Quadruped Media

I was challenged to choose 20 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day, for 20 consecutive days. Here goes:

Elizabethan and Jacobean Ayres, Madrigals, and Dances Day 1: Listening to and singing these and other madrigals in high school led to many wonderful friendships, and sealed my lifetime preference for ensemble, rather than solo, performance. I imagine living during the Renaissance, when friends & families routinely gathered to enjoy each other’s company by singing and playing complex polyphonic music. It was the social media of its time . . . At least we have anesthesia.

Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel 1958 Day 2: When I was a youngster, Top 40 radio was all the thing (except for Karl Hass’ brilliant classical music program, "Adventures in Good Music" on WJR). Fortunately, music on popular radio didn’t all sound like it was created by corrupted AI back then, and when songs named “Rebel Rouser”, “Ram Rod”, Cannonball, and even a soulful “The Lonely One” popped up – well, this geeky pre-teen headed down to Bill Lamb's subterranean record store and started his rock & roll record collection. Eddy used his lower strings to get that twang, and pretty much paved the way for Shadows, Ventures, Dick Dale, Jan & Dean, Beach Boys, and about every guitar-centric band to come after, including ours.

Beyond the Fringe Day 3: 8th Grade lunchtime activity for my pals was waxing the banisters outside with the wax paper our moms used to wrap our sandwiches, then sliding down those 3 flights of stairs as fast as we could go. When the dean put a liability-phobic stop to that, Lewis Sadler and I decided to fast walk to the public library two buildings away to look for neat stuff. The listening room in the record section became our home, of course. The librarian there noticed us laughing out loud at the likes of Bob Newhart, Shelley Berman, and Bill Cosby, and instead of chastising us, he introduced us to even more subversive LPs such as Lenny Bruce, the Smothers Brothers, before they were on TV, and “The Inspector” (a scathing radio play taking down Eugene McCarthy, who we’d barely heard anything about before that). One album that stood out in such great company was “Beyond The Fringe.” We couldn’t believe there could be anything so witty, nuanced, and flat out funny as what those four British chaps were doing. Later, I traveled miles to see Cook and Moore live a couple of times, have all their records (even Derek and Clive Live), and movies, and also continue to follow Bennett and Miller. They were the perfect progression from Mad Magazine. I wish I could remember the name of that most-inspiring and influential librarian.

Rothko Chapel Day 4: Performing and listening to choral music was always my primary focus - from 5th grade until picking up a bass guitar and joining Bruce Anderson to form a rock band, MX-80 Sound - and remains on top of my listening queue to this day. But nothing had prepared me for Morton Feldman’s sublime “Rothko Chapel.” A modern soundscape opened up, and everything was now considered with newly opened ears. Of course Cage broke the mold and made all things possible, but Feldman’s was music you really wanted to listen to, over and over and over again. Use it as an ambient aural environment, or focus every bit of one’s energy into every note ... it's always rewarding. (During one stretch of MX-80’s run, Bruce hilariously dubbed our music “Black Feldman” - somehow melding Black Sabbath’s heavy metal with Feldman’s austerity.

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares & Oh, Black Eyed Girl Days 5 & 6: This double header kicks off with the compilation of Bulgarian folk songs that swept us all off our feet when Nonesuch released it in the US in 1987. After looking into various sounds from east, all of a sudden here was a record that combined east and west in the most satisfying way imaginable. The fierce dissonances and their resolutions send chills up my spine. Nonesuch’s entire “Explorer Series” was a game changer, offering over 100 albums of often breathtaking music from Eastern Europe, Nubia, Bali, Greece. Japan, Mexico, Russia, Tahiti, Africa, Georgia … you name it - the list goes on. Most of us had experience with some world music, but this collection expanded whatever that was beyond measure. https://rateyourmusic.com/.../list-for-the-nonesuch.../1/

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgare inspired a few of us to sing some of the Bulgarian songs, which then expanded to a gorgeous Soviet Georgian song, “Chela,” from an album on Russia’s Melodiya label. I’d previously heard a Rustavi Choir recording of Georgian music on Nonesuch, and the harmonies blew me away, but their militaristic style left me wanting something less stodgy. Poof! The songs on this Melodiya album were positively lilting. I never owned it, but listened to it repeatedly (and wish I could somehow locate it now). Then I was giddy to discover “Oh, Black-Eyed Girl” by Ensemble Kolkheti, which picked up where the Melodiya album left off. Their music moves briskly along, using solinari (panpipe) and panduri (a plectrum-plucked 3 string long-necked lute) to accompany the melodious voices. This group has two other swell albums, “Botenabo” and “Iavana” also worth checking out.

Tony Williams Lifetime “Emergency” / Mahavishnu Orchestra ‘Inner Mounting Flame” Day 7 & 8: Bruce and I recognized Tony Williams when he came in to watch movies at the UA, but never wanted to invade his space. I suppose it was a good choice, but I wish I’d at least let him know how much “Emergency” meant to me. The recording quality wasn’t the best for this most powerful of power trios, but damn, did Williams, organist Larry Young, and guitarist John McLaughlin blow the lid off. Miles grabbed McLaughlin for “In a Silent Way” and “Bitches Brew” because of this session, but this for me was the pinnacle of jazz-rock fusion – and there was no trumpet involved. Move forward a couple years and McLaughlin’s drummer is Billy Cobham, another monster. They took “Emergency”s wildness, refined it a bit, got a much better recording, and threw in a bit of spirituality. These two recordings and “Bitches Brew” fooled me into believing that jazz-rock fusion was going to be interesting and fun.

Trout Mask Replica Day 9: I shouldn’t have to say too much about this one. Captain Beefheart was a seminal influential on all my musical friends and me as anything we’d heard before, during, or since. The raw cacophony, precise but fluid musicianship, and unbridled whimsy of the lyrics spun us all around, and dramatically changed how we composed and performed our own music. The Screaming Gypsy Bandits got to play with that version of the Magic Band at Ludlow Garage in Cincy - The Mantino Festival, with the Hampton Grease Band, and we all crashed at Ludlow owner Jim Tarbell’s mansion, and bussed together back and forth to the 2 day fest.

Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 (Vespro Della Beata Vergine) Day 10: Having first listened to the New York Pro Musica Antigua’s Monteverdi albums, I immediately wanted more, lots more! Then this album came along and quickly became one of my most listened-to pieces of music. I own eight different recordings, have been to a few live performances, and still swoon at the choruses, the solos & duets, the instrumentation, and the exhilarating forward motion. I made a habit of singing the bass line from “Laetatus Sum” to my son when he was in the womb. It worked@ He’s got great musical taste. It’s a flat-out masterpiece, and a perfect accompaniment not only for the Christmas season, but any time you want a transcendent experience. Messiah Day 11:

Singing under Robert Shaw’s baton was a seminal experience. I was lucky enough to do it four times, and still have euphoric dreams about the guy, and the navy blue shirt and white khakis he always wore to rehearsals. During those rehearsals, he’d have us stride in concentric circles to, say, the Credo movement in “Schubert’s Mass In G”, to establish a swing in our classical performance that transcended the norm. As stereotypical as “Messiah” is at holiday time, it’s that way for a reason. I’d performed it twice, and listened to countless recordings before this album fried all the synapses in my brain. Then I heard The Robert Shaw Chorale perform it live after this album came out, and when the orgasmic trumpets in “Glory To God,” instead of being on stage, blasted from the balcony behind me, I almost got my long lost religion back right then and there.

Ceremony of Carols Day 12: Shaw’s recording of Britten’s sublime Christmas composition for three-part treble chorus, solo voices, and harp was originally conceived as a series of unrelated songs, then later unified into one piece. Some of them – “Spring Carol,” “This Little Babe,” and especially “Bululalow” I could listen to on a loop.

Atomizer Day 13: When Rich and Dave took a sabbatical from MX-80 Sound after The Stranglers’ manager tried to replace us with one of his clients as their warm-up act the night of the gig, Bruce and I got the jump on AI by making and releasing a series of cassettes as a duo, using a Sequential Circuits Drumtrax sampler until we found a human drummer. “Atomizer” made us big fans of Big Black, which also used a (Roland) drum machine - in the most dynamic way imaginable, and also programmed it to perform in ways humans couldn’t. Their robot drove the “razor-sharp guitars, overdriven-bass and, of course, the singer's heavy lyrics for the dystopian modern life-style.” – EMR We went to see them play at the I Beam, and of course their live performance was even more impressive. Afterwards, we went backstage to see if we could pay our respects to Big Black, and found that Steve Albini was also a fan of ours. He offered to record us at his place in Chicago, but alas, we didn’t travel well at that time, so that never happened. We did play a couple of gigs with Shellac, his band with Bob Weston and Todd Trainer (whose rapturous drumming also seems humanly impossible) in SF & Chicago, and Steve mixed our last album, “Better Than Life” in 2020.

DRY Day 14: We were enjoying the company of a bunch of cool people at a fun party when host Marc Weinstein put on a potentially interesting new album for us to check out. For those of us in that room on the third floor, everything else stopped cold - we all sat there with our jaws on the floor for the next 45 minutes. I’m pretty sure we played it again right there and then. I couldn’t wait to get to Amoeba the next day to bring a copy home. Hell, I just listened to it twice through while writing this. Polly Jean Harvey had been raised learning various instruments from musicians her parents booked at the local hall, and listening to “Trout Mask Replica” over dinner. Her power trio mates on “Dry” - bassist Steve Vaughan and drummer Rob Ellis - provide a powerful compliment to her brilliant, raw guitar work. And Christ, her vocals! Her songs ooze carnal femininity – bouncing from cruel treatment by men to her revenge on them – and display a rare perspective on the human condition. I’ve seen her live a few times now, but experiencing this band live at Slims in 1992 was an absolute concert pinnacle for me. (Kurt Cobain and his entourage, sitting next to us in the balcony, seemed equally impressed) https://www.reddit.com/r/90smusic/comments/wa3l68/pj_harvey_dress_live_at_slims_san_francisco_ca/.

Let Me Tell You Day 15: I stumbled on a piece called “Mysteries of the Macabre” for Soprano & Orchestra by György Ligeti on Youtube a while back, and thought I might check it out. I knew much of his very serious and cutting edge music, but was gob-smacked by the comic masterpiece that erupted onto my screen. The soprano, Barbara Hannigan, sashays on stage in pigtails, chewing gum, and wearing a schoolgirls outfit. She deposits the wad of gum in LSO conductor Simon Rattle’s hand and launches into song - a tour de force. (In another performance, which she herself conducts, she wears a black leather dominatrix outfit). https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1545964685703460 The trappings were hilarious but no lazy gimmick. This was just one example of a groundbreaking artist’s impressive oevre. Her voice is as clear as a bell, with magnificent control, and an out of this world range. I needed to hear more – right away! Luckily, Winter & Winter Records released this song cycle, telling Ophelia’s story from her own perspective, not Hamlet’s. Composer Hans Abrahamsen wrote it for (and with) Hannigan, and the results are unparalleled. Check out an excerpt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU9fajLu7vw We learned she would be curating, conducting, and singing with her travelling “Equilibrium “troupe at the Ojai Music Festival in 2019, and jumped at the chance to spend four rapturous days absorbing her rehearsals, talks, and concerts.

Good Clean Fun Day 16: The opening credits of Martha Coolidge’s “Valley Girl” launch the movie into action with “Girls Like Me,” a song not an obvious choice to immediately grab me, but boy did it, as they say, hook, line, and sinker. After searching for more of Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo, it turned out that Slash Records dropped them after “Good Clean Fun” wasn’t a huge hit, buried it, and prevented Hayes from re-releasing it on her own. I ripped “Girls Like Me” and “Shelley’s Boyfriend” from the movie’s soundtrack, but I was fixated and asked everyone I knew if they knew where it could be found. Amazingly, a cool guitar player I often chatted with at the dog park where we took Gracie, Hank Maninger, listened to my story, then floored me by saying he’d played bass on it, burned me a CD from his LP, and said they were doing a reunion show at Slims with The Contractions in a week! (The CD finally got re-released a year later, and an expanded version with 11 extras, including 4 Punts early renditions, was put out in 2020) The band’s sterling musicianship and Hayes’s songwriting skills – orchestrations, nifty feminist lyrics, and above all, her stimulating chord changes, put this one on my continuous playlist.

The Player Day 17: “The Player’s” brilliant 8 ½ minute opening credit sequence is a single tracking shot loaded with more information than many entire movies. As breathtaking as it was trying to keep up with all the shifting visuals, actor/writer/director cameos, and overlapping dialogue, what astounded me most was Newman’s score, the glue that holds it all together. I immediately bought it, and then every intoxicating soundtrack before or after. No one’s music drives films forward without drawing attention to itself better than Newman’s. When “Side Effects” came on the screen, I thought someone was copying his style, since Soderbergh had last used his music for “Erin Brockovich” 13 years earlier. When his name actually popped up, I determined to pay close attention, but was unable do it on first, second, or third viewing - because it and the narrative were so intrinsically fused - and had to get the album to really be able to hone in. The emotional horrors of “Jarhead,” “Shawshank Redemption,” “The Rapture,” and especially “American Beauty” would be borderline unbearable without his contrasting elegance. Instead, one is compelled to engage fully. His Bond scores incorporate the familiar James Barry motifs while adding a rich new layer. His father Alfred and cousin Randy get more attention and have won Oscars, but to me, pale in comparison.

Indeterminacy Day 18: “Which is more musical, a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?” I was in music school the first time John’s Cage’s wry question and news of “4:33” crossed my path, and his description of his composition style: "the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways" more than piqued my interest. I hunted down as many of his recordings as possible at the time, and was then asked to perform in “Imaginary Landscapes #4 for 12 radios” by an avant-garde pal, Marc Thorman. (Alas the performance hall at IU was so insulated that only static was audible from almost all of the stations. Oh, well, it was John Cage, after all, and we were deep inside a music school. His prepared piano and microtonal pieces were fantastic, but “Indeterminacy” is the one that really blew the lid off. Cage reads 90 stories in exactly one minute each, resulting in the speed of delivery varying enormously. David Tudor accompanies on piano, and other assorted sound makers. It’s deeply thought provoking, educational, and hilarious all at once. The two times I met him were a hoot: first, at a talk he gave in a small IU music rehearsal room before a Merce Cunningham performance, where a gray-haired woman accused him of destroying music; and again at “HPSCHD,” the huge happening in the University of Illinois’ basketball arena, where a not so avant-garde Norwegian composer pal of ours, Olaf Thomason, accused him of the same thing. His signature laugh followed each taunt, but he was savvy enough to ask Olaf if he’d come over from Bloomington to the attend concert. A very dirty composer was attempting to explain to a friend how dirty a person was whom he had recently met. He said, “He has dirt between his fingers the way you and I have between our toes.”

Free Jazz Day 19: The late 60s & early 70s was filled with a kaleidoscope of groundbreaking movies, music, and art which, along with psychedelics, really opened the door for us to experiment with our own stuff. I was so into hot jazz back then, Coltrane’s “Ascension” and Cecil Taylor’s “Indent,” both massive full-blown attacks with little or no silence, often soothed me to sleep. Alas, this wasn’t the case for some housemates, once forcing Jeffrey Morris to go to the basement and shut down the breaker allowing electricity to reach my room, causing me to carefully reevaluate the requirements of being a good neighbor. But Ornette Coleman led the pack by a mile, and from that period, is the only “jazz” artist still on my regular playlist. His double quartet “Free Jazz” is a continuous free improvisation, recorded in one take with no overdubs. Each player brought his own style to the piece, with Ornette cueing transitions between sections. One quartet was assigned to each stereo channel: Ornette, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Billy Higgins on the left; trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell on the right. Ornette’s “Harmoldic” (modular) philosophy of composition helped form our music and improvisations over the years, and this album was a notable inspiration for the make-up of MX-80 Sound’s last album, a double trio, “Better Than Life.”

Electro-Acoustic Music Day 20 When we learned Xenakis would be setting up a program to merge computers, mathematics, and music at IU (which became the Center for Mathematical and Automated Music), a few of us immediately signed up to audit his class. He became enamored of our enthusiasm (and especially of one of the women in our group). We invited him over to her place for a lavish Greek feast Elania cooked up, and a full case of Retsina and Rodytis wine, which we cheerily consumed. It was a great night that peaked when he hilariously removed the glass eye replacing the one he’d lost in the Greek civil war. Alas, he rubbed another IU composer the wrong way, prematurely sending him & his ambitious plans packing. But this Nonesuch album (along with Henri Pousser’s “Trois Visages de Liège”) inaugurated my life-long devotion to Musique Concrète. His use of what he called “ugly sounds,” manipulated by tape-speed change, mixing, and splicing, was transformative. Jet planes & railroad cars crashing into each other; voice-overs; animal roars; and especially the discovery that a particularly beautiful sound was actually smoldering charcoal mic’d up and slowed down a gazillion times, all set me on a path of using samples in our own music, something that has only increased over the years. Who Sell Out Destroy erase Vietorisz

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