The farfisa player from Dallas Orbiter sent this video to me (I think he's stalking me).  I blew the ending, but it was a really fun show in Minneapolis last weekend!

-s

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/543d2df62257e22af8f9b13d7ae73e08/video/5838928

No one should have to follow Stephen McCabe.

As Attack Octopus, McCabe can put most garage or independent rock bands to shame when he takes the stage, loops guitars and keyboards, wails on the drums and creates a driving sound that belies a simple fact: he does it all himself.

It's not that McCabe, 35, is a show-off; quite the contrary. The Idaho native has spent the better part of 15 years in some of Oshkosh's most seminal rock bands – The Willis, Happy, Babel Fish and Cookie Bug to name a few – but decided in November 2006 he would rather begin a long-term project he could shape over time.

"I was a little soured on the band thing. I had never made more than two or three records with any one band," McCabe said. "I wanted something consistent, something that could evolve over 10 or 20 years. I wanted to do something that builds on itself."

Attack Octopus, the early results of that endeavor, will strike out in full force Friday night when McCabe joins Patchwork and Dallas Orbiter, a longtime Oshkosh low-fi rock outfit now based in Minneapolis, at Peabody's Ale House, 544 N. Main St. The show will be one of the few shows McCabe has done as Attack Octopus since he unveiled the concept to live audiences in January.

"It's been a lot of fun so far," McCabe said. "It's really frightening and really exciting. I have to think constantly (on stage)."

McCabe said he "completely deserted jazz" when he started playing rock 'n' roll around age 20, but the complex layering and composition that really defines jazz remains present in the seven Attack Octopus songs McCabe has packaged on a CD now.

He added that jazz has helped him prepare for what he calls "happy accidents," those coincidences and random occurrences that change the direction of the music.

"There are expansive things I can do, but things break down, too, so I have to be aware in a similar way to jazz musicians who have to constantly listen for what is being laid down around them," he said.

While jazz has laid the foundation for McCabe's compositions, the sound remains hard, driving rock 'n' roll, influenced by bands he's performed in, such as The Willis, as well as those he listens to, such as Spoon, Wilco and Dallas Orbiter. But more than anything, they're pure Stephen McCabe.

"The seven songs I have do well both live and recorded," he said. "There's more of a narrative through-line than previous recordings. I'm trying to connect more things together now."

Jeff Bollier: (920) 426-6688 or jbollier@thenorthwestern.com