Mates of State
My solo project
Omnibus Records

The return of the songsmith-crafty. The Bacharach thing. Writing and the songs that come from it. Pop. Tongue in cheek and earnest, a mouth full of bubblegum.

I like it, really I do...always have liked Dionne Warwick more than I was able to admit.

I've been thinking of The 5th Dimension. Stoned Soul Picnic. Up Up And Away. "When the moon is in the 7th house..."

We need another boys on one side girls on the other looking at each other while they're singing group. Mic in one hand, winding cord in the other. Head tilted and eye brows lifted. Smile while you're singing and nod while you're being sung to. Wild clothes and haircuts and absolutely no choreography except the side-ways step lean step lean step.

I think the world is ready for this.

Mates of State are not this band. Their garage sale keyboard sound and stopstart drum surges are not the stuff of Marylyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. The urgency of the boy-girl voices are more Olympia than L.A. But something about the descant. Reading and response. Makes me think that maybe we're almost there.

Write them...: c/o Omnibus Records, PO Box 330513, San Francisco, CA 94133 USA.

Copyright © 2000 Alice Kenner