SUNDAY JANUARY 18, 8pm @ THE TOFF 252 SWANSTON ST MELBOURNE
MAXIMUM AROUSAL presents:
EUGENE CHADBOURNE (USA)
&
SCHNEIDER TM (Germany)
The task of describing the life and work of Eugene Chadbourne is more than daunting. His music is so unique, and his output over almost thirty years of music-making is so vast, as to defy description - to that must be added so many other skills and important contributions to music. He is truly a Renaissance man, a rebel among rebels.
He began playing guitar at an early age. Noticing that girls liked The Beatles, he thought perhaps learning to play the guitar could lead to getting a girlfriend. Having rejected the other two paths to this desirable outcome, beating people up and being good at sports, he began to teach himself how to play. What began with a simple boyish dream and a Herman's Hermits record turned into a musical odyssey that has connected the dots between the Appalachians and the edges of the known musical universe.
Eugene is a music lover who listens to the world with an open mind, which is reflected in his sets. A typical one could include the music of Thelonious Monk, Eric Satie, Merle Haggard, Phil Ochs along with his own. Some of the departure points may be familiar, but even if you have heard him play a song before, you won't hear it the same way again. Each performance and each listening is unique. It has to be. To paraphrase an old saying "you can't play the same note twice" and at the heart of improvisation is an awareness of music, the instrument, the place and all that has led up to that moment. The improvisational music scene can sometimes get a bit rarefied and oblique, but Eugene's guiding star is his ongoing love for country music. It is not a repertoire customarily heard in New York's The Knitting Factory or the avant-garde festivals of Europe, but Dr. Chad has made it so.
The list of artists he has collaborated with runs into pages. Henry Kaiser, John Zorn, Charlie Haden, Jimmy Carl Black, and the Violent Femmes are just a handful, appearing in clubs, galleries and festivals and in one case, a command performance with Tony Trischka for William S. Burroughs.
He has also written widely about music, inventing the touring diary when he described his travels with Shockabilly in 1984, and creating books including I Hate the Man Who Runs This Bar. He is one of the founders of the "low-fi" or "low tech" movement that came to see thousands of artists creating and releasing their own cassettes (and now CDs) on their own labels. He has also inspired many as a creator of instruments. His electric rake has motivated many artists to build new instruments and expand the sonic landscape. When you combine all of the above with his penchant for speaking out loud and clear about what exactly the hell seems to be going on, you have an unforgettable artist. This will be Dr.Chadbourne's first Melbourne performance since 1985!
Also appearing is Schneider TM from Germany. With his cover of the Smiths classic 'There is a Light That Never Goes Out' released as 'The Light 3000' Schneider TM aka Dirk Dresselhaus broke through from obscurity into the consciousness of the emerging underground electronica scene with this cheeky cover. Time Out described him as sounding like 'the Velvet Underground covering Blue Monday' and there are plenty of other interesting angles his vocoder heavy experimental electro-freak-pop music includes. Much of his work is psychedelic almost dreamy music and has been remixed by artists such as MOGWAI and THE CALCULATORS. Most recently Dirk has been working with Ilpo Vaisanen of PAN SONIC in the duo project ANGEL.
THIS WILL BE A RARE & SPECIAL NIGHT & IS NOT TO BE MISSED!!
Upcoming Arousals:
Feb 10: ACID MOTHERS GURU GURU (Japan/Germany)
Feb 15: DAMO SUZUKI (Japan) + THE KITS
Feb 22: MANI NEUMEIER (Germany)
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