In the late eighties, one of my favorite local Seattle bands was a band called Weather Theatre. A year or so ago, I put together a CDR of their vinyl EP and some miscellaneous singles. I got in touch with John Massoni, the singer for the band, and we ended up becoming friends. John has a good collection of unreleased music he has created since Weather Theatre so I put together this site and John wrote some text about his various projects. Revisions are planned, so consider this site a work in progress. -Brent
 
 
Latest News
1 October 03 (new entry from John)
It is with genuine happiness that I greet you for I have had a good musical year. I must also apologize that the email address I left on this site has been closed for some time. Please try the new one. I spent some of this year getting out and playing clubs. Right now these shows are me and my acoustic guitar. It feels good and I will be open to it as long as it’s so. I also am releasing a cd of electronic music through Spaceage, called Stillborn Dreams. These guys have been very cool and supportive. I’m thrilled this is coming out. Hopefully, I’ll find a way to perform some of the material live. It takes a little more thinking than I’m accustomed to but I feel it’s really where my heart is at. I also still plan to put together a collection of vocal pieces but I am incredibly lazy. I guess my overall feeling is I’m having creative thoughts and I can do something with them. I’m not ambitious, but the feeling that one’s imagination has stopped is depressing. I’ve started work on a second cd of material which I hope Spaceage will consider as well as getting the artwork together for the acoustic cd. I’ve done nothing in regards to Weather Theatre or A Western Family and feel guilty for it. I appreciate the emails concerning Weather Theatre. It’s great there are people out there who liked the music. I’m playing with a video of our last performance and if it gets finished ok I’ll try to make it available. It features a lot of unreleased material which would have made up another album and gives an idea of where we were heading. My daughter Eva saw me perform live for the first time this year, she said I was “dark” which, of course, I thanked her for.
 
I’ll be playing the Tractor Tavern October 30th
 
Please keep in touch with Spaceagerecordings.com for the release date of my CD. Thanks for the support
 
My new email address is WT83@msn.com
 
02 January 03
I just finished a full length cd of electronic music titled Clouds From Above Come Down. That and the Sunrise ep are both available on this site (see below for details). The show at the Sunrise Tavern went fine, although I felt a bit freaked out having not played for so long. I missed my daughter the whole time, realizing I haven't been out of the house much. Hopefully, I'll get out more. The electronic music cd is not a dance disc but more of the experimental-type stuff you may expect of me. I like listening to it. Some of my favorite discs of late include Aphex Twin's ambient works vol 2 , Spaceage's Interface comp, and David Sylvian's Camphor. My cd includes a song mixed by Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) and I mixed some music by Eric Burnham (Weather Theatre) for a track. I bought a house this summer and my daughter and I are finally settled in. I'm slowly compiling some A Western Family tracks and hoping to piece some Weather Theatre things together since I've had requests for it. I go back and hear that stuff and it makes me realize what a great band we were. I have long removed myself from thinking I was part of it, so don't think I'm being arrogant. I just think there was some special stuff there and I wish we could have had the chance that other bands in this area had in receiving some financial support for recording. But we had some great times, the 80's and early 90s were pretty cool times for music around here. But I digress...
 
Right now I'm working on some vocal pieces and hope to have a cd finished early 2003, depending on how much homework my daughter needs me to help her with. I've enjoyed recently cds by Beth Orton, Ryan Adams, Neil Halstead, and, of course, Chan Marshall /Cat Power's covers cd was great. Hope Sandoval's cd was very enjoyable. I tend to fall madly in love with singers like Chan or Hope where it's kind of embarrassing, but, at least, there's still some thrills out there...
 
Take care and will update sometime later, happy holidays to all...feel free to email me and order a cd.
 
Send $7 per disc requested, I'll do the rest. These are CdRs and made when needed so give me a week to get order out. Right now the Sunrise acoustic EP and Clouds From Above Come Down full-length are available. Thanks for your support.
 
26 March 02
New 8-song mini-album "Sunrise" due soon. Consisting of home recordings from recent years, "Sunrise" presents John's music in a purely acoustic setting and marks his first vocal output in several years. John will play live April 2nd at the Sunset Tavern.
 
John writes: I have a new cd available through this site called "Sunrise" which is a collection of acoustic songs recorded at various times in my living room with my Weather Theatre cohort Eric Burnham and Maxine cohort Jeff Venturo. I enjoy the intimacy of these songs which I think home recordings often capture better than in the studio. I'll also make available other recordings on this site soon. The idea of selling things this way came up after seeing the Rain Parade site...nothing could make me happier than to just have the music available. I also enjoyed Rosie Thomas's homemade first release which she sold at shows. I'm doing a show April 2 at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard which is my first in about 6 years. Wish me luck!
 
Look for a Western Family compilation soon. The possibility of the rumoured Blast First double-CD not coming out is, at this time, pretty high. I've heard nothing from them. But who knows? Check this site in coming weeks/months for more release news including the availability of Weather Theatre recordings.
 
 
Sounds
The following full songs are presented in streaming RealMedia format. Songs marked with * are unreleased.

Weather Theatre - Great God's Gift
Weather Theatre - Ocean Of Her Dying
Weather Theatre - Shadows Grow Shoulders *
Weather Theatre - These Things That I Depend On
Weather Theatre - Whispers
Holy Land *
Slave Cylinder *
Son *
Stay With Me And Be My Lover *
Where Skies Are Lovlier
Untitled (w/ Sonic Boom)
Your Soul *
 
 
1983 to 1985 : A WESTERN FAMILY

My first band was A Western Family which comprised of David Thierry(drums), Liz Wick(bass), David Kulczyk(guitar), and me(singer). We were a young, naïve band having all just turned 18 and David K being the outsider from Ohio and 25. We loved a lot of the underground bands of the day, ie: Pil, Japan, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Orange Juice, Josef K, Bauhaus, Joy Division. Our first show was at the Metropolis I’m honored to say. It was a glorious place, one of the best clubs Seattle’s ever known in my book. I met David K there, thus beginning my descent as a singer of songs. The song that gave David and I a bond was "It’s Kind of Funny" By Josef K. Most clubs were all ages back then. Great places like Graven Image, Grey Door, and Metropolis. I thought the U-men were the coolest band at the time. Their first ep came out around then. It was terrific. There was also Mr. Epp and the Calculations, who I thought were a bit geeky/strange. Mark Arm was in that band, a much straight-edged guy I recall. I also remember my pal Andy Wood sitting on stage at some of our shows. He was such a character, wearing mirrored seventies sunglasses with his long blond hair, kind of like a freaky David Lee Roth. Who knew what was in for him in years to come. Our band eventually broke up. The clubs closed down, and that was that. We did release a two tape eps along with David K releasing two early Seattle compilation cassettes called Sounds of Young Seattle. All pretty raw and underproduced, but that’s what made them special. One of my proudest moments was opening for the U-men at Edmonds Community College. It was kinda scary for people to see bands like that out there at that time. How things have changed! -JM

RELEASES:

A Western Family (cassette)
Jesus has Died | Upset | Touch | As I Care

Music from Tiger Mountain (cassette)
These are the Coffins | Postcard from Cleveland | ...

Sounds of Young Seattle I (various artists compilation)
The Umbrella Theory

Sounds of Young Seattle II (various artists compilation)
I am Rain

 
1985 to 1989 : WEATHER THEATRE

Weather Theatre slowly formed after A Western Family’s demise. David Thierry and Liz Wick got along fine with me and we realized we had enough in common to continue with possibly a new guitar player. After some auditions, we connected to Eric Burnham from local band Ministry of Love. It was a pretty easy fit and our sound became a bit more lush or dreamy (you get the idea). I think Eric’s musical ability helped challenge David and Liz more. So we practiced for awhile at our studio at the Dutchman. The Dutchman I should point out was home to quite a few great local bands including The Walkabouts, Feast of Friends, Common Language, and some harder rockin bands I forget. We started gigging around town, finding it necessary to play bars since there weren’t any regular all age venues around, maybe OK Hotel was all. We played a lot and practiced regularly and stayed focused for quite some time. Akira Akeda who managed Pure Joy, and had some success, was interested in helping us get something out. He began a label called Sun & Steel. We put out a two singles and an ep on that label. KJET went under the day our first single came out. Talk about bad timing! While recording our album, we were informed the label had run out of money and could not pay for us to finish recording. We ended up finishing it by ourselves and through the kindness of Chris from the Walkabouts, got a deal with a label in Germany called Angryfish who put it out. DUSK was pretty well received and we sold a few in Seattle, but the time it took to get it out left us pretty frustrated. The Rocket didn’t review our cd until six months after its release. Things just weren’t going smooth. We disbanded. I think we all needed to move on to other things. Growth, etc. It was a great band and I’m totally proud of my experiences with Weather Theater. We did do a couple of "reunion" type gigs, one opening for LOW at the Tractor (Tavern). -JM

RELEASES:

Bridge to Heaven (7" w/ poster photo by Kevin Westenberg)
b/w Great God’s Gift (version)

Weather Theatre (12" EP)
Persian Carpets | Ocean of Her Dying | Great God’s Gift (w/ Char Easter of Common Language) | Me Who Bleeds | She Don't Know Why

Whispers (7" single)
b/w Perfect Day for Bananafish

Secretions (12" album, Northwest V/A compilation)
Deep

Dusk (CD album)
Helium Head | Chagall | At Play in God's Attic | Whispers | These Things That I Depend On | Trip | Wild Surmise | Song of the Dusk/Outro
Album released through Angry Fish Records

 
1989 to 1998: MAXINE

While Weather Theater was fading, I was getting more involved in composing and doing my own thing. Experimenting with things which originally interested me, like experimental electronic music and sound collage. I also was tired of the whole front man rock dude singer thing. I had gone to London to shop some music around, Weather Theatre and a tape I made. Labels were mostly into the shoegazing movement back then. My Bloody Valentine were very influential, as were Spacemen 3, Stone Roses, early Chapterhouse. Subpop was huge at this time. I got some crazy idea about using the name MAXINE as my alter ego. A more feminine and mysterious name that kind of sounded like machine, too. Also being a bit glam. I don’t know what I was thinking, it was too difficult to really work. But Blast First showed interest in releasing my tape as an ep. Bless them for having some faith.

Everett True flew over to Seattle and interviewed me for Melody Maker, and I thought I was on my way. Well, it was never so easy. The ep took a long time to get out, mainly due to Rough Trade dissolving. I started to feel nothing would happen and let go of it. Then several months later was offered to go to London and do a show. So I did. Another ep was released (semi-released?) thru Blast First called Hovering. I recorded a mainly acoustic album while over there, filmed a video, and took some photos. Basically having a good time and feeling the rock star possibilities. Also met Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) from Spacemen 3, a band I long admired. He remixed my version of Bridge to Heaven at Mute records studio. After coming home, nothing really happened. To be more honest, everything fell to pieces. I ended up getting married and having a wonderful daughter, Eva Maxine, and opened up an antique shop in the Roosevelt district. I got less enthusiastic about music, although still recorded a bit. I recorded an album for a label called Aeterna, but that label got dropped from its financial backer. This was a period in my life that I still find a mystery. I felt I split myself in two. My creative/music guy and the guy that had to move on to keep myself alive. -JM

MAXINE (CD-EP, Blast First 1992)
Where Skies are Lovelier | Thornbush | Touchy Feely | Return

MAXINE - Hovering (12" EP, Blast First 1994)
Bridge to Heaven | Hovering | You’re Evil | The Happiest I’ve Ever Been

After the Flood (CD V/A compilation, Dale Lloyd's Aeterna label 1995)
It's All In The Sun

Genrefest (CD Northwest V/A compilation, Ivy records 1995)
I Will Die in a Fast Car sample available

After the Flood II (CD V/A compilation, Dale Lloyd's Aeterna label 1998)
Lo, Artemis

 
CURRENTLY:

As the years have gone by, my friends’ belief in me helped lead me though the flames…Sonic Boom and I recorded an EP at my house during one of his EAR tours. It is now out on Space Age Recordings called the Sundowner Sessions. I have compiled a double cd which includes a lot of my past six years of work and misbehaving, called Lead Me Through the Flames. It may be released through Blast First at some point, or I may release it myself in a possibly reconfigured form. -JM

2000: The Sundowner Sessions: John Massoni with Sonic Boom
4 song CDEP on SpaceAge Recordings
Voices | Organ | Flange | Untitled
Available from SpaceAge Recordings.
Also available in the US from Darla Records.

2000: Flange - John Massoni with Sonic Boom
track on compilation album Interface
Available from SpaceAge Recordings.
Also available in the US from Darla Records.

2002: Sunrise (8-song mini-album)

2002: Clouds From Above Come Down (electronic album)