The Going-Away Party

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
"Money changes everything," Cyndi Lauper famously warbled in her 1982 cover of the obscure Brains song. But for Complete Portion Control, money changes nothing. While CPC’s life of privilege has been known to make even close friends literally green with envy (this fortunately turned out to be a harmless ear infection), its music is determinedly of, by, and for the people. In its own way, Complete Portion Control’s mercilessly uncompromising Prep School Of Rock crosses borders of class and status more fluidly, and certainly more gracefully, than the highest street-credentialed outfit (though these days, seems you can win your Merit Badge just by shooting dope in an alleyway with some guy who used to be in The Dictators — too easy! says CPC). Recorded in three strange days at bandleader Viv Florida's country estate in upstate New York, The Going-Away Party is a bittersweet ode to growing up young, good-looking, and rich. The music reflects a thorough-going stylistic ease — genre hopping from the sound-collage pastiche of "Destroyer" to the minimalist bass chug/five guitar army right angles of "Right Rex/Ape?" to the pastoral mock piano balladry of "Sell Your House In 9 Days," which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Tindersticks record. Throughout, guitar sounds, filtered through some kind of magic reverb/compression machine, played with manic intensity and a borderline-nuts adherence to the songs’ simple chordal structures, skitter and slide and jut obliquely through the listener’s sound field — this may be the most three-dimensional record ever made. The glue that holds CPC’s complex sonic popsicle-stick architecture together (Florida's claims influence from Frank Gehry’s nearby Fisher Center For The Performing Arts, which he also claims to have partially funded) is Florida's elastic voice, which ranges from a monotone chant, to sweet crooning, to Mark E. Smith-style ranting vitriol, to a fearsome Primal Scream that can only be the result of serious methyl-adrenaline experimentation. "When The Verve wrote ‘The Drugs Don't Work,’" explains Florida's regarding CPC’s substance abuse policy, "my reaction — and I think everyone's reaction, really — was ‘well, sure, not if you can't afford the good stuff, pal.’ In my opinion he just wasn't trying."

By way of illustration, he refers to the two "CPC Adjunct Players" listed in the gnomic credits on the back sleeve of the EP, Danny Gibson and Shawn O’Sullivan. These two, Florida's insists, were "really just a couple of curious art students from nearby Bard College who wandered over to HenHouse attracted by the pretty lights and the noise. We spiked their lemonade with a massive dose of LSD and recorded the results. Which is actually the same trick Crispin Glover played on me in nursery school, re-contextualized." He pauses for a sip of tea, and takes a drag on his Gauloise. "Good times," he sighs, exhaling a blue plume of smoke in the shape of a sailboat.

Album Description
The Going-Away Party is the debut EP from Dayton Oh-based art rock collective Complete Portion Control, related by birth to Dayton lo-fi legends Guided By Voices. Imagine Mark E. Smith from The Fall if he'd gone to a Swiss prep school. Imagine jagged, cyclic rhythms with inscrutable, repetitive vocals ranging from sweet crooning to insane shouting. Imagine a drug experiment gone badly wrong.

Tracks:

There's No Business Like Show Business (Berlin)
Caca
I Want a Long Time Daddy (Grainger)
A Piece of Mahler
This Is All Very New to Me (Hague/Horwitt)
Going to New York
Marlon Brando
Broadway Baby (Sondheim)
My First Broadway Show
Civilization (Hilliard/Sigman)
Ethel Merman
Can You Use Any Money Today? (Berlin)
Pal Joey
Zip (Hart/Rodgers)
Ben Gazzara
Nokl Coward
Why Do the Wrong People Travel (Coward)
Richard Burton
But Not for Me/If Love Were All (Gershwin/Gershwin)
I'm Still Here (Sondheim)
Booze
Little Things You Do Together (Sondheim)
The Ladies Who Lunch (Sondheim)
John Bay
There Was Never a Baby Like My Baby (Comden/Green/Styne)
I've Been to a Marvelous Party (Coward)
God So Quickly
The Party's Over (Comden/Green/Styne)
Absent Almost Always
Something Good (Rodgers)

Tracks:

I'm Still Here (Sondheim)
Booze
Little Things You Do Together (Sondheim)
The Ladies Who Lunch (Sondheim)
John Bay
There Was Never a Baby Like My Baby (Comden/Green/Styne)
I've Been to a Marvelous Party (Coward)
God So Quickly
The Party's Over (Comden/Green/Styne)
Absent Almost Always
Something Good (Rodgers)

Amazon.com

Elaine Stritch is a legend and she knows it. And so she came up with a whole one-woman show about the best topic she could think of: her life in the theater. And what a trip it's been. From Ethel Merman to Noel Coward, Stritch has worked with some of the greatest names to grace the American stage, and she has anecdotes about all of them (most are included on this recording). In this show, she hits all the marks with the acuity of a seasoned pro who's seen it all and whose love for the theater remains undiluted. Stritch is not a traditionally pretty singer (those gravelly pipes!), but she absolutely knows how to give life to a song, extracting the last drop of meaning, dropping pauses for effect with deadly accuracy. Sondheim's "Ladies Who Lunch" and "Broadway Baby" will be hers forever, and a case could be made for the hilarious "Zip" (from Pal Joey) and the obscure, spectacularly politically incorrect "Civilization" (from the revue Angel in the Wings) as well. Fittingly, this two-CD set includes "I'm Still Here," which may well be Stritch's motto. If you're looking for a concise yet bewitching history of the musical, this is it. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Customer Reviews:

A National Treasure.......2007-07-05

This double CD is stuffed full of great songs and amazing stories. My favorite stories are of Elaine's date with Marlon Brando, what she thought some lyric are/meant, and her time in Compant. The total honesty that she brings it all together is touching and inspiring.

Very few people have the length or variety of a career that Elaine Stritch has had. I am sure that she has enough stories to do ten more shows.

If you love Broadway then you must buy this CD.

Stritch is superb.......2007-06-27

The only disappointment is that I missed the show live. This is a terrific honest performance by an actor who has a deep well of experience from which to draw. From her early childhood memories, through acting school, her loves, her struggles and more, Ms Stritch weaves a fascinating and completely enthralling story. Ultimately, she lives the songs, rather than just performs and this is what really marks her out.
I am so glad, she's still here!

Entertaining but grating on the ears.......2007-05-11

I've never been able to understand what is so great about Elaine Stritch's singing. It's simple: she can't sing. I've tried and tried to like her, and I do, as an actress, but NOT as a singer. Listening to these CDs, all I hear is a grouchy old lady voice with no vibrato, no range, and no ability to hold notes. If she were to try out for American Idol she would get cringes! I love her humor and honesty, and that's why I bought this, but the voice...ugh.

Great Broadway Review.......2007-04-11

I thoroughly enjoy this collection of stories from her experiences from a teenage girl in Michigan through her career, very funny, some sad and great entertainment.

Elaine Stritch at Liberty.......2007-01-19

Completely entertaining---a bit maudilin in places, but a must have for any Elaine Stritch fan.

Certainly worth the money!

Average customer rating:

A red wine ritalin US Open cocktail
Brilliant! A must listen for any serious music lover.
Fantastic!

The Going-Away Party
Complete Portion Control
Manufacturer: Flex Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Alternative Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 Alternative Rock | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 Pop | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0007P6ELW
Release Date: 2005-02-01

Tracks:

Destroyer
Miso Song
Trader's Lament
Right Rex/Ape
Sell Your House In 9 Days
Ukrainiana

Album Description

The Going-Away Party is the debut EP from Dayton Oh-based art rock collective Complete Portion Control, related by birth to Dayton lo-fi legends Guided By Voices. Imagine Mark E. Smith from The Fall if he'd gone to a Swiss prep school. Imagine jagged, cyclic rhythms with inscrutable, repetitive vocals ranging from sweet crooning to insane shouting. Imagine a drug experiment gone badly wrong.

Customer Reviews:

A red wine ritalin US Open cocktail.......2005-02-05

With the cool ubertones of post-Allan Parsons' Project "I Robot" releases, the debut release by CPC does its best to integrate the many influences of its lead singers' modest Midwestern upbringing. Don't let the liner notes fool you, these guys are from a dull working class Dayton, Ohio exurb best known as the home of Kenny Rogers (the broasted chicken restaurant, not the singer). The lead singers' kaleidoscopic experience as a long distance freight driver, southwestern hippie commune supplicant, strip club poet, ADD drug prophet, and canine philanthropist certainly adds to the mix. While lacking the brilliance and staying power of a meat sandwich, the record leaves one with the distinct and altogether familiar feeling of having undergone full body hair removal by droll aspiring literary agents. Best tracks here are "Ukraniana" and "Destroyer". Recommended.

Brilliant! A must listen for any serious music lover........2005-02-04

One of my new favorites. A bit reminiscient of early Pavement, with a hint of The Fall and a touch of GBV. Complete Portion Control makes Conor Oberst and the other new kids seem like they're trying just a bit too hard. Intriguing lyrics set against a background of really cool music. CPC creates new possibilities with their sonic landscapes - not like Moby, though. You'll get it after a few listens....well worth the adventure.

Fantastic!.......2005-02-04

One of the best debut recordings I've heard in ages. These guys are serious experimentalists, emphasis on mental. Understand that it's some ex-members of Guided By Voices (do I detect the deft telecaster stylings of Tobin Sprout?) but this definitely stands on its own as a left-field classic.

Average customer rating:

A.V.E. Day Party

Manufacturer: Pearl
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Swing General | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Contemporary Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

Classic | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000006JU3
Release Date: 1995-05-23

Tracks:

You Are My Sunshine - Harry Roy & His Band
Shine on Harvest Moon - Vera Lynn
If You Were the Only Girl in the World - Nat Gonella
Knees up Mother Brown
What More Can I Say? - Denny Dennis, Jay Wilbur
Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet - Geraldo & His Orchestra
When You Wore a Tulip - Harry Roy & His Band
I'm Going to Build a Future World - Leslie Hutchinson
Boomps a Daisy
Hey, Ho, It's Love Again
Long Ago (And Far Away) - Vera Lynn
San Fernando Valley - Geraldo & His Orchestra
Medley: We're Gonna Hang Out the Washing on the Siegfried Line/Adolf
Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie - Nat Gonella
If I Had My Way - Issy Bonn, Jay Wilbur
Johnny Zero - Harry Roy & His Band
Lambeth Walk
I'll Just Close My Eyes - Anne Shelton, Jay Wilbur
Swinging on a Star - Geraldo & His Orchestra
Medley: Run Rabbit Run/Boomps-A-Daisy/Deep Purple
Don't Sweetheart Me - Geraldo & His Orchestra
There'll Always Be an England - V.H. Tildesley

Music:

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