Markus Reuter interview part two: of Stick Men, King Crimson, Touch Guitars and Brian Eno: A Very Deep Rabbithole Indeed

Markus Reuter by Hajo Müller

This is a continuation of my Georgia Straight article on Markus Reuter and Stick Men. If you haven't read that article, start here. Event listings for the Nov. 30th show are here. Stick Men website here. If you like King Crimson, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, or progressive, virtuosic instrumental music tangentially connected to the world of rock, but vastly more complex and ambitous, check this band out. 

There's a video interview with Brian Eno, somewhere, where Eno expresses frustration that apparently people contact him to ask questions about working with David Bowie. Ironically, the very interviewer who he tells this ends up, by a circumlocutious means, also coming round to asking him David Bowie questions, which Eno gets predictably steamed about. Even if you genuinely believe that Bowie is a greater, more important musician or artist or 20th century arts figure than Eno -- I don't, but a case could be made -- it's just in poor taste to use an interview with one artist as a means for scrounging for tidbits about another, regardless of questions of status and importance. When I spoke to Tad Doyle, I didn't ask him about Kurt Cobain at all, because I figure he's probably had his fill of that; he barely even wanted to talk TAD. I did ask Steve Turner some Courtney Love questions, but she wasn't the reason I did the interview. And yes, I pestered Steve Shelley about Doc Dart more than he wanted, but I also had plenty of questions about Shelley's own artistry and trajectory and other people he'd played with. It's one thing to want to know about colourful characters someone has encountered, to ask if they've got stories, but it's an offense to do it if you are not also genuinely interested in the person you are speaking to.  

I am genuinely interested in Stick Men--I certainly love their music; my go to remains Tentacles, if you're curious. But still, I was a little bit sheepish about asking Markus Reuter any Robert Fripp questions. I did feel like I had to ask a couple! My first question, after he mentioned that he had studied with Fripp (as mentioned in the Straight article) was the act of asking permission to delve deeper. 

Commence interview: 

AM: Do you mind if I ask you about Robert Fripp? Do you get asked a lot about him? Does it get tiresome?

MR: No, it’s not like a get a lot of Robert Fripp questions. Not really.

AM: Tell me about him as a teacher? He has a reputation for being a difficult guy when fans approach him...

MR: He was super nice with me always, but I had an advantage. First off, I was very young when I met him; I was 18, and he was maybe 42 or something. [I did the math; this would be around 1990, so Fripp would have been 43 or 44] And it was just a great, very simple relationship with him. Like, I had no idea he was a guru, let's say, for so many, no idea that he had issues with the audience, or even about his personal issues. I  don’t know, I never cared, I never knew. So we just had a great relationship. I was there in order to learn from him. And he gave me just that! It was great.

AM: What was the context of your studying with him? 

MR: At that time he was offering courses, seminars called Guitar Craft. I had seen the touring ensemble of Guitar Craft, which was called the League of Crafty Guitarists. I had seen the band in a venue here in Germany and I found flyers for the seminar on the table, and I signed up and that’s how I met Fripp and all the other people there. It was really straightforward. And he was a really good teacher for me. Just what I needed, really.

AM: Can you give me an example of something key you learned from him? 

MR: He basically showed me and convinced me, let’s say, that practicing works. That if you have an aim, you can work on it, you can take steps towards achieving the aim. And he gave me some tools for that; like, the way that he was thinking about the exercises, it was very much not about the music. The music was not the first concern when learning to play, because in order to be able to feel good about producing a note, you have to be physically able to play the note. And I think a lot of bad stuff happens to people who try to play music but they don’t feel comfortable with the instrument. They kind of give up, because they don’t have the strength, let’s say, to hold the chord on the guitar or something. So that’s why Fripp would never give you a chord to play. He'd say, “One finger, one note.” It was more modular, coming from the real basics, y'know? And that’s something that was really fascinating to me. Without him I would never have become a performing musician, and I never would have become, like, a virtuoso, which I guess I am. Like, I never intended to, but it’s just the result of decades of practicing. So...

AM: You've also composed generative music [connected to the composition strategies of Brian Eno]; if I can ask, what does Todmorden 513 mean? 

MR: First of all, that word, Todmorden, is a place in the north of England. The word is funny because  "Tod" is "death" in German, and "Morden" is murder, so for a German-speaking person, it's a bizarre word. And I find these kinds of words going across languages, I find them super-inspiring and funny. Because music works the same way: it's up to the "ear of the beholder," right? And that's why I love that word. And that kind of emotional word, for me, combined with a number, is even more absurd, and the number represents the number of chords of that piece: 513 chords. 

AM: How did you encounter this location? Did you tour the north of England? 

MR: I read about it. I don't think I've been there. I've been close to it... but I've never been there. I just came across it and liked it. I think it's famous for some UFO stories. And also, Keith Emerson is from there! Heh. But I didn't know that at the time! 

Markus Reuter with his Touch Guitar by Hajo Müller

AM: While I'm asking about obvious influences, is Brian Eno someone you've met?

MR: I have not met him, no. But he played a short tour of Europe two years ago, and I was there, and it was amazing. One of my good friends is Brian Eno's assistant, and he was onstage playing keyboards. I've never met him in person, but I love his music. My all time favourites, if you want to know, are Another Day on Earth and Nerve Net. Later ones, actually! I love the guy, big inspiration, and I've seen the live show, which was incredible, so beautiful. 

AM: I saw him in Japan in 2001, touring material that would become the Drawn From Life album, with J. Peter Schwalm, which was material that was meant to be played live, that was being developed into a record. 

[I do not tell the whole story to Reuter, but I was on 'shrooms, which were then, due a loophole, semi-legal in Japan; the package, bought at a headshop, came with the disclaimer that they were for "scientific use only, not for ingestion." Tool was playing on the other stage, but I didn't care. I remember an old Japanese hippie and I talking in our fractured versions of each other's languages about how amazing it was that we were going to see Brian Eno perform. The hippie had long hair, the dried brown skin of a sun-worshipper, shorts and a surfy shirt, and a huge grin at what was about to transpire; then when the music started, I was dancing happily next to said hippie at the front of the field, visualizing that I was in a tunnel leading upward to an explosion of light, and my wriggling body became the tail of a human-sized sperm on the way to a promised ejaculation -- the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. I remember, too, that Eno gave a phonetic and really quite good short speech in Japanese about his atarashii ongaku ("new music"), but that he also used "konban wa" ("good evening") both at the beginning and end of the performance, which I don't think a fluent Japanese speaker would do, usually reserving it just for greetings; it was a mistake I'd made myself, so I deduced he didn't actually speak Japanese, which made his articulate little speech seem all the more impressive: if he'd been fluent in Japanese, speaking for a few minutes to the audience in their language would not have been a big deal, but NOT being fluent in Japanese and still doing the same suggested painstaking special effort and practice, undertaken for the occasion. Most other people I saw over there -- Joe Strummer, Lou Reed, David Byrne, Neil Young, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth and others were luckyif they could pronounce "arigatou" correctly; only Eno made a speech. [This was the same three-day festival where I saw Patti Smith do a "Babelogue" prayer to beautiful Mount Fuji, not having received the memo that the festival was Fuji in name only, and we were in fact on Mount Naeba, hours away]. Oh, and besides the material he was developing for that album, Eno sang "No One Receiving" -- I think twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of the show. An awful audio recording of the whole night is on Youtube, which as far as I could tell comes minus Eno's introduction and maybe one of the "No One Receivings," but does have an un-interesting 18 minute soundcheck. Really, it is so far from doing the show justice that I can't listen to it]

AM (continued): So is that similar to what you saw? 

MR: It was basically a selection of his songs, but he was accompanied by an improvising orchestra (seems like this show). So the orchestra was interpreting, let's say; they had an idea of what the songs were, but within the framework, they were improvising, so there was this generative, in the sense of improvisation, aspect, but it was the whole orchestra that was improvising. It was incredible.

AM: What did he sing? 

MR: It was mostly the album The Ship, I think it's called, and then there was something from the most recent vocal album he did (Foeverandevernomore), "There Were Bells." He did only one piece from the 70's, but still it was amazing!

AM: What was the song from the 1970s?

MR: "By This River." And you know, the Japan show that you mentioned also is important for me as well, because Drawn from Life is also one of my top five Brian Eno records, and I made a record with Jan Peter Schwalm, the other guy, which you should check out, because that guy is awesome. 

AM: Okay, I will. But let's talk about guitars. One of the challenges I have with Tentacles is trying to figure out who is playing what. Tony is credited both with Chapman Stick and Touch Guitars, and you're also credited with Touch Guitars, and both instruments have an expanded range of sounds and presumably can do similar things. There are portions that sound like basslines, which I assume are Tony's, but I don't know.

MR: First of all, it's intentional that the compositions are sort of, like, interlocking [Markus illustrates on the Zoom screen with his fingers. He will later explain the symbol on his toque, so I hope he doesn't mind the screenshot!]. The instruments are interlocking. And this also goes for the drums, in terms of the writing, that there is a dialogue with what Tony and I do. 

MR (continued): But Tony, on the Tentacles album, he's playing all the bass parts on that record, and I'm mostly the lead player 90% of the time. But in the live show, you will see there are moments, especially in the newer pieces, where the roles switch, even within a phrase. In the verse, it will  be me on bass, and in the chorus, it will be Tony on bass, and stuff like that. We switch roles, and that's what's so great about the instruments we play, because they are full-range instruments. So they really have a bass and guitar register combined. Yeah. 

AM: I've watched Tony play Stick, but I haven't really watched you play Touch Guitars. They're similar, then?

MR: Yeah, it's the same idea. It's just that the Touch Guitar... the Chapman Stick kind of like, comes out of... the way it's designed, it's trying to neglect tradition, let's say, where the Touch Guitar instruments -- there's also the Warr Guitars, which are also Touch Guitars, and the Touch Guitars which I designed -- they are meant to connect more strongly to guitar tradition, in terms of what they feel like, what they sound like. And so there's a sonic difference between the Chapman Stick and the Touch Guitars, for sure, and also an ergonomic difference. The Chapman Stick is pretty awkward, I have to admit. It looks awkward, too! 

Tony Levin on Chapman Stick, Mexico, 2022, by Germán García

MR (continued): But the touch guitar is sort of, anybody can pick it up, and it feels okay, it feels good, because there's sort of like, the tradition of how a guitar should feel that's in the instrument. With the Stick, that's not a given. 

AM: How many strings? 

MR: I only use eight strings, and my instrument is tuned in fifths, so that means the distance between the strings, the pitch distance between the strings, is larger than on a regular guitar. So with eight strings, I can cover the full spectrum of bass and guitar. Tony has an instrument that has two times six strings, so it's a 12-string instrument, but it's two regions, so they have quite a bit of overlap, tonally. So it's quite a complicated instrument. 

AM: I know that you've designed these guitars. Are you hands-on in the making of them?

MR: I used to be. I wanted to know how it's done, because I wanted to start a business, and I have a very clear vision for what I wanted, and I got together with a luthier in Austin, Texas for this; a real, traditional electric guitar luthier.

AM: His name, please?

MR: Ed Reynolds. He's an amazing guy. So it was fantastic: I said, "I have this idea for an instrument that's meant for this style of playing, so in order for this to work, it needs to be able to do A, B, C, D, E, F, G... I gave him a list of things. And then I said, "On top of all this, I want it to be a traditional guitar instrument. I want you to make sure it looks like a traditional guitar, it feels like a traditional guitar. I wanted to remove these hurdles that people have with the Chapman Stick". There are these huge hurdles, just because of the way it looks, right? Which can be a good thing, sometimes. Overall, I like the idea of this touch-style of playing, but for over a decade, I had seen people struggle with it so much. So I was like, "The instrument that I'm going to build for the technique is going to be purely for the technique, but it's going to be a traditional guitar instrument. It's going to be more familiar when people pick it up. I want people to be able to start making music right away." And fortunately all that turned out to be true for the instrument that I designed. I'm very happy about that! 

Markus Reuter on Touch Guitar, Mexico, 2022, by Germán García

AM: Okay, so--I am not a guitarist, but based on what you've said, if I were shopping for an instrument, I would buy your guitar, and not a Chapman Stick. It sounds like the superior instrument. But Tony still plays the Chapman Stick!

MR: Absolutely. 

AM: So are there things he can do on a Chapman Stick that he can't do on one of your guitars?

MR: Yeah. There are two factors at play. So first of all, he always complains about the instrument, okay? It's true. But he's been playing it for 50 years, it's part of his iconic look, and it is his sound. And, this is the most important thing, we're not talking about some guy, we're talking about Tony Levin, and Tony Levin can make the Stick work in ways that nobody else can. That's also why I am so glad that I'm in a band with him and I get to experience his genius on that particular instrument, because I'm still learning so much from him as well. And the Stick has a unique sound. It only has one particular sound, which you can say, for a professional instrument, that's kind of strange, that you can't really change the timbre of it much. But that's also the sound that Tony is known for and uses. He also has one of my Touch Guitars, and he plays it, and he plays it on the track, "Tentacles," if you want to hear the difference...

With Stick Men in Chile, 2022, by Guillermo italiani

AM: I think actually really understanding the differences would just frighten me more. I think for this music, I prefer the subjective experience of just listening to the music. Really knowing how it is made... it seems like it is a doorway to a very deep rabbithole. 

MR: (Laughs) Yeah, absolutely. And I wasn't joking. Like, the reason the music is the way it is, is because I spent over 30 years working on my playing technique, and what is it, 35 years after having had my first contact with Robert Fripp and learning how he was composing that kind of stuff, so the rabbithole is incredibly deep. I absolutely agree, but I also think that's, like, magical. You know, sometimes I see people at shows that look at me in a very specific way. It could be some sort of attraction, but it's this musical attraction. And these people end up with me as my students, and I can see that there's this incredible power in kind of, for lack of better word, this knowledge that I have, and people do want to have a piece of that. It's great. Again, the word "lineage" comes to mind [this refers to something Markus said in the Straight piece, about carrying on in the mode of Robert Fripp and King Crimson].  

AM: Do you take students who are not in Germany? Do you do Zoom sessions, or...?

MR: Yeah, most of my students are actually in the USA. I used to have a couple of Canadian students as well, but for me, my main market is the USA. 

Pat Mastelotto Mexico, 2022, by Germán García

(Note: I didn't ask any questions about Pat, but the one I had in mind was, 

"Do you guys tease him about his time in Mr. Mister?" 

So it might not have been appreciated anyhow.)

AM: Well, thank you, this was great, and I have more than enough, but I have a final question: any Vancouver stories?

MR: Yes! Yes! Vancouver stories, there's only one, but it's pretty amazing to me. You know this hat that I'm wearing... have you heard of Devin Townsend? [The image is his "lotus logo."]

AM: Yes!

MR: That was a magical happening in my life. I got to know Devin at a dinner party; he didn't know who I was. He didn't even know I was a musician. And we quickly became friends that night. And three weeks later, he asked me to join his band. And that was a 10-piece band that toured Europe in 2019. And he lives in... Gibsons, is that a place?

AM: Yes!

MR: At least he used to live there when I met him. So he was my gateway into the city, and... the amazing thing about Canada, for me, coming from Germany... Germany's a big country, in Europe, but Canada? Insane. And even the fact of people from Vancouver and Toronto, big cities with... 6000 miles between them or something like that? [It's actually half that, but... that's enough!]. For me, my first experience in Canada was working in Toronto with David Bottrill, who is a famous record producer there. And so for me, just kind of like getting to know a country that is so big, where you guys are united under the name Canada, but you are so far apart... it's something that, for me, I can't grasp that. Maybe you could explain it to me. 

AM: Not likely! 

MR: But let me tell you something: the other night I played a show here in Berlin. It was a relatively small show, maybe 40 or 50 people were there, in a small theatre; really nice, a great, energetic performance. And after the show, I started talking to a lady. It was a festival we had played at, and she said, in a couple of weeks she was going to play at the same festival. She was a dancer, she was doing a dance performance. And I was talking to her, and I was thinking, "Is she maybe Canadian?" Because I heard some words that sounded familiar to me in the pronunciation. And to me... It's kind of a cliche, but it was fascinating to see, as a German who started out learning the Queen's English in school, and then hanging out with Americans, and having to learn to roll my R, and stuff like that, that now my English is good enough that I can hear the subtle differences between pronunciations! Anyway, it turned out, I said, "You're from Canada, right?" And she was shocked, because she didn't think I would be able to tell. 

AM: What were the giveaways? What sounds? I actually teach ESL, so I might know about this... 

MR: It was the most cliched word, it was the "about": "aboot." Even though it was very subtle, I was able to tell. 

AM: There are jokes about how we say "aboot," but most Canadians don't. But there's a phenomenon known as "Canadian raising" [very ably explained here; you may also want to skip to the 3:00 mark of this video, as well -- the Youtuber's eye contact is a bit disconcerting but his diagrams are great. The short version is, it involves our raising the starting point of certain vowels before voiceless consonants. If I understand correctly, Americans will say "white" and "wide" with the same vowel, but you can hear a clear difference in how Canadians say the vowels between these two words; we raise the starting point of certain vowels before voiceless sounds. The guy in the first video offers "house" and "how's", made with a voiced "Z" sound at the end, as his example; Canadians start the first part of the vowel sound, the "ou," differently, but apparently Americans don't]. I can barely detect it, myself, so congratulations!

MR: For me, it's a new thing, to be able to tell the difference in a language that is still foreign to me. I mean, I've been speaking it for over 30 years, but still... I have to admit, I'm pretty proud! 

   For more information about Markus Reuter, including information on lessons, this is his website:

https://www.markusreuter.com/

People wishing to share this article can use this hyperlink:

https://alienatedinvancouver.blogspot.com/2025/11/markus-reuter-interview-part-two-of.html

Because of the feud between Meta and the Canadian government, people wishing to share the Straight article in Canada should use this: https://r.pebmac.ca/https://www.straight.com/music/stick-men-on-edge-king-crimson-alum-return-to-rickshaw

Stick Men event listing here: 

https://rickshawtheatre.com/show_listings/stick-men-3/ 

Rich Hope in the Straight (and at Green Auto Saturday) plus vintage Evil Doers photos!

Courtesy Rich Hope

Not everything I wrote about Rich Hope made it into the Straight piece I just did... and not everything in the piece is, in fact, mine: the anecdote about seeing the Beat Farmers live at the Town Pump is 100% Mike Usinger, livening up the piece with some eyewitness testimony. (I've only ever heard stories; thanks, Mike!).

Some of the outtakes include my asking Hope about the more memorable shows John Ford, his four piece band with Mack, Read, and Jones, played during their early 21st century heyday. He immediately went to the year 2000, opening for the Tragically Hip at the Commodore. “It was a secret charity show and we got the call to open. We were pretty thrilled to play in front of them, to say the least. Their audience would famously shout ‘Hip! Hip! Hip!’ over the openers, but we shut them up halfway through the first song.”

And (revered, departed Hip vocalist) Gord Downie dug them, too. “Gord really liked the band and complimented our cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sway’. He wore our T-shirt the next night at the Pacific Coliseum show and gave us a shout out. He really championed bands he dug. He was a kind man and I was very fortunate to have crossed paths with him.”

The band name, which Chris Read came up with, may have been a contributing factor in John Ford’s relative obscurity, alas. If you’re a film geek, you get the reference to one of America’s earliest auteurs, but many people would misunderstand. “People literally would come up to me after shows and say ‘Hey Johnny, great set!’” Hope recalls, adding that his own favourite John Ford film is The Searchers.

Not that anyone is keeping track here but I'm more of a The Grapes of Wrath/ The Hurricane/ The Fugitive kind of guy, though The Searchers is one interesting (and pretty-to-look-at) film.

John Ford tunes figure in Hope’s setlists to this day, like “Ocean” and an unreleased song called “Fallen Angels and Cowboy Kings,” which Hope says may be the best song John Ford wrote together. Yet another unreleased song from the band factors in the new live album, “3 Minute Song,” which Hope dedicates to his wife, Nicole.

People might recognize that one from a cover of it done by Big Sugar. In fact, Gordie Johnson of that band--who has an enthusiastic blurb for the new album on Hope’s bandcamp, produced Bullets for Dreamers.

“We became friends and he covered a few John Ford songs in the early 2000’s. ‘3 Minute Song’ was recorded by the band but never released. This version is a return to the tempo I had originally conceived the song in.” It's a cool tune either way, though I had to toggle back and forth between the versions, because they're remarkably different.

Of course, it was Adrian Mack, initially, who got me into Rich Hope, when he was an Evil Doer, sometimes the only other member of Hope's band. I first saw the two of them at Richards on Richards, opening for the Modernettes almost 20 years ago, in 2007. Cindy LeGrier took photos:

It is Mack that deserves credit for that crazy video for "Golden Clouds," which, by the by, includes cellphone footage I shot at a Keithmas. Mack liked it because the zoom on my cell phone reminded him of Jess Franco, I think. (I miss Mack! He's off on Salt Spring these days... haven't talked with him in awhile).

I asked Rich if he had any favourite "WTF Mack?" moments in the video. This was his reply!

“The whole thing was ‘WTF Mack?’ In the best way though. I didn’t have any money for a video so he just cobbled that together and what the fuck are videos anyway? Something to look at when you’re listening to music. Too much information anyways. We could all use less of it, to be honest!”

I don't think that made the Straight feature, so there it is here. See you Saturday at Green Auto!

By the way, if you want to make a shareable link for the Straight piece, Pebmac works:

https://r.pebmac.ca/https://www.straight.com/music/rich-hope-gets-ready-to-rip-up-green-auto-with-a-live-at-anza-club-release-party

Or you can just share this blog link!

https://alienatedinvancouver.blogspot.com/2025/11/rich-hope-in-straight-and-at-green-auto.html

Federale is great; Brian Jonestown Massacre, I have mixed feelings about

Edit: if you're not sure who Bev Davies is, see here. 

I went to Brian Jonestown Massacre last night pretty much only because of Bev. She isn't getting out to many shows these days, having had a health scare (but she's doing okay: in fact, if my body is holding up in 20-odd years as well as hers is now -- hell, if I'm even alive 20-odd years from now -- I'll count myself blessed). I wanted to see her, and I wanted to make sure she got in and out of the venue all right. Plus I know she really loves the band (she went both nights!), and that she comes to shows with increasingly less frequency now; at some point, we will arrive at "the last show I see with Bev," and maybe that was last night? 

Sorry to say that I did not really dig BJM. I had actually quite enjoyed the previous show of theirs I saw (also with/ because of Bev), and do occasionally listen to their music, but numerous factors interfered at the Pearl: it was crowded. It was hot. I was tired. I had made the mistake of making a merch run to the Federale table and then couldn't get back to my spot. And then, having ducked to an area where I could sit and read for a bit, listening to the music in the background (which was just fine with me!), I had to go on a grocery run in the pissing rain mid-way through the band's set because my wife had texted me that the bag of bananas I thought we had in our freezer, necessary for our morning smoothie, did not in fact exist, so about halfway through, I was tromping down to Nesters, getting peed on from the heavens, and buying bananas (and some frozen mangos), after which I was fucking soaked (I had not brought a hat and my jacket, though rainproof, had no hood). 

So it's not really a judgement on them that I left early (with Bev's blessing). They did seem a little low-energy, like they weren't having that much fun, but it could be that I just wasn't on the right drugs? And they apparently were doing two hour sets, longer than they'd been scheduled for, so maybe they were just conserving their energy or something... I did not give them a fair shake, and do not mean to criticize them now. 

(photos by me)

I do have a judgment, here, however, that also kinda colours my reaction to the band, that has nothing to do with what they did onstage last night. I think Anton needs to get over his feelings about Bev's photo on that book cover. He should own that he behaves like this sometimes (and that his fans accept it, enough so that the band still sells out the Pearl two nights in a row, despite that venue being in the same fucking block, even, as the one where this photo was taken); that Bev did not choose for the book to have this cover, or have any input into that choice; that it was in fact this very photo that made me interested in this band in the first place ("Holy fuck, who is that?"); and that, also holy fuck, it's a great photo and even moreso, the perfect photo for a book of this title. If I ever buy this book (haven't as yet) it will be FOR BEV'S PHOTO on the cover; I probably won't even read it! I do have a button of this image. If I'd thought about it, I would have worn it last night! 

Note: in an earlier version of this paragraph, I had said that Bev "sold" them this photo. She addresses this in the postscript at the bottom. 

And Anton, if you are worried that people will judge you or something because of this image, you should know, man, that my judgements about you have more to do with the fact that you've hurt my friend, who loves you, than that you've melted down at the occasional show.  I mean, I melt down occasionally myself. Not quite as spectacularly as you do, of course, but that's only because I usually do it in customer service contexts, not, like, onstage or on-camera. But, fuck, you're only human! 

If it still bothers you that much, I invite you to consider the company you are keeping here: 

Anyhow, I enjoyed Federale a lot more, though again, conditions were working for me, at that point: I was right up front (having held a spot for Bev, arriving a bit before her, so she would have a stage to lean on); I was still dry; and I hadn't even realized how crowded it was getting behind me. Fronted by former BJM man Collin Hegna, Federale were personable at the merch table, and played rock that was infused with spaghetti western soundtrack sensibilities (mostly Morricone, and a few tracks have passages that remind me of the score for The Big Gundown, especially the main theme, which to me is the absolute peak of Morricone's spaghetti work; they make use of motifs, their bassist told me, such that that theme repeats a couple of times in their work, including in their set last night). I don't know/ understand why they're moving in a rock direction with their newest album, which you hear in the one clip that I shot, but I have no comment on that as yet. It may present differently than live (where it sounded like a western take on late-phase Cure, kinda). The two records I bought don't sound much like what they did onstage, too, even for the tracks that are on those albums), so I think it's by their records I will best get to know them. But I personally am totally into the spaghetti. 

And they do seem PROUD of that earlier stuff. Collin had recommended I buy All the Colours of the Dark (and then texted the band members to come sign it for me!), which title also riffs on my favourite giallo. After I heard them play, I went back to the merch table and added The Blood Flowed Like Wine to my purchases, based on another song they played, and they all signed that, too! (If you want a taste of what they did -- and love Morricone -- those seem to be the perfect two albums to start with). 

Oh, and Collin gave me their setlist: 

It was further pleasing to see that Collin was wearing a Neptoon shirt. I texted Rob a shot of that; he'd gone the previous night, and had both bands in the store over their time in Vancouver. I guess they all know the Sir Paul story by now! It will be cool if Neptoon becomes a destination -- if every touring band who reveres the Beatles makes a pilgrimage there or something to meet the man who found the lost Beatles masters and then GAVE THEM to Paul McCartney, in person.

Of course, Neptoon has the added bonus of having a fuck ton of cool records, too! 

I gather BJM also went to Beat Street yesterday, too, which is real smart; that rare psych/ prog section they have has some real gems in it. Hope they found good stuff!

Meantime, Anton, one more message for you, in all kindness. Be nicer to the people who love you! 

Or to put it another way:  

(photo by Erika Lax)

POSTSCRIPT BY BEV DAVIES:

I did not sell them the photo, I had sent some photos for the book about 10 years before the publishing and signed the release before publication. no one asked or told me it was going to be the cover

I was paid one copy of the book, no money.

BEV ALSO ADDS:

Chuck Biscuits at the Smilin' Buddha by bev davies

Not to be reused without permission

Blue Jay Valley's first show at Fink City label launch tonight!

Never have I seen so many piggyback rides at a gig. Normally a piggyback ride at a gig, in my concertgoing history, has involved either a) an adult female who wants a better view and gets her boyfriend to give her a lift and/ or b) an adult female who wants to flash her tits at the band (if you are the girl who flashed her tits at Shane McGowan when the Pogues played with Joe Strummer filling in on guitar, at the Commodore back when, please find me on Facebook! I remember your tits vividly, and Shane's reaction to them!). 

None of that kinda thing tonight, though. Tonight it was 10-year old kids on their Dad's shoulders, or sometimes climbing up onto each other's shoulders, as Blue Jay Valley played their inaugural gig at the Fink City Records launch (the new label run by Clampdown Records/ Vicious Cycles man Billy Bones). Here are some photos and comments from that night (sorry, Rempel, I didn't make it to your set).

Most of the piggyback rides (and some playfighting) happened before Blue Jay Valley want on, though. You can read about them in Mike's article; Mike was there. 

Billy was a fine MC and the audience filled with youthful friends of the band, and their parents, and the bands' parents, and a bunch of people who just wanted to support the show (which also involved Cryptyds, a fine local rock band whom Billy tells me he first read about here! Sadly, they are not on vinyl yet).

Another detail from the night I had not seen at a gig: confetti cannons, loaded by Grant Lawrence (proud Dad to the band's blonde guitarist) with the help of Nick from the Vicious Cycles/ Tranzmitors and the bearded guy from the VC's most recent rekkid. This was blown at strategic points. During Blue Jay Valley's song "Snow Day," about the delights of having a snow day instead of having to go to school, the singer counted down "making it snow" in Vancouver in November. Which helped me capture the moment: 3...2...1...:

The merch tables were fun. I would have bought a Fink Pack for $100 but money is a bit tight this month (it was loose last month, so...).

It was fun to see 10- and 11-year old kids getting Blue Jay Valley merch signed by their friends in the band. Rob Frith, in attendance, told me a story about playing in a band when he was in Grade 7. I told him a story in turn of seeing Rob Nesbitt (of BUM) the first time he took the stage with a "band," kinda, in Westview in Maple Ridge, back in Grade 9. I'll tell that story someday... 

I am sure that parents and school chums will post video of this gig presently, so I will not rush to put all mine up, but I did shoot a couple, including "No School," which the band has an official video for. It was very enjoyable -- as Rob Frith quipped to me later, "I bet you've been to way worse punk shows!" I have, I have! If these kids ever become rock stars, we'll have a real fun "I saw them when" story to tell. 

I actually think this is a better-written anti-school song than that one by the Replacements (which has a catchy chorus but crappy verses!). 

I cannot say who was more enthusiastic, the kids playing AND GOING TO their first gig, or their parents. Even onlookers like me had a lot of fun. Kids didn't exactly mosh, but I did see someone scoop up confetti and smush it into their friends' hair. The cannons fired a few times, from either side of the stage. Then the confetti was swept up by the same man who had fired it.

I need to spend more time with the Smugglers. Grant seems like a very nice, good man. Good thing, because a lot of confetti was produced. 

The bathroom didn't have much grafitti but I liked this one, and suspect the author is right: 

Billy offered merch for raffle prizes; Grant Lawrence claimed this t-shirt, I think! 

Cryptyds, up next, didn't even try to compete with the 10- and 11-year olds, they just did their thing, which rocks. They seem to be evolving in a little more punk, Ramonesy way, away from the garage/ psych thing, but remain tight and charimsatic and tuneful. I shot a clip there too, but I might offer it to the band, in case it can be edited in with their "official video" for a few different angles. I mean, maybe not, but they had a friend documenting the whole night, it seemed...

By the way, thanks, Billy, for getting the band to clarify that it is Cryptyds, and not THE Cryptyds. I may well have "the'd" them. Really pleased my blog was of service to ya! (And them). 

I was happy that some of the kids stuck around for Cryptyds, but a lot of people had ducked out. Which I eventually did, myself, but unlike them, I have seen Cryptyds twice before. 

I tried to duck out of buying merch, but Billy effectively convinced me that the Etters album is a must-hear. I believe it is the one being written about here. It had swanky one-sided coloured vinyl, which I paid $5 more for, because it was so fun. 

I am stealing this photo of the Etters. I hope no one minds. Apparently they sing in Dutch and do what Billy described as San Francisco garage trash, if I got that right. He says it's going to be an album he'll be listening to years from now. 

This is the record; see the cool colours?

The art on the back of the b-side has a funny caption. I recommend enlarging it!

These photos of me were taken by Erika Lax, who was very tolerant of her high-as-a-kite husband and let him finish this blogpiece before he joined her in bed (she's already asleep). 

Welcome to the Vancouver music scene, Blue Jay Valley. And welcome as well, Fink City! Fun night!