Album: Thinking Out Loud
Year: 1979
Style: Musical New Wave, Avant-Garde,
Similar Bands: Sparks, Be-Bop Delux, Gruppo Sportivo, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
"One-Word" Review: Quirky Campy Avant-Wave Pop
Based Out Of: Milwaukee WI
Label: Mountain Railroad Records
Cover, Sleeve, Record
Back, Sleeve, Record
Thinking Out Loud (1979)- Kathleen 4:20 (single)
- Radio Hearts 2:54
- Shining in Here 4:34 (single)
- Hamburger Holocaust 5:04 /
- God is a Big Wheel 2:45
- New York Jumpers 3:06 (single b-side)
- San Francisco Radio 9:35
- Kali Kala 4:16
Members & Other Bands:
- Sigmund Snopek III - Writer, Vix, Synth, Keys, Flute (Bloomsbury People, Violent Femmes, Milwaukee Symphony & Chamber Orch, Tom Paxton, Brian Ritchie, Jim Spencer, Major Arcana, Btsy Kaske, Lou & Peter berryman, Java, Jim Post, Ecoteur, John Kruth, Heidi Spencer, )
- Byron Wiemann III - Writer, Vox, Guitar (Man With a Camera, The Coachmen, Wayward Set, Rocket 88, Byron and Band, Betsy Kaske)
- Jim Gorton - Vox, Bass, Asst Engineer, Asst Mixing (Man With a Camera, Newlook, Jim Spencer, Betsy Kaske)
- Mike Lucas - Drums (Man With a Camera, Elliott Murphy, Chris Spheeris, Michael Jones, Wayne Gratz, LD Levy)
- Hermie Dressel - Producer
- Steve Powers - Co-Producer
- Charlie Keenan - Album Design, Art Direction
- Al Gartzke - Photos
- Stanley Ryan Jones - Photos
- Joel Gast - Project Coordinator
- Dave Neitzke - Engineer, Mixing
- Andy Waterman - Asst Engineer
Album Review: Like a mom tells her interesting but awkward and ultimately underwhelming child, this album is "creative." It is definitely a new wave act, with signs of prog, jazz, vaudeville and theatrical / musical tendencies, but misses the mark and lacks the perfect recipe, posessed by a band like Sparks. I mean, just the title Hamburger Holocaust is quite cringe-worthy taken at surface value. Single "Kathleen" sounds a little like a Ben Folds song, and "God is a Big Wheel" has a bit of a Talking Heads / Human Hands feel. Alas, Sigmund is the band leader and has a history in music dating back to the late 60's, where he was a pioneering Progressive Rock artist in Bloomsbury People before the term prog was universally accepted. Before that, he was writing and recording classical style music for pipe organ and guitar. So it makes sense to combined his two passions of classical and guitar to form prog music. This album comes roughly 10 years later, and while it keeps a foot in the prog and avant-garde arena, it embraces the pop & new wave genre (which was pushed to the front for any band with commercial drive) with extra help from Wiemann (Wiemann, who lives in Germany now, and Gorton had been a part of Sigmund's solo albums before they donned the band name). After Snopek, Wiemann and the rest of the band formed Man With A Camera: a more rock oriented outfit. Sigmund was induced into the Wisconsin music hall of fame, which also makes sense as many of his compositions are a shining tribute the pride of the state (from beer, to small towns to baseball and other assorted WI highlights).
Stand Out Track: God is a Big Wheel, Kathleen
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