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Visqueen: Hand Me Down
Message To Garcia is a collection of Visqueen songs that represents a rock and roll epitaph to front woman Rachel Flotard’s father. After garnering countless fans, reviews, and playing shows with everyone from Guided By Voices, to Cheap Trick, Visqueen appeared to be on the verge of conquering the world. All of that changed when her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Their choice to be together for the duration of his illness would change her direction forever.
Mr. George E. Flotard was a New York City steamfitter since the mid 1960’s. He fought and loved in Hell’s Kitchen bars on the West Side, and broke all ten fingers twice. He was a strong, red-headed foreman who ordered holes in the ground and fit miles of pipe in a 1970’s Harlem skyline.
“A Message To Garcia” is an essay written in 1899 by Elbert Hubbard inspired by the Spanish American War. The story celebrates the initiative of a soldier who is assigned and accomplishes a daunting mission. He asks no questions, makes no objections, requests no help, but gets the job done. Voracious reader as Rachel’s dad was, this is the only time he physically handed her something to read rather than just suggest it. Visqueen toured America in a van for months after their first record, King Me came out, and again with their follow up rocker, Sunset On Dateland. Focused and determined to make a go of the impossible, Rachel would call her Dad from the road each day. He’d ask if she was “delivering it”. She knew exactly what he meant. And the only answer was “yes”.
On April 7th, Rachel caught her dad’s last breath in her hands in the Seattle home they shared since 2002.
“He was our unrelenting hero for 35 years and never let us drop. These songs are my friends. I wrote them through a long ride of self-conscious anguish and joy. They are braided with sunny, ubiquitous problems and snare drums. They reflect the part of me that wants to be happy and make out with Bad Company.”
Rachel Flotard has been busy the last few years splitting her time caring for her father and working with Neko Case, lending her bold, original voice to Neko’s recent albums Middle Cyclone and Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. Here, Ms. Case returns backing vocal favors on Message To Garcia, joining a spectacular cast of unusual collaborators from pedal steel wizard Jon Rauhouse, to The Fastbacks and The Long Winters.
The result? A gigantic sing-a-long record with gangs of handclaps, hooks that kill, and the exalted blessing of electric guitars and cello.
Produced by Rachel Flotard with her King Me cohort, Barrett Jones (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Message To Garcia is the debut album on Flotard’s new independent record label, Local 638 Records, inspired by her dad’s New York City Steamfitters union.
As her dad always asked, Visqueen is proud to deliver it, with Message To Garcia! [bio]
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