|
Pulse of the Twin Cities Login |
|
If you do not have an account yet
Create One.
|
|
|
Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
|
|
|
|
The Gang Font, feat. Interloper
Wednesday 18 April @ 16:11:09 |
  by CHRISTOPHER MATTHEW JENSEN
Hmmm … where to begin? The word "multifarious"? I can't say jazz. I can't say rock. The band says "punkprogfreefunkmathmetal," but I say that's a mouthful. This is an ensemble with a cast that reads like a Twin Cities audiophile's wet dream: David King (Happy Apple, Bad Plus, Halloween, Alaska) lays stick, Erik Fratzke (Happy Apple, Zebulon Pike) brings pseudo-metal guitar riffage with remarkable mathemagicianship, reknowned New York jazzbo Craig Taborn adds mostly avant-prog keyboards, and the famously mustachioed Greg Norton (Hüsker Dü, Grey Area) makes his grand return to four fat strings.
Unlike some all-star collaborations, there's no pretense of specified form here. Whimsy pushes and pulls the sound around like it's a grain of sand against a tide of whimsy. Fratzke and King poke their necks up highest in the mix, but both Taborn and Norton have integral presence--both in terms of rhythm and harmony.
How did so many heads sprout up on one body? Apparently, Norton went to see the Bad Plus as a fan, met Dave King, and soon an offer was on the table to jam. Reached via e-mail, Norton, who didn't even own an amp at the time, explains, "I couldn't pass up an opportunity to play with somebody like Dave."
Versatile composer, in-demand session drummer, and reigning king of the onstage soliloquy, Dave King has established himself as one of the premier figures in contemporary jazz with his trios Happy Apple and The Bad Plus. With a volatile and free mania, King drives Gang Font feat. Interloper like a drunken Formula 1 superstar giddy at the wheel of a tricked-out and souped-up Corvair. But despite the rumbling and zigzagging in seemingly reckless jubilation, King's got the lucidity of a crack surgeon; the music ebbs and oscillates with dazzling contour.
King grew up with Taborn, first performing with him at a party in seventh grade, and has played alongside Fratzke in Happy Apple for over a decade. But until the chance encounter that spawned Gang Font feat. Interloper, King and Norton had never even met. Describing the band's first rehearsals, King says, "It was slow but sure," quipping in his usual fashion, "[Norton's] genius unfolds on you like a soft blanket made of mustaches."
 At 48, having been out of music for roughly 15 years, Norton's return is as unlikely as it is triumphant. Since 2003, he and his wife have owned and operated an award-winning restaurant and winery in Bay City, Wis., called The Norton's. But the music never left. Intrigued by King's offer, Norton has stepped back out into the world of music, playing and recording with Gang Font and recently collaborating with Rhys Chatham at a show at The Whole in Coffman Union.
After Hüsker Dü disbanded amidst intra-band tension and rivalry in the late '80s, the band's principal songwriters, Bob Mould and Grant Hart, went on to form solo projects and have continued to work in the music industry. Norton's post-Hüsker career was much shorter lived.
"I moved outside the Twin Cities and had a mortgage to pay," he explains. "I was suddenly without an income, so I had a shift in my priorities. I did eventually meet up with Colin Mansfield and Jo Jones and we started Grey Area. We were together for about two years. And about a year after Grey Area broke up I went out on the road to do a short Canadian tour with Sonny Vincent's band Shotgun Rationale. It was a fun tour and Sonny wanted to take the band to Europe, but since he couldn't provide any contracts and guaranteed money I had to opt out (the mortgage thing, again)."
Not only does Norton's bass playing with Gang Font show no ill effects due to his time away from the instrument, the remarkable vigor and complexity with which he plays on the record makes it seem like he spent the entirety of his time off regimentally honing his skills. Whether it's the punkish power thrusts on "Spencer's Background vs. Todd's Claim," or the not-so-far-from free-jazz skittering stumble lines on "Homage: Cloud Schnell," it's obvious he's not just another name to help fill a lineup of local stars; he's there to bring it.
With a sound at least conscious of, although probably not really indebted to, the prog-metal attack of shredders like Yngwie Malmsteen (incidentally my favorite name to say, write or even think about), each player seems to spew out a unique flavor of math-centric eccrine. As a whole, it's free-wheeling, discordant and angular music that's equally out of place in either the rock or jazz camp. The jazz crowd will call it "different." The rock world will ask, "Why does it have to be so difficult?" But those folks can suck a square-pop--honorable are they that defy genre. And if that tomatoes your visage, you can mind the inverted consequent of that last statement. On a day when you're likely to be inundated with Hitler's Birthday/Happy Smoke-a-Bong drivel, what better way to clear all that shit out of your head than by bombarding your ears with music that's joyously difficult? Considering these dudes' schedules you may not have another chance for quite some time. ||
The Gang Font, feat. Interloper play the CD release show for their self-titled debut on Fri., Apr. 20 at Seventh St. Entry with Elf Power. 8 p.m. $8. 21+. 29 N. 7th St., Mpls. 612-332-1775. For more info, check out their MySpace page at myspace.com/thegangfontfeatinterloper.
|
|
 |
|
|
Comments -
Post Comment |
|
The comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for its content.
NO comments yet! Be the first!
|
|
|
