This 45 is a snapshot of Bellingham musical history. It includes Tom and Mars from Yogoman Burning Band, Jon Sherman from Sweet Beets and Robert Blake’s pickup truck rolling into the lake! And Lil’ Hoss who saves the day. No kidding!
The two tracks are the first two releases from our legendary Lake-Side session last summer. They are also, in my opinion, the hottest cuts. We recorded in Olli Klomp’s (drums) living room in his beautiful cabin on an Island in a lake in Northwest Washington. I remember that it was the hottest day of the year. We would swim in the Lake in between takes to cool off (being careful not to disturb our Crawdads that were contentedly grazing on barbecued chicken bones just beneath the dock). We were in the lake just cooling off when all of a sudden I saw a cat running fast across the bridge and heard this “CRASH” from out in the woods. Well, Robert Blake’s pickup truck that Jon Sherman (Bass) had borrowed to drive to the session had been left without engaging the gear and the parking brake came loose. The thing rolled backward 100 yards down a hill, narrowly slipping between the trunks of two old-growth cedars, careening over the bank and coming to rest squarely in the middle of the muddy moat that separated Olli’s island from the mainland. I maintain that it was the cat who actually jumped on the hood, upset the balance, and surfed it down the hill - Jumping off at the last minute onto the bridge just before the thing went over the bank. Fortunately, The Yogoman Burning Band’s tourbus, Lil’ Hoss, was there and Thomas Deakin (sax) was able to figure out how to connect a rope between the truck and the bus. After about 20 minutes of reefing on the truck with the bus Thomas successfully liberated the pickup truck from the mud. Ben Bloom (guitar) was on hand to cheer Tommy on and to video the whole thing though we are still searching for that movie. The story has a happy ending: we applied the parking brake and engaged the gear to the truck and then brushed off the mud. No cats, trees, or people were injured, and we went ahead and recorded some amazingly hard Funk that evening.
Redbeard was written for an original member of The Lucky 7...That’s right, Noah Patterson. He and I actually played the song together in The Lucky 7 but as you know, I didn’t properly record it ‘til last summer. It went through many name changes, In fact it was Noah who originally named it “Beard Fulla Chicken Fat” but I thought that sounded gross so I decided to call it Redbeard after Noah and his big ol’ red beard. I haven’t seen that smile around for a while. I miss him. Redbeard is a boogaloo popcorn groove in the spirit of the Great James Brown. It was written originally for The Lucky Seven as an experiment to show the contrast between tight and loose grooves while still retaining that boogaloo pulse. I think it is a masterful work in that the hornline head is really only two specifically placed notes! The horns are really drums in this one. The bridge is only three notes and I called the bridge out at first and I liked it so much after the first time I just call it again after turning it back around to the tight top. The band turns on a dime and brings the energy up up up! After the last bridge, instead of going back to the head again, I give it up to Mars (trombone) and he barrels into the groove like a bull in a china shop. I am hanging on for dear life to the tambourine and I think we hold it for as long as we can ‘til I bring it back to the super tight top. Listen closely because it is this moment that I ask Olli to “talk” and that means to say something with the instrument. Man, he just does the sweetest with his snare and hat pattern while taking the whole thing home.
Jesse’s Party was written for Jesse Hunter or “Jesse from Sway” as we always called him. It was a going away party that I went to at James Beech’s (J.B. Quartet) house where, during one of the jams, I heard the first four notes of the bassline that eventually became both the bassline and the hornline for the tune. The hiccup drum pattern was supposed to make you feel disoriented like you were tripping and then gets into that heavy backbeat...which never happened during the jam, I just wanted it to happen so bad when I was there I took those four notes and exploded the line into the whole track, then did it myself.
Jesse’s Party is an ideal B-Side and listen closely, because those first moments of the guitar line are actually where the tape begins. It was just lucky that it happened like it did. I remember coming up with the bassline, and putting it up against that drum pattern. I dug the bassline so much that I decided not to write a hornline and just asked the horns to play in unison with the bass. Meanwhile I needed a thing to straighten out the chatter and ease the tension with a nice backbeat. At first, I just have all the instruments split off with Ben doing his “chank chank” soul thing on the ones, that was an idea we got from Delvon, and Olli dropping that backbeat. Jon continues with the original bassline and doesn’t lose it until I ask Ben Bloom (“Horseradish Tree” according to some spanish websites) to do his gritty final overlay part. This part reminds me of the clavinet overlay from Poet’s Of Rhythm’s genius “Smilin’ While Yer Cryin” Both parts seem to change the tonality of the thing and then wrap it back up around when everybody comes back in. We recorded his amp through an old trucker’s C.B. mic that I found for 10 bucks at Aladdin’s Antiques. That’s how he got that “breaker breaker” sound. I then give it up to Thomas. and... well..I am just gonna let you check it out and have his Saxophone speak for itself, words really cannot do it justice.
Anyway, I have a feeling that Funk freaks and DJ’s who like to do beat juggling will have a ball with this one because you can play with so many sections of the tune and build up the tension so high. I am really excited about these tracks. They really represent our finest works so far. Thank you so much for paying attention and supporting The Funk Revolution. In a world of disposable music and disposable ideas, It is really encouraging to meet and communicate with a circle that believes in things that are authentic, natural, real, and original. Thank you all for living, loving, and listening according to your ethics.
Enjoy the music and buy vinyl!
