#theklitz

Marcia Clifton is the drummer of Memphis' first punk band, The Klitz. After the group initially disbanded in 1980, she made some home recordings with her boyfriend (later husband) Hans Faulhaber. The duo employed a drum machine and recorded on a Fostex cassette recorder. It was a great session, combining Cleaners from Venus-style lo-fi production with danceable post-punk elements that were a hallmark of 1980-1983 underground music. Spacecase will be releasing a limited-edition lathe cut (25 copies) of two songs from this cassette very soon.

Interview by Ryan Leach

Circa 1983 photo by Marion Keisker (yes, of Sun Records/Elvis Presley fame)

Ryan: The Klitz ended in late 1980 when Lesa (Aldridge) moved to New Jersey. What were you doing in that interim period between then and when you started recording these tracks in the summer of 1983?

Marcia: When Lesa left town and The Klitz disbanded, we decided to either go back to college or get a job that wasn’t in the music industry. I had a job managing a boutique. It was a cool clothing store. And that’s where I met Hans (Faulhaber). Hans had recorded with Gail (Clifton) first at Ardent. That would’ve been early in 1983. Hans and I started dating. He didn’t have a home-recording setup like the ones you think of today. He had a little cassette recorder where you had a few tracks.

Ryan: It was a Fostex cassette recorder, not a reel-to-reel tape recorder, correct?

Marcia: Yes. A Fostex cassette recorder. Most of those songs I had already written. But I wrote them more as poetry. I didn’t necessarily want to put them to music. But Hans is a musician. He said, “Well, I can put some music to these, and I have a drum machine.” So, we recorded those in his apartment early in our courtship. We recorded these songs in 1983 and 1984.

Ryan: I didn’t realize that you weren’t actively pursuing music after the Klitz ended.

Marcia: That’s right. I didn’t do anything with music again until we recorded these songs. “Shy Guy” was about a heartbreak I’d had before I’d met Hans. I was the drummer in The Klitz. I’d written some songs, but I wasn’t like Gail (Clifton) and Lesa (Aldridge) who were always recording material or writing songs that we’d perform. When Hans and I started dating, he was the one who said, “Well, maybe you’ve got some songs in you.” To which I responded, “Well, I’ve got these poems…” Only a couple other songs from the batch of recordings I gave you were written afterwards. “This Love” was one of them.  

Ryan: These songs were all recorded in Hans’ apartment, right?

Marcia: Yes, except for “Can’t Decide” and “French Boy.” Lesa wrote “French Boy” and “Can’t Decide” was a song I wrote in 1986. Those two tracks I added later to the recordings you have. The one Sid Selvidge sings was recorded later too.

Ryan: So, you wrote “Week at a Glance,” the song Sid sings on and the one you’re referring to?

Marcia: Exactly.

Ryan: Memphis music has always been underappreciated.

Marcia: Very underappreciated.

Ryan: And an overlooked musician from the Memphis music scene is the late Sid Selvidge. He ran the Peabody label and his record, The Cold of the Morning (1976), is outstanding. How did you meet and get to work with Sid?

Marcia: I knew him from Mud Boy & the Neutrons. Coincidentally, he also had stepdaughters who were my age. His stepdaughter Kathy Spivey was my friend. I went over to their house when I was 14 to hang out. Steve (Selvidge, Sid’s son and musician) was still a toddler. We’re talking about the early 1970s. We always knew Sid as an activist and poet. He was an anthropology professor at Southwestern (now Rhodes College). Sid was always this Midtown enigma to me. I didn’t really get to know him until Mud Boy and The Klitz started playing shows together.

Ryan: Did you ask him to record with you?

Marcia: Yeah, Hans asked him. Sid was the house band for a Memphis bar/restaurant called the North End. He was playing at Jefferson Square first, but unfortunately that place burned down to the ground. This was in addition to Sid’s other musical projects, including Mud Boy. By the time we recorded with Sid, Hans had upgraded from his little Fostex. He was recording more bands. So, he’d invited Sid over. Sid liked the song and the lyrics for “Week at a Glance”.

Ryan: Memphis is a city where music can happen independently, oblivious to what’s happening elsewhere. Nevertheless, bands like the Bush Tetras and Pylon were combining post punk with dance elements and a spartan sound. Were you aware of those bands or do you feel that working with a drum machine had more of an influence on these songs?

Marcia: No. I would say it was more about the technology. I’d heard of those bands, but they weren’t an influence. New wave was definitely going at that time. I think it was more a sign of the times.

Ryan: Did you ever perform these songs live?

Marcia: That never happened at the time, and I thought we would. Much later, our band SuperLo did some of these songs. That was with Hans, me and John Hampton’s wife Robin Robison.

Ryan: That would’ve been the 2010s, correct?

Marcia: Right. 2018. But going back to when we recorded these songs, I was in college. And I was in some ways living the music through Gail (Clifton). After The Klitz broke up, she was the only one who really continued with music. I would hang out and support her. The Klitz got back together in 2014. I enjoyed it so much I wondered why I’d ever stopped playing music.

Ryan: It seems like a matter of life taking over. I know you had your first child, Clover, around this time.