From: "Jeremy L. Orr" 
To: Multiple recipients of list 4AD-L <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 22:59:03 -0600
Subject: Re: East Ash

Wow.  It certainly is rewarding to see praise for East Ash from other
4AD-L'ers.  I often wondered if their music had any impact outside of the
local area.

Anyway, on Thu, 30 Mar 1995, aLFRED dOUGLAS wrote:

> I LOVE EAST ASH!!! Do they have any other material aside from "Crushing
> A Flood"That album is brilliant. Any other info from those who know
> more about them please, tell me.

Well, they got their name from the street that they all lived on in
Columbia MO.  At their early gigs, vocalist/bassist Jeff Rogers would
occasionally dress up in a clown suit.  I never saw this with my own eyes,
but have heard stories (and he himself would talk about the clown as if it
were another person; talk about someone who took way too much acid).

They released a second album (also on C'est la Mort) called _Ellie_ (Bob
Brass's nickname for his keyboard) in September of 1991.  I don't think
it's as consistently good as _Crushing_a_Flood_, but it has some of their
best songs ("Break Your Back", "The Alone Song", "Nobody", and "Virgil
Who?" which should have been called "The Verge of Tears", except one of
them kept misunderstanding Jeff, and they decided to vandalize the
song by turning what was a drug-induced, not-really-all-that-funny joke
into the title).  They made the mistake of going for slicker production,
which doesn't always work to their advantage.  Also, the way the songs
are arranged on the album is terrible (thank god for programmable CD
players).  But it's still well worth getting.

> I assume that they have since broken up.

  Yes, sadly.  They moved from Columbia to Chicago in the summer of
'92 with their pals Currer Bell (whom I've always thought of as East
Ash's sister band, as they played out together many times, and Jeff and
CB guitarist Ronna were - are? - an item).  Both bands thought that they
might find recognition in the bigger city, but both ended up disbanding
within a few months.

EA guitarist Rob Durando and CB drummer Rob Lawford (I hope I'm
remembering the latter's name right - and they're both *incredibly*
imaginative musicians) are now in a band called Waterworks with a female
singer (her name escapes me) that has listened to far too much Sarah
McLachlan and Kate Bush.  But their music is still good.  They've
self-released a mini-LP on CD which was reviewed in Option a few months
back.  I have no idea what the rest of the band is up to, which is a
pity, since all four of them were easily the most talented and
distinctive musicians this sorry state has ever seen.

---Jeremy