"Call the Fire Department!" - The Unusual Genius of Breakfast with Amy

Blonde Vinyl Records was a revelation to me as a young teen.  There were plenty of Christian record labels with which I was familiar, some even with alternative imprints, but Blonde Vinyl seemed the zaniest and the furthest afield.  This is likely because it was run by the incredibly creative, prolific, and beautifully misanthropic Michael Knott.  More on him at a later date. 

After three short years, Blonde Vinyl had to shut its doors forever in 1993, which many have speculated was the fault not of the label but of shaky distribution deals in the Christian bookstore circuit.  A sophomore in high school, I remember being fairly saddened by this news, even going so far as to try to explain to my friends (to no avail) the importance of this record label.  I would miss that zaniness and irreverence.

Perhaps no band demonstrated these qualities more than Breakfast with Amy.  There were elements of surf rock, some Violent Femmes worship, psychedelia of all sorts (some songs incorporating a sitar and sounding like some of that weirdo British folk), 70's glam androgyny, some weirdness that reminded my wife of Iggy Pop, other songs that sounded very much like contemporaries Jane's Addiction, and a whole lot of samples, snoring, and other sounds that played right into my love of all things Monty Python.  Oh, and some Sonic Youth.  

Sadly I don't have any of their records anymore.  How does that happen?  YouTube only has a small sampling, but it's enough to give you an idea.  For a band that always seemed content to exist on the fringes, Breakfast with Amy also enjoys a colorful but tiny presence on the edges of the internet.

I never did find out what their name meant, and this is a band that maybe wouldn't make it back into regular heavy rotation even if I could find all of their old records, but I'll always appreciate them for embracing the bizarre, for championing a creative spirit that asked, whether anyone was listening or not, "why can't it be like this?"

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Chris Colbert from Breakfast with Amy on someone else's website talking about the band, dadaism, and subsequent projects. 

Here is "Mermelstein and the Disappearing Sink."  Again, no idea what the title means, but I love all of the stilted Christian social jargon, and the music reminds me of Circus Lupus or Nation of Ulysses, two DC bands playing at roughly the same time:

But then there's this, "Fashion Gal" from 1991's Tuck in Your Love Gift (I think I know what that means, but I wish I didn't).  There are elements of Nirvana here, I don't care what anybody says:

If you can find a song from the Vonnegut-titled Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt that still endures, please post the link below in the comments.  I couldn't.  - DL

* It should be noted that Breakfast with Amy were a band about which one could write volumes.  The above is not intended to be anything more than a remembrance by way of surface exploration, and/or an introduction.  Thank you for your understanding.