Newspaper In The Wind

Most people think that the Mother Hips were the biggest band to ever originate from Chico. Wrong. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, Chico was home to a burgeoning college rock scene in the traditional sense. (Think R.E.M., Replacements, etc.) At the forefront of this scene, there was a band known as 28^th Day. The band, consisting of Cole Marquis (vocals, guitar), Michael Cloward (drums) and Barbara Manning (vocals, bass) was one of the more influential bands of the "Paisley Revolution" (a neo-psychedelic revival that combined pop songwriting with psychedelic sounds) and received critical acclaim from many diverse sources such as Sounds, Option and the Los Angeles Times before disbanding around 19xx.

After 28^th Day, Barbara Manning went on to front the S.F. Seals, and now has a successful solo career on the über-hip Matador label. Opting to remain in Chico, Marquis formed a new band, the Downsiders, featuring Marquis on vocals and guitar, Jeff Tracy on guitar, Keith Foust on drums and miscellaneous percussion, and Chris Cloward on vocals and bass. The Downsiders gathered much acclaim and blazed a new music path, singing with the Mammoth label (now home of the Squirrel Nut Zippers) before ultimately disbanding in 19xx. Marquis released a few solo tapes on ex-28^th Day drummer Michael Cloward's Devil in the Woods label before ultimately moving to San Francisco.

It was there that Marquis met Rich Avella through a mutual friend. At the time (November of 1993), Marquis was playing a few shows to promote his solo tape, Starlite Drive-In. Avella's old band, The Bohemians, had just broken up and he was looking for a new gig. The mutual friend loaned Avella Starlite Drive-in, thinking that Marquis and Avella would play well together. Avella listened to the tape, agreed, and caught Marquis playing a solo show at the Paradise Lounge. After the show, Avella approached Marquis about forming a band. Marquis eventually agreed, and Avella recruited Mike Ehrardt and the original drummer, who at the time were both going to recording school at San Francisco State. The fledgling group rehearsed together and decided they liked the sound. After John left, the band continued as a three piece, with Avella switching to bass, Ehrardt on drums. before adding Patrick Main on drums in 1995.

Snowmen, now consisting of Cole Marquis (vocals, guitar), Rich Avella (guitar, vocals), Mike Ehrardt (drums, bass) and Patrick Main (keyboards, drums) isn't a departure from the sounds Marquis was exploring in the '80s, but rather an evolution. Snowmen play what Marquis terms "cine-pop"-an amalgam of all genres of music in a pop settling. "I listen to a lot of soundtracks, '60s-soundtrack stuff, I'm really into that and some of the exotica stuff. Burt Bacharach, stuff like that. I've really been listening to a lot of stuff like that lately and it just sort of adds up. After a while, you end up bringing those influences in."

Unlike many bands, Snowmen has been exploring the wheezing sounds of the farfisa keyboard for years-three, to be precise. Marquis always loved the sound of a farfisa, but was never able to find anyone able to play in the classic '60s sound he craved. "With Patrick, it just sort of happened as an accident… We just happened to have a [farfisa] keyboard lying around the studio." Main picked it up at a practice one day, and suggested they add it to the band. "It turned out that he was just an incredible keyboard player and totally changed the whole band… He also plays an electric Wurlitzer-an electric piano, which [also] has a really classic '60s kind of sound to it. It that sense, it was an accident; but it was also something I always looked forward to doing if it ever happened."

Snowmen's neo-psychedelic sound isn't limited to the farfisa; Marquis also cites influences "like 'The End' by the Doors, definitely… I really was drawn to that super-psychedelic kind of guitar stuff-it wasn't lead orientated. It was more modal, more rhythmic." However, Snowmen is anything but a nostalgia band; Marquis' songwriting is also inspired by modern techniques. "We started playing around with not necessarily the guitar aspect of it [but all kinds of sounds. Sampling, and everything-mixing more of that sort of stuff in to get that kind of otherworldly sound, rather than just tuning the guitars weird and going for it, as loud as we can."

Not that Marquis is a strange to that; in fact, he has built a quite reputation for his formidable guitar skills. From open, alternate tunings to slide guitar, Marquis' effortless grace is something you must experience live. "Sonic Youth's always been a big influence, definitely. I learned alternative tunings when I first started playing guitar but it was blues, like blues tunings. Actually, Matt Hogan taught me a few blues tunings. He used to live above me and Barbara [Manning] when I first started playing guitar-this is '82… And I started reading about Sonic Youth and I just thought, 'This is something I'd really like to hear,' and when I first heard them, it really just blew me away because they were a band that was just really taking that thing and just doing it."

When asked if he ever felt limited by what audiences wanted to hear, Marquis paused. "Not really… My years in Chico, musically, were really blessed as far as audience goes. [When] 28^th Day started out, we had to build up an audience. But once 28^th Day built up an audience, we did really well. And the Downsiders, too had to build up an audience. People weren't super into us at first. We worked for it… toured a lot, did a lot of work… Yeah, they were expecting a rock 'n' roll show; but I was a lot younger then too-we were totally willing to give it to them."

When asked if he ever felt like he was living in the shadow of his old bands, with constant mention of 28^th Day and the Downsiders in nearly every write-up of the Snowmen, Marquis quipped, "No, but I sometimes feel like I'm living in the shadow of Barbara Manning… I'm still super good friends with Barbara and stuff; we're doing a show with her really soon… but it's like, 'I haven't played with her in like fifteen years!' … I don't mind it that much because it might perk somebody's interest and they might go, 'Oh, well, I really like Barbara; maybe I'll read about this band or listen to their music.' …It's funny, it can be sort of funny."

Currently, the Snowmen aren't with a label. Although the band was very happy with Double Play Records, who released their second CD and first domestic release, In Orbit, the band felt it was time to move on. The band has been touring constantly, and even recently played played the legendary SXSW (South By Southwest) festival in Austin. "For me, the best part of the whole experience was just being there." Marquis said. The band has songs out on a half-dozen compilations, and Cole has another solo tape coming out on the recently reborn Devil in the Woods label (www.devilinthewoods.com) Above all, Cole and the band remain optimistic. "Things are definitely happening right now, that includes European touring and stuff like that. And we're working on American stuff too, it's going to happen sooner or later,"

Although they haven't found a label that they feel comfortable enough to sign to, the new Snowmen album, Last Days of the Central Freeway, has been recorded and ready for release for nearly a year now. The disc is a bit more polished than their previous release, and very well could be the disc that kicks door open for the band. "In Orbit was pretty much four-track stuff, and the rest of it was recorded in one day; and it was sort of slapped together. But I really like the feel of that record a lot. So we tried to keep the feel-the immediate feel of the record-but we definitely expanded a lot more. It's a lot longer [around 45 minutes] where In Orbit is the classic thirty minutes or less. There's a lot more sounds going on; I'd have to say it's a fuller sounding record. There's still four-track stuff on there, but we did a lot of segueing. It's a bit trippier…It's solid; I feel it's really a solid record. It's a little more rocking too… a little bit more upbeat."

Although most bands disband after laboring for years in (relative) obscurity, Marquis and his bandmates haven't lost their passion for making music, nor their drive to be heard. "We'd love to be a lot more stable as far as knowing whose going to put our records out, and when they're going to come out," Marquis commented. "I'd like to see us doing more ambient kind of stuff… more access to put out our own kind of stuff-weird four-track stuff.. we'd just like to be comfortable be able to tour a lot… In five years, I'll be over forty. For me, the next five years are the five years really… I'd just like to see a little stability. I've had the wild times, as wild as they can possible be; I'd just rather have more of a comfort zone to be able to put stuff out whenever I want to… We're not going to quit. Music is not something I'm going to retire from in any foreseeable future; I have too much fun doing it and I do it on my own, at home, because I want to.

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