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Name: Jeff
Country: United States
State: California
Gender: Male
Interests: See "Area of expertise"
Expertise: Rock stardom &/or junior rocket science
Occupation: Other
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
7/25/2003
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| REVIEW: The Horse’s Ha, “Of the Cathmawr Yards,” (Hidden Agenda)Reviewed for The Chicago Sun-Times.
The Horse’s Ha, “Of the Cathmawr Yards,” (Hidden Agenda)
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Chicago lost a musical treasure when the Zincs disbanded in 2008. The group’s 2007 album “Black Pompadour” fused influences including Television, afro-pop and the Smiths while attaining top marks on several year-end lists. Save your tears, though. Apparently, Jim Elkington had new challenges in mind.
The British expatriate’s resonant baritone and dry delivery most closely mirror his Zincs effort with the cool jazz and self-depricating prose of “Left Hand.” “A pox on this man let down by his own left hand,” croons Elkington, joined by bandmate and Eleventh Dream Day veteran Janet Beveridge Bean. The rumble and buzz of Nick Macri’s upright bass and a downcast trumpet solo worthy of Burt Bacharach (courtesy of Calexico’s Martin Wenk) transport listeners to the corner booth of a dimly lit cocktail bar.
The album’s moonlit blend of acoustic sounds is slow and sophisticated, though improvisational cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm creaks and groans his way through a rollicking story of mother nature’s revenge called “The Piss Choir.” The undulating rhythm of “Map of Stars” also throws off sparks.
If there’s a secret ingredient to the band’s recipe, it’s Charles Rumback’s drumming, influenced more by post-bop greats like Elvin Jones than anyone on today’s indie-rock scene. Rumback’s brushed snare and clattering fills during “Asleep in a Waterfall” combine with Macri’s bass and Elkington’s tumbling guitar to suggest a steam locomotive struggling uphill with a wheel missing. Bean sings about a shipwrecked diva who digs her own grave, spinning a sense of eerie beauty.
- Jeff Elbel | | |
| Free PING music, and Cornerstone invitationFree album (limited time): Engine of Destruction - Live 2003  PC: Right-Click album cover and choose "Save As ..."
Mac: Click the cover.
Trouble downloading? E-mail jeff@marathonrecords.com for a hassle-free Yousendit link. High bandwidth: 320 kbps .mp3 files, bundled as a .zip archive. Total size is 93 MB.
Donations appreciated but optional
Enjoying the music is mandatory. 
Cornerstone Fest 2009: Join Ping at the Gallery Stage on Weds, July 1, 2009 @ 4:15pm. We’ll be playing new songs, and we’ll have a blast if YOU are there!
In celebration of our 2009 performance, Ping offers this live set from 2003.
We’ll announce an encore appearance (different material) during the Gallery show.
In 2004, Rev Hillstrom of Creation Station Media released Ping’s Engine of Destruction album via his Bootleg Live series. Recorded in 2003 on the Cornerstone Festival’s Gallery Stage, the CD was released as a limited run and quickly went out of print. In June 2009, Rev graciously returned ownership of the Engine of Destruction album to Ping. If Rev locates any stray copies of the CD, we’ll offer them for sale on his behalf. We’d like to extend big thanks to Rev, and to everyone who purchased the CD back in 2004. For a limited time, Ping is offering a high bandwidth (320 kbps) version of the Engine of Destruction live set as a free download. This show featured debut performances of three tracks from The Eleventh Hour Storybook studio album, in addition to material that has rarely been performed since. The studio prototype of “All in All” will remain a rarity for those with the original CD. Click the album cover to download a .zip file with ten mp3s. You’ll also note that there is a button for donations. This is strictly optional. While we’d certainly appreciate your support, we’ll love the thought of you digging these songs even more. Enjoy the music!
Track Listing: 01. Introduction by John J. Thompson
02. Mary Across the Ocean
03. Here Comes the Sunburn
04. Miracle Rain
05. Bedouin Girl
06. Radio Flyer
07. Engine of Destruction
08. Dig
09. Getting Ahead of Myself
10. Time to Leave Line-up: John Bretzlaff: electric guitar
Kim Bretzlaff: vocal
Chad Dunn: percussion
Jeff Elbel: vocal, acoustic guitar, bass
Stacey Krejci: bass, organ
Andrew Oliver: drums
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| Ping's embroidered patch arrived today!I love embroidered patches, and now I've got my very own. Stitch-on or iron-on. 4.25" x 1.75". Design by Brian Heydn.
Price is listed at $3.99 per patch + $1.91 to ship one patch.
If you want one and $5.90 is outside the budget, just let me know and I'll send one.
Ping: 11th Hour Tour Embroidered Patch 
Made for fun, not profit - Buy this cool patch and join the band!
$3.99 + $1.91 shipping = $5.90 total [combine shipping on multiple items at Marathon Records]
Wear this patch and instantly become part of the crew!
Tune things. Lift heavy road cases. Heck, sing lead vocal!
1.75" x 4.25". One size fits all. Iron-on or sew-on.
For shirts, caps, bags, etc. I'm putting mine over the pocket of a Dickies 1574 work shirt.
AVAILABLE NOW. | | |
| Occidental Brothers Dance Band International: "Odo Sanbra" reviewThis review appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times on May 17, 2009.
AFROPOP | Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, "Odo Sanbra" (Thrill Jockey) 
Chicagoans are learning to share these local fixtures (often abbreviated OBDBI), who are gaining nationwide momentum with lightning speed. The Brothers' sound is rooted in Central and West African dance music. Guitarist Nathaniel Braddock adds expertise in highlife and dry guitar to the jazz and Television-influenced post-punk he plied with local rockers the Zincs. The combination appeals to seasoned Afropop fans and indie-hipsters alike. For Western music points of reference, Braddock's lilting guitar on the title cut recalls the curlicue figures played by former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr on Talking Heads' "Nothing But Flowers." Those anticipating links to Paul Simon's "Graceland" might hear passing similarity in native Ghanaian Asamoah Rambo's effortlessly precise drumming and Joshua Ramos' slippery contrabass, but the Brothers' rhythm section is decisively hotter and settles deeper into authentic African culture. Rambo and trumpeter/vocalist Kofi Cromwell were in popular Ghanaian highlife band Western Diamonds together, with little background in 1980's Europop -- the better to make an affectionate version of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle" their own. Braddock has said the song's progression mirrors a highlife variant called sikyi. Cromwell's ever-so-slightly broken English only adds appeal. The cover song is a canny introduction, but the album's highlights are band originals. Though sung in Cromwell's native Fante dialect, the jubilant chorus of "Odo Bra Wa Wa Wa" is immediate singalong material. Andrew Bird, another local devotee of African music, adds stirring violin to "Mafiwo." OBDBI mainstay Greg Ward's joyful saxophone dances through "Circle Circle Circle." Jeff Elbel | | |
| Gilberto Serna
I met an inspirational person today - Gilberto Serna, a master craftsman still working from the old Deagan mallet percussion company of Chicago. I finally took my old Deagan concert bells over, which are a complete set that I found in Tucson, AZ when I was there for the Tape Op conference a few years ago. The bells are in good shape, but the housing is useless. Mr. Serna is going to build a new case and frame, and tune the bells precisely.
The J. C. Deagan company no longer exists, though it operated for more than a century. Mr. Serna occupies a large warehouse space in the same building, where he has worked since 1968. The Deagan name is still on the clock tower above the building. Mr. Serna's company is called Century Mallet Instrument Service. He showed me around his workshop.
The old tube tuning gear was actually my favorite thing to see. We walked by a photo of a master tuner from the early 30's (whose name I believe was Schiller). He was working in front of the exact same pieces of equipment which Mr. Serna now uses. Mr. Serna has a small Deagan showroom with examples of some old pieces - calliope bells from 1888; a beautiful, ethereal sounding set of shaker bells from near the turn of the 20th century which I got to play briefly, a marimba built to perform for the coronation of King George - solid brass construction, over 200 pounds; another marimba built for the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago; the last vibrahorn that Serna hand-built under the Deagan name (available for sale at $38K); J.C. Deagan's first full-year ledger from the late 19th century (1889, if I recall properly), etc. It would have been easy to spend a couple of hours investigating the artifacts, papers and musical instruments in this room, but Melinda was waiting outside (this is certainly not a guilt trip in her direction, I left her sitting much too long for what was anticipated to be a drop-off service order).
Mr. Serna may be the last of his kind in this field, with such master craftsman experience and technique. His type of skill is a rarity, in any case. I know that he's in such demand that he is flown to Vienna twice a year to work there. In addition to repairing and maintaining old instruments in his shop and around the world, Century Mallet has many newly built mallet percussion instruments for sale.
Happily, Mr. Serna said that he was very impressed with the condition of my bells, and he'd set them up better than they'd ever been. It'll cost a little, but it really seems like an opportunity not to pass up. He offered to set them up as contemporary bells, tuned to A442. I answered that unless he strongly recommended otherwise, I'd rather have them dialed in as they were originally designed (A440) in 1926. [Trivia fact: In 1910, J. C. Deagan persuaded the American Federation of Musicians to adopt A=440 as the standard universal pitch for orchestras and bands.]
Mr. Serna has no computers in his office, though he says the company owns one - his grandchildren use it to answer emails. He wrote out my invoice by hand into a spiral notebook, and told me to call him in a couple of weeks.
He also told me that the building has been sold to a new landlord which will require all of the current tenants to relocate next year. "I don't even want to think about it," Mr. Serna told me, when I conjectured about the scale of relocating an operation such as his. He believes that the new owner will choose to keep the Deagan name on the clock tower.
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