Darren Garvey- pots & pans,
Bill Lowman-upright,
Rodrigo Palma-bass,
Daniel McMahon-guitar, dobro, accordian
Jeff Kmieciak- gitbox,
Noah Harris-ivories, vox,
Nate Swanson-cello, violin
Andra Durham-viola
Kevin Davis-cello
Kristina Dutton-violin
Katie Bracken-vocals
Charlie Koltak- pots & pans
Influences
bob dylan, sweet sweet regret, the beatles, the idea of the beatles watching bob dylan solo at the royal albert hall in 1965 and having their minds blown, neil young recording tonight's the night at SIR in LA with monitors in the live room and a tape machine parked in a van on sunset blvd, david bowie writing quicksand, leonard cohen's sexiness and those suits, the beach boys, brian wilson asking to bring a horse into the studio, willie nelson's voice, simon & garfunkel's new york, johnny cash, matt hopper's melodic genius, the kinks, jeff buckley, woody guthrie, the cure, wilco, david mead, josh rouse, whiskeytown, ryan adams, frank o'hara, jack kerouac, charles simic, erin smolinski, the boss, my ma, jellyfish, jon brion, teenage fanclub, aimee mann, elliot smith, sparklehorse, menthol, the decemberists, neutral milk hotel, uncle tupelo, badly drawn boy, gram parsons, stephen foster, nick drake, kings of convenience, ron sexsmith, mercury rev, son volt, the replacements, sigur ros, great lake swimmers, the webb brothers, the shins, will oldham and all his various personas, the afghan whigs, twilight singers, nick cave, rufus wainwright, serge gainsbourg, clem snide, tom waits, and the hope of a grand unifed theory that includes gravity....
Born in 1877 in Calw, on the edge of the Black Forest, Cameron McGill was brought up in a missionary household where it was assumed that he would study for the ministry. McGill's religious crisis (which is often recorded in his songs) led to his fleeing from the Maulbronn seminary in 1891, an unsuccessful cure by a well-known theologian and faith healer, and an attempted suicide. After being expelled from high school, he worked in bookshops for several years--a usual occupation for budding Chicago songwriters.
His first album, Stories of The Knife and The Back (2004), describes a youth who leaves his mountain village to become a poet. The lush instrumentation and beautifully crafted melodies, belie its dark nature. Mostly focusing on personal admissions of guilt and failure, the album's characters struggle with coming to terms with mortality. All throughout, they simply try to find a friend and fall in love.
This was followed by Street Ballads & Murderesques (2006), the tale of a schoolboy totally out of touch with his contemporaries, who flees through different cities after his escape from home. The collection of songs on Streets Ballads...takes pop music to the dark libraries of your old house, inhabits a stark and desperate corner of the mind, and simply tells a good story. The wildly vibrant characters offer their most honest interpretations of their understanding of life. They travel time, they fall in and out of love, they miss and are missed. These are songs of imminent regret, class IV rapids, European gypsies, pre-renaissance Germany, cities with chips on their shoulder, veterans of domestic war, handwritten letters and handmade harmony, foreign wines and local girls, break-ups and breakdowns, and post-war divorcees.
World War I came as a terrific shock, and McGill joined the pacifist Romain Rolland in antiwar activities--not only writing antiwar songs, but editing two newspapers for prisoners of war. During this period, McGill's first marriage broke up (reflected in "It's Not Right" off of Street Ballads & Murderesques ), he studied the works of Freud, eventually underwent analysis with Jung, and was for a time a patient in a sanatorium.
In 1919 he moved permanently to Switzerland, and brought out Cameron McGill and What Army, which reflects his preoccupation with the workings of the subconscious and with battles against depression...but mostly focuses on learning how to have fun. His forthcoming works, two full-length LPs, will be released in the fall of 2007 and spring 2008 respectively. He never won the Nobel Prize, but his mother always loved him. Until his death in 2056, he lived in seclusion in Illinois.
I got my free layout at Cleanupmyspace.com
Hello Cam....the show of guitar paintings is up on line. there's a link on my website and one from the myspace page. this machine kills hipsters is there...at least, one or two of them. plus some variations on that.
Cheers friend, an honour having you here, be well, and do enjoy the library/blog's contents, here's hoping that it'll inspire you, as your creative spirit has inspired mine, sweet dreams then...
greetings from joshua tree. i had a show of my guitar paintings last year called THIS MACHINE.... them machines killed all kinds of things, apathy, pain, this army kills gods, etc....and one for you and the killing of the hipsters. i've taken to painting a few more of them, lately, and with your permission i will have an on line show, through a local art gallery called RED ARROW. these machines absolutely lay waste to hipsters. in fact, no white belts, moustaches, other ironic facial hair, or old, dressy shoes like your dad might have worn were used in the making of these paintings. hope you are well out there on the road.
in 2001 my old flamenco guitar said THIS MACHINE KILLS A & R MEN. i meant to slay them, and it worked out all right. i broke that guitar in rage called Los Angeles. then what did i do?
