http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1996/03/03/PK60317.DTL
``Go!,''
the new CD by Chris von Sneidern (CvS), is another in a series of handy one-man
studio productions that have kept the local musician/ producer in heavy demand.
After
releasing two brilliant yet critically overlooked albums for the independent
Heyday label, CvS has been at work in his basement studio, manning the board
for a coterie of local musicians (Levy 09, Behind Tom's, the Sunshine Club, the
Loved Ones, Chuck Prophet and John Wesley Harding). He'll somehow find time to
headline Club Cocodrie on March 15.
Meanwhile,
the international pop underground did its job, spreading the word through its
mouthpiece, fanzine Yellow Pills, that CvS was an undiscovered pop gem. A
Swedish fan so taken with CvS' music formed a label, Sound Asleep, just so he
could release ``Go!'' and other music by disciples of the power-pop genre.
``It's
a transitional album of odds and sods, not my third album. I wanted to get this
batch of songs out and to move on,'' von Sneidern said.
Last
month in New York, von Sneidern recorded more of his own new material with
Dennis Diken of Smithereens and Richard X. Heyman. He just finished helping
with the postproduction on a posthumous release of material by Pete Ham of
Badfinger for Rykodisc and, in his spare time, he plays keyboards in the
all-star Saturn V (featuring members of the Loved Ones and Phantom Surfers and
fronted by Orbit).
So
what's life like for an overbooked pop whiz? ``It's easier to get more work,''
he said.
--
Denise Sullivan