TRIPPING DAISY

Rip It Up, Issue 224, 1 April 1996, Page 10

TRIPPING DAISY

Tim DeLaughter formed Tripping Daisy in Dallas, Texas in 1991, after happening on the conclusion, if the Stones, Black Sabbath, and Lynard Skynard could do it, there was nothing stopping him and pals, Wes (guitar), Mark (bass), and Bryan (drums), trying their luck. And he was right. Tripping Daisy’s first recorded song found its way onto a Dallas rock station’s annual compilation album, and the rest, as they say, was a major label bidding war.

However, Tripping Daisy opted to play a cat and mouse game with the hovering music giants, choosing to make their first album, Bill, for the indie Dragon Street. If one of the majors was even fractionally more committed than the others, they would stick around, decided DeLaughter. In the fall of 1993, Tripping Daisy had been wooed sufficiently by Chris Blackwell’s Island label (home to U2 and the Cranberries), who rereleased Bill, and sent the band on the road in the USA for 18 gruelling months. “There were six labels that wanted to sign the band at the time, and we decided to go with Island. I was a fan of Chris Blackwell for one, and I was into the acts that were on Island. They have a lot of different artists, and most importantly, they don’t try to break anyone overnight. That was appealing to me that they could see longevity in an artist, and stick with them rather than shooting their wad on one record.” If you’re not Bono, it’s probably easier to arrange a meeting with Elvis than the enigmatic Island owner, yet Blackwell’s efforts to spend time with the band were confidence boosting for DeLaughter, proof the band had signed on the right dotted line. “He came to Dallas to see us when they were ready to sign the band, and we spent the evening with him. Then we went to Jamaica afterwards, and stayed at his place and got to visit with him a

little bit there. But he’s pretty much all over the world, so if you have any time with him, you consider yourself lucky — which we really did.” Tripping Daisy travelled to New Jersey with Fugazi/Jawbox producer Ted Nicely to record their Island debut. I am an Elastic Firecracker, “a guitar album of short stories of situations”, says DeLaughter, has been out in the States for almost a year. He says that between Hootie and the Blowfish and Alanis Morissette, and now Oasis, it’s a struggle for any new artist or band to get a foothold in the US market. The ace up Tripping Daisy’s sleeve is a solid background of touring, that in the end will aid a band’s longevity more than a single buzz clip on MTV. “We’ve toured here 10 times, and we can play, on average, to 500 people to 2,000. That might not sound like much, but it’s a good base for where we’re at. It’s been awesome that we’ve been able to impact those people without MTV support, because it’s extremely detrimental to bands that are up and coming. “That’s the beauty of being on this label, they don’t make you feel like you have to break overnight, they totally want to be able to let the listener grow with the band. Right now it’s a scary time in music, we want people to grow with our band, and experience all of their records, not just get into us as the flavour of the month.”

JOHN RUSSELL