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Updated 03/17/02.

A bit different this time.  Since I just completed Polylogue I will elaborate a bit here on two of the primary "external" (other musical) influences for that - others have been covered before.  

First and foremost I've been playing in a free-play band Peevish.  Through that experience and listening to lots of different freeplay things via other musicians/friends I've become interested in the improvisational "form" and in particular in the notion of fusing that with song structures.  Several songs on the new record directly reflect this.  Inevitably people I've played with tremendously influenced this record because I asked them to perform on it and have been listening to them for some time.  These folks include Taylor Aglipay, Bryan Eubanks, Joe Foster, and JP Jenkins.

I also spent time listening to the brilliant and increasingly known Shaggs.  This almost never-was band can easily be sought out on the web but the musical basics in any case consist of an extremely idiosyncratic performance style born primarily of a lack of "proper" training and an apparently very insular/self-referential learning process.  The Shaggs play in a way that is fascinating and engaging yet essentially incompetent, at least by traditional standards.  Yet their message is intensely personal and succeeds at communicating.  It's an interesting study of how sincerity and a self-developed vocabulary can get over and worthy of review.  Their first and essential record is Philosophy of the World and is fairly easy to find these days.

Lou Reed should get a mention if for no other reason he appears on two tracks of this record.  On "Lovesick" some words are directly borrowed as well as attributed during the song while he's referenced in "50 Years of Rock and Roll".  I think it's largely because he is, as cliche as it is to say, a true rock and roll icon.  I am fascinated by rock music and its history and rock and roll has truly informed my musical sensibilities and even my life.  Lou Reed seems to feel the same way and his body of work as well as the legend that is Lou represents as well as anything the feel and history of rock, at least to me.  And as a large part of this record was a reflection on rock music it was inevitable he play a role in that.

Other figures play on the record in one way or another, but otherwise they're largely already represented in the archive mentioned/linked below or are obvious enough in the context as presented on the record.  

Interested in previous influences, admirations, and honorable mentions?  Check out the archive!

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