Love and Respect: Why we love punk-rock for!

A year ago Volker Stewart wrote a piece for us about his record label, Penultimate, where he confessed that his favorite part of the Penultimate portfolio was none other than Love and Respect. Many of you grunge-fiends probably heard of the band before, but few of you know who they really were.

Love and Respect was one of the finest supergroups in town. And I say supergroup because the line-up featured of Ed Fotheringham from the barf-rockers The Thrown Ups, Whiting Tennis and Joe Culver from Big Tube Squeezer, along with Steven LaRose and occasionally Steve Turner from Mudhoney. Although the band had a short existence, it managed to put out a 6-song EP called Deep and Heatfelt and a LP, namely The Love & Respect Record.

The idea for a L&R post came after I accidentally found Steven LaRose on youtube, and he agreed to help me by financing my blog with L&R tunes and a great story about the band's short history. The story was put together by Steve himself in a day of facebook message exchanges with the rest of the crew (isn't facebook great?!). Lots of thanks to Steve, Ed, Joe and Whiting!!! Enjoy:

In 1985 I met Whiting at my first job out of undergraduate school painting sets for the Seattle Repertory Theatre. Whiting invited me to share some of his studio space which was located next to the Comet Tavern. Ed had the space across the hall, but he enters the story later. First, Whiting meets my friend from college Joe and they form the band Big Tube Squeezer. It must have been the summer of ’88 when Joe and Ed started joking about the idea of a band while at Mung Fest, a big pre-rave, low-impact, camp-out jam-session that Whiting and his family/friends had cultivated.

I distinctly remember our first “practice” because I was so freaked out. Ed took us to the “E” level of the University of Washington’s parking garage. He knew of this place because he and his ensemble The Thrown Ups had used this space for its unique location of electrical outlets. I just watched as the others attempted to jam.

We played at a couple parties and like Joe says, “it was a semi planned spontaneous appearance, like we didn't care and had never practiced before.” I was very uncomfortable most of the time and have no sense of music so I had to turn and look at Joe

for timing clues. However, one time at a party, I remember finally mustering the co

urage to turn around and the only two people who were there were Tad and Bob Whitaker. They were happy pogo monsters. I was so proud.

Somehow, we got on a bill at the Vogue. Cat Butt and The Fluid were the real acts and we were a novelty opener. I was still dependent on Joe so we put him up front and me in the back so I had to face forward. There was also a homemade bubble machine. Ed - “The Bubble Machine!!! Totally forgot about that. It was a floor fan blowing a home made circular turbine made from balsa (for the propellers) and coat hangers (for the circle thingys that make bubbles). The air from the fan would simultaneously blow the turbine around, dipping the circular coat hangers into the soapy liquid, blowing bubbles when the coat hangers emerged. Fucker worked!”

We also played a party at our friend Victoria Haven’s studio. There are some great pictures from that night. Joe- “I remember vic's studio show being a bit of a "Moment" where we thought, hey this doesn't suck that much.”

So maybe this is around the time we played the Squid Row. None of us remembers playing there, but Volker does and he is the one that eventually paid for the recording and the records and all that. “Oh yeah, it was definitely Squid Row - Turner was playing his lap steel and Pavitt was doing a crazy dance in front of him. Maybe you were the only one dressed well at Squid Row, which may have made me remember the v-neck! I remember Squid Row shows cos it was easy for me to get home - I lived around he corner - less misery.”

Oh yeah. . . Steve Turner. Ed – “Steve was an interested half-member...” It seems we were taking ourselves slightly more seriously at th

is point but still having loads of fun and drinking lots of Schmidt beer. Whiting - “I was definitely jealous of how easily Love and Respect wa

s getting shows, recording etc, cause I was putting much of what I had into Big Tube Squeezer and it wasn't really going anywhere. So I was frustrated in that way. But at the same time I loved the shows, and not having to write or sing or be in front- I totally loved that. Plus playing bass is easy as shit to play drunk.”

We played another show at the Vogue. Mudhoney and Swallow were on the bill. Mudhoney couldn’t make it that night. I think it was a rare

Seattle snow. Joe – “I also dimly remember a horrible jam on stage at the end of the evening.”

This all lasted a year. We played once more at Mung Fest in 1989. There was a recording session with Jack Endino, maybe twice. Joe – “One, just us, and one with Steve T

urner. Those were a solid good time. Low expectations, but it sounded decent. Jack gave me the "mudhoney" reverb/eq for the snare and I was happy”.

You can also catch up with L&R on facebook...here. And come on good people, leave comments, suggestions, don't just download :D !

Chlamydia

Stupid Pretty Girl

Wanda Fuca

Car

Couldnt Get High

Fishy Respect