[TypicalGirls] Jamie K. Sims: former Cosmopolitan
Deborah Albericci
deborahh at att.net
Thu May 11 10:38:56 EDT 2006
/And she adds that there's a chance The Cosmopolitans might reunite for
a show.<----/Does anyone have any info?? thanx
deb
**
ARTS & CULTURE
May 10, 2006
Cosmo Gal
Richmond composer Jamie K. Sims recalls her wild days with The
Cosmopolitans.
by Brent Baldwin
It's been years since local classical composer Jamie K. Sims rocked out.
That's not to mention pounding toy hammers, throwing batons around a
stage, or busting out the pompoms and go-go moves. Actually, she doesn't
remember any pompoms -- that's just how the Village Voice described her
New York-based party rock combo, The Cosmopolitans, in the early '80s,
as "New Wave pom pom girls with brains."
Although Sims has been living in the Museum District since 1993,
operating a small piano studio for adults and working as a
composer-in-residence at schools around Virginia, she has her own little
place in the history of the New York club scene.
Creating an infectious update of humorous garage rock around the same
time as the similar-sounding B-52's, The Cosmopolitans made their mark
with several radio hits and some wildly entertaining shows at legendary
clubs around New York such as CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and The Mudd Club.
Following renewed interest on the Internet and props from modernist
female groups including Le Tigre -- which, Sims has been told, counts
her band as an influence -- a new retrospective CD, "Wild Moose Party,"
was recently released on Dionysus Records. It could introduce Sims' band
to a whole new generation of fans.
Lately, Sims has been having a ball going through her memories and
souvenirs from that period in her life -- like the old concert flyers
and photos covering a table in her townhouse.
"It was cheap then because New York was going bankrupt," she says. "You
could work a part-time job and still survive." Musically, she says, "it
was just a wide-open world. There was a lot happening."
A former honors student in composition at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sims originally conceived of The Cosmopolitans
in the mid-1970s as a rogue comedy/dance group. By the end of that
decade, she'd moved with then-boyfriend, producer and musician Chris
Stamey (of The dBs), to New York.
"We drove straight to Blondie's first album release party," she recalls.
The Cosmopolitans didn't become a band until a 1979 benefit concert for
the struggling dance group at CBGB's. The bill included Bobby "Boris"
("Monster Mash") Pickett, as well as Sims' friends, The dBs and The
Fleshtones (her all-time favorite band). During the show, the troupe
performed an impromptu song that went over big.
As creative founder, Sims began writing songs, playing vintage
keyboards, singing, dancing and pounding toy hammers mainly with friend
Nel Moore, who backed her up on harmonica and vocals. Together they
forged a sound that was part '60s girl group (think Shangri-Las) and
part R&B garage (think Sam the Sham), with "Hullabaloo"-like dance moves.
The girls began recording for NYC's Shake Records with their friend
Mitch Easter (later known for his work with R.E.M.), who played on
several tracks, as well as drummer Will Rigby, who now performs with
Steve Earle.
The song for which The Cosmopolitans are most well-known is an
energetic, instructional exercise/dance number "(How to Keep Your)
Husband Happy," which features deadpan checklist lyrics such as "(2) If
you must work, try to arrange it so you're home first. ... (6) Bright
smile and morning coffee! ... (8) Excess fat -- taboo!"
The New York Times described it as "a funny dance number [with]
originality and wit," and the song received international airplay from
Europe to South America and became especially popular on BBC's Radio 1.
During this time, Sims remembers often seeing a pre-fame Madonna, who
was in a dance class with Moore, when the material girl used to frequent
The Cosmopolitans' dirty practice building to visit her boyfriend.
Unfortunately, Sims was stricken with Epstein-Barr virus, which she
likens to mono or chronic fatigue syndrome, and had to quit performing
live in 1982.
So she began recording as a solo musician and found work as a studio
manager at Chelsea Sound, eventually joining a newly formed studio
alongside noted producer Gary Katz and Steely Dan's Donald Fagen.
An Alabama native, Sims always yearned to return to the South, so she
and her husband, Errol, decided to relocate to Richmond in 1993.
Since then she's kept busy working on chamber music, pieces for
off-Broadway performances, sacred compositions, and music for dance and
films. She plays a lovely piano piece she composed for an upcoming local
film documentary about a Japanese peace activist (as well as a couple of
moving pieces written for former pets that have died -- Sims loves animals).
One of her latest works is a recently premiered choral piece, "God's
Love Unbroken," in support of gay and lesbian inclusion in the
sacraments of the Episcopal Church. The St. Mark's Episcopal Church
choir performed it in Richmond.
It was the fall of 2003 when Sims heard from Lee Joseph with Dionysus
Records.
"A guy named Jason Rerun was playing the [Cosmopolitans] record on his
KDHX show, 'Scene of the Crime,'" Joseph says via e-mail, "and I poked
around a bit and found Jamie."
Sims still enjoys both classical and "beat" music, particularly older
R&B and Motown records. And she adds that there's a chance The
Cosmopolitans might reunite for a show.
"It all boils down to, we were having fun and making the music we wanted
to hear," she says. "If you're playing from the right place, no matter
how simple it is -- you're going to reach people." *S*
/The Cosmopolitans' "Wild Moose Party: New Wave Pom Pom Girls Gone
Go-Go, NYC 1980-1981" is available at Plan 9, or at Barnes & Noble, Best
Buy, CD Universe and Amazon.com./
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