chickfactor1

Black Tambourine, Aislers Set, Small Factory, Legendary Jim Ruiz Group & more reuniting for chickfactor festival

by Bill Pearis

chickfactor #1 with cover stars Small Factory
Chickfactor

chickfactor will celebrate its 20-year anniversary with five blissful nights of sparkling indie pop on the Northeast Corridor of the USA (three in NY; two in DC) including the first shows in years by Black Tambourine, Small Factory, Pipas, The Aislers Set, A Girl Called Eddy, The Softies, The Lois Plus, The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group and Fan Modine and rare performances from such pop luminaries asStevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian), Frankie Rose, Lilys, Lorelei, Dot Dash, Versus, Bridget St John and Honey Bunch.

chickfactor started in 1992 in D.C. and New York by pop-loving maniacs Pam Berry and Gail O’Hara, who used to travel up and down the East Coast seeing Small Factory, Honey Bunch, the Wedding Present and any other fine indie-pop bands of the era. We are spoiled silly and lucky as all get-out to be able to present this super-stellar line-up. Get your ticket fast, do not dilly-dally!

Those who followed indiepop in the ’90s most certainly read (and probably still have their copies of) fabled ‘zine chickfactor, which was written all in lower-case and was read sideways like a calendar. Stephin Merritt was among the regular contributors and it was fun, funny and turned a lot of folks on to cool new sounds like Black Tambourine, Lois Maffeo, Small Factory, The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, Tiger Trap and many more. Stevie Jackson wrote a song about it for the second Belle & Sebastian album, maybe you heard it.

For chickfactor‘s 20th anniversary, founders Gail O’Hara and Pam Berry have put together a five-day, two-city festival that gathers many of the zine’s most loved bands, many of whom haven’t performed in 15 or more years. It happens April 6 and 7 at the Artisphere in Arlington, Virginia and then in NYC April 10 -12 at The Bell House (Maybe some of you went to the 10th anniversary show at Fez?).

Tickets for the Bell House are on sale today (1/12) noon and are $25 for individual nights (4/10, 4/11, 4/12) or $70 for a three day pass.

The shows shows break down like this:

April 6 (Artispace, Arlington, VA): Stevie Jackson, Frankie Rose, Honey Bunch, The Dot Dash

April 7 (Artispace, Arlington, VA): Black Tambourine, Lilys, Fan Modine, Lorelei

April 10 (The Bell House, Brooklyn): Black Tambourine, Small Factory, Versus, The Lois Plus + Special Guests.

April 11 (The Bell House, Brooklyn): The Aislers Set, Pipas, Bridget St. John, The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group

April 12 (The Bell House, Brooklyn): Stevie Jackson, Honey Bunch, A Girl Called Eddy, The Softies

Black Tambourine (first East Coast shows in 20 years) and The Aislers Set (first in almost 10 years) are the big draws here, but this writer is especially excited about folk pop trio Small Factory who haven’t played together in 15 years and Minneapolis’ The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group whose 1995 album O Brother Where Art Thou? is a lost ’90s classic (they’re promising a new album this year too).

This comes a mere month before the sixth annual NYC Popfest (happening May 17 – 20) which means this spring is likely to be a very good year for indiepop fans. NYC Popfest hasn’t divulged any of its line-up, but I hear it may be their most ambitious yet.

Click though for a detailed rundown of the chickfactor fest line-up, plus some vintage videos from the groups involved.

Black Tambourine – “For Ex-Lovers Only”

Small Factory – “The Last Time That We Talked”

The Aislers Set – “Hit the Snow”

Belle & Sebastian – “Chickfactor”

Honey Bunch – “Hey Blue Sky”

Pipas – “Riff Raff”

The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group – “Minneapolis”

cf 2012: for the love of pop

DC APRIL 6:

STEVIE JACKSON
(excellent guitarist-singer in Belle & Sebastian, the one who wrote a tune called “chickfactor,” natch. Mr Jackson has a new solo release titled “(I Can’t Get No) Stevie Jackson”; on the cover of chickfactor #12 with Janet Weiss)

FRANKIE ROSE
(Bay Area pop wunderkind and former member of Vivian Girls / Crystal Stilts, on Slumberland’s roster)

HONEY BUNCH
(early Slumberland act featuring super-talented Velvet Crush fella Jeffrey Underhill; interviewed in chickfactor #11)

DOT DASH
(awesome D.C. pop group featuring Terry Banks of Tree Fort Angst, Saturday People and glo-worm; featured in chickfactor #15)

DC APRIL 7:

BLACK TAMBOURINE
(legendary D.C. noise-pop group starring chickfactor co-founder Pam Berry, Slumberland boss Mike Schulman, Brian Nelson and Archie Moore from Velocity Girl, among many other bands; they have not performed live since 1991!!)

LILYS
(early Slumberland genius songwriter Kurt Heasley is back for this special D.C. reunion festival)

FAN MODINE
(NC via NYC ace songcrafter Gordon Zacharias)

LORELEI
(early Slumberland D.C. powerhouse act featuring Matt Dingee, Stephen Gardner and Davis White)

BROOKLYN APRIL 10:

BLACK TAMBOURINE
(legendary D.C. noise-pop group starring chickfactor co-founder Pam Berry, Slumberland boss Mike Schulman, Brian Nelson and Archie Moore from Velocity Girl, among many other bands; they have not performed live since 1991!!)

SMALL FACTORY
(first show since 1995 by the amazing Providence, RI pop group featuring Dave Auchenbach, Alex Kemp and Phoebe Summersquash)

VERSUS
(smoking hot NYC trio back to the lean, clean lineup of suave brothers Edward and Richard Baluyut and the one and only Fontaine Toups)

THE LOIS PLUS
(erudite Olympia singer-songwriter Lois Maffeo will play with Heavenly / Talulah Gosh / Would-Be-Goods guitarist Peter Momtchiloff; this is their first show together since 1997)

BROOKLYN APRIL 11:

THE AISLERS SET
(seminal Spectorific Bay Area pop combo led by Linton; first show since 2003)

PIPAS
(unmissable London-Brooklyn electropop duo Mark Powell and Lupe Nunez-Fernandez will play their first show since 2008)

BRIDGET ST JOHN
(legendary British folk-pop artist whose early recordings were released by John Peel, who basically started a label for her)

THE LEGENDARY JIM RUIZ GROUP
(Minneapolis jazz-pop god will play in NY for the first time since 2002 with Emily Ruiz, Charlotte Crabtree and Alison Labonne)

BROOKLYN APRIL 12:

STEVIE JACKSON
(excellent guitarist-singer in Belle & Sebastian, the one who wrote a tune called “chickfactor,” natch. Mr Jackson has a new solo release titled “(I Can’t Get No) Stevie Jackson”)

HONEY BUNCH
(early Slumberland act featuring super-talented Velvet Crush fella Jeffrey Underhill)

A GIRL CALLED EDDY
(NY singer-songwriter Erin Moran has the kind of songs that would make Karen Carpenter weep and the kind of voice that should make Burt Bacharach sit up and take notice)

THE SOFTIES
(super-soft ultra-pop duo Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia’s first show since 2000)

BROOKLYN: Three-day pass $70. Single tickets $25 in advance, $27 at the door.