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October 06, 2005
He Fills His Head With Culture
How does a smart and self-aware music journalist preview the reunion tour of a seminal and much-lauded art-punk band without feeling like he's simply throwing more of the same ol' crit-speak out into the ether? In his Gang of Four preview in the new Independent, Chris Toenes tackles this task by going a little meta and asking around locally. A couple of my personal Gang of Four anecdotes wound up getting printed alongside some excellent rhythm-section talk from the one and only Dave Cantwell.
Unlike Cantwell, I was never very good at drumming in a Hugo Burnham style. Joby's Opinion spent at least one or two practices trying to work out a cover of "Natural's Not In It", since (a) it is an awesome song and (b) we figured we could have a good laugh by playing it immediately after our "Ether"-quoting "Chinese Jet Pilot". On a few occasions we even joked about taking the whole thing to the next level and forming a Gang of Four cover band called "Entertainment!". But I quickly realized that I didn't have the drumming chops necessary to play all of those incredible syncopated beats and rhythms - such a critical part of the Gang of Four sound.
At any rate, Entertainment!
Hey Ya! With Damaged Goods Drums
Incidentally, while mixing these drums in I realized for the first time that "Hey Ya!" has a really weird time signature. I think it's 11/4, maybe? The main phrase is 22 or 11 beats long, depending on how you count it.
Back to Gang of Four....it looks like the Cradle show is finally sold out as of tonight. I've got one extra ticket that I need to get rid of, so holler at me if you don't have a ticket but want one...
Posted by Tim at October 6, 2005 01:14 AM