DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
My Fellow Americans, Life is actually just a microscopic, deluded moment in time, so let's cut to the freakin' chase. One look at our impending election debacle can solidify my case. It has been my contention since birth, that the answer to every difficulty we encounter on this sacred yet demented Stone, can be revealed with ultimate clarity through the ultra neurotic engagements of Music, Art, Literature, Film, Poetry and a good Pastrami sandwich. Why would any sane human spend so must time on a film set (Do you know how long you gotta wait until your 8 second deliverance of an edited beyond repair line gets a chance to become a professional embarrassment etched in time forever? ) or expend so much energy in a recording studio, piecing together another ode to a man or woman who could not care less how much love existed within your digestive tract? It's all about hymns and prayers and a quest for mercy and forgiveness and silence and faith. We were blessed with Charles Bukowski, Gene Chandler, Lenny Bruce, Mitch Ryder and a legion of creative explorers whose influences provided the air we breathe. So Let's Dance! This site shall explore the reaper, find a way to disarm the stench of injustice, discover some true loves and talk it all over before it's all over. So what's the worst that our desires could produce? Failure? So sue me. I'm going to require your assistance in making as much trouble for the grown-ups as possible. Let the record show that my childish heart yearns to disrupt the madness. Join me Ladies and Germs!
With Gratitude For Gena Rowlands, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Quarry, Leo Gorcey, Arthur Alexander and Joey Heatherton, Your Splendid Bohemian, Rich Buckland.
DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - STRING THEORY WITH KALEIDOSCOPE AND TELEVISION. DOUBLE DOWN!!
DT: STRING THEORY / TELEVISION AND KALEIDOSCOPE
The guitar as we know it has had an illustrious evolution, starting its journey in ancient Mesopotamia, then finding its earliest recognizable incarnation 5 centuries ago in Spain, and continuing to move through various cultures until blossoming into its electric manifestation in the modern era. It was the magic wand to the baby boom generation - suddenly, everybody had to have one to express themselves, along with a garage band with whom to practice their 3 chord fantasies.
Then, there were the transcendental wizards who blazed trails of such sonic originality that the instrument’s sound never got boring. Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, to name a couple. Most of them were firmly rooted in the blues form. Today we feature two bands (Television and Kaleidoscope) whose unique recorded output, though small, blew minds with their sublime, far-reaching soundscapes - reaching deeply into themselves, and searching widely for other cultural inspirations to make original music no 60s/70s rocker teens had even heard before.
KALEIDOSCOPE
David Lindley merged his folk cred with Solomon Feldhouse who brought a middle eastern sensibility to the mix, and they struck world-fusion-rock gold. Lindley started off as a banjo picker, but could play anything with strings, and Feldhouse, a Flamenco artist who had grown up in Turkey, was giggling as an accompanist for belly dancers. Theirs was an unlikely, but unimpeachable partnership.
In this cut from their 1967 debut album, Side Trips, the boys take us on a magical mystery tour through the sanctum of the Egyptian Gardens, where Oud riffs twirl madly through the perfumed air, and scantily clad dancers hypnotize us with their charms.
TELEVISION
Punk music was completely democratic. It was said that you didn’t have to have chops to play; all you needed was passion. Not so with Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s band Television. Their debut album, 1977’s Marquee Moon immediately splintered that myth. The two virtuoso guitarist’s method of meshing their sound together threw down the gauntlet to any aspiring duelists, and their achievement remains unparalleled, and unchallenged.
It was an intellectual approach heretofore unseen in CBGBs, and the other dives of the lower east side. There was a jazz-like, improvisational element at work, and in the record’s eponymous cut, Marquee Moon, you can hear Verlaine and Lloyd spur each other on to increasingly ecstatic heights.
