I was reluctant to post a blog about this as blogging about a musician's death can come off as grandstanding or jumping on the sentimental bandwagon.  My FMTM bandmates and I are not in the same location and haven't discussed it with one another, but I know that at the very least there is a strong respect and affinity between FMTM and Maserati... so posting about it seems less problematic than not posting about it.  Now that a week has passed, the memorial has happened, and I've listened to all my favorite albums by Jerry's bands several times... and I have a brief respite from work... I just want to write about him for a moment.

I first spoke to Jerry in 2003 while I was booking a Turing Machine/FMTM show in NYC -- I loved TM and I couldn't believe that they wanted to play a show with FMTM.  The show got cancelled at the last moment due to the NYC blackout of summer '03 (god damn, whenever I think of it, I still grumble "balls" to myself.)  A year later, when FMTM was in NYC for the CMJ Festival, I met Jerry in person at the Dim Mak showcase at Knitting Factory where he was playing second drumkit with Panthers.  I was immediately taken by his general & genuine excitement about playing live whenever & wherever he could -- he seemed to be the kind of person who enjoyed playing music and interacting with musicians to fullest & deepest extent.  The following night, he came out to see FMTM play at Luxx in Bklyn and afterwards we hung out & talked.  I remember trying to commiserate with him about the difficulty of working with indie labels and, although he understood my cynicism, since Turing was also looking for a new label at the time, he looked at the future with steadfast optimism.  He refused to let it get him down and he refused to let it get ME down... it almost pained him to let me walk away with unchecked pessimism.  He barely knew me, yet he needed me to believe in making music the way he believed in it... not out of a concern for FMTM in particular, but because it was apparently in his nature to lift peoples' spirits and help them to believe in the basic necessity of music.  At the end of the night he handed me a demo of new TM material and we went our separate ways.

FMTM had already played with Maserati at that point - our first show with them was Nov. 13 2002 at the Capitol Garage in Sac'to.  The show was a fluke.  We had heard of Fin Fang Foom and wanted to play with them, and it just so happened that Maserati was crossing California at the same time FFF was -- so the promoter stuck us all together.  We played to NO ONE.  It was hilarious -- it was the best bill we had ever had at that point, and absolutely no one came to the show.  We played to the promoter, the engineer, and the other bands.  At this time, however, Phil Horan was drumming for Mas.  All three members of FMTM immediately liked Maserati and I think we had an intuition that we'd be playing more with them in the future.  Over the years we played a few more shows with them, but even more important than the shows was the friendship and support they offered whenever we were in their neck of the woods.  Coley booked us and Matt Cherry put us up at his house on a couple tours.  We could always rely on them to be in touch with us and show their support.  So when Phil left the band and Mas announced that Jerry Fuchs would be taking his place, I just about shat myself.  I was so excited for them... and the excitement never subsided.  We turned Timo at Golden Antenna on to the Maserati phenomenon, and he signed them in the blink of an eye (for a split-release with TRL.)  Once "Inventions..." came out, it didn't leave my stereo for a month.  It was ALL I wanted to listen to, an addiction that was largely due to Jerry's drumming.  Let me talk about Jerry's drumming for a moment.... no, nevermind.  I'm not even going to start... I'll leave that for the music journalists.

Once Jerry joined Maserati, he and I started chatting again trying to get our bands to cross paths -- it was always inspiring to me to hear how many bands he was touring with; !!!, The Juan McClean, etc.  Dude was a fucking machine; you could not stop him, you could only hope to contain him for a short while.  I promoted a show for Maserati in SF at 12 Galaxies with Silian Rail & Sky Pilots, which was incredibly fun and intensely rocking on the part of Mas.  It was so good to finally hear Mas play live with Jerry at the helm.  After the show I gave him a sweaty hug and asked him where his genius stems from.  He just bashfully said "awww, thanks man.  Let me buy you a drink..."  That was the kind of humility that I had come to expect from him.  In retrospect, I wish I had hung out with them longer that night... I wish I had not assumed I would have another chance.

Three weeks before the accident, Maserati opened for Mono at the Great American.  It was great to hang out briefly with Coley, Chris, and Josh... but I didn't have a chance to talk to Jerry.  I was swept away by the show -- I hung on every note.  I'm glad I paid such close attention to the show - I'm glad it's burned into my memory.  I'm glad I had the privelege of knowing such an incredible artist... and I'm glad that I'll never be able to write, play, or listen to any music ever again without comparing it to Jerry's... and hopefully, without remembering to be grateful for every hour I have with which to make music on this planet.  You are loved and remembered, Jerry Fuchs. m/FMTM



 

This blog post is not exciting, unless maybe if you're a promoter who wants FMTM to play in your town.  We're whipping up some cool stuff for this Spring 2010, which we'll be announcing soon - stay tuned.

We used to have a bunch of different agents all over the world, but we've streamlined & simplified.  Our global booking rep is Ian Fintak at The Agency Group.  He's the guy who figures everything out.

IanFintak@theagencygroup.com

If you're a famous band and you want to pay us lots of money to go on tour with you and play to your gigantic audience every night, drop us a line and we'll think about it.

The current band email is frommonumenttomasses@gmail.com  We'd love to hear from you directly, but just be warned that if it's about booking, we're just going direct you to Ian anyway.

PEACE,
m/FMTM

Hey everybody.  It's been a little quiet in the FMTM camp for the past month - we needed some time to unwind from the USA Tour.  

Anyone able to translate this?

           
            From Monument To Masses          

Anyone in or near Greensboro, NC that would be willing to do me a small favor for a free FMTM shirt, CD and stickers/pins???

Anyone???

- Francis/FMTM

Hey.  So this is just a quick blog to show some appreciation and support for a drummer named Eric Kuhn. 

As most FMTM listeners know, Francis Choung was, is, and forever will be the FMTM drummer.  He was there when the band started, and will most likely be there when it ends.  However, Francis' extraordinary proximity to me (Matthew) and Sergio, as well as his commitment to his day-job has challenged the long-held notion that the 3 principal members of FMTM are "indispensable" to playing live shows.  A few months ago, Sergio and I started seriously discussing the idea of finding a drummer who could go on tour with us and play Francis' drum parts well enough to make it work.  We ran the idea past Francis and, although skeptical, he was down to see how it would go.  So, upon finding out that Francis would have to leave last month's tour three-fourths of the way through, and realizing that we would need to book shows to make our way back to Cali, we asked Eric if he would rehearse with us and see what happens.

Eric is an incredibly skilled musician and, lucky for us, he specializes in drums and is extremely adaptable to a bunch of styles.  I first met Eric back in '05 when he and Robin (Silian Rail) gave me a demo after an FMTM show... so he's actually been a fan of our music for quite a while.  Even though he's super busy with other musical projects (SR, Built for the Sea, Aimless Never Miss, and Michael Musika) he jumped at the chance to learn a set's-worth of our songs and hit the road with us.  He flew out and met us in Tampa, FL and after we said goodbye to Francis, he played seven shows with us on our way back home.  I heard such responses as, "That guy is ridiculously good," and "I can't believe that guy only practiced with you 5 times,"... and most of all, "I'm glad you'll be able to play more often now."

So anyway, on behalf of the band, I just wanted to say thank you to Eric for sharing his talent with us, gracing us with his positivity, and investing countless hours to complete the Spring FMTM tour.  I doubt that you've seen the last of him on the live FMTM stage. -Matthew/FMTM

This is Robin & Eric of Silian Rail:

Sorry for the confusion/misprint, but From Monument To Masses will NOT be playing the Silverlake Lounge on May 5th, 2009.

Check back for new show dates.

- FMTM