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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1994)
Page 4 The Battalion Tuesday, May 3, 1994 ie sday, May Drunk as Chloe Local band finds making music in B—CS intoxicating By Jennifer Gressett The Battalion Have you ever had one of those days Where the reflection in the milk is slightly skewed Giving wrinkles and bending the once smooth face And the spoon is scratched and the teeth are dull All the cereal’s sagged and drifting around in its own liquid island -Jigsaw Radio Song, Drunk as Chloe Drunk as Chloe: (front row) Mark Florence, Missi Wilkenfeld, Anthony Martinez, (back row) Jimmy Franklin, Joe Leih and Justin Patterson. No, this is not what happens during finals week. It’s what happens when you’re Drunk as Chloe — the band, that is. Composed of one sober sophomore, a junior, a chemist and three graduate students, the band seems to have better things to do than get drunk. In fact, at only nine months old, the band is about to release its first tape, “few- songs.” What kind of music does a band like Drunk as Chloe produce, you ask? Some say it’s a cross between 10,000 Maniacs and The Sundays, which are both folk bands. But only the band can describe it best. Chemist and bass player Mark Flo rence says it’s “a ‘70s throwback, with a lot of little grooves. It’s folk and funk, thrown together with a lot of other in fluences.” Drummer Jimmy Franklin said the music keeps changing, though. “I would call it college music,” Franklin said. “I’m into a funk sound, but with six different tastes, we’re al ways trying to adjust to different opin ions.” The six or seven songs featured on “fewsongs” will combine that funk with rock and a little samba. That means there’s more to this band than just guitars and drums. If you listen close, you may even hear a trumpet. Ask graduate psychology student Missi Wilkenfeld, and she’ll tell you she plays “a fish.” Actually, it’s a guiro, a percussion instrument shaped like a fish, and can be heard in “Fiesta de Las Locas.” But she’s better known as the band’s lead singer. In the past, Wilkenfeld said she tried to model her voice after other singers she admired. Two of her fa vorites are Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs) and Harriet Wheelers (The Sundays). However, since she joined Drunk as Chloe, Wilkenfeld said she tries to avoid falling into the trap of someone else’s voice. “For the first time, we’re writing original songs,” she said. “So I can’t copy someone else because I don’t know how they would sound to origi nal music.” What makes a person want to join a band like Drunk as Chloe? It was the cheesy flier that caught Wilkenfeld’s eye, she said. The name came much later. After weeks of practicing under dif ferent names, senior computer science major Justin Patterson said the band fi nally got desperate. It was when they finally got booked to perform that they had to have a name. “We got out everything from chil dren’s Bibles to dictionaries,” Florence said. “Then we looked under terms for drunkenness in Justin’s thesaurus and found “drunk as Chloe.” In case you were wondering, Patter son said Chloe was actually a prospec tor’s mule; it has nothing to do with the band’s concept. “It was completely random,” Patter son said. And random is what they were in the beginning. Although junior psycholo gy major Joe Leih and sophomore envi ronmental design major Anthony Mar tinez played together in high school, it wasn’t until Martinez and Patterson col laborated that the band was formed. Since then, it has been a constant ef fort for the band to juggle school and band practice. “We practice for about two hours twice a week,” Florence said. “Anthony makes the fliers and the rest of us hassle each other by telephone to get things going.” As an undergraduate music and psy chology major, Wilkenfeld said she gave up a career in veterinary medicine be cause she couldn’t imagine school with out music. She said music actually helps with school. ‘After a long day of research and classes it’s actually a break,” she said. “It’s very time consuming, but every one understands that school is a priori ty. I mean, we’re definitely not Nir vana.” Drunk as Chloe will be performing this Friday at Stafford Opera House where they hope to release their new As for the future, Florence said foie' mtinued fron Columns aboi Dili create a ba ihumorous, C k tends t Ihe book’s f iijuez and Sta iiiion page edi tape. they are planning to take a break this summer and return in the fall. He added that they are planning to get per formances booked outside of College Station, possibly in the Austin area. As for a professional career in the music industry, the band is undecided. “It’s hard to say,” Patterson said. “Some dream of getting a label, but I’m just doing it for fun. I love being in a oand and I love playing drums.” 'Voices Fron i about Gene jgs,” Clay sai induction to t j the terr easy task. Our generati juished as oi iracteristics,” don we said the Generatic an?’ The ans-' Clay describe jeless — read its from now What makes I "l Bleed Ma inks were wi iger here in ywere writt tack on thei This book ihtplop dab Battalion SuptS Tuesdays e ff)eLuXe = BURGERBAR itL. 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