Bass Guitar / Backing Vocals

BIRTHDAY :  Much Too Late

GEAR:  Tobias 5 string Growler (the bane of my existence), Rickenbacker 4001 4 string, Fender Japanese fretless jazz bass (work in progress).  Ashdown MAG300 head, Ashdown ABM410 and ABM115 cabinets, Mogami cables, Sennheiser EW100 wireless unit (occasionally it works), occasionally new strings (ongoing experiment)

MUSICAL INFLUENCES: Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Mike Watt, Henry Cow, James Jamerson, Jerry Jemmott, Jaco Pastorius, Waylon Jennings,  Naked City, Black Sabbath.  Hairy freaks in general.

FAVORITE ALBUMS:   I am very specific and discerning in my musical tastes.  A few albums that top the list: Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica, CAN - Ege Bamyasi, Deep Purple - In Rock, Television - Marquee Moon, Quicksand - Manic Compression, John Coltrane - Live At The Village Vanguard, The Stooges - Funhouse, The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East, Grand Funk Railroad - On Time, YES - Close To The Edge, Funkadelic - Maggot Brain, Elton John - Madman Across The Water... this list will spiral out of control if I don't stop it now.

FAVORITE SONGS:  uh, this is going to be a wierd list...  TV Eye - The Stooges, Into The Void - Black Sabbath, Havona - Weather Report, Drown - Smashing Pumpkins, Ain't To Proud To Beg - The Temptations, the entire second album from Sunny Day Real Estate, I Wish - Stevie Wonder, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side - the Smiths, Rainy Day Woman - Waylon Jennings, Zig Zag Wanderer - Captain Beefheart, Corporeal Jigsore Quandary - Carcass, The Art Of Chessboxing - Wu Tang Clan... I can pick randomly for hours probably.  Music is a very deep and pervasive subject for me.  I listen to everything from obscure to the mundane, grindcore to country to motown.  I am very specific and discerning in my musical tastes, but at the end of the day, a good song is a good song, a good hook keeps you humming it.

FAVORITE SONGS TO PLAY:  Any seasoned bass player will tell you, as long as the bass and the drummer are 'locked in", any song is great to play.  I like playing the "Dance" songs... I guess they qualify as disco.  I keep leaning to add more, although Rick will probably quit the band if I get my way and "My Prerogative" or "Jungle Love" get added to the songbook.  I'm developing a greater appreciation of country music from a players perspective.  Anything with a good 3 or 4 part vocal arrangement (Mountain Music, Seven Bridges Road, When The Stars Go Blue) to help me grow as a vocalist.

GREATEST MUSICAL MOMENT:  This is long, grab a sandwich.  For the past 20-odd years, Yoshida Tatsuya, a respected master drummer from Japan, has run an avante garde bass/drums duo known as Ruins, it has long been highly regarded as one of the strangest, and most complex musical oddities in the world.  He has always been the drummer, but he has burned out 4 bassists over the years. (It's fast, and weird, really weird)  In the summer of 2005 he decided to tour the US under the name "Ruins: Alone" where he played a set by himself, playing live drums and vocals (sung in a language of his own invention) over pre-recorded bass tracks, then he invites a local bassist onstage to attempt to perform Ruins songs with him.  I initially sent him an email to see when Ruins was touring the US again (under the assumption that I was talking to a booking agency, or some sort of go-between) and the reply I get is from Tatsuya himself asking if I would help him book some midwest dates for him AND perform with him.  I accepted and it took me FOUR MONTHS to learn 6 Ruins songs.  (I learned something like 60 songs in 2 weeks to play with 56Daze!)  I played two shows with him, Detroit, which went miserably and Toledo, which after once having worked with him, I had a better idea of what was going on and nailed it.  Eventually, I will get the footage back that was recorded of the show and Tony will post some of it on the website.

MUSICAL HISTORY:  History is lame.  Here's current events:  Beyond playing in 56Daze, I play in Fast Piece Of Furniture and back up Nathan Cogan every chance I get, two amazing original acts that everyone should go seek out.  www.myspace.com/fastpieceoffurniture  and www.myspace.com/nathancogan are great places to start where you can hear the music and find out when we are playing, on off nights for 56Daze of course.