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This was originally posted 1/16/10. After hearing of Nate Mountel's passing, I felt a repost was appropriate.News were a Cincinnati five piece that performed around the midwest from 1978 to 1980. They released this EP and another single on the Waldo Records. Most of the band lived in the Waldo Apartments in downtown Cincinnati, hence the name. News also had a piece titled Experimental Animals, on an LP produced by C.A.G.E. (Cincinnati Artists Group Experience), which featured various area artists.Nate Mountel left the band late in 1980. The rest of the band reformed with slightly different personnel as The Fourth Estate, but had a brief career. Paul and Jim moved to San Francisco to form a group called Pray for Rain. Paul Trupin passed away in 1995; you can read more about him in this post's comments. Sadly, Nate Mountel also passed away 2/25/15, from lupus complications, RIP.
Lineup -
Paul Trupin - Guitar, Vocals
Steve Hershberger - Lead Guitar
Peter Alexander - Bass
Jim Woody - Keyboards
Nate Mountel - Drums
Carol Shloss - played a bass line on Stop and the insistent drone keyboard note on Stop
Waldo Records 1980
1. Stop
2. To Begin With
3. Brothers
4. Dix-Mille Kilometres De Moi (Ten-Thousand Miles From Me)
♫♫♫...Let's Stop...♫♫♫
17 comments:
this sounds like New Model Army
Hey! I'm the Peter Alexander mentioned here. When I moved out of my house on Hollister Street in Cincinnati, five thousand of these STOP EPs got buried there as the house was torn down. I went on to play in The Auburnaires (http://www.myspace.com/theauburnaires).
Thanks for the comment Peter, so how many copies were left from the pressing, minus the ones that were destroyed.
Hello. I'm the Jim Woody who is mentioned above. Nice to know that old friend Nate is still around. Paul and I did indeed move to San Francisco with the sole intention of getting signed to a major record label. Pray For Rain was the final incarnation of the band which included Paul Trupin, Dan Wool (who is now officially "Pary For Rain" - soundtrack company), and Gary Brown, jazz bassist extraordinare. We had the carrot dangled in our face numberous times by companies like Chrysalis, Capitol and a few more. After performing many showcases here in San Francisco and Los Angeles,
we had the chance to go to England to record four pieces of music for Alex Cox for their inclusion in his film "Sid and Nancy." A number of other films and TV series followed and, as a band we had decided to throw in the towel. Paul was unceremoniously dropped from the band personnel and Dan Wool, Gary Brown and I contunued on with the movie soundtracks. Paul died of AIDS in October of 1992. I had also continued making music with Paul on the side until he was too ill to carry on. He is terribly missed. Pray For Rain continues on as Dan Wool, by himself. Check out his website prayforrain.com. Those early days of the 1980's were great fun and a lot of original music was generated. I've had limited access to Pete Alexander, via the Internet, and most recently, with Steve Hershberger, News' lead guitarist who provided me with a wonderful CD of the all of the songs News recorded in the studio during their tenure. I have to say we fit the mold of a "new wave" band very nicely in those days.
Thanks for all the info James !
I regret having said that "Paul Trupin was unceremoniously dropped from our band." His input into the soundtrack work being produced by Dan Wool, Gary Brown and myself had diminished greatly, though NOT because of his illness. Paul simply got lazy and provided no input into soundtracks anymore, while the other 3 of us soldiered on. His claim, to his "followers" at this point, was that he had quit the band. Not true! In fact "Pray For Rain" recorded a song called "Never Tell A lie" that was all about Paul and his immense ego. Granted, Paul was an excellent songwriter, and the aforementioned song has been credited to him, somehow, by others who barely knew him. However, I wrote the music, and the melodies for the lyrics, and Dan Wool wrote the lyrics especially about Paul, who was known to go way overboard in his personal love relationship with himself. He was not "let go" of the band because he had HIV! I can't stress this enough! Paul lived on many years after, and I have noted previously that he and I continued a songwriting partnership until he was too physically uncomfortable to keep it going. Paul was a "character" in the true sense of the word. He puffed himself up into something that he most definitely wasn't and had fooled quite a big following of people who melted at his every word. This is unfortunate, because I had known Paul from the very early years as an amazingly talented musician and I had always loved him as "a brother of sorts." He had his own following in Cincinnati as a poet and a radical - as well as a "rascal." It's all kind of a tragic story with Paul who always kept the "drama' at it's highest level. I still love him dearly and I miss him terribly, but he also happened to be the biggest charlatan I've ever known. Rest in peace, Paul. You were loved by many, though you never really had the capacity to be honest in returning that love.
I too was involved, on the periphery, with News and the Fourth Estate. Jim's assessment of Paul was spot on. Late in his illness Paul wrote me a very touching letter asking for my forgiveness for his "transgressions". I immediately got in touch with him and laughed that he didn't need my forgiveness or anyone else's. And that we all loved him BECAUSE he was a rascal, not in spite of it.
Hello, I'm the Steve Hershberger mentioned above. Read this article earlier this year and finally got it bookmarked today. Very glad to see it's still "out there" and that there's an interest in the band. We did have something pretty cool going on... Best part is getting back in touch with Jimmy, Peter, and Gary after all this time! Between us all, we could tell some stories for sure. How much time have you got? ;-)
I share Jim and Gary's opinions of Paul to a "T" - what an incredible "Personality"! The guy was truly focused on getting any and EVERY thing that HE wanted - by ANY means necessary - and woe to anybody who stood in his way. If you really knew him, you couldn't help but love (or hate) him. Really though, he did have a gentle side that he only revealed in short moments. When he and I first met and started the band I saw quite a bit of that side. He'd be over the top in public though - like an actor. And he became a consummate actor. His life was "All Paul, ALL the time." But when he and I worked together on those early songs his "sensitive side" was evident.
And, as Jim said, he was an incredible songwriter with TONS of material. He wasn't big on guitar skills at all, but we had a great working relationship. He'd show me a song and it became a "OK, while you're doing that, I'll do this" kind of thing. And when the whole band came together everything just gelled. Really it was a matter of the total being greater than the parts.
OK, obviously I could go on and on more than I already have. So now's the time for trivial matters... The EP consisted of the first 4 songs we ever recorded. Might've been a better idea to do more to have more to choose from, but we wanted to get a record out NOW (Paul's focus ;-)), so what the heck...
"Stop" and "Dix-Mille" were the first songs recorded on 4 Feb. 1980. Paul played bass on those. Funny aside - during the bass part of "Dix Mille" Nate was telling Paul to "Surf it UP!" IMHO, it worked great! And actually, we played most everything live - the bass (and handclaps) are the only overdubs on those songs. Maybe the vocals too - hard to say. Paul did vocals live too - can't remember which versions we kept. Everything was done at a little 8-track place called Group Effort Studios.
"To Begin With" and "Brothers" were recorded on 27 Feb. '80. All this was during the time we were trying to talk Pete into joining the band. He played on those (you can hear the difference) and he decided to join us after hearing the playbacks.
In full band mode, we'd typically record two songs per night, take cassettes home to listen to, and go back the next night (or later, depending on studio availability, our gigs, etc.) to mix. All live stuff, but the vocals might be overdubbed.
The amount of work we did in a short period of time is pretty amazing. We were busy for sure. And the songs recorded (never released) after this EP are leaps and bounds better than this "Stop" EP. Even the songs that never got a final mix are good enough to be released. Again, in my opinion.
Truly was a great pleasure to be friends and work with musicians such as these guys. I had a Blast, and would do it again in a heartbeat.
Thanks for all of your comments,and info! If this post helped to get you back in touch, that's great. Steve, is there any chance you could send me mp3's of the other material? I'd love to hear it.
The Divine knows that I miss Paul, so much, so desperately at times on the nights and the early mornings when I have dreams that he is still alive and we are all working together again on some amazing songs that only I can hear in my head as I dream, and have dreams. I love Paul! I hate his guts, as well. He was a brilliant Charlatan, a huge ego that invited me in to explore his own ego, so that I would always have a connection with him, no matter how angry I became about his behavior. He was enough of a jerk that he infected two beautiful, beloved women, friends of mine with HIV, and they lost their lives as a result of that infection. I prefer to remember Paul for his songwriting brilliance. I will never, ever again meet someone as talented as Paul, even though he couldn't play guitar for shit, the melodies that he and I (as we consistently listened to the work of John McGeough), and others like Steve Hershberger came up with will always be there on the numerous cassette tapes that I have if anyone cares to listen. Paul Trupin is truly a "tragic figure." He was so insanely brilliant. As abrasive as he was, I wish he were still here with me, and with us. Rest in Peace, you Brilliant Jerk! (He would laugh hard over this).... I love you, you big Dummy!
Jimmy (and all)
Charlatan, scoundrel - all fit.
Nevertheless, Paul certainly did have a way with words. Some of his "Paulisms" exist to this day in my lexicon. "Sad and corrugated" to describe a furrowed brow is one. "Eee wee" as a general exclamation of confoundedness is another. On one drunken escapade downtown (which was pretty much all the time), Paul stepped in front of a moving car. Tires squealed and the driver screamed, "What the hell's wrong with you?" Paul instantly retorted, "I'm on drugs!" I still say that whenever I do something inexplicable.
I am sorry if my account of the News history may be skewed, but that is how I remember things from an alcohol and drug fogged past after all the years.
One thing, however, is crystal clear and that is Paul was a true full-blown individualist who embodied wantonness. I credit my longevity to disassociating myself from Paul when I did. By no means is that statement a dig at Paul, but a simple reality in my case.
As Dickens said, "it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."
I still must restrain myself from raining rotten foodstuffs upon derelicts to a hearty cheer of "Bums!"
After all this talk of Paul Trupin, the agony and ecstasy of his utter crap and brilliance, it means a lot to hear from Nate Mountel. It is so good to know that Nate still walks this Earth. When I knew him, I was all of 19 years old. I think the four of us, Paul, Steve, Nate and myself lived through such a fun, albeit short, period of life that I will never forget. I believe Pete has moved far beyond those times and can only look back with a jaundiced eye on the whole thick of it. So be it. I still love Pete, as well.
And as for Gary Shell, we could not have asked for a better person (a good person inside and out) to manage a rag-tag new-wave band at that time, from downtown Cincinnati.
He will always be a heartfelt friend.....
Nate passed away last night from complications from lupus. This post came up while searching for evidence of his past projects online. He will be sorely missed.
Thank you for the information. Sorry for your loss.
I too deeply miss my brother Paul Trupin. He was a Rascal, and full of himself, but oh so brilliant, funny,
and had an inner tenderness that many never saw.
I'm sorry for your loss Vikki.
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