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Thread: James Brown IS Annie: Giggles

  1. #41

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    Oops. This is true: only a two minute walk from Han(g)over Street though. Here's a link the venue's website: www.eclecticbars.co.uk/edinburghponana/

    Cheers!

  2. #42
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    Warning: it is really hidden. I went to find it today and never did discover the entrance. I'm hoping that it looks better in the dark.


  3. #43

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    Just listen for the shrieks of beautiful women in their early 20s. Not out of excitement, but of fear: Marc will probably have his belly out.

  4. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Pepsi Challenge View Post
    Just listen for the shrieks of beautiful women in their early 20s. Not out of excitement, but of fear: Marc will probably have his belly out.
    Careful, you might frighten away your fan club.


  5. #45
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    Sorry for asking this again but the last time got missed? Is there a bass player in the band, or is it just two guitars and a drummer?

  6. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeemag_USA View Post
    Sorry for asking this again but the last time got missed? Is there a bass player in the band, or is it just two guitars and a drummer?
    The wee little space they have for performance doesn't afford them room for more than three musicians.


  7. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by canuck View Post
    The wee little space they have for performance doesn't afford them room for more than three musicians.
    Oh I understand that, it just my curiosity, normally a three piece is bass, guitar and drums, but I am basing my assumption on a photo of the band playing where there is like two telecasters and the drummer. Makes no difference to the music cause its great, just strange seeing a funk band without a bass player, but there may be one

    Also I had another question for Pepsi, how did you choose the song titles for the album, were the people idols or heroes of the band members and what was the significance of the people to those band members? I find it pretty interesting to get some trivia behind the music so please indulge me

  8. #48
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    It appears to have been a busy night on the org. I was otherwise engaged, enjoying the sound of Pepsi's band and meeting his fabulous Edinburgh friends.

    G2, The Pepsi Challenge is well primed for the gig in Thurso tomorrow night. Have a great evening.


  9. #49

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeemag_USA View Post
    Oh I understand that, it just my curiosity, normally a three piece is bass, guitar and drums, but I am basing my assumption on a photo of the band playing where there is like two telecasters and the drummer. Makes no difference to the music cause its great, just strange seeing a funk band without a bass player, but there may be one

    Also I had another question for Pepsi, how did you choose the song titles for the album, were the people idols or heroes of the band members and what was the significance of the people to those band members? I find it pretty interesting to get some trivia behind the music so please indulge me

    First thing's first: I love bass. It's an aesthetically pleasing instrument to play and listen to. However, in our band's case, it would just get in the way. It also gives us (the guitars) more freedom. Granted, an Octaver (which we use to give us bottom end) provides a different dynamic than regular bass-guitar frequencies, however, the Electro Harmonix Octaver has to be heard to be believed. If I had a penny for every sound engineer, who, during load-in time, said "where's your bass player - you'll need one" I'd probably have about 89p. After every gig, more often than not they say: "Yeah, you're right, you don't miss it." In some ways, we love proving people wrong. It's worked for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, White Stripes, Black Keys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleater-Kinney, I could go on...

    To suggest you can't play funk (as in a feeling, not a genre) music without a bass is also ludicrous. And again, all you have to do is see us live, or, listen to our recorded music to see just that. If you can bypass that and are still not convinced, we're probably not the funk band for you. And therein lies another misconception: we're not a funk band - we're a rock band.

    When I first put this type of line-up together (I did so in 1989 but that was because we genuinely didn't have a bass player) it was 1999. I was looking to put a band together that was easy to feed (all the best bands in the world are/were trios), slightly unique (in that not many people were doing it), and, above all, economical. Cue Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The first time I saw them they offended me. Why? Because they didn't have a bass player. When I saw them play Bellbottoms on The Word, I felt, that, without a bass player, they were less than a band. Something was missing. Turns out I was just ignorant. They also sounded badly out of tune, and what was the craic with the Zombie Elvis guy? Anyway, that's by the by.

    A few years later I saw them on MTV and my opinion of them changed.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ui_ZM58HJSg

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=7aAdECxQP0E

    I noticed that Spencer was playing a simplistic, bluesy-funky riff with drums grooving (on a riff of its own) over the top. Meanwhile, the singer was reeling off a simple lyric line in typical blues rhyming formation. Whenever he stopped singing, he'd punctuate the space by playing something on guitar. What they were doing seemed simple, not very technical, and almost exactly like the cotton-field blues bands of the late 40s: guitar plays bass line over simple drums while singer croons, only to fill up the space with his guitar when he stopped singing. Not much to it, yet powerfully effective. The fact there was not a bass player - and that they were 'getting away with it' so to speak - just made them stand out more. How many other band had no bass and got away with it? Not many. So my band adopted this approach and away we went. To keep things economical, the tunes were formulaic: written almost entirely in 4/4 or 3/4, complete with a verse riff, chorus riff and middle-8. A bit like AC/DC in some ways.

    Sorry to put through such a big essay, Jeemag, but I hope this clears it up for you. If you're not convinced, you'll just have to come see us live sometime and make up your own mind.

    As for the track title names...

    They're just vague, reasonably obscure people who made an impression on me, in big and small ways. There's nothing very mystical about any of them. However, seeing as you asked, I'll give you a brief synopsis on each.

    Benni Lees: Benni, or Mary as she's know in real life, used to be part of a pseudo-reggae band called Soulyard. She composed the theme to Pigeon Street (remember that?) and other tunes within the show. I loved this theme as a kid. Turns out she know lives in Edinburgh and is a piano teacher. Strangely enough she played bass during the Pigeon Street recordings ;-)

    Billy Preston (Clarence): Eddie Murphy performed a skit on Saturday Night Live whereby he tried to convince a chat-show host that not only did The Beatles kick him (and his saxophone) out of the band, they stole all his best ideas. The idea that such a black presence could be such an influence on one of the whitest bands ever, humoured me. I think it was also a vague reference to Billy Preston's time with The Beatles. He was also one of many to be labelled the 5th Beatle.

    Delgado Fitzhugh: Billy Connolly played a military rebel musician called Delgado Fitzhugh in a mid-80s film called Water. At the end of the film, he managed to get George Harrison and Eric Clapton on stage with him as he pleaded for the freedom of the British colony he was fighting for to a live, worldwide audience at the U.N. It's a bad film, but funny. Connolly plays a tune in the movie that sounded like The Upsetters' version of Mother Popcorn. This is our tribute to that tune.

    Ed Bogus: Everyone remembers Vince Guaraldi as the 'sound' of the Charlie Brown TV and film shows. But when he died, he was replaced by Ed Bogus, who not many people remember. I prefer Guaradli's material, but Bogus wrote some nifty jazzy, harpsichord-led tunes that am also very fond of.

    Guy Lombardo: Famous violinist. He was namechecked by the Blue Meanies in the Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie. The Blue Meanies were music-haters who, like the Nazis, suggest they move to Argentina after the Beatles conquer them at the end of the movie.

    Jane Badler: The hot, very foxy chick who played Diana in the TV sci-fi series, V. Nuff said.

    Giancarlo Esposito: famous for playing the character Buggin' Out in Spike Lee's classic, Do The Right Thing. In the movie, Buggin' Out causes racial tension to rise when he insists that the owners of Sal's Famous Italian pizzeria put up pictures of black african-americans as that who Sal's customers are. It all leads to a big fight that ends in tragic circumstances at the end of the movie. Anyway, Buggin' Out's character was played by Giancarlo Esposito. In a strange twist of irony, it turns out Esposito, is, in fact, Italian himself in real life. Lee's putting him in this role was a stroke of genius. I thought anyway.

    Mark Hamill: the legend that is Luke Skywalker. I was lucky enough to speak with Mark a few times during a time I had written a biography book proposal on him. It didn't work out, but it gave me an insight to the man who was Skywalker. Mark is one talented, vastly underrated guy. He's also one of the funniest people I've ever spoken to. He's the most sought-after voice-over actor since Mel Blanc, has written his own, very cool, comic books, paved the way for CD-Rom games (Wing Commander) and won awards on Broadway, namely as Mozart in Amadeus and as the Elephant Man. He kind of interested me as he's a 20th century icon, yet had a very interesting life, and was a very interesting person behind the role he is most famously known for. So I wrote a theme tune for him.

    Marco Di Sousa: the first black footballer to play for Celtic (in the 60s). He was Brazilian. Or Portuguese. I forget.

    Lady Bo: the first female rock guitarist. She was in Bo Diddley's band for many many years. She looked cool with one of Bo's drinks-cabinet-looking guitars wrapped around her. Most importantly, she was an inspiration to so many other women in music.

    Peter Norman: A legend. Peter was an Australian track star best known for winning the silver medal in the 200 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The gold and bronze medalists were Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos. On the medal podium, during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner", Smith and Carlos famously joined in a black power salute. What is less known is that Norman, a white Australian, donned a badge on the podium in support of their cause, the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). It was also Norman who suggested that Smith and Carlos share the black gloves used in their salute, after Carlos had left his gloves in the Olympic Village. This is the reason for Tommie Smith raising his right fist, while John Carlos raised his left. Australia's Olympic authorities reprimanded him and the Australian media ostracized him. Despite qualifying 15 times for the 100m and five times for the 200m during 1971/72 the Australian Olympic track team did not pick Norman for the 1972 Summer Olympics. That year was the first ever where no Australian sprint team went to the Olympics. He kept running, but contracted gangrene in 1985 after tearing his Achilles Tendon during a training session, which nearly led to his leg being amputated. Depression and heavy drinking followed. Norman died of a heart attack on October 3, 2006 in Melbourne, Australia at the age of 64. USA Track and Field Federation proclaimed October 9 2006, the date of his funeral, as Peter Norman Day. Both Smith and Carlos were pall-bearers at Norman's funeral.

    Sammy Parker: my first kiss.



    http://youtube.com/watch?v=GK2aX3cXMis

  10. #50
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    Thanks for the explanation, its very difficult to ask a musician a question about their band without them immediately going on the offensive, I am not in anyway critisizing anything was just a question from my curiosity, you don't need to convince me of anything or be hyper sensitive about it, I already like the music with or without bass :P

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