The Field Guide to Staying Inside: Accordions and Banjos (mp3s)

Congratulations on purchasing The Field Guide to Staying Inside, a vast compendium of cultural counter-currents, an audio apothecary of sorts designed to assist and amuse the enlightened agoraphobic. In the following weeks and decades, we will provide entries of fine-art frivolity tailored to make it seem exactly as if you know what's going on in the entire world.

To start things off, those much maligned bastard siblings, the banjo and the accordion. After the jump, Julz A, Eugene Chadbourne, Angle Corpus Christi, Satoko Fujii, Paul Metzger, Andrea Parkins and the definition of perfect pitch.

Eugene Chadbourne is to the banjo what Rufus Harley was to the bagpipes (we'll get to him in a future post). After bringing country music into Downtown NYC improv, he learned himself up some banjo (he's even recorded Albert Ayler songs on it!).  Here's his version of the bluegrass standard "Flint Hill Special" with Thomas Lehn on analog synthesizer, taken from the record Della 5-Banger on his CDR label House of Chadula.

Eugene Chadbourne - Flint Hill Special (MP3)

Accordioinist Andrea Parkins recorded two of Chadbourne's Insect & Western pieces as a part of Ellery Eskelin's excellent trio (you can watch them playing them here. She seems to like the trio. She also plays in a group with Nels Cline and Tom Rainey, and back in the glory days of the Knitting Factory led a band with Briggan Krauss and Tom Rainey. Here's "Schist" from their 1996 record Cast Iron Fact.

Andrea Parkins - Schist (MP3)

St. Paul, MN, resident Paul Metzger's banjo is outfitted with 21 strings and a sitar. He played in Brooklyn recently on a bill with WFMU's resident banjo whiz Uncle Woody Sullender. Here he is back in 2005, playing on Bethany's show.

Paul Metzger on The Stochastic Hit Parade (realaudio stream)

Satoko Fujii is best known as a jazz pianist and arranger extraordinaire, but when she's playing in her husband Natsuki Tamura's bands, she gets put on accordion and synthesizer, instruments she owns up to not knowing how to play, but knowledge is just one way of playing an instrument.

Tamura's group Gato Libre put out their second record (Nomad, No Man's Land) a few months ago. They're a sorta flamenco-tinged acoustic quartet who are just lovely to listen to.

Gato Libre - In December, In Gent (MP3)

Fujii also put out a great record this year (Fujin Raijin, on Les Disques Victo) with Tamura, Curtis Hasselbring and ... Andrea Parkins. Small Akkordeon-Welt.

Brandon Seabrook is one of my favorite musicians to see around town lately. I like the way he holds his arm. I saw him a few weeks ago in a great, noisy trio with Wayne Horvitz and Briggan Krauss (kleine Saxofon-Welt). He's also playing tonight (Nov. 20) at a place called "Banjo Jim's" in the East Village (kleine Banjo-Welt) (OK, I'll stop) in the East Village. Sort of a prog metal hoedown.

Penultimately, two classic cover versions on the vertical ivories. Angel Corpus Christi did a great record of Lou Reed covers called Louie, Louie last year. And Julz A squeezes out some Led Zep for you, man.

Angel Corpus Christi - Caroline Says II (MP3)

Julz A - Out on the Tiles (MP3)

And lastly, Billy Jam and Scott Williams hate the police.

Billy Jam and Scott - Hate the Police (MP3)

Oh, and, the definition of perfect pitch? Throwing an accordion in the dumpster and hitting a banjo. The old ones are the good ones.
 

Comments

[K]

Much as I enjoyed those Chadbourne albums ( sure were a lot of 'em), I found the best use was for when a party was ending and you had to drive out guests both wanted and not from the room. A side of LSDC&W was usually enough to get even the most hardcore mooch out of yer bong & bean dip.

Banjo? I'd say his weapon of choice was the electric rake/plunger. Glory, what a racket.

[Aaron]

The Camper Van Chadbourne albums were really someting else.

[K]

Heh, I remember roping a bunch of my college friends into a visit to the old Knit to see Camper Van Chad. I can remember a very peeved looking Camper sitting at the bar, turnout was weak at best. I tried to chat them up a bit but the mood was so sour we split. The latter Monks of Doom lineup was incredible; one of those bands that really never did a good studio album save the first but were jaw droppingly good live. Did you know that Greg Lisher is a clerk at a video store now? Yeah, pretty sad. They were all first rate musicians, especially Johnathan Seagell.

[Kip W]

Don't forget the classics! Mr. Vess Ossman could pick with the best of them. There's a recording of him doing "Stars and Stripes Forever" on the archive too, but it's denying that they have anything that begind with "S" just now (and "R" too), so I'll give it up for the time being.

[Urania]

This is why Dr. Chadbourne is kewl: He once said to me, "hey, can you please get your foot off the speaker cable?" and I did. And then he started to play.

[Woody]

If we're going with classics throw Fred Van Eps, Harry Reser, and Papa Charlie Jackson in there.

Fans of more contemporary banjo may also be interested in Paul Elwood (played Chadfest at the Stone recently) who I had on my show back in August.

[Urania]

http://www.banjohangout.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=99861

banjos and accordions, yo.