Dear Friends,

I hope you have a few minutes because this is a rather long story. It starts with me arriving in Los Angeles from New York City in 1991. I drove out in my sister's Volkswagon Fox to work at Spumco on "The Ren and Stimpy Show." I was an animator, you see. Now I'm a retired animator. I paint instead. When I arrived I was fresh from quitting my band of five years, The Pussywillows. I'd been animating videos and commercials full time while I was singing in The Pussywillows and the combination just about killed me. So, I made a pact with myself that now I would concentrate only on animation. The day after I arrived in Los Angeles I met Tim Hensley. I was so excited by his album, "Victor Banana," that I suggested we do something together. So he promptly wrote some killer songs for me, and we were on our way to making a record.

Meanwhile, Andy Paley appeared one day at Spumco wanting to produce a Ren and Stimpy record for Sire. John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy's creator) called me into the meeting since I was the person at the studio most familiar with these matters. I was very excited to meet Andy because he's produced some awesome records and done some very admirable things. Let's start with his discovering the tapes of The Shaggs, the group that made it possible for women to enter the rock sphere. And then we should end there so we don't run out of pages on this booklet. Andy invited John and me for dinner that night for homemade lasagna. That was the start of a great friendship.

Soon after, I began publishing demos and movie soundtrack recordings. Then we began to write together, Andy and Brian Wilson are great friends and writing partners, so Andy play Brian the songs we'd been working on, and Brian flipped. When we were recording "Boomerang" Brian came into the studio and told us that it could number one in Motor Trend magazine. After that, Brian wanted to record something. So we did "Sweetie" together. Brian played piano, I sang.

Was I terrified? Yes. Was it fun? Very. Since that time, Andy and I continue to work together and Brian has sung with me on a few songs. We did all of our recording at the best studio in the world. This is Mark Linetts's studio in Glendale, California; it's called "Your Place Or Mine". Andy also introduced me to Jonathan Richman. He played guitar on some songs Andy and I Wrote and recorded together.

At the same time I had begun to record some songs for a French label called Eurovision which later became the albums: "Paris In April," "Chick Habit" And "Gainsbourgsion!" They had asked me to record my favorite Ye Ye songs. Ye Ye is a form of French pop from the early to mid-sixties. So I asked Jonathan to play on some of these songs. He likes French music too. Andy also played on these tracks. On some of these tracks Andy's playing everything: drums, guitars, bass, celeste, organ, percussion-all at the same time. Just kidding. But listen to Caribou. Andy is king of the playing every instrument track by track department. Also playing on these tracks are The Shitbirds. That was the band I was in at the time.

We have a greatest hits CD out on Sympathy For The Record Industry called "Famous Recording Artists." A bunch of 7"s came out as well. Somewhere in here Andy, John, and I wrote and recorded "Don't Whiz on the Electronic Fence" and "Sugar Sod Pops" for the Ren and Stimpy Show. Now what? Well, over in Paris, Bertrand Burgalat, a French producer/composer, heard "Gainsbourgsion!" and "Chick Habit," then asked me if I would like to come to Paris to record with him. Wood eye? Yes, please, peg leg. So I went to Paris and stayed with his mother, who makes delicious cantaloupe jam. She calls me "ma petite souris", which means my little mouse. I'm a very quiet guest. We began work on "Chrominace Decoder," traveling back and forth between Paris and London.

In London we got the Headcoatees to sing backup. Louis Phillipe played guitar and Richie Thomas played drums. Bertrand was able to buy French wines at cheaper prices than in his homeland. I think of Bertrand as my brother, even though his been known to introduce me to people as his daughter. Bertrand was in a band called Laibach.

Are you getting hungry or thirsty by now? Feel free to take a little snack break because there's a bit more left to the story. After all, I'm enjoying some ginger ale in the airplane at the moment. I'm on my way home for a visit. I am a New Englander.

Somewhere in the midst of back-and-forthing to Paris, I recorded an album with my Sympathy For The Record Industry labelmates The Makers. Weird idea? Yes. But I like to try lots of different things. Not indiscriminately, however. If your waiting for the Blues Traveler featuring fat April March album, you'll be wasting your time. Besides The Makers, The Bassholes asked me to record with them. Don Howland of The Bassholes and I have huge respect for some of the Latin girl groups that came out of New York in the eighties. My favorite being Sweet Sensation. We recorded a 7" together with this in mind, "Moody."

After these collaborations with my labelmates, Los Cincos, also on Sympathy, asked if I would like to do a record with them. I went to see them play and couldn't believe what I was hearing. We started and over the course of a year came up with two albums. One was noisy-for a label called Horen in Japan. The other was more sedate-for Sympathy For The Record Industry. On the Japanese record Tom Gimley, who produced and recorded it at his studio, Poop Alley, put together a choir of ten girls to sing with us. Yaghtzee. The other album was recorded with Mark Linett for Sympathy For The Record Industry. By now Mark had recorded almost all of the April March records.

Somewhere in the middle of recording with Los Cincos, Andy and I did the theme for "I am Weasel," which is part of a Hanna Barbara cartoon on the cartoon network called "The Cow and Chicken Show" done by some of the old "Ren and Stimpy" crew. And, for the movie Orgazmo, I did "Jesus and I Love You" with a band consisting of members of Los Cincos and the Cars. Hey wait a minute, that's too weird. not weird at all. They were the most qualified for the job so...

Godspeed,

Elinor (April March is not my Christian name. But, then again, I don't think it's good to call Christians names).