Grifters: C er D?

it's a great memory!

Tragic memories based purely on the landscape of the town... I'd say thats a tie between Dresden (Germany) and Detroit.

it'a just a thre--fingered chord, all in the same fret.

if it's like this

1
2
3
4
5
6

then on the same fret hold down 1, 2, and 4
and slide that baby around the neck some.

------*---
------*---
----------
------*---
----------
----------

if you hit a sour chord just slide whichever finger you have on the 4th string and slide it down one fret.

------*------
------*------
-------------
---------*---
-------------
-------------

this is like, a zillion grifters songs.

How the heck did you guys get that exploding guitar sound on "Black Fuel Incinerator" the one that kind of blows up and then phases all over the place on the last chorus. That thing sounded really wicked.

Hull has got a lot in commom with Dresden -they were both reciprocally Blitzreig bopped in WW2 - in fact, the Adelphi car park is a bombsite- in more ways than one, all literally.
Detroit looked like a bombsite when I was there in '94- all these unwelcome wide open spaces downtown. I was there with my good friend Tim who used to run Ajax records - he is now an elite marathon runner

You asked about recent bands playing there. I saw the terrific juggernaut Lightning Bolt ,and the the excellent Centro _matic fairly recently.

I don't get out as much now - the lure of a lady (and added bonus of a 7yr old kid) has taken me to the south bank of the Humber (remember the suspension bridge?)- as ill - advised, stupid, and downright boring culturally as it gets - perhaps like if you relocated to west Memphis?

well, I can't be 100% sure which guitar you're talking about.
Dave did one track of backwards guitar that starts during the bridge. He wrote a line for it thenrecorded it on the four-track then played that backwards and learned how to play it backwards.
So when were were recording the actual song Doug and Davis flipped the 2inch tape and Dave played the 'backwards riff'. So when we flipped the 2inch tape back over the riff .
I seem to recall this was kinda inspired by Twin Peaks when David Lynch had them learn their lines backwards (for the black lodge sequences) then they'd show it backwards so it sounded like an alien language.

There's another guitar that Scott laid down that comes in right before the first chorus. I don't know what he did exactly. Sounds like maybe he was messing with a digital delay..?

so it makes an A major when you play it all open.

then me and John used to do an open E tuning
then Dave figured out it was easier on the guitar neck if you tuned everything down to a D (as opposed to winding all the strings UP which makes them snap a lot more easily.)

if you try the A tuning try these chords

__I__I__I__I__I
__I__I__I__I__I
__I__I__I_*I__I
__I__I__I__I__I
__I__I__I__I_*I
__I__I__I__I__I

and this one

__I__I__I__I__I
__I__I__I__I__I
__I__I_*I__I__I
__I__I__I__I__I
__I__I_*I__I__I
__I__I__I__I__I

and combinations of those up and down the neck.

thats a whole bunch of Big Star songs. Try picking out
Watch The Sunrise and Try Again.

Even if you can't play the guitar you can do the D tuning and you too can sound amazing instantly!!

Most people decide they want to learn guitar but give up after a week because you don't sound kick-ass immediately.
I swear, try the D tuning and you be whiling away the hours.

whiling?
is that right?

You correct about alt tunings being a remedy for guitarist's block - back in the day i used to fk around with all types of tunings, mainly due to lack of ability and creativity - the beautiful dronings and harmonics you just cannot get with standard tuning.

Dragoon sound mighty fine btw.

I'd say the Dead weren't an influence musically as much as they were philosophically. And the Dead provide a unique perspective on the band/audience dynamic. that point is not lost on anyone who has ever attended a Grateful Dead show proper. There's a real connection.

here's some grifter trivia for you...

did you know that Scott and Kurt Cobain share the exact same birthday.

Like, the same hour.

If a local band wears their Big Star influence on their sleeve too much though it's kind of a turn off.

On the other hand i remember seeing the band Agitpop at the Antenna Club and they did a cover of You Get What You Deserve and everyone there wept copious tears of gratitude.

ok, maybe not but it did mean a lot to the audience.

I'm kinda drunk.

and I've got jury duty tomorrow,

and so on.

I know I didn't have too much stuff on there.

Eureka IV was all Dave

His Jesus Song was all Scott except for the bridge which was mine.

Slow Day was all Dave (with a nice flourish from John Stivers at the very end)

Felix Cole was heavily Scott's but everyone tweaked the arrangement
(and I got to do the guitar solo)

Founder's Day was another BOB song that Dave took and ran with
(Stivers wrote that intro riff and I wrote the verse riff, and I'm playing guitar on that one)

Banjo was heavily Scott's but again we kinda gutted it. Scott was writing a lot of irish drinking songs so we were trying to undo that sound a little so I wrote a guitar line that was maybe a little more Stax-inspired but I ended up turning the guitar riff into that bouncy bass line. One of my favorite bass lines to play btw. Then Dave added that very last part which he said came to him in a dream.
Also thats me playing the shuffly drum throughout and Roy Berry is playing that bell.

And X-Ray Hip is all Dave, he even wrote the bass line.
But the line at the end about the dead bat came from a BOB song.
Stivers full line was "I'm gonna spread you out, like a dead bat, wrap you up in cellophane baby and sell you for parts in a medical show."
that line cracked me up so bad.

interesting. is this something you guys actually talked about?

we didn't sit around and say that we need to cultivate that kind of dynamic by any means but there would be moments onstage when we were playing and we were all blotto, and the audience was mostly blotto, and we'd look at each other and have that unspoken agreement that we had tapped into that same dynamic a little.

We didn't think were anything like the grateful dead BUT, like them, people who loved acid seemed to dig us. which is weird because we didn't do a lot of feelgood 'jamming' or anything.

seemed like we'd be the source of a bad trip.

have we talked about live recordings? i only got to see you guys twice, but i'd love to hear some live tapes, especially ones that go pretty out there.

Founder's Day is one of my fave Grifter's songs ever.I just love that dripping melancholy and the guitar lines
I've never heard Impala - wasn't that your friend's band (Stivers)

You may well have been a trippin tripp and all rock n roll but there's some glorious sadness in there
...the casual years, sain,founders day, junkie blood, contact me now...black bile by the bucket load

... and yes, plain old Big Star sadness - certainly evokes the same feeling - probably plain old nostalgia for something that never happened .Or maybe they're all ecstacy fuelled motherbangers...

You mention K C. Was it true that Spin thought Ain't My Lookout was a concept album about Kurt Cobain's suicide!Jeebus G! I remember those trendy fucks at the NME panned it - on the premise you weren't Britpop.The post 'grunge/lo fi'- come to think of it- USA- backlash.

I've done enough Tripp stalking now

Thanks for the great rekids.

Let us know how Dragoon are shaping. You may even get to the Adelphi? I'll ask Jacko to fumigate'upstairs', but I doubt he's talking to me yet.

.......

SAIN is scott's baby. don't want to take credit.

casual years was something i was very proud of though
and I'd say that there is defintiely some Big Star influence if not just outright Chris Bell influence on it.
thank you D tuning.

I don't remember SPIN saying that about AIM. I don't think it was a concept album but maybe nobody told me..

You might like Impala. If you like the Ventures you'll like Impala.
I believe I saw one of them boys in here last week. i love Impala. My favorite memphis band of the 90's.

,,,
here's a true story from the vault...

We were in Hollywood once (on tour, not making pornos) and before leaving town we stopped for lunch at Barney's Beanery. I swear their menu is like a whole section of the New York Times. Huge omelettes and whatever. If it's still there I recommend.
great bloody marys.

So it's us, Martin the soundman and our ole girlfriend Jean (who happened to be in LA taking care of her brother).

In walks Quentin Tarantino and Jean screams "OH MY GOD ITS QUENTIN TARANTINO!!" So we all immediately crouch behind our gigantic menus, embarassed.

But there he was with a lovely young lady. no idea who.
Me and Scott and martin go outside the restaurant for a smoke and martin suggests we give him a grifters cd. So I volunteered for the mission.

Unfortunately the van is backed up to a wall and the cd's are in the merch case at the bottom of everything. I checked in the front to see if there was anything laying out. There wasn't. BUT I did find an Impala cd. I don't remember which one. Rancho Reverbo? Kings of the Strip?

So i walked up and gave it to mr tarantino. I said nothing. he politely said 'oh, thanks man' and I assume he thought we were Impala.

Could it be a coincidence that a few years later, Quentin's buddy George Clooney wanted to use some Impala stuff in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind?

actually, yeah. it probably was a coincidence.

.......

SAIN is scott's baby. don't want to take credit.

...

ALSO y'know, the BOB version of Junkie Blood (which obviously wasn't called Junkie Blood) sounded nothing like the grifters version. BOB's version sounded like Sittin On The Dock of the Bay. Dave took it and slowed it waaay down to Codeine-speed (the band not the...)
He took one of our goof-offs and made it something really cool.

audience recording and Peel Session up now on D!mead0zen.

I'm ecstatic to hear this, annoyed that I can't seem to join the site, and saddened that nobody else flipped out over the news. Every week or so I have to play Soda Pop and She Blows Blasts of Static to remind myself that no, nobody does anything like this anymore.

dlp email me

Consider me also flipped out. A 1994 sbd show from Philadelphia had just been put up in the last week or two previous as well. (The Soda Pop/Blasts of Static single is always right by the turntable for me too.)

YAY!!! My favorite band!
Under The Ground - "Please Don't Tease Me, Tease Me Like That, Especially When I'm Holding This Baseball Bat"

I've been playing my Grifters mix non-stop lately. What is the link to D!mead0zen? I can't find it.

I wouldn't mind buying 'No Particular Slogan' singles collection if any of you know where to get that. Maybe I can mail: THE GRIFTERS c/o Raleigh Springs Mall, Memphis.

What is the link to D!mead0zen? I can't find it.

neither can I and i've tried many a permutation- any joy Capatin Lorax or is 'sleeve' around to assist?

no joy yet

it's www.D!mead0zen.org, but with the more normal characters in there.

Also, it took me a while to be able to log on, but persistance paid off and I did finally get this.

Listening to 'Crappin' You Negative' right now.

It must be the water in Memphis.

Where the hell is Tripp with more anecdotes?

Do I need sectioning?

I was listening to this just the other day. It's just a flat-out awesome American rock album. I love that murky groove on "Get Out of That Spaceship and Fight Like a Man."

one of my favorite song titles ever^^^

ber ber ber ber bump

Grumptious open tunings in da flower shop

whatup yall? I forgot my password and had to re-register..

I don't know if you knew but Scott and Dave have a band now called New Mary Jane.

Shame you not involved in that Tripp - that bass was always a huge part of the Grifters groove - but as you have hinted at before - too much water under. Not really in the know with the Grifters split but kind of surprised that Scott and Dave are performing together again? Any good?

Dragoon still bouncing?

Grifters are still my favorite band in the world ever. Sometimes I don't let people know about The Grifters because I don't feel they are worthy enough to know about music like this. Besides that, I don't think a lot of my friends would understand how cool Grifters are when they know jack shit about music in general (except that stuff on the radio).

Are Grifters an acquired taste? Perhaps. But if you listened to lots of outlandish music growing up than maybe the Grifters will sound perfect on so many levels that the idea of them being an acquired taste seems absurd.

Anyone have A Band Called Bud or Hot Monkey mp3s?

BTW, as the person who started this thread lo these many moons ago, I now renounce my earlier opinion of the later Grifters albums as less than prime. That is, the Shangri-La stuff is still the gold standard, but I have found the Sub Pop albums have plenty of tunes that grew on me in the fullness of time. So there.

Sometimes I don't let people know about The Grifters because I don't feel they are worthy enough to know about music like this. Besides that, I don't think a lot of my friends would understand how cool Grifters are when they know jack shit about music in general (except that stuff on the radio).

You don't sound like a very good friend.

Dragoon is still slugging through.

myspace.com/dragoonmemphis

trying to get the first record done. Everything's recorded just need to mix a few things. And get it mastered. And do all the art.. it'll never get done..