COUCH - Glass Brothers 1993-1994 (Bulb)

Here is the out-of-print CD by my first band, COUCH. This CD collects some vinyl-only tracks from our first self-titled 7" (BLB-026), the Silver Owl 12" (which was a split with Bullet In the Head) and some new tracks that fleshed out the CD. Some of the newer tracks were COUCH hits that were never recorded and some of it was shameless filler, designed to make the CD "long enough". Incidentally, the above-depicted liner notes, with the phrase "Eyes Gouged by Thumbs of Satan" (courtesy of Weasel Walter), got the CD rejected by our printer, just before departing on our first and only west coast tour.

COUCH was formed in 1992, by myself (Marlon Magas) and Pete Larson (Mr. Velocity Hopkins). We also started Bulb Records, as a vehicle for COUCH and Larson's other band, Prehensile Monkey-tailed Skink.

COUCH had a uniform look, dressing in suits, to distinguish ourselves from the rock'n'roll "grunge" look that was popular in the early '90s. Dressing in suits also gave us a serious look, to throw off people who thought our music may not have been serious, or that we didn't "practice". Never mind that our suits smelled terrible, our shirts had a serious amount of "ring-around-the-collar" and that I couldn't even tie a tie and had to slip on a pre-made noose every time we would perform. Wearing suits also made us very uncomfortable and hot, which also helped fuel our anger toward our audiences and the world at large.

COUCH weren't really "noise" per se, but we were influenced by noise and had noise in our music (same with the no wave angle), which arguably set the tone for the well-documented Ann Arbor noise explosion that would follow (Wolf Eyes, Nautical Almanac, et al). The song, "Old Man" would later be covered by ex-Ann Arborite and friend, Andrew WK, who has cited Couch as an influence in several interviews.

As stated above, this CD has long been out-of-print. Larson and I discussed reissuing it at some point, but with Bulb being defunct, it is unlikely to happen. Interestingly enough, we left one of our better songs, "Glass Brothers" off the Glass Brothers CD, thinking that adding a title track would be "too obvious".

COUCH really began to hit our stride with the addition of Aaron Dilloway on drums. With this line-up, we recorded the NEW FRIENDS 99 7", released by San Francisco's INSIGNIFICANT and currently out-of-print. When a digitized copy is obtained, it will likely be posted here.

Meanwhile, here's GLASS BROTHERS.