This is about The Summer People from Minneapolis.
Why this desert blues rock psychedelic infused outfit didn’t get more attention is a mystery to me, especially since their three CDs were released on the locally renowned Garage D’Or record label, run by the equally locally renowned Terry Katzman [RIP], a longtime champion of the Twin Cities music scene. If you were into bands like The Who, Black Sabbath, Sonic Youth, The Birthday Party (or their modern day torchbearers The Jesus Lizard), The Summer People definitely had something up their collective sleeve that was bound to perk up your ears. And that’s not to say they sounded the least bit like any of those bands, but you could tell their passion came from the same creative realm. Clayton projected a stage personae that alternated between self-effacing sheepishness and the wild-eyed fury of a man possessed, while Aaron channeled the Sturm und Drang of untold ages and a mind-blowing myriad of string-bending styles all at once. Chris and Nick worked together as a single organic rhythmic unit, displaying a symbiotic prowess at pushing the tension to the point of no return, but always keeping it tightly reigned for maximum impact.
Chris Arnoldi : Drums
Clayton Klein : Vocals
Aaron Robertson : Guitar
Nick Sampson : Bass
with
J.Free: harmonica
The Summer People Live at The Summer People Live at Station 4 on 2004-08-25
Apparently this was the first time I played out with The Summer People, kicking off a two year run sitting in with the band, and ending up on their third album. Discovering this recording – buried in a box full of little gems like this – proves that even my memory can occasionally lose a detail or two, since I had been fairly certain our first collaboration occurred two months later, at Lee’s Liquor Lounge. This also marks the second time I ever saw the band, having shared a bill with them nearly a year earlier at The Turf Club, while playing in The Pushrods – whose practice space, ironically enough, was right upstairs from this venue, when it was still Ryan’s. This seems to have been the third incarnation of the Lowertown metal haven, previously The Lab, and Ryan’s before that, eventually closing in 2013, and condemned two years later.
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Station 4 on 2004-08-25 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at Lee’s Liquor Lounge on 2004-10-16
Bill:
Bridge Club
Thunder In The Valley
The Summer People
Brother Sister
Live Sound: Dan Turnland
As the new millennium got underway, I was assisting my friend Dan in his duties as the sound engineer for Lee’s [RIP]. Within the next few years, I had performed there twice: once in 2003 with The Pushrods, and this date in 2004, with The Summer People, on a bill with one of my local faves, Thunder In The Valley. As it happened on occasion, playing on the same bill meant I couldn’t really focus on recording, which accounts for the lo-fi rig that night.
I was relatively new to sitting in with The Summer People at that point in time, so rather than dragging out my typical recording rig, I relied on a portable minidisc recorder and one of the mics listed below, trusting the deck to record from the rail between the bar area and the dance floor.
I missed recording Brother Sister, and was just getting my gear set up as they smashed their red candy guitar at the end of their set. Yes, it was an actual somewhat functional electric guitar whose body was constructed out of red candy. More of a novelty, it produced more uncontrolled feedback than actual power chords, but it was a cool idea nonetheless.
I had previously thought this was the first time I played with The Summer People, but the recording from Station 4 proves that theory incorrect. The songs I had previously played with the band were not included in this set, so on this occasion I only played on “True” – somewhat perfunctorily, it seems, although it sounds like I might have been trying to channel “Midnight Rambler” at one point.
Following the show, I retreated to Nicollet Island with my pal Mick Black, and my bandmate Rich from The Pushrods, to play a bunch of acoustic songs into the wee hours.
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Lee’s Liquor Lounge on 2004-10-16 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at 7th St. Entry on 2005-01-01
Bill:
The Summer People
??? [possibly The Blood Shot – ?]
Live Sound:
Randy Hawkins
New Years Day 2005 marked the third time I sat in with The Summer People, although just one track this time around. We had never rehearsed together, and I was still figuring out what I might be able to contribute to various songs, so this was pretty much on-the-fly. I’m not sure why I didn’t sit in for “Do You Believe In Rock & Roll?”, which ended up being sort of a signature tune for us over the next year, as well as the track I contributed to on their third album, but in any case, this night the sole tune ended up being “True”. Embarrassingly, I did inadvertently find myself kind of tripping over Aaron’s guitar solo before I realized what what was happening, and at some point it became obvious there was a break for me to take a solo. There’s definitely a bit of a leap between playing along to a structured recording from an album and trying the same thing in a live situation, where there is more room for open-ended improvisation. Somehow we always seemed to make everything work together, and they still welcomed our continued collaboration right up til the end, in 2006, which felt like a pretty good run.
Highlights of this set for me would be Aaron’s guitar on “Sick Pig”, and the rarely played “Summer Song”, both driven with an early Sonic Youth-type fervor, to say nothing of the high-octane riffage in “Light”, truly worthy of early Stooges. What a great way to kick off the New Year!
Download or stream The Summer People Live at 7th St. Entry on 2005-01-01 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at Terminal Bar on 2005-01-14
Bill:
The Summer People
Swamp Gas
I’m not sure what happened to the beginning of track 1 (or for that matter, which song it was) – presumably the recording starts when I arrived at the venue. It wouldn’t be the first time I barely made it from my day job out in the boondocks to a show on the other end of town, but at least I made it!
I might be a bit biased, but this sounds like one of the better collaborations between The Summer People and my treated harp improvisations. We had gotten to a point where the band had given me carte blanche to sit in wherever I thought I might have something to contribute, and for my part, I tried to refrain from stepping on anyone’s toes, and then let ‘er rip when it seemed appropriate. It seems like we may have struck a decent balance on this night.
I was running my harmonica through my trusty Green Bullet mic and a few random effects pedals into a 25 watt Gorilla practice amp, which I still have. Listening back to this, I kind of wish I had brought a little more of this experimental approach into Aaron’s studio when I laid down my contribution to the track that would appear on their third CD.
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Terminal Bar on 2005-01-14 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at Uptown Bar & Grill on 2005-01-19
Bill:
The Summer People
Ten Extra Pounds
I remember this night pretty well, actually. On this occasion, The Summer People was sharing the bill with local pals Ten Extra Pounds, who used to share a practice space with The Pushrods, and featured poster artist extraordinaire D.Witt, as their drummer.
For my part, I was still running the harmonica through a Green Bullet mic and some random effects pedals into a 25 watt Gorilla practice amp, in an effort to create more of a psychedelic backdrop throughout the set, as opposed to any kind of traditional harp playing. This experimental approach worked better the last time around, and what seemed to be working in the moment was revealed to be not quite the same thing, when listening back to the recording. Not awful, I shouldn’t think – just different, and it did help to start defining which songs to contribute to and which ones to leave alone.
Then again, as much as I loved playing at the Uptown Bar, it always did seem to me to be one of the more challenging rooms for hearing what was happening on stage. Good enough for rock’n’roll, I reckon, and there were definitely some moments in the set that the kids like to call incendiary – check out the locomotive-like ferocity of “Telephone”, lest there be any doubt. Overall, it seemed like a pretty rockin’ set, to my ears, at least.
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Uptown Bar & Grill on 2005-01-19 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at Christensen’s Big Vs Saloon on 2005-02-17
Bill:
The Summer People
Tonnage
??? [The Blood Shot – ?]
Playing at Big V’s was always a good time, and this night definitely had more of a party vibe going for it than some, with an extended version of “Sick Pig” that morphed into a free-for-all jam, joined by members of Tonnage and some friends. Naturally, when this type of chaos ensues, someone generally has the presence of mind to strike up a version of the Stooges classic “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, and this was one of those occasions. But even then, this audience did not want to go home, and the band got an encore – the “short version” of “Drifter”, which ended up being about the right length after all. Good times!
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Christensen’s Big Vs Saloon on 2005-02-17 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at Christensen’s Big V’s Saloon on 2005-03-17
St. Patrick’s Day, at Big V’s in St. Paul. What more needs to be said?
Sharing another bill with our pals in Ten Extra Lbs (whose drummer D.Witt created the festive poster for the event), along with All-American Cheap Shots – featuring Sir Chadwick from Thee Viceroys (and currently in Fret Rattles). And did I mention how fun it was to be on a bill with Plate-O-Shrimp? Rock and Éire go Brách!
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Christensen’s Big V’s Saloon on 2005-03-17 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at Christensen’s Big V’s Saloon on 2005-06-25
Listening back to this, it seems like a sleeper gig that somehow didn’t get the attention I think it deserved at the time – except from the fans in attendance that night, at least! It’s a fairly balanced set of older songs and a few that would turn up on the third album
I think around this point in time, we had kind of figured out that there were only a few songs in the set that really benefited from the addition of the harp, so why not bunch them together like a little mini-segment of the overall set? Seemed to work well on this particular night. Then after we mixed it up a bit, the band could get back to basics – except there really was nothing basic about the level of rock they could bring. Check out Aaron channeling full-metal Steve Howe in the first break of “True”, and the extended riffage at the end of “It’s Fun”, playing as though his life depended on it. An understated set by a group that really seemed to be in a class of their own.
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Christensen’s Big V’s Saloon on 2005-06-25 from Live Music Archive
The Summer People Live at Aardvark Records on 2005-08-20
Bill:
The Summer People – CD release show
Mezzofist
Aloha! I reckon this was kind of a closing chapter, regarding my collaborations with The Summer People, an in-store performance to celebrate the release of their third album. The fellas had let me come along for the ride for a couple of years, and even invited me to contribute on the new album, but it seemed to be time to move on after this. Ironically, I heard shortly thereafter that they had called it a day, so this would have been the last time I sat in with the band at any rate, until they played a “last” show some months down the road. It was a good run, though, and they were in fine form for this in-store performance. The version of “True” in this set may possibly be the best version I had the good fortune to capture. “Sick Pig” and “Rebel Without Applause” are pretty top notch here as well.
Although I certainly wouldn’t have realized it at the time, This was the last time I got to hang out with my old pal Terry Katzman, who curated the event and released all three of the band’s albums on his label, Garage D’Or Records. Terry and I stayed in touch for a few years after I moved to Oregon, and the last time I talked with him, he wanted to get a few of my live recordings for some new project he was hoping to put together on his label. Sadly, I got the news that Terry passed away in 2019, so I’ll probably never know what that project might have been, but on a good note, he left one heck of a legacy for us to enjoy – not the least of all, this band you’re hopefully listening to right now.
Download or stream The Summer People Live at Aardvark Records on 2005-08-20 from Live Music Archive
It is well worth your time to track down any of the band’s releases which are listed on the discogs site
closing comments
Download or stream all sets by The Summer People from Live Music Archive
Comments are closed.