#Chris forsyth

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Basic - Seuffert Bandshell, Queens, New York, September 14, 2024

Just a couple months back, but a lifetime ago – BASIC in Queens! These bandshell shows organized the mighty Oneida always look so fun. But for those of us not out on the east coast, the terrific EricPH / NYC Taper recording will suffice.

Basic, in case you missed it, released their debut LP recently; it's a killer collection of lean/mean grooves, Chris Forsyth's ever-adventurous guitar work slicing and dicing atop Nick Millevoi's baritone guitar and Mikel Patrick Avery's propulsive percussion and electronics.

Millevoi, however, isn't touring with Basic, and the great Doug McCombs (Tortoise, Brokeback, Eleventh Dream Day, Black Duck, etc) is filling his shoes, bringing his own distinctive flavor to the proceedings. The trio is hitting the road in the upcoming weeks — if this tape is any indication, you've gotta go see them.

Photo: Christopher Bruno

[dustedmagazine]

Basic — This is BASIC (No Quarter)

The 1980s saw a second wave of progressive rock, with new personnel for established groups such as King Crimson and Yes, and multi-named ensembles such as Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe (ah, those lawsuits …). The rise of punk effectively vanquished the first wave of prog. Similarly, grunge changed the zeitgeist to one in which second wave prog was pilloried for its pretentiousness. Recent years have seen a reexamination of the music, and incorporation of its tropes by several musical artists. Guitarist Chris Forsyth is one of them. He named his latest group Basic and its recording This is BASIC as an homage to the 1984 album by Robert Quine and Fred Maher. One can readily hear its influence, 40 years later,  rebounding in the music of its successor.

Take the opening track “For Stars in the Air,” a nine minute long jam session (in fact, much of This is BASIC was developed from improvisations). The edgy repeating riffs that were played by Quine are a touchstone for Forsyth and Nick Millevoi, who plays baritone guitar on the recording, supplying the low end and also rhythm guitar. So too are the drum machines on the earlier album, with their motoric rhythms, a texture that Basic’s drummer Mikel Patrick Avery adopts in his percussion and electronics. In addition, Millevoi adds parts for drum machine.

“Nerve Time” is built around an undulating riff on baritone guitar that wouldn’t sound out of place on King Crimson’s Red, as well as a jagged repeated two-chord progression from Forsyth. The percussion provides a constant eighth-note pulse with cymbals prominent. Forsyth and Millevoi engage in an alternating duet while Avery plays sci-fi electronics and another minimal drum pattern on“Positive Halfway.” Partway through, Forsyth adds harmonics and Millevoi pushes his playing into high gear. Avery responds with a hail of vintage synth sounds. “Last Resort of the Gambling Man” is built in layers of guitar. Spontaneous sounding, it is the closest to free playing that Basic gets. With a rattling drum pattern, synth lines embellished by bent notes and wah-wah, and effects enriched guitars, “Versatile Switch” combines kraut rock and funky fusion in equal measures.

This is BASIC concludes with another extended jam, “Never Auspicious.” Strongly articulated repeated notes in baritone guitar and sinuous soloing on Forsyth’s six-string are abetted by driving drumming. A long crescendo builds the piece to an eruption of intensity, then abruptly ends. Prog may still have its detractors, but This is BASIC is a case study in why it deserves another look.

Christian Carey

[albumwalloffame]

Album Cover Wall (Hall) of Fame Winter 2024 Inductees - Day 1

Minor thing before we begin, doing 25 whole album covers was... a lot, so I decided from now on (Since we're over 200 covers anyway), I'll just induct 10 each season. So I'm going to induct 5 covers today, and five others later this month.

Okay, with that said, let's get to the album covers.

1. Smash Song Hits by Rodgers & Hart

2. The Rarity of Experience - Chris Forsyth

3. Yesterdays - Yes

4. That's the Way Love Is - Marvin Gaye

5. Control - Janet Jackson

[amplifiedwires]

LISTENING JOURNAL 5/14/23

Bill Frisell 's The Guitar Artistry of Bill Frisell (1996). Fascinating deep board look into Bill's guitar playing. He shows all kinds of techniques that he employs. He named dropped Jim Hall many times as a mentor. So of course I had to check him out next.

Then a pivot into a recent Solar Motel Band outing at Union Pool from those taping heroes @nyctaper:

Then one more dive in Fred Frith's vast catalog to sample his 2nd solo album on Ralph Records - Gravity (1980)

[rastronomicals]

11:26 AM EST December 13, 2024:

Chris Forsyth - "Dream Song" From the album Ragged Glories (December 2019)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

'15 epic jams from Kurt Vile, Dinosaur Jr., Low, Big Thief, Stephen Malkmus, Ty Segall and more!'

[ozkar-krapo]

V/A

"I/D/V 02"

(7"EP. Unframed. 2009)

[sinceileftyoublog]

Purling Hiss Interview: Piecemeal Worldbuilding

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“It’s finally here. I can’t believe it.”

That was Mike Polizze over the phone, speaking to me last month about Drag on Girard, the new Purling Hiss album out now via Drag City. It’s the catchiest, most power pop-forward PH record yet, Polizze’s lead-rhythm guitar arrangements and the singalong harmonized vocals leading the charge on sci-fi songs vaguely about Philadelphia, paranoia, and everything in between. 

Drag on Girard seems like a return to Polizze’s skyward scuzz, after the dialed back, languid jams of his solo debut Long Lost Solace Find. In actuality, though, it was supposed to come out long before this year, just like the valiant “return” from Polizze’s other band, Birds of Maya’s Valdez, recorded in 2014 but released 7 years later. Polizze and company started tracking Girard at the tail end of 2019 and finished it in early 2020. Before he was able to do vocals and overdubs, the pandemic and lockdown happened. He eventually got into the studio in 2021, but delays in vinyl manufacturing backups and therefore test pressings, in combination with Drag City’s regular release queue, meant that the record didn’t come out until this March. “It seems on paper like a long break between Purling Hiss records,” the prolific Polizze said. “But the chronology was messed up.”

2022 was the first year since Polizze started his music career that none of his projects released anything. Because 2020′s Long Lost Solace Find was technically his last record chronologically, the world feels weirdly open. At the start of the pandemic, he and his wife moved from Fishtown in Philly to the suburbs where he grew up, and they now have a two-year-old child. “Coming out on the other side of all that is kind of a weird feeling,” said Polizze. “Now, I’m at an interesting point where there’s no big plan.” Even if the looseness of Drag on Girard is coincidental, you can see Polizze’s unbound attitude in everything from the way he’s honest about the piecemeal worldbuilding of Drag on Girard’s themes to the fact that he’s not currently working with a booking agent, planning shows himself. That includes tonight and tomorrow night at Union Pool in Brooklyn, with Chris Forsyth and Garcia Peoples.

Read my conversation with Polizze below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: Do you think the loose sounding nature of Drag on Girard was a result of your attitude to just have fun with it?

Mike Polizze: Yes, absolutely. We recorded at Jeff [Zeigler’s] again. I really wanted that “live in the studio” feel. There were even a couple songs that weren’t totally structured. The ones on the B-side are “let’s just have fun with it,” which is the spirit of the live stuff. I still feel like I want to go in that direction more. I wanted it to be off-the-cuff, not super refined. 

SILY: It almost seems to me like the punkier, noisier, scuzzier version of the same spirit as Long Lost Solace Find. Same vibe, different aesthetic.

MP: The solo album is pretty much just me, and Kurt [Vile] on a couple things, and [Drag on Girard] is with the band. It’s weird, because the songs are new to people now, and they’re still fresh for us, but everything got put on hold for everybody.

SILY: Have you been playing the Drag on Girard songs live for a bit?

MP: The first song, “Yer In All My Dreams”, had been kicking around for a few years, in the live sets since 2017-2018, and we cut it in the studio in 2019. I still can’t believe how much time has passed. “Baby”’s been kicking around for a while. “Stay With Us”, [too].

SILY: I like how the record traverses the different eras of guitar music. There are some of your usual influences, and the closing track has a Crazy Horse thing going on, but songs like “When The End Is Over” and even “Out The Door” has that jangle pop feel to it. Are you a fan of Flying Nun Records?

MP: Yeah, I do like that stuff a lot. I don’t really know where influences come from. I consider it like fishing. You have the fishing rod out, and you’re waiting for something to come along. That’s how I write. I didn’t set out to write like this on purpose. The placeholder name for “When The End Is Over” was “Power Pop” because it felt like Cheap Trick or Shoes or even Teenage Fanclub. But yeah, I love The Clean and all that stuff.

SILY: How did you approach the lyrics on the record?

MP: Normally, I’ll sort of find a song or riff and work off that and come up with parts just by jamming on them and seeing where they fall. Lyrics are usually last. I’ll have syllables formed over parts, and maybe a word or two will pop into my mind as a placeholder that presents a theme. When it’s time to really figure it out and I have the pacing and tempo and syllables and inflection, I think, “What do I feel? What kind of words can I conjure up for this?” It fits like a puzzle, with the guitar, then structure, then we practice over it and I sing non-words, then I go to the notepad. It’s less of a story and more nonsensical poetry. I edit from there.

SILY: There’s definitely a bit of sci-fi in here.

MP: [laughs] Maybe in some parts. “Baby” has some funny lyrics. “Drag on Girard”, too.

SILY: What about “Something in my Basement”?!?

MP: Yeah. It’s kind of like my joke to myself, like Little Shop of Horrors. Kitschy and fun. I didn’t know it was going to end up being about that. Little quips or slogans or titles pop up in [my] memory that I build off of. “Something in my basement” popped up in my mind, and the idea of a story there, and the end of the song is, “There’s nothing in my basement,” so the question is whether it really happened or whether it was all in your mind. 

SILY: Is it similar to your approach to the instrumentation and aesthetic, where your inspirations are a bit more subconscious?

MP: Yeah, kind of. It’s all right there. We’re constantly taking in information, and I don’t really think of the full idea first at all. I start scribbling, on paper or on guitar, then get a Voice Memo going on my phone. I used to just use my memory when I was younger, and then tape machines. But that is the formula.

I have goals, sometimes, or a general direction I want to go in, but the best thing to do for me is to improvise it and let it guide me and go for it. If I ever hit a wall, which happens all the time, I have to figure out how to navigate, so I keep it wide and vague and then hone in on it as I go. It’s not all figured out before I start.

SILY: Do you feel like this record is a balm when you consider how out of sorts the world feels? 

MP: It feels celebratory, in a way. We had fun with it. Truthfully, it was all written before the pandemic happened. I’m happy with it, for sure. It’s kind of like an opposite record from [Long Lost Solace Find], which is refined-sounding in my opinion. It’s structured, pretty even. [Drag on Girard] is pretty off-the-rails. I don’t know if it sounds that way. Just because it took so long to come out doesn’t mean we were in the studio the whole time. It’s pretty shrill in some parts. I tried to balance between raw and unhinged with pop sensibilities. It’s all over the place.

SILY: What’s the album title mean?

MP: It’s an inside joke between my drummer Ben [Leaphart] and I. When I first moved to Philly in 2004, I met him and Jason [Killinger] from Birds of Maya. It was the first time I moved into a house with bandmates and roommates. Fishtown was starting to gentrify a bit, but it was still an affordable place. Part of me is talking about the glory days of that, but I’m not from that neighborhood, so what right do I have? [In any case,] it was affordable and became this artist utopia with a lot of music people. It was a good time right around then, the early 2000s, with Espers, Jack Rose, Birds of Maya, Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs. Johnny Brenda’s was one floor, no food, draught beer, a hole in the wall.

Girard Avenue is one of the main strips/arterial routes that goes through Fishtown, along with Frankford Avenue. Me and Ben had our used crappy old vehicles. In 2004, I’d meet up with him and there’d be nobody on Girard. It was pretty dead at night. There were no cars on the road after 8 P.M. We’d joke about drag racing on Girard Avenue. It was an edgier neighborhood. Since then, Fishtown has totally gentrified: There’s no parking, it’s overdeveloped, there are all these crappy buildings, and there’s nowhere to move. This isn’t anything political or social, just a personal inside joke. It’s actually kind of stupid, but I thought the title had a good ring to it. Philly can be “a drag,” and there’s other imagery invoked in that. I like it when things have or could have more than one meaning.

SILY: This record is also a windows-down, blast from the car stereo record.

MP: [laughs]

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

MP: I had lots of sketches, and I drew and colored with different mediums a lot before I moved out of Fishtown in 2018-2019. I haven’t done it much the past few years. Jason is an artist and graphic designer. I brought a lot of stuff to him, but we actually went a different direction. It’s not what the cover is now. We had a couple other ideas, and the cover that’s now is one of them. It matched the back cover idea, which we did have. I think we hit a wall. We didn’t really know what we wanted. I pitched some of my sketch ideas, and my bandmates liked it, and Drag City [did, too]. I liked it because I made it, but I don’t know what the world likes. Every once in a while, I’ll draw things that don’t make sense. Kind of like the sci-fi thing, [the] guy [on the cover] is sort of my catatonic space traveler suspended in the multi-verse, or something. It’s half-baked, and tied into Drag on Girard. It’s funny how I stitched together this half-baked story and imagery, this theme of sci-fi imagery and living in Philadelphia. There are these songs, lyrics, album cover, and album title, and I almost put together the story in reverse that way. We’re people and take in all this information every day, and there are probably people who are way more organized than me. It’s fun for me, and it feels multi-dimensional, going from the sketches to Jason and me working on it to Drag City. It’s not the order I expected.

SILY: Have you been writing new material?

MP: Yeah. It honestly feels great, and sometimes, I don’t realize it until moments like this where I get to talk about it. There are irons in the fire. I feel grateful I always have something I feel like I can work on because I’ve compiled enough ideas on my own. I’m working on another solo record; slowly but surely, you’ll see something there at some point. I’m so lucky to have the bandmates I have in Purling Hiss, I’m sure we’ll keep working on stuff. Birds of Maya wants to do some more stuff. I almost miss editing music in my 4-track and computer at home. Any free time that’s rare, I miss messing around with things outside of what I just mentioned. There have been a couple ideas with collaborations, but nothing I can speak on because they might not happen. I’m trying to keep things moving.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading you’ve dug?

MP: I’ve been struggling to find time to read but I have a pile of books. Fiction-wise, I got True Grit. I got the SST [Records] book, Corporate Rock Sucks. Because of my toddler, I’m squeezed for personal time.

Since Wayne Shorter died, I’ve been on a jazz kick. My dad died when I was a teenager, but he played saxophone and started music school young and didn’t end up doing it because he had a family. But he had a pretty cool record collection. He left behind a bunch of jazz records, lots of Blue Note stuff. Lots of [John] Coltrane lately. I keep going through kicks, days where I listen to my own band practices and demos, and then I’ll get to the point I need to listen to other people’s music. Gábor Szabó. My dad had Dreams in his collection. Pharoah Sanders’ Karma. I really wish he had Sun Ra stuff. I know Sun Ra was between Chicago and Philly--we can’t take full credit for him.

[90smovies]

[wornoutspines]

The Day of The Jackal (TV Series) Season 1 Review | Sharp, Slick, and Surprising: A Killer Revival of the Espionage Classic

A masterclass in tension & precision. #EddieRedmayne & #LashanaLynch shine in #TheDayOfTheJackal, a gripping, modern take on a classic. Subverting cliches, it’s a must-watch for spy-thriller fans. #SeasonReview #SpyThriller Read our full season ⬇

The first season of The Day of the Jackal masterfully modernizes the classic while retaining its suspenseful core. This ten-episode series showcases a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse, brought to life by Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal, a meticulous assassin, and Lashana Lynch as Bianca Pullman, the relentless British intelligence officer on his trail. The result is an espionage drama rich in…

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Basic - Union Transfer, Philadelphia, Pennsylviania, November 6, 2023

The trio known as Basic — Nick Millevoi, Mikel Patrick Avery and Chris Forsyth — has been playing sporadic shows for about a year now I think; they just finished up a quick east coast run with White Denim last week. No official releases yet, but knowing how awesome these three musicians are, I had to check out some of the live stuff. It does not disappoint!

Basic is lean and mean, with Millevoi providing menacing baritone guitar hooks, Avery laying down immoveable beats (accompanied by metronomic drum machine rhythms) and Forsyth locking in/freaking out over the top. There's a little 75 Dollar Bill in the band's DNA, mixed in with the Robert Quine / Fred Maher LP from whence Basic got its name. In other words, it rules.

At Union Transfer, Millevoi, Avery and Forsyth (I'd hire that law firm) were opening for the ever-mighty Tortoise — so let's check out the Tortoise tape, too! Why the fuck not! It's been a little while since we've heard any new material from the legendary Chicago band (they'll always be a Chicago band, no matter where they all live), but that's OK. They have a deep/wide catalog to draw from, and quite honestly, they may sound better than ever in 2023. Just check out the set-closing "Crest" here and revel in the pure majesty of Tortoise!

[dustedmagazine]

Chris Forsyth — Plays Love Devotion Surrender (Bandcamp, 2024)

The golden anniversary of John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana’s 1973 record Love Surrender Devotion passed last year without much fanfare: no deluxe reissue or archival release from a short-lived supergroup of sorts. It instead remains one of the lesser explored chapters of McLaughlin’s long career.

Which isn’t to say it’s overlooked or under appreciated. The jam-heavy album of hard driving fusion has found fans over the decades, most notably guitar hero Chris Forsyth. At last fall’s Philly Music Fest, Forsyth headed a band that replayed the album in full for a packed crowd at Solar Myth. He was joined by guitarist Nick Millevoi, a rhythm section of Douglas McCombs, Mikel Patrick Avery and Ryan Jewell, plus Brent Cordero on electric organ. And not too long ago he made this set available for purchase on his Bandcamp.

Throughout Love Devotion Surrender, Forsyth and company don’t stray too far from the original. It’s the same material, roughly in the same order: the last two tracks are flipped, but it works to give this record a bombastic finale instead of the muted coda on the original.

It opens with John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” and a burst of sound before the band settles into Coltrane's familiar intro. Forsyth’s guitar has a sharp tone that squeals and sounds like he’s pushing his amp to its limit. His playing is fluid and moves between longer notes and quick little flurries — a departure from McLaughlin’s machine gun-spray of notes on the original. Meanwhile Millevoi chugs along on rhythm guitar behind him with a choppy, wah-heavy tone. After a while they trade off and Millevoi steps up for a solo of his own, the two of them building up into a frenzy of dueling leads playing off each other. After about ten minutes the pace slows down a bit and they both settle into playing the iconic Coltrane riff. It’s an effective way to open the record, grabbing your attention and setting the mood of a night of guitar frenzy.

The band then moves into “Niama,” another Coltrane number. But this is the first step away from the record: where McLaughlin and Santana played this acoustically, with a bit of a Latin tinge, this band plays it a slow electric blues. The guitars draw the emotion out of this one as Cordero’s organ gives them a bed of sound to work on top of. It segues nicely into McLaughlin’s “A Love Divine” which builds up slowly from Cordero’s droning organ and bursts of percussion from Avery and Jewell. Both the guitarists slowly work their way into this one but before long they’re playing a flurry of notes as the rhythm section builds up the tension by playing the beat faster and faster. The whole band works itself up into a lather, finishing this one with blasts of cymbals and squealing guitars while McCombs keeps them on track with his bass.

Next comes the second wrinkle of the night: the band swaps the order of “Meditation” and “Let Us Now Enter the House of the Lord” while also changing the first to another slow electric blues from a sparse acoustic theme. With Cordero’s organ and McCombs bass holding the groove down, both Forsyth and Millevoi take their time to play around the chorus and trade off short solos. It’s actually one of the set’s more approachable moments and wouldn’t feel out of place on a Solar Motel record.

They finish the evening off with “Let Us Now…” which is a fitting bookend with “A Love Supreme.” They’re both lengthy performances where the guitars trade off riffs and are played something like spiritual jazz fusion opening with flurries of notes and drum rolls. It evolves into a vaguely Latin groove for the two guitars to solo over and eventually to jam in unison together.

The thing about a record like this is that for all the guitar heroics it doesn’t quite have the same spark as the original. There, both Santana and McLaughlin were going for a spiritual vibe, playing hard and fast like they were trying to lose themselves in the music and push into something spiritual. Indeed, bootlegs of this band on their short tour show them regularly pushing songs past the 20-minute mark. That was a group reaching for ecstasy.

By contrast, you never get the same feeling from Forsyth and company here. As good as their playing is, you know they’re playing tribute to a record instead of trying to catch the same religious feeling. It’s not really a bad thing, it just means they’re playing it a little safer and closer to the vest even when they work themselves up into a frenzy.

As far as tributes go, Plays Love Devotion Surrender doesn't mess with the gospel and anybody who loves guitar-heavy jamming will enjoy this. While it might not completely work for people unfamiliar with the original record or those without the patience to sit through long guitar workouts, fans with worn out copies of the original will have a lot here to chew on.

Roz Milner

[bandcampsnoop]

9/12/23.

It's always cool to run across a new and fairly unknown band (at least by Bandcamp standards). Somerset Meadows is a Portland, Oregon based band that has been around since 2002! The Bandcamp page states that "Recycle Your Dreams" is their debut vinyl album - but not their first release. Side A is the studio side. Side B is the live side. And while there are only three songs you do get a studio/live sense.

To me it seems like Somerset Meadows sits somewhere between R.E.M., Harvester, Eleventh Dream Day and Chris Forsyth. This is jangly, melodic, but hard-hitting rock.

[awesomefridayca]

Podcast: Inedia & It's What's Inside (& Transformers One)

Greetings programs!  On this week’s show, we’re taking on two exciting films.  First up, a BC shot indie film that played as part of the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival, Inedia.  Then we turn our attention to a new Netflix release, the single-location mystery movie It’s What’s Inside.  Both films are exciting for some of the same and some entirely different reasons, and we have a lot…

[lukethompsondaily]

Luke Thompson Master Drive

Crossed out titles are not in this drive but can be easily found (exceptions marked with asterisks and detailed under the cut). Crossed out and red means that although the productions have been recorded there are no files available.

If you want access to it just DM me!

STAGE

• Shakespeare's Globe: A Midsummer Night's Dream (2014) • Hampstead Theatre at Home: Tiger Country (2014) • Globe on Screen: Julius Caesar (2015) • The Complete Walk: Romeo and Juliet (2016) • Hamlet (2018) • National Theatre Live: King Lear (2018) • Tikkun Olam (2022)* • A Little Life (2023)

TV

• In the Club (2014‑2016) • The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (2011‑2014) • Kiss Me First (2018-2018) • Transatlantic (2023-2023) • Bridgerton (2020‑ )

FILM

• Dunkirk (2017) • Making Noise Quietly (2019) • Misbehaviour (2020)

AUDIO IN PROGRESS

• Between the Ears: The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth • The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky • My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier • The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen by Kari Hotakainen • Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave • Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili • Seventeen by Joe Gibson • The Ticket Collector from Belarus by Neil Hanson and Mike Anderson

* = This one was available for a year to rent online but it seems that no one did a screen recording so it’s unavailable for the time being.

[burtlancster]

Mrs. Wyatt, there’s a maniac outside the building. You better call the police department—get some marksman. Shoot him off. Shoot to kill.

Local Hero — 1983. dir. bill forsyth, cin. chris menges

[callmebrycelee]

MY MAN CRUSH MONDAY...SKEET ULRICH SPOOKY SEASON EDITION

FULL NAME: Bryan Ray Trout

DATE OF BIRTH: January 20, 1970

PLACE OF BIRTH: Lynchburg, Virginia

AGE: 53

SIGN: Aquarius

BEST KNOWN FOR: Portraying Chris Hooker in the teen supernatural horror film The Craft; Billy Loomis in slasher films Scream, Scream (2022) and Scream VI. Vincent Lopiano in As Good As It Gets; Jake Green in Jericho; and Forsythe Pendleton "F.P." Jones II in the CW teen drama series Riverdale.

HEIGHT: 6 feet tall