tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post4532002619233165574..comments2024-03-27T21:46:11.188+01:00Comments on Die or D.I.Y.?: Les Batteries – "Noisy Champs" (AYAA – DT 0486) 1986Jonny Zchivagohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-85191746581369407492022-07-14T15:48:53.941+02:002022-07-14T15:48:53.941+02:00Gotta laugh at Europeans making very specific equi...Gotta laugh at Europeans making very specific equipment requests. Always wondered if they'd even bothered to review the guarantees: pretty damn low in the U.S., and more than half of that is going for gas (or petrol, as they say) to get you to the next show. A fairly well known Japanese act once requested a grand piano--not cheap, as you're also paying for several people to move the damn thing--and then they did prepared piano stuff on it! Fortunately, this was a friend's task--not mine--but I always wondered how the return on that thing went over. parmaleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14166917258724450155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-26421454348782021372022-07-12T22:36:48.947+02:002022-07-12T22:36:48.947+02:00Haven't thought about this stuff for ages, so ...Haven't thought about this stuff for ages, so I figured I should write it out lest I forget it again!<br /><br />In 1978 or 79 Bill Bruford was touring the US with Dave Stewart in his band. Stewart told me that National Health would continue with Alan Gowen on keyboard, and was planning an American tour, and gave me contact information.<br /><br />I learned that Etron Fou was also planning a tour around the same time (I don't remember exactly how, but probably Frith was involved) and thought that would be a pretty cool double bill: even though Rock In Opposition doesn't resemble the Canterbury aesthetic too closely, I didn't imagine an aficionado of either would be turned off by the other.<br /><br />The hall was called the Modern Theatre, built originally in the 1870s, later a venue for burlesque, thereafter adapted to cinema (Wikipedia says it was the first house in Boston to show a movie with sound, The Jazz Singer), and fallen onto hard times. If I remember right, I saw the Ornette Coleman Quartet there, and during Charlie Haden's bass solo I walked up to the third floor balcony to prove I could still hear him up there. I can't remember the name of the guy who bought it, but his dream was to nurture a working theatre company. Nevertheless, he let me book two weird European jazz-rock bands.<br /><br />My skills as a promoter were negligible. Mainly I talked it up to my musician friends and my college radio friends. Total attendance was something like 167 people.<br /><br />Etron Fou was everything I'd hoped for. They played about an hour, some bits from their most recent release, Les Trois Fous Perdegagnent (Au Pays Des...), but lots of new compositions from all three of them. They did get their live album out of it, but not from my show, it's performances from New York and Hartford.<br /><br />National Health's set made me realize how crucial Dave Stewart was, at least for my tastes: I associate peak Canterbury with his keyboard voices, no matter whose composition it was. Gowen played an 88 key Fender Rhodes (which I had to rent for him from one of the vendors around Berklee, and write a check for the entire purchase price as a deposit, so I had a negative bank balance that day until I returned the instrument and reclaimed the check, which I burnt) and a little monophonic synth, so... Indeed, for me, they never cohered as a band at all: Gowen's tunes sounded like Gowen with sidemen, Miller's tunes sounded like Miller with sidemen, etc. I recall they did "Dreams Wide Awake" and "Squarer for Maud" from the latest LP, and "The Rose Sob" off one of Greaves' solo albums. Nothing I hadn't already heard on record left a mark.<br /><br />I paid off the bands and lent Miller a Fender speaker cabinet for the rest of the tour, which he did return to me. Cost me a couple thousand dollars overall, but I got some good stories out of it. Etron Fou came over twice more in the '80s and again I found them performance spaces, and by the last tour (1985) I'd actually bought a house (had a good job by then) so they could stay here. They had the keyboard player by then, and she wanted a specific model of amplifier, the Roland JC-120 with that trademark chorus sound that was everywhere in the '80s, so I bought one. Richard Sinclair used it too, some years later.<br /><br />Guigou called me up last year; he's writing a book about Etron Fou and wanted to know what I remembered.<br /><br />And that's all I can think of now.mandolinnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170194575398601790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-26454825706850093762022-07-12T15:25:00.068+02:002022-07-12T15:25:00.068+02:00Check out Dominik Blum's Steamboat Switzerland...Check out Dominik Blum's Steamboat Switzerland. Organist (Blum), bassist and drummer all reading sheet music. Incredibly annoying, yet it's hard to take your eyes off of them. Dominik also plays some kuhhhraaazy piano music. One of my bands played a show with them in Rotterdam way back when, and they were seriously intense--Dominik was prepared to sever my head from my body over my endorsement of the Fender SOLID STATE Twin Reverb for organs--transistor organs, to boot. Though it was all in good fun...I think?<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR0zdsz9g54&t=636sparmaleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14166917258724450155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-7620759053085807082022-07-12T13:48:20.244+02:002022-07-12T13:48:20.244+02:00There's not much that's more off-putting t...There's not much that's more off-putting than a drummer sight reading music.<br />I did go to a 'jam' session once...and only once where all the non-drummers read music as they..er jammed....no...in fact i did twice in some jazzy affair back in the noughties.Not Great... I don't even believe in keeping time.Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-44011977140735290862022-07-11T23:43:39.142+02:002022-07-11T23:43:39.142+02:00Jonny, it's exactly for that reason he always ...Jonny, it's exactly for that reason he always introduced himself as "Jonathan." He wasn't a "real" (as in schooled) drummer, he was an inspired amateur, like most of us. (I get arbitrarily close to the line; I can't sight-read but if I'm really hot to learn something complicated I can puzzle it out from the dots.) His original instrument was a set of canisters for flour and sugar etc from somebody's kitchen, and he kept supplementing it with found objects, like bits of cast iron hardware from the wharves. Later he married a cowpunk singer named Angel Dean and wrote her some song lyrics, but AFAIK didn't play in her band.mandolinnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170194575398601790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-21321575577671818272022-07-09T19:49:10.277+02:002022-07-09T19:49:10.277+02:00But that Chris Hughes album really is quite good -...But that Chris Hughes album really is quite good -If you like that Music ala Ping Pong et al, that you posted...<br />northfieldhathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04219971856461258513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-56077645725220000472022-07-09T19:09:16.667+02:002022-07-09T19:09:16.667+02:00Jon Thomas?...in the uk that is yet another hilari...Jon Thomas?...in the uk that is yet another hilarious noun applicable to the male member....and he's a drummer you say?Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-12285308431991411022022-07-09T10:42:05.082+02:002022-07-09T10:42:05.082+02:00Jonathon Thomas? Yeah, he was fantastic--though I...Jonathon Thomas? Yeah, he was fantastic--though I didn't get many opportunities to see him play as I was living mostly on the west coast til mid/late '90s. I've always liked those sort of kitchen sink percussionists, who'll play pretty much any and every object that'll produce a sound. A bit like what Rick Brown does now with his quasi-cajon in 75 Dollar Bill. Funnily, I somehow inherited a big box of JT's old cassette tapes at one point. A lot of kraut-rock, as I recall, including some Mani Neumeier rarities! (That was pretty exciting in the late '90s.) And Etron Fou and National Health on the same bill? Damn.parmaleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14166917258724450155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-49356844112342206742022-07-09T02:38:28.361+02:002022-07-09T02:38:28.361+02:00Sorry, parmalee, I seldom remember chronologies, s...Sorry, parmalee, I seldom remember chronologies, so it's all a blur...<br /><br />But I can say something pertinent to Guigou's interest in the Amoebic Ensemble. I promoted Etron Fou's first American gig, opening for National Health (with Alan Gowen) in an old vaudeville-era theater in Boston that some obsessive was trying to restore. The Etrons and their soundman stayed in my basement for a couple days and rehearsed, which was amazing! The cliche about drummers is that they never quite grow up, but in Guigou that totally worked for his aesthetic (and you can see it documented on the cover art of the live album they made from this tour-- Guigou is represented as a schoolboy :-). Anyway my then-roommate later played incidental percussion in the Amoebic Ensemble, I think on the first couple of records; I wonder if Guigou had taught him any tricks...mandolinnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170194575398601790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-88449615419356985332022-07-09T00:31:55.280+02:002022-07-09T00:31:55.280+02:00But is it true that Guigou Chenevier once shot his...But is it true that Guigou Chenevier once shot his competitor in a drum battle? Inquiring nerd-minds want to know.Robert Gomezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11300736705677998396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-88620145490558772932022-07-08T22:15:18.065+02:002022-07-08T22:15:18.065+02:00The slint gaff was a deliberate mistake,to highlig...The slint gaff was a deliberate mistake,to highlight the fact that most of us music 'experts' generally pretend to know everything about the subject,but don't.....don't think that was in the book though....just like my not recalling Rick Brown incident.<br />Apparently Hi-Fidelity is now a TV series?Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-77038675224057244082022-07-08T13:33:54.512+02:002022-07-08T13:33:54.512+02:00Also, was "High Fidelity"--the stupid mo...Also, was "High Fidelity"--the stupid movie, that is--the one in which some guy describes Slint as a "grunge" band and says they "broke up" in '94? What the hell, when did people stop actually researching shit?parmaleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14166917258724450155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-42445516790359117802022-07-08T13:29:37.250+02:002022-07-08T13:29:37.250+02:00@mandolinny: incidentally, do you recall the year...@mandolinny: incidentally, do you recall the year Les Batteries toured the states? For some reason, Guigou was really into Amoebic Ensemble (frankly, too circus-y for me) and I never quite understood how that came to be--I think their record was on some Frenchy label even?parmaleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14166917258724450155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-29716851985213365992022-07-08T13:05:02.301+02:002022-07-08T13:05:02.301+02:00Thanx for the curiosity and for your great blog!Thanx for the curiosity and for your great blog!evil spiralnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-64048344676759327342022-07-08T08:28:30.745+02:002022-07-08T08:28:30.745+02:00Savage Re....who???
Another thing to avoid, other...Savage Re....who???<br /><br />Another thing to avoid, other than too many drummers in a room, is never let it be known that you've never heard of a group or musician on a nerdy website such as this.....the living embodiment of that Nick Hornby book on the subject "Hi-Fidelity".Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-34953800241059989322022-07-08T01:09:42.178+02:002022-07-08T01:09:42.178+02:00Anyways, Rick Brown: V-Effect and Run On also rec...Anyways, Rick Brown: V-Effect and Run On also recommended.parmaleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14166917258724450155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-63930732702679327522022-07-08T00:54:11.966+02:002022-07-08T00:54:11.966+02:00Next he's gonna tell ya he's never heard o...Next he's gonna tell ya he's never heard of Savage Republic.parmaleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14166917258724450155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-3926973375795892922022-07-08T00:14:45.675+02:002022-07-08T00:14:45.675+02:00No, no, stop everything you're doing and liste...No, no, stop everything you're doing and listen to "Stop Those Songs" by V-Effect. THAT Rick Brown.Robert Gomezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11300736705677998396noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-66642359555050853422022-07-07T23:30:18.798+02:002022-07-07T23:30:18.798+02:00If I remember right (what are the odds?) Rick Brow...If I remember right (what are the odds?) Rick Brown came onto my radar in a trio called V-Effect, with sax and female singer who played bass, and I have a record by them somewhere. They were diversely capable and eccentric in ways that got the Knitting Factory to support them. There was a personnel shakeup and they became Fish and Roses, and I managed to talk a goth club in Cambridge MA (which I live just north of) into booking them so I could see them. I liked them a lot, rather like a subtler Dog Faced Hermans.<br /><br />Again if I remember right, Les Batteries was Guigou's idea. They toured America but without Charles *Hayward* (sorry Jonny, you got his name wrong!) and again I pulled some strings to get them a convenient gig. Rick did Harry Partch's "The Letter" solo, voice and drums (hardly different from the version on the album).<br /><br />Sorry I haven't kept in better touch. I read the blog every day (well, every day you post) but I'm trying overall to be less of an arrogant knowitall.mandolinnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17170194575398601790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-15221519621241601712022-07-07T23:18:50.503+02:002022-07-07T23:18:50.503+02:00Checked out,,,Fish'n'roses right up my all...Checked out,,,Fish'n'roses right up my alley,of course. Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-55216934053999490462022-07-07T23:05:23.593+02:002022-07-07T23:05:23.593+02:00Anything you say Brad. Fish and Roses it is.Anything you say Brad. Fish and Roses it is.Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-27837230916418798402022-07-07T20:44:02.314+02:002022-07-07T20:44:02.314+02:00Check out Rick Brown's excellent and very Beef...Check out Rick Brown's excellent and very Beefheartian 80s band Fish and Roses. And then maybe listen to his current band 75 Dollar Bill. Alright ?dadlanerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09424562899950834666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-25132429035088764522022-07-07T18:42:59.040+02:002022-07-07T18:42:59.040+02:00There you see...merrick goes minimal....if that is...There you see...merrick goes minimal....if that isn't an argument not to have more than one drummer in your pop group then that's it.Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-54180700964750802362022-07-07T18:41:16.102+02:002022-07-07T18:41:16.102+02:00I am proto-ironic in a post ironic sort of way,but...I am proto-ironic in a post ironic sort of way,but mostly real time irony.<br />Rick Brown???...no i really meant it...i guess its his vanilla name,just slightly less anonymous than Mick Brown.Jonny Zchivagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09859740264284241032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624282421125812337.post-62376057456461859182022-07-07T18:22:36.587+02:002022-07-07T18:22:36.587+02:00Also, Adam Ant's drummer Chris Hughes went on ...Also, Adam Ant's drummer Chris Hughes went on to do a <br />wonderful album called "Shift". All based on Steve Reich's music.<br />Literally. Real re-interpretations. Something very nice and <br />non-egobag about it. Still sounds fresh to me. Has done other "classical" type music under the name Chris Merrick Hughes.<br />northfieldhathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04219971856461258513noreply@blogger.com