with him a few times, too, mostly old Half Japanese songs. James played guitar and Ira and Georgia played drums at the same time. On the recordings, we assumed our time-honored bass/drums/guitar modes.

Ira recorded and played live with Chris Stamey. James recorded three hours of new Dump material and also played guitar on new recordings by Special Pillow. Georgia recorded with the 6ths and she and Ira both appear on a new Portastatic recording of Eno's class "St. Elmo's Fire." Georgia has also been singing in Amy Rigby's ensemble and sitting in with local skiffle-revival group Salmon Skin (highlighted by the evening they toured NYC, renting a generator and performing in front of Max Fish, Knitting Factory and other clubs in one night, while appreciative onlookers showered them with eggs and calls to the police). James played bass on the Odes 7" and joined them for their first live show ever, at the Merge Fest in Chapel Hill, NC, in July, where Ira was playing guitar in the legendary Double Dynamite.

It was tough to squeeze in gigs around jury duty this summer but we managed three shows with drummer extraordinaire Rick "Run On" Brown on second drumset. In July we played at the Roskilde festival in Copenhagen and Ira and Georgia made it to Yoyo-a-Gogo in Olympia. Ira joined Eleventh Dream Day for three shows (one in Chicago, two in Germany). Then came Johnny. Then we did a big deal NYC show with Stereolab and (stars of YLT Gazette #3) 18th Dye. We retired from the road then to devote all our time to Apple Corps... I mean to work on new songs before heading down to Nashville. And, well, voila! Happy New Year, already.