Murfreesboro: Hoopajoob, 1998
PERSONNEL:
Jake Rubin: Saxophones
Walker Hardy: Trombone
Christopher Freeman: Bass
Kent South: Drums, vocals
Ian Russell: Piano, organ, vocals
Prabir Mehta: Guitar, vocals
Recorded by Chris Freeman with a Tascam 488 MKII 8-track recorder, August 30, 1997 to January 2, 1998
Cover art & design: John Hilowitz & Chris Freeman
Photography by Murphreesboro and Courtney England
Auxilliary percussion and other stupid noises by Murfreesboro
Drum machine on “Ladies Room” provided by Jason Sposa
TRACK LISTING:
SIDE 1
1. Protein
2. Lollypoplips
3. Let Me Be Your Fool
4. Wirefly
5. Yuckman
6. So Fine
SIDE 2
1. Ladies Room
2. Don’t You Walk Away
3. Horror Movie Life
4. Steppin’ Off
5. 65
Here we have some shaggy jazzy skanky horn rock jams from late ’90s Richmond, VA. The lo-fi, evidently live, recording does not diminish the youthful joy spilling out the speakers; indeed, it enhances the sense of space and time that most draws me to demo tapes. “So Fine” and “Don’t You Walk Away” still get me, all these years later.
Guitarist Prabir Mehta went on to front The Rachel Nevadas and remains active on the Richmond scene; dunno about the rest of ’em. Can someone fill in the history?
Thankfully avoiding both alternarock overkill and white-boy hip hop, Murfreesboro plays classic party music in a more or less traditional fashion. — Jim Santo’s Demo Universe, 1998
4 thoughts on “Murfreesboro: Hoopajoob, 1998”
Robbie King which was the replacement bassist for Chris Freeman, I saw playing at some festival with Lucy Dacus, Kent played drums in the scene for a while more haven’t seen him for a while.
Thanks, Jo!
Chris Freeman here. It’s such a blast to find this online! A minor correction – this was a multi-track recording, not live. It’s just that we were high school seniors so this was the best we could do! To answer your question – Ian and Jake didn’t play in bands after this from what I know. Same with Walker, but he played with us until 2001. Kent was off and on with us until 2002, and later moved to Texas and fronted his own band, but I haven’t heard anything from him since 2010. I was there into the Rachel Nevadas era until that band broke up in 2005 (minus 2002 when I left and came back – see the other comment about Robbie). I moved to Nashville for a while and did a quirky folky solo thing, then moved to Portland, OR, got into visual art for about 10 years, and I currently play drums in a band called Lo Fives.
Thanks for catching us up, Chris! Great to hear from you.