Chapter 1, "Seattle+Portland in 1982-83"

Throughout 1982 and 1983, Face Ditch appeared all around Seattle and Portland on a lot of double bills with a lot of names that would become famous. But you know what? Only your mother cares what bands you’ve been on the bill with. Face Ditch was a band that never became famous or successful outside of a small group of hardcore fans.

Face Ditch at Luis LaBamba in Portland Oregon, Feb 2nd, 1983, from left, Miles Boisen - guitar, Henry Franzoni-drums, Craig Flory - Sax, Fred Chalenor - Bass, Randy Neal - guitar

Chapter 2, "The Music and the Music Scene at the time"

Face Ditch played instrumental music that didn’t easily fit categories. Jazz guys thought they were punks. Rock guys thought they were jazzy, and punks of the time were heard to say that no one played faster. Most of the gigs they could get were at punk clubs or art galleries. Mainstream Seattle music taste at the time was not what it is today. Even back then the masses preferred the man who would become Kenny G… Kenny Gorelick, whose Seattle band: Cold, Bold, and Together frequented the mainstream venues of the time. Portland was the same way. Seafood Mama, who would grow up to become Quarterflash, was in heavy rotation at the mainstream Portland venues. Seafood Mama sold their 45 in record stores out of a big tuna can. Face Ditch used one of their big tuna cans as a percussion instrument. The Ditchmen were often heard at the time to derisively refer to this band as the Tuna-Queen.

The musicians that would form Face Ditch met in Portland Oregon in late 1976… that's when Fred Chalenor, bass player, met Neil Minturn, keyboardist, and Henry Franzoni, drummer. Henry and Neil auditioned for a band named Zanzibar led by guitarist Rick Adams that had Fred on bass. Richard Gehr, the writer, encouraged Henry and Neil to go audition. The band rehearsed for a year, played one gig, and broke up in late 1977. In 1978, Fred left and went overseas to play in a folk duo, and then moved to the Bay Area to play with people like Henry Kaiser, Owen Maercks, Zen Disaster, and a "slightly related to the Grateful Dead" band which shall remain nameless, due to the wishes of the bass player. Neil and Henry remained in Portland throughout 1978 and missed Fred. In late 1978, Henry went down to the Bay Area try to talk Fred into coming back to Portland. Fred’s bass had been stolen, and Henry went to see him at a gig at a small bar in Half Moon Bay where Fred was playing with the nameless band. Neil Young happened to be sitting in the bar, and came up to Fred and told him he could borrow one of his basses until Fred could afford another one. Henry thought this was a good omen. Fred borrowed the bass, saved up and bought an Alembic and moved back to Portland in early 1979.

Neil Minturn - keyboards
Henry Franzoni - drums
Fred Chalenor - bass
Randal Davis - synth, electronics, prepared guitar

Face Ditch formed in February of 1979 and soon added Randal Davis on synth and prepared guitar. The band broke up the first time at the end of November of 1979. In this first period the quartet wrote and rehearsed enough material for at least two or three records, which they mostly performed at the Long Goodbye in Portland (where Jimmy Maks is today). They played gigs around Portland in 1979, and helped to bring Henry Kaiser, Fred Frith and Chris Cutler to Portland for a concert at Reed College followed by a collaborative performance at the Long Goodbye. At the time, Chris Cutler told Henry that Magma was one of the most important bands in Europe, and that American rock musicians had no sense of dynamics.

FACE DITCH: Jan. 1980-June 1980

Neil Minturn - keyboards
Henry Franzoni - drums
Fred Chalenor - bass

In January of 1980 the Group re-formed as a trio minus original member Randal Davis. Randal immediately formed the ground breaking Portland ensemble Concentration City. (more will be written about them here at this website) The first performance of Concentration City included John Johnston, Michael Stirling, Henry, and Fred and was at the Clinton Street Theatre in Portland Oregon. Face Ditch continued to play their regular Thursday night gig at the Long Goodbye, including a double bill with the Northwest punk legends The Wipers, who were in their prime.

FACE DITCH: July 1980- September 1980

Neil Minturn - keyboards
Fred Chalenor - bass
Chris Lee - drums and vibraphone

Henry had moved to LA, so Fred and Neil continued the group rehearsing in N.E. Portland in a house that Fred and his girlfriend (Nancy Clarke) rented in N.E. Portland. (Nancy is now the singer in Jettison Slinky… an amazing prog-ish S.F. band). The band still performed the Bryden Two Step by National Health as well as 1980 vintage Ditch material. Gigs were played at Reed College and of course the steady gig: The Long Goodbye. While Henry was in LA he played at some Hell’s Angel’s parties in the Hollywood Hills with a biker band named Inertia. He played for two weeks with a punk band named the Fibonaccis, which he quit after telling them they sucked just before they got signed to Atlantic. He played a gig at singles bar in Marina Del Ray with a jazz band named Chicken-Leg Roscoe and the Primo Good Thing, which had Lewis and Doc Halsell on guitars; Tim Martin and Mike Leslie on basses. Mike moved to NYC and played in an early version of Dr. Nerve, and then went corporate. Henry actually played a few paying gigs in LA… a string of recording sessions with some "Nat-King Cole" wannabes, a county western gig in Bakersfield, and a Mexican wedding. All were gigs from hell.

FACE DITCH 1981: The Big Band

Henry moved back to the NW and Face Ditch recorded on a 16 track with an expanded lineup at Wave Studio in Vancouver, Washington with Tom Robinson engineering. Tom planned to put out a record, but once he heard what they recorded, he told them he wouldn't and gave them the master tapes and told them that they could do what they wanted with them. The band at that time consisted of:
Neil Minturn - keyboards
Henry Franzoni - drums
Fred Chalenor - bass
Chris Lee - drums
Dan Balmer - guitar

Dan Balmer played for a long time with Tom Grant. They called him long for short. The music recorded at these sessions was a collection of new and old FACE DITCH material along with one piece by Chris Lee and a couple that ended up in the Seattle version of the band's concert repertoire. Soon after these sessions Neil got accepted to Yale to study music composition and took off for awhile. He'd eventually get his doctorate in composition.

FACE DITCH: 1981

Henry Franzoni - drums
Fred Chalenor - bass
Mark Ralf - French horn

Perhaps the strangest version of the band. FACE DITCH recorded three or four tunes at a studio at The Evergreen State College's studio with old friend Drew Canulette engineering. Alternative Values and Fat Boy were two of the tunes, the latter of which had Henry contributing some words to the music.

FACE DITCH: 1982

Henry Franzoni - drums, Fred Chalenor - bass, Randy Neal - guitar, Craig Flory - saxes

This version of the band was based in Seattle and did a lot of gigs. The band played many times at Rosco Louie’s, and were staples of the budding Seattle punk scene, even though they weren’t punk, the punks were pretty much the only ones who would give them a gig. They played a double bill with the legendary Napalm Beach at the Golden Palace in Seattle during this period. They all lived a few blocks from each other in Wallingford and rehearsed and drank coffee they bought at the M & R market.

FACE DITCH: 1983:

Myles Boisen was added on Guitar.   Face Ditch played gigs with Mr. Epp and the Calculations (which included Mark Arm later of Mudhoney); Death of Marat (which included Daniel House later of Skinyard and CZ Records); Red Dress with Gary Minkler and Peter Pendrass; Fred with Greg Powers and Jeff McGrath (Henry was the Fred drummer for a month); Smegma; Concentration City; Jeff Greinke, and The Blackouts which included Bill Reiflin. Greg Powers and Jeff McGrath had another group called Men of Brass, who appeared sometimes as the Face Ditch horn section. Konrad Uno did live sound for a lot of the gigs. Drew Canulette engineered one track that appeared on the compilation LP, Alive in Olympia in 1983. Face Ditch also self-released two cassettes in 1983 in Seattle, with Chris Baer's help, "All Fall Down", and "In the Interim". The Seattle music scene wasn't very big in 1982-83. Those who were there remember a strange instrumental rock band named Face Ditch that played all over town. Calvin Johnson, Mr. K-Records himself, remembers them as a "lame jazz-rock band"; he's told one particular story about them in many interviews and Histories of Grunge. The band refers to this as the incident.

In 1983, at Calvin’s very first gig in Seattle, he opened for Face Ditch at Roscoe Louies. The band watched from back stage as the girl drummer with Calvin took a stiletto-heeled shoe and pounded on the Ditch drummer's snare drum. The Ditch guitar player started getting steamed, pacing back and forth, he said to the drummer, "hey, she's fucking up your snare!" The drummer agreed, and the guitar player ran on stage, got in front of Calvin on stage and screamed: "Why don't you shut the fuck up?" Meanwhile, Larry Reid, proprietor of Roscoe Louies, unplugged Calvin and the rest of the Ditch broke up laughing hysterically. This incident seems to be the one thing the band is remembered for, and the Ditch has never told their side of the story before. Pell Mell was also on the bill that day and in fact they had invited Calvin to the gig. They approached the Ditchmen backstage and explained to them that they should try to have more respect for other artists such as Calvin, which made the band break up and laugh even harder. As one said: "All I can say about Calvin is that, he's the best quarter tone singer I ever heard from around here."

Bruce Pavitt, who went on to start Sub Pop, interviewed the band in 1983 for the U. of W. school newspaper:

Bruce Pavitt:

Q "How many people in Face Ditch have had dishwashing jobs?"

A (everybody in Face Ditch raises a hand)

 FACE DITCH: Late 1983
Without Randy Neal, Face Ditch moved to New York City in 1983. The Ditchmen at the time were heard to say that the Seattle scene was becoming "too commercial", so they decided to go to NYC. (Nice timing, eh?) Soon after, Craig Flory went back to Seattle and was replaced by George Cartwright of Curlew. In 1984, Myles Boisen moved to California and was replaced by Mark Howell (also of Curlew during the North America period). Louis Belogenis was by that time playing Tenor Sax in the band. (He now gigs and records in New York with Rashid Ali). Henry recorded a polyrhythmic drum part for a Laura Dean dance during this period. This version of the band played a couple of gigs in NYC, and Jim Meneses of the legendary Philly band The Stickmen booked one gig for them in Philadelphia.

FACE DITCH: Late 1984- early 1985

Henry Franzoni - drums
Fred Chalenor - bass
Mark Howell - guitar and trumpet
Chris Cochrane - guitar

The last gig by the band was in early 1985 at the Chandelier. Elliot Sharp was on the same bill. This club was deep into the heart of New York's East Village. Fred and Henry also called this band Wasi-Wasi for one gig. John Zorn booked them into this club. He was always supportive of new ensembles. Chris Cochrane went on to tour and record with No Safety which had Zeena Parkins (now with Bjork) and Anne Rupel of Curlew...(who Fred Chalenor has replaced in 2002’s version of Curlew.

FACE DITCH: 1986-2001

Henry gave up drums from 1985-1988, and just wrote software, Fred moved back to Portland in 1986. In 1988, Henry moved back to Portland, and auditioned for The Tone Dogs, who needed a drummer because Matt Cameron had just left the band due to Soundgarden being signed. Henry played in The Tone Dogs for two years with Fred, Amy Denio, and Courtney Von Drehle, then got booted from the band; replaced by Will Dowd.(This is something that has be known to happen with Henry and Fred over the last 25 years) Around 1989, Craig Flory and Randy Neal and Fred came down to Portland one day, and Face Ditch reformed for one afternoon and played two songs in the basement of the Hell Cows house where Henry was living at the time, Craig had written a new Ditch song. However, nothing developed. Fred and Henry founded Caveman Shoestore in 1991, and soon were joined by Elaine Di Falco in 1992. This band was signed to Tim/Kerr Records and put out two full length CDs, and appeared on three others. The Caveman Shoestore gang combined forces with Hugh Hopper and they all recorded a CD for Tim/Kerr named Caveman Hughscore in 1996. Henry got booted from this band in 1996. Fred, Elaine, and Hugh went on to make two Hughscore CDs, one for Tim/Kerr with Will Dowd on drums, and one for Cuniform Records with Tucker Martine on drums. However, like a bad penny, Henry keeps turning up. In 2003 Henry, Fred, Hugh, and Elaine have made plans to record another Hughscore CD, "back to plan A", as Hugh put it. Fred and Henry and Elaine have reformed Caveman Shoestore as well, and holed up and worked on new music in the Fall of 2003. The Fred and Henry rhythm section plus Elliot Sharp founded the Boodlers in 1994. This band recorded the CD named Boodlers, for Cavity Search Records in 1994, and recorded Counter Fit for Tim/Kerr Records in 1997. Caveman Shoestore and The Tone Dogs would sometimes play old Face Ditch music. Fred played some old Face Ditch music with some other bands he was in… Face Ditch riffs were known to appear in the middle of their songs.

 Chapter 5, "The Ditch Today"

Neil Minturn - keyboards
Henry Franzoni - drums
Fred Chalenor - bass

In January of 2002 the band began recording their first CD. The first rehearsals took place in Seattle in the summer of 2001. As of January 2004, for sale on Itunes. This is the same personnel as the original Face Ditch that played their first gig at Reed College in Portland in early 1979. Randy Neal, from the 81-83 Seattle period Face Ditch, played some mean guitar on a few of the tracks. Randal Davis, from the ‘79 band, may collaborate with the modern FD down the road. Craig Flory said he'd do some some stuff on the next CD, which FD is already working on... a dozen tunes are ready to be baked crispy.. Maybe busy Myles Boisen will do something again with FD someday?
Today, acceptance of weird instrumental music is more widespread. Modern instrumental bands such as Tortoise and Critter’s Buggin have actually sold more than 3 records to each of their family members.

All the different versions of Face Ditch played a song named Industry. The 2002 version is named The Twist this is a song from the new CD.