MOTM

At 10:44 PM 04/26/2000 EDT, jwbarlow@... wrote:
>First, did anyone hear the little (10 minute) bit about Dave Borden & Mother 
>Mallard today on All Things Considered? "First all electronic band in 1969." 
>Early "work" with Bob Moog, helping to "idiot proof the machines," much as 
>Larry and I do now for MOTM. Nice little mention about the resurgence of 
>interest in analog.
>
>...
>
>Very cool Doug! Thanks for looking this up! 

Looked up?! That's off the top of my head! ;^)

>I'm more convinced of pop than 
>rock (and Harry Shearer may have said pop as well). It seems that there 
>would've been rock use of Moog with weirdoes like Zappa, Beefheart, Cale, 
>etc. all having records out, and all knowing about the Avante Garde in
music. 

Cale's pre-Velvet Underground "avant-garde" work (the Dream Syndicate
w/Lamonte Young, Tony Conrad & Angus MacLise) was entirely acoustic ... I
think his first electronic (not electric, that would have been with the VU)
work would have been his 'Church of Anthrax' collaboration with Terry Riley
c.1970.  Beefheart was coming from a blues (albeit very demented blues)
background, and didn't do any work with electronics.  Zappa I'm less
certain about - his first few albums include quite a bit of musique
concrete (esp. 'Lumpy Gravy'), and there's stuff on 'Freak Out' that sounds
like electronics (perhaps raw oscillators?) to me, but I've never heard
anything about him using synthesizers in the 60s (later on, he was one of
the first to extensively use samplers to make music, but that's another
animal entirely) ... the 'Freak Out' liner notes refer to $5000 worth of
rented percussion, but nothing about electronics ... which brings up the
point that in 1967, *only* a very popular band with large financial
resources (such as the Monkees, Beatles, Stones, and *very* few others)
could have afforded to use a real Moog modular.  That is, I'm sure, why the
three "pioneers" mentioned below all used homebrew gear.

>As to your other references, I have to admit my ignorance here (big 
>surprise). 1) I don't know the 50 Foot Hose album (let alone how/what it was 
>recorded), 

San Francisco late '67 - great hippie rock + weird electronics album (they
were contemporaries of and sounded somewhat like a jazzier Jefferson
Airplane & the album was recorded by Dan Healy, who went on to do sound for
the Grateful Dead).  Their electronics were entirely homemade by guitarist
Cork Marchesi.  Album: 'Cauldron'.

>2) United States of America (?????), 

LA '68, another band with female vocals, led by music student Joseph Byrd
(I don't recall the name of the guy who built the oscillators, ring
modulator & filters they used).  Byrd's follow-up, as Joe Byrd & the Field
Hippies is also very good; later on he recorded electronic versions of
American folk songs and the like.  If there was a recording before the
USofA album that included ring modulated violin, I'd love to hear about it!
 Album: 'United States of America'.

>3) I thought (probably just 
>assumed) that Silver Apples used a Buchla -- is this not true?

Morton Subotnick's piece, 'Silver Apples of the Moon' was recorded using a
Buchla.  The Silver Apples (who named themselves after that piece) were an
electronics/drums duo from New Jersey who recorded two LP's in the late
60s.  Electronics guru Simeon used a homemade device called "Simeon" which
apparently included an amazing user interface with foot/elbow/etc.
controllers.  Albums: 'Silver Apples', 'Contact'.

I consider these to be the three most important bands in the genesis of
electronic *rock* music, and I highly recommend them all.  Lothar and the
Hand People and the aforementioned Mother Mallard (the first ALL-electronic
band?) followed shortly thereafter.  Both 50 Foot Hose and Silver Apples
actually reformed in recent years owing to the resurgence of popularity in
both electronic music and 60s psychedelia.

>Another way to look at it 
>is, how do you describe a "pop album," does popularity enter into it?

By "pop/rock", I was refering any non-academic/classical/avant-garde usage
of synthesizers, or the usage of synthesizers within the format of a "band"
playing "songs".  Not to actual "popularity" since, for instance, 'Switched
On Bach' could be considered a "pop" album in terms of sales/popularity,
but a "classical" album in terms of musical style.

	-Doug
	 ceres@...