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Led by the wildly creative Stephanie
Rearick,
The Coma Savants, a pleasure to behold
June 6, 2003
by Steve Kastner
There is often something powerfully artful about rock bands led by accomplished
pianists. From Snopek to Supertramp, having a lead pianist usually provides a very solid musical underpinning to
what follows… think back, Gary Brooker in Procul Harum; Robbie Robertson in the Band.
Stephanie Rearick has been playing piano since she was six, favoring composers such as Debussy, Bartok, and Tcherepnin,
with a little Chick Corea thrown in. These influences show in her writing, which intertwines a classical discipline
with a bit of pop singer-songwriter sensibility.
Rearick began writing music in the early '90s when she and Jon Hain formed the widely respected circus-trance-rock
outfit Your Mom SRO, now The Coma Savants. Since then she has served as the band's principal songwriter, singer,
keyboardist, and sometimes trumpeter.
Her latest solo work The Long Picnic is available on CD and includes a number of instrumental piano compositions
("Folk Tune", "Bagatelle", "Cosmic") and two cover songs - a beautiful rendition
of "Morpha Too" by Alex Chilton (from Big Star's "Radio City") and "Boating" by Bela
Bartok - which exemplify the range of Rearick's musical influences.
After listening to The Coma Savants CD, I remain confident in my theory on piano-based rock bands. Coma Savant
is very musically accomplished, tight, yet risk-takers and, being from Madison, didactic. It's always a treat to
listen to musicians with intellect.
...How to tell it's
a cardboard coffin:
Just wait till noone's looking and start knocking.
If it's a hollow thud and noone answers, then push
on the sides and see if they give.
And musicians with political, ethical, comical convictions…
It's an eating machine,
you better get out of the way
Eating machine,
and it could eat you too, someday
It's what's for dinner.
Peanuts and popcorn and Pepsi and bagels and buffalo wings in a red plastic basket
and cornflakes and poptarts and gummi lifesavers and purple jawbreakers and tummy-ache makers
Kentucky Fried Chicken and Arby's and Hardee's
A Happy Meal Deal in a Sadsacky package
And WalMart and Target
they won't leave you wanting
You've got one-stop shopping
your shopping bag's popping
Come and get it if you want it…
Take risks, set a variety of story lyrics to sometimes complex, sometimes
intentionally sparse musical backgrounds, apply a masterful degree of technological sound art and you have the
modern equivalent of a musical opera ala Kurt Weill.
Stephanie explains Ferris Wheel, "After I had the music mostly done I remembered a poem I'd written for Jon
when we first met and wanted to see if it would work as lyrics to this song. So I got out this tiny little blank
book where we wrote all our little poems and lovey things when we were first together and read it for the first
time in years. What a great little book! The book itself turned into the subject of the song and the words came
really quickly and easily after I read it. This is my only love song."
Ferris Wheel
We were
riding on a ferris wheel
getting stranded in the sun
making up a fancy poem
You were leaving soon
and we had all the time in the world
making futures in the woods
sleeping by the highway-side
drawing phanties and their toothaloops
We were growing up
and we lived all the life in the world
We're not alone
All around there are living things
And you were a butterfly
and you were a sailing ship
and a pink-haired silk-skinned wunderkind
We had very small pages
and we wrote the best book in the world
We're not alone
All around there are living things
People on the outside always struggle to describe artists… trying very hard to put them in some kind of category.
So in the case of Coma Savant, descriptions lurch in all directions - garage, cabaret, circus, decadent, trance,
lounge, rock… Ouch!
I ask the band themselves:
Stephanie Rearick:
keyboards and trumpet
Jon Hain:
electric guitar
Joey Zarda:
bass and accordion
Jason Socha:
drums and cymbals |
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STEVE KASTNER: I hate to ask, but whom do you consider influential in the development of the
band? I understand it is hard to speak for four people... each bringing a different collection of influences to
the group, but you have somehow managed to form a collaboration that has a mutually agreed upon identity or mission.
Where do you think it came from... and what are your long term, if-I could-do-anything, dreams of accomplishment?
JASON SOCHA:
Well, it's a pretty tenuous assumption that we've mutually agreed upon anything, ever. Except perhaps on the deliciousness
of mint julep. In fact, it could be that the lack of agreement is what drives us. We're a tight and talented enough
group that we regularly blow our own minds with what happens musically and that pushes us into this place where
we don't need to have identity or mission. The greatest SavantMusic is instinctive and accidental.
One of us will say, "Hey, what did you do there...can you do that again?" and the reply will be, "I
have no idea what I did."
The Coma Savants are like a drug. We love it, we hate it, we don't know what it's really doing to us - but we keep
coming back because it gets us so consistently off.
As far as who is influential to the development of the band, I would simply have to say we are. Each in our own
way, we're all relentless musicians and music listeners and it all gets laid on the table every time we're together.
The birthing of a SavantSong is something to behold - spark, obsession, love, kicking, screaming, booze, and ultimately
death or beauty. Survival of the rockest. This question generally relates to outside influences, but those are
of such little importance anymore. We're now four musicians trying to mold each other, like four puppies all trying
to teach each other to crap on the newspaper.
My long-term dreams of accomplishment include finishing my cup of coffee without eating too much sludge, glancing
to my right, and finishing this sentence.
JON HAIN:
I enjoy speaking for four people. It's like all the ostriches talking constantly about nothing... We work well
together. We all have strong ideas about who The Coma Savants are. What should we sound like? Look like? How do
we present this in a live setting? Etc. We have managed to create a very unique sound that is the result of everyone
being a little flexible but hanging on to the parts that make it fun for us. Also, for me personally, playing with
such talented musicians really pushes me on a skills basis. Long term? Who knows. I would like to see this project
grow but ultimately it is more important that it remain fun. If we can do both...
STEPHANIE REARICK:
Influential in band development... we are. Jon was most influential because he's the one who wanted to start the
band in the first place (just for fun), I'm pretty influential because I write and sing the material Each member
is responsible (for the most part) for their own parts. In regard to outside influences, we don't have many overt
ones. I grew up liking David Bowie, the Velvet Underground, Laurie Anderson. Playing with different bands around
the Midwest, especially in Chicago, has given us more inspiration to open up and be theatrical, and not to be constrained
by a standard rock format. Long-term dreams of accomplishment: I'd like to be respected musically, be able to live
off making music, and be able to do lots of varied projects that I enjoy. I'd also like to work with artists I
respect.
JOEY ZARDA:
I have no problem speaking for four people. I'd speak for five but our conga player is no longer with us. We believe
that Kinski is a modern genius. The same for Bob Dylan.
He believes that, too.
And it's better without conga.
Long term?
I never talk about that.
STEVE KASTNER:
Do you seek out the visual arts?
JASON SOCHA:
Sure.
JOEY ZARDA:
I feel lucky that I can see.
JON HAIN:
Yes. I am a very visual person. I do collage art and take photos of people as hobbies. I am a big fan of the classic
era of music videos -- Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Devo, Talking Heads... I love colors.
STEPHANIE REARICK:
I like the visual arts. I do colored-pencil drawing and paint to a limited extent. I also do the visual art booking
at Mother Fool's (Madison's independent coffeehouse and east-side cultural hub). I like seeing a variety of local
work.
STEVE KASTNER:
Who is your favorite painter, sculptor or film maker?
JOEY ZARDA:
Terry Kitchen, Sid Boyum, Klaus Kinski
STEPHANIE REARICK:
Agnes Varda, Werner Herzog (although I've only seen a few of his films), Wim Wenders are all filmmakers I like
a lot. Can't think of a favorite painter at the moment. I own a painting that I really love, it's by Michael Walker,
got it in Delaware, Ohio and have no idea anything else about him.
JASON SOCHA:
My favorite painters are de Goya and Dali. I don't know enough about sculpture or film to have a favorite.
JON HAIN:
David Hockney, Patrick JB Flynn, Douglas Hyslop, Ross Johnston, Todd Solondz
I could carry on about this band… Coma Savant is a delight, not to be missed, especially in a setting so well suited
to presenting their form of music, in an intimate theater like the Third Avenue Playhouse.
If you miss this show, and then have to hear about it later, don't say I didn't warn you.
At Third Avenue Playhouse Friday, June 13 at 7:30 PM, Tickets: $10 (adults), $7 (seniors and students) and $5 (youth), 239 N. 3rd Avenue
Sturgeon Bay, WI. 920.743.1760.
CD: The Coma Savants
Released in April, 2002
Uvulittle Records
"The Coma Savants could gig as the house band on the Island of
Misfit Toys..."
-Isthmus
The Official
Web site for the piano-based circus trance rock band includes
news, tour information and sound samples.
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