Farmers

Farmers
Background information
Origin	San Francisco, California, United States
Associated acts	American Music Club
Past members	Vudi Popeye O.P. Tim Vaughan Brian Schindele Scary Larry Mike Helland Bill Sparks Matt "Sluggo" Norelli Frankie G Jeff Hirano

Farmers were a San Francisco-based band, active in the early 1980s. The band started out with Vudi on guitar and vocals backed by his brothers Popeye and O.P., Tim Vaughan played drums, Scary Larry played pedal steel for a bit, Mike Helland and Bill Sparks played saxophone, and Brian Schindele played keyboards. Matt "Sluggo" Norelli played percussion on occasion, and Frankie G sang and Jeff Hirano played guitar in the band's later incarnations.

Keyboardist Brian Schindele appropriately describes their style on his website as, "Punk Jazz? Nick Drake inspired psychedelia meets Funkadelic? Cowboy noise? Taiwanese Disco Cover Band? One big mess? Sure."

Farmers released a four song 12" EP Packed In An Urban Area and a cassette Tragic Tales Of Life, as well as a couple of demos.

Vudi had a unique visual sense as well, and produced a number of striking posters for the band, usually grainy black and white pictures that could be funny and gruesome at the same time (one poster was the famous shot of the corpse of Mussolini hanging upside down in barbed wire - with the picture inverted he looks like he's doing a very macabre dance). The cover of the EP Packed In An Urban Area featured a crisp black and white photo by San Francisco photographer Bobby Neel Adams of horses being slaughtered in an abattoir. American Music Club pedal steel guitarist Bruce Kaphan was the engineer, mixer, and played electric guitar on the EP, and states on his website regarding the cover art that if he were aware that this cover art would be chosen, he wouldn't have agreed to be part of this production.

Source

• Farmers page on Brian Schindele's website