Communication with a musical love
Feb. 20th, 2013 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csberryIf you think my love for XTC is wasted on a obscure band (in America, at least) without any hit songs (in America, at least), then you don't need to read the rest of this blog post.
In 1993, I was assistant music director at WVUA-FM - University of Alabama's student station. One day an album came in from this band(?) named "Kowanko" and it was love at first listen for me. The first single "Gray Crayon" was amazing and I was certain that college radio would be buzzing with this song any second now. Well, college radio never seemed to get behind Kowanko. This self-titled album would become an adored musical enigma for me.
Other than the CDs Morgan Creek Records sent, I have no recollection of ever seeing the name "Kowanko" ANYWHERE. Here was an album I loved, sent in from this subsidiary of a major label, and yet I never remember seeing anything about Kowanko in CMJ, Rolling Stone, or anywhere else. I found myself in the situation of completely loving the music by an artist whom I knew NOTHING about. All I knew of Kowanko was what I heard on the CD and saw on the CD cover and insert (Chris Kowanko is the singer, songwriter, and primary musician). I had no friends or acquaintances to discuss this mutual appreciation and potentially glean new info about Chris Kowanko.
I had in my possession 12 songs that seemed so...ME! Chris's vocal delivery was fragile and quirky without being precious or annoying. I'm a guy that isn't into lyrics a lot and I quickly found myself singing along to all of the words to the songs. "She's a wallflower/ Waiting for me to come over/ She's so much in love/ Her heart's an open book/ Wallflower."
In 2001 or 2002, I found two new songs when searching online for "Kowanko" - "Net" and "Monument." It wasn't until about 3 or 4 years later that I found out those songs were from Chris Kowanko's second album, Spell. I found it on emusic and immediately bought it. There wasn't a sophomore jinx on this release. The quality of the music and my love for these new songs were equal to the debut.
Ever since then, I'll have an urge every year or so to do a scouring of the internet for ANY info I can find about Chris Kowanko. I found kowanko.com and discovered a band he formed, Monsterbuck. Because the music I found was only streaming (all of the links to download the songs appeared to be broken), I would have these sporadic days of listening and then a year of not listening to the Monsterbuck songs. A couple of times, I sent emails via the Kowanko and Monsterbuck sites, but never heard back.
When I put together a list of my favorite bands, XTC is always at #1 and Steely Dan at #2. The next positions usually shuffle between The Pixies, Talking Heads, Jellyfish, and Prince. "Usually" is the key word. I know that when I start off my list of favorite bands with XTC...I frequently see confusion on the listener's face and I know that I've just turned that person off by listing a band they never heard of as my favorite. That reaction has resulted in my leaving Chris Kowanko off of the top of the list. In all honesty, he's my 3rd or 4th favorite musical artist (Prince and Talking Heads may jump ahead of Chris depending on when you request me to list my top 5 bands).
So, today became a day that I got distracted with hearing Kowanko and decided to scour the net again. While at kowanko.com, I clicked the Mailto link and sent the following:
Subject: Love your music
Body: Every now and then I send off a note in hopes it will reach you, Chris. I have been a fan since the Morgan Creek album (I even bought a second copy to ensure I will never go without those songs). Today I found myself obsessing with your music again. I have listened to the Monsterbuck (songs) but haven't had any luck finding any downloads or CD/vinyl copies of that music.
Anyways, just another note from me to say that I love your music and yearn for more. May 2013 be filled with blessings for you.
Cory
I nearly pissed my pants in front of a bunch of Boy Scouts this evening when I went to turn the volume off on my phone, noticed I had a new email, and saw the following:
Subject: RE: Love your music
Body: HI Cory,
Thanks so much. I'll send you some cds. I'm assuming you don't have the monsterbuck stuff, i.e. Land of Makebelievers, and Jockey Down?
Do you have Spell? (We're stil working on the third Monsterbuck collection...)
What's your address? I'll drop them in the mail and let the postal service take it from there. It's absolutely my gift. Perhaps yo may be able to help me get a show or house concert in your vicinity...I do plan on getting out in the future.
Meanwhile, all the best!
Chris
o_O *gasp* SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Dare I begin to dream of Chris coming and playing in Huntsville? Oh, I would love for him to play at Lowe Mill one evening. *starts to drift off imagining Chris performing on the grassy area next to the water tower as the sun sets one early fall evening.* :)
In 1993, I was assistant music director at WVUA-FM - University of Alabama's student station. One day an album came in from this band(?) named "Kowanko" and it was love at first listen for me. The first single "Gray Crayon" was amazing and I was certain that college radio would be buzzing with this song any second now. Well, college radio never seemed to get behind Kowanko. This self-titled album would become an adored musical enigma for me.
Other than the CDs Morgan Creek Records sent, I have no recollection of ever seeing the name "Kowanko" ANYWHERE. Here was an album I loved, sent in from this subsidiary of a major label, and yet I never remember seeing anything about Kowanko in CMJ, Rolling Stone, or anywhere else. I found myself in the situation of completely loving the music by an artist whom I knew NOTHING about. All I knew of Kowanko was what I heard on the CD and saw on the CD cover and insert (Chris Kowanko is the singer, songwriter, and primary musician). I had no friends or acquaintances to discuss this mutual appreciation and potentially glean new info about Chris Kowanko.
I had in my possession 12 songs that seemed so...ME! Chris's vocal delivery was fragile and quirky without being precious or annoying. I'm a guy that isn't into lyrics a lot and I quickly found myself singing along to all of the words to the songs. "She's a wallflower/ Waiting for me to come over/ She's so much in love/ Her heart's an open book/ Wallflower."
In 2001 or 2002, I found two new songs when searching online for "Kowanko" - "Net" and "Monument." It wasn't until about 3 or 4 years later that I found out those songs were from Chris Kowanko's second album, Spell. I found it on emusic and immediately bought it. There wasn't a sophomore jinx on this release. The quality of the music and my love for these new songs were equal to the debut.
Ever since then, I'll have an urge every year or so to do a scouring of the internet for ANY info I can find about Chris Kowanko. I found kowanko.com and discovered a band he formed, Monsterbuck. Because the music I found was only streaming (all of the links to download the songs appeared to be broken), I would have these sporadic days of listening and then a year of not listening to the Monsterbuck songs. A couple of times, I sent emails via the Kowanko and Monsterbuck sites, but never heard back.
When I put together a list of my favorite bands, XTC is always at #1 and Steely Dan at #2. The next positions usually shuffle between The Pixies, Talking Heads, Jellyfish, and Prince. "Usually" is the key word. I know that when I start off my list of favorite bands with XTC...I frequently see confusion on the listener's face and I know that I've just turned that person off by listing a band they never heard of as my favorite. That reaction has resulted in my leaving Chris Kowanko off of the top of the list. In all honesty, he's my 3rd or 4th favorite musical artist (Prince and Talking Heads may jump ahead of Chris depending on when you request me to list my top 5 bands).
So, today became a day that I got distracted with hearing Kowanko and decided to scour the net again. While at kowanko.com, I clicked the Mailto link and sent the following:
Subject: Love your music
Body: Every now and then I send off a note in hopes it will reach you, Chris. I have been a fan since the Morgan Creek album (I even bought a second copy to ensure I will never go without those songs). Today I found myself obsessing with your music again. I have listened to the Monsterbuck (songs) but haven't had any luck finding any downloads or CD/vinyl copies of that music.
Anyways, just another note from me to say that I love your music and yearn for more. May 2013 be filled with blessings for you.
Cory
I nearly pissed my pants in front of a bunch of Boy Scouts this evening when I went to turn the volume off on my phone, noticed I had a new email, and saw the following:
Subject: RE: Love your music
Body: HI Cory,
Thanks so much. I'll send you some cds. I'm assuming you don't have the monsterbuck stuff, i.e. Land of Makebelievers, and Jockey Down?
Do you have Spell? (We're stil working on the third Monsterbuck collection...)
What's your address? I'll drop them in the mail and let the postal service take it from there. It's absolutely my gift. Perhaps yo may be able to help me get a show or house concert in your vicinity...I do plan on getting out in the future.
Meanwhile, all the best!
Chris
o_O *gasp* SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Dare I begin to dream of Chris coming and playing in Huntsville? Oh, I would love for him to play at Lowe Mill one evening. *starts to drift off imagining Chris performing on the grassy area next to the water tower as the sun sets one early fall evening.* :)
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Date: 2013-02-22 03:03 am (UTC)Chris Kowanko/Monsterbuck
Date: 2013-10-07 05:18 am (UTC)Years ago (1992), when I first started out in radio broadcasting, I was given a handful of CD's by a program director of stuff that he would never play on our station. One of those CD's was Chris Kowanko's debut release, "Kowanko".
Years later, I reached out to Chris and heard back from him in a relatively quick amount of time. I stayed in touch with him through the years. I, too, bought his second release, "Spell" via iTunes. To date, I think I'm the only person that has left a review of that album on iTunes, I think.
Eventually, Chris joined Monsterbuck. I rediscovered him and this band via MySpace. I did podcasts occasionally highlighting Kowanko or Monsterbuck's material as well as talking about my love for the artists themselves.
They also sent me copies of their Monsterbuck releases. To this day, they are some of the only CD's I still own.
I found your blog on this subject after doing a search for Chris Kowanko and Monsterbuck. I went as far to reach out to one of their producers, Steve Fisk. I lost touch with these guys several years ago. And while I was sitting here working on my computer, a song from Kowanko (one of my favorites "Modern Daze") popped up on the shuffle feature of my iPod.
So I decided to play everything from Kowanko and Monsterbuck while I searched for these fantastic artists. I'll keep plugging away and enjoy the music they made. I just wanted you to know that there is someone else out there that knows EXACTLY what you're talking about and gushing over when it comes to this particular piece of musical work and genius from Chris Kowanko.
Thank you for sharing.
-Mike Millen
Tacoma, Washington
https://www.facebook.com/mikethejanitor
@MikeTheJanitor
MikeTheJanitor on YouTube
mikethejanitor.com