Double-0 Santa (George Hall, BMI) - Performed by Seks Bomba, rec'd at Galaxy Park in Allston by Richard Marr. Appears on the Xmas compilation CD "50000000 Elves Fans Can't Be Wrong" (Stereoriffic, 2003) Chris Cote - vocal & guitar & solo; George Hall - rhythm guitar & intro solo; Lori Perkins - organ; Matt Silbert - bass guitar; Brett Campbell - drums
Seven X's (George Hall, BMI) - Performed by the Weisstronauts, rec'd, produced etc by Pete Weiss at Verdant Studios in VT. Appears on the "Instro-tainment!" CD (Sool Music, 2008) Pete Weiss - guitar, bass guitar, Moog synthesizer; George Hall; guitars (main melody & solo); Ken Lafler - guitar (rhythm & bridge melody), electric sitar; Jeff Berlin - drum kit; Nathan Logus - inauthentic Caribbean steel drum
Somewhere In This Town (George Hall, BMI) - Performed by Seks Bomba, rec'd at Sound Techniques in Boston by Ted Paduck overdubbed upon & mixed at Zippah in Brookline by Pete Weiss. Produced by me, asst by Seks Bomba & Pete Weiss. Appears on the Seks Bomba CD "Somewhere In This Town"(King YaYa, 2001) Chris Cote - vocal & guitar; George Hall - rhythm guitar & solo; Lori Perkins - organ; Matt Silbert - bass guitar; Brett Campbell - drums
Pushing Years (David Santos, BMI) - Performed by Eddie Japan, rec'd by Pete Weiss at Verdant Studios in VT. Appears on the "four by six" EP (Otpor!, 2009). David Santos - vocal; Chris Barrett - trumpet, organ; Jim Collins - bass guitar; George Hall – rhythm guitar & solo; Bart LoPiccolo - rhythm guitar; Jason Baldock – drums
Tennessee (Joe Kowalski, BMI) - Performed by The Elderly, produced by circumstance, rec'd at apartments, houses etc by Joe, Chris, Jim & me in 2009, mixed by Chris Barrett, gently mastered by Pete Weiss at Verdant Studios in VT. Appears on "Congealin' With The Elderly" (Otpor!, 2009), available as a Free Download at http://www.funfmusic.com/theelderly/congealin.html “Grandpa” Joe Kowalski - vocal, piano; James “Grumpypants” Gerdeman - slide guitar; “Geritol” George Hall – guitar; Chris “Miracle Ear” Barrett - trumpet, bass; Jason “Jaundice” Baldock – drums
U.F.O. 109 (Brann / Dogzilla, BMI) - Performed by Dogzilla, rec'd live at WMBR Studios, Cambridge by Carl Plaster in 1991. Unreleased. Sean Brann - vocal & twangy gtr; Jim Billbrough - percussion; George "Fudgie D" Dobson - drums; George Hall - lead guitar & solo; Andy Maguire - bass
Odysseus Goes To America (Weiss, BMI) - Performed by the Weisstronauts, rec'd live at the Middle East, 7/17/2006 by... the guy at the Middle East. Studio version appears on "Featuring 'Perky'" (Sool/Dren, 2006) Pete Weiss - guitar, 1st solo; Ken Lafler - guitar; George Hall - guitar, 2nd solo; Kevin Quinn - bass; Nathan Logus - drums
Bleu Cheese (Hall, BMI) - Performed by I, George in a dank little Allston basement on a cheap Yamaha keyboard-thing in 1994.
Klown Kar (Hall, BMI) - Performed by Seks Bomba. Basics & some overdubs at Rear Window Studios, Brookline by Bob Kempf; mixing & add'l overdubs at Zippah Studios, Brookline MA by Pete Weiss. Appears on the Seks Bomba CD "Operation B.O.M.B.A." (YaYa, 1999). Mastered by Jeff Lipton at Peerless 2 in Allston. George Hall - guitar & solo; Chris Cote - guitar; Lori Perkins - Hammond organ, Wurlitzer Home Console organ; Matt Silbert - bass; Brett Campbell - drum kit
(Back When I Was) the Sphinx (Brann / Dogzilla, BMI) - Performed by Dogzilla, rec'd by Tim Halle at Hampshire College Studios, 1986. Remixed by Tim Halle in a crowded little room, 2008. Sean Brann - vocal & guitar / Jim Billbrough - percussion / Fudgie D - drums / George Hall - ancient Egyptian guitar / Andy Maguire - bass
special guest Jim Cox - tenor sax
Influences
Terry Adams, Davie Allen, Mose Allison, Big Al Anderson, the Animals, the Beatles, Burt Bacharach, Jeff Beck, Adrian Belew, Vinnie Bell, Big Star, Peter Blegvad, Willie Bobo, Jack Bruce, Roy Buchanan, James Burton, the Byrds, Eugene Chadbourne, Raymond Chandler, Anton Chekhov, Christmas, Nels Cline, the Coen Brothers, Stephen Colbert, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Elvis Costello, the Cramps, Cream, the Dark, Miles Davis, the dB's, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Either / Orchestra, the Flying Burrito Bros, Robert Fripp, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Reeves Gabrels, Gang of Four, Theodore Geisel, Rich Gilbert, Nikolai Gogol, Graham Greene, Christopher Guest (& co) movies, Peter Guralnick, Buddy Guy, Dashiell Hammett, Jimi Hendrix, Patricia Highsmith, Robyn Hitchcock, the Irreversible Slacks, Jim Jarmusch, Louis Jordan & his Tympani 5, Charlie Kaufman, the Kinks, Laika & the Cosmonauts, Bill Laswell, Sergio Leone, Enoch Light, Henry Mancini, John McLaughlin, the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Thelonious Monk, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Morphine, Ennio Morricone, Naked City, Randy Newman, NRBQ, Astor Piazzolla, Harold Pinter, Elliott Randall, Django Reinhardt, the Residents, Mongo Santamaria, J.P. Sartre, Lalo Schifrin, the Shadows, the Shaggs, G. B. Shaw, Shockabilly, Snakefinger, the Soft Boys, Southern Culture on the Skids, Spinal Tap, Jon Stewart, Los Straitjackets, Richard & Linda & Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the Velvet Underground, the Ventures, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Loudon Wainwright III, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, Clarence White, Brian Wilson, the Who, PG Wodehouse, Link Wray, XTC, the Yardbirds, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, John Zorn, the Zulus & all the bands & musicians I've been lucky or not to have played with.
Sounds Like
Weisstronauts "Seven X's" (Hall) - Track 2 of the 2008 Weisstronauts CD Instrotainment! and my first Weisstronauts song. I was pretty happy with how it came out, between Pete on bass & Moog, Kenny's sped-up guitars on the bridge and (especially) Jeff Berlin's drumming.
Seks Bomba "Somewhere In This Town" (Hall) - the title track of the 2nd Seks Bomba CD & likely my favorite song I've written so far.
Eddie Japan “Pushing Years" (Santos) – The first mixed original tune from the EJ’s, and not a moment too soon. We did this with Pete Weiss at Verdant Studios in VT & plan to include it in an EP with 3 more soon-to-be-mixxed tracks recorded at Basement 247 by the delicious Jack Younger.
The Elderly "Tennessee" (Kowalski) - Joe Kowalski (Larry Banilow, OnlyOne, etc) wrote & sang this one, track 2 of 2009's "Congealin' With The Elderly," a full-length release recorded this last February for the RPM Challenge and available for free downloadhere. Psychedelic weirdness, mutant country & noisy garage rock are all present, plus more raw stupidity & I-don't-give-a-fuck-edness than anything I've done in years. Features members of Eddie Japan, Logan 5, Silencio, Mercy James Gang & too many other local bands.
Dogzilla "The Rat Man of Paris" (Brann/Dogzilla) - like a lot of local bands then & now, Dogzilla's studio recordings seldom managed to capture what made us a pretty good live band. There are a few live recordings tho, including this one from WMBR, recorded by Carl Plaster.
Weisstronauts "Odysseus Goes To America" (Weiss) - a live version of one of the songs from the Nauts' 2006 release "Featuring 'Perky'" (Dren/Stereorrific). Phil Dirt at Reverb Central called the tune "thoroughly fun" while Francis Dimenno at the Noise said "I'm not easily impressed, but this collection is breathtaking in its range and audacity."
I, George "Bleu Cheese" (Hall) - around the time Dogzilla started on what we now fondly look back on as "the Unprofitable Touring Years," one of the short-lived jobs I took was at a music store, where I bought a cheap Yamaha toy keyboard-thing which I used to make cheesy-sounding demos for what eventually became Seks Bomba. This was my first stab at writing an instrumental; be sure and note the groundbreaking use of what I came to refer to as the "1-4-5" progression.
Seks Bomba "Klown Kar" (Hall) - most of the tunes I brought to Seks Bomba in the early days tended to be wacky minor-key chromatic stuff. Like this one. It's still a favorite, despite the speed-ups, slow-downs & frenetic not-quite-tightness. Or maybe because of that.
Dogzilla "(Back When I Was) the Sphinx" (Brann) - Sean Brann brought this to the Archbishops around the time the band was burning out & frontman Tim ('Art Bishop') was making college plans. A few years later it became the first Dogzilla song, and possibly my favorite. Recorded by Tim at hampshire College studio & with some nice sax from guest Jim Cox. Wonder what happened to him?
The Elderly "You Kill Me" (Hall) - this may well go a long way in answering the musical question "Why don't you sing more, George?"
I, George am a guitar player with instrumental rock combo the Weisstronauts, melancholic pop classicists Eddie Japan, roots-rocking anti-didacticists Kingsley Flood, RPM Challenged psych-rock / pop / country / whatever-ers the Elderly
and the Bent Men. I also sit in occasionally on Mondays nights at the Rhumb Line in Gloucester with host Leo Sharamitaro (seen attempting to put his head through one of his drums here).
Before that I led, wrote songs for & played guitar with Seks Bomba from 1995-2005 (see Bomba bassist Matt Silbert's Seks Bomba myspace page). Before that, I was a founding member of Dogzilla, as well as performing live & on record (CD, whatever...) with Cxema, the Sugar Twins, the Flower Tamers, Catbox Cabaret, Tim Roberts' Crackpot Notion, the Archbishop's Enema Fetish and the Mercenary Art Ensemble. I've also sat in (at least once) with the Barnies, Tony & Sam Goddess, Joe & Renee, Dear Old Stockholm Syndrome, the Popgun 7, Satch Kerans, Three Day Threshold and probably others.
Details:
The Weisstronauts are an instrumental rock band fronted by 3 guitarists. I play on the Weisstronauts In Memphis EP (Sool music, 2009) as well as 2008's Instro-tainment! and 2005's Featuring 'Perky', both available at www.weissy.com, along with 3 other Weisstro-releases, t-shirts, etc. Blurbage: "If there’s such a thing as a forward-thinking surf band, Boston’s The Weisstronauts are it. Avoiding the purism that makes so many instrumental retro-fetishists seem redundant, The Weisstronauts combine vintage surf and Nashville chicken-pickin’ with cartoon zaniness and spaghetti Western intrigue. They often recall NRBQ’s offbeat musical humor as much as Link Wray’s reverb-drenched Tarantino fodder." —Jack Silverman, Nashville Scene
Guitarist / producer / engineer Pete Weiss leads the band. Pete also performs with Sool and has amassed many many CD production credits. He's also authored 2 - count 'em - baseball books) (true!). Ken Lafler (of Baby Ray and Sool) plays guitar as well, Kevin Quinn (Mercy James Gang, Sool) plays the bass and either Nathan Logus (The Rudds, Baby Ray, etc) or Jeff Norcross (Paula Kelley, The Speed of Things, Sool, Don Lennon) on drums. Auxilliary / touring Weisstronauts have included Jim "Mercy James" Gerdeman in 2005 & Doug Yule (Grass Menagerie, Velvet Underground) in 2006.
Eddie Japan is exactly and precisely what the world needs NOW: another rock band. Led by the elusive Mr. Japan, EJ takes it's cues from such tragic and well-tailored artistes as the Divine Comedy, Scott Walker, Morrissey, Dusty Springfield and Yves Saint-Laurent. Look for the 4 song EP ""Four by Six" in December, 2009. Blurbage: "The EP is 60s pop that reminds me of the best of early Neil Diamond with lyrics akin to Morrissey."
The band includes current & former members of Tiger Saw, Christians & Lions, the Buckners, Seks Bomba, the Paula Kelley Orchestra, Scatterfield, the Din, Logan 5 & the Runners, the Weisstronauts, the Vivs, Gene Dante and... others. Many others. Trust me.
I joined Kingsley Flood in July of 2009 to fill on 2 gigs in for departing guitar / fiddle / mandolin guy Michael Spaly, who moved to Seattle. The next thing I knew, I was a band member. The rest of the band includes singer / songwriter Naseem Khouri on vocals & acoustic, Logan 5 guitarist Nick Balkin on bass, Dearborn Valley / Monophonic singer / guitarist Will "pretty much the best guy ever" Davies on drums, Chris Barrett on trumpet & occasional keys and... someone on fiddle. Why, it might even be you - drop a line if you're interested). Blurbage: "For their entire set, Kingsley Flood gave my ears a great mix of the most genuine folk songwriting and bluegrass harmonies, all the way up to their wild, debaucherous, dixieland raves for endings. The educated awareness of dynamics and tasteful arrangement from Kingsley Flood, I think, is not found too often in today’s bar scene." James, Playground Boston
The Bentmen play out very rarely, the last time being Oct 21, 2006 at the Middle East downstairs (you may just have to wait for the movie) (yes, I said movie!). I do not appear on any of the 3 Bentmen CD’s - you’ll just have to make due with the guitar work of Reeves Gabrels, Crazy Eddie Nowick, Jeff Friedman & Adrian Belew. Poor you. CD’s, merch etc available at Cafe Press, CD’s at CD Baby. Blurbage: "Accomplished musicianship... more intense and outrageous than The Residents and GWAR combined!" —The Knot
"What's in the bag? Dead meat. It's a present from BENTMEN" —Boston Rock
Seks Bomba was around between 1995-2005, and included Chris Cote on vocals & guitar (Upper Crust, Farangs, Solo Adultos, Rock Bottom), Lori Perkins on organ (Gloucestafarians, Jed Parish & the Mother Tongues), Brett Campbell on drums (Buck Moon, Milo, Dub 7), Matt Silbert on bass thru 2001 (Middle Earth, the Earth Monkeys, Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra, Boston Rock Opera Co) and Paul Engle on bass after 2001 (Buck Moon, Joe Deveau). Oh, and me.
In that time, we released 3 CD’s, a 45 & a few compilation tracks, toured infrequently, won a Boston Music Award, played 244 gigs & shared the stage with Ronnie Dawson, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Los Straitjackets, Laika & the Cosmonauts, Combustible Edison, Wayne Hancock, Friends of Dean Martinez, Roger Miller, the Kaisers, the Fathoms, Irreversible Slacks, Baby Ray, Lars Vegas, Count Zero, the Electric Logs, Little A, Paula Kelley… it goes on. Seks Bomba CD’s Operation B.O.M.B.A. & Somewhere In This Town are available from Amazon & other fine retailers & online stores. The top-secret 3rd release, Thanks and Goodnight is available at CDFreedom.com, along with our debut 7”, Seks Bomba Theme b/w The Liquidator & Satan's Shriners. Blurbage: "[SB disc 'Somewhere In This Town'] is one of the most fun, most clever, and downright best CD's I've heard in a long time... This band has such a unique and fresh outlook that I want to share them with everyone. This CD is as good and original as any major or minor release I've heard in a long time. Please, for your own good, check them out. Fans of good playing, cool melodies, and off-the-wall behavior will love this" —John Heidt, Vintage Guitar (May, 2002)
Dogzilla lasted from 1987 till 1992, and included Sean Brann on vocals & guitar, Jim Billbrough on percussion & samples, George "Fudgie D" Dobson on drumming & art and Andy Maguire on bass guitar, along with me on the inevitable guitar. An early radio tape called "Lunch With Ed" became a surprise hit on WFNX in '88, which led to a couple releases on Martin Adkins' Invisible Records label, several tours (including one with Killing Joke) and appearences with Smashing Pumpkins, Flaming Lips, Screaming Trees, Throwing Muses, Raging Lemmings, and many other bands, some of whose names were not comprised of 2 words, with the first ending in "-ing."
At some pont, Andy & Fudgie left both the band & the city of Boston, and were replaced by Eric Gebow (Switchblade Symphony, Blue Man Group, Lanterna etc) on drums and Dave "where'd he go?" Angus on bass guitar. This lineup recorded 4 tunes with Darron Burke at the Cold Room (where I got to use Mark Erdody's great big Marshall amp) on the highly advanced four-track cassette medium, and four more at Fort Apache with Carl Plaster & Tim O'Heir, which were never completed. Note: there was a Dogzilla Myspace page, which lasted about a week before being suddenly & without explanation or warning deleted by the Geniuses who operate this site. "Dogzilla never hit the big time... but there are plenty of people who have had the good fortune to see this band in action (back when I lived in Boston, I had a great time whenever I saw them)... songs like "You saved me" and "Back when I was the Sphinx" are just whimsical flights of humor
while "Three Angels" and "Lunch with Ed" have some more meat to them, even if presented in a quirky fashion.
I hope this CD is made available again, because this is a band that should have been better known. —customer review by a guy on Amazon.com, where (as of Jan '07) you can plunk down $99.95 for a "used - like new" copy of the Dogzilla CD "There's Always Something Wrong"
Kingsley Flood live at Great Scott's on July 28, 2009, my 2nd gig with these guys, I believe.
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.. Seks Bomba bassist Matt Silbert posted a video of the band playing his song "Cal Tjader" at YouTube (just click the above). The performance is from April 2001 at Windows of the World, on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center in NYC. Weird, yes, but there it is.
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Back in 1989, my band Dogzilla recorded a Genuine Rock Video for our regional hit "Lunch With Ed." Now more of a period piece (yep, that's me in a backwards ballcap... ouch), the Peter Martinez directed video is finally available for your retrogressive pleasure...
The Weisstronauts play "Fruity" at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on June 13, 2008. Video shot and processed by Kirk Ross. The 2008 Weisstronauts touring edition included Pete & Kenny & me on guitars, Jeff Norcross on bass and Nathan Logus on drums.
Pete Weiss assembled and edited this Rock Video for the song "Seven X's" (fromn the new CD) w/footage of the 1939 New York World's Fair as well as misc footage of the Weisstronauts, mostly shot by Marc Weiss.
Chris Keating on guitar & vocals at the Rhumbline in Gloucester, with host Leo Sharamitaro on drums, me on the other (stage right) guitar & a bassist whose name i can't remember. (sorry!)
"The
Freedom To Rock" is about artistic freedom, in this case music. Where it's
fought for in a time when big business saw it as a lucrative product, thus
stunting the growth of creativity. A tale that is rewarding although
frustrating at times with big time dreamers and those not ready for change.
"Writing that rocks as hard as the music that's integral to the story." - Christine Ohlman
How are you, I, George? Haven't checked in on you lately, so I swung by to wish you a happy September & hope you are feeling well! Listen, I have another track up on my page, "Attack Of The Mushroom People." You can hear it right now, if you'd like at: www.myspace.com/psychedelicpablo adios for now! Pablo
Just stopping by to say hello and give you some news. The new album 'Coolgilly and the Freakshow' from Centascope is now available worldwide from CD Baby and directly from the merchandise page of the official website. You can also get the album from Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon and many more.
FIREWATER - LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS! Last shows until October!
Jun 26 : Larz, GERMANY : Fusion Festival Jun 27 : Audincourt, FRANCE : Rencontres & Racines Jun 28 : Istanbul, TURKEY : Balkan Soundz Festival July 02 : Dornbirn, AUSTRIA : Speilboden July 03 : Bulle, SWITZERLAND : Gibloux Festival July 04 : Jena, GERMANY : JG Stadtmitte July 05 : Hradec Kralove, CZECH R.: Rock For People July 06 : Vienna, AUSTRIA : Szene Wein July 08 : Linz, AUSTRIA : Posthof July 10 : Steyr, AUSTRIA : Röda July 11 : Bologna, ITALY : Mondiali Antirazzisti July 12 : Milano, ITALY : Magnolia Festival July 13 : Colmar, FRANCE : Hiero July 15 : Paris, FRANCE : Batofar July 17 : Pozega, CROATIA : Dirty Old Empire Festival July 18 : Veszprem, HUNGARY : Utcazene Fesztivál July 24 : Riberac, FRANCE : Le Grand Souk Festival July 25 : Gdynia, POLAND : Globaltica Festival July 31 : Namur, BELGIUM : Esperanzha Festival Aug 01 : Habere-Poche, FRANCE : Rock'n'Poche Festival Aug 02 : Bladel, NETHERLANDS : Bladelse Zomerfeesten
> Bellydancers in costume get in free at all club shows!
> More shows are still being added, so check the Firewater MySpace page for updates.
> This message was sent by an evil robot. So if you are somewhere other than Europe and can't escape, we're sorry. We'll be back again someday soon.
The new album 'Coolgilly and the Freakshow' from Centascope is now available worldwide from CD Baby and directly from the merchandise page of the official website.
You can also get the album from Apple iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Amazon and many more.
Thanks for the add, George. Dogzilla lives forever in my head. Glad to see that your keeping the dream alive. If I concentrate a little I can still hear Andy's scissors clipping the hair off my head and wonder how Sean's child copes with the middle name of "Robot"
Didn't know you were in the Weisstronauts now! Been following your gigs since you guys played with SCOTS at the Mid-E; I played with them in Texas a few times and Mary even let me do her hair! If y'all come to Atlanta, I'd love to open for ya. Thanx for finding me after so long...
