Endurance: The Richard Lloyd Interview

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May 162007
 


I reached soon-to-be former Television guitarist and solo artist Richard Lloyd at his hotel in Hamilton Ontario, Canada, as he and The Sufi Monkeys, were about to kick off a brief tour of Ontario and select US cities, winding their way to Philadelphia’s Khyber on Thursday, May 17 and ending up back home in New York City at the Knitting Factor on May 19.

Within minutes of his gradual emergence from what sounded like a Nosferatu-like awakening, it became clear why a mic has rarely been set before him by any hands other than his own. The guy wouldn’t shut up. Better to have all that energy and bullshit pent up for his guitar solos, I’m sure some of his collaborators have thought, but this guy’s on the verge of something big, and it’s time we let him have his say.

Today, Central Park SummerStage series is set to announce the appearance of Television on June 16. Lloyd has announced that this will be his last show with the band so that he can dedicate his energies to the fall release of a new album, The Radiant Monkey. Meanwhile, in February, Lloyd reissued his 1985 album Field of Fire in an expanded edition that includes a second CD on which he re-recorded and remixed much of the original release. I had hoped that this rare do-over would be part of an enlightening and nerdy discussion to suit the fantasies of our Townspeople, but instead I was treated to a torrent of intergalactic mumbo jumbo and would-be provacative macho cock-talk. KISS’ Gene Simmons pulling that crap on NPR’s Terry Gross is high-brow water-cooler talk. A cult guitarist pulling similar crap on a plain old dude whose intentions are good is one of life’s little regrets.

Everything I say is a joke…

[In a croaked whisper…]
Richard Lloyd: I’m a little under the weather as far as my voice is concerned. It’s sort of par for the course that I would develop a chest cold and a sore throat in front of 11 days straight of singing. It’s part of my karma. It’s kind of a cosmic joke that’s played on me. You know, my vocal teacher – one of them – used to tell me that I should quickly run into a recording studio and sing, because I would have a husky, sexy voice. Even though I would lose my top notes, I would gain a few bottom notes as I sing my ballads and love songs. [hacking cough]

Rock Town Hall: If you get to a point when you need to stop to save your voice, just say the word.

RL: That was about 5 minutes before you woke me up… I’m kidding. Everything I say is a joke… I’m vertical now. This is better. Fluids will move.

RTH: Can you tell me about your new album coming out in the fall, The Radiant Monkey?

RL: You’re not allowed to say that. You haven’t got permission. You can say the letters R-M. I’m serious, don’t print that. Just say R-M. You can say that I told you you’re not allowed to say it. That’s different than saying it. It has to do with my ad campaign, which is all teasers, to begin with. So if you blow it, it’s like the punchline.

RTH: I’m going to be tracked down.

RL: No, you’ll just interfere with my plans for conquering earth.

RTH: I also read that coming up in May will be your last appearance with Television.

RL: No, in June. What are you reading, for godsakes?

RTH: Your website. It said this would be announced on May 15th…

RL: June 16th! I know what’s on my website. It’s not May. It’s June.

RTH: Can there be a Television without you?
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Is There a Drummer in the House: Bo Diddley Beat Edition

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May 162007
 

Have you ever played with a drummer who, try as he may, just can’t get the Bo Diddley beat? Yes, I’m thinking about Bo as news came out today that he suffered a major stroke. The Bo Diddley beat without Bo is rarely the same, but a world without Bo altogether will one day be weird.

Getting back to the topic at hand, what’s the secret to the Bo Diddley beat? How do some do it so well…

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Hear Factor: It’s Blood, Sweat & Tears Your Mod So Fears

 Posted by
May 152007
 

When a Townsperson sent in Blood, Sweat & Tears’ 1968 album, Child Is Father to the Man, I knew which Hear Factor CD would be staying with me. It’s well known around here that I consider the band’s version of “And When I Die” the song I hate most in rock. “Spinning Wheel” isn’t far behind. “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” is another song I dread hearing. All that brassy bombast couched in Love Generation threads creeps me out. I like my share of velvet-jacketed ’60 bombast as well as my share of hippie music, but the Blood, Sweat & Tears I’d grown up hearing got the mix all wrong, and I hold them responsible for the similarly brassy, bombastic sound of the bands Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Before I gave this album even one spin, I tried to calculate whether it would be better or worse not having David Clayton-Thomas sing on this album. I knew this album was from their early period, when Al Kooper, was thought of as some kind of blues-jazz-rock visionary and still is in some circles that consider it worth talking to him about anything but his fortunate and vital role in Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”. Clayton-Thomas was the voice of these hits I grew up hating, but the specter of Kooper was no stroll in the park for me as well. As I’ve made clear, his work in merging big band sounds with pseudo-hippie rock crossed the line with me, a line that I grew up more than willing to toe with my cherished childhood collection of Joe Cocker records. Now that was some horn-driven hippie rock. Let it all hang out! No blackface routine and embarrassng oom-pa-pa’s from The Mad Dogs and the Englishmen. But I digress.

Child Is Father to the Man opens with an obligatory, for the times, “Overture”. To my surprise, it was a pleasant string-driven melody that was devoid of the brassy bombast I’d come to dread in the music of Blood, Sweat & Tears. I guess the overture has made a comeback in the last 10 years, with the spate of Elephant 6-related bands who feel the need to allow listeners a minute to settle in. Not bad at all.

With the first proper song, however, I got my first expected taste of BS&T. “Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know” opens with electric piano and white jazz-blues singing. In due time the song is punctuated by those big, brassy horn arrangements. Sweet Daddy-o, how I cringe at that sound! On Day 1 of my listening experience I wrote in my journal,

“Blood, Sweat & Tears must have helped a lot of high school band geeks feel like they were part of the revolution. And this must be the kind of music Paul Weller revisited to give him the strength he needed to start recording all those songs from his solo album that I skip,”

By Day 2 this song inspired the image of a greasy, pock-marked guy with a thin goatee dry humping a black Lycra-clad, halter top-wearing barfly on the small dance floor of a neighborhood bar. Thankfully things would pick up.
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The RTH Labs Need Your Help!

 Posted by
May 142007
 

Pursuant to recent discussions pertaining to the “good”-ness of amplifier modeling technology, technicians in the Rock Town Hall Labs have undertaken a side-by-side comparison, in order to illustrate the innate differences between “real” and modelled amplifiers.

Following is an .mp3 file with four separate “takes” of the same simple riff — in this case, taken from the chorus of Deep Purple’s “Into the Fire”, off of In Rock. The drums and bass are the same in all four takes; only the guitar tracks are different. The first two takes feature (though not necessarily in this order):

  • A Line 6 “Pod” set on “Brit High Gain” — a euphemism for a modern Marshall JCM 2000, set on “Ultra Gain,” or such like, and
  • An actual Marshall JCM 2000, set on “Ultra Gain.”

The second two takes feature (again, not necessarily in this order):

  • A Line 6 “Pod” set on “Brit Classic” — a euphemism for a classic, late ’60s Marshall Plexi or such like
  • A Marshall JCM 2000, set on “Classic Gain” — i.e., modern-day Marshall’s attempt to provide as close to a vintage Plexi tone as possible.

Both “real” amp takes were played through a Marshall JCM 900 Lead 1960B cabinet (4×12), miked close with a Shure SM57.

Here’s what the RTH Labs need from you:

This is *not* an effort to see whether RTHers can tell the difference between “real” and “fake” amps — though if you want to hazard a guess as to which is which, you can do so for extra geek credit. Rather, this is an effort to determine which of each pair of takes is preferable, which in turn may lead us to make conclusions about the overall acceptability of modelling technology.

Note also that this is not an effort to determine which of the four takes you like best, though you’re welcome to share that tidbit as well, if you like. Again: Choose your preference between the first two “high gain” takes, then the “classic gain” takes.

Thank you for your assistance in this effort.

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