Downbeast - music blog

Having just celebrated our 10th anniversary here at the Crypto Nerve Center, we have another milestone upon us: The Nels Cline Singers are also reaching their first decade (and four albums’ worth) of delicate lyricism, groove-laden fuzz-funk workouts and face-melting sonic deviance – all without any discernible singing.

Since joining the critically lauded rock group Wilco in 2004, Nels Cline has emerged in recent years as one of the most respected, argued-over and unclassifiable musicians active today – memorably described by Jazz Times as “the world’s most dangerous guitarist” and by bestselling author David Carr (Night of the Gun) as "one of the best in any genre.” Ironically, Cline formed the Singers in 2001 not entirely on his own accord but at the urging of versatile percussionist Scott Amendola, a New Jersey-born Black Sabbath and Ornette Coleman acolyte who had gained prominence in San Francisco's heady, dot com-era music scene of the early 90s though his collaborations with guitarist Charlie Hunter and saxophonist Phillip Greenlief.

Buy these...you will buuuuuy these...

It was Greenlief who introduced Cline to Amendola, who then brought in Colorado native Devin Hoff, a young contrabassist equally at ease with Norwegian Black Metal as he was with improvised skronkitude. What emerged was a impeccably pedigreed and potently eclectic band of three successive generations of vanguard virtuosos whose buzz has only grown with each subsequent release – Instrumentals (2002), The Giant Pin (2004), Draw Breath (2007) and their new world music-influenced double-CD Initiate (2010), which Tim Niland of Music and More recently called “a fascinating and thrilling journey.”

With the release of Initiate on APRIL 13, we at the Beast thought we’d forgo the usual promo interviews (although don’t get us wrong -- we did those, too) and instead pay homage to all the dogged and loyal scribes -- famous, infamous and anonymous – who have provided us with ten years of solid and devoted journalism, opinions, rants, interviews, whining and live reviews on the NCS. Coupled with brand spankin’ new interviews with Nels, Scott and Devin, we have fashioned a musical journey of three accomplished and twisted April fools using the “found voices” of the past decade. Enjoy!

PART II: “I CHANGED MY STRINGS IN SHAME” (2001-2004)

NELS CLINE: “I knew I wanted an upright bassist in the new trio.”
(Interview, 3/05/10)

DEVIN HOFF: “I’m an anarchist, so my motto would be: ‘Everything for Everyone.’”
(Interview, 3/11/10)

SCOTT AMENDOLA: “Actually, I knew Devin before I knew Nels.”
(Interview, 3/12/10)

Devin! Hoff! [photo via Downtown Music]

DEVIN: “I grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, which was a farm town before it became a college town. It’s smack dab between Boulder and Cheyenne [Wyoming], and kind of culturally reflects that geography: A lotta rednecks and a lotta hippies! So as a kid you kind of grow up in that mix. There’s some urban influence and some rural influence, but it’s not quite either. It’s kind of confusing.” (Interview, 3/11/10)

DEVIN: “My dad [guitarist Bard Hoff] is a musician and my mom’s father was a farmer and a semi-professional country-western musician. My mom is a rocker, so I probably absorbed Led Zeppelin and the Small Faces in utero…so it was almost a no-brainer what I would end up doing for a living: the family business!...My dad knew a lot of musicians from the Denver scene…like Hugh Regan, who’s worked with Roscoe Mitchell, and David Murray. They would come over to my house a couple times a week when I was little…and play Charlie Parker and Anthony Braxton and Albert Ayler. It fucks with your ears at an early age. I grew up hearing that stuff as normal.” (Interview, 3/11/10)

PART III: “INTO IT” (2004-2007)

In early 2004, the Singers add a new word to their already-expansive vocabulary:

wil•co \ˈwil-(ˌ)kō\
interj [will comply] (ca. 1938) – used especially in radio and signaling to indicate that a message received will be complied with
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Wilco lineup circa 2003. From Left: Leroy Bach, Glenn Kotche, The Tweedman, John Stirratt

NELS CLINE: I met Jeff Tweedy in 1996 when The Geraldine Fibbers opened for Golden Smog (a "fun" side project made up of members of The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, Run Westy Run, et al). The Fibbers really cottoned to Mr. Tweedy, seeming to single him out as "special". I'm rather chagrined to say that I didn't really notice him any more than the other fellows… (nelscline.com)

PAT SANSONE (Wilco guitarist/keyboardist): "Ah, Nels. I first met Nels about twelve years ago at South By Southwest when he was playing with the Geraldine Fibbers...We had a long, intense and deep conversation that really touched me -- and he has no recollection of it whatsoever." (from Wilco: Ashes of American Flags DVD)

Cline has been making records since Wilco's leader Jeff Tweedy was in grade school.
(Bill Moyer, Chicago Tribune, 11/09/04)

“I just joined Wilco!”
(Nels Cline to this blogger, 3/04)

Holy crap, dudes. Nels Cline is going to be playing live with Wilco "for the foreseeable future." Are you excited as me? You should be. (post on Done Waiting bulletin board, 3/04/04)

NELS: Carla Bozulich – (Fibbers leader) stayed in touch with Jeff, and when we would play Chicago, Jeff would come to the gigs and/or lend me gear…What a generous and friendly sort he seemed! Little did I realize that he was kind of keeping tabs on me. (nelscline.com)

Indubitably...

'INTENSELY FUNKY": All About Jazz
"SANDINISTA!": All About Jazz
"YIN AND YANG": Audiophile Audition
"INHIBITION AT THE DOOR": Boston Globe
"WON'T INDUCE SLEEP": The Daily Athenaeum
"INTRICATE CONTRAPUNTAL MANEUVERS": Dusted
"IN TRUE NELS FASHION": Greenleaf Music
"INTERIOR MONOLOGUES AT A FRANTIC PACE": Jambands
"UNPREDICTABLE SHIFTS IN VOLUME": JazzTimes
"INSISTENT MELODY": L.A. Times Pop & Hiss
"WINGIN' IT": MetalJazz
"INNOVATING": Music and More
"MULTIFARIOUSNESS OF INTERESTS": The National
"INSPIRING": NPR’s First Listen
"PURE, UNFETTERED INSANITY": Paste
"INTUITIVE INTERPLAY": Pitchfork Media
"INADVERTENTLY CREATING A BLACK HOLE": Pop Matters
"AN INTIMATE GLIMPSE": Prefix
"IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE ENTIRELY": Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"MORE SUNLIGHT IN IT": Spinner

Check back with us tommorrow, when we'll conclude our 4-part oral history of the Nels Cline Singers -- including informative info on the making of Initiate!

REST IN TEMPO
James Brody
Devin Clifford
Keith "Guru" Elam
Charlie Gillett
Franz Kamin
Gene Lees
Malcolm McLaren
Graciela Grillo-Perez
Steve Reid
Alan Rich
Peter Steele
Luigi Waites
William Walker

PART LAST: “WE WILL ENDEAVOR TO SWING” (2007-Now)

February 2007: Nels Cline is voted the #4 “New Guitar God” by Jann Wenner’s struggling indie ‘zine Rolling Stone:

THE AVANT-ROMANTIC
For many rock-guitar fiends, the oldest guitarist on this list is actually the newest. Before joining Wilco in 2004, in time to tour behind A Ghost is Born, Cline -- born in Los Angeles in 1956 -- was a highly regarded figure in jazz and avant-rock circles, a sonically aggressive guitarist who played with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, the art-country band the Geraldine Fibbers and his own searing instrumental groups. Now Cline agitates the bent-pop designs in Wilco's recent music with strafing feedback, zigzagging distortion and, when you least expect it, a striking, scarred romanticism. (David Fricke, Rolling Stone, 2/22/07)

Nels immediately begins concocting self-effacing and embarrassed responses.

“The guitar (god) thing…whatever.”
(Nels, Cincinatti Citybeat, 6/10/09)

[Photo by Beth Herzhaft]

…A guitar “demon” is more like it.
(Blogcritics.com, 7/16/07)