Hollywood Autopsy w/Ranchero, Madison, 1983 (L to R: J. Shimon, Cyndee Bauhduin, Bob Wasserman, J. Lindemann)
Our Hollywood Autopsy LP was recorded in Danny Colleran’s Basement on used 1/4 inch reel-to-reel tapes in the early 1980s. Butch Vig mixed it down at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin and each jacket was handmade with a photocopied picture of the band stuck to the front with Elmer’s Glue. Reviewed by Maximum Rock n Roll and making it to #42 on the chart of an obscure Dutch radio show, the LP hit the streets in the summer of 1983.
We were all college students at UW Madison when we did the Hollywood Autopsy project along with producing a zine titled Catholic Guilt. It was Cyndee Baudhuin playing bass, sax and doing backup vocals, Julie Lindemann on drums, Johnie “pukeface” Shimon on guitar and vocals, and Bob Wasserman playing guitar, farfisa, and doing vocals on the songs he wrote. We embraced the amateurism of punk rock and rejected the cookie-cutter lyrics, nursery rhyme melodies and pummeling 3/4 beats of hard core. We drew on our personal histories steeped in 1950s, 1960s and 1970s pop culture. Hollywood Autopsy was recreational, but we considered it serious art. We all had other things to do after the record came out, so the project ended and we went out separate ways.
We reunited with Bob for a performance at the Orpheum Stage Door, Madison, on March 6, 2004 when we opened for Milwaukee’s Plasticland. Bob played his Farfisa while Julie played her black Rickenbacker and John his Vox 12-string. Cyndee sent her well-wishes from Seattle and offered to play washboard. Artist and writer Elsa Klink of Milwaukee joined us on stage wearing a traditional German folk costume along with artist Matt Fink who played the stumpf fiddle and drums on a dissonant rendition of the Beer Barrel Polka. A film about dreams was projected on the wall above us.
View Standing Naked in the Carnival, a video produced by Yeller Skeltin for “Capital Reaction” WYOU cable access TV show. Taped at Merlyn’s, State Street, Madison, during a sound check before a X and the Replacements show in summer 1983.
View madson, 1982or3 8 mm film circa 1982 shot in Madison starring Julie with a Hollywood Autopsy soundtrack.
View clips from the Hollywood Autopsy 2004 reunion performance: Trivia, A-holes, Sunny, Beer Barrel Polka, Nigel’s Boogie.
Listen to the tracks from Hollywood Autopsy LP by Hollywood Autopsy (1983):
1. lost finding gone (j.shimon)
2. hideous plastic flowers (j.shimon)
4. turn the pages (b.wasserman)
5. improvised instrumental edit
6. standing naked in the carnival (j.shimon)
10. improvised instrumental edit
NOTE: Audio files made from a digitally mastered recording by Bob Wasserman