Wednesday, 2 January 2013
THE DAILY HENRY: Henry's renaissance earplugs
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY:
AVAILABLE FROM DAEVID AT GONZO
 | University Of Errors CD - £5.99 |
| Brainville At The Knitting Factory CD - £9.99 |
 | Art Radio Radio... CD - £7.99 |
 | Solo At The Axiom CD - £7.99 |
 | Sfo Soundtribe 3 CD - £7.99 |
 | Sfo Soundtribe 2 CD - £7.99 |
 | Weird Biscuit.... CD - £7.99 |
 | Self Initiation... CD - £7.99 |
| Stroking The Tail Of... CD - £9.99 |
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
CORKY LAING: The ongoing saga of the drummer, the academics, the opera and the ethics of genetics (Kolmas osa)
Corky Laing (pictured on the left with Gonzo grande fromage Rob Ayling) is a legendary drummer. He joined Mountain just after Woodstock, and has been playing with the seminal Canadian hard rock band on and off ever since. But he has also had a rich and varied solo career, and - in a pattern which is beginning to seem familiar - is now involved in one of the most peculiar, demanding, challenging and certainly interesting projects of his career..Now, this is very difficult to explain, so forgive me if - over the next few days - I give you a series of glimpses into this remarkable project. If you missed them, you can read Part One Here and Part Two Here.
JON: I wouldn’t have said it sounded heavy metal at all – I don’t know what it is, but it’s really good
CORKY: Heavy metal – yeah I’m having trouble with the heavy metal thing too. I don’t know what that is, when you have the vocal octave divider etc., I don’t know, you know that’s interpretable. What do you think is heavy metal? Is AC/DCheavy metal to you?
JON: I would have said AC/DC – I hate to categorise - is what in my day they used to call hard rock. It’s what Mountain is, is hard rock, not what I would call heavy metal.
CORKY: Right. Yeah that’s what Mountain was called. Mountain was called the hard rock band of the time and there was really no other band like that except Cream and Hendrix in ’69. We were the first people to really say play it loud. I say first people .. on the record. But the category thing I can’t stand actually, and I am starting to get fed up with art too, I don’t know what art is anymore. I used to like the mysticism of certain things, I like the unknowns and when you categorise things it’s because you’re trying to relate, and I think which should relate should be the content itself whatever it is. You’re transformed by the sound, the binaural situation or visually you’re transformed and so yes I agree with you on the category so you know what, we’ll leave the description of the music out, because now oddly enough I am falling in love with some of the South African chanting thing that has the chants with the words on top – it is very hypnotic. And to me I am trying to insert that little bit into the play at the end.
The villain is the scientist doctor who fucks up everybody and never tells the truth and in the end he is basically crucified. And I thought the ending part should have the whole town doing this chant, scaring the shit out of him. Building to the fact that everyone finds out one at a time so that’s still going on. We’re working on that aspect right now.
JON: Well I’m very impressed with what I’ve heard so far. It’s a very, very interesting idea. Are you going to be acting in it? Is your involvement as an actor, or as a musician or as both?
CORKY: Well they want me to do this one character, Luke who is a washed-up drunk who made a deal with the devil because he had to pay back his dope-dealing debts or his gambling debts, and he made a deal to be experimented on, but he’s a miserable guy with a miserable life and what happens is that by mistake they gave him another 60 years to live, in other words they extended his miserable life. I thought that was kind of a little bit of play there. They wanted me to play it. It starts off with him saying ‘Here I am, back in Happyville. I’ve been travelling around with my guitar and my pills and I made a bad deal and I’m just going to off myself’, so basically right at the beginning of the opera you have this musician killing himself. But the gods won’t take him because it’s all fucked up, you know the gods have it all structured who is dying and who is coming, and so he goes up to the terrace of the gods and they say ‘No, no, no Luke, we’re not ready for you yet. You go back and find out what’s going on down there, because there’s something going on in this town – there is no praying. They stopped praying’.
I just come in – it’s kind of a nice thing – I’m commissioned to make an ambient musical background to it and of course as you can see from College Girls there’s a lot of fucking drumming here. I love the drums and you’re going to hear a lot of drums in this play and …
JON: I would hope so. You’re a legendary drummer. I would really not be pleased if I go out to see a Corky Laing project and find you playing harpsichord.
CORKY: I do play a lovely harpsichord <laughs> Well the thing is that yes, it’s a very challenging project for me and I’m really loving it – I’ve been back and forward to Finland
And there the interview ends. There will be more. Watch this space!
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: HOME from dvd LIVE AT ROSCOE
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO
 | Bolivia CD - £9.99 |
 | Salutation Road CD - £9.99 |
 | Lilac Tree CD - £7.99 |
 | Disciples Of Merle &... CD - £9.99 |
 | Church & The... CD - £7.99 |
 | Yogi In My House CD - £7.99 |
 | Haint Of The Budded DCD - £11.99 |
 | Down To The Wood CD - £9.99 |
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Rob Ayling writes:
"Thom the World poet, is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearences with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)
WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
do you not know-no one believes?
a few keep the Cult Of Books under wraps /undercover
others polish Music and the Muses shadowly
none will admit it publically
to have poetry in your soul in this Age
is like a Luddite speaking out against Microsoft
Linux and Unix have quietly been absorbed
Metaphor ,simile,assonance still ignored
(except by Advertising-which profits via loss of language
and sells soul as marketplace product placement apps)
I have heard Tales of Cassettes and Videos(not even DVDs!
8 tracks in Museums.Vinyl for Club Retro DJs-
who even dare to play single 45s,EPs -sans apps,with needles!
They smile ,despite the Economy.Austerity fails to impress.
I have heard mention of whole LIBRARIES underground
where people meet,greet,congregate and share
I know you don't believe me.You ask-where?
Look around you now.Notice something unusual?
Colors?Shapes?Forms?Happiness?Joy?Smiles?
Even to mention Literacy brings back Resonance
Retro-Nostalgia-remember when we used to dance?
THE DAILY HENRY: Prehistoric Henry
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