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:
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:
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
Seriously. What a time we live in! What a country!
Here he is as Popeye Doyle...by the way, I think the car chase in "The French Connection" kicks "Bullitt"'s ass...
A Singer* of my acquaintance once invited me to see the motion picture "The Firm" with her strong endorsement of Gene as "America's greatest actor." Another time, I came home and my wife was watching a movie on TV: "This is a good movie. Gene Hackman plays a basketball coach at a high school. It's called 'Hosers.'"
But I'm sure no one, fan of Hackman or not, would deem his portrayal of Bob Stinson in the movie "The Replacements" a success...
Here's some more food for thought: this fellow named JoeChrisMorris has posted not one, not two, but THREE versions of Robyn Hitchcock's ballad about America's possibly greatest actor. This one is my favorite...
"If you don't get him, you get Andie MacDowell," who approximately no one is tipping as America's finest actress, in her finest performance, as Sister Anna in the movie "Hudson Hawk," from which Dan Brown stole the plot of "Da Vinci Code" (possibly):
*A person with the surname of Singer, not a person noted for his or her singing.
James "The Hound" Marshall has pointed out on his HoundBlog (click on the header to go there) that Robert Quine would have been 67 on 12/30/09. Also, he's put up links to a number of film cues that are his last recordings. Here's some monre Quine:
Note: This search engine will show results for the exact character sequence you type, case-insensitive, including spaces. In other words if you type Bob, it will show any instances of Bob, such as in: Bob Quine, Bobbit, and discombobulate; but if you type Bob Quine it will MISS Robert Quine. [Tip: if you want "Bob" but not "discombobulate" type a space on either side: " Bob " (without quote marks).] Or, to search entire site as well as Forum...
