The Mitchells

For a town and area that musically has spawned such notables as The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Buffalo Tom and Sebadoh (although most of them moved to Boston before hitting it big), the Amherst/ Northampton area can be a rough place for bands to try and make some noise. It's now more known as the home of "ZooMass" and most recently, basketball. But, the rest is a exercise in futility at times. There are a lot of shitty college bars overun with hulking guys wearing "Cocks" hats, but on the plus side, a free bus system to take you to and from those bars. There are 22,000+ students/potential audience members for your music, which you would think would get any indie band salivating (which it often does) but the number of places to see a good band are less than a handfull. In spite of all this, The Mitchells have been working to make a name for themselves by playing regularly for 5 years - most of the time as the rookies. The Mitchells' Story: It was 1993 when this train wreck of a band got going but it wouldn't solidify until the following year. Bill, Kayvan and Caleb moved into the Field dorm in UMass' Orchard Hill and had already been practicing in each others dorm rooms before the semester was over. Caleb and Kayvan met on their first day of school and discovering that they lived in the same dorm and played guitar, decided to jam together. Bill lived a few doors down from Caleb, and the two convinced Bill to play with them at an open mic. Field has a snack shop called Sweets, and the building's House Council held open mic nights about every two months. This is where they played out for the first time. They didn't have any drums at that point, and just played a few covers and a couple of originals...they try and keep those early days as hush-hush as possible. In the spring of 1994, the trio's second semester, they spotted a flyer from a drummer looking for a band. Mike, a sophomore, had put the flyer up after a 1 1/2 year break from any type of serious performing behind the drums. After jamming with a few people, Caleb called and the four got together for the first time after spring break in March. The name of the band was already selected before that point, named in honor of a movie showcased on Myster Science Theater 3000. Mitchell features '70s everyman Joe Don Baker as a bumbling, Schlitz-drinking detective, and was also the final episode to feature the show's creator, Joel Hodgson. The episode was aired at the UMass Student Union as part of a Comedy Central promotion, and most of the guys attended, although they didn't know Mike at the time. Practicing began in the church run by Caleb's dad in Belchertown, At The Churchwhere the band polished songs like "Tollbox," "Mr. Underground,"(called "Loser" at the time), and the oft-forgotten "Lecture Hall Angel." The first half dozen shows were mainly at open mic nights at Sweets until the first trip off campus to play at the Fire and Water Cafe and the Baystate Hotel in Northampton for some open mics. At The BaystateIn the winter of 1995, the band went to Performance Music in Westfield, MA, to record a demo in order to assist in getting gigs and give out to friends in the dorms. Kayvan is originally from the Westfield area and had taken lessons there, so he convinced the others that Jim Fogarty would be a good match to work with. Once Jim learned he could tolerate the constant Beavis and Butthead impressions, he was the right guy for the job. Five songs came out of that session. "Five Minutes" and "Tollbox" won the band a spot in the 1995 95.5 WBRU-Providence Annual Rock Hunt. Finishing third out of 12 bands that made the semi-finals, the foursome walked away with $1,000 on only their 7th gig ever, it was a something of a shock considering they were far from a polished act at that point...still fumbling around on stage just like nervous 19&20-year-olds. But the money proved enough to start thinking about producing a 7" single to get some radio airplay. So "Five Minutes" and "Underwater" were pulled off the demo, remixed, and put out as the first single, complete with Kinko's-made covers and cut-and-paste artwork. The ensuing attention was enough to keep everyone phyched about playing and the gigs kept coming. By September of 1995, Caleb, Bill and Mike were living in an apartment in Sunderland, out in the crop fields between UMass and the Deerfield River. The place would eventually come to be known as "The 4-6." The 4-6It was also one of the band's most productive periods musically, mainly because Bill and Caleb spent a lot of time just hanging around and jamming in the living room, often times fueling the creative juices with plenty of cheap domestic beer. (Schaefer, Shlitz, Pabst - no cheap brew was safe!) January of 1996 found the four back recording again and building a release pattern of tape-single, tape-single. This time, however, Jim had moved on from Performance and co-established Zing Studios in Westfield. The Mitchells wound up being one of the guinea pigs for the new space, and it did have a lot of that at the time. It was under construction when the tracks were put down... no vocal isolation booth, and no amenities like paint or even ceiling tiles. Some adjoining rooms for amp placement and a lot of wires strewn about the floor was about it. But they endured enough for four songs to come out of that session and become the second, self-titled tape. Gigging continued, some in Northampton and a lot on the UMass/Amherst campus. Lots of small shows with other indie bands, local and touring. AMH ShowSome of the highlights that year include an emergency opening slot for Papas Fritas, a Valentine's Day gig with Throwing Muses, and an extremely well-attended show at Amherst College, sponsored by 89.3 WAMH (a very cool station). That show also featured local friends-in-rock Pirate Jenny and Tizzy. Once the second tape came out in the fall of 1996, the band was busy planning another January trip to Zing to put down some more tracks for what would become another 7" single. This time around, two songs wouldn't do, and they ended up recording three songs, one of which, "Zinc Yellow," has yet to see the light of day except for personal copies of the session. Without enough money to go back and remix it, "Sick" was pulled from the previous year's cassette sessions and released as the second b-side song along with "Sounded like a 1-5-5." "King of Donairs," - an ode to the Canada trip - was the a-side. Since then, you can find the band performing at the usuall Northampton/ Amherst haunts. Caleb works at Mystery Train Records in Amherst, and in-store performances are common. You might have caught the band in Boston or Providence also, playing at TT the Bear's Place, The Kendall Cafe, or the Met Cafe, but Boston/ Providence shows are tough for out-of-towners with no label support. But keep looking for the band playing anywhere they can...basements, dorms, coffee houses, bars (good and bad), clubs, parties and outdoor events. During most of 1998, however, public appearances have slowed to a minimum, with resources (musical and financial) channeled instead to working on material for a full-length CD. The basic tracks, overdubs and vocals were done over several months beginning in late spring of '98, and final mixing was finished in mid-November. The release date is still undetermined at this point, but is expected sometime in the fall of '99.