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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9875 Posts |
 Posted - 19/02/2016 : 20:42:43
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Performed with reverence and respect to an amazing masterpiece and to the Zen Master himself. Of course the is NO OTHER like Gene but what a tribute...Iain Matthews who has always been a firebrand for Gene's music is part of the Gene Clark No Other Band!
Wow! They did an amazing job of recreating what should have been performed over and over, live, by Gene if he had been promoted by his label as he deserved!
The Gene Clark No Other Band at Music Hall of Williamsburg
Watch and revel...!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaF3znVBWe8
The Gene Clark No Other Band performs at Music Hall of Williamsburg as part of the Gene Clark No Other tour. Organized by Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand of Beach House, the performance features Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold, Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen, the Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser, Iain Matthews of Plainsong/Fairport Convention, and numerous others.
Tracklist:
1. "Life's Greatest Fool" (01:21)
2. "Silver Raven" (06:33)
3. "No Other" (12:27)
4. "Strength of Strings" (18:00)
5. "From a Silver Phial" (25:18)
6. "Some Misunderstanding" (29:51)
7. "The True One" (38:25)
9. "Lady of the North" (43:02)
The Singers:
Hamilton Leithauser
Iain Matthews
Robin Pecknold
Daniel Rossen
Vocal Chorus:
Cricket Arrison
Tony Drummond (and percussion)
Victoria Legrand
Jenn Wasner
The Band:
Sean Antanaitis - Organ/synths/guitar
Geoff Graham - Acoustic Guitar
Mike Lowry - Drums
Dominic Matar - Piano/ keyboards
Alex Scally - Bass
Steve Strohmeier - Lead guitar
Walker Teret - Acoustic Lead/ electric guitar
January 26th, 2014.
An Ex-ByrdÕs Album Is Given New Flight
CriticÕs Notebook
By JON PARELES JAN. 23, 2014 - NY Times © 2014
Some albums find an unexpected afterlife. They may have been ignored or reviled upon release; they may have been out of sync with the trend of the moment; they may have had bad business luck. Then, years or decades later, word of mouth and word of Internet start to bubble up from musicians, collectors, longtime fans and new acquaintances. It doesnÕt hurt if the songs are oblique and tormented, if the album and musician have troubled back stories or if newer music has vindicated sounds that went unappreciated at the time.
The reputation of Gene ClarkÕs 1974 album ÒNo OtherÓ Ñ which was initially spurned by its record company and dismissed by critics as overproduced Ñ has been steadily ascending, particularly since an expanded European reissue on CD in 2003. On Saturday and Sunday, ÒNo OtherÓ is to be performed live at Music Hall of Williamsburg, in as close a replica of the original arrangements as 14 musicians and singers can create onstage. ItÕs the New York City finale of the ÒNo OtherÓ mini-tour organized by Alex Scally of Beach House.
ÒWe want it to be a time capsule Ñ just the way it sounded and felt,Ó Mr. Scally said by telephone from Baltimore.
The lineup is an indie-rock supergroup, briefly setting their own music aside. It also includes Beach HouseÕs other member, Victoria Legrand; lead singers from Fleet Foxes, the Walkmen, Grizzly Bear, Wye Oak; and, from the 1960s lineup of the British folk-rock institution Fairport Convention, Iain Matthews, a longtime champion of Mr. ClarkÕs songs. An edited version of the 2013 documentary about Clark, ÒThe Byrd Who Flew AloneÓ Ñ another sign of the Gene Clark renaissance Ñ will precede the performance.
Clark died at 46 Ñ of natural causes, brought on by a bleeding ulcer, according to the coroner Ñ after a career of inspired, pensive songwriting and hard living. His tombstone, in his hometown, Tipton, Mo., reads, ÒHarold Eugene Clark, Nov. 17 1944-May 24 1991, No Other.Ó He considered the album his masterpiece, and its commercial oblivion wounded him for the rest of his life.
He had found stardom early. Clark moved to Los Angeles to join the New Christy Minstrels, a mainstay of the early-1960s ÒHootenannyÓ era. But after hearing and absorbing the Beatles, he started the Byrds with Jim (later Roger) McGuinn and David Crosby and was the main songwriter for the bandÕs first two albums, as well as a frequent lead singer. Clark was also the main songwriter of the ByrdsÕ ÒEight Miles High.Ó
Clark has never lacked admirers among musicians. Bob Dylan singled him out with early praise: ÒHeÕs got something to say, and IÕm listening,Ó Mr. Dylan said in 1965. ClarkÕs voice always held a sense of sorrow, and his songs had a philosophical undercurrent, musing on time, faith and solitude.
ÒThey say thereÕs a price you pay for going out too far,Ó he sang in ÒThe True OneÓ on ÒNo Other.Ó ÒYou can buy a one-way ticket out there all alone/And you can sit and wonder why itÕs so hard to get back home.Ó
ClarkÕs heart was in songwriting; he wasnÕt cut out to be an entertainer. In 1966, he was ousted from the Byrds after he was too fearful to board a flight to New York City for a radio promotion. In the documentary, Mr. McGuinn recalls telling Clark, ÒYou canÕt be a Byrd if you canÕt fly.Ó Throughout his solo career, Clark often completed albums only to step away from the touring and glad-handing that went with a rock career; he also struggled with alcohol and heroin. Music, not fame, was his element.
While ClarkÕs songs were filled with lonely quests, he was an inveterate collaborator. After leaving the Byrds he turned toward bluegrass and country, making albums with the Gosdin Brothers and with the bluegrass banjo player Doug Dillard. Later he would regroup, on and off, with members of the Byrds. He made ÒNo Other,Ó his fourth solo album, after rejoining the original Byrds lineup for the 1973 album, Byrds,Ó on which the songs he wrote were the clear standouts.
A British Invasion beat carried ClarkÕs early songs with the Byrds, like ÒIÕll Feel a Whole Lot BetterÓ Ñ which, in a typical Clark touch, brings uncertainty to its chorus, ÒIÕll probably feel a whole lot better when youÕre gone.Ó
But rock often gave way, during his solo career, to something closer to the country music he had grown up on, transformed by his lyrics. His songs have been recognized as a foundation for what would later be called alt-country or Americana. Clark wrote story songs as stark as traditional ballads, and deeply haunted mood songs like the two chosen by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Ñ ÒPolly Come HomeÓ and ÒThrough the Morning, Through the NightÓ Ñ for their 2007 album ÒRaising Sand.Ó
Yet ÒNo OtherÓ is no oneÕs idea of down-home roots-rock. Mr. Clark and its producer, Thomas Jefferson Kaye, gave it a far more lavish palette, and even the songs that start out countryish end up in realms of their own. There are gospelly female choruses, horns, synthesizers, Latin percussion, wah-wah violin and, in ÒNo Other,Ó a bruising fuzz-toned bass line played by a phalanx of overdubbed basses. The head of Elektra/Asylum Records, David Geffen, was furious that a $100,000 studio budget had yielded only eight finished songs, and the label barely promoted the album.
Four decades after ÒNo OtherÓ was released, in our era of potentially infinite overdubs and libraries of distortion effects, the albumÕs dense production pileups Ñ what Mr. Scally from Beach House calls Òstudio-nessÓ Ñ register less as overkill than as a psychological ambience.
ÒThat studio-ness really pushed Gene Clark,Ó Mr. Scally said. ÒIt sounds like heÕs fighting to survive, to burst through that wall of sound. His vocals are intense.Ó
Mr. Scally, 31, first heard ÒNo OtherÓ in 2004, when he began collaborating with Ms. Legrand; her father gave her the L.P. ÒI thought it was one of those classic rock records like ÔAfter the Gold Rush,Õ one of those well-known canonized great records,Ó Mr. Scally said. ÒBut I found out over the years that itÕs just a record no one knew.Ó
Beach House has been listening to it ÒconstantlyÓ since then, discovering its Òonionlike quality,Ó Mr. Scally said, adding: ÒThe first thing you hear is the production, the general feel. Ten listens in, you start fixating on the lyrics. And some of the lyrics on the record just destroy you, theyÕre so strange and wonderful.Ó
Clark, in a 1984 interview, described the album as Òspiritual,Ó adding, ÒIt was during a time when I felt like I was doing a lot of soul-searching.Ó
Hindsight has burnished ÒNo Other,Ó as it has redeemed other albums that went on to be reconstructed as rock repertory, like Big StarÕs ÒThird/Sister LoversÓ and Lou ReedÕs ÒBerlin.Ó
ÒItÕs hard to understand how this record must have sounded then as opposed to how it sounds now and what it means,Ó Mr. Scally said. ÒThereÕs something really touching about it.Ó
Correction: January 25, 2014
A criticÕs notebook article on Friday about a live re-creation of the 1974 album ÒNo OtherÓ by Gene Clark, a former member of the Byrds who died in 1991, included a reference to Òa notorious Hollywood incidentÓ in which Mr. Clark and David Geffen, who was the head of Elektra/Asylum Records Ònearly came to blows at a restaurant.Ó (The album was issued on the Asylum label.) Although a biography of Mr. Clark and a documentary about him recount such an incident, Mr. Geffen says that in fact it never happened.
Beach House and Friends are to perform Gene ClarkÕs ÒNo OtherÓ Saturday and Sunday (2014) at Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth Street, Brooklyn; 212-260-4700, musichallofwilliamsburg.com; sold out.
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The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation.
I can't contrive a song. Ð GENE CLARK |
Edited by - lemonade kid on 19/02/2016 21:12:10 |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9875 Posts |
Posted - 19/02/2016 : 20:45:59
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Beach House recruits a big band to recreate
Gene ClarkÕs ÔNo OtherÕ
By Rudi Greenberg January 23, 2014 / Washington Post 2014
Beach House guitarist Alex Scally canÕt recall the first time he heard Gene ClarkÕs 1974 album ÒNo Other.Ó
ÒI just remember listening to it a lot of times,Ó Scally says.
He knows the initial spin was in 2004 or 2005, and that he was with bandmate Victoria Legrand, listening to a vinyl copy she inherited from her father. The two played the record so much, itÕs all become a blur.
ÒI remember having that feeling: Why isnÕt this one of the records that people talk about,Ó he says. But ÒI didnÕt really think too much about it. I was just so happy to hear it.Ó
Nearly a decade later, the Baltimore-based duoÕs adoration for the album has blossomed into The Gene Clark ÒNo OtherÓ Tour, a five-date, note-for-note recreation of the record that stops at 9:30 Club on Friday and features the pair playing alongside members of Fairport Convention, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, The Walkmen and Wye Oak.
ItÕs a big to-do for an album that, upon its release, was deemed a critical and commercial failure Ñ a piece of Õ70s studio excess with no pop hits. Clark, a founding member of The Byrds who died in 1991, wrote and recorded ÒNo OtherÓ with a sprawling cast of players who largely improvised their parts. The result was an eight-song epic that melded country, folk, jazz, gospel, blues and psychedelic rock, sometimes within the same song (like the funky, trippy title track). For years, it remained unreleased on CD and largely unheralded.
ÒWhen I mentioned the record to people, even people who loved music, most people just didnÕt know it at all,Ó Scally says.
The album wasnÕt a direct (or obvious) influence on the dreamy indie-pop that Beach House is known for, but, rather, one Scally and Legrand thought would be a challenge to recreate.
ÒItÕs just another record we love,Ó Scally says. ÒItÕs so overdone and I think we liked the idea of trying to present such a studio feeling live.Ó
Much in the way an actor inhabits a role, Scally says, the big band the pair corralled for the shows (15 members in all; see sidebar) has taken a theatrical approach to the performances.
ÒWeÕre literally taking on the identities of [the original musicians],Ó Scally says. ÒIf thereÕs any interpretation that is heard, itÕs due to our ineptitude to perfectly execute it. É Like an actor, weÕre trying to role-play.Ó
Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally
Baltimore duo Beach House, above, is the driving (and organizing) force behind the ÒNo OtherÓ tour, with Scally handling bass duties and Legrand singing as part of a vocal chorus.
Iain Matthews
The solo artist and former member of eclectic British folk group Fairport Convention is the only singer on the tour who was an actual contemporary of ClarkÕs.
Robin Pecknold
The lead singer of SeattleÕs Fleet Foxes is one of the more obvious choices to play Clark; Fleet FoxesÕ psych-influenced folk rock might not have existed without him.
Daniel Rossen
The Grizzly Bear guitarist sings almost half of that bandÕs songs. His gravelly voice seems well-suited to replicate the desperation often heard in ClarkÕs vocals.
Hamilton Leithauser
Given his distinctive snarl, the lead singer of The Walkmen might seem an odd choice to recreate ClarkÕs words. Not so, Scally says: ÒI think he can be a real croonster.Ó
Scally, who plays bass in the ensemble, hopes the tour leads others to discover the album.
ÒThe only goal of this tour is to celebrate great music,Ó he says. ÒItÕs just to have fun playing music that we find beautiful and hopefully have others really enjoy it in a way they never would have if we hadnÕt done this tour. I hope that Gene would respect that or enjoy that, or at least not be annoyed by it.Ó
The ÔNo OtherÕ Big Band
Beach House members Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand assembled a 15-piece ensemble (including themselves) for the ÒNo OtherÓ shows, a supergroup made up of members of Fleet Foxes, The Walkmen, Grizzly Bear, Fairport Convention, Lower Dens and more. Scally says he cold-emailed 30 potential singers to play Gene ClarkÕs role, ultimately settling on four men (see below) who trade off on lead vocals. (Legrand, Wye Oak singer Jenn Wasner and CelebrationÕs Tony Drummond will sing backup.) ÒThe first two people we thought of voice-wise were Daniel [Rossen, of Grizzly Bear] and Robin [Pecknold, of Fleet Foxes] and weÕre so grateful they wanted to do it,Ó Scally says. ÒSo thatÕs how we chose [the singers] Ñ voice type and judging from the artistÕs music, if it seemed like theyÕd like it.Ó
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The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation.
I can't contrive a song. Ð GENE CLARK
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The Gene Clark No Other Band-experience NO OTHER
