[TypicalGirls] Jamie K. Sims: former Cosmopolitan
parama siva
arusivam at gmail.com
Thu May 11 23:32:25 EDT 2006
hai,thank you,plz reply i also reply.
On 5/11/06, Deborah Albericci <deborahh at att.net> wrote:
>
>
> *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 <http://amazon.com/>.*
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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