Of Enon, Brainiac, Orchestraville and my one night stand
Thanks to gentle but persistent reminding from Jim, I am now listening to a lot of Enon. They are not only a band I should have been listening to more often, but a band I have no excuse as to why I avoided getting to know them better. See, Enon is fronted by John Schmersal, a guy I went to college with. But I'm finally coming around to it: it's dope! Shows how much I know that I was not even aware there is now a woman in the band, Toko Yasuda. It's really good stuff, although those little Radio Shack bleeps still show up from time to time.

Listening to this stuff, especially Enon's early work, necessarily reminds me of his previous band, Brainiac. I don't know how famous they got, but for a time in Ohio, in the early-mid-90's, they were poised to be the biggest thing to come out of the state since, I dunno, the Michael Stanley Band.

Like I said, I knew John a little in college. We weren't close but had a lotta the same friends. Actually, after he made the decision to join Brainiac, I think we were friendlier, as he'd come into town for gigs and stop by the local coffee house, where I was invariably sitting. Brainiac, for those who don't know, was this band out of Dayton. They had won some big battle of the bands competition and put out their first album, Smack Bunny Baby, on its proceeds. The first time I saw them, they didn't quite have their special electro-Nation of Ulysses sound down yet. Plus their look needed work. Timmy Taylor, later to cause the ladies to swoon with his quasi-sex machine act, had a shaved head and was wearing what, several years later, would be called 'emo glasses,' complete with the rubber strap to keep them on his head. At this point they were more into the 'geek' aspect of the rock, I guess.

By the next time they came to town, their guitar player had split to form O-matic, and John had signed on. This is the Brainiac most people remember: four spastic nerf-bags hoping around the stage with their eyes open a bit too wide, with Taylor wearing a collared shirt unbuttoned too far, sexily pounding on his little keyboard and screeching "OOOOOOH!" into the microphone. It was fun stuff, indeed. They went on like this for a few years, releasing albums and perfecting their shtick. Then a couple of things happened that now seem prophetic: Brendan of Orchestraville died, and I had a one-night stand.

Orchestraville, a wonderful band now based in Columbus, originally hailed from Athens and itself had many incarnations. Brendan played amazing guitar, something akin to XTC but definitely an original sound. He died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma (the exact date escapes me now, but sometime in '97). Soon after the funeral, Orchestraville had scheduled a show at the local bar, The Union, and decided to go ahead and play, one man short. Brainiac was scheduled to open.

The night before, I had been at whatever rock show was happening at The Union, met a weird woman who was visiting, and went back to her room at the Highlander motel ($28 a night). I count this as my only true one night stand, even if she later moved to Athens and we repeated the scenario several more times. We had been rip-roaringly drunk and we slept with the heater turned all the way up all night. We both awoke with massive hangovers that carried us well into the evening and the Orchestraville/Brainiac show.

Brainiac had dressed all in black, and seemed especially subdued. Taylor was not doing his usual sexy-guy thing, and introduced the set saying, "We don't really know how we should act here." Then they played one of the best sets I have ever seen in that bar. I don't know them well enough to know if they only selected their quietest songs, or if they just played their regular stuff slower, but it was truly an amazing show. Spooky and introspective, which made them, for once, a perfect match with Orchestraville. I'll never forget the weird feeling of that night, the hangover crushing my brain, the sadness of knowing my friend was never going to take the stage again, the oddity of seeing normally-energetic Brainiac reined in by the unavoidable soberness of the occasion.

Then a few months went by (it may have been longer but it didn't seem like it when it happened) and Taylor wrapped his car around a tree or telephone pole or something and died as well. Boom. Just like that, Brainiac was finished, and the last time I saw them they played a memorial show to another musician who passed away far too soon.

It's weird to think about all that now, it must have been about six years ago. The good news is, I suppose, Orchestraville went on producing great music, even though sometimes I miss the avant-jazziness that Brendan supplied. As for Brainiac, I don't know what happened to the other guys in that band, but obviously John Schmersal took what he could there and formed Enon, another band who I should have been paying more attention to all these years. But their best stuff may be ahead of them still. I'll keep listening.

Posted By Jimmy Legs