The coolest motherfucker Milwaukee ever produced. RIP.
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2024 10:18 am
by twelvepoint
penningtron wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 8:55 am
The coolest motherfucker Milwaukee ever produced. RIP.
Excepting Carlos Glidden, Christoper Latham Sholes and all of Die Kreuzen
Re: RIP v2 - still no cure for death
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2024 12:46 pm
by OrthodoxEaster
Man. Albini, Bob Schick, and James Chance, all w/in six weeks or so. This is rough, and all three of these guys were titans for me.
I met and/or interviewed James on a few occasions. He was understated, polite, intelligent, and friendly, nothing like the misanthropic (and later, rather louche) freak he portrayed on those early records. (Even though his living quarters at the time were suitably Addams Family.)
While I wish his records would have continued in that wild direction and been less redundant after the first couple, I still had a casual interest in what he was doing and I was totally, unexpectedly floored by a Contortions reunion gig I attended in 2001. His screechy sax seemed to split the difference between free jazz, rock, accidental Middle Eastern stuff, and the sound of his inner torment, and his atonal keys and barking vocals remain underrated.
James's shtick was undeniably cool, and I feel like a part of grimy old NYC has died along w/him.