If you don't know me by now...

[Ted]

Do not assume that because I am frivolous I am shallow; I don't assume that because you are grave you are profound.

--Sydney Smith

Hell, at this point I'm already a "Full Member."  But since I haven't made any music lately, I thought I'd do a past-due introduction.

I live in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA.

I'm a songwriter  because I'm too lazy to put in the practice to become a better musician.  My musical tastes are mostly unsurprising for a middle-class white kid from an American suburb.  I like Rock.

In the 1970's I was in a high school band called The Nutrients, that made an ambivalent attempt to be both Prog and Punk and was neither.

I started to listen to African music in the 1980's.  In 1985, a pedal-steel guitarist gave me a mix tape of African pop that changed my life.  It was the final straw that convinced me that I really did want to spend a good chunk of time in Africa.  While I plotted my African journey, I was in a band in Phoenix called Jumping Genes that tried to meld African music with rock.

In 1991 I finally made it to Africa and stayed for two-and-a-half years: in Cameroon as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  I made friends with many musicians in the village where I lived.  Occasionally I played bass with them--and they humored me and told me I was great.

I lived in Washington DC for almost 10 years and was fairly dormant musically.  When I returned to Arizona a couple of years ago, the hunger to record music also returned.  After some frustrations trying to get started with a DAW, I took the advice of a friend and started looking for a micro-recorder.

If you and I were in a band together, you'd want me to play the bass--and keep the hell away from the guitars, drums, and microphone.

Here are some bands, musicians, and albums that have influenced me (alphabetized):

• Ass Ponys:
  Songwriter Chuck Cleaver can paint rich pictures with scant details better than any songwriter I can think of. His songs alternate between silly and serious, often within the same song. The music is raw, but not brutish--and you're never distracted by impressive musicianship.
• The Bears:
  Adrian Belew's pop outlet. You still hear his trademark animal sounds, but they're always in service to the song.
• Elvis Costello:
  One of my biggest heroes. Nobody throws erudite tantrums like EC. I'm a fan of (almost) his entire catalog.
• Cracker:
  I missed out on Cracker when they were big in the 90's, and only discovered them in the last two years. Mature malcontents. Great rock for grown ups.
• The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto:
  I bet I've listened to this compliation 1000 times. I've studied the arrangements--so seemingly simple--but I've failed to convincingly reproduce a single one.
• Juluka:
  My band Jumping Genes was, in part, my desperate attempt to be Johnny Clegg. Juluka's album Scatterlings was prominent on the soundtrack of my life in the two or three years leading up to when I went to Cameroon in the Peace Corps.
• King Crimson:
  This band, in all its incarnations, is responsible for my inferiority complex as a musician.
• Local H:
  Imagine if Curt Kobain had been mentally healthy… You don't have to be insane or humorless to be intense.
• Magazine:
  Almost a bridge between my Punk/Prog split personality in the 1980's. Almost.
• Oingo Boingo:
  Back when I was starting to explore African sounds, I stumbled upon some TV show where these guys were playing their madness, with Danny Efman on a balafon. I felt scooped and outdone before I'd even done anything.
• The Police:
  I'd heard Message in a Bottle dozens of times before, but one day it came on the radio while I was driving, and it struck me just right. It was a conversion experience on the road to Damascus--except Damascus ended up being the nearest record store.
• The Presidents Of The United States Of America:
  All goofy, all the time is perfectly fine. I'm still searching for that $10 garage sale guitar to convert into a guitbass.
• Jonathan Richman:
  The antidote for my King Crimson hangup.
• The Who:
  Do I need to explain? They're The Who. Deep down, I really just want to play bass like Entwistle, sing like Daltry, and write like Townshend.

Consider me introduced.

[Sprocket]

No "Simply Red" influence? 

[Ted]

No "Simply Red" influence? 

I didn't get what you meant, so I had to look up Simply Red on Wikipedia:

Simply Red's roots originate from the 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Manchester art student Mick Hucknall was one of the many young music fans present, along with original members of Joy Division, The Smiths and Buzzcocks.

What a pedigree!

[Sprocket]

Sorry, bad joke, followed by an even worse video/song...but I think you will get it now 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTcu7MCtuTs

Sorry 

[Ted]

Sorry, bad joke, followed by an even worse video/song...but I think you will get it now 

I got it the first time--thanks to Wikipedia.

At first it thought you were making a joke about my red hair.  But then I remembered that you had no way of knowing that I have red hair.

It's kind of hard imaginine a few guys meeting at a Sex Pistols concert and then going on to record a song like that one, isn't it?

[Sprocket]

It's kind of hard imaginine a few guys meeting at a Sex Pistols concert and then going on to record a song like that one, isn't it?

I bet the conversation went something like: "Well we couldnt do much worse, right?" 
No offense if you are a huge fan or anything. 

Hey and thanks for posting your introduction, interesting background.

[Bluesberry]

Simply Red, he has one hell of a voice doesn't he.

[Geir]

Well Ted, you sure have an interesting musical background, and have already made an impression on this humble society.

I'm sure glad you're onboard !!!

[Greeny]

Welcome aboard, although it feels like a while now! I'm very much in agreement with some of your influences. The Who in particular - 'Tommy' is a defining album and film for me. I'm still waiting to run into Pete Townshend - he lives a couple of mins from my girlfriend. She's seen him - and got him to sign a book for me. I'm not sure what I'd say. I mean, he's PETE TOWNSHEND! Most of all, I like the diverse and eclectic nature of your influences - it shows an open and experimental musical mind!

[guitarron]

ted
my friends are visiting here in michigan from fountain view
they hound me constantly to move to Az.
i loved it when visited there-might retire to there someday

i stopped in flagstaff to eat on my way to the Grand Canyon- that is a very beautiful part our country
 enjoyed Oak Creek Canyon too-my girlfriend was freakin' out while driving thru the canyon"your too close to the edge" lol
we still laugh about that

excellent choice of music btw