Drink Me
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Drink Me were an experimental rock duo who opened for They Might Be Giants on tour in 1992. Wynne Evans played guitar, and Mark Amft played a variety of musical instruments (including slide guitar, accordion, and a Fanta bottle) while singing lead vocals. The band formed in the 70s after the two met as roommates at Oberlin College. Their original sound was inspired by The Nairobi Sound, a record the duo discovered that influenced their acoustic sound. The band broke up sometime following their sophomore album release after Amft moved from New York City.[1]
John Flansburgh was a friend of the band, and would later work as an engineer for their 1993 self-titled album. Brian Dewan was credited as an engineer and accordion player on the same album, and would appear on their 1995 follow-up Sleep on the electric zither. Sleep also features Kurt Hoffman on both bass clarinet and baritone saxophone. In 1994, Drink Me released a short EP titled Five Songs through Flansburgh's Hello CD Of The Month Club. Amft would go on to play bass on Amy Allison's Hello Recording Club CD.
Mark Amft would later write about his relationship with TMBG on this page:
A mutual friend introduced me to the Johns who led us to Bar/None records. The rest, as they say, is geography. Dewan and Linnell shared an apartment above a short-lived nightspot in a former funeral home. In that space, Dewan recorded some Drink Me demos. Flansburgh also recorded some of our early work, and, as you say, produced a demo in a studio, as I barely recall. Dewan's brother went to Oberlin college (as did Amy Allison) where Wynne Evans (the other half of Drink Me) and I met as undergrads.
The key to the Drink Me/TMBG relationship is Jamie Kitman, who managed TMBG at this time. Kitman advised Drink Me regarding our deal with Bar/None. In effect, he made it clear that without bass and drums our appeal was limited. The genius of the early TMBG format was the backing tapes. Their shows were fun to watch and yet still "rocked," as the young folks say. Drink Me never rocked. Whether or not this was a subconscious decision to avoid success is a subject for the therapist's couch.
"NYC," our five-song Hello release, is one of my favorite Drink Me recordings; "Flotsam and Jetsam"--a cassette-only recording featuring the early demo work of "Flansy," as he is so monikered. - Mark Amft