December 7, 2004
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Hairlessmunkee wrote something about trying to figure out whether to take a certain gig, one that would be about jamming rather than playing songs, and this got me thinking about a few things.
First, I have a friend who jams around in Houston. He made a decision to pursue a professional path despite being an absolutely brilliant musician and songwriter, so the pressure's off for him. He doesn't have to make the music thing work. He writes stuff, plays with friends, sometimes does studio stuff... just whatever.
I was in a band with this guy (think: quiet guy behind keyboard), and I remember those days as infused with magic. Just total fun, going to the studio in the middle of the night and making strange little recordings, playing our one big outdoor gig in Market square... And I was remembering all the music I got turned on to around then, and I kept coming back to Adrian Belew.
Not a lot of people know who Adrian Belew is, but just about everyone's heard him. I mean, have you ever heard a little tune called 'Life During Wartime' by Talking Heads? Well, then you've heard Adrian Belew. He's the guy with the big nose playing guitar in Talking Heads' movie 'Stop Making Sense.' He's also the guy with the big nose playing guitar (with a spatula) in Laurie Anderson's 'Home Of The Brave,' pseudo-namesake of this very 'blog.
He was also one quarter of King Crimson when I got into them (he's still doing the Crimson thing, though I'm not as infatuated with their output of late). He played in Frank Zappa's band. He formed a band with some old friends from back home in the 90s, called The Bears, and they played two of the most enjoyable rock shows I've ever attended. Dude's all over the place. He's put out a bunch of solo records, and three more are in the can awaiting release. And I once shook his hand.
So it's in this spirit that I offer two musical tracks, especially for you Mr. Hairlessmunkee, in hopes that you'll seek this guy out. 'Swingline,' and 'The Gypsy Zurna.' The latter comes from an album I'd put on my top ten, 'Desire Caught By The Tail,' which grew out of Belew buying a bunch of studio time, and approaching the creation of music as if he were a painter.
Comments (5)
Awesome, thanks man. Life During Wartime was a great song.
i really like the bears.... it's less free-form and spacey, but belew's guitar mastery is still obvious.
have you seen king crimson's "live in japan"? blows my ass away! i think tony levin could play bass with his own testacles!
you might be interested in the second half of my latest post
I think you should go back to King Crimson's latest effort 'The Power To Believe'. The techinal accomplishments of the dueling guitars of Fripp and Belew are flaberghasting! Plus the message of the whole CD post 911 is very thought provoking, reflective and positive. For me, it's the most satisfying of all the Belew related Crimson recordings, followed closely by 'Thrak'.
I also strongly reccomend finding 'The Cheerful Insanity of Giles Giles and Fripp' a record made just before 'In The Court of the Cimson King'.
Trust me, you won't regret it.
I'm familiar with 'Cheerful Insanity.' It's one of those things that must have been a blast to make, but not so much fun to hear. At least for me.
I liked 'Thrak,' and 'V'Voom' which preceeded it, but Crimson has been releasing what amounts to demos ever since. 'Power To Believe' is OK, but it has 'Happy With...' which is an example of a demo song making it too far up the food chain. I assume it came out of their touring with Tool, but still...
'Discipline' remains the best Crimson, with its spirit of discovery. It was recorded after the tour that supported it, meaning the music had been polished in live performance. It seems like Crimson is just releasing stuff for completist record collectors now.
And THYRIO: Tony Levin could play bass with *anyone's* testicles.
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