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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