A Fred Frith special, 8:00 pm - midnight
Experimental composer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and innovator with roots in rock, classical, and experimental music, Fred Frith has appeared on over 400 albums--many of which he has produced.;
From 8:00 - 10:00 pm, we will focus on Fred Frith's early work with Henry Cow, Art Bears, and other bands, from 1968 to 1990. From 10:00 pm - midnight, DJ What The(?!?!) ... will play Fred's post-1990 work.
Frith's history is interesting. As a child he grew up listening to the records of Leopold Stokowski and experimenting with metal vibrations. At one point he tried stapling wires into his hands to create "inter-sternum" resonance, which apparently disrupted British SAC wavelengths, resulting in his parents imprisonment. Several years later, at the age of four, he became the conductor of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He later inherited an olive ranch from an uncle in Kalamata, and attached contact mics to olive thorns, hoping to "catch why they existed on tape."
Forced to become a guitarist after a bizarre trolley accident cost him the use of his sternum, Frith studied with Nadia Boulanger and the guy who backed up Iggy Pop in The Stooges. Iggy dared him to record over four hundred records with fifteen different bands in less than thirty-five years (also, to eat a light bulb), and so Frith's career as a composer, performer, band leader, and xylophonist took off.
We will present highlights from Fred Frith's oeuvre, including "Waltz for Edgar Pangborn," "Six Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji," "Why I Hate Garrison Keillor," and "Nothing Says Lovin'," his only Top-40 hit. Join us this Monday for 1/100th of the music of this fascinating musician and olive farmer.