a week or two ago i got an email from a person i didn’t know. surprisingly, it wasn’t spam. it was a guy named john talking about a cassette-only album i’d lost years ago: potluck suicide by eric hann. it was an underground independently made alt christian tape with a quirky 80’s electronic feel and a dry ironic wit that beautifully punched home some things. anyway, john had been doing searches on eric and the album name and ran across some posts i’d made a couple of years back about my loss of this “irreplaceable” cassette (as i had put it). so he decided to email the address (another good reason to keep the same email address, kids) and let me know it in fact was replaceable…because he had digitized it! he then offered to burn me a cd (after getting an okay from eric). so i’m now sitting here listening to some songs i’ve not heard for years. and from a cd, no less. that is freaking awesome! i thought i’d probably never hear this stuff again.
Wow,
I’d sure like to have a CD copy of that if possible.
Eric Hann
Hey,
I laughed my head off reading your bite about the Potluck Suicide tape. I haven’t heard anyone mention those tapes in a long time. Out of curiosity, I just wanted to see how you happened upon one to begin with. My friend John (Mabry) helped me produce those back in college in the 80’s. I haven’t recorded in a long time, but I did record two “follow-up” tapes to that album. One was ignored by millions, the other was never “released” (lol). My recorder… um… broke – lol. I do have one song that was pressed on a compilation CD of a bunch of underground artists. If you’d like that CD (with only one of the songs being mine) I’ll send it to you (I have about a thousand of them – lol).
I guess my demise from recording anymore was both the usual “time” factors – but also, there’s some guy named “Mark Planguet (sp?)” that people kept comparing me to. I guess he and I were similar in what w were doing, but he did it before I did. People accused me of copying him, but on my life I swear I’ve never heard even one song by the guy. Tooth and Nail records bashed me pretty hard for “obviously copying Mark P” – lol. Oh well. What I came to find out is that Mark P was influenced by some of the same bands I like – primarily “the Residents.” My 2nd tape “Stan Was a Plush Toy” is the one that sounds more like the Residents, which is the one that was accused of being a copy of Mark P (whom, again, I’ve never heard – even so much as one song. Interestingly, I saw that Mark P has a tribute site to the Residents – lol).
Anyway, I’m just glad to know someone out there is still listening to it – lol. Know that I’m not bent at John or anyone for copying them. Copy away! I’d just seriously like to get a CD copy – lol.
Eric Hann (Potluck Suicide guy)
(I’m assuming the version John sent you is the original version – the one that doesn’t begin with the song “Pastor on a Stick” and has some sappy ballads at the end?)