FDF Volume 2: Issue 160 - Eve's Plumb - Cherry Alive

By: March

Album - Cherry Alive
Artist - Eve's Plumb
Key Players - Michael Kotch - guitar. Ben Kotch - drums. Theo Mack - bass. Colleen Fitzpatrick - vocals.
Produced By - Fred Mahar

Release Date - September 19, 1995

What caused me to blow off the dust? - When I was looking for something to do recently, I came upon Everclear..and this was close by. It had been a while for sure.

Overview - Formed in 1991 in New York and taking a derivative of Eve Plumb (Jan Brady from the Brady Bunch) name, Eve's Plumb the brothers Kotch got together with Fitzpatrick and began to perform. The band would release two full length records, Cherry Alive would be the second and final record. The band would never really garner much chart or sales success and they'd disband in 1998

FDF Comments (aka the songs) - The first single off the record was the album opener in, "Jesus Loves You (Not As Much As I Do)" which opens with a wall of guitar bass and drum before the guitar chugs with the occasional riff over the top. Fitzpatrick sets the tone early as a strong voice and pushes the band along. The song is a great power pop track and it was a wise choice as the lead single. There is a cool instrumental breakdown about 1:25 in to the song before the guitar solo comes in and Fitzpatrick howls over the top singing "life is good!". The looping riff repeats at the end and its all over in a perfect power pop time of 2:20. The band chose "Wishing The Day Away" as the second single for radio play. The guitar and bass are punchy and this time the band slows it down a little letting Fitzpatrick croon a little more. The guitar and bass line are simple and the drums keep a strong back beat. Once more there is an instrumental interlude and the band changes gears, but follows back into the initial tempo before fading out. "Want You Bad" is back to the rocking feel of the first track. The guitars are crunchy, but the bass and drums are up in the mix just perfect. The chorus is sung at a good clip and the guitar swoops over the back side of it. The end is top notch as well with a great short burst. Starting a little more dark and plodding is "Loved By You" before it perks up and locks in to the familiar groove. Fitzpatrick has more of a high/whiny voice on this track. It is pretty, but it has cracked the mold of prior tracks, this ends up really standing out. See for yourself in the down loads. "Fairy Princess" does a lot of quiet/loud moments. During the verse its semi laid back, but come the chorus (as well as the intro) the band is really hitting it hard. The chorus as a really great vocal hook, perhaps it is how it is sung but it will grab you. Half way into the album the title track "Cherry Alive" arrives. It was the third and final single released from the record. College radio played it some,but it didn't well otherwise. Fitzpatrick croons wonderfully and its a strong track as she plays off the guitar bass and drums for a perfect give and take. The band gets more urgent on "Lipstuck" a quick marching track that has the vocals going about as fast as they have been on the whole record. The bass is a little more prominent in "Sticky And Greasy" as it begins. The guitar is buzzy and then the band sort of eases up for the verse(s). The song is heavy and hard,but keeps a pretty low key pace. "Beautiful" is another song that is cut from the same cloth as prior tracks. Fitzpatrick sounds good and the band is tight. Opening with the buzzy guitars once more "Serious Stuff" opens up and the band wastes little time before the vocals cut in. The band has some good pop sensibilities for certain. "Dog In My Heart" has a great guitar solo and the album closes out with "Only Anger" one of the weaker tracks on the record honestly. Its slower than the prior, and is not really show casing the strong points of the band. Still, the whole collection is strong.

Where are they now? - Fitzpatrick would have some success as a solo artist "Vitamin C" but that last solo record was in 2001. She appears to be doing some acting roles from time to time. From what else I dug up (Wiki) Fitzpatrick married Michael Kotch in 2004 and both Kotch brothers appear to be still making music. Mack has become a touring sound man.

FDF Personal Comments (aka the Live experience) - Never saw the band live.

FDF Overall Take - I don't have the first cd so I can't compare, but in listening there are a lot of strong power/pop rocking tracks on this record. Perhaps it was timing, but a female fronted rock band like this today would be on the cover of every glossy magazine. The record is cut out, and should be easy to find for less than a few bucks. Well worth it.

Links -
There was not a lot, a myspace page
appears to be inactive but here is their info on Wiki


Curious? Check out some MUSIC!

The mp3's have been removed.

Loved by You
Jesus Loves You (Not as much as I do)
Cherry Alive

All the tracks taken from "Cherry Alive" which you can buy here.

Disclaimer - For the most part songs listed you can find on iTunes or your local cd shop. The idea is to give you a little taste of the music. Please support the artist buy purchasing some of their work. Songs are posted for about 1 week but can and will be removed at the request of the artist, band, band management etc. If you are one of those persons contact me via the email link in the profile and they will be removed as soon as we are made aware of the request.