Music in a Word Volume 3: Whippings and Apologies by Ira Robbins

Author:Ira Robbins [Robbins, Ira]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Trouser Press Books
Published: 2022-09-01T22:00:00+00:00

Algebra Suicide

Lydia Tomkiw and I were, for a time, very good friends. After I chose an Algebra Suicide track for the Best of America Underground cassette compilation, she and her husband-bandmate Don Hedeker came to New York for the New Music Seminar and we met in person. I later visited them at home in Chicago, hung out with her in New York, sent letters and poetry back and forth and spent countless hours on the phone. She was an endless fountain of frivolous and incisive ideas, all delivered with a conspiratorial laugh. (I still like to imagine the commercial prospects of her imaginary breakfast cereal, Sugar-Coated Clumps.) During one of our gabfests, she supplied me with two song titles that proved inspiring: “I Like Your Name” and “Let’s Do Something Fun.” With the instrumental assistance of John Dunbar (and added vocals by my niece and nephew), I recorded them under the name Heather Has Two Mommies. Lydia phoned in spoken lines to the former. (They’re on Bandcamp, if you’re curious.) After her marriage and the band ended, she moved to New York, bringing a raft of problems with her. She came to our house for a New Year’s party once and made a scene. It became hard to be around her and we saw each other only rarely. Despite her great talent and drive, she couldn’t hold a job, suffered various calamities, moved to Phoenix to be near her mother and, in 2007, died of natural causes.

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