Wessell Anderson Gerry Hemingway Dave Stryker John ... - Downbeat

cline: I thought it was rather risky to deal
in grooves, because someone could point a finger
and say, “This is an Ali Farka Touré beat,”
or, “This is a Brazilian rhythm.” When I finally
decided to do my own stuff, I wanted it
to be free playing meets garage rock or King
Crimson, something I thought was authentically
white suburban stuff. Can’t say why. Plus, I
wasn’t happy. Things were good, but I felt a sadness
about other stuff. I thought of my love for
Brazilian pop. Finally I said I want some joy.
For some reason when Joe Zawinul died, something
about the joy in his best music really hit
me. Breskin said that Gunther Schuller said
that Zawinul threw away a concert career for
a riff. Which is exactly what I love about him!
Killer riffs. C’mon, the guy wrote “Country
Preacher.” I wanted to find some celebratory
energy, too. So after tossing this into the universe,
I just went for it, and my life changed.
Fell in love with Yuka. Happiness and groove
go together. In the ’80s, I played tons of funk
rhythm guitar. Sometimes I wanted to be Roger
Troutman from Zapp or Prince or Nile Rodgers.
ribot: I think that describes how I feel as
well. Going forward means going back to some
degree. I trust that desire to go back and find fun.
cline: The Postizos records you made have
emboldened me. You’ve done this killer grooving,
and I wrote a piece based on those records.
It’s still on the cutting room floor, but it’s there.
“Revenge Of The Piñata.”
let’s talk about a dream project.
What do you lie in bed and hope to
accomplish?
cline: A mood music record called Lovers.
Mood music except that the romance is more
dark and twisted, and not in a negative way. It’s
songs by other writers, reinvestigated and at the
same time honored. “Touching” by Annette
Peacock, “I Have Dreamed” from The King and
I. “Snare, Girl” by Sonic Youth. Something like
those Jackie Gleason 1000 Mandolins discs—
not as lame as that, but you should be able to put
it on in your bachelor pad.
Marc, what haven’t you gotten out
of your system?
ribot: I felt like I got something out of my
system with Silent Movies. I have a lot of things
to do, but one would be Ceramic Dog. We have
such a fantastic time playing together, laugh our
heads off and play amazing things, and my big
ambition for the next year is to translate that
into a record that causes listeners to react just
as strongly.
You guys have been everywhere.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever
seen from the stage?
cline: I didn’t see the wildest thing I ever
saw. I was on stage with Gregg Bendian do-
ing Interstellar Space in Portland, and I was so
completely lost in my world, I missed a woman
on the other side of Gregg’s drums, knocking
over all Gregg’s water and masturbating on
stage. They carried her out on a stretcher later. I
didn’t even notice.
ribot: Well, I would say that’s one of the
highest compliments to your solo that I could
ever imagine. That gives me a new ambition.
Mine will pale in comparison. You have a
choice, actually. What do you want, the night
the piano fell on Evan Lurie, or the night after
the Shrek show in Tokyo where the dominatrix
was dripping hot wax onto her victim laying
on the floor? The best is probably me, Shahzad
[Ismaily] and Ches [Smith] playing behind Iggy
Pop at a festival in the Ruhr Valley [in northwestern
Germany]. We convinced Iggy to do
“Mass Production” in a restored theater that
was once a factory that had poured the molten
steel for Nazi tanks. He was there without his
shirt on, wrapping the mic around his neck, encouraging
people to have a riot on stage. The
mental snapshot and soundtrack to that is one
of the stranger things I’ve experienced. But it’s
still not as good as that orgasm. DB
JULY 2011 DOWNBEAT 31