Famous musicians you've played with.

[Arthur Crud]

Pathetic efforts from me really but Willie Hona from Herbs many times in Donkey's front room and I engineered a track with Dave Gent from The Exponents at an SAE and the whole band came down bringing the school to a standstill as they were No. 1 in NZ at the time. I was only mildly cacking.

[Snarfyguy]

Played bass in Yo La Tengo (an audition; I saved them the trouble of giving me the thumbs-down by telling them I didn't think it was going to work out.)

Played in a band with Hamish Kilgour of The Clean for about a year.

This doesn't count, but Sterling Morrison played through my guitar amp on a Mo Tucker session at a friend's recording studio circa 1990.

[Jeff K]

Played bass in Yo La Tengo (an audition; I saved them the trouble of giving me the thumbs-down by telling them I didn't think it was going to work out.)

Played in a band with Hamish Kilgour of The Clean for about a year.

This doesn't count, but Sterling Morrison played through my guitar amp on a Mo Tucker session at a friend's recording studio circa 1990.

You once backed up Ari Upp too, an honorary Slit.

[Arthur Crud]

Played in a band with Hamish Kilgour of The Clean for about a year.

Didn't know that! Cool.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

Off the top of my head:

Garth Hudson, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Victoria Williams, Vic Chesnut, Bob Mould, the Indigo Girls, Robin Holcombe, DJ Bonebrake, Dave Alvin, Tony Gilkyson, Tom Russell...

Bix will be by in a while to put this list to shame

[Snarfyguy]

Oh yeah - forgot about Ari up. That was a good one.

Hamish had a band with wife Lisa called the Mad scene. It tended to have a revolving door bass position which I was happy to fill for a time. The band was fantastically underachieving despite regular rehearsals. We barely recorded and only played out three or four times during my stint.

We had a shambolic but idiosyncratically Kilgour-esque sound with Hamish mostly singing and playing guitar on his compositions and the great Danny Tunick behind the drum kit.

[Billybob Dylan]

Er... I played drums in Generation X once. It was only a soundcheck, though. Their drummer had fucked off to the pub.

[Charlie O.]

... he had a solo outfit called Tree Fort Angst... He was by far the best guitar player I'd ever met, and I pretty much just sat and watched him.

Not Terry Banks, surely? I lived with him briefly, in Richmond. He'd just started playing guitar, and frankly, he was truly clueless. No sense of rhythm, nor of intonation. He was clueless in other respects, too - he'd often wait 'til after the other apt.-mate and I had decided to turn in for the night before deciding to practice... loudly. He soon found another apartment and moved out, which would have been fine by us except that he didn't bother to tell us he was going to do this until it was almost moving day, leaving us to scramble to find a third person (as we couldn't have afforded the suddenly increased rent otherwise).

I ran into him a few years later at d.c. space. He gave me the first Tree Fort Angst cassette. The songs were laughably bad, but I had to admit that his guitar playing had improved. It was recognizable as guitar playing, anyway.


Me, I played out with Michael Hurley a couple of times, and "jammed" with him any number of times. Always great fun. That's as "famous" as I get.

[Arthur Crud]

Er... I played drums in Generation X once. It was only a soundcheck, though. Their drummer had fucked off to the pub.

Yeah I remember that story - you tried to crack a joke but it went over Idol's head.

[The Prof]

Marmalade!!

They taught us how to play Roll Over Beethoven, Back In The USSR and, bizarrely, Message To You Rudy

[Billybob Dylan]

Er... I played drums in Generation X once. It was only a soundcheck, though. Their drummer had fucked off to the pub.

Yeah I remember that story - you tried to crack a joke but it went over Idol's head.

You remember it and I don't! Another 'senior moment'! Fuck, I'm getting old.

[The Great DeFector]

, Bob Mould,

Amazing, what is he like?

[Insouciant Western People]

I once danced the salsa with the singer from The Lighthouse Family at a Brazilian club night in Newcastle. He's quite a mover.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

, Bob Mould,

Amazing, what is he like?

He was incredibly nice. Can't say enough good about him.

[The Great DeFector]

, Bob Mould,

Amazing, what is he like?

He was incredibly nice. Can't say enough good about him.

I take it you were working on one of his solo albums, which one?

[Davey the Fat Boy]

I take it you were working on one of his solo albums, which one?

No. I've never recorded with him. I'm not nearly good enough as a player for that.

I was performaing on a radio show called Mountain Stage and Mould, The Indigo Girls and Robin Holcombe were the other performers that week. At the end of the show we were all supposed to sing a song together, and because the Indigo Girls were huge at the time - they got to pick the song. They chose "Uncle John's Band" by The Grateful Dead. Neither Mould or I knew it other than having heard it in passing, so we took a verse together and just mangled the hell out of it.

[The Great DeFector]

I take it you were working on one of his solo albums, which one?

No. I've never recorded with him. I'm not nearly good enough as a player for that.

I was performaing on a radio show called Mountain Stage and Mould, The Indigo Girls and Robin Holcombe were the other performers that week. At the end of the show we were all supposed to sing a song together, and because the Indigo Girls were huge at the time - they got to pick the song. They chose "Uncle John's Band" by The Grateful Dead. Neither Mould or I knew it other than having heard it in passing, so we took a verse together and just mangled the hell out of it.

Class, I’m jealous as fuck. Sugar was the first proper band that I liked when i was 13. Mould is sort of a musical hero to me.

[never/ever]

Hamish had a band with wife Lisa called the Mad scene. It tended to have a revolving door bass position which I was happy to fill for a time. The band was fantastically underachieving despite regular rehearsals. We barely recorded and only played out three or four times during my stint.

We had a shambolic but idiosyncratically Kilgour-esque sound with Hamish mostly singing and playing guitar on his compositions and the great Danny Tunick behind the drum kit.

Awesome!
Wished I was able to see the Clean's reunion gig last year in NZ.

[bobzilla77]

Guy from the Moistboyz & Bill Fowler from Sound of Urchin were in my first band in high school. I also knew the guys from Ween but I don't recall we ever played any music together... they were kind of snobby that way.

The Gits - I was their first drummer at Antioch College 9/86 & we wrote a bunch of the songs from Frenching The Bully during my 3 weeks or so as a member.

Wayne Kramer - played drums on 3 tracks of his album The Hard Stuff, and he jammed with Claw Hammer a few times live

Dez from Black Flag - used to come up & sing with my band Backbiter and crash at the guitarist's pad afterward, I also sang onstage with Vida once or twice. Also did a Zappa tribute once.

Keith Morris from Circle Jerks & Black Flag - percussionist for his solo project Midget Handjob half a dozen times or so.

Mudhoney - one of the guys from Black Flag was supposed to sing Fix Me at the Palladium with them but didn't show up - so I went up there instead!

The Zeros (early LA Mexican punkers of Wimp and Beat Your Heart Out fame) - they shared a Mudhoney tour with us and I played drums while the drummer sang Roadrunner at a few of them.

Devo - did a couple sessions with Mark Mothersbaugh for TV stuff but also played on 2 songs with the other 4 original brothers, two of which are on the Supercop soundtrack, and one, "Head Like A Hole" is on the Pioneers Who Got Scalped collection

Mike Watt - easily my biggest connection to the big time. Played on his album Ballhog or Tugboat and later was touring drummer for ther Black Gang. Through him, got to play with Eddie Vedder, Dave Grohl, Evan Dando, J Mascis, Nels Cline, Bob Forrest, Carlos Guitarlos, Ed Fromohio, Snake from the Circle Jerks, Albert and Joe Bouchard from BOC and there must be others. Also background-sang a couple Who songs with Firehose on their final tour.

Twink - Backbiter were his backing band for a couple of LA shows foolishly booked as "Pink Fairies LA" which was a terrible misjudgement, as the only people who cared about the Pink Fairies were put off by his usurping of the name... however through him I got to jam a tune with Arthur Killer Kane who tagged along to one of our jams.

The Dickies - they once did a Xmas show where guest singers came in place of Leonard, who couldn't make it, and I got to be one of them. I sang Gigantor and Solitary Confinement.

Kid Rock put vocals on a tune recorded by Backbiter for the TV show Stripperella.

Through the TV gig, got asked to lay down a rhythm track for a commercial by Little Richard which remains unreleased although I have a copy of it! We didn't get to meet him, just played along to the tape, but still! That session, where we wrote a different 30-second piece that got used for some of the Spike TV netowrk's first ads, remains the biggest payday in music history for me - over three grand for one six-hour session.

Hatz, Pillowz, Zoomb, Quaco & Bixhenry paying tribute to the great Syd Barrett a couple years ago and next month.

And I never played with them but was once asked to audition for Chrome, must have been 1998, right between Claw Hammer hitting the skids, and Mike Watt's big tour. The rhythm guitarist knew me & recommended me but I never met Helios Creed.

[Piggly Wiggly]

I've performed and recorded with Jim Mills.