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ROUGH
MIX
We
mourn the loss of another area artist, musician and friend,
James Kopta, who died Friday, Aug. 9, in Halfmoon.
The 30-year-old Clifton Park native was active in many musical
pursuits, and was a songwriter and instrumentalist in area
bands Brown Cuts Neighbors, Exploding Corpse Action, Hail
Mary and Frank Budgen. He was also a major force behind the
Troy-based music and art collective Department of Experimental
Services, as well as an accomplished video producer, sculptural
welder and author, among other pursuits. Our deepest sympathies
go out to his friends and family.
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Gotta
love a screamer: The Necessary Effect—Screamers
Songs Interpreted. .
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The
Brown Cuts Neighbors, featuring Kopta, Jason Martin,
Marc Arsenault and Scott Smallwood, are joined
by Tom Burre (of Bone Oil) and Michael Keegan
(of Lincoln Money Shot), as contributors to The Necessary
Effect—Screamers Songs Interpreted, a two-disc tribute
to ’70s L.A. synth-punk pioneers the Screamers—a large feat
indeed since the band released nary a record in their own
time. The Neighbors recorded a version of the Screamers’ “I’m
a Mensch,” joining 28 other bands for the effort. The Necessary
Effect, which received four stars from Seattle’s The
Stranger and was described by the paper as “Dark, damaged,
and totally offbeat. . . a necessary disc for anyone who worships
the art of punk noise,” is available in stores or from Seattle’s
Xeroid/Extravertigo Records.
IT
TAKES 50 MEN TO DO A MAN’S JOB: Collier Hyams’ fusion
project 50 Man Machine has a new album out, and the
eponymous CD is available at Border’s Books & Music and
Barnes & Noble or online at cdbaby.com. What began as
a performance art piece about education, identity, hope for
the future and freedom, became a unique fusion ensemble featuring
Hyams, Scott Smallwood (who also has contributed to
Brown Cuts Neighbors, Nyquist and EVIDENCE), former 7 Nations
bagpiper Neil Anderson, onetime Patti LaBelle bassist
Marvin M. Williams, DJ Bernard Weekes and Mike
Young Jr.
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Getting
their Irish up: the Mckrells.
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IRISH
I WAS AN OSCAR MEYER WEINER: The McKrells have
a new CD out, Hit the Ground Running (Dráguin Records),
which was produced by Chris Leske, assistant produced
by Scott Petito, and recorded, mixed and mastered at
NRS Studios in Catskill. The group’s sixth album features
Sara Milonovich on fiddle, vocals, viola and tin whistles,
and multi-instrumentalist Leske writing song lyrics.
Petito, John Nolan and Steve Belcher also appear.
WE’VE
GOT OURSELVES A LITTLE, AHEM, SITUATION HERE: Have you
ever been channel surfing at, say, 11 o’clock and come across
a show that you simply can’t figure out? It’s low on the dial,
on WPIX-TV when they’re blacked out, and the short vignette
is a weird cross between performance art and music video.
Perhaps you turned to your couch companion to say, “What the
hell is the Glenn Slingerland Situation, and what does it
have to do with what I’m watching,” as a circular logo rimmed
with those words, and filled with a retro radio guy shoving
a retro microphone out of it, is occasionally flashed on the
screen.
Well, wonder no more. The seven-minute long show, The Glenn
Slingerland Situation, premiered March 12 on TimeWarner
Cable, using WPIX’s time slot—which is blacked out at 11 PM
due to FCC regulations. The Situation, based on Slingerland’s
radio show that airs Sunday nights at 8 PM on 97.7 WBKK, aired
three times a week, but beginning Monday (Aug. 19) it’s expanding
to five.
The
Situation has an odd air about it. It’s Slingerland’s
way to showcase some of the latest music with some visual
stimulation thrown in, in the form of dark-clad women leaning
upon walls in alleyways, or upon street signs by the side
of a road—reading. They read the paper, magazines, what-have-you,
and they look mysterious. Slingerland plans it that way, as
he doesn’t want the viewer to be able to place the story in
time. So the scenes are somewhat ambiguous (Is it the ’80s
or is it last week? I know that storefront—where the hell
is it?), as is the plot (What is she reading). And
the gals wear these secretly mischievous smiles and high heels.
All the while, a new song by the Golden Palominos might be
playing; or David Bowie, Weather Report, Sex Mob, Medeski
Martin & Wood. According to Slingerland, the actors are
merely there to keep the viewer company while they focus on
the song.
The
Glenn Slingerland Situation’s video production is taken
care of by J.J. Faulkner of Ye Olde Digital, and it’s
broadcast weeknights at 11 PM, with repeats at 11:10 and 11:20
each night (he’s got the space, he might as well use it).
Check out www.gssituation.com
for more information.
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Singin’
in the Sunshine: Marty Wendell.
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SUNSHINE
AND LOLLIPOPS: Capital Region singer Marty Wendell
recently recorded two songs for his next CD at Memphis’
legendary Sun Studio—which, as you may know, was founded by
Sam Phillips in the ’50s, and its doors saw the comings and
goings of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis,
Roy Orbison, Howlin’ Wolf, Rufus Thomas and B.B. King. The
songs from Wendell’s Sun Studio session (produced by James
Lott, who worked on Carl Perkins’ last album, Go Cat Go,
and Billy Swan’s Like Elvis Used to Do) will appear
on the artist’s upcoming release. “Without the Sun Studio
I might never have picked up a guitar,” Wendell has said.
IT’S
ALL RELATIVE: In the it-doesn’t-have-any-local-connection-other-than-the-tremendous-influence-on-other-artist’s
department (yes, we have one of those within the halls of
Metroland), tomorrow, Aug. 16, marks the anniversary
of Ramones first gig at CBGB’s, back in 1974.
Got
Rough Mix items? Contact Kate Sipher at 463-2500, ext. 145
or ksipher@metroland.net.
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Columns
& Opinions
