David Crosby...Friend or foe?
It's hard to generate enough energy to care one way or the other. I'm not down on him. I never really liked the Byrds much, other than Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which is post-Crosby. His solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, has some good jams on it, but the vocals are way too hippy. It's OK for mellow backround music. Then again, he helped create a market for the easy-listening, singer songwriter crap of the 70's. I'm ambivalent.
Didn't he write "Wooden Ships"?
I'd forgotten about that. He co-wrote it with Stephen Stills, and Paul Kantner from Jefferson Airplane. I think they may have the better version.
So I'm guessing the song had no inspiration for the band name?
It's more of a tangential source of inspiration. In the sense that the song is, as I identify with it, an anthem of the sixties, and the San Francisco scene in particular. This may just be me. I probably heard it in some documentary when I was young or something. The name came from a conversation with a friend, riffing on good names for a jam band. Not a "hippy" jam band, mind you. But one that tries to play, or improvise, in the moment, and tap into the vibrations of the moment. Which is what I suspect a lot of bands, and other artists, were doing in the late sixties. Maybe these vibrations were more palpable at the time, or maybe people were just paying more attention. The name pays some tribute to the sixties, to the creative energy manifested during that time.
While I'm at it, the "j" ended up in there as a half-considered tribute to the Swedes. I waslistening to a lot of Trad Gras och Stenar at the time, and also I'm part Swedish. I don't speak it, but the Swedish language has words with "j"s inserted in strange places, which creates really interesting pronunciations. Ours is silent however. It also serves as pretty good name insurance. I know a couple of bands that have had to change their names after years in existence, because of another band with the same name. It sucks.
Do you guys even really care about Spacemen 3? Are all the rock critics taking the easy way out when they drop the name instantly when review your records?
I guess I can see how people would draw that connection. And I think it's helpful for a reader to have a touchstone. But I'm not that familiar with their music, and I don't think any of the other guys have ever heard them. So, no, not really an influence. But they covered the 13th Floor Elevators, right? That's always a good sign.
Hawkwind?
I like the stuff that sounds like tripped-out Motorhead best. I'd like a compilation of all those types of songs. I get bored
with a lot of the more theatrical stuff, with the sci-fi sound effects and such. I love Motorhead.
What type of uses do you find for make-up?
Never use it. I don't rule it out, however.
What do you like on pizza?
Jalapeños
Is Rice-a-Roni really the San Francisco treat?
No. That would be burritos.
What does lunchtime consist of in the
Wooden Shjips world?
In San Francisco, it's all about theburrito. That said,
I usually eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
So where's yr favorite place to get burritos?
Taqueria Cancun on Mission St for traditional style.
Papalotefor the modern variations. El Farolito for late
night.
(The day after replying to these questions I happened
uponthis passage from Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill:
"After dark, Ed drove me home in his rattling car with
its mad turn signal and tape deck full of surly love. His
tape sang abouta bridge of sighs like a drunk giant
pushing a boulder up a mountain. A weird thunder of
bells rumbled in the valley. Clouds flew by. I sank back
in the dark."
Serendipity! Great book, btw.)
I'm not familiar with it all. I've been catching up ona bunch
of stuff I somehow didn't read or want to re-read. Like
Voltaire's "Candide" and some Henry Miller stuff. So do ya
read a lot? What's your 2 favorite writers?
That sounds like my reading MO: constantly catching
up. Picking 2 favorites is too difficult. I can say that a
new favorite, in addition to Gaitskill, is John Hawkes. I've read The Beetle Leg and the Lime Twig, and just started The Cannibal. I don't know how to explain his writing. It's like a dream in that it doesn't follow a conventional path. A very dark dream. Especially
the Lime Twig, which is a surreal Western. I couldn't tell what was going on even I read it. The sentences seemed to make
sense, but as I would finish a few pages I would be totally lost. I still have no idea what it's about. Like the reverse of a
pointilist painting, the further you pull back, the less sense it makes. But it conveys a strong sense of place and
mood. Strange stuff. I really like it.
BONGS! Anyone in the band own one? Does it have a name?
I'll have to get back to you in this. I'm sure our organist Tim does. He's the resident stoner.
What?!?! So all you guys aren't all weedheads? Ya sure have that vibe...
All good music sounds better when you're stoned, right? I think the vibe maybe comes from being open to
different approaches, musically, which is something that weed probably encourages. It can enhance your
creativity, to a point. But I think you can tap into that without drugs also. But I'm not anti-weed. Some of my best
friends are stoners.
Lately I've been finding that I really like putting on yr 'Shrinking Moon' record then putting some Waylon Jennings on after it.
I love me some Waylon. Live is my favorite. The CD version has a bajillion extra tracks.
Waylon is pretty damn sweet. What is that ya dig about him?
Well, there's the songs, the voice, the whole attitude. But mostly, for me, I think it's the sound. I'm no country expert, but he seems to be the first to bring the big rock sound, especially in his rhythm section, to the county idiom. And in doing so really created that irresistible "rockin' Outlaw" image. But maybe that was the genius, creating the marketable image. Because of course there were predecessors in that vein musically, like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, the whole Bakersfield sound. So maybe California deserves the credit in the end.
You're originally fron the Northeast, right? What do the words Crystalized Movements mean to you?
I have this one Vermonster record that I absolutely love (Spirit of Yma), but I haven't come across any of the Crystalized Movements stuff. It's certainly on my list (and I do have a list). I try to resist hunting records down on the internet cuz it gets expensive, fast. But I poke around at the Amoeba records here at at least once a week. Do you have any recommendations on their albums?
I figured you'd be familiar with them actually. They're from the same region you originally hail from (they were from CT). My fave is 'Dog. Tree. Satellite Seers...' (their 2nd album). I hear a similar thing between them and you guys at moments. Do you think it might be something to do with product of the climate? Do you think that weather climates effect peoples mind patterns.
I don't think the climate of my childhood necessarily had any long-term direct affect on my mind. If it did, that affect would be dwarfed by the affect of the society in which I had to live for those years. Interesting though, because I think climate does have an affect on a society, in a broader sense. I certainly noticed a stark difference between the apparent attitudes of the people of New England and those of Santa Cruz when I first landed there. It's hard not to draw a connection between attitude and climate when the differences in both are so palpable, and both track closely from extreme to temperate.
What's your favorite rock-n-roll song from the 50's?
There are so many. I have a healthy stock of "Oldies" LP comps that I cherish. But I will single out "Peppermint Twist"
by Joey Dee and the Starliters, which one of my old bands, Botulism, covered on a self-released tape. I generally love
"dance craze" songs. Usually the more obscure and ridiculous, the better. After all, would we have had the Velvet
Underground without "The Ostrich"?
What's your favorite myth?
I'll go with Sisyphus. The absurd hero, at least according to Camus. I think we can all relate to the futile
toiling. Also it inspired Rick Wright's suite on Ummagumma. Though I don't think I've heard that album since
high school, and I don't remember if I liked that side. I believe it's one of Dusty's favorite records (Dusty is our
bass player). I'll have to keep an eye out for a cheap copy.
Witches....Good ones, bad ones. What traits do you look for in them?
Well, I hear there's a new one in town. And she has long black hair and a big black car. But she'll bring you down and make you itch,
cuz she's an evil chick. So, yeah, that's no good. At least that's how the song goes, right? Watch out.
