[Steve's
New and Less Chaotic Music Page] [Steve Espinola's
upcoming gigs] [CD's] [Animation][Steve's
New and Less Chaotic Music Page] [Steve Espinola's
upcoming gigs] [CD's] [Animation]
CHINESE ZODIAC: Tail end of the year
of the horse.
HEIGHT: 5' 8" when I remember not to slouch.
SPECIES: Cat.
FAVORITE PUNCTUATION MARK: Hands down, the semicolon
(;).
FAVORITE FOODS: Artichokes, Pasta, Sushi, Pickles, Ramen with Anchovies
(Click here for my exclusive recipe). I just discovered
the joys of yogurt, especially
the kind with fruit on the bottom.
FAVORITE BOOKS AS A KID: "Ferdinand
the Bull"
by Munro Leaf, "Frederick the Mouse" by Leo
Leonni.
BEST BOOK I'VE READ RECENTLY: "The
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami. (This is Chapter 1.)
BEST BOOK I'M READING CURRENTLY: "The Essential Rumi", translated by
Coleman Barks, and it rocks. Rumi
was a poet who lived 800 years ago, and he's got the enlightenment and the nads.
Check it out! Here's a rather
outrageous and violent parable by him...not for the weak of heart!
FAVORITE MOVIES: "Groundhog
Day" starring Bill Murray, and "Landscape
in the Mist (Topio Stin Omichli)" by Theo
Angelopoulos. They are equally deep, equally beautiful.
FAVORITE BIRD: The
Duck. Charming when
alive, delicious
when
dead.
RACIAL/CULTURAL/RELIGIOUS PROFILING: (Since I get asked this all the
time...) Grandpa Manuel Espinola was a 1st-generation Portugese (Azores)-American
Roman Catholic; my Nana Christine Espinola is a Tunisia-born Sicilian Roman
Catholic; Grandpa Jesse Robison was a 1st-generation Lithuanian-American Jew;
Grandma Helen Robison was a umpteenth-generation Hungarian-German-American Jew.
In spite of being raised Unitarian by my much-loved parents, I somehow inherited
a chunk of that Jew-Catholic guilt. Bad for the heart, good for the art.
THING I STILL CAN'T FIGURE OUT: How to leave my face intact while shaving.
(April '01 update: The Mach 3 seems to do a dandy job.)
INTERESTS: I've got lots of interests; many of them are music. I make
up songs and sing them, mostly around East Village clubs. (Here's
when.) (Click
here to hear songs, old and new. And here's a couple of bootlegs.)
I played piano for the Dan Emery Mystery Band (disbanded
as of May 2002), and occasionally for Steve Wynn (of Gutterball
and The Dream Syndicate), and other friends. (Sometimes, clicking
here will bring you to a live Steve Wynn collaboration with Spanish hitmakers
Australian Blonde. I played orchestral keyboards on this December 2000 show
at the Lakeside Lounge, NYC, and toured Europe with him in Spring 1999.) I make
musical instruments, including an electric tennis racket
and a melodic short-wave radio. Recently, I've been
writing articles on and discographies of my favorite underknown songwriters
and bands. (Soon to be posted.)
PIANO STUFF: I'm not really a jazz or classical pianist, or even a blues pianist; more a stride-rock-n-roll guy. I'm not flashy -- I can't do frilly fast runs of notes or anything -- but apparently I do something that people enjoy hearing and playing with; so I feel blessed in that regard. Some piano-playing influences and inspirations include: Nicky Hopkins (the guy who played with the Who, Kinks, Stones, Beatles); Thelonious Monk; Biff Rose; Elizabeth Cotten (great upside-down lefty guitarist--my mom knew her a little in the 1950's, and learned to play in her style); Little Richard; Professor Longhair; Duke Ellington; Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry's right hand man); Errol Garner; both Maggie and Terre Roche; Arthur Lee (of the band Love--check out "False Start". I'm happy to report that he is now touring and sounding glorious!!); Terry Adams (wonderfully warped pianist/Hohner Clavinet player, of NRBQ); Ian Stewart (the other Rolling Stones pianist, who also boogied with Led Zeppelin); Aretha Franklin; whoever played on the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown"; the enigmatic Kiyomi; and, to be completely, embarrassingly honest, Rowlf the Dog from The Muppet Show.
FLASH STUFF: Wow, Flash is a fun program! I'm learning it at work. Here's
my first few stabs at animation.
Holy Modal Rounders website.
Keeping folk music surreal and profane for the past 37 years.
Rolf Insitute website. I got a 10-session
myofascial system (soft tissue) workover--recommended! I've never breathed so
deeply, nor stood up so straight! Get Rolfed! Not to be confused with Rowlf,
who I mentioned before. Also not to be confused with rolfing,
spelled the same but the unpleasant after-effect of too much alcohol, or sea-sickness.
Demos from Hell. Includes
the famous Troggs Tapes.
Antifolk is a community of sorta
folk-punk songwriters. Or it started out that way, and simply became a very
open-minded, tough-minded music community based at the Fort at Sidewalk in NYC;
booked by Lach. When
Dan Emery and I started playing together, that's where we played. And though
I play all over now, I still love that place. Lovable piano, though I have to
twist my neck to play it. The recent success of the Moldy
Peaches has brought the community a bunch of unexpected recent attention.
The Olive Juice Records
board is currently the best source for gossip. Schedule
at The Fort at Sidewalk. And a great North-Carolina
based Antifolk site.
The Home Office Records Gigometer.
A quite trustworthy listing of the best music shows in the NYC area. (Which
is to say, I often agree with these guys' tastes.) Updated daily.
Jon Berger writings and Brazil
and fan page. Until recently,
Jon edited Antimatters,
the zine of the Antifolk scene. The longtime official Antifolk Shaved-Headed
Go-Go Dancer, he has also become an inspiring, sometimes shocking performance
artist-poet. The new Antimatters Editor is Toronto native and I-in-Iconoclast
songwriter Tony Hightower. The mag
seems to be on a bit of a hiatus, but check his site for updates.
Enrage arrogant
ma. That is, Remnant
Garage Oar. To put it another way, German
anger aorta. Arrange argon meat. Organ rat, Enema rag. And in the end, Narrate
mango gear.
Jessica Kane. Extremely inspirational.
Makes up outrageous songs on the spot, records her dreams daily, creates wonderful
animation. Her website now includes free downloads of a big chunk of her output.
I never miss a show if I can help it.
When I grow up, I want to be more like Peter
Dizozza. Like Jessica Kane, he is wonderfully in-touch with his unconscious.
His songs combine the classic music structures of Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael
and XTC with lyrics that are mysterious, cerebral, bizarre, and very 22nd century.
He writes charming musicals about necrophilia and space exploration. Truly an
artist for a new era. Plus, a good lawyer if you break your hand tripping over
a pothole. Check out his multimedia website.
Mary Ann Farley. Her indie album
"Daddy's Little Girl" is a must-have. Dark, melodic, sometimes funny,
and beautifully produced. She's in the studio now, finishing her second album.
Word on the street says it's even better, if that's possible.
I never followed Van Halen that closely as a kid (though I did crank
"Mean Streets" on my 8th-grader radio), but this David
Lee Roth interview from POPsmear magazine is one of the more extraordinary
things I've read recently. Part
Two is less so, perhaps, but still worth a read. Inspiring and poetic!
Melanie Einzig. Fantastic
photographer and multimedia artist. She created the back cover to the Dan Emery Mystery Band's "Love and
Advertising" album, as well as the front cover of Gary Lucas' "Bad Boys of the
Arctic" CD. This website concentrates on her journalistic photos, which I believe
are some of the more surreal news pictures to hit the AP wires and New York
Times.
My friend Linda
Pitmon just turned me onto the Lunch
Lady. Says Linda, "She's a goddess of song. She gives you the lunch menu
for some government bureau and then bursts into song. You MUST call this number
as soon as you can to be uplifted in ways you can only imagine. 703-648-7777."
Song changes every day!
Speaking of goddesses of song: Sonya
Hunter. Her Headlights
and Other Constellations is one of those albums that creeps up on you. First
time it sounds politely pretty, but then the understated deep emotion and strangeness
of Sonya's songs starts to sink in. My favorite album of last year, no doubt!
She often plays with stellar songwriter/guitarist Erik
Pearson. His aqua-themed album "Water" is lovely, as well.
Throughout much of the late 90's, I supplemented my income in two ways: I taught
music to kids at a church, and I digitized downloadable 10-second Quicktime
video clips of explicit acts involving feet for a foot-fetish website
called InTheFeetOfTheNight.com.
(Unfortunately, much of my work was lost in a severe site crash.) The moral
dichotomy between the two jobs became too much to bear; I'm taking a break from
both forms of employment.
cub. Fantastic ex-band from Vancouver.
I played my electric tennis racket with them at Roseland, Coney Island High,
and CBGB's in NYC, which I felt was an extreme honor. (I would have played with
them at Maxwell's in Hoboken, but the place literally caught fire the moment
they stepped on the stage, and it was closed for the next 3 weeks.).... Buck.
Risen from the ashes of cub. ....
I Am Spoonbender. Also risen from
the ashes of cub. .... The
Lisa Marr Experiment The most recent cub-related phoenix.
Several of my friends are Bipolar (manic depressive). I must like
being around that energy sometimes, or maybe it's just coincidental. Anyway,
these pages have been
helpful.
Debby Schwartz.
A great songwriter I get to accompany sometimes. Check out her solo album "Wrongs
of Passage" and the Aquanettas' "Love with the Proper Stranger".
Here's another cool interview.
And for you Swedish readers, a review.
Eletfa. America's best Hungarian dance
band.
The Side Effects were my favorite Norwegian band. Teenaged guitarist Sondre
Lerche Vaular recently left the band and is becoming a beeg Norwegian star.
Fidget: My favorite Swedish band.
I lived on a Pacific U.S. Army base island called Kwajalein as a kid. Three miles long,
one block wide, between Hawaii and Australia. The Army shoots nuclear-style
missiles at it to test its radar equipment.
If that link is too slow, try this one.
Moldy Peaches. Magical band. Featuring
Adam Green and Kimya Dawson.
Click here to hear them live and particularly loud on WFMU in December 2000.
(Their performance starts 2 hours into the show.) Click
here to hear Kimya and the superfab Prewar
Yardsale on WFMU, 1/8/01. And for historical interest, here's an old
site from 1999.
Charles Herold. Very funny guy
with a fun site. Recently starting playing his songs out again, which makes
me very happy.
When I lived in Seattle, I was in an avant-folk-pop duo with a wonderful guy
named Alex Wolf, as the Lookalikes (not to be mistaken for those
Lookalikes
from Dublin, who confusingly moved to New York in the mid-90's; nor the Australian
Lookalikes).
Some of you may know and love our album, "Life-o-Phobia".
Now Alex lives in Colorado with his pal Kari and their beautiful son Micah.
Here they
are. Micah is going to be a heartbreaker when he grows up. Alex has written
some kick-ass songs since our album; I hope you get to hear them someday.
Dan Emery Mystery Band pal A. V. Phibes draws a great cartoon called Evil Kid Comix. And other cool stuff. She also breathes fire, swallows swords, sleeps on nails, and hammers similar nails into her nose. All of which are documented on her site.
My talented friend John Reynolds' comic
strips.
One year in the early 90's, I was quite depressed. For awhile, the only music
that made me feel better was Leadbelly's Last Sessions (1st hour) and
other old country blues, plus Laurie Anderson's Mr. Heartbreak, and the
bitingly satirical sample-based band Negativland.
I especially love the latter's album "A Big 10-8 Place". I still decided
to go on a 14-month Prozac spree,
eventually, but that music sure helped for a time!
The Squirrels. The first band I ever played
the 19-String Electric Tennis Racket with. A very unusual Seattle-based cover
band, headed by pop-nutcase-cartoonist-historian Rob Morgan, who also publishes
the beautiful Poplust fanzine. Their new album is a complete cover of a Pink
Floyd album, retitled "The Not-So-Bright Side of the Moon."
Jeff Morris, former bass player and current photographer for the Dan Emery Mystery Band, has his
own mindblowing band called Butz. "An improvised guerilla music and art
ensemble devoted to freaking you out." Their website
is a lot of fun. Click on the purple square when you get there.
Singapore Bean Asylum.
Xiao Jinhong: He likes
us, we like him. He's in Singapore, and he's a rock critic with ears and
a brain!
I usually played a Wurlitzer
Electric Piano when performing live with the Dan Emery Mystery Band. It's a wonderful
electro-acoustic instrument that was manufactured from the late 1950's to around
1980. The problem with it is that it constantly breaks down. The sound is produced
by these tiny hammered reeds, which can only be tuned by adding globs of lead
solder to the ends, then filing them. When the reeds break, or the fuses burn
out, I call up Morelock's
Organ Parts of Mississippi for new parts. They answer the phone "Morelocks,
can I hep
you?". Sincerely charming!
Let's get back to that holy Hohner
Clavinet for a moment. I used to play that vintage instrument with the Dan Emery Mystery Band in the early
days. It is the funkiest instrument ever made. You've heard it on the Band's
"Up on Cripple Creek" and Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and "Big Brother".
It's an electro-acoustic keyboard with guitar strings in it. On the early models,
you can bend the strings and make it feed-back, too! I'm currently looking for
a Hohner Clavinet-Pianet, which simultaneously plunks a string and plucks a
Wurlitzer-like reed. If you see one for a decent price, please tell me! Thanks.
I'M SO LUCKY! African banks want to give me Millions
of Dollars.
THE OTHER STEVE ESPINOLAS. From surfing the web, I have learned that
I am not the only Steve Espinola. There's a guy out near San Francisco with
the same name, and unfortunately, a similar email address. Last I checked, he
was the Latin Music Director
at a radio station. He may also be the Steve Espinola in California who teaches
Flamenco dancing. There's also a very young Stephen
Espinola who runs marathons in Chelmsford, Massachusetts on most Fourths
of July. He's getting faster
every year.
One would think that would be enough of us, but there's also a Steve
Espinola who's a contractor in New Hampshire. Could that be the same Steven
Espinola who wrote the notorious 1996 article, "NYC real estate market is
climbing steadily"? Folk mandolin star Tom
Espinola is no relation, but he's excellent!
Enough of that! When I need to find something on the web, I usually use the
Alta Vista Advanced
Search, with lots of semicolons
between the words. I'm not a shill for them or anything, but if I put this link
on my site it makes it easier to add more links, so there you have it.
I hope you had fun with some of this stuff. You may write me at Steve@SteveEspinola.com.