what's new

Second Message From Gary
November 1, 1995

Hey guys...sorry it's taken so long to get back on line in the flesh so to speak...meantime, haven't Tanya and Abner Dumoff done a great job on my web page? Still don't have a computer to see it myself though (and resisting the impulse to get one, Luddite that I am).

Since the last communique I've been back to Sicily with Jonathan Kane for outdoor festival dates in and around Palermo. Great response—we played over 5 nights to about 4,000 people in an open air ampitheater, one night as the Gods and Monsters power trio with cool Fabio Lannino on bass, and the other nights as a mutant interstellar jam laboratory with the great French avant-guitarist Jean-Francois Pauvros under the name Uncle Dundia (Fabio's kid's mispronunciation of "Uncle Jonathan"...). Good writeup in the Sicilian newspaper saying I was in "gran forma". I try...

Anyway, just returned from a solo tour of Holland, one of the first countries in Europe to really embrace my playing (God Bless the Dutch... 60's ideologies that are routinely scoffed at here by decadent hipsters have come to mean something genuine there—quite the liberated country in many ways) and one of my favorite places to play. The tour coincided with the premiere tv broadcast on the Dutch Arts Channel Kunstkanaal of a 1 hour video-documentary on my music entitled "GUITAR UNBOUND". They broadcast the thing *6* times in one day (blush) and I got people stopping me in the street thereafter. The first gig was at Amsterdam's counterpart to the Knitting Factory, the fabulous BimHuis, and in attendance were some of my longtime Dutch supporters as well as new friends like Peter Visser, the guitarist from the Netherlands group Betty Serveert. My base of operations throughout was the Hotel Winston in Amsterdam, right in the heart of the red light district—I totally recommend the establishment to anyone looking for a relatively inexpensive lodging in Amsterdam as well as a totally cool environment to hang. The Winston has an adjacent bar/club called Winston Kingdom, and I did several late night appearances there after returning from the various gigs.

Tilburg was a real pleasure, and I did a workshop for guitarists in the afternoon before the show. Utrecht too was another standout (I do best in college towns...) with wall to wall supporters generating the kind of feedback that I thrive on as a live performer.

Then it was back and onto a gig with Peter Stampfel at NY's Symphony Space as The Du-Tels—really warm reception from an audience who I don't think knew anything about either of us, but unfortunately we got the hook after a half hour to let the other groups play. Peter and I are both really proud of our twisted children's album "The Rotten Family" and are now finalizing details with an as yet unnamed record company for release in early '96—can't wait to spring it on y'all, definitely some of our best work acoustically to date. Peter and I are playing The Mercury Lounge here on Friday Dec. 1st by the way... and this Friday Nov. 3rd Gods and Monsters return to the Mercury Lounge headlining at around 11-11:30 pm—Emily is in great voice and Jonathan Kane and Jean Chaine are ready to rip...Then I'm off to San Francisco and Chicago to do "The Golem" in a solo guitar version on a Knitting Factory supported minitour.

The gig last Sunday with original collaborator/conspirator Walter Horn was amazing and I wish Walter was available to do more gigs with me, he is an excellent keyboardist and improviser who should be a lot better known (look out for his band Road Parrot who should have a CD out next year).

The day after I return I'm hooking up with those psychedelic trip-hop guys The Departure Lounge DJ's Adam Goldstone and Perry Brandston for an ambient psychodrama we're calling "Veteran's Day Poppy" in honor of the Beefheart tune and holiday—should be some unearthly noise generated at145 Ludlow Street. The following Wednesday I've been invited to join a stellar lineup of NYC-based performers doing their own versions of "Amazing Grace" at the St. Mark's Church - I plan a solo electronic instrumental take on the tune and in fact have been integrating it into the intro to "Peep Show Bible" with Gods and Monsters as well as making it part of the solo guitar instrumental version of a new composition entitled "The Highest Mountain" which I performed throughout the Dutch tour.

That's it for now—look forward immensely to seeing you/meeting you at upcoming gigs—for the European supporters, there's an extensive tour in the works for early February-March, details coming soon. Oh yeah—just wrote a song with Richard Barone for Fred Schneider's upcoming solo album on Reprise (he's recording as I write with Steve Albini producing)...just did a cameo in an upcoming feature film entitled "All Over Me" as a sales guy in a guitar store, set for release in '96 (costarring Alicia from The Murmurs)...

Love you all, Gary.