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Donny Who Loved Bowling: Mythical Hollywood Character or Inspiring Avant-Garde Band?

Vince Font — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:12:02 +0000

Coen Brothers enthusiasts may instantly recognize the name Donny Who Loved Bowling as the character played by Steve Buscemi in the duo’s much-beloved 1998 cult classic “The Big Lebowski,” but fewer will have heard of the band of the same name.

Based in Chicago and Austin, Donny Who Loved Bowling is an avante-garde garage band comprised of two guys with a lot of wit, loads of musical ability, and just the right amount of audacity required to emblazon their inimitable initials on the landscape of independent music. For the last 10 years, Joe Griffin and Christopher Petkus have been collaborating on strange and lovely musical projects via long-distance, and by the magic of high-speed internet collaboration have now released their latest offering unto the world.

“Butcher Covers” is the title of the band’s 2009 album, a collection of (you guessed it) covers that run the gamut from eclectic to plain strange. In taking a handful of mostly obscure songs from mostly famous artists, the band manages to accomplish two things that an awful lot of bands fail miserably at when recording an album of covers: remaning true to the spirit of the original source material, and at the same time making each song distinctly their own. Thus, spinning each and every composition on its proverbial ear.

The title “Butcher Covers” is a fun play on the controversial cover of the 1966 Beatles album “Yesterday and Today” which featured the band dressed in butcher smocks holding decapitated baby dolls and slabs of raw meat, all grins. Remaining true to one of their musical inspirations, the guys in Donny Who Loved Bowling have not only recreated the original album cover with a twist, but they’ve also paid tribute to the Fab Four (in a roundabout, two-degrees-of-separation sort of way) with their updates of Paul McCartney’s “Temporary Secretary” and Yoko Ono’s “Mrs. Lennon.”

Dipping into the 60s long enough to deliver modern (and extremely experimental) versions of The Monkees’ “For Pete’s Sake” and former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett’s “Late Night,” the duo moves seamlessly into 80s territory with their frenetic take on The Police’s “Mother,” a not-so-loving ode to domineering motherhood. The album’s musical timeline takes a sharp detour with its nod to Hound Dog Taylor’s classic “Give Me Back My Wig,” but instead of anchoring the track with blues riffs and scratchy vocals, it’s all keyboard gadgetry, wicked electric guitar and distorted vocals as the band drags this down-home ditty headfirst into the 21st century, pulling off a truly transportive interpretation and the album’s finest moment.

Leaving no stone unturned in their bid to produce what could be one of the most strangely compelling collection of covers in recent rock history, Donny Who Loved Bowling next turns to the mad genius of Daniel Johnston. The final song is a cover of Johnston’s “I Did Acid With Caroline,” an irresistably catchy tune that succeeds in creating the musical equivalent of an acid trip (albeit lasting only five minutes instead of 12 hours and leaving the listener perfectly in control of their mental faculties).

Donny Who Loved Bowling’s “Butcher Covers” is presently being offered as an mp3 download-only release and can be found at itunes, Amazon.com and CD Baby.

Crimson Jazz Trio a Fitting Swan Song for Late Drummer Ian Wallace

Vince Font — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:57:33 +0000

Ian Wallace (1946-2007) was a drummer that spent most of his 60 years in the thankless anonymity reserved especially for world-class session musicians. Well respected and in high demand within the music industry, outside of it you’d be hard pressed to find many music listeners who would recognize his name. But the fact is that most people who have ever listened to FM radio (and that’s an awful lot of people, with the exception of some purists who would never be caught dead sinking to such depths) have probably heard Wallace’s work at one time or another. His work as a studio drummer for artists such as Bob Dylan, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Traveling Wilburys (to name a few) padded his professional resume and doubtless went a long way at putting food on the table. But it was for his brief tenure with progressive rock giants King Crimson and his appearance on the album “Islands” in 1971 that he is remembered most. And it’s this lasting association that, in the last few years of Wallace’s life, led to the birth of the Crimson Jazz Trio–a trio that released its second and, sadly, final album in 2009.

Conceived by Wallace in 2004 and including the considerable talents of Tim Landers (bass) and Jody Nardone (piano), the Crimson Jazz Trio takes selections from the discography of King Crimson and reinterprets them as instrumental jazz numbers. The result is not only gorgeous listening, but it also proves three important points: 1) That the music of King Crimson, long considered too mechanical and mathematical by its detractors, is anything but, as displayed by its ability to be adapted to an entirely different musical style. 2) That the best ideas in the world sometimes sound like the worst (a jazz trio covering progressive rock tunes–who’d have thought it would work?). And finally, 3) Ian Wallace was one hell of a drummer.

In 2005, the CJ3 released “King Crimson Songbook, Volume 1” to the acclaim of progressive rock fans and jazz enthusiasts alike, all of whom were impressed by Wallace’s range as a performer and his choice of cohorts in Landers and Nardone. The album tackled King Crimson classics of different eras and delivered them in a unified voice that made it sound natural to hear songs like “21st Century Schizoid Man” and “Matte Kudasai” on the same album. Realizing the wealth of material still left unexplored, the trio recorded “King Crimson Songbook, Volume 2” a year later, none of them knowing at the time that it would be Wallace’s last album.

Where “Volume 2″ differs from its predecessor is more expressed in attitude than anything else. There’s an instantly recognizable confidence in the manner with which the material is handled. It’s as if the guys in the band understand they proved their point with the first album and are even more comfortable taking liberties with the songs, snatching them up and turning them inside out with what looks like irreverence but is really respect.

That the band sometimes veers sharply away from expectation and takes on the least obvious of King Crimson songs is truly refreshing. “Inner Garden” was a song that appeared (twice, in two pieces) on King Crimson’s 1995 album “THRAK” and on first impression doesn’t strike the seasoned listener as the greatest of choices. Until the unexpected voice of pianist Jody Nardone sails in above the easy, smoke-smooth performance of the instruments below it and all of a sudden you find yourself wondering how you could ever have missed the gorgeous melody only hinted at by the original, or what genius ears it must have taken to discover its potential. Nardone has the kind of voice that makes singing sound as effortless as speech and makes you ask why someone of his talent isn’t a star. Alas, too much thought about such things is enough to drive a person to serious depression, therefore it’s almost a good thing the rest of the songs on the album contain no vocals. Almost. The surprise visit by Wallace’s old friend and longtime King Crimson contributor Mel Collins (soprano and alto saxophone) on two tracks almost serves as an adequate apology for this grievous offense and adds yet another dimension of credibility to this collection of songs already teeming with it. All this, and we haven’t even yet talked about Tim Landers’ contribution on bass. Once you hear the man go to town on a fretless you find yourself feeling guilty for never having heard of him before.

“King Crimson Songbook, Volume 2″ is the stuff of which desert island discs are made. It acts as a doorway into the world of King Crimson music for the uninitiated, and a channel of musical discovery for the progressive rock fan too intimidated by the multitude of choices that encounter the first-time jazz explorer.

Wallace lost his battle with esophageal cancer in 2007–a valiant fight that he chronicled on his website blog–but fortunately not before completing what was the crowning achievement of his career. The Crimson Jazz Trio was a demonstration of Ian Wallace’s passion for jazz, and is ultimately the bridge that brought his career full circle by paying tribute to the band that helped launch his career. To this listener, there’s a no more fitting or poetic end than that.

Dentist, Floss Thyself

Vince Font — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:53:19 +0000

I’m beginning to feel like a dentist in bad need of a flossing. Hey, it’s a fitting comparison. I could have been a dentist. My uncle and grandfather were both dentists, and I think that automatically makes me predisposed to the practice of some form of medicine. And to earning good money. But I don’t particularly care for people — their mouths and their teeth, even less. So instead, what I do is write. I spend the majority of my days ensuring that other people’s websites are SEO optimized. I pour an incredible amount of heart and soul into writing other people’s blogs. I insert keywords like nobody’s business and I spit out compelling content like I were made of it. Then when that’s done, I slice open my funnybone, draw out every drop of humor that I can, and sprinkle it over the words like a final dash of spice. I’m pretty good at what I do, too. But not so when it comes to my own blog. I’m apparently content to stare at all the pretty white space that stares accusingly back at me. My only comeback to its wordless (get it? wordless) accusation is: “Blank space is highly underrated, and actually works in a website’s overall design.” I wonder if my argument holds water. Meanwhile, I think I cut myself flossing.

My Dream Job

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:36:16 +0000

My mother once asked me: “What do you want to do with your life?” After I told her to get off my case, she asked again. “No, really. If you could do anything. Anything at all. What would you do?”

So I mulled it over for a few seconds. I was trying to think up something extremely sarcastic to say. “I want to get paid to stay home, watch TV and write occasionally.”

That was about 20 years ago. Two months ago I realized that, with the exception of the words “watch TV” and “occasionally,” I’m living the dream.

Thanks, Mom, for helping me figure it all out.