bands with a member who concentrates solely on manipulating the sounds the other members make.

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I'm not really sure where this is going to go but I thought it might be an interesting topic to float out there. the obvious example of it would be eno's role in roxy music, putting other instruments through his synth; more recently there's that guy in comets on fire who "plays" "echoplex" (apparently his setup is far more complex than just an echoplex though). think that one of the mission of burma guys did a lot of stuff with tape loops and the like? anyway you get the idea, I'm sure. (bring up other examples if you can think of them by all means!)

I quite like the notion of someone who gets in and warps the sound in weird ways. how much creativity would one be able to get away with doing this, though? I figure that there's a very fine line involved with how far one could process and slice and dice without a) totally fucking off the other members of the band; b) demoting the rest of the band to session muso status.

muso types, would YOU play in such a band?

― haitch (haitch), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 11:45 (twenty years ago)

I do take on this role to some extent, though not exclusively. I enjoy it immensely—there's something about live sampling and filtering that captures my interest, both as a performer and an audience member.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 12:01 (twenty years ago)

The Mars Volta had a guy that did this, right? I believe he was off-stage, at the sound board.

― naus (Robert T), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 12:15 (twenty years ago)

Kreidler

― William Selman (William Selman), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 13:46 (twenty years ago)

I think this is fantastic. It's got to be hard to play your parts and worry about the sound fuckery, unless you're a freak like Joe from Dub Trio. Jim Black, too. More bands should do this.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 15:33 (twenty years ago)

I've noticed stadium arena guitarists don't seem to control their own effects much of the time. Depending on some guy backstage to click your pedal at the right time is not something I would feel comfortable with. How hard is it to click a pedal, anyway? Jeez.

― Wussy Guitarists, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:01 (twenty years ago)

But if you're on the wrong side of the 360 degree stage or at the end of the runaway, you're like 30 FEET AWAY from your pedals!

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:15 (twenty years ago)

White Stripes be having this guy

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Wouldn't that blow if the guy totally missed a cue and the whole passage was played without the effect?

― Wussy Guitarist, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 20:00 (twenty years ago)

But if you're on the wrong side of the 360 degree stage or at the end of the runaway, you're like 30 FEET AWAY from your pedals!

Then I should stop being so darned exciting onstage. Maybe I need a wire to keep me in line.

― WG, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 20:03 (twenty years ago)

The Rollins Band always credited Theo Van Rock, their soundman/producer, as a band member on their record sleeves, and he appeared in the band photos too.

But if you're on the wrong side of the 360 degree stage or at the end of the runaway, you're like 30 FEET AWAY from your pedals!

Slipknot had their techs control their effects, though I think for reasons more to do with the high likelihood of the destruction of said effects during their wacky onstage hi-jinks. For the same reason, their drummers triggered samples with their sticks, rather than playing a "real" kit.

― Ben Dot (1977), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 01:57 (twenty years ago)

Dik Mik in Hawkwind perhaps?

― The Equator Lounge (Chris Barrus), Friday, 17 February 2006 00:14 (twenty years ago)

I would fucking maim and murder to get a guy/gal like this. We're using loops that could benefit enormously from constant tweaking, guitar sounds that could be snatched into real-time loops, etc. This must require a degree of humility not usually found in musicians, however.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 20 February 2006 21:11 (twenty years ago)

I think I would really enjoy doing this in a good band, but I don't have the gear.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 20 February 2006 21:25 (twenty years ago)

yeah last time i jammed with a 'sampler dude' his noise totally overwhelmed EVERYTHING we were playing. just because you can granulate the shit out of everything in real time dont mean you should!

― hjsldfk, Tuesday, 21 February 2006 00:42 (twenty years ago)

v00redoms circa 2002 had Kiyoshi Izumi as soundperson/manipulator on the drums/electronics from the board.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 00:56 (twenty years ago)

I think I would really enjoy doing this in a good band, but I don't have the gear.

Jordan, if you're in NYC by any chance, come see if we fit the definition (spielerfrau dot com) The gear is not a problem.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 02:13 (twenty years ago)

The Occasion has/had a girl that did tape loop stuff, but I think she's not in the band anymore.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 03:15 (twenty years ago)

J.C., y'all are seriously looking for a manipulator-dude? Sounds like I really need to finish up that remix for you.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 06:49 (twenty years ago)

Abbadavid - oh that's too bad, I had a minor creepy-audience-dude crush on that girl.

If she lurks here, I just killed my chances of getting her to play in Spielerfrau, didn't I?

Nabisco - indeed! Now's a good time, too: the album's finally coming out, we'll be heading to the UK im May, etc. And I'm dying to hear the remix, of course.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 15:49 (twenty years ago)

Ha, that's always my job in any given band. I am Mr Tweak. That's what you get for not learning an instrument. On the other hand, it's great because you can get drunker than everyone else.

― ratty, Thursday, 23 February 2006 02:36 (twenty years ago)

xpost Yeah she was sorta cute and definitely much more so for manipulating tape. A friend of mine who knows them said she's out and their myspace page seems to confirm it. So is their keyboard player. It's hard for me to imagine them being half as good without the keyboard and tape loops.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 23 February 2006 03:15 (twenty years ago)

it's great because you can get drunker than everyone else.

ratty you're saying this is an avenue I should explore then??

― destroye's noobies (haitch), Thursday, 23 February 2006 10:01 (twenty years ago)

well, destroye's noobies, there is one caveat - your gear is probably the worst affected when you spill your beer on it.

― ratty, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 04:05 (nineteen years ago)

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