The Music

Garden Wall EP (1988)
Garden Wall
The one that started it all, although it wasn't finished until a while later. I remember setting up my Roland synth and my amp at Steve's apartment while he played the 12 string guitar strains of the song. I immediately added the familiar chime melody. The lyrics still sound fresh and not many people notice that there are no changes in the song, it's the same chords all the way through.

Shallow Man
I almost should include the original demo here as it is in many ways superior. I remember telling our producer, Eric Larson, that the keys need to come up in the mix. Everybody thought I was crazy. Later he admitted I was right. Still an interesting song for it's political bend and it's driving drums and bass.

Workdays
The first song contributed by Jeff. I think he even came up with the keyboard part. The radio spot that fades the song in was something I got off the radio the morning of the studio session. Poor Dorothea Montabo. Nothing made us laugh more than Carm's kids walking around singing, "Workdays are hell/My job is not much better." Catchy and fun.

Hypocrite's Ball
Another political tune that stayed on our set list for a long time. I think this is one of the first songs on which Jeff brought the guitar part to the band. Danceable. Empathic lyrics, driving drums.

The Flapper
I think that Steve and Carm convinced the band that this was a good song. Built around a neo-big band sound, Buddy Rich drums and horns, The Flapper takes us dancing in the raring '20s. A favorite of our club fans. I think the line "I don't love you/I only like you/but I want to love you/until the morning comes" sums up the sort of pathetic brand of free love we got to enjoy in the '80s.

Cannibal
This is one of many Steve revenge songs aimed at an ex-girlfriend who moved from Seattle (and introduced us to Nirvana long before "Smells Like Teen Spirit") and promptly dumped him to be with the lead singer of Elephant. Raw energy is probably the best way to describe this one. Carm's up-front and pounding jungle drums, Jeff's soaring guitar, and my steel drum melody (hey, I had no clue what else to play) made this another dance favorite when we played the clubs. The guest vocals (which incidently are not on time, $45 an hour makes you work fast) included grunting performances by Steve's brother Bob and our friend and photographer Scott Whittet.

Underground
Probably my favorite studio song. I remember I had taken a vacation and missed a few practices. When I came back, the band had this great melody with this marching drum beat and bassline and I thought, what the hell am I going to add to that? My answer was dahhhhhhhh-da-da-dahhh. Listen and you'll see what I mean. I also remember playing the Ray Manzerak style piano for the break in the studio at 1:00 am with Eric Larson buzzing in to me, "don't you have anything else?" I didn't. Jeff growling the line "I think the rats are winning in/this rat race" was my idea. I think it makes the song. Kudos also to Don Whittemore, our engineer, who made the break much more interesting with the various effects.

Miscellaneous Important Songs
A Day Without Me
The song that really started it all. Not technically our first song (a tune called Summertime takes that honor), but the one that made Steve and I realize we had something that people might want to hear. We received our first airplay on KANW and the phones lit up. This was recorded in my bedroom entirely on four track and probably took a few days to finish. Early on, Steve's voice had a lot of detractors, but I was never one of them. Listen to the song and see if you can hear the promise I heard (In the end, I think I win because he has fronted three fairly successful bands.)

Christian Says
Our first big headline show was at the UNM Sub Ballroom Battle of the Bands. We went on last and the crowd was one of our largest. Steve was really sick and struggled through the show but held up. This isn't one of our originals, it's from the post-Bauhaus-Peter Murphy-less Tones on Tail. It's probably the only cover song we ever did well.

Genie in a Bottle
When we loaded in for the live on KUNM show, we could tell something was wrong. The engineer who was to set us up and run the board, split and didn't return until not long before we were to go to air. He put the wrong kind of mics up for vocals, wouldn't talk to us about how to mix us, in general, acted like an ass. We knew he didn't like us and would have been happier with some world beat or jazz ensemble. At the beginning of the show the mix was awful, and then something strange took place. Through the glass, we could see him getting into the music and the sound improved. In many ways that night, we totally blew the doors off the joint. After the show we hung out with him until 2 a.m. going over the show's tapes. This song is one of my favorites.

Real Life
Another one from the KUNM show. This one didn't stay on our play list for long and likely wouldn't have made it on The Misery of Joy, but it was really a fun one. For months afterward, people would tell us how they heard us on the radio late that night and how cool it was to hear a live, local band showcased like that. I think this is the last time we played with Jon Donovan.

Crowded Streets
When Jeff brought this one to the band, I think it floored us all. When I added the atmosphere, Carm the pulse and Steve the plucked 12-String, it really came together. Although it still reminds of a beer commercial (see chorus), I get a real kick from the song's dynamics. When once-famous local dj Renay played it on Rock 108 during a lunch time weekday show, she said it sounded like the Fixx. Ok, so she had no clue about alternative music.

Take Shelter
After we churned this one out, it became a fixture at every show, a rarity on our ever changing playlist. I think we all enjoyed its anger and turmoil. Jeff's guitar is sounding seriously "alternative" here and Eric's running bass line really carries the tune. I don't think anyone noticed, but I lifted one of the melodies from Afrika Bombaata and Johnny Rotten.

Venus
Our producer and label boss Eric Larson also taught sound engineering courses and would bring us in to play while his pupils twiddled the knobs. It gave us the chance to try out new material and hear it in the context of the studio. This song aggressively took us into a more experimental realm, and was fun to play. The mammoth bottom end of Eric Owen's bass playing was giving us the foundation to go whole new directions.

Observant Others
Another Quincy Street outtake from Eric Larson's studio class. Not one of my favorites at the time, it nevertheless captures the dark turn the band had taken. I can remember Steve struggling to hit the high notes and wondering if this one would ever work. I think it does.

Untitled (Instrumental)
The final New London song. Recorded on my four track in Carm's bedroom, I think this one would have been a monster had it been completed. I don't remember Steve's lyrics (actually I think Steve and Jeff had both written sections) but I do remember their rhythm, combined with the melodies, giving me big time chills. Shame it was never finished. I think it was the song to take us to the next level.

More New London Music
A Forest

Civilized Men

Dancing Alone

Dead Things

Guilded Girl

Hole In Your Heart

Hypocrite's Ball-Live

Mrs. Monkey

Dancing Alone

No Need

Red Empty Room

Sail On

Serpent's Kiss

Sting-Live

Tales of Rain

Terrapin

Underground-Live

White Flag

All music ©New London 1988-1990, except Christian Says ©Tones on Tail and A Forest ©The Cure.

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Where are they now?
Twenty years on New London no longer exists as a working band (the breakup occured in the Spring of 1990), but all of the final members of the band have gone on to make their musical mark.

Guitarist Jeff Mettling, at this date, is the most active in music, fronting the band Elu. You can find out more about Elu at the following sites:
Elu's MySpace Page
Elu Music

Matt Smith's current band is The Orbiting. We are finishing work on our first album, even as albums become a thing of the past. You can find out more about The Orbiting at the following sites:
The Orbiting's MacJams Page
The Orbiting's MySpace Page
Matt's Music Site

Carm Sciarrotta is between projects, although he has been contributing some drum samples and tracks for The Orbiting album. He and I got the chance to catch Jeff's band play recently. I think it was the most New London members in one room in some time.

Steve is a doctor. Last I heard he was working at University of New Mexico Hospital. A few years ago I read an article about how he had published a paper on some aspect of the heart. Perhaps he'll be saving one of our lives in the future, but he is not active in music currently.

Eric is still actively involved in music, touring and supporting a wide variety of musical groups. I'd love to include details, give me a call Eric!

Jon Donovan's whereabouts remain unknown. I'd love to hear from him. His contributions to the early incarnations of the band are probably underappreciated.

What follows is the short narrative I wrote back in 2000.
Matt
July 13, 2008

A Brief History of New London

New London began as a joke between David Hahn and Steve Mickelsen in 1987. They created a fictitious band named New London, made posters, and distributed them along Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The posters announced a show at the equally fictitious Mickey's Inn which was a play on Steve's last name. Soon after Steve bought a 12-string guitar and announced his intention to make New London a real band.

A Halloween party in that same year held at Steve's and his brother Robert's house was the meeting place for Steve and myself, Matt Smith, synthesizer player and composer. We agreed they would get together and see if anything musical would happen soon after the party. Soon turned out to be spring of 1988.

Steve brought his guitar and a notebook full of lyrics to my home studio where the we crafted our first song, "A Day Without Me," not to be confused by the U2 song of the same name. We garnered local radio play immediately and decided that to play live, we would need some additional musicians. Steve recruited guitarist Rick (last name gone from memory) and after advertising in local papers, veteran drummer Carm Sciarrota brought his energy and experience to the band. Bass player Jon Donovan was added soon after to complete the first New London live outfit.

About that time, just weeks before the first real performance, the band became unhappy with Rick's rudimentary guitar playing. As luck would have it, while being recruited to play in another band, I played a New London demo tape which impressed them. On my way home from the meeting, that band's guitarist pulled me over on the road and asked if New London needed a new member. Jeff Mettling was brought into the band almost immediately, Rick fired, and recording began. With our sound solidified by Jeff's polished ax play, New London performed for the first time on June 13, 1988 at the Fat Chance Bar and Grill and we were well received.

The band had culled together about 15 original songs already and decided that the next step in our evolution would be a studio recording. Fans were begining to demand a cassette and hopes were high that a tape could be successfully shopped to record labels. The Garden Wall EP was completed at Quincy Street Sound in Albuquerque over about three months at the end of summer 1988, and released in December of that year. We sold in the neighborhood of 1000 of the cassettes at $5 each. Several radio stations aired New London songs regularly and the band made the College Music Journal playlist. We participated in many interviews, and were featured in the local music rags as well as the biggest Albuquerque papers, all while continuing to hone our live act.

Our biggest fear at this point was losing our momentum. The new material was sounding great and we quickly booked more recording time to begin work on our next collection, an album tentatively titled The Misery of Joy. Once again we found themselves disappointed in the play and contributions of a member and fired Donovan, replacing him with bassist Eric Owens.

After the line up change, New London signed to Eric Larson's StreetSound records in early 1989 and hoped to quickly record and release some material to create interest in the forthcoming album. Quincy Street Sound was again the site of recording and the songs Communication and Underground were the result. Although the band felt that these were not their strongest songs at the time, it was decided that they should be committed to tape first so that the newer songs could be developed more fully.

The two song cassette was released in late 1989 and was uniformly regarded by the local music press as a solid and impressive release drawing comparison to bands like the Psychadelic Furs, the Cure and others. As the tapes began to move (they could be purchased at all live shows and at local Hastings stores) New London played shows with such well-known college acts as 27 Devils Joking, The Violet Hour, Splinter Fish, Cracks in the Sidewalk, Subculture, A Patch of Blue and many others. The tape was also heard on a growing number of radio stations and by several record labels.

New London on stage at the El Rey Theater in Albuquerque.

The band kept hard at work, playing a live show on KUNM, writing songs that were showing both growth and promise, and building a burgeoning fan base. But the cracks were beginning to show. Factions had developed within the band. Jeff was becoming more of a songwriting force and demanding more vocal time. Steve was starting to hear a different sound that New London wasn't going to be able to play and I was growing disillusioned. All the rehearsals, the sweat poured (literally, in our oven-like practice room) into songwriting and a grueling live schedule, coupled with the fact that we all continued to work full time jobs, I was fading, contributing less each day. I think we all could tell the end was not far off. I can remember long talks with Carm and Steve about our musical direction (we comprised one faction) and noticing that we as a band were growing apart. Our marriage was on its last legs.

New London played their last show in the spring of 1990 at an all-day, outdoor music festival sponsored by the fraternities at the Universitiy of New Mexico. As the sun fell on the large crowd so it fell on a band that started out as a joke, become a promising outfit with a lot of upside and then a group that found musical differences splintering their creative energy. My recollection of the final show is that we played really hard, and that it was one of our better performances. I remember waiting all afternoon for our time to go on, sitting and talking with the other members and the people that followed us where ever we went and at once I knew that while I loved playing with these friends and musicians, I had grown tired. I think the other members felt the same way.

Not long after that show, after an agreed and much needed few weeks off, New London gathered at Carm's house to begin recording on my four track what was to be the demos of the tracks that would make up The Misery of Joy. It went well for the first few days until our bottled up frustrations came to the fore and petty bickering disintigrated into an all-out war. We all packed up our equipment and bid our practice studio, and each other farewell. Almost three years, quite a few members, many shows, lots of cassette, t-shirt and poster sales, over a hundred songs later, it was over. The last song we put to tape was Untitled, in my eyes a beautiful look at what could have been if we could have reached the next plateau together.

The former members of New London have all remained musically active in one way or another. Steve Mickelsen went on to form the Bellyachers and then Venus Diablo, both bands achieving success beyond New London's. I worked with Jeff Mettling in several projects before releasing Dragonfly Dance and various new collaborations found on this page: Matt's New Music. Carm continues to work with a variety of local bands. Jeff had modest success with several Jeff Mettro albums and is now the force behind the electronic band Elu. Eric Owens worked with Jeff on the Mettro projects.

Looking back, I can say that it was such an exciting time. In many ways I miss the stage, the fans and being part of a creative machine on a roll. I think that given different circumstances we could have made the national scene and I wonder if we would have been ready, musically and mentally. We seemed so close and yet so far. Now, all that is left is the music, some of which you can download from this page, and some pictures and memories. I hope you enjoy.

Matt Smith, October 2000

New London's final lineup. From L-R Steve Mickelsen, Matt Smith, Carm Sciarrotta, Jeff Mettling, Eric Owens.