Sex Execs were a
new wave music
New wave is a loosely defined music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself. La ...
band from
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
, active from late 1981 to mid-1984, playing bars and colleges in the Northeast. Although the group's recorded output was scanty and self-released, lasting recognition came via several notable members. The band's home studio marked the formative experience of producers
Paul Q. Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, the Mighty Mighty Bosstone ...
(bass) and
Sean Slade
Sean Slade (born 14 November 1957) is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. On many of his productions he worked in partnership with Paul Q. Kolderie.
Career
Slade was born in Lansing, Michigan, United States. He graduated from Y ...
(rhythm guitar). Other members included
Jim Fitting
Jim Fitting is an American harmonica player based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is known for his work with Treat Her Right, The The, and Session Americana.
His credits include guest performances on various other artists' albums and live gigs.
...
(who played saxophone for Sex Execs but became better known on harmonica), drummer
Jerome Deupree
Jerome Deupree (born November 9, 1956) is an American musician, based in Massachusetts. He is best known as the original drummer in the alternative rock band Morphine.
Early career
Deupree started playing drums at the age of six, with the hel ...
(later of
Morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...
), and saxophonist
Russ Gershon.
History
Style and Reception
Sex Execs also achieved popularity on college radio, especially with the single "My Ex." However, the closest the band came to breaking out to wider recognition was in 1983, thanks to the fifth annual
Rock 'n' Roll Rumble
The Rock 'n' Roll Rumble (sometimes stylized "Rock & Roll Rumble"; formerly the " WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble"), begun in 1979, is a Greater Boston " battle of the bands" competition sponsored by Boston Emissions, an online local music program f ...
, sponsored by
WBCN (FM)
WWBX (104.1 FM, ''Mix 104.1'') is a radio station with a hot adult contemporary format in Boston, Massachusetts. The format started at 98.5 FM on February 9, 1991, and moved to 104.1 FM, replacing WBCN on August 12, 2009, to allow for the l ...
radio. After beating the
Del Fuegos
The Del Fuegos were an American 1980s garage-style rock band. Formed in 1980, the Boston, Massachusetts, United States-based band gained success in 1986 with their songs "Don't Run Wild" and "I Still Want You" and appearing in a widely seen tel ...
in the semi-finals, they finished as runner-up to
'Til Tuesday
Til Tuesday (often stylized as til tuesday) was an American new wave band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The band, consisting of Aimee Mann (lead vocals, bass), Robert Holmes (guitar), Joey Pesce (keyboards), and Michael Haus ...
. The ''Boston Globe'' called both finalists "style conscious" and referred to Sex Execs as "witty" and "wry". The article also cited how one judge was impressed by their tight ensemble playing of complicated arrangements and by the persona of frontman Walter Clay. Yet whereas 'Til Tuesday's performance held the promise that would eventually earn a major-label deal, Sex Execs were viewed as short on songs. They were, however, called "slick, stylish, and tight," with frequent bursts of brass as part of their busy arrangements. (By then the combo had expanded from six to eight members with the addition of two horn players.) With the suits and ties that they sported on stage, the band was akin to
Robert Palmer, who happened to be on hand for that Rumble final.
Previously, the ''Boston Globe'' had referred to Sex Execs' penchant for "overeducated in-jokes" while also praising them as an interesting band that explored and trashed many styles, including covers of
Hayley Mills' "
Let's Get Together" and
Annette Funicello's "
Jo Jo the Dog Faced Boy". Their originals were described as ranging from basic pop to a jazzy dissonance.
Rock journalist
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950) is an American music critic, and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of ''Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone (magazine), ...
had a pithy description of the "concept funk" song "Sex Train": "
David Byrne
David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...
flashing a hard-on."
Legacy in production
In a 2015 interview, Paul Kolderie talked about how he first began to learn about recording in the
Dorchester, Boston
Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, ...
house where most of the Sex Execs lived. It was wired up as a primitive studio, and other bands came over to record as well. As Sex Execs became more successful, they started recording in professional studios such as
Syncro Sound, which was owned by
The Cars
The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), ...
. Kolderie learned a lot from the engineers there.
Three years later, Sean Slade echoed Kolderie in an interview during which he discussed their career as producers and how it got started at the Sex Execs' house with a four-track reel-to-reel recorder they'd bought in New York.
Kolderie, Slade, and Fitting -- who were all alumni of
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
-- then went on to found
Fort Apache Studios
Fort Apache Studios is a New England recording studio focusing on alternative rock sessions produced there since 1986.
History
The studio was initially built by a collective begun in 1985 by musician/producer Joe Harvard and members of a band ...
, which continued the "do it yourself" approach they'd espoused with Sex Execs. The other founder,
Joe Harvard
Joseph Incagnoli (1959–2019), better known as Joe Harvard, was an American musician, record producer, and writer, who played a key role in developing the alternative rock scene in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1980s. He founded Fort Apache Stud ...
, said that Fitting became the fourth principal because it was easier to divide the bills by four. Harvard described them as "the most grossly overeducated recording crew in the history of the world."
Personnel
*
Walter Clay – lead vocals
*
Sean Slade
Sean Slade (born 14 November 1957) is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. On many of his productions he worked in partnership with Paul Q. Kolderie.
Career
Slade was born in Lansing, Michigan, United States. He graduated from Y ...
– guitar, saxophone, vocals
*
Paul Kolderie
Paul Q. Kolderie is an American record producer, engineer, and mixer. He has worked with Pixies, Radiohead, Orangutang, Hole, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield, Wax, Warren Zevon, Uncle Tupelo, Throwing Muses, Morphine, the Mighty Mighty Bosston ...
– bass
*
Jim Fitting
Jim Fitting is an American harmonica player based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is known for his work with Treat Her Right, The The, and Session Americana.
His credits include guest performances on various other artists' albums and live gigs.
...
– baritone saxophone
*
Russ Gershon – saxophone
*
Andrew "Andre" Barnaby – guitar
*
Ted Pine – keyboards, vocals
*
Dan Johnsen – drums
*
Jerome Deupree
Jerome Deupree (born November 9, 1956) is an American musician, based in Massachusetts. He is best known as the original drummer in the alternative rock band Morphine.
Early career
Deupree started playing drums at the age of six, with the hel ...
– drums (replaced Johnsen)
Recordings
* ''Sex Execs'' (1982) - four-song EP
* "My Ex" / "Ladies' Man" (1983) - 12-inch single
* "Sex Train" / "Strange Things" (1984) – 12-inch single
References
{{reflist
American new wave musical groups
Musical groups established in 1981
Musical groups disestablished in 1984
Musical groups from Boston