Windopane

Windopane Disbanded after the two guitar players divorced in 1997 .. Beki Brindle has been living in NY since 1998 and cherishes her freedom from that &%@***! Beki wrote all the songs for Windopane and played all the lead and slide guitars and sang all the vocals. As a female lead player, she was way ahead of her time and way ahead of all the other female lead=sters who followed. As so often happens with pioneers, others have reaped the rewards of her trail-blazing since the late 70's when she was only a teenager. It;'s OK! She is happily married to Ralph Scala of the Blues Magoos and they are as psychedelic as anything! Her ex husband who shall remain named "What's his name" has nothing to do with this site and is what Beki (the one with all the talent) calls a hoarder. He hoarded the master tapes and should have handed them over to her years ago. So, Beki gives you this site for free. Windopane! The first album is here sans the ONE vocal song and that you can find on her personal myspace at www.myspace.com/bekibrindle
Windopane made 2 albums and the second one, Lucky Catatonia is mostly availble for a listen on Beki's main site as well.
Just some new trivia we've discovered in the lst week ...Beki's 10th cousin is Humphrey Bogart .. on her father's side again.. Her grandfather, Harry Cecil Brindle
and Humphrey Bogart share their 7th great grandmother Elsje Hendricks of Holland making them 8th cousins
Following are some of the reviews of the two Windopane Records (yes, Vinyl!):
Dec. 1999
From Listen.Com
Hometown: Woodstock, NY,US
Beki Brindle and her bandWindopane play rootsy, bluesy folk songs and also experiment with someCalifornia-influenced Country Rock. Her voice is dynamic and her singingrange is more elastic than a pair of stretch-denim bootcut Levis. The slideguitar playing is tasteful and true, while unpredictable melodies tastefullyclash with organic chord arrangements. The production is warm and multidimensional,sitting well with the semi-gritty tone of her voice. ----Eric S.
Filed Under: Americana, Folk-Rock,Roots, Singer-Songwriter p Similar Artists: Kelly Willis,Lucinda Williams, Victoria Williams, Iris Dement
--------------------------WINDOPANEREVIEWS------------------ ---------
ITALY
ROCKERILLA MAGAZINE April -1995
(translation from original Italian)
WINDOPANE
"LUCKY CATATONIA" OPEN RECORDS
"See?," issued recently by Open Records,plenty of psychedelic solutions between space free-form and Hendrix-tributeguitars and mixed with individual inventions) the wonderful WINDOPANE areback with an album that could expand their "material" over a much spreadsurface; a very fascinating record, rich with fine filigrees butheavy at the same time, with pluri-vocals and with a sonic spectrum thatshines with sudden rainbows appearing in the original "diorama" -underground;A record that steals electric charges from the old American roots -- fromthe typical geometries of the West Coast to certain distant psych structures,hidden between tracks / wakes of not very known bands like Damon or Ravenor even from the actual Texan rock LSD emanations. Beki (woohh) holdsthe control on the band's engine. Her voice (so feminine) evokes post-JeffersonAirplane coloring while the lead guitar draws different and viscous melodies that give life to the songs of LUCKY CATATONIA, creating beautifulballads between tradition a future plots by means of sharp metallic segmentsof "acid-rock" that penetrate all the grooves of the record. Absolutelycharming are: "Don't You Feel Me," with nocturnal voice tones typicalof the first Patti Smith, remake of one of the Damon's songs (primordialAmerican psych-band, end of the sixties) from their album "Song of a Gypsy" ; "That's The Way To Treat A Lady" and "Ink and Blood,"lyrical ballads with fragments of semi-electric guitars and interestingsolos that remind us of the West Coast and of the trio Slick -Kantner -Kaukonen;"House of Broken Toys," song led by the rhythmic section, typically "latesixties,"emotional and fast as "All Right Now" can be; "Bad Doctor," swarmingwith Rhythm & psych shoots and with the astonishing end screwed downby the lysergical lead guitar. Finally, "Junkie Jerk" leads the bandinto the mental and visionary music Kingdom and into the maze ofthe new-hallucinated music full of feedback structures coming from the"Strat/Hendrix" guitar and a rarefied voice, Experience's electric churchdevout.
LUCKY CATATONIA is nearly a masterpieceof alternative rock (and nonconformist) and one secure candidate for RECORD OF THE YEAR!
BEPPE BADINO
Rockerilla
---------------------------------Ken Golden's Lazer's Edge Review, NYC
WINDOPANE
See?
Lucky Catatonia
Just as the catalog was near completionthese two titles slipped in under the wire. After I popped "See?"into my player I had some immediate questions:
1) How much acid did this chick take toplay guitar like that?
2) How do I make it louder?
3) Where's the repeat button?
After thinking about this for a while I came up with Ken's Third Law of Music (please don't ask about thefirst two.)
ACID + CHICK + GUITAR + LOUDER =
REPEAT
Windopane is a midwest trio of Beki Brindle-DeMyeron Lead guitar and bippy shirt, her husband Larry DeMyer on bassand guitar, and Mark Cutsinger on drums. "SEE?" is mostly an instrumentalshowcase for Beki's long dosed out 'shroomarama' superfuzz, wah-wah guitarsolos that make guys like Martin Weaver, Nick Soloman and Terry Strangelook like a bunch of wussies. Surprisingly her solos are coherentand melodic, this is not Fushishita, after all. The low fi productionmakes me think of some of those long lost German underground monsters where theengineer keeps pushing the levels way into the red so that the needles in the VU meters are spinning360' at 100 mph and no one cares because after the 10th tab no onecares about anything, so they just keep on jamming until the sun rises......
On "Lucky Catatonia," their new album,the low budget edge (and frankly some of the charm) is gone. The production quality is much better. This CD is more song oriented asBeki sings and Larry adds more guitar bits but Beki's guitar talents arejust as good as on "SEE?" Actually in some ways this disc is better than"SEE?" in that you can actually tell that she is a good songwriter.On "SEE?" you're just blown away by the playing. The "Lucky Catatonia"CD features a cool cover version of Damon's "Don't You Feel Me."
Ken Golden
Lazer's Edge - 1995
------------------------------------------------------------ The Music Paper- October 1995
WINDOPANE, Lucky Catatonia (CD)
Formerly known as BadKitty, Windopane--whichis led by the compelling, sensual, sultry voice of Beki Brindle (also one hell of a guitarist)--has enough going for it that any major distribution would placeLucky Catatonia in the Top 20. It's packed with languid, hypnotic, loosely-chordedgrooves, a la Sheryl Crow; thoughtful acoustic ruminations; and a heartbrokencountry shuffle interspersed with tough, biting blues-based rockers and feedback-drenched excursions into aural noise.
Al MuzerThe Music Paper
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RELIX JUNE 1995 -VOL. 22 3
IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE SO MANY BANDS CAN CONTINUETO RELEASE GRASS ROOTS PRODUCTS OF SUCH HIGH QUALITY--AS THISISSUE'S REPEAT OFFENDERS HIGHLIGHT. WAKE UP MAJOR LABELS, YOUARE MISSING SOME QUALITY STUFF.....
WINDOPANE, WHOSE FIRST ALBUM WAS REVIEWEDLAST ISSUE, HAS A NEW RELEASE AVAILABLE, LUCKY CATATONIA (OPEN). THERE'SSOME EXTREMELY INTERESTING, ALBEIT NON-COMMERCIAL, SOUNDS HERE AS AVANT-GARDE-MEETS-PSYCHEDELIAWITH AN ALTERNATIVE EDGE. THEY TAKE YOU ONAN EERIE SONIC EXCURSION WITH THE FIERCE FEEDBACK LADEN CACOPHONOUS SOUNDS OF "JUNKIE JERK" WHILE THEY OFFER LIGHTER FARE WITH THE QUIRKY"JERRY LEE IS THE KING". KINDA KAISER MEETS KING CRIMSON VIA NEWWAVE!
MICK SKIDMORE---RELIX MAGAZINE
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RELIX APRIL 1995 -VOL.22 2
WINDOPANE IS A SOMEWHAT ESOTERIC TRIO FRONTED BY GUITARIST BEKI BRINDLE DEMYER AND HER GUITARIST HUSBAND, LARRY. SEE (OR) IS A MOSTLY INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM, AND A FINE ONE AT THAT. DESPITETHE LACK OF A BASS PLAYER, THE TWO DEMYERS AND DRUMMER MARKCUTSINGER MAKE SOME COMPELLING AND HARD HITTING MUSIC. THE WISTFUL"SAD SONG" FEATURING THE DEMYERS ON HAND-MADE ACOUSTIC GUITARS, OFFERS THE ALBUM'S MOSTMELODIC MOMENT, WHILE THE REMAINDER OF THE DISC IS A SONIC EXCURSIONINTO GUITAR PYROTECHNICS. THE MYRIAD OF GUITAR WORK IS INVENTIVEAND REFRESHING. THIS ALBUM COULD APPEAL TO FANS OF HENRY KAISEROR ROBERT FRIPP, EVEN THOUGH THERE IS NO DIRECT COMPARISON.
MICK SKIDMORE---RELIX MAGAZINE
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WBAI Radio NYC "Motherlode show".............
"I Love This Record!!" ---Victoria Starr--WBAI Radio
NYC
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FOSTER CHILD DEC. 28, 1995 (GLEN BURNIE, MARYLAND)
To be truthful this disk should have beenreviewed in the last issue, but it's such a subtly brilliant albumit Took many months and spins to "get a handle" on it. There's just so much good stuff here ranging from well writtensolid rock pop tunes of "That's The Way to Treat A Lady" and "SummerSong," to spaced-out Psych weirdness of "Junkie Jerk." Andthrown into the middle of this are good lean, mean rockin' tunes such as"Jerry Lee Is King." Did I mention the disc closes with a countryishsong "On The Back Row."
This group understands life as one listento this album will prove. Do not let this band be ignored.
---Tony, Foster Child-Dec. '95
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RocKerilla Magazine
Italy '95
WINDOPANE "See?" LP/CD, OR Records
(The best we could do in translating the Italian!)
From a formation triangular compasta fromtwo guitarists (also husband and wife) and a drummer, a consecrated star is born to the potionhendrixiana: Windopane. Free rock fed from electric exuberance andrhythmic power an able ammassosolare, to immolate unknown voicesand to establish a difficulty equation between soul ecaos. See? it alsoshines between The lunar frames of the Television and the furnacestellar blues of the Crawlspaces with a fall of sounds in direct taking,natural in the tide of effects filtered from a delay or from a pedal wah wah, evolvedin the execution of valid and fanciful musicians.
(In Italian) Da una formazione triangolarecompasta da due chitarristi (anche marito e moglie) ed un batterista,nasce un astro consacrato alla pozione hendrixiana: Windopane. Free rockalimentato da e uberanza elettrica e potenza ritmica,un ammassosolare capace di immolare voci sconosciute estabilire una difficile equazione fraanima ecaos. "See?" splende anche tra I fotogrammi lunari dei Televisione la fornace stellare blues dei Crawlspace con una cascata di suoni inpresa diretta, naturale nella marea di effetti filtrata da un delay o daun pedale wah wah, evoluto nell'esecuzione di validi e fantasiosi musicisti.
(reviewed by:)
Giampiero Fleba
RocKerilla
Via Andrea Pighini 24-17014
Cairo M. TTE (SV) ITALY
DIFFERENT BEAT MAGAZINE
--August/September 1995
WINDOPANE ONSTAGE WITH THE BAND,
in the studio with John Sebastian
Indianapolis' psycho-blues quartet Windopaneare developing quite a knack for hanging out in some pretty heady musical company. First, theyget dropped into an impromptu gig opening for THE BAND (The Band----as in, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,")and the next thing they know, they've enlisted rock and roll legend JohnSebastian to take part in a remake of one of his own songs from his days with sixtieschart toppers "The Lovin' Spoonful."
Getting ready to record their third album, the band, singer /guitarist Beki Brindle-DeMyer, guitarist Larry DeMyer, and drummer Mark Cutsinger, traveledto Woodstock, NY to play a handful of shows and do a little bit oftracking. On a previous trip a few months earlier, the "before wewent to Woodstock," explains Beki, "We decided to record the Lovin' Spoonfulsong, "Darlin' Be Home Soon," and since I have known John for years,I called him up and asked him if he wanted to play on our renditionof his tune!"
Sebastian obliged and the band booked time with longtime Todd Rundgren engineer, Chris Andersen at his NevessaStudio in Woodstock. Also, on the session was "Michael Esposito,"the former lead guitarist of the '60's group "The Blues Magoos.""I have also known Michael for years," continued Beki, "as I playedin a band with him in Woodstock from 1987 to 1991. He played basswith me back then so I grabbed him for our session. He laid down a really heavy groove through his 1957 semi-hollow body bass." "Darlin' Be Home Soon" is the first of an album's worth of songs the bandplans to record in an effort to ready another release in 1996. Before thatcan happen, though, WINDOPANE will be making the rounds with their new video, "Jerry Lee Is The King,"(From Windopane's 1995 2nd release, "Lucky Catatonia") which wasfilmed and produced by Chris and Alice Hodapp. In between their stints rubbing elbows with classic rock's royalty, Windopane has been keepingbusy with a variety of undertakings, not the least of which has beenseeing their late 1994 release, "SEE?" hit number 14 on Italy's undergroundradio chart and number 22 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (with many international press accolades to boot.)
JOHN BYRNE
DIFFERENT BEAT MAGAZINE
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PARABRISAS--Tulsa, OK
Windopane --Lucky Catatonia (Open Records)
This is quite an interesting disc froma very talented group of musicians. Windopane's first albumwas a psychedelic, improvisational effort recordedin their basement. Lucky Catatonia, their second, is a little more sophisticated however. This trioplays a mix of bluesy, garage rock with a nod to music's roots and a salute to Jerry Lee Lewis.
Composed of husband and wife Beki Brindleand Larry DeMyer, who both play guitars and bass, and drummer MarkCutsinger, one can't deny Windopane's talent. The DeMyers areboth top-notch guitarists, capable of making their instruments dowhatever they want them to do. the guitar playing on Lucky Catatonia isa fine example of craftsmanship. And Beki's vocals complement themusic nicely. From the harder, more psychedelic numbers to themore rowdy country/roots tracks, Windopane doesn't lack.
The best track is "Don't You Feel Me,"a remake of a 60's garage classic. Combining feedback and wah-wahwith the sounds of producer Paul Mahern's Moog, it immediately catchesyour attention and keeps it. It's quite mesmerizing. On the other end ofthe spectrum is "On the Back Row," a pure bluesy, country number that closes the disc quite nicely.the other tracks fall in between, from the chaotic "Junkie Jerk" to the strong, slow "That's The Way To TreatA Lady."
I'm quite impressed with Windopane. Greatsongwriting and talented guitar work make
Lucky Catatonia a highly-pleasurable listen.DO!
David Only - PARABRISAS ---June 1995
Plenty more accolades are available!