5.16.2008

The CeBe Barnes Band

The CeBe Barnes Band consisted of Rachel Carns, Radio Sloan, and Miranda July. I'm sure that many of you know that Rachel and Radio went on to form The Need and Miranda July went on to.... yeah, you know. I got to see The CeBe Barnes Band live back in 1995. They played a show at a glbt center in San Jose with Sleater-Kinney that I was at. They kind of blew my mind. I ended up seeing The Need numerous times and also a lot of Miranda July's performance pieces. It was an awesome time in the sense that Miranda July was opening for bands and there wasn't a huge disconnect in what she was doing versus a band playing. I always thought that Tracy & The Plastics was what Miranda July would have been had she continued making music.

Anyhow, The CeBe Barnes Band. Totally awesome. Extremely short lived. I am pretty sure this is the only release. Here's the 7" which is probably best known for the song She's A Winner though the first two tracks are even better. (Once again, special thanks to Blowin' Your Cover for converting the vinyl to mp3s!)

Height of Fashion
Consuming You
She's A Winner

10 comments:

DJ Rick said...

Thanks for posting this...More people oughta know the genius of this record! Especially "Height of Fashion" a.k.a. "You Use Me For Fashion" (depending on whether you read the inner or outer label)....so damn catty and screechy.

d.c. said...

every single time i listen to them i think of your enjoyment of that song! saw that you played it recently, in fact!

Catherine said...

excellent! I've been trying to hunt this down- thanks.

d.c. said...

glad i could be of service!
you have a pretty nice blog.

Catherine said...

thanks!

Gland Dialer said...

The insert on my copy says "[Radio] Tragedy & Antonia Eugenie Gogin play all the instruments and sing. Miranda July does Song and Dance." This seems to contradict what you wrote about Rachel Carns being in this band. (That's why they changed their name to the Need, right?) I could be wrong... after all you saw them play and I did not. Thanks!

d.c. said...

After 1995, Carns joined up with legendary Portland queercorists the Ce Be Barnes Band; she and guitarist/engineer Radio Tragedy outlasted their bandmates, becoming the Need along the way.
from this article: http://www.citypages.com/1997-10-15/feature/generation-next/

the touring version i saw was miranda, radio, and rachel. i believe toni was trying to get horsekitty off the ground at that point, but i may be mistaken about that.

magda o said...

can you please re-upload this?

d.c. said...

leave yr email address or email me t the contact email address and i will mail you a link. probably won't have time to do it until the weekend.

Unknown said...

Thought I add my two-bits. When the Ce Be Barnes band started it was just Radio, Miranda and Toni. I think they were all living together in a NE Portland house, at least Radio and Miranda lived there. Radio had a recording studio set up in the basement and that's where they recorded the single.