Category Archives: live

Anton Fier is Dead.

by

A very sad and troubled obituary for the drummer Anton Fier, who lived a rocketship of a life full of celebrity and achievement but could not reach escape velocity from his own inner demons. Read it here.

I saw him live twice. He was backing the guitarist Tony Scherr in front of a crowd of maybe 30 15? people in the intimate and far from sold out Living Room on New York City’s Lower East Side. I was there because my friend Walker was a fan of Scherr, who played guitar on at least some of Norah Jones’ records. It turns out I wrote about Fier and the Golden Palominos here in 2014.

“He was playing drums because that’s what he does.” Here he is playing drums with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith in Japan in 1984, ferociously. Rest in peace.

Interview with Robert Fripp

by

We’ve featured Fripp’s YouTube videos with his wife Toyah, which they started putting out each Sunday during lockdown.

We loved In the Hall of the Crimson King when it came out, and we love his production of the first Roche’s album, which was so gorgeously perfect it’s hard to imagine better.

So, now he’s on the road with his manager, speaking and giving Guitar Craft lessons, and he just seems like a heck of a guy. Read the interview here.

The Times screws up credit for Frippertronics, so here’s a demonstration:

Chuck Berry and John Lennon on Mike Douglas

by

This clip is another example of Mike Douglas’s magic. John Lennon meets Chuck Berry for the first time and they do a kind of weak Memphis Tennessee because Lennon seems to be insisting on sharing vocals.

On Johnny B. Goode balance is restored.

I’m a fan of Yoko’s, but her mike seems to be cut in the Johnny B. Goode mix. It’s just weird during Memphis Tennessee.

Amy Madden, The Red and the Blue

by
There’s an excellent story in the NY Times about Amy Madden, who I wouldn’t have known about if Ginia Bellafante didn’t write about her.

You can read it here. And you can hear an excellent song by her here, with her playing the guitar and Jon Paris playing harmonica.

Here’s a clip of her playing bass in Jon Paris’s band. Which gets funner as it goes along.