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world has its Yngwie Malmsteens, and
it has its Marc Tissenbaums. Unlike
Malmsteen, Tissenbaum, guitarist for local trio
Wide Receivers, often refers to his guitar playing
as "retarded."
I dont think about theory," he explains.
"But there's certain things I've figured out about
the guitar in relation to itself. I really don't
know what I'm doing. But I hear these eccentric
old blues guys who can't be mistaken for anyone
else and I know they didn't know what they were
doing either."
To play with a musician with such a vision —
or non-vision, depending on how you look at it
— it probably helps to go way back with him,
and Tissenbaum and drummer Aaron Philips go
way back.
"When I met Aaron, not only did I realize he
was a phenomenal drummer," Tissenbaum says.
"But I knew he was open minded enough to deal
with whatever I came up with." Such is the
nature of a musical partnership that has its roots
in Huntington, W.V. In the mid-1980s Tissenbaum
was already working on annoyingly catchy
tantrums as part of the duo The Kleanagers with
cohort Shan Clarke. (The Wide Receivers classic
Sex Hole" dates from this period.) Philips was a
talented local drummer with an interest in latter-
day Captain Beefheart, the Gizmos and MX-80
Sound among other under appreciated, not-
afraid-to-be-downright-wrong. musical fugitives.
After Marc answered Shan's call to come down
to Georgia z;id Aaron answered Marc's, the one-
shot Tisserbaum/Philips duo Call It Joe became
a blueprint for the type of music the Wide
Receivers play now: tight, short, spasmodic,
aggravating, angular, catchy and hilarious. They
were a child's hospital recovery room nightmare,
the type of outfit mistakenly hired as entertain
ment in place of clowns who fashioned poodles
out of balloons.
Yet, it would be years, with the exception of
the side project Little Debbie, before these two
would bump musical foreheads again. Aaron and
Barry Sell formed one of Athens' greatest bands,
Skin Pops, while Mate was diverted by the usual
scenario — travel, marriage, divorce, graduate
school, sainthood, Drano addiction. Aaron began
a stint as Redneck GReece Deluxe and Jack Logan
drummer while Marc sought camaraderie with
guitarist Rich Gilbert (The Zulus). "We got into
the electricity, the sound of instruments and I
could deal with that," Marc says. On his return to
Athens, Marc played in Buzz Hungry's initial
stages with David Barbe and, at one point or
another, formed Eraser-in-Law with Chris Ccgan
(Melted Men, Medaglia D'Oro) and Bo Thompkins
(Medaglia D'Oro).
Wide Receivers wasn't planned. Marc had seen
Gorgette "G-Force" Kidby "holding and occasion
ally playing the bass" with the plaster-of-Paris
punk rock abomination The Fry Cooks. Later, he
found out she'd traded a reliable Japanese auto
mobile for a 1966 El Camino and decided to fix it
up without having a clue about cars. He knew he
had to play with her. She's since sold the car, but
"All That Music Getting in the Way", the two-
year-old seven-inch debut outburst from the trio,
caused them to continue as a band.
"Aaron had already written the tunes on the
drums and gave me the recording of that," says
Marc. "Gorgette and I added our thing on to it
and then Aaron added his vocals. He and
Gorgette hadn't even played together in person
yet. It was the playback of a drummerless one-
minute piece called "Scatter and Go" that caused
them to think about continuing. Formed around
a soupy, sloth-paced bass line and featuring a
guitar lick that feels like an unwanted insect
making its way up your back, it's the strangest
track on a small collection of already unconven
tional music.
"There's chemistry here." Marc claims. "I
really like playing with Gorgette. She comes up
with the simplest stuff, but it works with what I
do." Kidby's bass riffs are modest — almost
naive — but they are essential to the rhythmic
makeup of tunes like "Gow" (from the band's
upcoming CD debut), darting in and out or
showing up as a suggestion on tracks like
"Woundcare." They are a perfect fit for what has
become an increasingly uncluttered ensemble.
"I like the way we kind of have set practices,"
Gorgette says. "I don't like getting too far away
from the songs."
"Yet," Marc adds, "Gorgette and I are never
going to be the type of players that sit around
and practice our instruments for hours. We'll
never have to worry about becoming too slick."
"With Little Debbie, I found I actually over
sang and decided it wasn't that good," Aaron
says, explaining his tendency to burst into high-
pitched yelps. His monkey call in "Gnip Gnop"
rolls out of his mouth as he orchestrates from his
drum kit, an instrument he plays as if it were a
natural extension of his gut.
"It never gets boring. I think hearing a
couple guys on stage banging their instruments
and screaming is the right-est thing," Marc says.
"People either come up to me and say, 'I hate
your band' or You guys were really good.' We
must be doing something right."
Bruce Miller
WHO: Wide Receivers,
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