southern records

Franklin Bruno hails from the sprawling urban landscape just east of Los Angeles, fondly known to those who dwell there as The Inland Empire. There, when not teaching philosophy to Claremont students or working on his graduate degree, Franklin has been the singer/songwriter and guitar player in the trio/quartet Nothing Painted Blue. Since their formation way back in 1989, Nothing Painted Blue have put out three full lengths, two EPs and a fistful of 7"s. In the summer of 1993, Franklin decided to go out on his own and record a solo album. We'll let Franklin tell the tale:

Summer, 1993: Nothing Painted Blue find themselves opening several Tsunami shows in the Midwest. After the climactic "smokebomb" show in Chicago (a tale in itself), NPB's drummer, Kyle Brodie takes the band vehicle and heads back to law school, while bass player Peter Hughes and guitarist/songwriter Franklin Bruno continue on to the East Coast to visit relatives and write for the musical theater, respectively. But there are still shows to be done in Detroit and Cleveland. Troupers that they are, Franklin and Peter fulfill their contractual obligations by playing three songs each, solo, and three as a bass and guitar duo. Impressed by what they hear, the Simple Machines think-tank approach Franklin about doing a whole record. Megalomania wins out over caution, and he accepts. Several months of piecemeal recording (at a modest but well-equipped 8-track studio in San Dimas, California), two tours and three living arrangements later, A Bedroom Community is delivered to a waiting world. "This is the record," he claims,"the uncomprehending reviews of which will make me finally quit music."

Franklin's previous solo releases include two cassette-only releases on the Inland Empire's Shrimper label (Suggestion Box and Etudes for Voice and Snackmaster) and out-of-print singles on Baby Huey and Walt, as well as various compilation appearances. A Bedroom Community is not Franklin Bruno's first (mostly) one-man effort, but it is his most fully realized. More than a bunch of tunes that his "rock band" couldn't or wouldn't play, the album is a modestly scaled work of pop auteurship in the not-too-grand tradition of Todd Rundgren and The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Musically, the thirteen songs range from the sparse acoustic opener, "Then Again, Maybe I Won't" (names for a Judy Blume novel) to "The Death of Vaudeville," which ends the album with Bruno alone at the piano. In between we get everything from ersatz samba to Gibson-fueled pop to feedback-drenched folk laments, held together by the crafty songwriting NPB followers and detractors alike have come to expect, but with a darker wit that some may find surprising. Recurring lyrical motifs include infidelity, winter, mortality, self-doubt, and postage.

Franklin Bruno hits the road as often as his teaching job in the Philosophy department at UCLA permits, either truly solo or with Nothing Painted Blue. By the way, Nothing Painted Blue continue their parallel career on Scat Records, with a new EP that came out in the fall of 96 and yet another album planned for 1997. In the meantime, pull up your comforter and become a member of A BEDROOM COMMUNITY.

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