A thread for Sandy Bull

I think academics of one stripe or another would argue that Bull's work is, in some way, colonialist. I'm not sure if that's true or not. I guess anything is true.

I just think it's weird that a guy who clearly doesn't have an affinity for the style would review the record. I dunno. Where is Ned Ragget or someone to write a better review?

that sneaking up is creepy!

Ian, btw, "East-West," if you've never heard it, was kind of anomaly for the Butterfield Blues Band - long modal jam track w/ gnarly Mike Bloomfield soloing. It's good.

That "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida" line in the review is funny. "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida" is OK, though, too.

Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida honestly has no connotations for me other than the simpsons.

I bet you'd like him. Very smart. Extended/psychedelic in places. You can't really go wrong with either of his first two albums for a taste.

i turned some deadheads onto his choogling version of "memphis, tn" too, but "blend" with billy higgins (post-ornette's free jazz) borders on the psychic.

Sandy Bull wise it's all about "Blend." Awesome!

'Electric Blend' / E Pluribus Unum is a far more soporific proposition, has a completely different vibe to the earlier records. It suffers a lot from bad recording, but does do great value as smacked-out drift music, kinda like Spacemen 3's sitar music. Sounds fuck all like Iron butterfly.

I really should have these albums on vinyl by now. They are surprisingly common, even here in the UK.

'Electric Blend' / E Pluribus Unum is a far more soporific proposition, has a completely different vibe to the earlier records. It suffers a lot from bad recording, but does do great value as smacked-out drift music, kinda like Spacemen 3's sitar music. Sounds fuck all like Iron Butterfly.

I really should have these albums on vinyl by now. They are surprisingly common, even here in the UK.

Sez here that Bull/Butterfield/Butterfly ALL did wonderful things with guitars, in their own separate ways. (Plus, if "I. Ron Butterfly" were the name of an individual and not a band, then they'd all be hunkered down together in my "Bu-" section, maybe passing the pipe with Burning Spear and the Buzzcocks and Butthole Surfers.)

After thorough listening and consideration, I am prepared to pronounce "Demolition Derby" his finest moment.

Right on, dude.

All I got in my pocket are two tokens and a dime, but I'm holding to the pieces of my dream.

Sandy's daughter is a stone fox, btw.

pix pls.

looked, but no dice. She played taboura on stage with him towards the end there. She made a doc about her dad?

tamboura

we can't stop fighting now
we can't stop fighting now
we can't stop fighting now

me too. it's like he's really got the right sense of funky jabberwocky in his singing

So is it supposed to be a good movie or what?? I'm thinking about going...

Yeah, I can't figure out if it's supposed to be good or not. The only thing I remember from the last time it came around was the opinion that "Sandy's daughter is a fox."

How so? He's a character?

No, but several times in the book, one of the main characters has to get stoned and put on Sandy Bull whenever he's bidding on a mystical vase on eBay in order to... eh, just read it I suppose. :)

Sandy's daughter is a stone fox, btw.

― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Monday, November 17, 2008 5:36 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

jonathan lethem talks too much about music in his books! it creeps me out a little bit, like im reading nick hornby. sometimes is okay, and i understand the importance of cross-medium reference etc, but like, it all reminds me of how loud wes anderson soundtracks are.

going to this:

Monday, March 28 · 9:00pm - 11:00pm

Pleasant St. Theater

Amherst Cinema

Intro by the filmmaker, Sandy Bull's daughter KC Bull. Reading by Byron Coley live music by Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, and Bill Nace.

she's a fox -- and a really sweet person ime.

Just saw that Drag City's going to release a circa 1976 live show this March.

http://www.dragcity.com/products/sandy-bull-and-the-rhythm-ace-live-1976

awesome. i love drag city these days, more than ever.

ha, just came to post about that. was frantically searching for live bootlegs of sandy and saw this
http://www.dragcity.com/system/uploads/files/273/news.jpg
can't wait! been reading chronic city finally, sandy bull content is an interesting detail.

very cool! i was just watching that clip on your blog!

yeah, i'd like to see that whole doc, even tho it seems like it might be a lot of talking head action. are there interviews with sandy in it? or is it just wavy gravy.

Sandy's daughter is a stone fox, btw.

― Fox Force Five Punchline (sexyDancer), Monday, November 17, 2008 5:36 PM (1 year ago)

― ian, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 12:31 AM (2 years ago)

ha, is she?
good genes i guess. think this was the cover of teenbeat at some point.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/49/126545147_c51530fd09.jpg

here's an mp3 from the drag city thang. sounds pretty rad, actually
http://www.dragcity.com/system/tracks/downloads/5358/original/1-01_Oud_Edit_.mp3

listening to e pluribus unum right now, so classic. sandy bull rules.

sooo this new live thing RULES. seriously great stuff, sandy jamming with a drum machine. much better than that matrix show released a few years back (which has its moments but is also a mess). even the groovy tune sandy sings on is nice, shoulda been a hit!

should i start a thread on cosmic americana music? or is there already one?

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, June 29, 2009 1:05 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

where we talk about stuff that sounds like his version of "memphis, tn"?

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, June 29, 2009 1:06 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah start one so I can talk about Fahey's "Fare Forward Voyagers"

― sleeve, Monday, June 29, 2009

just by chance, i happened to pick up Inventions and Fare Forward Voyagers at the same time, just the other day! i haven't put anything else on the turntable since, i'm obsessed. i didn't know anything about sandy bull, tbh. barely recognized his name. whatever genre he might sort of fit into - cosmic americana? - is part of yet another giant gap in my musical knowledge. i just saw the Vanguard <Stereolab> logo, a rad looking fuzzed out dude with a squirrel on his head on the back, billy higgins (fuck YEAH) on drums, and decided to go for it. "Blend II" is something else, but his take on "Memphis, Tennessee" is the one that blows me away. Higgins is on the drums, of course, but otherwise it's just Bull accompanying himself. He recorded the underlying bass and rhythm guitar parts and then overdubs a smokey psych guitar lead in and around the simple vamps. the result reminds me of the vibe of Mulatu Astatke's recording of "Tezeta (Nostalgia)".

anyway, as part of my continued effort to slow the fuck down, i'm resisting the urge to check out his other stuff, at least for a while. Inventions is robust enough to reward dozens of listens, and that's enough for now.

i mean how can you pass this up

http://i47.tinypic.com/2m5igzb.jpg

he's the best! definitely times where i want to listen to sandy bull and sandy bull only. will reiterate my endorsement of that live record put out last year, it is killer.

xpost threads about cosmic American music? Ah, yeah! You might wanta start with these--sorry if links don't work

Takoma's one-offs and obscurities (started by JacobSanders on board I Love Music on Jun 15, 2011)

Laser Pace - Granfalloon (Takoma - 1974) Wow! (started by scott seward on board I Love Music on Nov 6, 2007)

Revolt of the ILX Brigade: New Post-Fahey Folk For PPL that post in the Takoma & Tompkin's Square Threads (started by Andrew WKRP (upper mississippi sh@kedown) on board I Love Music on

which bach bouree opens the live at the matrix album? anybody know?

After thorough listening and consideration, I am prepared to pronounce "Demolition Derby" his finest moment.

― ian, Monday, November 17, 2008 12:18 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cool! just found this record (sans cover) for $5. sounds dope.

I was listening to E Pluribus Unum yesterday, and I am prepared to pronounce it his finest moment.

listened to the live valentines day thing today - some of it is a mess, but some of it is so good. the electric blends = c o s m i c

definitely times where i want to listen to sandy bull and sandy bull only.

Tonight was one of those times for me. I put the "Reinventions" comp on (from Spotify), and when "Blend" got going my wife was like, this is amazing, who IS this? Guy was great.

inventions was the first sandy bull i heard, and it still remains my go-to for him. the 20 minutes of "blend" fly by, every single time, and his "memphis, tn" somehow sounds appropriate in just about any listening situtation.

actually...the "blend" i know is "blend II" from inventions. i'm not sure i've heard the "blend" on the comp! i'll check it out, stat

He was somewhat prominent in the recent Jann Wenner biography--Wenner listened to his music a lot before Rolling Stone was launched, and Wenner's wife Jane had a long involvement with him. Got me to download "Blend," which is nice.

"coming together (a song of peace)" is ultimate stoner feel-good hippy protest jam.

― ian, Sunday, June 28, 2009 11:46 PM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Does anyone rate his later records, specifically 1991's Vehicles? I ask because this clip from around the time period (and similarly accompanied by Aiyb Dieng) is amazing, and there's a radio show from around this time floating around too that is really good

And I guess KC's documentary about her dad never did get a wide theatrical (or DVD) release, huh? Would love to see it.

i just realized it's dennis charles -- the free jazz drummer who played with cecil taylor in the late 1950s and early '60s -- who's playing percussion on the LP "demolition derby"

what's more, if you look at rick lopez's william parker sessionography, you'll find there's an alleged recording floating around out there which features parker, sandy bull, don cherry, along with ed blackwell AND roger blank.

so that's a total of four (4) legendary free jazz drummers to collaborate with sandy bull, that i know of (including billy higgins on the "fantasias" LP, which gets plenty of mentions upthread).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo-p1oKoNPs

And I guess KC's documentary about her dad never did get a wide theatrical (or DVD) release, huh? Would love to see it.

― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, April 11, 2018 2:38 PM (three years ago

i could ask her about it if you are sincerely curious.

okay i need to post one more thing, this was recommended to me by youtube after searching various SB things: his 1992 album, "vehicles"

fuck it's good! just give it a minute until the steel guitar comes in ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSesUxCgqjY

i could ask her about it if you are sincerely curious.

― sarahell, Tuesday, March 15, 2022 3:41 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Of course! That would be great. I was just wondering what became of it. I'm pretty burned out on music docs in general but I feel like Sandy's is probably a story that actually deserves one

it's only a 40- or 50-min movie anyway, from what i can gather online

Looks like KC Bull posted the documentary on Youtube last year -- missed it til just now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7nSx1oJySQ

Seconding the praise for Memphis, Tennessee. Wish he'd done more in that vein.

thx for the heads up on the doc — been wanting to see that!

hell yeah - i will be watching that soon, thanks

thanks for sharing

Anyone heard this recently released live album?
https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/bull-sandy-live-in-san-francisco-late-1969-lp/TDP.54111LP.html

I’ve pretty much given up on Drag City repressing the rhythm ace record

curious about that SF 69 thing ... but I can't find any info about it (other than the descrip on the FE page and elsewhere). seems like it'd be at least a slightly bigger deal.

biggest surprise of the Jann Wenner bio was Sandy Bull playing such a prominent role being Jane Wenner's longtime romantic partner, even while she was married to Jann. also didn't know he was such a bad junkie.

just when you think sandy can't be any cooler, he cucks jann wenner

and yeah, he was, uh, a committed heroin user for a long time, i think.

but I can't find any info about it (other than the descrip on the FE page and elsewhere). seems like it'd be at least a slightly bigger deal.

idk, is it a bootleg label? the cover photo, pretty clearly from the 80s, doesn't inspire much confidence.

Trading Places appears to be a Radation sublabel, which afaik is legit

https://www.discogs.com/label/1624893-Trading-Places

from Discogs comments:

For those concerned with questions of legitimacy, Trading Places appears to license many of their releases from Cherry Red, who does factually maintain rights to the several releases I checked. Cherry Red / Esoteric Recordings is fully legitimate, and if they grant the license then the releases are legitimate. One may contact Cherry Red to confirm this for themselves. Every Trading Places release I've viewed has some form of licensing claim, whether from Cherry Red or other parties related to the respective release. This does not mean they are legitimate, but are at the very least researching rights holders.

what an amazing doc that was, and so real. loved it.