About 10 years ago I was rummaging through a box of old cassette tapes and a tape called The Veritables popped out. I had no real memory of the band so I put it in the deck and gave it a listen. I was astounded at what I heard and slowly the memories came back. It was recorded in 1986. The band was short lived — maybe 10 weeks or so through the summer. I had just moved back to Bloomington from living in NYC and I was itching to play live music again. Since I didn't have a place to live I slept on the floor in a side room of Phil's apartment on Dunn Street. It was there that the recordings were created. The songs were a melting pot of all kinds of musical influences. The quality of the recordings left something to be desired but the songs were fun, inventive and steeped in a truly original spirit. I swore to myself after listening to the tape that I had to get the tracks cleaned up and released. Years later I handed them off to an audio engineer friend, Kevin Loyal, and he polished them into this strange and wonderful album. A true snapshot of the 1980s post punk/new wave sound. – John Terrill
This collection reflects a rich time in my musical life, the early to mid 80s, when the mix of musicians, musical styles, and the newness of it all (for me at least) made every discovery and adventure feel fresh and special. We were a little isolated in those pre-internet days in small town Indiana, and that left a lot of room to invent ourselves and our music. You can hear that in the wide range of tunes in this collection.
This was my last Bloomington band. My first was the snot nosed punk band The Panics in 1980. And shortly after The Veritables I moved out of the area. I’ve never experienced that rich musical stew of early 80s Bloomington again since.
I played in various other groups with the other Veritables through the years. This was a “super group” for me and we played so well off of each other. Some of these songs arrived written, some were fully improvised. But all were enriched by the skills and imagination of the whole group. For me they are loaded with memories, but I think they hold up as strong songs in their own right. – Michael Ost
The year of living in Veritables Manor (85/86) was just the best. Cacophony. Feedback. All hours. I don’t know how our roommates could stand it. Maybe that’s why they moved out pretty quickly. Mike’s Tascam recorder made recording in our upstairs practice space aka Phil’s room possible – pretty cool for 1986.
I last listened to The Veritables cassette on my old Walkman. I have no idea how Kevin Loyal managed to mix these tunes to make them sound bigger. We went a little nuts on the recordings because we all wrote songs/lyrics and played different instruments — we changed it around a lot. I really wanted to play SURF that year, so Cows from Hell and Undertow started that way. Noel, Noel was written during my Tammy Wynette adoration phase; about my good friend who waited tables at the Village Deli with me and had a hard time getting there early. The 8 am Italian class I took inspired Professoressa, because she was MEAN AS HELL. Bill brought his poetry and some fun covers to our live shows. My affection for these guys remains unchanged. – Toni Arcuri
It hardly sounds like one band. It sounds like a compilation and I love that. We were all writing, all singing, all bringing in ideas and all piling on whatever ideas someone else brought in. I've never been in a band pulling in so many directions.
It was my last summer in Bloomington. Mike, Toni, and I were sharing a house. John and I were already playing in The Rosebloods. Mike had a Tascam 4-track so it was inevitable we started playing and recording. We did one show at Second Story as The Four Dimensional Cabbage Object (geeky professor reference - Mike and I were taking the same AI class), then reshuffled the line up before another Second Story show with three guest singers. One of those singers stuck around. Bill gets one track here, but let me tell ya, on stage, he was a beast. And so were we, rocking out to Dropout Boogie or Whole Lotta Love. Back at that house, with the tape rolling, we were more experimental and more likely to add backward vocals, whirly tubes, and cows.
We dispersed and the tapes went in a box. Some 36 years later we handed those tapes over to Kevin to work his magic and he did. Here ya go: a slice of summer in Bloomington, 1986. – Phil Reavis
Everyone should have the opportunity to sing in a rock and roll band at least once in their life. Besides being the American Dream, it’s a good way to test yourself. It helps if the band members are friends who aren’t taking themselves too seriously, which is why they let me roam the stage with them. They were also people with ideas who weren’t afraid to express their ideas. I remember the audiences being warm and responsive, meaning we must have been communicating something to them, which is the only other reason to go out onto a stage besides having fun. – Bill Weaver
credits
released May 1, 2023
Toni Arcuri
guitar, synthesizer,bass, vocals
Michael Ost
guitar, bass, drums, synthesizer, vocals
I decided this album would make a great first release for an archival label I had been thinking about for years called "You
Missed This," which would feature unheard and lost recorded treasures from my own recordings. It was 2023 before the band found the original 4 tack tapes. I handed them off to my audio engineer friend, Kevin Loyal, and he polished them into this strange and wonderful album....more
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