So in the early '90s when we were still in high school, I went to a record store with a buddy of mine. We found Flying Teapot in the rack - it was an import, and the long box (remember those?) was...
So in the early '90s when we were still in high school, I went to a record store with a buddy of mine. We found Flying Teapot in the rack - it was an import, and the long box (remember those?) was covered with dust. My friend liked to buy albums if they had weird cover art, especially if he had never heard of them. But he didn't have any money that day, so he talked me into buying it instead. We took it back to his house and listened to it once, and both thought it was really weird, but we didn't quite get it. I took it home, put it on the shelf and forgot about it for a while.
Almost ten years later that same friend (now a bassist) and I were in a band together, in the middle of a tour. I always brought a bunch of CDs on the road to listen to in the van, and this time I brought Flying Teapot. We were touring in an RV, so we wouldn't need hotel rooms - we would just sleep in the van. So one night as we're getting ready to shut everything down for the night, my friend asked if I had anything he could listen to on his discman as he tried to fall alseep. I pulled out Flying Teapot and said, "remember this?" He remembered the cover, but not the music, and decided to give it a shot.
Everyone got into their bunks and it got quiet for a few minutes. And then all of a sudden, uncontrollable laughter erupted from the back of the van. My bass player got through the first minute of the album and nearly fell out of his bunk from laughing so hard. I guess the extra decade of our musical growth had turned Gong from inscrutable to hysterical.
tl;dr: Daevid Allen's Gong is really fucking weird.
Before my time, I think I had ... maybe 10-15 CDs total before I got a minidisc player (and then an ipod). It is only by the grace of God you didn't end up with Bananamoon -- that shit is some...
long box (remember those?)
Before my time, I think I had ... maybe 10-15 CDs total before I got a minidisc player (and then an ipod).
My friend liked to buy albums if they had weird cover art, especially if he had never heard of them. But he didn't have any money that day, so he talked me into buying it instead.
It is only by the grace of God you didn't end up with Bananamoon -- that shit is some peak Daevid Allen oddity (e.g., Bananareggae). He wouldn't get that strange again until Divided Alien Playbax 80
Though if I'm being serious, there's very little music that's more enjoyable to me than things that make me laugh hysterically while simultaneously being excellent musically (c.f., Zappa)
From the genius pen of Daevid Allen, co-founder of two of the biggest (and best) bands (Gong and Soft Machine ) in the Canterbury Scene, an early jazz-fusion explosion in Great Britain. It's...
Gong has three albums (Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, and You) that are peerless in my opinion, blending a deeply bizarre mythology (the extremely short version: the band is composed of Green Pot-Headed Pixies from the planet Gong who fly around in Teapots), with blindly good psychedelic jazz fusion.
So in the early '90s when we were still in high school, I went to a record store with a buddy of mine. We found Flying Teapot in the rack - it was an import, and the long box (remember those?) was covered with dust. My friend liked to buy albums if they had weird cover art, especially if he had never heard of them. But he didn't have any money that day, so he talked me into buying it instead. We took it back to his house and listened to it once, and both thought it was really weird, but we didn't quite get it. I took it home, put it on the shelf and forgot about it for a while.
Almost ten years later that same friend (now a bassist) and I were in a band together, in the middle of a tour. I always brought a bunch of CDs on the road to listen to in the van, and this time I brought Flying Teapot. We were touring in an RV, so we wouldn't need hotel rooms - we would just sleep in the van. So one night as we're getting ready to shut everything down for the night, my friend asked if I had anything he could listen to on his discman as he tried to fall alseep. I pulled out Flying Teapot and said, "remember this?" He remembered the cover, but not the music, and decided to give it a shot.
Everyone got into their bunks and it got quiet for a few minutes. And then all of a sudden, uncontrollable laughter erupted from the back of the van. My bass player got through the first minute of the album and nearly fell out of his bunk from laughing so hard. I guess the extra decade of our musical growth had turned Gong from inscrutable to hysterical.
tl;dr: Daevid Allen's Gong is really fucking weird.
Before my time, I think I had ... maybe 10-15 CDs total before I got a minidisc player (and then an ipod).
It is only by the grace of God you didn't end up with Bananamoon -- that shit is some peak Daevid Allen oddity (e.g., Bananareggae). He wouldn't get that strange again until Divided Alien Playbax 80
Though if I'm being serious, there's very little music that's more enjoyable to me than things that make me laugh hysterically while simultaneously being excellent musically (c.f., Zappa)
From the genius pen of Daevid Allen, co-founder of two of the biggest (and best) bands (Gong and Soft Machine ) in the Canterbury Scene, an early jazz-fusion explosion in Great Britain. It's fairly easy to trace a line from Canterbury to King Crimson and beyond.
Gong has three albums (Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, and You) that are peerless in my opinion, blending a deeply bizarre mythology (the extremely short version: the band is composed of Green Pot-Headed Pixies from the planet Gong who fly around in Teapots), with blindly good psychedelic jazz fusion.