The Silver Screen Oasis

Just one more Davy Jones song, one I loved when I was little:

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I really enjoyed the Captain Beefheart and David Torn. I'd never heard Torn before. And I'm always up for Tom Waits and Steve Winwood. Winwood had a killer band backing him up when I saw him last year, some very multi-talented people like himself. Among them they probably play every instrument in the world.

I don't know what got me thinking of guerilla music and sound collages, but something in that Torn song you posted sent me through my cd collection to find some stuff I haven't listened to in ages.



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Although I'm a guitar player, I rarely listen to other guitar players for inspiration, as most of them seem content to copy each other, but Torn is an oddball who thinks outside the box and was one of the early pioneers of looping. Some of his work (especially the group project Polytown and solo project Tripping Over God) challenge the traditional role (and tonal aspect) of guitar in Jazz and Ambient music, but in a very refreshing way. The guy has also overcome some amazing obstacles in the fact that he had a brain tumor that almost killed him, leaving him totally deaf in one ear. Despite this, he produces and mixes all his albums and you've probably heard his work on many movie soundtracks.

More Torn (no keyboards here, he is also tracking all those textures live) :

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Torn in a pop band context taking two solos (the second with a ring modulator) that sound like a North American Indian medicine man experimenting on a patient with Far Eastern accupuncture:

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I'm familiar with the bands you listed, and own those albums. My wife actually can't stand the first cut off of Invisible Means (Peppermint Rock) and we often sing it when one of us wants to devil the other!

Other stuff careening around in my brain:
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I know Mick Karn, you'd think I'd know of Torn. I just don't recognize the name. I sometimes feel like I have lived a thousand lifetimes as far as music is concerned. It must be a brain glitch or something.

Torn reminded me of the sound of Fred Frith, Brian Eno, or Robert Fripp a little. Maybe Henry Kaiser only a bit less noise oriented. I am probably way off here. He does this all without any electronic tricks?

Gosh, Todd Rundgren really appeals to me. Probably no surprise there, since I've already admitted that XTC and early seventies music are some of my favorites.

Soundgarden is one of the few bands of the grunge era I like. King's X too, though I somehow don't think of either as grunge.

JackFavell wrote:I know Mick Karn, you'd think I'd know of Torn. I just don't recognize the name. I sometimes feel like I have lived a thousand lifetimes as far as music is concerned. It must be a brain glitch or something.

Torn reminded me of the sound of Fred Frith, Brian Eno, or Robert Fripp a little. Maybe Henry Kaiser only a bit less noise oriented. I am probably way off here. He does this all without any electronic tricks?

Torn went on an all out hunt to collaborate with Karn after hearing him on Japan's Oil on Canvas. Karn, who was not a schooled player was initially skeptical, but the pair formed a friendship and did a lot of works on each others projects. Each considered the other the perfect foil. Sadly, Mick died of cancer last year.

DT came from the same ranks as those you named and was their contemporary, but is different in the fact that he has a legitimate Jazz background and is not really from the progressive rock scene. He does use electronics, like Fripp, Eno, and Kaiser, but in a much different (and I think more musical) way, creating loops with an old digital delay line and then processing it with other devices as he's playing and then using that to create further improvisation, making "Frippertronics" and other such techniques sound a little crude to my ears. However, he's not shy about adding angular phrases and chromaticism with a rock style sensibility that would make many Charlie Christian style Jazzers cringe, holding long, wailing tones instead of the traditional stream of eight-notes.

JackFavell wrote:Gosh, Todd Rundgren really appeals to me. Probably no surprise there, since I've already admitted that XTC and early seventies music are some of my favorites.

I discovered Todd at an early age and his love his style, kind of like Beatles and Motown, adapted to a singer/songwriter persona, which he then places into all kinds of different formats. I don't know what you've listened to, but my favorite albums are:



Something/Anything (1972)

A Wizard, A True Star (1973)

Hermit of Mink Hollow (1978)

Accapella (1985)

JackFavell wrote:Soundgarden is one of the few bands of the grunge era I like. King's X too, though I somehow don't think of either as grunge.

Neither do I and both had albums out in 1988 pre-dating grunge. Jeff Ament (Green River, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam) once said "Without King's X there would be no Pearl Jam."

However, neither group managed to gain world-wide popularity (although SG got close). I remember hearing both bands in the late 80's and being excited about the prospect of hard rock becoming a vital entity again. Unfortunately, it was the last gasp of death throes.

A sampling of Todd:

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Oooh, thanks for posting the Todd music! This will give me something to listen to while I clean out my fishtank.

That's no reflection on Todd, of course.

I just loved the Rundgren pieces.

Ark, that was a great description of his style.

I just love his inventiveness and creativity - he jumps from one thing to another, but still retains his own sound. I know it sounds silly, but what I like most about him is that no matter what type of music he is playing his production values are crisp and crystal clear, so fresh sounding.

You also might like his side project band Utopia if you haven't gotten into them:


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This is the closing song on A Wizard, A True Star, but Todd also played it on Utopia's second record (Another Live) and it's been their encore number ever since:
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Celebrating another birthday -- Chicago (the city, not the band)
is 175 today!

Nick Gravenites Born in Chicago
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Lonnie Johnson Chicago Blues
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Louis Armstrong Chicago Breakdown
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Benny Goodman Chicago
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I do know Utopia! But thanks for posting, I love listening to them.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHICAGO!

R.I.P. Ronnie Montrose

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Happy 17th to my favorite Irish bands:

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My favorites of a Irish sort. Pass the Jameson's!

Stiff Little Fingers Suspect Device
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The Undertones Teenage Kicks
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The Pogues Streams of Whiskey
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And again The Pogues (forever!) Thousands Are Sailing
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The Waterboys Fisherman's Blues
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Van Morrison & The Chieftains Star of the County Down
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Mr. Arkadin » Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:23 am
Although I'm a guitar player, I rarely listen to other guitar players for inspiration

When I was in the hotel business, a musician and his friends checked in. While waiting for the main player, his pals said to me, "You know who that is, don't you?" I said, no. They said, "That's DAVE MASON! He was one of the most influential guitar players in the 60's. He played an important part in the history of rock and roll."

I thought, Bullshit...Whatever. After work, I looked him up on the internet. "DAVE MASON. One of the most influential guitar players in the 60's. Very important guy!" Allrightee then! He tipped well. That makes him a star in my solar system!

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Just some sweet memories is all...