Mike Berg (Bass), John Hoag (Guitar), Shawn Smith (Vs & Piano), Regan Hagar (Drums)

 

They have all played music in Seattle for quite a long time; Regan played in Malfunkshun with Kevin and Andrew Wood and he still plays in Brad with Shawn and their friends Stone Gossard and Jeremy Toback. He also started a record label with Stone which is called Loosegroove. Shawn also makes music as Pigeonhed with Steve Fisk and they put out albums sometimes on the Sub Pop record label. When he's not doing Satchel or Brad or Pigeonhed you can probably find Shawn touring with the Afghan Whigs as a sort of guest singer and MC and if he's not doing any of those things I'll bet you $10 you'll find him making music somewhere. Anyhow, they have just finished making their new record which is called The Family, I think because the band is sort of like an extended family. Anyhow, it seems like a really appropriate name. I just heard it and it made me really happy and really sad at the same time. It's sort of graceful and heartbreaking and hopeful, and Shawn's voice sounds amazing. I wasn't surprised to find out the MOJO magazine said he was one of the 50 best singers ever. they told me they made the album really quickly at a place called Litho in Seattle, which is Stone's studio. In fact Stone produced the record with them and when it was done they went to Atlanta to see Mr. Brendan O'Brien so that he could mix it. Soon afterwards Shawn went to Europe with the Afghan Whigs and Regan went back to Seattle to make up all the artwork for the cover. Meanwhile John and Mike watched the Seattle Supersonics in the NBA playoffs. Just as Epic was getting ready to release their records their agent called and asked them if they wanted to play the Lollapalooza tour, so they said yes.EDC bio: Their album is called EDC, and like most other outward aspects of Satchel, this corporate-sounding title (cf. IBM, ITT, PG&E) gives no clue as to the actual sound of the thirteen songs contained therein. The effect seems intentional: On EDC, Satchel makes many different kinds of music--all of which sounds like the work of a singularly gifted band, but a band without self-imposed boundaries, without an easily-defined style that's simply repeated over the length of an album.The Seattle rock scene has generated (and been subject to) intense heat and light during the past few years. Yet Satchel has been able to develop at its own pace and under its own eclectic influences, largely because the development of these four musicians predates both the current Northwest rock boom and the "alternative music" explosion.From junior high days in the early '80s, drummer Regan Hagar has been a prime mover of the Seattle underground. His pioneering punk rock band, Malfunkshun, included the Wood brothers Kevin and Andrew; that group shared gigs and rehearsal space with Green River. (Malfunkshun's early recordings are to be released later in '94 through Epic's Loose Groove label.) Shawn Smith (lead vocals, lyrics, keyboards and some guitar for Satchel) was born in Spokane, Washington and raised in Bakersfield, California. Shawn started on drums at age 8, but was already writing and singing his own songs--what he calls "weird, kinda spacey soul music," strongly influenced by Prince and Cameo--when he moved to Seattle in 1987. Regan and Shawn met in a local record store shortly thereafter, and have been playing together in various combinations ever since.One of these, Brad, released an Epic album called Shame in May, 1993. But by that time, the rest of Satchel had fallen into place, with bassist Cory Kane and guitarist John Hoag. "I'd met them through my drum set catching fire," Regan recalls. "My rehearsal space caught fire and shut down another band I was working with. I had a drummer friend who invited me over to play his drums, and also invited John and Cory to jam. We hit it off very well. I was so thrilled with it, I said 'Shawn, you gotta come down and join in on this.' He did, and we jammed some more two nights later and it was just really good. We didn't play songs, we just expressed things musically to each other, showing each other what kind of skills we had."Growing up in Portland, Oregon, John Hoag "got on guitar when I was six or seven. Most of my family liked Steely Dan type stuff--I heard a lot of Steely Dan and jazz-rock stuff. Then in my teens I got into rock, like Metallica's Kill 'Em All and GBH. In high school I was trying to play in bands, then towards the end Cory and I committed to playing with each other. Basically we've been playing together all our lives, certainly ever since he moved to Seattle from California." Southern California native Cory Kane is that rock & roll rarity, a classically trained musician, having attended the Cornish Music School in Seattle before taking up electric bass. (Regan, Cory and John also play assorted keyboards on various EDC tracks.)"One of the reasons it felt so great with Regan and Shawn," John says, "is that they've both been in it a long time, making records and playing gigs. Malfunkshun is like a legend around here. So we've combined the known and unknown entities in this band, and that makes for consistency."Satchel played its very first gig on New Year's Eve '91 at The Paramount in Seattle. "The first six months, we played around like crazy," Shawn recalls. "Regan had tons of live experience and I hadn't. I needed to get comfortable up there." Among their many gigs: Opening for Bob Dylan at The Paramount, where, Regan recalls, "we got a lot of boos - I thought that was good!"When it came time for the making of EDC, Satchel stuck with the casual, shit-happens approach which had served them so well from the band's inception. "A lot of the music on this record was done in the summer of '93 in what we call the Cave Dweller Sessions," Sha wn explains. "We just started running the tape to an 8-track studio that's connected to our practice room. It freaked people out a little bit, but that was the feel we wanted. That song 'O' is directly from the Cave Dweller tapes. I think 'Hollywood' is, too. On a lot of tracks we used the very first take, we couldn't do it better: 'Suffering' is really the first demo of the song.""My lyrics? I call 'em 'freestyle' sometimes. I mean, I write 'em out, they mean something, but...like 'Trouble Come Down,' that whole thing was done in one hour and the lyrics were the first thing. There's a lotta heavy girl shit and heartbreak in my songs.""Equilibrium" has feedback guitar, Shawn's tremulous, echoing vocal, and drums that sound like giant cardboard boxes. "0" could be mistaken for an outtake from Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man. "Built 4 It" sounds like a 1972 Miles Davis track minus Miles. "Suffering" is a keyboard-based ballad with vocal harmonies. "Mr. Pink" is the first single from EDC, its title inspired by Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs and with samples of movie dialog dropping in the voices of Lawrence Tierney and Michael Madsen. "We all believe it to be one of the realest recent movies made," says John Hoag. "It's an amazing portrayal of the situation and really came home to all of us.""This album was recorded all through '93 at five different studios," says Regan Hagar. "We'll go anywhere, use any means to record - we feel they're all valid."

1996 Isn't That Right (ESK 8485 Epic Records 1 track promo U.S. CD single)

1. Isn't That Right

 

1996 The Family (Epic) Album details

1. Isn't That Right
2. Without Love
3. Not Too Late
4. Criminal Justice
5. Breathe Deep
6. Time 'O' The Year
7. For So Long
8. Some More Trouble
9. Tomorrow
10. Roll On

 

1996 Without Love (ESK 8904 Epic Records 1 track promo CD)

1. Without Love

 

1996 The Family (Advance album - Epic)

1. Isn't That Right
2. Without Love
3. Not Too Late
4. Criminal Justice
5. Breathe Deep
6. Time 'O' The Year
7. For So Long
8. Some More Trouble
9. Tomorrow
10. Roll On

 

1996 The Family (Promo CD with cardboard jacket with a round sticker)

1. Isn't That Right
2. Without Love
3. Not Too Late
4. Criminal Justice
5. Breathe Deep
6. Time 'O' The Year
7. For So Long
8. Some More Trouble
9. Tomorrow
10. Roll On

 

1994 Mr Pink (UK CD single)

1. Mr. Pink
2. Nice Guy Eddie
3. Vic Vega

 

1994 Suffering (1 track promo CD - Epic ESK7018)

 

1994 EDC (UK CD - Epic) Album details

1. Mr. Brown
2. Equilibrium
3. Taste It
4. Trouble Come Down
5. More Ways Than 3
6. Hollywood
7. O
8. Mr. Pink
9. Built 4 It
10. Mr. Blue
11. Willow
12. The Roof Almighty
13. Suffering

 

1994 EDC (US CD album - Epic)

1. Mr. Brown
2. Equilibrium
3. Taste It
4. Trouble Come Down
5. More Ways Than 3
6. Hollywood
7. O
8. Mr. Pink
9. Built 4 It
10. Mr. Blue
11. Willow
12. The Roof Almighty
13. Suffering

 

1994 EDC (Rare promo CD)

1. Mr. Brown
2. Equilibrium
3. Taste It
4. Trouble Come Down
5. More Ways Than 3
6. Hollywood
7. O
8. Mr. Pink
9. Built 4 It
10. Mr. Blue
11. Willow
12. The Roof Almighty
13. Suffering

 

15th October 1996 - Prince Center Ballroom, La Jolla CA.

11th October 1996 - The Edge, Palo Alto

10th October 1996 - Fillmore, San Francisco, CA.

23rd September 1996 - Mars, Bloomington, IN.

5th September 1996 - Louisiana Tech U., Rushton, LA.

14th August 1996 - LA Live, Beverley Hills, CA.

4th August 1996 - Lollapalooza, Irvine, CA.

3rd August 1996 - Lollapalooza, Irvine, CA.

2nd August 1996 - Lollapalooza Spartan Stadium, San Jose, CA.

23rd July 1996 - Lollapalooza, New Orleans, TN.

27th July 1996 - Lollapalooza, George, WA.

26th July 1996 - Lollapalooza, Phoenix, AL.

25th July 1996 - Lollapalooza, Ferris, TX.

21st July 1996 - Lollapalooza, Knoxville, TN.

20th July 1996 - Lollapalooza, Rockingham, NC.

18th July 1996 - Lollapalooza, West Palm Beach, FL.

10th December 1994 - Old Firehouse, Redmond, WA.

9th December 1994 - Satyricon, Portland, OR.

 

All in the Family - The Satchel 'Partnership' produces some soulful sounds of Seattle circa 1996 INTERVIEW BY DAVID SIMUTIS.

While the boom days of Grunge are over for Seattle, a new crop of bands show just how much musical depth there is in the Northwest music community. That may seem like a lazy journalist's angle, but the sheer numbers of talented groups and individuals bear some review. Jeremy Enigk, former leader of Sunny Day Real Estate, recently released a Baroque-Pop record. Eric Matthews attempted something similar, striving forsomething between Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys and Beethoven. Groups such as Modest Mouse, Unwound, The Spinanes and Heatmeiser are putting out challenging and innovative records - not for the masses, but in the same way that Nirvana and Soundgarden started out.Satchel sits somewhere between Seattle's glory days of five years ago and late '60s Motown. Their second record, The Family, finds singer/keyboardist Shawn Smith, guitarist John Hoag, bassist Mike Berg and drummer Regan Hagar creating the kind of songs that are timeless but not without history. With as much piano as guitar, the foursome sounds like the baby of Elton John and Prince (if that were possible). Produced with Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam and Matt Wallace, standout cuts like "Time o' the Year" and "Tomorrow" are full of emotion and depth without being melodramatic. The attention to detail and craft is unusual in an industry concerned at least as much with style as substance.Satchel is not so much a band as a group of individuals working toward a common purpose, running the whole thing like a small business. Songs are credited to the Satchel "Partnership," an unusual way of doing things. "Some bands aren't a partnership," explains Hagar. "Some bands have a lead person who is taking all the money and paying his musicians as sidemen. We're not that way. We do everything evenly and discuss things. Everyone writes songs for the band. Whoever writes the song is always open to input from the rest of the group".Satchel happens to be blessed with a singer who not only has enough side projects to satisfy his need for control - Shawn Smith has played in Pigeonhed with Steve Fisk as well as the band Brad with Stone Gossard - but is also one of the 50 best singers of all time according to one of those usually lame British magazines. He has also toured and recorded with The Afghan Whigs, and Whigs frontman Greg Dulli raves about Satchel in the pages of Rolling Stone and Bikini.Satchel is not a one trick pony, however. What makes the band so interesting is the songs, but what makes things sometimes difficult is that they don't really sound like any other band. Sometimes they seem too mainstream for an Alternative crowd, and other times it's just the opposite. While the band is currently on the road with Better Than Ezra, there aren't too many groups that Satchel could share a bill with and also fit in with musically ."It's really hard to think of bands that we're suited to, as far as touring together," Hagar says. "I don't know what category of radio we should even attempt to send the records to. It seems like we're kind of out in left field somewhere."That is a problem that Epic, the band's label home, had with the first Satchel album, EDC. While The Family is leaner and toned down, the previous record was a bit more all-over-the-place and impressed more critics than record buyers.As far as EDC was concerned, Hagar says that he feels the band didn't know how to "play the game.""I don't really see us getting radio (play)," says Hagar, whose loose, relaxed attitude suits the band's seeming concern about getting across their music as a whole piece as opposed to praying for a hit single. "We're trying to let (the record company) pick singles, let them do what they do. This time we kind of go with the flow a little more."The Family, according to Hagar, was thought about in its entirety. "The new one is more cohesive (than EDC) and has kind of a through-line. We recorded 18 songs for the album and we thought the 10 we picked worked the best."There is also the matter of the package that the compact disc comes in - it looks like a red leather family album. The new album's cover is distinguished and more classic looking than EDC's, which had an excerpt from a Thomas Rohan book extolling the virtues of the legalization of marijuana."I had gone through a lot of legal troubles with marijuana," explains Hagar. "I read this thing that Rohan had written and I thought it was very intelligent and very well put. I think his issues are issues that I wish a lot of people who are for the legalization of marijuana would discuss. I think a lot of the people who are out there waving the marijuana flag just seem stoned."We thought it would be a neat thing to put in there and maybe educate a few people. I was a big advocate of marijuana. I guess I still am. I haven't smoked in quite some time. I think it's kind of a farce, a lot of things that are brought up about it."The same can be said about what the press has written about the Seattle scene, which Hagar says is much different than it used to be. But with Satchel leading the way, there might be a revival of sorts. Not "Grunge, Part Two," but no one needs that anyway.SATCHEL opens for Better Than Ezra Sunday at The Garage in Caddy's.

Issue 2, Vol. 44, - September 19-25, 1996.

 

Get to the Grove early to check out Satchel's soulful rock By Jamie Kornegay Entertainment Editor (The Daily Mississippian).

Don't dismiss Satchel as a mere opening band for tonight's Better Than Ezra show in the Grove. Fledgling bands that hook up with college tours often blossom into best sellers (remember No Doubt? Joan Osbourne?) and, more importantly, they often have a sound deserving of young, discriminating ears.I have a special place in my heart for Satchel. Two of the band's founding members, singer Shawn Smith and drummer Regan Hagar, helped me through the late high school years with the music they made in the band Brad. Their 1993 album, Shame (an album you should take my word for and purchase blindly), was a soulful breath of groovy fresh air amid the acrid stench of Seattle grunge. And these guys are from Seattle. Perhaps you heard Brad if you were a Pearl Jam fanatic and followed the side projects of guitarist Stone Gossard, who was a principle songwriter and player on that album. The band is expected to return to the studio soon for a follow-up release.After Brad made a profound impact in luring me away from my teen angst, I discovered Satchel in 1994. Their album EDC produced the year's best single, "Mr. Pink," a song you may have grooved to more than once on Rebel Radio. (The song was named after a character in Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs, but, stressed Regan, that was before the film and it's director became all the pop culture rage.) That song, along with the track "Suffering," were the two singles and videos from EDC, but the album made little impact outside the Pacific Northwest region the band calls home.

With the recent release of Satchel's new album, The Family (Epic), this foursome -- including Smith, Hagar, guitarist John Hoag and bassist Mike Berg -- have stepped out into a brighter spotlight with high-profile gigs like the summer's Lollapalooza's second stage and their current stint on the Better Than Ezra tour."We're starting to play in cities we've never been," said Hagar in a recent phone interview. "It's really frustrating sometimes because the record stores in these towns don't have copies of the album for sale, so when people hear the music and want the record, they can't get it."Produced by buddies Gossard and Matt Wallace, The Family is lighter fare than EDC, an album rampant with psychedelic fuzz and groove. "We really got into keyboards on this album," said Hoag. "In the studio we have the opportunity to work with a lot more instruments. We use a lot of keyboards that we can't use live."Following the lead of their last single, "Suffering," the new tracks are geared toward lofty piano rock. Supplying the keys is Smith, whose vocals have been compared to the likes of Marvin Gaye and Prince. He steps out on the new album's more delicate stand-outs like "Isn't That Right," "Time 'O' the Year" and "Tomorrow." Even though the album has barely been out a month, Satchel is already working on new material. "We're kind of workaholics," admitted Hoag, who pointed out that the members have various side projects. Regan, who played with Seattle's pre-grunge trendsetters Malfunkshun (along with the late Andrew Wood, the renowned frontman for Mother Love Bone), still plays in Brad with Jeremy Toback, Gossard and Smith. The Satchel frontman also logs time with Sub Pop's Pigeonhead and frequently tours with the Afghan Whigs.Ole Miss will get its first large dose of the most prominent incarnation of these musicianstonight when Satchel opens for Better Than Ezra at 8:30 in the Grove. It's a free show, so get out of the house and experience the angst-alleviation these guys are prone to provide.