Nate Currin

The American Professionals take character flaws, guilt, and a dash of hope and spread them out like sweet marmalade on a piece of crunchy, pop toast. You get all your RDA recommended allotment of procrastination, self-indulgence and low self esteem and still get to savor the joys of catchy melodies, grinding guitars, and fluffy billows of lush harmony.

"Hey, if you're going to be condemned to a life of committing sins of omission, at least you can do it from your Barcalounger..."

Behind the suspiciously vague band name The American Professionals, lurks songwriter/musician/producer Chuck Lindo. Having spent a number of years in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Midwest as bass player, guitar player, and backing singer for numerous bands, Chuck finally chose to loosen the strings on his little bag of tunes he'd been filling up. In January 2003, it was time to step out and take his turn in the spotlight for a while and give it a go as a bandleader and front man. He brought on longtime friend and studio whiz Patrick Conway to begin work on recordings at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco.

The result of their efforts, the ever-so-slightly cynically titled "Faking It", was completed in December of '03 and is due to be released on San Francisco indie label Ethic Recordings in August '04.

Aside from Gregg Anderson's drumming, Chuck played all the instruments himself and performed all the lead and backing vocals. "In every recording I've ever done, I always tried to get as many over-the -top backing vocals in there as humanly possible. But when it's not my record, I eventually have to back down and shut up." says Lindo, " I guess there was nobody there to say 'no' this time..."

"Faking It" is a unapologetically diverse collection of songs, ranging from the initial full-bore octave guitar heroics of the opening track "Fade It On", to the stark single guitar/vocal during the verses in "Big Surprise". " I didn't set out so much to make the most eclectic record possible, but I also didn't shy away from any songs because they didn't fit into a particular format", says Chuck. Conway assured him that no matter what they committed to tape, it would all be tied together by the common thread of Chuck's vocals. "It worked, as far as I can tell", Chuck reports. " I got a little worried there for a minute. I didn't want to come off like the ADD poster boy that most of my friends think I am. But since I'd come up with most of these songs over a long period of time, it was inevitable that there'd be some range of personality to them."

When not layering too many of himself on his own material, Chuck Lindo serves as guitar player and backing singer for indie rock favorites Actionslacks. "I get the best of everything with these two situations" he states. "In the 'Slacks I get to be a band member and collaborator. I don't have to totally define the sound or direction of the band, but rather be just another part of what makes it tick". However, with the American Professionals he says, "It's all about my twisted little idea of what's good."

'The Glorious First of June - the latest group from former Soft Tags ringleader Richard Shirk - is college radio, beatnik indie-rock and sixties psyh-folk at its finest.  Playing live shows with just (an often fuzzed out) acoustic guitar, the First of June's music falls somewhere between the literate pop of bands like the Go-Betweens and Beck's art-damaged brand of four-tracked, junkyard indie folk. Songs like 'Eucalyptus Trees' and 'The Goal Keeps Moving' are short, sweet and to the point while Shirk (who also played in one of New York composer John King’s legendarily loud guitar orchestras), alone with his guitar,  keeps up the same intensity displayed when fronting Soft Tags, the cult psychedelic group that still enjoys a large underground following.

Shirk’s music comes from a guy who spent his formative years immersed in Ray Bradbury books and college radio while living in a haunted house in Iowa.
After stumbling into the world of rock’n’roll groups at the age of seventeen and buying his first four track machine (Yamaha MT 50), Shirk has spent his time barricaded in various basements, apartments and rehearsal spaces playing, writing, recording and overdubbing indie-folk music that draws from influences as from each other as Donovan and Kraftwerk. Shirk is currently sequestered in a basement in the Oakland hills writing and recording the first three LPs from the Glorious First of June.

Look for the first 45 this summer.