My nascent, parallel research into the histories of Holiday and Adolf has uncovered some new information about our subjects. Thank you to my new (anonymous) friends in the Development and Alumni Relations Office at Temple University for the tip! I am getting closer every day! What follows is an entry from the Trouser Trout Press, a now defunct fan-zine and web site that—like the current All Music Guide and Julian Cope’s Heritage Head, among others—once took on the daunting task of creating a living, growing encyclopedia of music history, with a special emphasis on the "other music," the lost oddities and obscure gems. Honestly, I was initially shocked by descriptions of the puerile content of Dolf and Holiday's early recordings. You may be, as well. After some thought, however, I now speculate that Dolf and Holiday came to Soft Rock much in the way a philandering drug addicted criminal comes to Christianity, born again with evangelical fervor to spare.
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| "Born Again" Soft Rockers Lather and Rinse? |
I extend my gratitude to another anonymous soul, this one at the Philadelphia City Paper, who is responsible for sharing her archived copy of the Trouser Trout article. This same woman was able to provide a press photo of the duo of Dolf and Holiday as Lather and Rinse, their Soft Rock band, although the resemblance to two of their more prominent heroes is uncanny, and I smell a hoax(!) Many thanks to all who helped the cause this month. - ed.
From the Trouser Trout Press:
The Optimus Prime
Discography:
Good Golly, It’s… (Taint) 1988
Songs about Buttcheeks to Learn and Sing (Taint) 1990
Bleepy, Can You Hear Me? (Taint) 1991
They Hate Us Because We Love the Freedom! (Taint/Universal) 1993
as Lather and Rinse
Sometimes Ts and Bs (Drive Me Ns) (Taint) 1988
Little Flower (Taint/Universal) 1993
Good Golly, It’s The Optimus Prime announced the arrival of two rare, raw talents. Dolf (Alexander Adolfo) and Holiday (Kevin Halliday) met while both were finishing long undergraduate careers (8 and 6 years, respectively) at Philadelphia’s Temple University. Both claimed “to be under the influence of a higher being” and felt they needed more time to “digest the knowledge of their higher learning”. Others attributed these lengthy stays at university to substance abuse and a fascination with seeing how much sleep an individual can possibly squeeze into a day.
Dolf—a multi-instrumentalist, visual artist and writer—and Holiday, also a writer, plus a long time dabbler in musique concrete—began experimenting with music in the fall of 1984, recording nonsense on a Radio Shack cassette deck with a child’s Casio and an assortment of house fans, oscillators, pedals and toys. Some of these one-off improvisations were self-released in limited number that year, most notably the Opus One cassette, which found its way into the hands of record store owner/producer Betty “B-Mac” McIntyre. Unlike the fine wine of the same name, the unfortunate Opus One cassette has not fared well with age and reveals little more than a fascination with potty humor and bad imitations of Latin American immigrants (i.e. "Hello, Is This Working? Hello?”). Nevertheless, B-Mac, who had launched the careers of artists like The Wilson B. Goode Move Implosion and Los Keebleros Pequenos, commissioned Adolf and Holiday to make a record to commemorate her 35th birthday. The OP did nothing of the sort. They took the money and made 1,000 t-shirts, more specifically, tour shirts to mark the second world tour of Jesus of Nazareth. They then took the profits from the sale of these shirts and recorded what would become Good Golly… adding a cheap computer and a stolen 8-track Porta-studio to their growing arsenal of toys. It was also during this time that the duo re-launched their doomed Taint Records label.
In a 1983 interview Dolf claimed that the original Taint was created to promote artists that “taint commercial and taint accessible”. The new Taint would have a similar mission. Initial efforts to re-launch the label failed, however. At the opening party held at the former Love Lounge in Philadelphia, the duo reportedly spent the evening standing in a corner, pointing at women and saying, “How you doin'?” "Wanna make out?” and "Thanks for coming out." The "Come On Feel My Taint" bumper stickers were a big hit, however, and using the slim profits, OP re-released the Good Golly… record, along with some of Holiday’s solo work as the Ass Piston—most notably the Arse Musica tape that featured early versions of “The Early Bird Gets the Finger (the Middle)” and “Close the Window”, songs that the OP would later rework—and the Sometimes Ts and Bs album attributed to the band’s acoustic, soft rock side project Lather and Rinse.
Dolf—a multi-instrumentalist, visual artist and writer—and Holiday, also a writer, plus a long time dabbler in musique concrete—began experimenting with music in the fall of 1984, recording nonsense on a Radio Shack cassette deck with a child’s Casio and an assortment of house fans, oscillators, pedals and toys. Some of these one-off improvisations were self-released in limited number that year, most notably the Opus One cassette, which found its way into the hands of record store owner/producer Betty “B-Mac” McIntyre. Unlike the fine wine of the same name, the unfortunate Opus One cassette has not fared well with age and reveals little more than a fascination with potty humor and bad imitations of Latin American immigrants (i.e. "Hello, Is This Working? Hello?”). Nevertheless, B-Mac, who had launched the careers of artists like The Wilson B. Goode Move Implosion and Los Keebleros Pequenos, commissioned Adolf and Holiday to make a record to commemorate her 35th birthday. The OP did nothing of the sort. They took the money and made 1,000 t-shirts, more specifically, tour shirts to mark the second world tour of Jesus of Nazareth. They then took the profits from the sale of these shirts and recorded what would become Good Golly… adding a cheap computer and a stolen 8-track Porta-studio to their growing arsenal of toys. It was also during this time that the duo re-launched their doomed Taint Records label.
In a 1983 interview Dolf claimed that the original Taint was created to promote artists that “taint commercial and taint accessible”. The new Taint would have a similar mission. Initial efforts to re-launch the label failed, however. At the opening party held at the former Love Lounge in Philadelphia, the duo reportedly spent the evening standing in a corner, pointing at women and saying, “How you doin'?” "Wanna make out?” and "Thanks for coming out." The "Come On Feel My Taint" bumper stickers were a big hit, however, and using the slim profits, OP re-released the Good Golly… record, along with some of Holiday’s solo work as the Ass Piston—most notably the Arse Musica tape that featured early versions of “The Early Bird Gets the Finger (the Middle)” and “Close the Window”, songs that the OP would later rework—and the Sometimes Ts and Bs album attributed to the band’s acoustic, soft rock side project Lather and Rinse.
Adolf moved on to Baltimore Holiday stayed in Philly to pursue an MFA in poetry. Both worked a series of blue-collar jobs, partly to pay B-Mac back for her birthday record and partly to recover from the financial losses incurred by Taint records and the numerous failed launching parties. Only Lather and Rinse’s trip-hop remake of Bread’s “If”, appropriately called “If-Hop,” registered with listeners and became a minor club hit (a similar proto-drum n bass remake of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows (in a Biblical Sense)” became a hit in German clubs). Fueled by these minor triumphs, the dark days for the band were short-lived. A rare live performance on an Austrian cable access show saw the Optimus Prime improvise a new song titled "Schnitzle in Mein Mouf" and the performance rekindled the creative spark between the two.
Falling very short of restoring the relationship with B-Mac (and her fledgling, Universal-backed British Shoes label) OP turned instead to a new patron, Jeremy “J-Love” Schaeffer. The OP exploited J-Love’s infatuation with Holiday’s roommate and sometimes bed-mate K-Mac, the younger sister of B-Mac (K-Mac was also romantically linked to Tango of The Audacity and Phil Type of Mickey and the Tough Guys). Love funded the OP’s Songs about Buttcheeks to Learn and Sing but, unlike B-Mac, saw some returns on his investment. Songs About… received positive press and a bit of local radio play. WPRB radio in Princeton, NJ hosted the band for a live in-studio performance of “Any Port in a Storm (if the Buttcheeks Are Warm and You’re Planning to Stay All Night)” and “Yo Quiero Taco Belle” (a tribute to a very special fast food cashier in Dolf’s neighborhood). DJ and local music devotee Juan Salamone did his best to champion the band. URB magazine even listed the band as one to watch in its 1990 year-end review, particularly on the weight of the single “Hello, J.O.” produced by pre-United Church of What’s Happening Now’s Turk 182 that prominently featured a loop from Shuggie Otis’s “Strawberry Letter 23.”
All seemed to be going well for the OP, and J-Love, when the patron decided to throw a party for the band to celebrate the successful year, as well as Dolf’s return to the Philadelphia area. During the party at Love’s loft in suburban Philadelphia, where recent Taint enlistee Heir Helmut was scheduled to play, Holiday, Dolf and independent filmmaker D. Roegge (who had just completed work on a video for the OP’s “Let us Talk about the Buttcheeks (at Great Length and in Much Detail)”) all overdosed on acid-laced More 120 cigarettes. The three destroyed the loft and most of their warehoused records, not to mention the already tenuous relationship with J-Love. Despite causing their own debacle, the OP later blamed Love’s “nipple rings” and “healthy lifestyle” as reasons for the split and subsequent folding of Taint Records. The caustic duo continued to attack Love through song and action. The culmination of this was their documented run-in at the TLA in 1991 while catching a performance by the indie rock band Bastro. According to shocked and confused reporters, Love and his then girlfriend were steadily ignored while trying to speak to Holiday and Dolf. Later, the duo tried in vain to slip what they called their “members” into the back of said girlfriend’s elastic waistband while screaming “It's got me, for Christ's sake, it’s got me!” Dolf suffered another of several consecutive overdoses shortly thereafter.
Setbacks and hospitalizations aside, a revived Taint made enough money to finance the lease of a new studio, the Rock, located in Philadelphia’s East Falls neighborhood, and some new instruments, including a Radio Shack/Realistic MG-1. Bleepy, as the band would call the Moog-like instrument, became a member of the band and was present for all subsequent interviews (even on the phone) and photo shoots. Bleepy, Can You Hear Me? actually warranted interviews and photos; it is universally regarded as the OP’s finest recording. Combining the improvisation of Umma Gumma-era Pink Floyd with the studio trickery that predated the glitch of the mid- to late-90’s, Bleepy… deconstructed psychedelic and folk music—and without the use of drugs, it should be noted. Since Dolf’s recovery, OP had become very vocal supporters of the “Plugs not Drugs” campaign funded in part by the Hair Club for Men.
It was at this time that another potential strife was introduced into the band. Holiday had informed Dolf that he was romantically involved with an ex-girlfriend of his from their university days. In some ways, however, this ultimately bought the two men closer together and sparked yet another creative renaissance. The Been There, Done That EP was never released commercially, but holds a special place in the hearts of collectors. The artists themselves we're especially fond of the cut "Smell My Finger - No, Smell Mine". According to published reports, after deciding to split with the lady in question, Holiday would find red ribbons tied outside his Philadelphia home—a mystery that to this day has never been explained.
They Hate Us Because We Love the Freedom, released in late 1993, is an album with two distinct sides. The rock songs take aim at conservative politicians, with Kraut and prog influences worn proudly. Interestingly enough, President George W. Bush would later co-op the phrase to defend his position of pre-emptive strikes. They Hate Us… also uses field recordings and pure noise to explore Holiday’s early fascination with musique concrete. One piece in that vein, “A Chance to Fart is a Chance to Vent,” was later featured heavily on the crime drama CSI.
Lather and Rinse released the Little Flower album in 1993 and saw the duo move further towards a softer, gentler sound that coincided with their fascination with the Soft Rock of the 1970’s. Penned in honor of Holiday's unemployed Latino girlfriend, the title track is a love letter to a special lady. True to form, however, Dolf later offered Holiday's “muchacha” $500.00 a month and no benefits to watch his soon to be born daughter, thinking it was “better than working at a car wash or cleaning toilets”—and caused yet another rift between the two artists. After the Little Flower record failed to make a commercial or critical impact, the duo turned its attention for a brief time to championing Soft Rock as an art form, and then faded into obscurity as middle age overcame them both.
See also Lather and Rinse, The Ass Piston, Mack Davis
I have searched in vain thus far for more evidence of the existence of these Lather and Rinse recordings. How wonderful would it be to find actual Soft Rock music played by Dolf and Holiday!! Rest assured, I am not deterred from my goals. If anything, my resolve has been strengthened by this extraordinary find. I will discover more about these two characters, and I will continue to edit and share their written work with you.
I have searched in vain thus far for more evidence of the existence of these Lather and Rinse recordings. How wonderful would it be to find actual Soft Rock music played by Dolf and Holiday!! Rest assured, I am not deterred from my goals. If anything, my resolve has been strengthened by this extraordinary find. I will discover more about these two characters, and I will continue to edit and share their written work with you.
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