Lame song lyric reference here...

I actually decided to write a post this time not about what's going on in my life per se, but about a band that's long dead and gone but whose influence is still reverberating in my daily process as a musician. That band is Naked City, John Zorn's "composition workshop" that was formed in the late 80's. Naked City was a band comprised of some of Downtown New York's brightest stars at the time. John Zorn, Joey Baron, Fred Frith, Bill Frisell, and Wayne Horovitz created some of the most intelligent, humorous, aggressive and beautiful music I've ever heard.

Since the middle of the past century and the birth of rock 'n' roll, few new forms of music have been created or discovered. Hip hop, punk, and so-called "free" jazz are probably the most important. That band proved that despite a lack of novel form in music, there could still be innovation in the context of a traditional rock 'n' roll band, and more importantly a new way to relate to music as a whole. They tried to show us how Ornette Coleman, Ennio Morricone, Henri Mancini, hardcore punk, lounge jazz, blues, surf and an endless list of musical styles were part of the same continuum.

I first heard the band when I was in high school and I have to admit that not only the cover of their debut album, Naked City, but the music especially scared and disturbed me. In fact, it does to this day. But it's only recently that I've realized how much their output has meant to me and influenced what I do as a musician. Just listen to "California" or "Now" on the Dorothy Heralds' last album. Jumping from Nü-Metal trash to McCoy Tyner-inspired country chord melody to Coltrane-type chord cycles in an electronica context? I can't deny that it was Naked City that led me to the mental disorders that make me do what I do musically. Maybe you should try them out also....