Showing posts with label Scott Morgan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Morgan. Show all posts

9.08.2018

SCOTT MORGAN AND THE HYDROMATICS: THE EARTH IS SHAKING FILM!

Scott Morgan

Scott Morgan, perhaps the most under-recognized legend of rock & soul ("One of the great American voices" -- David Fricke, Rolling Stone) leads the Hydromatics, a European-based band dedicated to revitalizing the songbook of Sonic's Rendezvous Band, the legendary band Morgan (ex-Rationals) co-founded with ex-MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith (which also included ex-Stooges drummer Scott Asheton and ex-Up bassist Gary Rasmussen).


This tour was in support of the latest Hydromatics CD, "The Earth Is Shaking." The film is a warts-and-all realistic portrayal of the band, with tons of tomfoolery, but also informative, with Morgan talking about the breakup of SRB, turning down the offer to record at Stax Records with Booker T & the MGs, getting out of the military draft in the 60s; Tony Slug talking about the politics of playing in Basque country, on the band's beginnings and astute observations on the state of rock & roll; the French Hotel incident, and most poignantly, a memorial at Madrid Football Stadium for their former tour manager, Benito Gasolini, who died there with a colleague from a scaffolding accident while working for the Rolling Stones.

PART 1 THE EARTH IS SHAKING FILM



Unfortunately, the BEST performances (Bilbao, Burgos, Leon) had to be left out as the audio tracks require mixing and a little fixing. (I have multi-track files -- any audio engineer who's willing to help, please get in touch!)

Scott Morgan The Source

The Hydromatics were the brainchild of then-Hellacopters front man Nicke Andersson and Tony Slug, Amsterdam-based rock & roll guitar player extraordinaire. Andersson and Slug bonded over the fact they both knew, and were huge fans of, Sonic's Rendezvous Band (SRB). In its six years (1975-80), SRB had only released one song -- "City Slang" -- on a 45 single with mono and stereo versions.

(No label in the age of disco dominance was interested in an uncompromising, classic Detroit/A2 high-energy rock band.) Other than the single, a bootleg LP, "Sweet Nothing," had limited circulation. Hardly anyone outside of Michigan knew of SRB, and Andersson and Slug made it their mission to bring the music to the world.

PART 2 THE EARTH IS SHAKING FILM



On a US Hellacopters tour Andersson met Scott Morgan and proposed working together. With the addition of Theo Brouwer on bass, the Hydromatics were born, with Andersson taking the drum chair, which he had to give up after one album and tour due to too many other commitments.

On this tour the drummer is newcomer Ries Doms, an excellent, explosive drummer equally influenced by Keith Moon and jazzer Han Bennink (among others). Theo Brouwer was unable to make the tour, so Paul Grace Smith, on very short notice, substituted superbly.

Enjoy the film! Support the artists by buying their records, CDs, etc.!

Filmed, edited, etc. by Joseph Chonto for Some Real Music.

© 2018 Joseph Chonto, Some Real Music.



  

4.09.2017

THE DODGE MAIN STORY: DENNIS THOMPSON & DENIZ TEK


Released November 1, 1996

What an amazing industrial amalgamation of killer musicians! MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, the legendary voice and guitar of Scott Morgan, and the ever evolving incredible Motor City-via-Australia Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman make up Dodge Main, with help from bassist Paul Ill and drummer Brock Avery.



I transferred a VCR tape of this show for Dennis Thompson some years ago. The quality isn't perfect but it captures this historical night in Detroit!

The Dodge Main CD is fantastic! What a great record... thankfully Scott Morgan gave me a copy awhile back... You gotta listen to these samples....

1. City Slang Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 4:36
2. I.94 Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:57
3. Citizen of Time Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Wayne Kramer) 3:48
4. Future/Now Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Rob Tyner) 3:01
5. Fire Comin' Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Paul Ill / Deniz Tek) 4:11
6. 100 Fools Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:38
7. The Harder They Come (full song) WKramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Jimmy Cliff) 2:54
8. Over and Over Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 2:49
9. Better Than That Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Kramer / Deniz Tek) 3:29
10. I Got a Right Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Iggy Pop / James Williamson)

Here is a treat... Dodge Main cover of KICK OUT THE JAMS!

So a few days a ago I was talking to Dennis Machinegun Thompson on the phone and he told me how great Dodge Main was. MGT told me what an incredible mix of players that composed Dodge Main. So we wrote to our very busy friend Deniz Tek and asked him to write his take on this moment in Detroit Rock and Roll History.



Deniz Tek tells the Dodge Main story...

Dodge Main

I got a call from Patrick Boissel, who at the time had recently taken over Greg Shaw's BOMP and Total Energy labels. He suggested assembling a band to be based around me and Wayne Kramer for a studio recording. Wayne's rhythm section, Paul Ill and Brock Avery were included.

Wayne came up with the name "Dodge Main" after the monolithic abandoned Chrysler assembly plant in Hamtramck, Detroit. I flew out to LA, and was put up in a motel in Burbank. During the day, we recorded in a little studio in east Hollywood.



In the morning before heading over to the studio, I wrote songs for the album, reworking lyrics and so forth. We did some older material from the MC5 and (Radio)Birdman, but also wrote some completely new tunes.

It all took about a week. Scott Morgan was in town and joined for some vocals. Wayne produced the sessions, keeping a tight rein on things, and he later mixed the album. Mark Arminski did the brilliant cover artwork. I got paid a small token amount and had all my expenses covered.

SCOTT MORGAN "FUTURE NOW" at the State Theater Greasy show!



Later, Dodge Main assembled in Detroit for a benefit at the State Theatre for local guitarist Phil "Greasy" Carlisi who had to have cardiac surgery. On that occasion, Dennis Machinegun Thompson played drums, and we added some Rationals material to round out the set, including, I think, "Guitar Army" and "Respect".


We also played a show in Cleveland, with Gary Rasmussen on bass and Scotty "Rock Action" Asheton on drums. Wayne and Margaret have a tape of that show which is rumored to be of high quality. They have suggested releasing it at times, but it remains in the vaults at Muscletone Records, Wayne's label. For a while Dodge Main was a revolving door of Detroit/Ann Arbor based musicians. They did some shows without me. The recording was out on both vinyl and CD, and still sounds great. It has stood the test of time. -D

Thank you Dennis and Deniz!!!!

4.06.2014

THE DODGE MAIN STORY


Released November 1, 1996



What an amazing industrial amalgamation of killer musicians! MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, the legendary voice and guitar of Scott Morgan, and the ever evolving incredible Motor City-via-Australia Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman make up Dodge Main, with help from bassist Paul Ill and drummer Brock Avery.

I transferred a VCR tape of this show for Dennis Thompson about 3 years ago. The quality isn't perfect but it captures this historical night in Detroit!

City Slang...


The Dodge Main CD is fantastic! What a great record... thankfully Scott Morgan gave me a copy awhile back... You gotta listen to these samples....

1. City Slang Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 4:36
2. I.94 Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:57
3. Citizen of Time Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Wayne Kramer) 3:48
4. Future/Now Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Rob Tyner) 3:01
5. Fire Comin' Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Paul Ill / Deniz Tek) 4:11
6. 100 Fools Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, (Deniz Tek) 2:38
7. The Harder They Come (full song) WKramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Jimmy Cliff) 2:54
8. Over and Over Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Fred "Sonic" Smith) 2:49
9. Better Than That Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Kramer / Deniz Tek) 3:29
10. I Got a Right Wayne Kramer, Scott Morgan, Deniz Tek (Iggy Pop / James Williamson)

Here is a treat... Dodge Main cover of KICK OUT THE JAMS!

So a few days a ago I was talking to Dennis Machinegun Thompson on the phone and he told me how great Dodge Main was. MGT told me what an incredible mix of players that composed Dodge Main. So we wrote to our very busy friend Deniz Tek and asked him to write his take on this moment in Detroit Rock and Roll History.



Deniz Tek tells the Dodge Main story...

Dodge Main

I got a call from Patrick Boissel, who at the time had recently taken over Greg Shaw's BOMP and Total Energy labels. He suggested assembling a band to be based around me and Wayne Kramer for a studio recording. Wayne's rhythm section, Paul Ill and Brock Avery were included.

Wayne came up with the name "Dodge Main" after the monolithic abandoned Chrysler assembly plant in Hamtramck, Detroit. I flew out to LA, and was put up in a motel in Burbank. During the day, we recorded in a little studio in east Hollywood.

In the morning before heading over to the studio, I wrote songs for the album, reworking lyrics and so forth. We did some older material from the MC5 and (Radio)Birdman, but also wrote some completely new tunes.

It all took about a week. Scott Morgan was in town and joined for some vocals. Wayne produced the sessions, keeping a tight rein on things, and he later mixed the album. Mark Arminski did the brilliant cover artwork. I got paid a small token amount and had all my expenses covered.

SCOTT MORGAN "FUTURE NOW" at the State Theater Greasy show!



Later, Dodge Main assembled in Detroit for a benefit at the State Theatre for local guitarist Phil "Greasy" Carlisi who had to have cardiac surgery. On that occasion, Dennis Machinegun Thompson played drums, and we added some Rationals material to round out the set, including, I think, "Guitar Army" and "Respect".


We also played a show in Cleveland, with Gary Rasmussen on bass and Scotty "Rock Action" Asheton on drums. Wayne and Margaret have a tape of that show which is rumored to be of high quality. They have suggested releasing it at times, but it remains in the vaults at Muscletone Records, Wayne's label. For a while Dodge Main was a revolving door of Detroit/Ann Arbor based musicians. They did some shows without me. The recording was out on both vinyl and CD, and still sounds great. It has stood the test of time. -D

Thank you Dennis and Deniz!!!!

ORIGINAL POST FROM RETROKIMMER.COM

2.23.2014

DENIZ TEK: SONICS RENDEZVOUS BAND, 1976 PART ONE

copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com
SONICS RENDEZVOUS BAND, 1976
AUTHOR: DENIZ TEK
PHOTOS: ROBERT MATHEU
            JOE RUFFNER

I was visiting home in Ann Arbor, taking a break from working with my own group, Radio Birdman, in Sydney. My brother Kurt and I were having drinks in an awful student bar on Maynard, and we were talking about the pathetic state of music now compared to the "good old days". We walked out into the bitterly cold street where I noticed a handbill sized gig poster. It was advertising a gig by a band called "Sonics Rendezvous Band", and there was a photo of these guys...

copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com

Rock Action,from the Stooges; Fred Smith, from the MC5; Scott Morgan, from the Rationals; Gary Rasmussen, from the Up. I knew all about them from the old days...what Michigan had been to rock and roll music six or seven years earlier, which I had thought was totally lost now. This would be worth checking out. Some of the old fire might still be alive.

The gig was at the "Roadhouse", a blue collar Michigan bar and restaurant about 10 miles north of town off US23 (Whitmore Lake). It was on for that night and the gig had already started. I knew these guys had all been great in the past, and could be great now. We got in my brother's green '72 Olds Cutlass "S", and he gunned the big block V8.

Deniz Tek with Fred's former Epiphone Crestwood Deluxe guitar

We headed up snowy North Main St, over the river bridge leaving town, on to 23 and north a couple of exits, across North Territorial, off at the top of the hill, across old Whitmore Lake Rd. and pulled up in the parking lot. We went in. The place held about 40 or fifty people, mostly sitting around at tables. There was a small empty dance floor and dim lighting.


The band was playing. Immediately, it held a great fascination for me. They were better than I had hoped. As players, they were technically solid. As a unit, they had fused into something magical. There was Fred, playing his 12 string Rick (strung with six), through an old Fender Twin through a Marshall 4x12 cab. Set against and within the bedrock rhythm background of the band, his solos were the most fluid and original I had heard since Hendrix.


His playing had progressed beyond his time in the MC5. In those days he had already started work on transcribing legendary jazz sax solos to guitar, and adapting them to rock music. He had come much closer now to perfecting this idea...starting with Coltrane, Shepp and Lester Bowie but ending up with something entirely of his own. Scott Morgan with his old Telecaster, was the perfect sixties rhythm and blues foil to Freds' experimentalist approach.

copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com

Morgan had the great white R&B shout, as good but more subtle than Mitch Ryder. He could hit all the notes, with incredible timing and sense of cool. For my money, the three greatest white R&B singers were all from the Detroit area: Rob Tyner, Mitch, and Scott Morgan.


Fred had an element of Bob Dylan in his voice as well. Scotty "Rock Action" Asheton had his simple Ludwig kit, beating it and the locality to submission, shaking the building with sheer brute force, but with split-atom accuracy. Every member was totally focused and were simultaneously deep in the moment while lost in nothingness.

They had achieved "loose tightness"...a term Ron Asheton used to describe the impossibly elusive balance of freedom and spontaneity yet being in the pocket. I could feel it instinctively....I abandoned myself to the sound and the look of it. I danced. I laughed. I absorbed every beat of it.


During a break between sets I talked to them a little. Fred was very polite and reserved, preferring to just sit there, bourbon and cigarette in hand, observing, thinking, but saying only an occasional word or two here and there.

 Scott,Gary, Fred and Rock  
copyright photography Robert Matheu - robertmatheu.com

Scott Asheton was Rock Action. The world famous tattoo was there. His persona initially seems intimidating. I found out later this fearsome initial impression shields a rather shy spirit with a quiet, intelligent sense of humor. Gary Rasmussen sat casually smoking, was friendly and seemed to find everything amusing. Morgan was the most approachable and happy to hold a conversation.

I left them to their break after a few minutes and went to the bar to get a drink. Coming back to find my brother, I recognized Ron Asheton at a table by himself, a Seagrams Seven and soda in front of him, smoking a Lucky through an aquafilter cigarette holder. Like something in a movie rather than real. He had on those trademark aviator glasses, and sported a full length black leather SS officers greatcoat.

 
I had seen him in the band in 1969 and on the album covers ... he was a little bit heavier now, but instantly recognizable. I went right over to him and said hi, and became an autograph hound, asking him to sign one of the Roadhouse drink menus for me. I was going to give it to Rob Younger as a gift when I got back to Sydney.  STAY TUNED FOR PART 2

Deniz Tek photo: Anne Laurent

★Deniz Tek, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a prolific guitarist, singer and songwriter currently based in Sydney, Australia. His career in music, grounded in late-60's Detroit, extends through several decades and across continents. He is best known as a founding member of the influential Australian independent rock band Radio Birdman.

In 2007, Deniz was inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame, and in 2012 was voted number 7 in the top 100 Australian guitarists of all time.★



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