art of the jam 63
looks like jam-meister lee allen's trying something new for the wreck room's wednesday night invitational jam, namely having a band come in and play a set, then play another one with the jamcats (who these days include barber mack bassist john shook and peach truck republic drummer evan jones along with the jam-meister 'n' yr humble chronicler of events) sittin' in.
first band to test the waters in this format was one with which i was unfamiliar, but they brought a bigger crowd than i've seen in el wreck on a wednesday night in many moons. they're called okay james and they do a nice line in shoe-gazey space rawk-cum-groove. their radiohead-ish cd-r e.p. doesn't really do 'em justice (and i think they've gone through a few changes since their last performance, which was at the saffire lounge back in july). they've got ambitions in a sub oslo direction, and while they're a ways from realizing 'em, they're clearly on their way. (i remember trying to book a non-jazz instrumental band a few yrs back, one of the mbrs of which once told me, "we can't go out there without a singer -- they'll KILL US!" that was before sub oslo, bertha coolidge, confusatron, sleeplab, et al. a good town for a band without a singer, is the fort.) mykl, jimi, 'n' jason on bass, drums, and percussion respectively lock it in the pocket while main dude matthew overlays synth squiggles 'n' morricone-esque spaghetti western gtr wonderment on top. you should check 'em out.
when they were done doing their thang, the jamcats intermingled with 'em and took off in some spacey directions, john shook playing a second drumkit instead of his usual bass. lately the theme has been "no 'standards,'" altho we wound up playing "standing on the verge of getting it on" over lee's bride's strong objections and "manic depression" because i didn't figure i could sing any stooges songs. (but to the ppl who requested 'em: go ye to the black dog on thursday, august 31st to hear stoogeaphilia, why doncha?) william bryan massey III got in front of the band to flow inaudible rhymes. matthew had his stage volume pert high, i turned up so i could hear myself, and as a result it was impossible to hear bryan versify or daniel katsuk's g-f jordan when she got up to play acoustic gtr and sing. i was roadtesting a classic 50 (with celestions and _casters_!!!) that i just bought from brandon wallace (now if i can just find a damn big muff for cheap) and playing with noise 'n' feedback like it was a stoogeaphilia show or somethin' (ray and jon, please come home). finally, the other string players sat out so jordan could play a couple _audibly_, accompanied by just evan on djembe. jasper stone stickman jeffrey williams (who did the beautiful metalwork at forella's new downtown j'int embargo _and_ the steel panthers in front of mi casa) did the drum honors for the last bit.
a fun night, but i gotta start showing up later if we're not gonna hit until midnight-ish. it's way too easy to drink too damn much sitting in a bar _waiting_ for three hrs.
first band to test the waters in this format was one with which i was unfamiliar, but they brought a bigger crowd than i've seen in el wreck on a wednesday night in many moons. they're called okay james and they do a nice line in shoe-gazey space rawk-cum-groove. their radiohead-ish cd-r e.p. doesn't really do 'em justice (and i think they've gone through a few changes since their last performance, which was at the saffire lounge back in july). they've got ambitions in a sub oslo direction, and while they're a ways from realizing 'em, they're clearly on their way. (i remember trying to book a non-jazz instrumental band a few yrs back, one of the mbrs of which once told me, "we can't go out there without a singer -- they'll KILL US!" that was before sub oslo, bertha coolidge, confusatron, sleeplab, et al. a good town for a band without a singer, is the fort.) mykl, jimi, 'n' jason on bass, drums, and percussion respectively lock it in the pocket while main dude matthew overlays synth squiggles 'n' morricone-esque spaghetti western gtr wonderment on top. you should check 'em out.
when they were done doing their thang, the jamcats intermingled with 'em and took off in some spacey directions, john shook playing a second drumkit instead of his usual bass. lately the theme has been "no 'standards,'" altho we wound up playing "standing on the verge of getting it on" over lee's bride's strong objections and "manic depression" because i didn't figure i could sing any stooges songs. (but to the ppl who requested 'em: go ye to the black dog on thursday, august 31st to hear stoogeaphilia, why doncha?) william bryan massey III got in front of the band to flow inaudible rhymes. matthew had his stage volume pert high, i turned up so i could hear myself, and as a result it was impossible to hear bryan versify or daniel katsuk's g-f jordan when she got up to play acoustic gtr and sing. i was roadtesting a classic 50 (with celestions and _casters_!!!) that i just bought from brandon wallace (now if i can just find a damn big muff for cheap) and playing with noise 'n' feedback like it was a stoogeaphilia show or somethin' (ray and jon, please come home). finally, the other string players sat out so jordan could play a couple _audibly_, accompanied by just evan on djembe. jasper stone stickman jeffrey williams (who did the beautiful metalwork at forella's new downtown j'int embargo _and_ the steel panthers in front of mi casa) did the drum honors for the last bit.
a fun night, but i gotta start showing up later if we're not gonna hit until midnight-ish. it's way too easy to drink too damn much sitting in a bar _waiting_ for three hrs.
posted by stashdauber at 7:01 PM
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