Some people around here might know Joe Maddalena for his current stint in The Mountain Movers, and then there's his other band, Crooked Hook, but long before any of that Joe was blazing a trail as an international indie pop superstar (believe me, I heard the rumors) with his 90's bedroom pop project, Names For Pebbles. Names For Pebbles at one point also included erstwhile 76% Uncertain drummer Bill Knapp, though I have no idea what Bill has been up to lately, or even where one could go to look up something like that.
Names For Pebbles derived from the supposedly miles and miles of tapes that Joe recorded by himself throughout the 90's, leading up to a handful of releases and compilation tracks as well as a scant few live performances. I managed to see Name For Pebbles once and get my hands on several recordings, as evidenced by the photo (taken at Brass City Records in 1997) and write-up from Brushback, seen below. Wow, what a hilarious, insightful fanzine that must've been. Too bad you missed it, right?
In the meantime, check out "All Day Reverie", which was released in Japan in '96 and is an important piece of CT twee-pop history, to be sure. Gee, this might even earn me my very own writing gig for Tweefort.com or CT Indie, who knows. Can't be any worse than the last guy, Mr. Heirloom Tomatoes or whomever the fuck he was.
Names For Pebbles -
(these files are now listen-only)
"Names For Pebbles Theme"
"Fairfax"
"Every Cloudy Rainbow"
