Freddie Katz Happenings

[freddiekatz]

In tribute to Joe Perry, who we hope gets well really soon, Patti Rothberg and I whipped up this little Aerosmith inspired power ballad. Produced and engineered by me, and I did my best on the guitar solo to emulate the one Mr. Perry played in "Amazing". Patti Rothberg on lead and backing vox, acoustic guitar and piano, myself on all electric guitars and bass, Steve Holley on drums, and Pamela Goodchild on backing vox. This track will be on the forthcoming Patti Rothberg album "Mercy For The Angels".

Get well soon Joe!! We would never have been playing guitar this way without you!

[freddiekatz]

Robyn Hitchcock at The Grand Victory, Brooklyn, NY

In this internet age of instant everything on YouTube, and disposable, downloadable rock-n-roll that we no longer even need to save up our pennies to buy at the (now defunct) local record shop, once in a while an event comes along that reminds me of why I continue to bother and why all of this continues to be worth it.

To be able to see a genius on the level of ROBYN HITCHCOCK perform at a club as intimate as The Grand Victory is just one of those small miracles that makes life worth living. To see him sing his unique brand of poetry, at once abstract and psychedelic, yet heartfelt and deeply emotional, from only a few feet away, was an experience practically beyond description...or perhaps only describable by a writer like Hitchcock himself. When one has the ability to write lyrics such as: "Lost, Madonna of the Wasps, I wonder where we crossed I wonder why she lost me -- Lost, Madonna of the Wasps, she's dying in the frost I wonder what she cost me -- Is this love? Gone, Madonna of the swans, she waves a magic wand And then she settles on me -- Wise, Madonna of the flies, I look into her eyes And then she recognized me -- Is this love? Is this love?" ("Madonna of the Wasps", lyrics by Robyn Hitchcock) ....well, I'm sure Robyn would have something profoundly poetic to say about the experience of seeing himself perform. Not to sound like a cliche, but for myself I can only say that I laughed, I cried...I cried again...and I laughed again...sometimes even simultaneously...and always sincere emotional responses, brought about without contrivance. One of the highlights of the set was a song, "NY Doll", a sort of eulogy, to New York Dolls' bassist Arthur Kane. Apparently Hitchcock wrote it after having seen the film "New York Doll", the documentary about Kane's life. This was one of the points in the set where I cried: "I never finished the book There's always someone to be loved Or to be forgotten But if you take a long look Well there's always someone Young and fresh Or cold and rotten One in a million People touch you How do I explain? Sincerely I remain, Arthur Kane I was a New York Doll I was really something on the map that never ends I was the pulse of it all But there's always poison to drink alone Or to share with friends One in a million People hit you like a window pane Sincerely I remain, Arthur Kane I found myself in the church I needed something Bigger than the world I knew But in the library of your memory People live in their books till the pages close Close on me like they're gonna Close on you One in a million People matter Then they go again Sincerely I remain, Arthur Kane Arthur Kane" ("NY Doll", lyrics by Robyn Hitchcock) Moving indeed. He speaks about the song in this interview: http://www.jh3.com/robyn/base/song.asp?squid=1119 I got to know Robyn a little during my sound engineering tenure at Maxwells, and I remember once, having dinner after soundcheck he told me that "the first time I heard Dylan was my psychic bar-mitzvah". It's become my personal bit of Robyn Hitchcock wisdom that I carry with me wherever I go...like the American Express card...I don't leave home without it. It's the reason that everywhere I go, every car I rent, there's always at least one or two Dylan CDs in the glovebox (and of course a bit of Robyn as well). I ran into Robyn by chance in San Francisco the last time I was there...thankfully he remembered me from the Maxwells days and we took this photo: http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/fkguitar/Robyn.FK.SF.jpg Also worth noting was opener, the lovely Emma Swift, an up and comer from down under (now residing in Nashville). Her dark alt country psychedelia sometimes brought to mind Mazzy Star, and as she sang, we all felt as if Gram Parsons' ghost was never far away. Check her out at <http://emmaswift.com.au/> . Here's the original video of "Madonna Of The Wasps", performed by Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians, from the album "Queen Elvis" (1989). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J_1Fs9_J_A

[freddiekatz]

I was doing the yearly reorganization of stray paper tonight (which generally means throwing most of it out!) and I just found the setlist from the show I did with Chris Spedding back in 2000, complete with notes. With all of my travels through rock-n-roll I still have to say that playing with Chris was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had...he was and still remains one of my all time guitar heroes; a huge influence on my playing.

If you're not familiar with Chris this is a good place to begin:

http://www.amazon.com/Very-Best-Chris-Spedding/…/ref=sr_1_3…

You can also probably look through your albums and find that's he's played on half of your collection with artists like Paul McCartney, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, John Cale, Elton John, Harry Nilsson, Cass Elliott, Rodriguez, Robert Gordon, Joan Armatrading, Brian Eno!, Gilbert O'Sullivan, John Phillips, The Bay City Rollers, Dee Dee Ramone, Donovan, Jack Bruce, Cilla Black, Tom Waits, The Vibrators, Marc Almond, Laurie Anderson, Petula Clark and so on and so on and so on and...................

[freddiekatz]

Mixing monitors for Wishbone Ash at BB King’s NYC. So much fun working with these guys. Classic early seventies British Rock, the stuff I grew up on really...pre-punk.

Got to hang out with Andy Powell after soundcheck and converse about the glory days of Strawbs, Fairport, Renaissance, Van Der Graaf, etc. A night to remember😊

[freddiekatz]

I was recently bestowed the honor by the lovely and talented Donna Destri of accompanying her on guitar for a couple of bonus numbers in her solo performance at The Laurie Beechman Theater this past weekend.

Here’s a little clip of our acoustic rendering of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World". Video courtesy of Josephine Buckley.

http://spincyclenyc.com/index.php/drag/185-destri

[freddiekatz]

Shakin’ Street’s “Psychic”

This is exciting!...the Shakin Street album that I was involved in recently is finally out. The track I worked on is called "It's Too Late". Fabienne Shinedecided that she wanted to cut the backing vocal tracks in New York with me, so we enlisted the amazing vocal stylings of Tish and Snooky. I arranged the backing vocal parts with them and cut the tracks here at Sierra Sound. We did several layers, and what you're hearing in the final result is in effect a whole choir of Tish and Snookies!! I think they offset Fabienne Shine's lead vocal perfectly. Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb5IB_Ux4pU

The album is called "Psychic" and you can find it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Psychic-Shak…/…/B00J6KBX88/ref=sr_1_2…

[freddiekatz]

A few shots of Book Of Love from their show near Sacramento this past Saturday. They had the whole audience singing along for the choruses on this one; I was proud to be behind the big board:-)

[freddiekatz]

Recording Fabienne Shine

Worked most of the day today at Sierra Sound on completing some lead guitar overdubs and beginning the final mix of a tune that I've co-written with Fabienne Shine which I'm producing for what's going to be her next solo record. And for an extra added treat keyboards and backing vocals were provided by NYC's own Patti Rothberg. I don't want to give too much away, but this track is something of an homage to the late, great

. I've been a huge fan of Fabienne Shine and Shakin' Street since they first appeared in the early eighties...had her poster on my wall when I was a kid and everything, so it's really an incredible honor to work with her. There are a few great perks in this rock-n-roll thing, and this is certainly one of the best ones:-)

http://freddiekatz.com/FK/studio.html 

[freddiekatz]

Recording Smashed Gladys @ Sierra Sound, Hell's Kitchen, NYC

Spent the day at my studio Sierra Sound working on bonus tracks for the much anticipated reissue of Smashed Gladys' 1988 album "Social Intercourse". I loved seeing this band live back in the day (I even shot some promo pix for them back when I was doing photography at SVA....the Danceteria invite pictured here is mine), so it's a genuine BLAST to work on this album! Perhaps having this record out in the world again will inspire some new bands to start making some REAL ROCK-N-ROLL!! One can only hope.... 

[freddiekatz]

So I finally had a chance to see the Nick Cave film, and I’m so glad that I did. It’s an amazing, inspiring film, and on so many levels. Finally, a rock documentary that isn’t simply one talking head interview after another. Similar to the way that Truman Capote’s "In Cold Blood" was a...

[freddiekatz]

NICK CAVE "20,000 Days On Earth"

So I finally had a chance to see the Nick Cave film, and I'm so glad that I did. It's an amazing, inspiring film, and on so many levels. Finally, a rock documentary that isn't simply one talking head interview after another. Similar to the way that Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" was a "non-fiction novel", "20,000 Days On Earth" is something of a "fictional documentary". That's not to say that anything in it is made up, but like the way the events encompassed by "In Cold Blood" are described within the contrivances of a novel, "20,000 Days On Earth" displays the life of Nick Cave as contrived for the camera. We see Cave's life and artistic process filtered through the lens of the filmmaker's artistic process, and in so doing we are given a "truer" picture of an artist's life than a more clinical approach ever could.

http://filmforum.org/film/20000-days-on-earth-film-page#trailer

As Jeanette Winterson famously writes: "There's no such thing as autobiography, there's only art and lies," This concept is neatly summed up by one REBECCA W. in a blog I came across called ENG233/BRITISH WOMEN WRITERS:

"art is a lie told to reveal truth. A painting, for example, is not a completely-true representation of its subject. It is influenced by the artist's mind, style, eye sight, and methods...no one looks at the apples in a Cezanne still life thinking those apples are up for eating - it's obvious the apples are part of a two-dimensional representation of apples using paint....it was meant to represent the subject and whatever meaning the artist endowed it with. Is it a lie if the art being questioned does not try to be anything other than what it is? Strictly, in terms of representing apples that are not real, physical, bite-into-and-eat-them apples, the painting...is a lie"

"20,000 Days On Earth" illustrates this idea beautifully, in celluloid.

http://smocksandfriedeggs.blogspot.com/2009/03/jeanette-winterson-art-and-lies.html

Oh...and as if all of that isn't cool enough, here's another little bit of info; directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard said that two key cinematic influences were the Led Zeppelin doc "The Song Remains the Same", and Jean-Luc Godard's film featuring The Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil." 

Like

[freddiekatz]

RIP Leee Black Childers

It's with a heavy heart that I post this today, having just learned of the passing of the inimitable Leee Black Childers. It was an honor to have known you. I'll miss our conversations, your wit, and your wisdom. This was from one of Peter Crowley's first Max's reunions, at Kenny's. Leee (L), with Peter, Dina Regine, and myself. Reposez en paix mon ami."

Max's Reunion #1 (L)

early 70s with Jackie Curtis and Cherry Vanilla (Above)

[freddiekatz]

Candelabra cover unveiled! Today I've learned that I've been bestowed an amazing honor. Apparently, my friend Andee Blacksugar, an amazingly talented guitarist and singer in his own right, with his band Black Sugar Transmission, and also a part of Peter Murphy's touring band, has recorded his own version of a song from Patti Rothberg's "Candelabra Cadabra" album, "To A Muse". The track was written by Patti, and I produced and mixed it, and created the guitar and keyboard arrangements. For a musician of Andee's exceptional abilities to have been moved enough by what we did to decide to do his own take on it, frankly leaves me without words, except for these...thank you Andee. And thank you Patti Rothberg. The original version from "Candelabra Cadabra": https://soundcloud.com/freddie-katz/to-a-muse-patti-rothberg-from Andee Blacksugar's version: https://soundcloud.com/bstcovers/to-a-muse-patti-rothberg-cover

[freddiekatz]

Another photographic nugget unearthed: I've always loved The Strawbs...those part Celtic folk, part prog, part metal, always beautiful songs of Dave Cousins spoke to me, even when I was too young to understand the nuances of the lyrics. I remember when I was about twelve or thirteen they were a staple of FM rock radio...their albums "Deep Cuts" and "Burning For You" (both amongst the coolest album covers ever!) were in heavy rotation at that time. Years later I was introduced to them by Pat Kenny over at Kenny's Castaways, which was where I had my first live sound job ever. Dave Cousins and Brian Willoughby were in town for a couple of low key acoustic shows, the first stateside Strawbs activity in some time; this was probably around 1993 or so, maybe '94...I mixed the show and then hung with the two of them all night; got my first real taste of how the old school English rockers can drink!! Years later, maybe 2004 or so, when the entire band had reformed, including Dave Lambert, and they were doing their first proper tour of the states in quite some time, I got wind that they were going to be appearing at The Towne Crier up in Pawling, NY. I used to play there regularly with the band I was with at that time, Patti Rothberg's band, and so I called up Phil Ciganer, the owner/booker of the club, and asked him if he could find me a guest list spot. The show was already sold out...there was literally not one single seat left. Not to be deterred, I suggested to Phil, "why don't you use me to do the sound that night? That way you don't have to find a seat for me, and you can save money on the sound person that night...the sound job can be my admission ticket price". Once I explained that I'd met The Strawbs before, mixed them before, etc., Phil agreed and I was in! Got to mix The Strawbs and hang with them again. It was a great night!  Here's a photo from The Towne Crier that night, from left to right, Brian Willoughby, Dave Lambert, Dave Cousins, and yours truly. For those of you who are fans there's a Strawbs Facebook group that you can join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/125319430894924/ Oh and by the way...the next time you hear "Sanitarium", by Metallica, keep in mind that they ripped that entire riff (and at least half of the song really!), from a Strawbs song from many years earlier, "Down By The Sea", from their 1973 album "Bursting At The Seams". I only mention it because Metallica makes such a big deal over piracy, royalties, etc....but apparently they have no qualms about stealing riffs from the bands that they grew up with. Take a listen to both tracks and see if you agree with me that Metallica ought to be paying some publishing royalties to The Strawbs! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Som1k26YJE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQoxtlrUL8w

[freddiekatz]

My first time at CBGB's:

My first time there was in 1979 to see Nico do a solo performance, with John Cale joining her on viola. I was sixteen years old. It was life changing. It was unlike anything that I'd ever seen before anywhere. It completely blew out of the water my idea of what a "rock concert" was all about. All of a sudden the latitude of what was possible widened exponentially. I've attached a couple of photos from that evening...that particular show was legendary enough that I've been able to find photos from it all over the web.

[freddiekatz]

♫ Hotel Ruin and Other (Vintage) Minor Disturbances and B-Sides - Amy Madden. Listen @cdbaby

Click to listen at CDBaby

Hey all you glitter kids! I'm proud to announce that my dear friend and musical collaborator for many years, the lovely and talented Amy Madden, has released a new album which includes some archival material that I produced and recorded for her back in the bad old days of the eighties.  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/amymadden The tracks I'm involved with are: 5. In the Beginning (Julia) (dedicated to the fabulous and inimitable Julia Kent) 6. The House Where Jody Lives (feat. Freddie Katz) Amy on vocals and bass, I'm on guitars and everything else. Pick it up...Amy's a great artist, worthy of our attention:-)

[freddiekatz]

Goth Scene, LA (33 photos)

Gothic...yet another subsection of the music scene in which Los Angeles is kicking the crap out of NYC hands down. I love and admire my friends Jason Ledyard and Xtine Johnes and their Absolution party (https://www.facebook.com/AbsolutionNYC) ...they're the only game in town, and despite an apathetic scene and a city economy that is unforgiving, they still put in the effort to keep it going. LA is a different story, though. There's a huge Goth scene there...between Perversion (https://www.facebook.com/PerversionPage),Deadcadence LA, and Bar Sinister (https://www.facebook.com/ClubBarSinister), I was out at Goth events two or three nights a week...all packed, all really fun! Here's a little photo chronicling of my LA Goth travels. Enjoy.

 — in Los Angeles, CA.