profile of ERIC'S TRIP Monday, January 24, 1993 ***
Brave New Waves on the CBC Stereo radio network ***
host: Brent Bambury transcribed by James Covey ***
["Belong"]
Eric's Trip from a seven-inch released in March of '92; that is called
"Belong".
A big music "it" has happened to Canada, and we can lay part of the
blame on Moncton's Eric's Trip. The Maritimes is alive with bands
emerging bravely into the light of day thanks to Sloan and Sub Pop and
cinnamon Toast, a phenomenon which proves that a little attention goes a
long way. Journalists are flown in and mythologies abound, which leads
us to the question, is something happening somewhere only because
someone says it is?
Well, there is no snappy answer to that one, but the last year and a
half, combined with sporadic touring, ceaseless spotlighting, and a
debut album, have given Eric's Trip plenty to reflect on and freak out
about. Julie, expressing the vertigo she's experienced, you know those
moments when you realize what you're doing and you can't believe it,
said recently, "I actually had this idea of putting out a zine of what's
happened to me from last October to October. I was talking to the
guitar player from Bettie Seveert and Lou Barlow about how our glasses
fall off when we play. I used to worship Lou, and now I talk to him."
Continuing to fulfill contractual obligations with Sub Pop, the Trippers
have released their debut long-player *Love Tara*, which came out last
year. Their idea of technological advancement means graduating from the
four-track to the eight-track. Julie calls what they do "noisy love
garage," and says in defense of their aesthetic, "I find that once you
get used to listening to lower-quality recordings they don't bother you.
It's the ones done in twenty-four-track studios that bother me, because
they're too clean and unreal."
["Sickness"]
"Sickness." Eric's Trip, from *Naked In The Marsh*, the ten-inch
compilation released in '92.
The four members of Eric's Trip have a thing for mall culture and
four-track recorders. They come from Moncton, which is not Halifax, not
even the same province. According to an interview given in January of
'93, the distinction is an important one to the group. Julie says,
"when we were interviewed on Brave New Waves, they did a sort of setup
interview beforehand, and they thought we lived maybe a half-hour out of
Halifax -- it's more like three hours." But she adds, "I guess it's
partly because the rest of Canada doesn't know eastern Canada very well,
and playing in Halifax is where we started getting a lot of attention.
So, thanks for being so understanding, Julie.
Anyway, like legions of young folk around the world they started well,
you know, doing the "j" thing -- jammin'. And they had deep affection
for groups like My Bloody Valentine, Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh,
and of course, Sonic Youth, and they managed to come out sounding
vaguely and nothing like any of the above. In June of 1990, Chris
Thompson, a guitar player, Julie Doiron, who's bass player and sometime
singer, along with Ed Vaughn, drummer, all found themselves in Rick
White's basement. He's the guitar player and the singer. They probably
met at the mall the first time, it's hard to say. Rick says that, "if a
band starts in Moncton, they usually go to Toronto or something." There
chosen name Eric's Trip came replete with a namesake, that bug-eyed guy
that graces the cover of some of their releases, and they plucked the
name from the title of a Lee Rinaldo song on Sonic Youth's *Daydream
Nation* LP. Julie says, "You'd be surprised how many so-called Sonic
Youth fans don't know about the song 'Eric's Trip', 'cause they only
got into it after *Goo*. When we took the name we never thought we'd
get this far. We thought we'd play a couple of gigs in Moncton, and
that'd be it. Lee Rinaldo told us that it was totally cool with him,
though, so we're not gonna get sued."
["Tangles"]
Eric's Trip from the *Peter* EP, released in '92. "Tangles" is the name
of that track.
By December of 1990, Eric's Trip released their first cassette, called,
I think, *Sappy Music*. The *Caterpillars* cassette followed in April
of '91, *Drowning* in August, they lost their drummer Ed, they found
drummer Mark, and they went on to record *Warm Girl* in January of '92,
and then finally the *Belong* seven-inch in July. All this time the
group had been commuting to Halifax, where the nightlife apparently
rivals Moncton's. Being
