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Muddy Suzuki



Last Updated: 12/11/2009

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City: London
Country: UK

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009 

Current mood: naked/knackered
Category: Music
Howdy! Here's a festive treat dedicated to those of you who were with me/us back in the days when Lincoln was the place where it was all happening - when you could buy duckeggs from the Zyna store, O'Rourke's pub was still standing, and you could always "leave your duff updairs" at the Duke'O'Welly...

I've uploaded a brief excerpt from a Laurie Bennett and The Models gig from Spilsby Theatre that took place on the 19th of December 1997 (12 years ago, cripes!). For those of you who don't know, we were Lincoln's Maddest Band between 1996-2000 and on stage we would often break into 'spontaneous compositions', as Can would say (to the rest of us that means mucking about with no idea what was going to happen next). The track here is the ending of one such odd yet appropriate occurance...

That's the lad Laurie himself on guitar and lead vocal (hear what he's up to these days at www.myspace.com/thewintervisitors), Chris 'Daz' Disley on the ivories, Chris 'Raz' Ramsay on the bass guitar and yours truly on drums and high vocals.

Hope you enjoy! Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you'll be lying about unable to move.

Cheers!
Currently reading:
The Chrysalids
By John Wyndham
10:54 AM 
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Sunday, December 20, 2009 

Current mood: long johns
Category: Music
Hellope!

Just letting you know that some answers of mine to some questions have been posted on the Drift Records website here:

http://www.driftrecords.co.uk/archive/muddy-suzuki/

And there are currently other contributions from Jen of Something Beginning With L fame and Birdengine (whom i don't know personally but certainly seems to have an interesting lifestyle) which you can access from the homepage too.

It's been an interesting year and a bloomin' quick one too! I simply cannae believe it's nearly over already. All the more reason to make sure things get done in 2010, after all, we're doomed. Doomed! Or maybe not. But it's good to have a spur, i personally seem to work best to deadlines, and who knows, it could be the biggest damn deadline ever drawn!

But enough of such fatalisms. What have i to be getting on with during our next orbit of the Sun?

Having performed my first gigs as Muddy Suzuki i intend to do loads more in the new year, especially as i'll be getting my new album 'Head In The Sand' released, maybe in April time...

I am looking forward immensely (hmm... grammar) to playing live again with Clowns, and quite possibly a single release of 'Idiot Bouncing'...

Also i should be getting very involved with helping out Thomas White in his live shows to promote his second solo album 'The Maximalist'. In fact i was asked to drum on the forthcoming single, a re-recording of 'The Last Blast' from the aforementioned album. I haven't heard the finished version yet, but i know that it's a damn sight faster than the album version!

Hopefully Ataraxy will have finished their forthcoming EP 'All The Rage Now', and it would be silly not to do a gig or two around the time it's finished. I hope to be mixing it with Jon Clayton at One Cat Studio (also of SBL fame) in exchange for maybe doing some drums on new SBL material, we'll see.

And of course there'll doubtless be some more Restlesslist shenanigans, maybe some drum fun with The Winter Visitors and the highly esteemed (by me at least) Venus Willendorf, and possibly even a spot of Voluntary Butlering...

Sounds like a tall order. (I'll have one 65 foot ladder with jalapenos and goats cheese)

Stop writing now.

(Enjoy the Yuletide, folks! )
Currently listening:
Westing (By Musket and Sextant)
By Pavement
Release date: 2001-02-12
7:11 PM 
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Saturday, November 21, 2009 

Current mood: Delighted
Category: Music
Howdy folks!

Well, my new album, 'Head In The Sand', is now fully mixed, so i thought it only fair in this day of instant-communique-gratification that i put a couple of the tracks up here for you. I am very, very happy with it and would like to express here my gratitude to Owen Turner at Sickroom Studios and Jon Clayton at One Cat Studio for helping me to record the beast.

I'd also like to thank Becca Lee, Chris Disley, Rob Rosa, Jonathan Palmer and Charles Board who all appear on the album to do the things that i couldn't, Chris T-T who tuned the zither that i used on a track entitled 'The Demon Plasterer', Roger Rosa who recorded a double bass that i ended up not using (sorry!), Sean South who gave me two free days in the studio to record drums which i also ended up not using (double sorry!), and Nick Trepka, Rob Harrison, Laurie Bennett, Miles Heathfield, Aurora Sommer, Jason Prentis and Thomas White who all gave important suggestions (even though they might not have realised it at the time!).

Thanks ants. Thants.

And so now i just need to finalise the artwork, maybe get it mastered, and work out how i'm going to take it to market. I'll of course let everyone know...

So, the tracks now up on the player are:

1 - TANKS FOR ALL THE ENEMIES (from Head In The Sand)

2 - GEARSTICK CABARET (from Head In The Sand)

3 - YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS (from Head In The Sand)

4 - CHORUS TORTOISE (from Meetoo)

5 - MIDDLE EIGHT SNAKE (from Meetoo)

6 - D-PUNK/SHIMMERING (from Meetoo)

7 - AFTER YOU (from Meetoo)

8 - STRANGE RITUAL (from Duckeggdaze)

9 - ANAESTHESIA (from Under The Knife)

10 - PEARL'S NECKLACE (electric edition) - (from Scrape)

Hope you like!

Bye now!

Currently listening:
Stereopathetic Soul Manure
By Beck
Release date: 1994-03-24
10:47 AM 
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009 

Current mood:Carlsberg Export
Category: Music
I had the pleasure of seeing Brian Wilson and his band performing both Pet Sounds and Smile (at two seperate concerts) in their entirety a few years back. Yet as i listen now to the finished recording of Smile i find that although it's delightful to hear it in a completed form, it just doesn't have quite the same appeal as those oft-bootlegged/occasionally-officially-released recordings from back in the sixties. Don't get me wrong, musically it's faultless, i think it's the vocals as much as anything. The guys replicating the Beach Boys voices are just missing a certain... something - the main offender being 'Heroes And Villains' to my ears. Of course, Brian does well but the fact is his voice isn't what it was back in the day, and this is made very apparent on the tracks where he has to takes parts originally meant for his brother Carl.

Is it just me? Am i one of those fetishists who can't let go of the past, even though there is now an official, massive full stop on the whole situation? Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing piece of work, but i can't help but feel that it would have been so much better with the original guys singing... but of course that would never have happened! I should just be thankful that there is indeed a finished Smile. And as Brian, with Van Dyke Parks, was the creator of this music (okay, except for Good Vibrations, but i'm quite sure that was never intended as part of Smile originally), it's fair enough that another group of talented singers is allowed to perform this. Oh, for a time machine...

Blah blah blah. Never mind all that, just go and listen to it yourself and give your ears a gorgeous forty-seven minute treat.

Well. How are the children?

Anyway, other things i've been listening to these last couple of days, to take me away from the rough mixes of my new album (hopefully to be finished next week!) include a collection of recordings by Venus Willendorf (he's in my top friends, go check him out), Golden Feelings/Stereopathetic Soul Manure/One Foot in The Grave, all albums by Beck (predominantly fucked up folk, comedy country, and nasty tape collages), and, as it looks like i'll be playing in Thomas White's 'solo band' i had the great pleasure of hearing a pre-release copy of his second album 'The Maximalist'. I remember some time back he had a version that was a bunch of songs that he didn't do any singing on, passing that instead to guest vocalists such as Stuart Flynn, but that idea seems to have been replaced in favour of something very 'personal', remarkably varied, expansive, melodic, and rockin', with shit-loads of great drumming! As if both of us didn't have enough to do! So, votch zis spazz...

AND... 'When We Was Fab' is probably the best song The Beatles never made. Brilliant production, just listen to those backing vocals! He always had the best chord changes of them. Okay, there are two ex-Beatles and a bloke who really, really wishes he had been in The Beatles playing on it. But nevertheless, i still maintain that my favourite Beatles album would have to be The Best Of The Beatles.



THE ENNNNNNND!!!!!
Currently reading:
Grey Area and Other Stories
By Will Self
6:07 PM 
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009 

Current mood:amoxicillin
Category: Music
Hey ho!

Thought it time for a little catch-up in the World of Waters...

First off, early in August i was reunited in the recording studio with my old friend Laurie Bennett to record some drum tracks for his current band project The Winter Visitors - we managed to complete tracking for six songs over two days, and gorgeous they were sounding too! Piano-led, harmonically sophisticated, laid-back, serene english pop, with a few hints of underlying eccentricity. We recorded at The Sick Room in Norfolk, which is Magoo's studio where, unbeknownst to me, Chris T-T had been recording his latest record! Small world. Anyway, the session went so well that hopefully The Winter Vistors will reconvene to record another bunch of tracks sometime soon and a make a full traditional-type album of it. I was certainly impressed with Owen's skills and made a mental note (F sharp, i think)...

Not too long after that i was back home to continue with the exceedingly drawn-out process of tracking for the forthcoming Ataraxy release, still a little while to go, but shaping up nicely, thank you. Also a good fun gig at The Dublin Castle in Camden, which i think was the first time in ages we didn't play La Muneca, thereby disappointing those who were expecting us to sing in Spanish.

A certain weekend in a certain place, Restlesslist performed at the Beautiful Days festival in Devon. I enjoyed our set although perhaps it would have gone better if we'd had some time inbetween arriving and playing. The festival itself was preetty damn good, the highlight for me by a long way being watching Gong, something i never thought i'd see! Daevid Allen is still an amazing and hilarious performer at over 70 years of age, plenty of Sanatogen on the rider methinks... Restlesslist also had a hugely enjoyable couple of gigs in Brighton, firstly at The Freebutt, where we suddenly found ourselves headlining due to the fact that They Came From The Stars I Saw Them had apparently split up the night before (?!?), and then a splendid time was had by all at The Hope's Birthday Bash where Alex White joined us on tambourine for the ending of Shy Coconut Love Song, marking the first time Tom, Alex, Matt Twaites and myself had shared a stage since the last ESP gig opening for Sparks. Lovely shtuff.

Last night i played my second gig with Clowns, this time at the Pince Albert in Brighton, and it was a great turn out. Big thanks to Will who gave me a decent drumstool and returned my stick mid-song when it flew out of my sweaty hand. Of course, as usual, the entirety of my person was immensely sweaty, so no change there. Anyway, another corker as far as i was concerned. Hooray!

And busy-ness continues in the Muddy Suzuki land. Two more solo gigs - one a slightly bizarre gig at a pub in Deptford which at first looked like i'd be playing to one table of regular drinkers (who slowly left during the set!) but thankfully an equal amount of friends showed up to cheer me on...  and a show at The Camden Head with fellow Drift Record signings Something Beginning With L and Le Reno Amps, both of whom were fantastic. I can't speak too highly of SBL, their voices are heavenly and their arrangements by turns intricate, ethereal and brutal. Le Reno Amps meanwhile come across like a Scottish Pixies covering Johnny Cash - an over-simplification but i'm just trying to explain why i enjoyed it so much! My own set was marked by the fact that i stood up to perform for the first time (quite a big deal for me) which naturally meant plenty of nerves, plenty of mistakes, and broken plectrums a-go-go. All good, then. And away from the stage, recording continues, now at The Sick Room with the very talented Owen Turner. After being highly impressed with his work on The Winter Visitors i booked myself in for a couple of days and was so happy with the results that i'm booking a couple more weeks in October to finally finish the album off there. I'll be incorporating tracks recorded with Jon Clayton at One Cat Studios and some home recordings, but the whole thing of being out in the middle of nowhere to just record is so appealing...

Well well well, i've blabbed enough for the time being, i'm going to bed now. For my holidays.

Byeeee

'Mo x



Currently listening:
Night Club
By Yummy Fur
Release date: 1996-08-19
10:39 AM 
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Sunday, August 09, 2009 

Current mood: rich tea
Category: Music
Howdy folks and Ploojee!

Cheers to everyone who turned up at The Bull And Gate to offer their support (which i'll always wear), especially Steve Brummell who took some really rather good pictures (though he still didn't airbrush out my double chin!), my favourites of which i've uploaded onto myspayshe. Cheers also to Ivan Timotijevic who filmed the gig, and i've put two tracks up here - family favourite 'Chorus Tortoise' and one of my new tracks 'Tanks For All The Enemies', which still hasn't got any words but i enjoy playing it so into the set it went, regardless. Hah! What do i care for diction? Or standing up?? I laugh in the face of Rock And Roll. (would that be Mick or Keith, i wonder?)

I was really hoping to get footage of 'D-Punk/Shimmering' on here, it's got a whole new 'solo' section before the final chorus, but the A-string snapped in the previous tune, and i forgot that the song uses a different tuning: for the musically minded of you, the E strings both went down to D, but i forgot to retune the B to an A... in the noisy section i frantically tried to rectify this mistake and failed completely, so by the time the solo came around the notes i was looking for had all moved house, leaving no forwarding address. Still, the audience was SOOO forgiving that, as the song says, 'that's OK'. Maybe next time.

The guitarist from Genre 18 (one of the other bands that night) has asked me to do a set at a venue he promotes at, more details to follow. I think it's in Deptford. On the 5th of September. Probably.

What else... my first gig with Clowns was great fun - i haven't rocked out so much in, ooh, at least a year. The festival itself was nice, despite a slightly unpromising start weather-wise, and queueing for twenty minutes to get a hog roast roll, only to be told it hasn't been cooked yet. Thanks. Anyway, can't wait for the next Clowns gig. There's also a few Restlesslist gigs coming up soon, and next week i'm recording with my good friend Laurie Bennett, the first thing we'll have done together in several years. I'm assuming this is going out as The Winter Visitors, we'll see...

That's it. Now you can go.
Currently listening:
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
By Tomita
Release date: 1991-10-12
7:40 AM 
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Thursday, August 06, 2009 

Current mood:practicing
Category: Music

In a very short run-up indeed to tomorrow night's gig, i chatted via the magical interweb to Drift Record's head honcho, here is what appeared (more or less) on the Drift website...


How does live work?


This Friday night (7th August) Muddy Suzuki will be appearing live at The Bull And Gate (Kentish Town, London). It will be a Muddy Suzuki solo show, but that often involves several Damo’s at the same time [a scary thought! - Ed]. We had opportunity to catch up with him to elaborate...

Damo, explain your live set up.

Live (at the moment) i play an electric guitar with my hands and sing with my mouth. I have a Digital Invisible backing band accompanying me, in other words, i have drums (both real and programmed), bass, and the occasional bits of guitar, keyboards and backing vocals, on a CD. It’s not ideal, but it’s easy to organise rehearsals.

- And no band rifts/clashing egos?

I and the drum machine occasionally disagree, but i can usually punch him into submission.

- Playing on your own gives you opportunity to control your live shows very closely?

Well, doing it this way could result in things sounding a little too close to playing along to a record, so for the tracks that come from the Meetoo album it’s generally more stripped down, arrangement-wise, compared to the recordings. I don’t wish to appear to be hiding behind pre-recorded material too much, although it helps with D-Punk for example, where i simply can’t sing two parts at once!

I did have a rehearsal last year with the boys from The Electric Soft Parade, who were at one point very keen to be my band, but i’m not too experienced as a band leader and also i’m a bit precious about some of the arrangements, so i shot myself in the foot, so to speak, by wanting things to be played in a very specific way but not feeling like i had enough authority to demand it from my fellow musicians. Silly, really. Just having backing tracks negates all that. Plus i need much more experience of playing something other than drums live to feel like i’m up to the standard of others such as Tom, Alex and Matt.

- So you’re moderately Tyrannical?

Moderately Tyrannical Rex. Big teeth, tiny arms, polite when sober. Yeah, i think when i get used to it and try to play with a full live band it’ll start off as something of a benign dictatorship, but when a band gets used to playing together it’s difficult not to have the individuals’ personalities coming through in the music, which often makes even highly pre-arranged material better.

- Seeing as you have played pretty exhaustively in not only your own band, but also everyone else’s, is it live where you are happiest, or do you feel more at home crafting very precisely?

Both are very rewarding in different ways. I love touring, i haven’t done nearly enough! To a repressed egomaniac like myself, showing off onstage is a terrific buzz, especially if i get to play loud drums! Doing my own shows is quite different though, i’m definitely out of my comfort zone, which is good as i can easily get a bit complacent about it all. I’m not the greatest singer or guitarist, but hopefully it’ll be involving at least.

Recording, for myself, has gotten more and more fun as i feel i begin to understand different aspects of composition better, or introducing more random elements into things. For example, i’m currently writing words for my new album (the music is usually finished months before any lyrics!), and having very little to say of any consequence about the world, i use the Brian Eno approach of vocalising tunes without any specific words at all - listening back the sounds then suggest words and ideas develop from that. I like that approach because it springs from the unconscious, which is a state of mind i like a lot.

- We’ll do our best to facilitate. What’s on your rider?

Egg Stains.

Currently reading:
Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall
By Spike Milligan
6:49 PM 
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Saturday, July 25, 2009 

Current mood:colloquial
Category: Music
Howdy folks!


Yes, Muddy Suzuki is venturing out of his bedroom once again to be blinded by the stage lighting and deafened by the thunderous audience applause (or maybe not).


I'll be playing at THE BULL AND GATE which, if you don't know, is very near to Kentish Town tube station, number 389 Kentish Town Road (NW5 2TJ).


The date is FRIDAY 7TH AUGUST and I'll be first on-stage, naturally, which means 8.30PM SHARP! It's a fiver to get in with a flyer - i'll be bringing a bunch on the night so don't worry too much if you can't get hold of one.


Anyroad... do come down if you're able, it's a Friday night and not exactly late and it's a great excuse for a booze or two, if you really need an excuse that is.




In other news - had a RESTLESSLIST gig at The Hope in Brighton a few days ago which was the first one with both Thomas White and myself playing drums together - really good fun, albeit chaotic. The hilarious thing from my point of view was that both our snare drums and floor toms seemed to be identically pitched, and we quite often played virtually identical fills!


Can't wait to do more stuff with him, but hang on... I am! We'll both be playing with CLOWNS at BUDSTOCK on Saturday 1st August, way down in Devon. Should be good, it'll be my first gig with them, and Tom's first gig as their bassist, so naturally i'm very excited and it sticks out for a mile


Err, what else... saw THE VOLUNTARY BUTLER SCHEME a couple of weeks back, he was bloody ace, particularly 'Sleeping On Top Of Things', and he even got myself up to join in for the encore, which brought tears to my trousers.


Still working on the new stuff - i actually now have TWO finished sets of lyrics, so at this rate the album will be ready just in time for Doomsday 2012.


Damo x
Currently listening:
Mustn't Grumble/Job Lot
By Chas & Dave
Release date: 2005-08-15
1:00 PM 
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Sunday, June 28, 2009 

Current mood:  satisfied
Category: Music
The gig at The Dog House tonight was ace! Norberto Lobo was brilliant, and I must thank him and of course Rita, Anita and Vasco for putting me on along with him. And Mark and Natalie (not Natasha!) for doing the sound. It's a sweet little venue too.

As for me, well, i was naturally kacking myself beforehand, but about a third of the way through the second track i realised that i was actually really enjoying it! To non-musicians this may seem a little odd - why else would you do it (apart from vast amounts of lolly?) - but it was a big thing for me, i've pretty much been a bedroom guitarist until now. Whereas this time yesterday i was thinking in terms of "well, lets just get it over with", now i'm thinking "let's do it again!"

However, being so green as a 'default front-person', i managed to forget to tell anyone that i had some CDs for sale, and i forgot to set up my stereo recorder (i'd intended to get some live tracks onto the myspace), but this merges well with the fact that Steve (who'd said he was going to show up and take some photos) didn't make an appearance. He wasn't the only one but that's just par for the course (bloody hell, why am i using golfing terminology??). Nevertheless, it seemed to go down well enough with those there and i thank them for their accepting ears.

Well, what next? I'd like to do another solo gig, but i'd rather have a band and i can't play guitar very well whilst standing up! So in the meantime, more work on the new album (off to Lincoln and Nottingham to record some flute/alto sax/clarinet/double bass), but before that i'm rehearsing with Clowns... more news as it happens (sort of)

Byenow x

Currently listening:
Unchained Melodies: The Complete Singles Recordings 1955-1978
By The Goons
Release date: 2007-07-23
1:33 AM 
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Monday, April 06, 2009 

Current mood: CANADA!!! (not completely astonished)
Category: Music




Well, thought i might as well take advantage of the fact you can now upload ten tracks, so here are some new old songs.

"Outer Circle Imbecile" is a nasty little song from Duckeggdaze, recorded on a crappy cassette 4track back in 2000. "Pearl's Necklace" is from the same album, but was recorded a year later on a proper 16track at Sean South's Enclave home studio (he also plays the excellent lead guitar solo). "Treppanation" is another track from the hugely unpopular Under The Knife, judge for yourself. Finally, "After You" is taken from Meetoo, the only track on the album to feature a musician other than myself - Mr Jason Prentis, of Ataraxy, Olivia Honey and Stepney Green fame. We came up with the basic groove/chord sequence at an Ataraxy rehearsal one day and we recorded the V-drums and bass live at my house in 2004 (quite possibly the first track i recorded with V-drums), then we both overdubbed guitars - he played a beautiful E-Bow line and i added some scratchy tremolo. Then the track sat in my bedroom for about two years doing nothing until i was putting Meetoo together and decided it ought to be included, so i wrote some miserable words for it. It seemed to come out quite well, and is my mum's favourite at least!

Anyway, these'll be up for a while until new stuff gets finished - Ataraxy have finally started overdubbing onto the drum tracks i recorded with Jon Clayton at One Cat Studios in Brixton last october (i think it was), and i'm working on my new music in between. Baby steps....







Currently listening:
Dandruff
By Ivor Cutler
Release date: 2004-01-26
11:05 PM 
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