Waldo and I recently had an e-mail discussion about bass duos, and I mentioned Brotzmann and Laswell (on the "Low Life" LP, PB plays bass sax only) and Waldo mentioned Numbskull with Mike Zubal and Kevin Ries. Here is a clip of them from the olden days, courtesy of drummer John Scully:
In the first appearance of the Epiphanies column in "The Wire" (or "Wire"; it's been both) magazine, Peter Shapiro discussed how he and his friends were arguing about what the greatest rock guitar riff was, Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" or Budgie's "Breadfan" (click on the header for a link to the video, as embedding is disabled). More on this debate here: http://www.hippriest.net/archives/2007/11/01/175 And don't ask me, I don't have a horse in this race (but maybe "Veteran's Day Poppy" by Captain Beefheart?)
But what do these riffs mean? I don't know; let's ask Charles Mingus:
Not only was yesterday April Fools Day, it was also the birthday of Waldo Drogulus... (47th) We were recently conversing online about guitars and got onto the topic of Captain Sensible of The Damned, and his colourful nature:
You can't see how colourful he is here, because it's black and white:
Hello, everybody, I'm back from riding around a crazy ice floe with Frankenstein's monster. I'm posting this because Chris over at black2com/blogtocomm (click on the header) recently reviewed this classic album.
Ellington/Mingus/Roach*
Here is Vijay Iyer's version, from his recent album "Solo" (ACT 9497-2)
A project with Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd:
Harlem Stage • Wed, Feb 10, 2010 • 7:30 pm • A work-in-progress showing by composer/pianist Vijay Iyer and poet/performer Mike Ladd, with Iraq veteran/poet Maurice Decaul. Featuring Pamela Z, Guillermo E. Brown, Okkyung Lee, Kassa Overall, and Liberty Ellman
*Hey, it's Max Roach's birthday on Monday (01/10). It's also mine. I will be turning 17 for the 3rd time.
it means you're embarassed," or so goes the song by Shockabilly. But what does it mean if you dream about Ron Metz, erstwhile drummer for the Human Switchboard, and Louis C.K., writer/director of "Pootie Tang," one of the finest surrealist works of the Noughties?
I remember I was once in the office of the New Music Distribution Service on lower Broadway, which took ages to get up to, because even though it was only on the third or fourth floor, the only way to gain access to it was via the slowest-moving elevator it's ever been my displeasure to use. I was sitting there idly watching the parking lot across the street, with its machines that lifted cars up and put them up on platforms like a giant warehouse forklift, and listening to this jazz drummer holding forth about his various opinions, including his extremely negative assessment of Ron Metz's skills. As it happens, this fellow suffered an untimely death*, so I'm not going to identify him here (e-mail me if you MUST know)...I am not ordinarily happy about people's passing, but any unhappiness that I might have felt was definitely tempered by this guy's fulminating. I dug Ron's playing, plus I always found him to be a decent guy.
Hey, here's a joke: Two drummers, Pete and Repete, are sitting on a log. Pete falls off; who's left? Repete! Two drummers, Pete and Repete, are sitting on a log. Pete falls off; who's left? Repete!
Also, I had a dream about clipping my toenails, and out from under one my nails, I pulled out a razorblade. I would not be offended if you said "Ick."
*In a way, all deaths are untimely, because if it's a decent person, they're gone too soon, and if it's a bastard, you think "What took so long?"
Last week: Ornette joins Sonny Rollins, Christian McBride, and Roy Haynes onstage:
At Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday show at the Beacon Theater in New York City on Sept. 10, 2010.
Thanks to RadioShoe for posting this; when not saluting giants of jazz, he puts up his renditions of songs by Tom Waits, Steely Dan, and Eno, and clips of Grand Prix races...
Colin Newman in rehearsal / soundcheck performing "LORRIES" at HURRAH, NYC. Produced and directed by Merrill Aldighieri. A full concert was later recorded, lit only by 2 flashlights taped to the two cameras on stage. Guitar -Desmond Simmons, Guitar and lead vocals-Colin Newman, Bass-Simon Gillham & unseen drummer Robert from Wire.
For some reason this warm late Spring weather that we've been enjoying takes me back to the early days of the Drome record store, when it was located on Cedar in nuclear-free Cleveland Heights, where more fun, jokes, and tricks were begun than on just about any squid-jiggin' ground...when it was cold weather, I'd usually just go as far east as downtown (when I was a kid, I thought that Petula Clark was singing about downtown Cleveland) to check the record stores, bookstores, and library there, but when it was warm, I would take the train to the University rapid station, then climb the hill to Hideo's Discodrome, as it was also known. Early on, I think Crocus Behemoth was even still working there, when he wasn't busy walking around and taking buses. His night job was to corral a bunch of Palcontents on the little carpeted loft above the salesfloor there to get them ready for their weekly forays into the Flats. If one peeked one's head up there, one could see some gear, some ashtrays, and some gallon jugs with a little bit of cheap red wine left in them. But that's neither here nor there; all of this is just a preamble to the memory of a favorite 45 of that time, by the French group Metal Urbain, though oddly enough, that name doesn't appear on the pic sleeve, just the word Metal with a red "U" superimposed... But I was pleasantly surprised to come across this video clip recently:
Spindly fellows, ain't they?
" Rare uncut complete version vidéo clip from the original line up of Metal Urbain starring Clode Panik, Hermann Schwartz, Pat Luger and Eric Debris, filmed in late 1977. Lady Coca Cola was the b-side of Metal Urbain first single anthem, Panik, originally issued on Cobra Records in may 1977."
They even did a reunion album four years ago, but I'm not going to go into that.
I still get over to that stretch of road frequently, because the nearest Dave's Supermarket is there, in the location of the Russo's or whatever it was...I think that was the store where an early Harvey Pekar story takes place (“Standing Behind Old Jewish Ladies in Supermarket Lines”). And I think that Dangerous Dave Norris, drummer extraordinaire and the Drome's jazz specialist (every store had one), still lives down on Grandview. Anyway, here is Crocus Behemoth more recently:
"London's iconic double-decker buses are getting a design upgrade (and greener powerplants), as revealed today on the city of London's website. Scheduled to go into service in 2012, the new bus boasts a more "light and airy feel inside the bus" due to extensive use of glass, including along the staircases (there's two), and a "hop-on, hop-off" platform has been added to the rear."
Well, when I was a kid, I was really stumped by the lyrics of "A Day in the Life," at least the part where the unshaven Beatle talked about getting a bus, then making his way upstairs and having a smoke, because I didn't know anything about buses with a second level. Here's a story that takes place ten years later than that particular day in the life: some punk in London was on the steps at the back of a bus and was helping some other people up, I guess to ride for free, when some dude in loon pants tried to get on, at which point the punk kicked the guy and said "No ride for you, hippie!" Now I seem to remember that the guy on the bus was Jah Wobble, but that anecdote didn't appear in his autobiography "Memoirs of a Geezer," which I recommend if you (the hypothetical reader; I don't know who you are because only one friend of mine ever leaves comments)are at all interested in Wobble, PiL, or that general milieu. I got it from the downtown CPL.
Here are some videos to do with London and its buses:
It looks quite small; is it a bus for ants?
Blossom Dearie, a tough groove, and a hip solo...
Viv Corringham "Together Then Created a Journey that both Forgot" Film by Helen Petts
Here's the long version of the London bus promo:
Londoners seem to hate it. Jah Wobble worked on the London Underground for a time, in the stations and later driving trains (after leaving Public Image, Ltd.). I wonder what he would think of it...
I saw Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones being interviewed on TV the other night, and he was even coherent. The interviewer guy asked him for his favorite lesser-known Rolling Stones song, and he replied "The Connection." Good pick, and he got the name almost right...like the old joke about putting your name on a test: "I got 75% on that."
Live, 11/11/06
"Connection" as played by Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob (in socks) (Reminds me of the time I saw Stampfel and Weber play "From Home" by The Troggs...)
"Connection" by Can, 1969
Jackie McLean, "O.D." from the movie "The Connection" (1961, the upside-down year) Jackie McLean on sax, Freddie Redd piano, Larry Richie drums and Michael Mattos on bass.
Mary Halvorson/ guitar, Trevor Dunn/ bass, Ches Smith / drums, Music Unlimited Festival, Wels, 2005
This is Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant. He will most likely be plagued by the omission of that hyphen as much as James Joyce was (still is, actually) by the addition of an apostrophe to "Finnegans Wake"...(the linked record co. bio omits it).
Here is Ches Smith five years later, in pre-sent time:
Congs for Brums akaChes Smith, Setup Venue timisoara, 05/04/10
According to Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a seer to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated) Caesar saw the seer and joked "Well, the Ides of March have come," to which the seer replied "Ay, they have come, but they are not gone."
The newest go-round of Yo La Tengo and "Autumn Sweater," complete with lightshow:
Yo La Tengo perform "Autumn Sweater" at Roseland Ballroom on Friday, September 25, 2009. Background light show visuals supplied by Gary Panter and Joshua White.
