The Belgian Waffles!
Started in '86 by Whitaker, Woollard, and McCloud. Rotating membership throughout the Bloomington years. Band moved to Louisville in '95. Band went on hiatus in May of 2006. Who knows? Someday we may be back.
"SOMEDAY" IS SEPT. 26, 2014, AT THE CROPPED OUT FESTIVAL (AMERICAN TURNERS, LOUISVILLE, KY)
Albums
8 songs
Here at long last, another lost gem from the Sara Lund era, a live show from Bloomington\'s Black Box Theater from sometime around Halloween in 1989. Besides being Sara\'s first show with the band, it is the only recorded evidence of Tony\'s super cool orange plastic fuzz pedal.
The unreleased third part of the postmodern philosophers trilogy (following Jacques Rock and Appetite for Deconstruction, both on the Flat Electric tape label) is one of the band\'s favorite documents, and easily one of the best live shows the band ever did. Tony was at his absolute best on guitar, and while Sara was still feeling out some of the songs (she had never played the "Lightning\'s Girl/Sex Bomb" encore before), she absolutely punishes other songs, most notably "S.Y.R.I.P.", one of the highlights of TBW!\'s recorded history. This particular version, recorded by Dan Willems before he joined the band and newly remastered, should prove to be worth the wait.
A couple scant months before the recording of Six Point Groundhog Head, D\'Loose and Guitarry is is a bulldozer headed straight for your chest. Featuring Chet Chmielewski - turntables, samples, keyboard; Sara Lund - drums; Matt Whitaker - bass; Tony Woollard - guitar and vocals; Bill Zink - guitar; Vid - trumpet, ranting; Ed Emmer - vocals on "Sex Bomb".
17 songs
1994 found The Belgian Waffles! between Bloomington and Louisville. Dan and Heather were homeless & on the road, Matt was on his way out of town, and Tony wasn\'t far behind. TBW! had already done a couple of Bloomington shows in \'94 as a quartet with Tony, Matt, Bill and Rob Stockwell.
With a lineup in flux and no place to play, TBW! gathered in Eric Rensberger\'s basement to record a practice. At this point, the band was more interested in destroying songs than actually playing them: see earlier versions of "Rottweiler" and "20 Minutes to a Pound" for comparison. Perhaps the most appropriate song for the session was "Private John Q / Ludwig": Tony calls the song, Matt and Bill dick around before actually starting it. A reasonable version of Roger Miller\'s "Private John Q" coalesces, then segues into a blistering version of "Ludwig", only to have Tony throw a wrench into the proceedings by refusing to sing the final vocal cue, preferring instead to do a rendition of the theme song to Robert Mitchum\'s "Thunder Road". After that, Tony would no longer have cue privileges on the song (he ceded them to Dan).
The selections range from TBW!\'s version of noise rock ("Wicker Park", "Ludwig"), to songs spiralling out of control ("Ephedrine Weekend", "C & W Driveby" . . . it was a common thing for the band to play a handful of songs faster than coherence would allow), to abstracted improvs ("The Cancer Song", the droid series). Also featuring plenty of Tony\'s on-mic hilarity, and random musical references to John Cale, Robert Mitchum, Flipper, the Scientists, Son House, Roger Miller, and others so poorly executed as to be unrecognizable.
Most of the band had settled down in Louisville by 1996. There was a practice space, quite a few shows, and eveyone working with the band except Bill living in town. That year, Dan took three songs from these sessions and released them as a 7" on Adept Recordings. Ironically (given the shotgun approach evident on these recordings), that single remains one of the most focused and coherent of TBW!\'s releases. The three songs on the single, "Jobs (5x)", "Chad\'s Organ Weighs a Ton", and "Baksheesh / Floating Tackle", are the first three songs on this album.
These recordings feature Heather Floyd - drums, trumpet; Matt Whitaker - bass; Chris Willems - Tenor Sax; Dan Willems - Alto Sax, drums; Tony Woollard - vocals, trumpet, shortwave; Bill Zink - guitar, drums.
7 songs
What do Johnny Burnette & the Rock -n- Roll Trio, Alex Chilton, Joy Division, Pere Ubu, and the Flesheaters have in common? They are joyfully dismantled here. Featuring Heather Floyd (drums); Matt Whitaker (bass); Chris Willems (guitar on 2 & 7, tenor sax on 3, 4, 5, & 6); Dan Willems (vocals on 2 & 7, alto sax on 5 & 7, guitar on 3, 4, & 6); Tony Wollard (vocals, guitar on 2, trumpet); Bill Zink (guitar)
13 songs
The Belgian Waffles!\'s psychedelic album is a bad trip . . . no incense and peppermints here. Dripping in noise and paranoia, this was the sound in our heads, a document of times most of us are happy we left behind. Featuring young Sarah Lund, later of Unwound.
Chet Chmielewski - keyboards, turntables; Sara Lund - drums; Matt Whitaker - bass; Tony Woollard - voice, guitar; Bill Zink - guitar. With: Vid - trumpet, commentary on "John Lithgow", Ian Rans - extra feedback on "Orpheus, Dig?"
Recorded in Muncie, Indiana, January 27th, 1990, by Jeff Weiss
These recordings were more or less forgotten as soon as they were finished. It wasn\'t long before Dan and Heather joined up, and our sound took another radical shift.
1 song
Recorded live March 28, 2003, at the Rudyard Kipling in Louisville during the Mother Lodge festival/benefit. It was an insane logistical situation, so (with the exception of Matt) we left everything except the horns at home. Borrowed drums, borrowed bass amp, & we\'re on our way.
Heather Floyd - soprano sax, trumpet; Matt Whitaker - bass; Chris Willems - tenor sax; Dan Willems - alto sax; Tony Woollard - cornet, flute; Bill Zink - drums.
13 songs
Songs 1-8 from Uncle Pleasants show 9/10/2003. Songs 9-13 from Kentucky Eye & Ear Control at the Kentucky Theater 2/21/2003. The players: Heather Floyd - drums, trumpet; Matt Whitaker - bass; Chris Willems - sax; Dan Willems - sax, drums; Tony Woollard - vocals, guitar, trumpet; Bill Zink - guitar, drums.