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The Olivia Tremor Control Was Briefly Resurrected At Two Shows In England;
Multi-Instrumentalist John Fernandes Offers His Take On The Festival Experience
dancing foal to his wicked persona. The guy is still sporting a pom
padour, and skronky as ever on saxophone. The Zombies throw rrie
for a loop, really just Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone from the orig
inal band. I mostly end up hearing some really slick songs from their
later solo careers, then take off.
Yoko Ono has small flashlights handed out right before she plays,
with a card printed with a concept piece pertaining to sending love
into the universe. The crowd is supposed to blink, "1 love you" in
Morse code during the final song. It's a little sad because I think
most of the crowd pocketed the flashlights and I see the cards lying '
all over the ground. Yoko is still seriously wailing even though she's
72 years old!
I end up staying out late while deejays are happening down
stairs. I get back to the chalets and who comes walking up but Pete
with some Welsh friends and Kevin Shields from My Bloody
Valentine. What a perfect way to end the weekend, staying up till
dawn talking music. Kevin says that last time he was in Athens was
when My Bloody Valentine played the 40 Watt with Dinosaur Jr. I
say to him, "If Dinosaur is back rocking together, why doesn't My
Bloody Valentine hit the road?" He laughs and says that they were a
year behind back then, so their comeback might
be a year behind as welL When they do return, he
talks about wanting to line the walls of clubs with
amps, with a delay running in between each one
of them, so that as you get further back the
sound is more delayed, a wave of sound.
He jokes about how his ex-girlfriend is always
making fun of him for the fact that he's always
talking about the late '80s, and we laugh because
we are always saying "remember the late '90s'
when things come up that remind us of the era of
Olivia Tremor Control. We talk about mastering,
because I tell him that my friend Derek has
remastered Loveless for our own enjoyment, and
he says that he hadn't even heard the vinyl
reissue because Warner Bros, licensed it without
telling him, and that he's never even seen any
money from Loveless sales in the States. He is
working on a collection of b-sides and rarities
that should be out soon.
I ask him about working on the soundtrack to
Lost in Translation and he says it was weird
because other than a few of the actors and
actresses, most of the crew producing it was
pretty lame. He was really happy with the mas
tering of the stuff he contributed, and the way it
was mixed with the sounds of the movie. He seems fascinated by
the way they could pocket a snare hit right under the dialog when
the voice comes in etc Eric's alarm goes off because we are flying
out early, and Scott starts yelling, “Bar's closed!" and telling every
body to leave. Kevin just smiles and chuckles about how familiar it
all seems. The flight home is a real daze, that's for sure.
John Fernandes
Friday, April 22
the march had brought him back to the days when he played with
the Sun Ra Arkestra! Turns out he lived in the Arkestra's group home
in Philadelphia, and played with them fcr a number of years. Bruce
is a really cool guy, and we have some pretty special times hanging
out with him this weekend. I only catch a little of PJ. Harvey, and
I wake up and walk around the compound to figure out the
layout. The All Tomorrow's Parties festival (34 bands and approxi
mately 3,000 people) takes over this holiday park on the off season
and the stages are in a Family Fun Center with big plastic smiling
crocodiles, an arcade, cafeteria, pub and bars at both the upstairs
and downstairs stages.
I'm glad we are going to play upstairs, because the stage down
stairs is along the long wall of a slightly narrow room, usually
causing a little of a bottleneck to get to the bar on the far end of
the room, and it seems like the lights from the stage are shining
right in the audience's eyes when they are trying to watch the
shows. The upstairs room is huge, must have been where they had
ballroom dances or something back in the day. They have rear
speakers feeing the back part of the room, supposed to give a
cranking mix to those sitting on the risers back there, if the risers
weren't full, and most people were sitting down, it would turn into
a big slap-back chamber. It would make a standard
rock band sound interesting if you walked around
back there, but I want to get them to face those
speakers inward for when we played so that we
could do quad sound like we did at the 40 Watt
I start wandering through the chalets to find my
way to the beach; I should have brought a map
because I keep hitting fence. I finally ask a guard,
find the exit for the compound, and it's only a short
jaunt to the beach from there. And what a beautiful
beach, but a little too chilly to swim.
We came with a full lineup—Will Hart Bill Doss,
Pete Erchick, Eric Harris, me, Scott Spillane. Julian
Koster, Hannah Jones. I find my way back to the
compound and spot Will and Scott talking to (actor,
musician and festival curator] Vincent Gallo in the
lobby of the main center. He's in the middle of
thanking the band for playing the festival. He says
that he's followed The Olivia Tremor Control for a
long time, and had seen us play at Spaceland in Los
Angeles years ago. He also comments that there
were five bands that he really wanted to play, and
we were the only one of those five who confirmed,
and that he was actually quite surprised that we
said yes. Magazine was one of the other bands that
he wanted, but some of the members had started
fighting and they ended up not being able to do it
I head upstairs just in time for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion;
they haven't changed a bit from when I saw them in New Orleans at
the Howlin' Wolf more than 12 years ago.
Merzbow is intense, but Will thinks it could have been even
louder. My friend Omar had given us big expectations because he
said that when he saw Merzbow in New York, it was massively loud
two blocks away, and that when he got into the dub he blacked-out
and woke up under a table. I remain upright at this performance,
but am impressed by the tidal wave of sound.
AfnRampo is a crazy energetic Japanese duo, and I know a few
people who thought they were one of the best things at the fes
tival
I only catch a little of Peaches, but end up staying up really late
exerdsing to 6elle & Sebastian’s deejays, who are mixing it up at
the downstairs stage.
Saturday, April 23
Vitamin B-12 on the downstairs stage is a lot of fun. This gang
pretty much transported their living room from Brighton to the
stage—very improvisational 10 to 13 people sitting on the ground
playing balloons, bells, etc. Brings back fond memories of Dixie
Blood Mustache or the Claybears. I miss many of the other things
today because we are preparing to play.
A highlight for the whole trip for me is when Julian asks Ted
Curson and his band to march with us on "Grass Cannons"—and
they say yes! I mean, this man played trumpet on the dassic Charles
Mingus Presents Charles Mingus with Eric Dolphy and Dannie
Richmond, as well as killer sessions by Cedi Taylor and tons of great
records under his own name. He is a legend to me, and there he is
soloing out over the top while we hold the chords and snake our
way through the crowd towards the stage just like we did at the 40
Watt. The show feels great!
Afterwards, we're talking to Biuce Cox, the drummer with
Curson's band, and he says that he really enjoyed the show, and that
take off after her stage manager accuses me of stealing when I pick
up a water bottle from the dressing room backstage. Suicide is
good—from what I gather this duo laid the framework down for the
bass-heavy, synthy-electro-style that is still quite popular today.
Sunday, April 24
I have juke and coffee in the morning after staring at the sky all
night Make it to the compound just in time for Ted Curson's
smoking set In addition to his fine trumpet playing, he starts
singing on lovely versions of "Hound Midnight" and 'Georgia on My
Mind." I later catch a song by Jayne County, an over-the-top trans
vestite rock and roll band from New York. They are wrapping up a
version of "California Ober AUes."
Next on the main stage is a Vienna-based trio named Trapist I
thoroughly enjoy this performance. The band has an upright bass
and a guy with a table full of stuff that he is using U> modulate his
guitar and lap steel, as well as tweaking out lines that he had run
from the drummers kit Texture masters. Good to watch up close so
as to appreciate the subtleties of their techniques.
James Chance & the Contortions are a blast his brother as the
Another Take On The Shows
: Antlti
isneo ovei
MAY 18, 2005 • FLAGP0LE.COM 25