The Ophelias (California band)


The Ophelias were a psychedelic rock band led by singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Leslie Medford. Medford formed the band in San Francisco in October 1984 and disbanded the quartet in September 1989. The band was signed twice, first by Strange Weekend Records for one album, then by Rough Trade Records, for whom they produced 2 albums and an EP.
The Ophelias recorded music that was described as "original" and "incredibly diverse"
and "a sound that can alternate from raunchy to sweet in seconds." Leslie Medford's lyrics were "impressively literate" and J. F. Tiger described The Ophelias as "musical literature in an era practically devoid of such a thing… this band makes the listener think, and takes the listener into a secret world where other 'new music' dares not go."
Medford was an unusually versatile lead vocalist, who "isn't shy about forcing his chameleon voice into Beefhearty growls, flowery Daltry-Townshend falsettos and strained Marc Bolan-David Bowie brays."
They have been compared to Pink Floyd,
Mark Bolan and T-Rex,
Faces,
The Zombies,
Van der Graaf Generator,
Frank Zappa,
Queen
and XTC, although Nils Berstein wrote "Let's just say the Ophelias have no influences."
David Fricke argued in Rolling Stone that The Ophelias were one of the only genuinely psychedelic bands of the 1980s. "In the Sixties, psychedelia wasn't just a sound; it was a state of mind. The biggest drag about Eighties psychedelia is that for every dozen bands that talk about blowing minds, there are really only one or two that can blow anything other than hot air. The Ophelias, from San Francisco, belong to that delightfully manic minority."
David Immerglück was the Ophelias lead guitarist from 1987 to 1989, the period of the band's greatest exposure. He is the band's best-known alumnus having gone on to membership in Counting Crows, John Hiatt, Camper van Beethoven, Cracker and others, as well as session work, studio production and music engineering.

History

Virginia-born Stanford graduate, guitarist and vocalist Leslie Medford played over 150 solo gigs between 1982 and 1984 as prelude to forming The Ophelias in San Francisco in October 1984. Most notably he had provided support for Violent Femmes on their late 1983 Bay Area dates and gained high approbation from that band for his Syd Barrett covers and like-minded original material. Boston transplant Sam Babbitt was the first to join, winning out over approximately 20 guitarists who auditioned for Medford. By December bassist Terry von Blankers who was attending the San Francisco Art Institute, and Florida-born drummer Rueben Chandler – both acquaintances of Babbitt’s - completed the four-piece line-up.
After submitting a 3-song rehearsal cassette, in March 1985 The Ophelias garnered the only Perfect Ten rating ever awarded by the Demo Derby column in the San Francisco Music Calendar magazine. In May 1985 The Ophelias hired the Tom Mallon Studio in San Francisco to record three songs on 8-track reel-to-reel. Their renowned version of “Mister Rabbit” was one of these, and all three would be included on The Ophelias first album.
The band’s first personnel change happened shortly after the Tom Mallon-engineered session, before the band’s first public performance. Indiana transplant Geoffrey Armour replaced Reuben Chandler on drums. Despite being San Francisco based, no Californian-born musician would join The Ophelias until Edward Benton in July 1987.

''"Mister Rabbit"''

The Ophelias eccentric version of the anti-discrimination folk song "Mister Rabbit" appeared on SF Unscene – a 1985 compilation album. It received positive notice in Spin Magazine and other publications. It brought with it the first major exposure for the group, not just locally but nationally as "Mister Rabbit" was quickly embraced by university and underground radio stations around the country. The zenith of the buzz surrounding the track came in May 1986 when Spin Magazine reviewed SF Unscene and specifically "Mister Rabbit" with a double exposure photograph captioned: "Leslie Medford of The Ophelias makes like a nun."
David Immergluck, who would join The Ophelias a year later saw the band for the first time in early 1986. “I’d heard “Mister Rabbit” on KALX and KUSF and liked it, but seeing them live up close blew me right away! Leslie’s stage presence, and the whole bands’, just resonated with me, reminding me immediately of the audaciousness of so many particularly British Glam/Psych/Prog bands I’d grown up with. An aesthetic that was sorely lacking in the Bay Area music scene of the time, so I was seriously thrilled to find a new band to call my own! I distinctly remember being down front as they played a nascent version of “There’s A Bell” and staring up at Terry von Blankers as he hit the final harmony thinking this was the closest I was ever gonna get to seeing Ziggy era Bowie.”

''The Ophelias''

The band's debut album was released by Strange Weekend Records in March 1987. The Ophelias entered the KUSF Top 20 at number 4 the first week of April 1987. Dave Marrs wrote in Beef Free Magazine, "The Ophelias have delivered a tour de force with their debut. Perhaps the best independent album to come out of San Francisco in recent years, this album is brilliant." College Music Journal ran a review which ended, "What finally emerges is a mesh of the ephemeral mystery of Bolan and Donovan, with a weird, confident modernism that makes them a leading contender."
By this time, the band's live shows were already receiving rave reviews. Joni Hollar of the Daily Californian wrote:
"I've seen The Ophelias three times now, twice in the last few days, and they are just amazing. The Ophelias are fortunate in several respects: the musicians do new things with the music yet retain a certain warped traditionalism, they are accomplished enough to play around with a multitude of styles, and they have a particularly strong singer/songwriter. These forces will, I think, combine fortuitously to make The Ophelias well-known beyond the local scene. Lately, the only bands I notice are the ones who don't fit into any specific genre, whose music is so original that hearing them is like hearing a completely new way of playing."

''The Night of Halloween''

The Ophelias became one of the first signees to the US wing of Rough Trade Records and released The Night of Halloween – a 3-song EP – in August 1987. The Hard Report wrote "Their sweeping debut album is still planted firmly in the minds of alternative programmers but it looks like they are at it again. The daring arrangements, biting acoustics and dazzling creativity continue as San Francisco's Ophelias carve a spectacular niche in the underground community."
The EP included a Kinks song, “Wicked Annabella” from The Village Green Preservation Society album. There has been an absolute outpouring of Kinks covers in recent years, but such things were very rare in the 1970s and 1980s, making The Ophelias version much remarked upon, several publications calling it the best Kinks cover ever. Medford has often stated that The Kinks were the band most influential on his becoming a musician.

''Oriental Head''

Oriental Head is a 10-song LP released by Rough Trade Records in May 1988. The record received Top 35 airplay at 159 radio stations around the USA, reached the Top 10 at 48 stations, and reached Number 1 at 9 radio stations. WODU Norfolk, VA; WDCR Hanover, NH; WMMR Minneapolis, MN; WUOG Athens, GA; WRUV Burlington, VT; KTEQ Rapid City, SD; WPRB Princeton, NJ; KMUW Wichita, KS; KUSF, San Francisco, CA.
Ann Powers wrote that they "get down harder and in a more straightforward way than on their previous recordings," and the songs "recall the glory days of satin pants rock and roll".
Immerglück recalled, "When the record came out shortly thereafter, on an excellent and storied label, no less, I was just on top of the world. Honestly, it's still one of my favourite albums I’ve ever made! I really believed we’d made the BEST album to come out of the SF Bay Area since "Surrealistic Pillow", Santana's "Abraxas", Quicksilver's "Happy Trails", Skip Spence's "Oar", or Garcia's first solo album."

''The Big O''

A 12-song LP released in March 1989 on Rough Trade Records, The Big O received Top 35 airplay at 136 radio stations around the USA, reached the Top 10 at 29 stations, and reached Number 1 at 5 radio stations. WCWM Williamsburg, VA; WVKR Poughkeepsie, NY; WLFT East Lansing, MI; WWUH West Hartford, CT.; KCPR San Luis Obispo, CA.
The record was reviewed in both Spin
and Rolling Stone, where David Fricke described the record as "futurist acid pop" and "like vintage English freak beat – early Pink Floyd, a pithier Van der Graaf Generator – laced with postpunk menace." Rock journalist Ann Powers wrote in Calendar Magazine : "No other San Francisco band reaches the heights of supreme imagination, ego and crunchiness required for true rock stardom as well as the Ophelias." Hard Report said, "This is one of the most original and fascinating groups the American independent scene has to offer. Every part of this music machine is working overtime and bandmaster Leslie Medford jumps in and out of this world with a shy, unsettled voice and moody abstract lyrics. From the blasting cacophony of horns to a quiet stab of silence, adventurous listening is a guarantee on an album that stretches your imagination while tempting the rest with one catchy chorus after another."
Vinyl copies of The Big O were packaged in a die-cut, round album jacket, the last occurrence of this before the music industry stopped manufacturing vinyl albums in 1990. by Small Faces, E Pluribus Funk by Grand Funk Railroad, and The Big Express

''Bare Bodkin''

A 15-track compilation album released in 2017, Bare Bodkin includes material personally selected by bandleader Leslie Medford from each of the band's studio releases, in addition to five previously-unreleased tracks which were recorded before the band's breakup.
About the album, Medford said, "I approached Bare Bodkin as if it would be the last will and testament of The Ophelias, as if it alone might be our legacy. I use four opening "new" songs to make a kind of personal statement about my feelings as to the prime aesthetic thrust of The Ophelias, musically, lyrically, visually...an extended prologue and set-up for the perhaps more-familiar numbers "
Guitarist/engineer David Immerglück, in a retrospective on the band, waxed nostalgic about two of the songs newly-released on Bare Bodkin:
" would love to have had "Sleepy Hamlet" which was in the can and "The Golden Calf Played Rock ‘n’ Roll" which was recorded but not used "

''O List!''

On December 4, 2018 The Ophelias released O List! a live performance album with seventeen songs. These feature Leslie Medford, David Immerglück, and Terry von Blankers on all tracks, with the last two drummers, Edward Benton on twelve, and Alain Lucchesi on five tracks, respectively. O List! not only includes live versions of previously released studio tracks which often diverge wildly from the studio takes, but also has over thirty minutes of non-album tracks, including covers by Gong and David Bowie. "The Hanged Man", "Dead in the Water", "Capitol", and "Dreamer's Waltz" are all band originals which make their debut on O List! In toto listeners are treated to an hour of The Ophelias live, circa 1987–89, as the band alternates muscular, heavy psychedelic rock with interludes of gentle and sweet – this dichotomy being an Ophelias’ calling card.

''Green Girl''

A second volume of live performances, entitled Green Girl, was released on April 23, 2019, comprising sixteen further archival recordings, this time covering the years 1984-1987. The recordings include rare examples of the band as a three-piece outfit.
"From 1984's murky, menacing ; though 1985's gorgeous, poetic ballad ; to 1987's twin renditions of , structurally similar, yet wildly different in tone and color; each track on this album is a vital piece of a puzzle which has until now been impossible to complete due to the unavailability of the music.
There is a pervading sense of youthful enthusiasm throughout these tracks; just listen to Medford's gorgeous solo rendition of , recorded for a radio show in promotion of The Ophelias' first record---the sweetness of his voice imparts a sense of sincerity and gravitas to seemingly-nonsensical lyrics like, "We've got meaningful lawns/ rolled and written upon," urging you over and over to give it just one more listen, in the hopes that you might finally discern his coded meaning."

Reception and Influence

In Rock and the Pop Narcotic, his 1991 book concerning the distinction and divide between "pop" and "rock" in mid- and late- twentieth century music, critic and record label entrepreneur Joe Carducci gave The Ophelias positive mention, furthering his essential premise that popularity is no index of quality.
Furthermore, Game Theory's Scott Miller was vocal in his fandom for the band. About "Palindrome" Scott Miller wrote "This recording stands out amid those of the era—it sounds absolutely like a million bucks." Miller ranks it the fourth-best song released in 1987.
In his book "Music: What Happened?", along with ranking "Leah Hirsig" the third-best song of 1989, Scott Miller writes:
...Front person Leslie Medford was a multi-instrumentalist eccentric who had a wild singing style; Michael Quercio and I idolized him. An indie band on Rough Trade, the Ophs had as much pro impact as any band in late-eighties SF and their recordings have the most modern punch as any I can think of in retrospect. One secret weapon was David Immergluck, a true ace guitarist who eventually wound up in the Counting Crows—the wrong place to figure out how great he is. This is the right place;...

Discography