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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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The Suburbs: At Long Last, the 'Burbs Return to the Cities
Wednesday 25 September @ 10:46:13 |
 by Louis Lenzmeier
The Suburbs made quite a splash in the Twin Cities music scene in the era of slick suits and spikey hair. Sporting a raucous, danceable sound, The ‘Burbs kept the dance floor at First Ave. jumping, and became a local sensation. Although they released four albums on major labels like Universal and A&M, the band never made it big nationally, and the master tapes for their ’80s recordings have languished in record company vaults.
Now, after years of waiting, the first three Suburbs albums are being made available on compact disc. Completely remastered, the recordings are being released on the independent New Beejtar label. To promote the reissues, The Suburbs are reuniting for three shows at First Avenue Mon., Tue., and Wed, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. Recently, the Pulse had an opportunity to talk to two of its members, Hugo Klaers (drums and vocals) and Chan Poling (piano and vocals).
PULSE: What are these shows going to be about? What can all your fans expect?
HUGO KLAERS: We’re going to be playing as much material as we can from the three albums. No one really has new individual material that we are going to be using. I am sure everyone would like to hear our old stuff anyway. It’s basically a celebration of making them available, in CD, to the public.
CHAN POLING: It’s a very exciting thing to be back together again for this effort and we certainly want to celebrate that. We have been rehearsing daily, and I am really feeling like everything is getting back to where it once was. It is a very great feeling to be getting back to the songs that we are so used to.
PULSE: Is this a one-time thing or are The Suburbs back permanently?
HUGO KLAERS: This is definitely a one-time thing. Everyone has their own lives and are off doing their own thing in their own time. This is just kind of a reunion of sorts.
CHAN POLING: No, it’s definitely not a precursor to anything else. There will be no reunion tour or reunion album. There are no imminent plans to do anything but this set of shows, and I really do not think that’s going to change. After all, you can hardly buy anything on vinyl anymore unless you really search long and hard. Anyway, we are happy to be offering this in a CD format.
PULSE: How did this project all come about, of getting all these albums onto CD?
HUGO KLAERS: Well, we wanted to make it available to everyone. There was a little bit of time there where we could not find the master tapes; Polygram, our former label, ended up finding them. I think they must have been lost in some dark room somewhere, or something like that.
CHAN POLING: It was a three-year process of getting them from vinyl to CD. It took a little longer than we expected, but the time and effort was well worth it. We are very proud of what has become of it.
PULSE: I noticed your self-titled album on A&M records was not included in this project. Was that intentional?
HUGO KLAERS: I guess we just focused on these three. I am not too sure what A&M’s stance was on it. It could have been that they just did not want to be involved. Regardless, I am proud of this effort.
CHAN POLING: Yeah, A&M was approached, but did not want to get involved and probably thought it was not worth their effort.
PULSE: What are you listening to now that really grabs you? Is there anything out there where you just say “Yeah, they got it right on.”
HUGO KLAERS: Iffy really blows me away. I just love what they are doing. I saw them at the 24-hour music festival in Peavey Plaza this summer and they really had the crowd going. I am really impressed with Faux Jean and also with Dave Pirner’s new album. I got ahold of Chuck Prophet’s new album and really like it.
CHAN POLING: It differs with me at times, but right now I really am impressed with Wilco. I like what they are doing and love the sound they create. As of now, they are the highest on my list.
PULSE: Is there any solo work that you have been doing?
HUGO KLAERS: Occassionally I play drums for a bluegrass band called Cousin Dad. However, I have basically turned over my drums to my 14-year-old son and he’s been playing around with that. I have been teaching him, but what’s really interesting is that he is teaching me some things. It’s quite amusing.
CHAN POLING: I just recently released an album on the Manifesto label called Calling All Stars. My colleagues from that album and I recently played a sold-out show in Minneapolis to a really fantastic crowd. We had so much fun.
PULSE: When the albums were made available off the Web site, you had about 70,000 hits off of http://www.beejtar.com in the first two weeks. Were you surprised that you had that type of following still around.
HUGO KLAERS: It is a little surprising, but it’s great to see everyone wanting to see us again. We are pretty excited about playing for everyone again too.
CHAN POLING: It was really refreshing to see that everyone was still around. Sure, it has made us feel great and we are thrilled that people are excited about this project and about these upcoming shows. We are definitely looking forward to it.
The Suburbs play the First Avenue mainroom this Mon., Tues. and Weds., Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. 7 p.m. $20/$25. 21+. 701 First Ave. N., Mpls. 612-338-8388.
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