The Waitresses' Chris Butler is Looking for a Few Good Local Musicians

[image-1]Known for new wave hits such as “I Know What Boys Like” and “Christmas Wrapping,” the Waitresses were one of the most significant bands to emerge from the same Akron scene that produced acts such as Devo and Tin Huey.

A couple of years ago, Omnivore Recordings reissued the band’s first two albums, 1982’s Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful? and 1983’s Bruiseology as part of at the terrific double disc set Just Desserts: The Complete Waitresses.

Twenty years ago, Butler, who now lives in Akron again, ended the song “The Devil Glitch” with a number of variations that featured 500 choruses over the course of 69 minutes, making it “The World’s Longest Pop Song” according to the 1997 Guinness Book of World Records.

In 2014, some 50 artists contributed to make it even longer. Thanks to the submissions from over 50 artists, writers, musicians, and “pranksters,” it approached the five hour mark.

Now, Butler wants to make it even longer.

“I am asking for audio submissions (we call ‘em ‘chunks’) to the song,” he says in a Facebook post. “Come up with lyrics that start with “Sometimes you can fix something by…”, create ANY sort of backing noises (regular ol’ music, tuned vacuum cleaners, computer-mutated dog barks…anything), get it to me, and I’ll edit it in."

Since a song is legally defined as “a lyric with a melody,” the “Sometimes…” phrase must be included, though Butler says “you are free to play with that.”

“Long instrumentals are not what I need,” he explains. “NB: no musical ability required – in fact, the most interesting chunks have come from non-musicians. There are free, downloadable recording programs like Audacity you can use, as well as free cellphone recording apps. There’s also GarageBand, etc. To the audio/tech savvy, the best format for your chunk is a .wav or .aiff file. MP3s are ok. If this is gibberish, get in touch and I’ll walk you through it. Also, if you are in the Northeastern Ohio area, I CAN RECORD YOU at my studio.”

You can contact Butler through Facebook or via email at [email protected].

Thanks to local musician and writer Ron Kretsch for calling our attention to the project. He's written about the Butler's quest for Dangerous Minds.