"On paper it seems unlikely that January's two principals would wind up in the same band together but, they're compatible in ways you would ot expect." wrote Brett Milano of the Boston Phoenix. Jeff Caglarcan and Christine Zufferey founded the group January in 1994. She was a film-scoring grad from the french region of Switzerland, who dabbled in Classical and Indian voice. He was a native of the DC punk/hardcore scene. The result of their work was a music that was dreamy yet, energetic. Melancholic lullabies that were driven with urgency and edge.
January's first offering to the public was "See-Thru", released in 1996, which featured the group's rendition of the Willy Wonka classic "Oompa-Loompa". Rounding out the line-up for this record were drummer Chris Newbern (who occasionally had a hand in penning some of the group's riffs and lyrics) and Marc Hunt on bass. Along with their live show, this record earned the group the "Best New Band of '96" award from the local rock magazine, The Noise. Lollipop magazine wrote, "Keep an eye on these guys, January (with any luck) will undoubtedly be the next band pounced upon by the majors.".
1997 brought a new record, "Keep Me From Sleeping", which was produced and engineered by the band's newest member, bassist Erin Anderson. Erin replaced Marc Hunt who departed from the band in '96 to return to his hometown of Buffalo, NY. (A friend of the band, Eric Barao, helped out with low-end duties during the interim between the two.) The new album featured two of January's most popular live songs "Magnificent" and "Fuzzy Sweet". 208 college radio stations across the U.S. added January to their rotations after hearing this record and, 24-7 E-ZINE slated it as "one of the ten best local records of '97". Just before the release of the record, a 45 single of "Fleece" b/w "My Limousine" was recorded and sold at January performances.
Strained chemistry and artistic rifts began to unravel the group in 1998 beginning with the departure of Chris Newbern. Christine's husband, Shawn Marquis, was brought in to handle the work behind the drums. Soon after the group had played it's largest show, a packed house at Mama Kin, opening for Rasputina, Erin Anderson parted company with the band. In 1999, the remaining members recorded January's final album, a self-titled EP, with Peter Moore (Think Tree, Count Zero) handling the production and engineering. During the making of this record, Jeff, half of the nucleus of January, ran out of steam for the project and the group took itself out of action following this session.
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