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GoaTease Album Reviews
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Introducing: The Chain Tape Noise
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How I Never Met the GoaTease
and Lived to Tell About It

My first exposure to the GoaTease took place some time in the early 90's. My sister Mo had an art opening at the Minneapolis hipster coffee shop Muddy Waters. I came down to check out her photos and catch a solo acoustic set by my college pal Mark Kaufman.

As I sat at the bar, I noticed four figures walking up 24th Street, each dressed head to toe in black wearing black bags over their heads. As they approached I also noticed the verbiage printed on the front of their matching black shirts reading "Bulk Hamster and Gerbil Litter". They entered and began picking up their instruments. "How bizarre" I thought while laughing out loud. As it turned out, the band's "look" seemed much less bizarre when compared to their musical performance.

What I remember about the first song was the numerous times the musicians switched instruments. It's not so unusual to see instrument switching on stage, but when it happens half a dozen times in one song, that's a first. At one point, one of the musicians was actually sawing on a 2 x 4 board in rhythm with the song.

Then when I couldn't imagine it getting any weirder, the second song they played was a relatively faithful cover of "Tush" by ZZ Top. After they finished the cover song, the band set down their instruments and walked back up 24th Street.

I asked my sister where she found the band. She said she didn't find them. Muddy Waters gave her the number of a guy with a PA system and when she called, the guy offered free PA rental if the band he was managing could play. She agreed.

Then after a one hour acoustic set by Mark Kaufman, the GoaTease came back and played the exact same two song set from earlier and left just as they had done before. The night ended with an unplanned acoustic performance by Grant Hart who just happened to show up. After witnessing this unlikely night of entertainment, I was eager to experience my second GoaTease encounter.

I had seen a flyer posted a few months later featuring the GoaTease as the musical guests in a poetry slam at another Uptown hipster hang-out called the Coffee Gallery. I arrived to see flyers placed on the tables with a statement about the growing tendency of current pop performers of the time like Madonna and Milli Vanilli incorporating prerecorded vocal tracks into their live shows. It went on to explain how that night's performance by the GoaTease represented the "next stage in live musical performance" in that it was taking the lip sync vocal phenomenon to another level. It was to be the first live performance with no live performers. They also mentioned that they had considered not even submitting the cassette tape of that night's performance to the event planners but since they are "Pop" musicians it would be best not to venture "too far ahead of their time".

All I remember musically about that night was lots of really bad poets shouting really bad poetry over really loud recorded music that sounded like a "Dueling Banjos" style battle between duck quacking noises and the theme from the "Mod Squad" over a computerized samba beat.

I had only seen one other flyer for a GoaTease show since. That show was at the 400 Bar but I didn't attend since it had snowed about three feet that night. That was the last I had heard of them until the year 2001.

I was in the Men's room at First Avenue when sitting to the side of me above the toilet paper rack, I noticed a CD case. The cover read "The GoaTease Chain Tape" released on the record label "Flaming Flatulence".

The album graphics said that if I made seven copies of the GoaTease Chain Tape within seven days and shared them with others I would receive good luck. I did just that figuring that since I just got laid off from my day job I could use all the luck I could get. After completing this task, I figured I'd improve my luck and make the album available on this website.

Please keep in mind, this CD is NOT for sale. The front cover says it contains un cleared sample material and is illegal to sell. Therefore, this music is FREE. If you want the good luck, all you have to do is send me a blank CDR and a self addressed stamped envelope and I'll be glad to burn you a copy. I'll even print off the album graphics or you can also get them here (Album Track Lists and Graphics) or at the GoaTease News Group on Yahoo:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goatease

Thus far I have not received a single request for a free copy of the GoaTease Chain Tape. However, a few months after posting this offer (on the old site www.jerungdu.com), I received a package with no return address from the GoaTease themselves. It contained 3 more CD's called "Neck Tar" "Fractal Distillation" and "Mortgaging the Farm".

They also promised good luck if I made seven copies in seven days and shared them with others. (I did.) Like the Chain Tape, these newer releases contained tons of bizarre music, and I'd say my luck has improved as a result of listening to the GoaTease and continuing the chain. The same offer stands: I'll burn them for free if you supply the CDR and pay for shipping.

The note included in the package from the GoaTease (written in purple crayon) also said I would receive copies of their new projects when they are completed. They apparently have three more albums partially finished called "D'TOCEAM: Death Threats on Chad Everett's Answering Machine", "Grateful for the Dead" and "I Never Heard a Skip I Didn't Like". I'm looking forward to getting all of them and sharing the good luck.

Michael Donahue

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