| "A
Message From Nels" |
Winter
'04/'05 Edition |
This is what is generally termed THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE. Welcome! Yours truly, Nels Cline, is best known as a guitarist, is sometimes known to have penned a composition or two, and is often known for largely improvised forays into sound, melody, and rhythm. I was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1956. I have a twin brother named Alex who is also a musician (and a damned fine one at that!). After a long run of mostly obscure activities in the U.S. and Europe (see the Discography Dept. for added clues and/or insights), I have landed in a rather notable ROCK band called WILCO. This occurred in Spring of 2004, and it is a real pleasure, let me tell you. I'm still doing a lot of other music when time allows, and this site is the place to find out about all of that. My working band that plays my own type of instrumental music is called THE NELS CLINE SINGERS. As it is the nature of so-called "jazz" and freely improvised musics, I am often found collaborating with a large and sometimes unpredictable pool of musicians from all over the place. Don't get confused, this is fun! Check it out... |
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Some
of the artists I collaborate with and/or work for may be familiar to
you. Many of them will not be. Lately I've been working with quite a
few so-called singer-songwriters - a strange, unplanned pleasure! But
most often you can find me playing for between 10 and 100 or so folks
in a gallery, old theater, or dingy nightclub playing with odd and often
magically gifted instrumentalists. Some of these sounds have - often
erroneously - been labeled "jazz", though at times that term
seems accurate. I come from a musical twilight zone in which world communication/awareness
and cultural boundaries were expanded, altered, exploded. Like many
people who were affected by the revolutionary atmosphere of the late
Sixties and early Seventies, I remember what change could feel like,
what kind of pure magic sound can create. Hell, I believe in the transcendent
properties of art, in its ability to affect one's life in a profound
way. And, as I've previously stated here, I still - after over 30 years
of guitarcentric creative endeavors - derive a near-moronic pleasure
from playing the various musics I play. I've never had a plan. I'm practically
my own worst enemy! But I haven't given up yet - and don't think I haven't
been tempted to! But check out my tiny life and the wonderful people
who I get to share musicmaking with. How did this come to be? Welcome
to my world! It's just like yours, only different. We all make choices,
we all have accidents - the good kind and the bad kind. My life's chock
full of 'em, lord knows.... Anyway, the goals of this Site are simple:
1) To supply up-to-date and reliable information as
to my whereabouts and my recorded output (I'm pretty hard to find at
your local record store), 2) To offer any insights
and answer questions that frequently get asked of me (usually in a tongue-in-cheek
style, but the message is in there) 3) To break down
the image of the so-called artist as vaunted, remote, or unknowable
(well, this artist, anyway), 4) To supply links to
other weird and/or wonderful souls out there in cyberspace (read: you
are not alone!), and 5) To have some fun with this
medium by giving free reign to diatribes, drawings, and (coming soon)
notably odd, rare, and mostly bootleg sound files (mp3s) that will add
to and/or shed light on my work. This
fall/winter has seen rather an avalanche of releases that I'm responsible
for initiating or that am in strong evidence on. Here they are:
This
is the second Singers album (the first was INSTRUMENTALS,
also on Cryptogramophone), and like its predecessor it features yours
truly along with Bay Area rhythm section aces Devin Hoff on acoustic
AKA contra bass and Scott
Amendola on drumset, percussion, and live electronics/loops/treatments.
It was produced by my old friend and musical comrade, violinist and
Cryptogramophone prez Jeff
Gauthier. It was recorded and mixed by Rich Breen. It features 2
guests: Jon Brion
- the rather legendary multi-instrumentalist/producer/film composer
- who plays various keyboards on 2 tracks, and Deerhoof
drummer Greg Saunier on wordless singing on 1 track. How lucky am I??
Anyway, check out all the web info and music you can by all these individuals
just mentioned. Here is the track listing: BLUES, TOO - FLY FLY - HE
STILL CARRIES A TORCH FOR HER - THE BALLAD OF DEVIN HOFF - THE FRIAR
- SOMETHING ABOUT DAVID H. - BRIGHT MOON - A BOY NEEDS A DOOR - SQUARE
KING - SPELL - WATCH OVER US. The package design for this is really
quite sumptuous, and includes liner notes and artwork by yours truly.
Watch this site for new and extended notes on the songs/session. Many
thanks to the illustrious Jeff Gauthier.
Ms. Parkins and Mr. Rainey are New York residents and are generally associated with "jazz" and the so-called "Downtown scene". What they are are two fantastically talented and original voices on their instruments (accordion/laptop/piano and drums, respectively). Another thing they seem to have in common is that they seem to be rather less-recognized for their excellence by the American public. I initiated this trio, and whenever we get together (so far about once a year at Tonic in NYC) things really seem to HAPPEN. This is a studio recording of spontaneous improvisations that often have very compositional-sounding results. Chicago-based label Atavistic is a great label, and this is the third in a special series that they are calling "Out Trios". I think it came out good! Thanks to Atavistic and to the folks at LoHo Studios and Tonic, NYC. CRATER - PROCEED (Cycling '74 CD)
Crater is an improvising collective of ever-shifting personnel led by
Bay Area drum force Scott Amendola and laptop wizard/music software
designer jhno (pronounced ja-no). Bassist Todd Sickafoose was another
permanent contributor until he got pulled in many other directions (as
many a talented bass player can be!). I have been a guest on many a
Crater performance, and I know that in addition to the people you can
hear on this disc that great Northern California players like Carla
Kihlstedt, Marika Hughes, and Will Bernard have participated in what
is generally an open groove/ambient concept. This disc represents two
gigs that I happened to play on: One at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco
with Todd Sickafoose, guitarist Dave MacNab, and (of course) Scott and
jhno. It was actually my first Crater gig! The other (presented first
on the CD) found Crater quartet-ing it with Devin Hoff (Singers, Good
For Cows, The Redressers...) replacing Todd S. (who was on the road
with Noe Venable, as I recall) on the bass guitar, and it was recorded
at the Cayuga Vault in Santa Cruz, CA. I'm sure all you taper types
can find some other bootleg wail-a-thons out there. Lord knows, there
have been taped gigs galore! But for the rest of humanity, this little
document - 2 pieces maxing out the CD format - will handily suffice
as a Crater overview. jhno, who improvises along with us as much as
we endeavor to groove with his loops and such, performs on software
of his own design plus Kaos Pad and whatever else he shows up with,
and the results are pretty psychedelic. Plus, it was great to play with
the superb (and radiantly friendly) Dave MacNab. I think this may be
a primarily mail order item, so look online if this has you tantalized.
Sometimes records come out that one never knew were going to be records.
This is a rather brief but intense 'live' recording of a free-blow with
New York electronics/guitar terrorist Giffoni
and power freejazz wunderkind Massachusetts drummer Corsano. And me,
of course! It was performed at a marathon benefit for Brooklyn pirate
radio station "free" 103.9, and lo and behold, here it is
as a limited edition vinyl release. Side one is the actual 'live' performance,
and side two is a glitched-out treatment of the recording by Carlos.
Buying it will benefit the radio station, so start digging!
Officially, this is the third Banyan disc, but it is the first one that
really tries to document the personnel and the sound of the "core"
version of this instrumental project led by percussionist Stephen
Perkins. Stephen ("Perk"), Mike
Watt, Willie
Waldman (trumpet), and I recorded in fits and starts over the period
of almost a year in Stephen's garage studio (hence the album title),
and here - finally - are the results. These days, Banyan is actually
Stephen and Willie and whoever else is playing. Though Watt and I are
original members, we can't always do the gigs/mini-tours. But after
years of this basic lineup (including unheard 'live' painter Norton
Wisdom, whose spontaneous work graces the CD package), the neo-fusion
combo has a disc out that has that 'live' sound. Most of the pieces
are drone-y, most are penned by Mike Watt. I contributed one piece (track
9 - "King of Long Beach"). Guitar geeks note: I do a fair
amount of what is often referred to as "shredding" on this
record. Yikes! But there is also ample evidence of my "on the fly"
loops and treatments.
This is a compilation CD documenting 'live' experimental music in Los
Angeles. It is compiled/curated/produced by artist Cindy
Bernard and her staff of avant garde musicians, artists, and other
brainchildren. Track 1 is a version of John Coltrane's "Venus",
taken from what is currently the last performances that percussionist
Gregg Bendian
and I did of INTERSTELLAR SPACE (Revisited), our version/homage to the
album Coltrane did with Rashied Ali in 1967. This version is a lot longer
than the one on our Atavistic disc of this music - it's 14 minutes long!
But the whole disc is worth checking out, and completists will no doubt
be interested in hearing how Mr. Bendian and I have sort of grown into
this music since our earlier foray.
Singer/writer/general
provocateur Ms.
Lunch has been rankling, inspiring, and horrifying listeners, readers,
and filmgoers for many a year now. This, her latest album, may be one
of her best - and I don't say that just because I'm all over it! It
not only includes more groovy collaborations with the amazing Anubian
Lights gentlemen, but it has some spy/noir little big band arrangements
by yours truly and a large and illustrious supporting cast. Included
are Carla Bozulich,
Nils van Horn, Terry Edwards, Vinny
Golia, Tommy Grenas, Len Del Rio, Adele Bertei, Alex Cline, Joe
Berardi, Chuck Manning, John
Fumo... All assisting Lydia in her well-honed avocation of relating
tawdry tales of searing and smoldering dysfunction, decay, and disgust.
This is a really frothy and catchy little power pop ditty for kids of all ages, and it represents my first recording as a member of Wilco (contrary to the prevailing urban myth that I am a "touring member" of Wilco, I'm actually IN THE BAND). I ended up playing electric 12-string, some distant electric 6-string, and bass (!) on this. The session was really loose and relaxed. And it ended up having 9 kids and Jeff Tweedy's wife Sue in the big singalong! The whole CD has some great bands on it - from The Flaming Lips and The Shins to Motorhead. That's what I call musical superVISION....
Other
upcoming events/plans:
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