Coyote Records

Speed the Plough

Speed the Plough has the undeniable power to transport the listener to distant landscapes full of beauty, mystery and passion. Their layered sound has been described as ethereal and hypnotic, and it is distinctive on the underground music scene.

The group was formed by songwriter John Baumgartner (keyboards), Toni Paruta (woodwinds) and Marc Francia (guitars), who have been making music together for quite a few years in their hometown of Haledon, NJ. The trio comprised the nucleus of The Trypes, a band which also featured several members of that other famous Haledon-based group, The Feelies.

The Trypes released a critically acclaimed EP in 1984, The Explorers Hold, on the then fledgling Coyote Records label. But The Feelies reactivation in 1985 left little time for other endeavors, so the founding members of The Trypes decided to pursue a new musical project.

They recruited Frank O'Toole (guitar), Jim DeRogatis (drums), and Pete Pedulla (who has since been replaced on bass by John Neilson). The group was christened Speed the Plough, a name inspired by a traditional Scottish folk song.

The members of the band are not strangers to the music scene. Baumgartner also plays keyboards with Yung Wu and appears on their Coyote album, Shore Leave. DeRogatis has toured the U.s. and Canada as a member of the Ex-Lion Tamers, a conceptually unique group which opened for Wire, performing that group's classic Pink Flag album, and he and Neilson also serve as the rhythm section of Airlines. O'Toole has been a DJ for more than a decade on the popular free-form radio station WFMU-FM. Paruta is a classically trained musician who has a long affiliation with the early music trio, Von Elder Art.

Speed the Plough the band's debut album, was primarily recorded during the winter of 1988 at Mix-0-Lydian Studios in Boonton, New Jersey. The recording was produced by Speed the Plough and Bill Million of The Feelies, a former member of The Trypes. Bill also leant a hand on percussion and E- bowed guitar; and Lois DiUvio played violin on two of the nine songs on Speed the Plough.

- from the 1988 bio from Coyote Records