Revisiting my Bus Stop Label’s singles, I pick up today the superb 7″ that Engine No. 9 released in 1991. A 7″ that had two top songs, “Sleep” on the A side and “Waterfall” on the B side.

The catalog number for this record was BUS008 and had a nice cartoon train on a front cover that had just three colors, red, black and white. The artwork is credited to Brian Reedy who had been in bands like Lonely Trailer, Signalmeen, The Falbonauts and Water Between Continents.

But there’s a little detail that’s interesting about this record. It was released posthumously. The band didn’t exist anymore at the time of the release, they had changed their name to Fudge.

I haven’t written yet about Fudge. There’s so many bands to write about, but hopefully at some point I will do. There are other details though that we can add about Engine No. 9.

We know that this single was recorded at Studio Nico in the fall of 1990 and that the band was formed by Dani Siciliano on bass, Mike Savage on drums, David Jones on guitar and Tony Ammendolla on vocals and guitar. Two Italian last names I notice.

The blog Did Not Chart has scans from a Fudge Interview on 1991’s Waterbomb! fanzine. There they are asked about a short history of Engine No. 9. This is what they say:

Can You give us a short history of Engine No. 9?

David: Tony (vocals & guitar) and myself have been playing together since we were 17 or 18. We came to Richmond to go to school and to get into its music scene. We’ve been trying to put together a solid band for about two years. Fudge (Engine No. 9 ) is that band!

Where does the strange name come from (Engine No. 9)? It sounds R.E.M. ish?

David: “Engine, engine, number nine, comen down Chicago line, if that train should jump the tracks, do you want your money back?”
It comes from this rhyme that wee did as little kids, a lot of the time in addition to a really neat hand game.
No! REM no! Sit! Bad dog! in the USA if it doesn’t sound like Bon Jovi or Janet Jackson then it must be that weird “Progressive rock” like REM. I’ve always liked REM, but NEVER want any connection to them. (Sorry for the mild hostility).

How did the single with Bus Stop come about?

David: I sent a tape to Brian and one to Calvin at K. Brian liked us, Calvin, well he sent me some neat Beat Happening flyers, but he lost my tape.

Your whole sound, sounds as though you have a large British ‘indie’ influence, do you?

David: a small “indie influence”. I like all the C86 stuff and got into some of the well known indie bands i.e. The Sea Urchins, Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, Pooh Sticks. We really love Noise/Melody – My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. And big grooves.

Were there any other releases before “Sleep / Waterfall”?

David: Only local demo stuff.

Are there any other good bands from the Richmond area?

David: Thank you for asking about Richmond bands. Yes!! Richmond has a thriving scene. Very few.none are of the indiepop kind of thing, but all are great. My partial list of favourites – Jive Farmer, Anse, Eggs, Coral, Alter-natives, Burma Jam, Kal Kan, Mystery Machine

What’s “Sleep” and “Waterfall” about?

David: “Sleep” = Youth, love, poetry and other sappy shit. Lyrics written by an x-bass player. “Waterfall” = “I believe in you and your waterfall, me and my divining rod, lending me to yo, showing me what to do…” = Mother nature & instinct. The hows and why’s.

Are Bus Stop going to release an LP” What would you call it?

David: Jeez! I hope! Maybe if Brian knew he could sell them. We have quite a lot of material but we want to go slow. It would be called “I Wish I Were a Fish’

Where you aware of all the other Bus Stop bands before you joined the label?

David: I had heard of Bus Stop and some of the bands, but never the music. Well, Springfields, but I thought they were on Sarah.

Do you think the American music press does enough to promote bands like yourselves?

David: No! It’s kind of hip to have different/weird bands on major labels now, but they don’t really care about anything but the money.

What do you all do for your day jobs?

David: I go to school at Virginia Commonwealth Uni and I work at a survey lab doing yucky computer stuff. Tony is a security guard at a residence hall for the university and take classes. Mike works at the Art Market. VCU is an Art School.

There’s a comment on the post by David Jones. He mentions that Dani Siciliano never played bass with them but that she was a high school friend that was moving away and it seemed like a good way to have pictures of her taken before she left time. That sorts of make sense now that I think about it. When I see her name on Discogs she was a key collaborator of the Matthew Herbert Big Band and had played in jazz combos and djed in San Francisco clubs.

Looking at other bands they were involved with, other than Fudge, I see Tony and David were on Twitch Hazel and The Seymores. Mike was in Death Vessel, The ‘Mericans, Cherry 2000, The Count Me Outs, and Shepherdess.

The band contributed two tracks to the classic compilation CD “Peppermint Stick Parade” (BUS1001) released by The Bus Stop Label in 1995. These songs were “Waterfall” and “Sleep” of course.

One interesting thing that I can’t figure out is that the two songs on the 7″ are credited to two last names that are not the band’s. “Sleep” is credited to Tolk. From the interview I understand it was an ex-bassist of the band. But what about “Waterfall”. It says Moore.

Then Discogs lists a 12″ titled “Engine, Engine No. 9”. That is not a release by this band. This actually dates from 1966 so an error to include it in the band’s discography.

And that’s all I could find about them. The one thing that caught my attention was that there were demo tapes with more songs that were released locally. Has anyone seen them?

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Listen
Engine No. 9 – Sleep