Moist is five musicians, cloaked in an air of uncertainty, a healthy dose of self doubt, several thousand pounds of gear and flashing lights, a large supply of antidepressants, two cases of neo citron, and a disembodied voice with a British accent that never seems to tire of berating the mounds of technology that surround it with the kind of vigor and righteous anger that would make even the meanest boot camp drill sergeant on earth sink to his knees in slack jawed awe, take notes and weep in shame, all packed into a small, dark, airless room chewing their collective nails, second guessing anyone foolish enough to have a dissenting opinion, and playing a seemingly endless gane of "I'll show you my inner demons and hapless self loathing if you'll show me yours", while summer in all its rich sun dappled pageantry passes us by with nary a glance or a spare beam of sunlight to cast into the pit we've gladly dug for ourselves.
Roll tape.
Mind you we're not complaining we're just shaking off the dust and frustration that's accumulated over the last 12 months while we've been hiding in various darkened rooms writing new material,
throwing it away,
reworking it,
throwing it away,
taking isolated bits and pieces from six or seven song ideas and frankensteining them together into an ill advised and hideous mockery of a song,
listening,
staring at each other vacantly,
throwing it all away, etc.....
As to where we've been, what we're doing, why you haven't heard from us and what it all means, well....
Moist put a symbolic end to three years of touring in September of 95 after the whole labour day in Tuktoyaktuk with Metallica and Hole thing and have spent the majority of this past year (with the exception of several mini tours/transparent money grabs) in quiet contemplation peppered liberally with the odd blind, shriveling bender which leaves us asking the age old musical question "what am I doing waking in the ym/ywca at nine am wearing a furlined mumu and where did I get this tremendous hole in my head?" In mid-September and for the first time in three years the band rented apartments in Vancouver as a vain attempt to rediscover their personal lives. For some of this required...adjustment.
After two weeks of grotty linen and sudsless showers it occured to us that fresh soap and towels no longer appear magically each day along side our morning paper, and BCtel operators take a decidedly dim view of people who call repeatedly in an attempt to order room service and set multiple wake up calls.
We did settle in eventually, much to the relief of my downstairs neighbors who seem to have grown a wee bit tired of me showing up in their kitchen at 8:30 every morning petulantly demanding immediate access to the breakfast buffet and ranting incoherently about the value of quality service.
Having little patience or liking for stability, joy, peace, quiet, good living, and regualr hours, Moist decided (in mid bender naturally) that late December would be the perfect time to relocate to Montreal, slog through three feet of snow in sub-zero weather, desperately looking for new apartments and exploring the time that lies between two and four am more thoroughly. Challenged and inspired by the possibilities presented by a new city, new language, a civilized 3 am last call, and triple fermented beer (gleefully endorsed by the devil himself) we threw ourselves into final writing and preproduction for our second album. Five obsessive, fun filled months later we began recording with producer Paul Northfield at Le Morin Heights and Silent Sound in Montreal.
And so they recorded...
Our second album, CREATURE, is the product of this union and several months of pain staking soul searching shot through with a quantity of self obsession so great that we felt it necessary to share it equally with our producer, our record company, our families, our friends and any poor unsuspecting soul who stopped us on the street to ask us when the new album was coming out. It involved the renting of many typically unpredictable bits of technology and the creation of five sets of several thousand constantly changing and thoroughly meaningless lists compiled as a result of hours of redundant life sucking and rarely accurate specualtion, and will be yours to experience, sans pain and suffering October 1st, 1996.
Actually, it wasn't all that bad. It just took a little longer to record than our first album so there is no need to send flowers and get well cards just now...
However, this puts us in mind of an interesting point. Jeff. Jeff is not sick. Jeff is well. He had the flu. In early 95. It lasted a week and a half. It's gone now. CUT THE SYMPATHY. Thanks for your concern, but enough already. He's beginning to get all frail and paranoid about being sickly and that bothers the rest of us...Immensely - unless it's our doing...and besides, why should Jeff get all the pity and all the get well cards, just for being the biological equivalent of a four star hotel for pestilence. What does David get when he's sick? A couple of good swift boots to the spleen from a giddy and vindictive guitar player. And Kevin? How about the usual "your not sick, you're faking!!Stop resting!Entertain me!". And Paul? Well...Paul gets even. Incidentally, Mark doesn't get sick. He is so impossibly slow that any passing virus that comes within sneezing distance of him is immediately stricken by an overwhelming fear of commitment and buggers off in search of someone with a faster metabolism.
And while we are here...inresponse to a recent letter from a writer who expressed disappointment that we didn't respond personally to a thirty page "I love you, I hate you, I hate to love you, here's a list of everyone I would like to kill and why by the way shouldn't you guys be taking more time out from writing, touring, and recording to develop a truly intimate relationship with some of your more unbalanced fans?"
...Hello...I'm sorry...I'd love to sit down and pore over your grisly obsessions one by one...By all means.
Lets do lunch, tea and crumpets...Let's hold hands and skip through a landscape of bitterness and frustration with big happy smiles,
inwardly sneering at other passers by...And maybe later we can escape into the late showing of "Free Willy 3- My Dinner with Ahab" before sinking back into the malignancy and torture of modern urban life.
Uh huh, right.
I'd rather spend some quality time with the voices screaming in my head.
Okay?
APOLOGIES AND PENITENT SUPPLICATION DEPARTMENT
For those of you that have written us and have waited what seems like forever to receive merchandise or any kind of response...our humble apologies. We have been more than a little slack in the newsletter/information/merch department this past year. As we've said before...when we released our first album we had no idea so many of you would buy it, let alone pay attention to the fine print and send us so much mail. So this time around, we are setting up a real fanclub, where you get real stuff, that no one else has real cheap, real soon. So, if you would like to join this new fanclub, or are interested in our merch by mail, follow the simple cheerful instructions found at the end of this newsletter. Thanks to everyone who has sent us stories, poems, artwork, photos, kind words, and encouragement. Thanks for writing, and most of all, thanks for all your support.
Nauselbaum,
MOIST
One more thing. We have just released a video for "Leave It Alone", the first single from our new album CREATURE. It was filmes in an abandoned hospital in Vancouver with director Tony Pantages, some chariots, a tumultuous river, and a cast of thousands and bears a striking resemblance to Ben Hur. If you'd like to see it...
REQUEST
LEAVE IT ALONE
the first video from "CREATURE"
muchmusic
Okay, so we lied about the chariots, the river, and the whole Ben Hur thing. Exageraion in the service of humor is the highest sacrifice.
Beginning October 22nd, we will be touring Canada with Neil Young. It is sure to be a teeth-gnashing, body-flinging, bone-rattling good time. Let me say those magic words again. We are touring with Neil Young. Boy, is the sun shining out of my ass, or did I just sit on Stan's flashlight.
Hope you enjoy the new album. See you at the shows. Here are the dates...
Oct 22nd Vancouver
Ovt 24 Edmonton
Oct 25 Calgary
Oct 26 Regina
Oct 28 Winnipeg
Oct 31 Hamilton
Nov 2 Ottawa
Nov 4 St. Johns
Nov 5 Halifax
Nov 7 Montreal
We'll be starting our own tour in a few months. Check your local listings. More info later...
Moist can be seen at...
http://www.cnw.com~moist
http://www.moistnet.com
moist@cnw.com
Fanclub and merch info...
c/o Nettwerk Management
Box 330
1755 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada
V6G 3B7
info@nettwerk.com
http://www.nettwerk.com