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Frank Ccpenhaver), main man and sole consis
tent bandmember, is truly inspired by the nat
ural world. “Well, [when] I lived in Johnson
Shitty [sic], TN; there isn't really much to
do there besides go hiking/ says Hurricane.
"So, I went hiking every day for three years
; or something like that. The music that I play
is inspired by the mountains, the sound that
I hear in the mountains. And that was that
period, and now the music that I play is from
the mountains and also from the holy city."
The Mecca that Hurricane is referring to—
stop the magnifying glass—is Queens, NY.
Hurricane has been itinerant for much of his
life, so his brand of "New American Primitive"
finger-picking folk guitar seems an unlikely fit
for urban environs, but it is so.
"It's opened my eyes to so much more
beauty in life, of every sort. I think it makes
the music much more diverse and even more
spiritual.'
The songs of Hurricanes of Love are a
great deal like the conversational speech of
Hurricane himself, he of the gregarious and
endlessly positive character. They are pep
pered with praise for the spiritual qualities
of Ms surroundings and embody the .flow
ing, in-tire-moment mind's eye of the truly
psychedelic
Hurricane is embarking on a two-month
tour with Invisible Circle, the drone-heavy
sob project of oboist Dave Kadden. Invisible
Circle serves to offer musical tribute to the
early days of modem drone (most signifi
cantly minimalist godhead La Monte Young),
although Kadden's studies in the style are
true-blue; he began the project following an
observant voyage through Southeast Asia.
*Td just come back to New York from my
travels, and I was on my buddy's couch for
a few weeks," he says. "I started drinking
lots and lots of coffee in the morning when
I woke up, and playing music I had a little'
keyboard, a Casio SK-1, [and] I had this amp
that Td had since high school I started mess
ing around with it, and I found this one set
ting that got super-crazy rich tone using the
octave double with delay and certain distor
tion, and I was getting these crazy patterns.
So, I started turning up really loud to really
v. hear those patterns.'
nity for the tour. The two-man trip marks the
release of a split LP between the two acts. "It
was Dave's idea," says Hurricane. 'He knew
that I was gonna put out this record, and
he said, 1 want to do the same thing. Why
don't we get together anti pat out a record
together, and go on the most holy journey of 2
all time together?' And I said, 'Are you kidding
me? That sounds like the best idea I've ever
heard."
Hurricane, who was living in Marietta, 6A
at the time, was extended an invitation he
couldn't pass on. ‘[Kadden] said, 'You can
come and stay with me at my house for a
month and record this album, and see how you
like New York City and just chilL' And about
three days after I got here, I realized I never
want to leave this place ever again other than
to go on tour. This is the coolest place in the
world right here. I owe a lot to my holy bro
for introducing me to it."
While Kadden's music is loud—often stun
ningly so—and Hurricane's is living room-
intimate, the two find commonalities beyond
their friendship. "We both play folk music,"
insists Kadden. "In my mind, I feel like I play
folk music. My influences are for and wide, but
certainly Indian folk music and all of that is
drone music, and I just turn up a little louder
than Frank does. Also, the mountains. We're
both really heavily influenced by mountains."
Jeff Tobias
■. C'f
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