Column: Gordon Raphael #20, Jan 2005
By: Gordon Raphael
Happy Birthday To The World. Man, all you cats and chicas out there spun around the sun once again. Don't you just love it. Kudos and condolences for the ones that stepped off the planet along the way, but many of us are still at the party and it looks like it is gonna be a good one. Well, for all I know, the ones that checked out seem to be coming back in other forms to catch up on dances they didn't try yet.
I, G. Raphael esq., am luxuriating in a glorious jetlag that I have earned by travelling from New York to Seattle, London, Monaco, South of France and back... all during the last two weeks. For fun and music during the Christ-Mass Holy weeks. Jetlag agrees with me 100 percent cuz it allows me to wake up at 3am and start writing, making coffee, preparing music for the future, listen to Brian Eno's 'Here Come The Warm Jets', eat chocolate croissants and project thoughts out to rockfeedback.com in the UK. I love jetlag cuz I can be at home in New York and my body thinks it's still at the party in London.
I recorded seven tracks with Skin, the epic and amazing singer from Skunk Anansie last week. She and her super-talented band came into my London Silver Transporterraum and laid down some of the sleaziest, nastiest most face-slapping rock I've recorded since my early days with Absenthee in Seattle. That lady can sing, boy let me tell you. Belting it out in tune and with attitude to last for weeks, stacking killer harmonies on wherever they are needed, all from memory and with no neurotic 'Oh, let me do it again, please' routines so common these days.
Skin is so cool, and she took me and her two Jamaican girlfriends to Monaco, where I camped out, did some in-house DJ-ing from my laptop, read Sputnik Sweetheart, ate great food and took a break from producing for three days. On the third day, I took a train to Cannes where I met Laurence, a brilliant half-Korean, half-French girl (ouch!!) and her friend Emilie who, after a brief time, abducted me and took me to a raging party in an ancient mansion in the forest near the Riviera. The house belonged to famed artist Cesar, friend of Picasso's, and had seashells pressed into the walls and steps. The party was in a private pub on the property, and the next morning I awoke to warm sunshine in a breathtaking forest, scouting around while my pretty companions slept off their well-earned hangovers. It was a New Year's celebration I will never forget.
Back in London for two days, I met Scanners, one of the most outstanding groups I've heard in London for a long time, and we recorded their new single 'We All Make Mistakes', with 'Joy' for the B-side. These sessions were very powerful, and I feel lucky to have been included in their great musical world for those moments. In my dreams, I will be working with this band often and soon, but in the meantime keep your ears out for them; they truly, most definitely, rock.
Now here I sit, in the Donald Trump apartment building that The Strokes have so kindly procured for me during my tenure here co-producing their third album with the master David Khane. David is a producer's producer, and a very musical human being. He can hear things (like Julian and Fabrizio can) so minutely and accurately that I can only shake my head and laugh. Like hearing iPod headphones on a fly's head up in a tree two-hundred meters away; identifying which song he's listening to, what key it's in, and if the groove is solid or not. Stuff like that. I am learning a lot in this process in spite of my attention deficit disorder and my punk-rock ethos. There are 3.5 songs finished now, and believe me when I tell you that they sound fabu-tastic.
Not meaning to bore you, but there are some other items of magical importance I feel compelled to spout off about and share with you, my intrepid readerz. Eno is finished, and now I put on Roxy Music 'For Your Pleasure' rocking out at 6am, New York time... a fine beginning to a Sunday. I have a new turntable - Project (brand) Turntable, from Czech Republic - wood-finished in Piano Black; I highly recommend these, cuz they are not expensive and sound perfect. Vinyl records, especially for rock, beat CDs to death. Like the difference between a friendly warm blanket of sound (records), or a shiny thin piece of tin (CD's)... my view, anyway.
Prince Toby L of rockfeedback and now Transgressive Records fame and my good self were present last week to watch our dear pals from Mallorca (now living in London!) Satellites play at Alan McGee's Death Disco at Notting Hill Arts Club. Even if I have written about these boys for the past five years, and produced two and a half of their records, I can still never speak highly enough about their music and their shows. I have ranted on and on about the 'electrical storm off the coast of paradise' sound that they generate. Perfect, tranquil states interspersed with fiery chaos and brimstone volcanoes of rhythm and noise. Guitars that can DO NO WRONG is now how I will describe them. Jordi tuning his guitar between songs is more interesting than 89% of the bands that I've seen in the past five years. His voice is spine-shattering and poetic at the same time, and this band has gelled so much that every show is completely riveting. Pray that we (at Shoplifter Records) can release their new album this year soon. 'Nuff said.
Yeah, that ol' Shoplifter Records is a tense subject this season with me. We got Regina Spektor out with her superb 'Soviet Kitsch' record that you Brits have supported so kindly, and you Amerikkkans will have a chance to snatch up soon thanks to Michael Goldstone and Sire Records in New York City. Her next single 'Us' (that's us and not U.S.) and its historic video will be available worldwide very soon. Put your antennae on for that one. Black-Light (my rawk band), Satellites, Char Johnson, Kill Kenada, Bisons, Sara Hawley, Unisex Salon, Shieks-Of-Sheba and C33x are in the pipeline waiting their chance to orbit the rock-and-roll Sun and inflict semi-permanent ear damage to all of us that enjoy that sort of thing. Check in with shoplifterrecords.co.uk from time to time, and one of these days there will be a library of 200 songs for you to download (PAY, DON'T STEAL... leave the stealing to us at Shoplifter; we steal souls, bodies and minds anyway, not MP3's... fer sure, dude!).
OK, we are getting near the end... the Zabars espresso is wearing off and I can feel the mistake of getting up at 3am now that it's 7am and the sun is coming up and laughing at my jetlag... nasty ol' sun, go back to sleep.
One last experiment for today: I have two records - advance copies of Black-Light's 'The White Album' and Colour Twigs' 'Sticks and Stoned'. These are my first album (Colour Twigs) and most recent (not yet released - Black-Light) album. I am going to make a special offer to see if anyone really reads my bombastic scrabble of a column here at rockfeedback World Headquarters. If you write to me on my jetlaggraphael@hotmail.com mailbox, I will personally send you one or both of these records on CD for a mere £10:00 (including shipping), or for you USA rock poseurs 10 dollars (yes, I know about your poor Bush-diminished war economy, I feel so sorry for you, but YOU VOTED FOR HIM, correct?). Anyways - I digress; tired and grumpy he flares into a political diatribe... so uncool.
Write me, order CD, say hi and we friends, right?
xxx Gordon 'Jetlagg' Raphael kissing the Gates of Delirium
Jan 9th, 2005