I went to see a free performance by Llyn Foulkes last week (a day after I saw The Residents - can this year get any weirder?) and even tho I was a half-hour early, there was a shockingly long line around the UCLA Hammer Museum courtyard, and I couldn't get in to the show - I had to watch it on video in another room. Gol darn it! I'd seen him twice before and there was a crowd of maybe...30? What are all these people doing here at a show by a 78-year-old eccentric singing about old L.A. whilst performing on a crazy one-man-band contraption of honk horns and tuned cowbells? That's my department! Hey, I get to be an old punk-rocker now: (snearing) "I was into Llyn Foulkes before anyone. All his fans now are poseurs."
I guess the fact that the prestigious Hammer Museum is in the midst of a career retrospective of Foulkes' paintings had something to do with it. Or the awesome tremendous influence of this blog, as I've written about him before. Yeah, that's probably it. So while much verbiage is being spilled about his visual art, his music only gets mentioned in passing. Okay, this is my department: he's crazy brilliant, starting with his instrument building - his 'Machine' is huge and heavy, not the usual guitar w/harmonica holder/cymbals on the legs kinda one-man-band. He's a tremendous performer, skillfully honking out the 'horn charts,' grabbing drumsticks and playing melodies on cowbells and a xylophone, blowing free-jazz on a hose, rubbing his foot along a bass guitar on the floor as his other foot hits various drums and cymbals.
And he's a good songwriter. Original tunes are a rarity in this gimmicky field, and Foulkes' memories and observations of Los Angeles (and his own foibles) are a perfect match for his swingin' tunes, inspired by the big-band and Spike Jones records of his youth. The Jones influence is prevalent not just in the tuned cowbells, but in the funny sound effects that punctuate the songs, lightening up the sometimes morose nature of the lyrics. His singing's okay, but has a rough charm.
It looks like his sole release from 2004 has vanished, so I'm giving you-all not only its original contents, but 5 more recent performances, audio recorded off various videos. All origs, except for a cover of Hank William's "Your Cheating Heart."
Llyn Foulkes and his Machine - Live!
6 comments:
I want the same one!
I was thinking that, too -can you build one for me, Llyn?
Can anyone figure out the correct track numbers? There are 3 files numbered "00" with no track number in the metadata, and two numbered "08" both in the file name and metadata. I hunted around the Web for a playlist, without success. It may require possession of the CD.
Follow up on track numbers
OK, I read the f***in' post, and I see that the 8 properly numbered tracks in *.m4a format are probably from one album, and the other 5 are the extras mentioned in the f***in' post.
Now, I'm confused about the album names. The metadata for the 8 *.m4a's claims the album name is "Llyn Foulkes and His Machine," while the bonus tracks claim to belong to "Llyn Foulkes and His Machine - Live!" which corresponds to the album cover in the f***in' post.
Can someone clarify, or at least confuse me more satisfactorily?
Mike: you're worrying about this way too much.
Heh heh. but yes, the 8 m4a tracks are from the original album, which didn't really have a name - more like a label: "Llyn Foulkes and his Machine live at the Church of Art." I abbreviated it for convenience's sake. The other tracks are from videos, and I don't remember why they were numbered as such. Probably just thought that the sequence flowed better in that order.
btw, there's a doc film out now called "Llyn Foulkes One Man Band." It recently played around L.A.
Just one more question ..
I PROMISE!
Is the hyphen in "anal-retentive" correct?
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