http://edwenn.com An archive of music from Ed Wenn\'s back catalogue. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:57:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 en © ed.wenn@gmail.com () ed.wenn@gmail.com() 1440 An archive of music from Ed Wenn's back catalogue. ed.wenn@gmail.com No no http://edwenn.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://edwenn.com 144 144 http://edwenn.com/archives/126 http://edwenn.com/archives/126#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 15:45:47 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/126 http://edwenn.com/archives/126/feed 00:01:01 I've not posted anything here for a while and I haven't got any gigs coming up, but I have been reasonably busy. In the interests ... I've not posted anything here for a while and I haven't got any gigs coming up, but I have been reasonably busy. In the interests of brevity, here's a quick roundup of what's happened so far in 2010. I played guitar on a couple of tracks from the new Billy No Mates album, which I think is going to be called "Duck, Duck, Goose". The album's not mixed yet, but I've heard a rough mix of all the songs and it's really good. Definitely one to look out for. I'll update here when it's finally released. Unfortunately the planned Billy No Mates tour in Germany fell victim to a bit of punk rock organisation and is no more. My new punk band, Liquidman, had a couple of really good reherasals with our new bassist, Damion Rice (formerly of The Killerest Expression). Rich switched from bass to lead guitar and it's sounding great. We had a few potentials on the gig front, but they all faded away...then we all got busy and now it's mid-May. Hmmm. Maybe things will pick up later in the year? Maybe I should schmooze more and go to gigs? The biggest news though is the fact that I've started work on a new Big Ray album. Yep, you heard that correctly. Let's face it....the history of rock'n'roll is littered with pointless gestures, so what's the problem with one more? The idea is to plug away and get it all finished by the end of the year. Over and above that there are no plans, but hopefully the process will get me off my arse and out there playing more acoustic gigs in 2011. I'm recording the acoustic guitar #38; vocal backing tracks with Rich Matthews in his studio in London and will then get the rest of the cast to add their material on top either in person or via the wonders of the Internet. So far lined up to play on the songs are Big Ray regulars Reado (drums), Paul Duncan (bass) and possibly John Ruscoe (guitar). In addition two of my favourite musicians, Michael Hampton and Dave Derby, both from New York will be continuing their Big Ray associations by sprinkling their own brands of fairy dust over the music from their respective home studios in the Big Apple. Michael in particular had a huge impact on "Business Class" so expect more of the same from him. Additionally I hope to rope in Mickey Trenter, Clive Watling, Li'l Lost Lou, James Allen and possibly some others to round things off. I'll probably post odds and sods from the recordings as we go along before making the final thing available here for free as always once it's done. In that spirit here's a very 'early days' version of one of the new songs, "Shimmy". Check it out now and then wait to compare it with the finished version in early 2011. Billy,No,Mates,,Liquidman,,Acoustic,,Big,Ray ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/124 http://edwenn.com/archives/124#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:38:41 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/124 http://edwenn.com/archives/124/feed 00:01:01 Sink did a big 9 week, joint-headline tour of Europe (including dates in the UK) with our bestest buddies from Washington DC, Shudder To Think. ... Sink did a big 9 week, joint-headline tour of Europe (including dates in the UK) with our bestest buddies from Washington DC, Shudder To Think. They had just released Tenspot on Dischord and would record Funeral At The Movies at Southern in London directly after the tour. Shudder were my favourite band at the time and I think I got to see them 53 times that summer. Wonderful stuff. The line-up of Craig Wedren, Chris Matthews, Stuart Hill #38; Mike Russell will always be my favourite version of Shudder and it was cool watching them every night and seeing them write and develop some of the Funeral songs as the tour progressed. As for Sink; we had just released Old Man Snake #38; The Fat, Black Pig on Decoy and were excited to be back in Europe and on tour. Outside of the UK you were expected to play longer sets and so we embraced this with our own fairly eclectic take on "life after hardcore". A few chuggy, Fugazi-inspred numbers, some poppy, Replacements nods, as few fast ones as we could get away with and some covers we couldn't really play. No two nights were the same and we had a lot of our own material and plenty of covers to choose from. This was probably the height of our embracing of The Blues and in that I hope you'll be indulgent with us. Everyone should spend a couple of years looking into where the whole ofnbsp; popular music came from and discovering the Blues greats. We did and we thoroughly enjoyed it...it was just unfortunate for our audience that we tended to play a lot of what we were listening to at the time. So on this tour we 'gifted' the crowd with dodgy, post-punk versions of white-boy blues that we loved, but which looking back, probably aren't even 10% as good as we thought at the time. Fuck it, we had a ball. We always enjoyed playing at the AJZ, a squat in Bielefeld, and Bobo, the booker there, was a great guy who seemed to like the band and helped us out a fair bit. Also on hand was our very good friend, Alfred Bradford, who took these great photos. Incidentally, Alfred had brought along US band The Dambuilders who were also touring at the time. We said hi to each other on the night, but didn't really hang out. Ironic then that 3 years later, Chocolate, would tour Europe supporting The Dambuildes on their Islington Porn Tapes tour and that their drummer, Kevin March, would end up playing for the final line-up of Shudder To Think. Small world. Anyway, what follows is the whole gig. It's very much warts and all. If you're a Sink fan then you'll probably enjoy it, if you've not heard Sink before then I wouldn't recommend this as your introdution to the band; there are bum notes aplenty and the mix isn't always great (the sound man seems to like his reverb and his delay effects). That said, the versions of Angel Turns Blue and Big Red Car are pretty damn good :-) Ed Wenn - Vocal #38; guitar John Ruscoe - Guitar #38; backing vocals Paul Duncan - Bass #38; backing vocals James Kermack - Drums #38; backing vocals Points of interest: * This was the only time we ever played The Letter (a huge 60's hit for The Box Tops). * Boogie Man and Ticket Office Blues were written by us, but were never released. * Amanush was recorded on a Peel session and came out on Aston's first Boss Tuneage compliation, Floor 81, but it really should have been on Vega-Tables. It was Paul's song in the main, but was 'a bit punk' for where I wanted the band to be at the time (and I was a Nazi) so it got left off the album. These days I like it a lot. * Craig from Shudder jumped up onstage and sang Whole Lotta Love with us...we should have got him to do it every night because he had the voice for it. It hadn't even occurred to me that he'd be interested and I hadn't made the connection at that point between his voice and the classic rock singers like Robert Plant. Sink ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/123 http://edwenn.com/archives/123#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:19:03 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/123 http://edwenn.com/archives/123/feed 00:01:01 Our good friend and former K-Line drummer, James Sherry, was on hand at the Bird's Nest gig last week to take some pictures and record ... Our good friend and former K-Line drummer, James Sherry, was on hand at the Bird's Nest gig last week to take some pictures and record a few minutes of video. Turns out the room was too dark for you to see anything on the video, but the sound quality was decent enough, so I cut that out and have uploaded the 2 songs as audio only. Squirrels cuts off a few seconds from the end, but you get the whole of Seams. I've also included a few of James' snaps from the gig too. Liquidman ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/117 http://edwenn.com/archives/117#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:07:49 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/117 http://edwenn.com/archives/117/feed 00:01:01 I've spent 2 years waiting for the final 2 YDM songs to get mixed before posting the whole session here and to date there's not ... I've spent 2 years waiting for the final 2 YDM songs to get mixed before posting the whole session here and to date there's not been any progress, so I'm going to go ahead and post them all anyway. If we get round to mixing the last 2 at any point I'll update this entry at that point. Anyway, You Disgust Me was the band that Rich, Paul #38; I formed after K-Line split up at the very end of 2004. First we got our good friend, Marc 'Mates' Maitland from Blocko to plays drums, but he left after 6 months so James Sherry (also from K-Line) agreed to stand in for a while. Unfortunately, James also left after a few rehearsals for a variety of reasons and we essentially called it a day at that point. It's incredibly deflating working up a set of material with a drummer and then have him leave just as you're about to start looking for gigs. To have it happen twice in a row is a real kick in the teeth. Anyway, because time was tight for all of us we asked James if he'd at least record the songs that we'd been working on so that we'd have a document of what we'd got up to. After the recording we looked for a new drummer, but all leads dried up and we knocked it on the head. A great shame as I think some of the material is really strong and I'd have loved to have had the opportunity to play live. It's really frustrating that my fave song, End Time Gospel, remains unmixed because while the rough mix gives you a feel for the song, there's a lot missing from this version (especially a load of build-up guitars near the end). Bah! Maybe one day. The one song that didn't really work for us is Murder In Their Eyes; the verses are OK and so is the breakdown at the end, but we were never really happy with the choruses. All songs written by Ed, Rich #38; Paul with input from Mates #38; James. All lyrics by Ed. Warhead is a cover of the 1980 classic from the UK Subs #38; My Pal is a cover of the similarly classic song from Aussia band, God. Ed Wenn - Vocals, guitar #38; percussion Rich Matthews - Guitar Paul Duncan - Bass James Sherry - Drums Roop - Backing vocals #38; percussion John Ruscoe - Slide guitar on 'Warhead' The drums were recorded by Rich at 2KHz and the rest was recorded #38; mixed by Roop in a tiny attic room at Air Lyndhurst. Rich and I have decided to ressurect some of the songs in our new (as of Nov 2009) band, Liquidman, so if you come and see us play expect to hear Edison #38; Structure. You,Disgust,Me ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/112 http://edwenn.com/archives/112#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:26:55 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/112 http://edwenn.com/archives/112/feed 00:01:01 This has been posted in case anyone swings by this site as a result of the Bad Dress Sense section of Ian Glasper's book, "Trapped ... This has been posted in case anyone swings by this site as a result of the Bad Dress Sense section of Ian Glasper's book, "Trapped In A Scene". Eventually I'll add some details about the recording and artwork, but for now here are the songs. Bad,Dress,Sense ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/113 http://edwenn.com/archives/113#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:20:32 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/113 http://edwenn.com/archives/113/feed 00:01:01 nbsp; This has been posted in case anyone swings by this site as a result of the Bad Dress Sense section of Ian Glasperrsquo;s book, ldquo;Trapped ... nbsp; This has been posted in case anyone swings by this site as a result of the Bad Dress Sense section of Ian Glasperrsquo;s book, ldquo;Trapped In A Scenerdquo;. Eventually Irsquo;ll add some details about the recording, but for now here is the track. [Photo of Nick by Paul May] Bad,Dress,Sense ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/111 http://edwenn.com/archives/111#comments Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:45:25 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/111 http://edwenn.com/archives/111/feed 00:01:01 nbsp; This has been posted in case anyone swings by this site as a result of the Bad Dress Sense section of Ian Glasperrsquo;s book, ldquo;Trapped ... nbsp; This has been posted in case anyone swings by this site as a result of the Bad Dress Sense section of Ian Glasperrsquo;s book, ldquo;Trapped In A Scenerdquo;. Eventually Irsquo;ll add some details about the recording, but for now here are the songs. Bad,Dress,Sense ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/109 http://edwenn.com/archives/109#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:37:21 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/109 http://edwenn.com/archives/109/feed 00:01:01 Here's another old Sink radio interview that I dug up a few months ago. This one's even more nonsensical than the last one, but it's ... Here's another old Sink radio interview that I dug up a few months ago. This one's even more nonsensical than the last one, but it's of interest because this time I'm joined by our irrepressible drummer, Kermack. If memory serves, we'd played our fave venue in Aalborg (Denmark) the night before, but the van had broken down the next morning so we'd not been able to go over to Sweden to play our next scheduled gig in Malmo. The promoters at the venue in Aalborg kindly offered us a second night at their place because there was already a gig booked; we were happy to not have to shell out for a night in a hotel #38; I assume we were fed and watered if not paid. So anyway, Kermack #38; I were invited onto the local radio station to get the word out about the last minute gig. Present in the studio at the time were members of some of the other bands due to play that night. Oh yeah, Kermack #38; I were also are 'forced' to perform what is probably the definitive acapella/punk crossover version of the "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" theme tune right at the end.....Erm, enjoy! Sink ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/108 http://edwenn.com/archives/108#comments Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:48:52 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/108 http://edwenn.com/archives/108/feed 00:01:01 Quite a lot to catch up on and not a lot of time to do it in. Here's the first bit though anyway. The acoustic ... Quite a lot to catch up on and not a lot of time to do it in. Here's the first bit though anyway. The acoustic gig at Lou's Callyfest went off well in then end although it was a fairly terrifying experience all told. What doesn't doesn't kill you makes you stronger etc. etc. :-) Definitely a character building experience, but one that will stand me in good stead for the future I'm sure. Here's a clip of me playing 'Shivers' at the gig. The guitar intro is missing, but Jacqui caught the rest of the song. I was super nervous so the song's pretty fast; also I had to stick the guitar through an amp and not the PA which is why it's a bit tinny sounding. Ed sings "Shivers" from Ed Wenn on Vimeo. ....and for those of you who are unfamiliar with the original version of the song, here it is: Acoustic,,Sink ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/90 http://edwenn.com/archives/90#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:42:46 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/90 http://edwenn.com/archives/90/feed 00:01:01 There were a couple of versions of K-Line that knocked around in rehearsal rooms in various parts of London before the line-up that most of ... There were a couple of versions of K-Line that knocked around in rehearsal rooms in various parts of London before the line-up that most of you know about got together and starting gigging and recording. The very first one featured me on guitar #38; vocals with Scott Stewart on drums and Micha Meisterling on bass. 1 or 2 rehearsals in, Scott (who was playing guitar in the VERY mighty, Dead Inside), enlisted Paul Symes - also from Dead Inside - to come in on 2nd guitar. Soon after that Micha announced he was moving back to Germany for work reasons and so I asked my old partner in crime, Paul Duncan, to join on bass. This line-up of Paul, Paul, Scott and me was together for maybe 6 months. We wrote a bunch of songs and rehearsed sporadically. There was even talk of where to play our first show. After a while though it became apparent that Paul #38; Scott were getting too busy touring with Dead Inside to play in K-Line too so we decided to bring a 4-track along to the next rehearsal and record what we had for posterity. I added the vocals later at home. The songs below are the result of that exercise. Ed Wenn - Vocals #38; guitar Paul Duncan - Bass Scott Stewart - Drums Paul Symes - Guitar All in all they are a bunch of promising, but very rough and mostly unfinished songs; a glimpse if you like into where this line-up may have headed had we tightened up and started playing. They're a bit noodly in places and not direct enough, but this was all pretty embryonic stuff. At the time I was gutted that Paul #38; Scott left, but then I wasn't to know that James, Zac and later Rich, were just around the corner. Looking back on it now I'm honoured to have played with Paul #38; Scott bearing in mind where Dead Inside #38; later Bullet Union went; 2 very talented men. If you're a K-Line fan you'll recognise Stay Poor, but nothing else. If you're a Liquidman fan you'll have worked out that the lyric to Start To Try is almost identical to December Grey. I still wished we'd worked on Layers (one of my fave songs) and possibly Fragile with the final K-Line line-up, but Zac didn't want to sing any of my lyrics for whatever reason and so Stay Poor remains the only song from this first incarnation that we took further. K-Line ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/81 http://edwenn.com/archives/81#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:06:51 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/81 http://edwenn.com/archives/81/feed 00:01:01 I was just going through some old hard disks and thumb drives when I came across a WAV file of a Chocolate gig at The ... I was just going through some old hard disks and thumb drives when I came across a WAV file of a Chocolate gig at The Square in Harlow from god knows when. The first couple of songs were a bit ropey and on 2 or 3 others my guitar is so loud you can't actually hear the vocals, but the othe 5 are reasonably listenable to, so I thought I'd upload 'em here. Hope you likee. This was the short-lived and final Chocolate line-up (in fact it may even be the final gig) and we never played enough to really get into our stride so the songs aren't 100% solid, but I'm not sure if there is any other record of Chocolate playing live so these songs are interesting - to me at least - for that reason. Clive Watling - Vocals #38; guitar Ed Wenn - Guitar #38; vocals Andrew Ruscoe - Bass Pete Walkden - Drums Chocolate ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/79 http://edwenn.com/archives/79#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:16:39 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/79 http://edwenn.com/archives/79/feed 14:21 This one's a bit of a curiosity. I found it a couple of months ago when I was burning old demos from cassette to CDR. ... This one's a bit of a curiosity. I found it a couple of months ago when I was burning old demos from cassette to CDR. At first I couldn't remember doing it even, but it's slowly coming back to me now. It's interesting for me to hear where I was mentally with regard to the band and music in general from the way I answer the questions. Anyway, not sure how much value there is in this for Sink 'fans' (cough!) as I don't say a lot, but since I'm a big podcast person these days it seems fitting to air this in 2008. The interview is about 14 minutes long and includes 2 full songs (Cut The Mustard and On The Tracks) which I left in simply because it would have taken too long to chop 'em out. I love the way I refer tonbsp;On The Tracks as a 'thrash' song. Hah! By 1990 I probably wasn't listening to any punk rock at all anymore, but that's not really annbsp;excuse. Sink live in Bielefeld, Germany. Photo by Alfred Bradford. Sink ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/78 http://edwenn.com/archives/78#comments Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:04:13 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/78 http://edwenn.com/archives/78/feed 00:01:01 In 1993 (?) Chocolate headed over to Europe to play some gigs with US band, The Dambuilders. We were friends with the same agent, Wieland ... In 1993 (?) Chocolate headed over to Europe to play some gigs with US band, The Dambuilders. We were friends with the same agent, Wieland Kramer from Powerline in Berlin and he set it up, but apart from that the only connection between the 2 bands was that in 1990 they had been touring at the same time as Sink and caught our gig at the AJZ in Bielefeld. We were introduced briefly by another mutual friend, the mighty Alfred Bradford (who I do so wish I was still innbsp;touch with). Anyway, suffice it to say that they'd never heard us and we'd not really heard them so we had no clue what to expect. As it so often turns out we had one of the best tours of our lives and the Dambuilders were all wonderful people. Joan's now famous as a Police Woman, Kevin is a legend via his time with GBV (and the fact that he's pretty much the best drummer in North America) and frontman Dave Derby is still a good friend and someone I keep very much in touch with to this day (he even sang on Mefloquine Dreams by Big Ray). Guitarist, Eric, I have totally lost sight of, but I'm sure he's up to something interesting. Anyway.....too many stories to tell, but the two bands got on like a house on fire and we were gutted to have to head home after a couple of weeks (despite the fact that John had knackered his wrist and wasn't really able to carry on drumming anyway) while The Dambuilders carried on without us. Some brief memories: both bands playing Cheap Trick's "Surrender" as an encore in Dresden, the pistol in Sascha's briefcase at the same gig, joining forces with the Yanks for a game of 'soccer' against the Germans, meeting Micha Meisterling, hearing too much Funky Metal, getting told off by the PA guy for showering the Dambuilders with beer one night during their set....the usual irrelevant tour stuff. After going our separate ways, The Dambuilders got signed to some major andnbsp;things were goodnbsp;for a few years. Their awesome song, "Shrine" did well for them on MTV - whatever that means - they recorded 2 or 3 more albums and eventually they split up. Completely by chance I saw them live in Vancouver a few years after our tour together and they were still great fun to watch. I don't think any of their recordings more than hinted at how amazing they were live. Bumbling around on YouTube for videos to go on my new Musicsnob site I found this track from one of their later albums and thought I'd post it here in tribute of one of the finest and funnest bands I've ever had the pleasure to tour with.nbsp;nbsp; General ed.wenn@gmail.com no No http://edwenn.com/archives/68 http://edwenn.com/archives/68#comments Mon, 05 May 2008 23:54:36 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/68 http://edwenn.com/archives/68/feed http://edwenn.com/archives/66 http://edwenn.com/archives/66#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:10:31 +0000 Ed http://edwenn.com/archives/66 http://edwenn.com/archives/66/feed 00:01:01 My first stage outing in about 3 years went off without a hitch at The Portland Arms in Cambridge last night. Great atmosphere, sold out ... My first stage outing in about 3 years went off without a hitch at The Portland Arms in Cambridge last night. Great atmosphere, sold out venue, loads of friendly faces from Ippo, Narch, London and (natch!) Sandy, Beds. It was wonderful playing with John again after all this time and I think we pulled it off just fine despite a few hiccups here and there (see notes below). Can't wait to do it again, so get in touch if you want us to play. Photos and possibly some video footage of the event will be available from here in the near future, but for now here's the whole set (mercifully minus most of my between-song-banter) recorded by Jacqui on a Sony DSC-T9 digital camera - how the world has changed. Photos by Kirstie Green. Many thanks to Chris and Ashley for inviting us to play. Roll on the next one! Anorak Notes: Most of the songs here are faithful to the original recordings, just without the other instruments, but two of them we messed about with a bit. Carousel is in a different key so that I could sing it higher, but this meant that John's harmony vocal ended up being too high for him. To compensate he's written a new guitar part and, boy is it wonderful. On Jigsaw Catch I wanted a different feel so we changed both the key and the tempo, so that it sounded more like Tim Buckley's song, Buzzin' Fly. On this one too, John has written a kick arse new guitar part that I could listen to all day. This is the one I was most looking forward to playing, but in the event it got screwed up because the acoustic guitar all but disappeared from the monitors for most of it and I spent the first verse struggling to find the right key to sing in. Acoustic ed.wenn@gmail.com no No