Released by Grapefruit Records
NYC’s 75 Dollar Bill began its prolific career in 2012, after percussionist Rick Brown – a veteran of the indie underground (Fish & Roses, Run On, V-Effect) – and noise scene guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Che Chen – connected via MySpace. Since that initial jam session, when Brown began experimenting with his signature plywood crate drum rhythms, they have released 3 LPs and a clutch of self-released cassette and digital releases. Last year’s 2xLP I Was Real received serious critical acclaim – The Wire calling it 2019’s Album of the Year.
On their first live album, Live at Tubby’s, 75 Dollar Bill assembled a unique “little big band” [Sue Garner on bass, Cheryl Kingan on sax, Steve Maing on guitar, Jim Pugliese on percussion and Karen Waltuch on viola] for the small Kingston, NY club show. Recorded on the last day of their spring tour, the record puts a new perspective on themes from their body of work: a little more intimacy, a little more freedom, a little more controlled chaos. Brown’s idiosyncratic rhythms are all the more hypnotizing in Tubby’s cozy setting, and Chen’s furious guitar work cuts and hums with sounds seemingly only attainable on stage. It's an album both challenging and immediate. The expanded 75 Dollar Bill's affinity for improvisation and the avant-garde even leads to a rousing take on the Ornette Coleman classic, 'Friends and Neighbors' that feels right at home in their own repertoire. The listener can't help but feel present and part of the communal joy and catharsis being shared here in this room. This performance at Tubby’s turned out not only to be the last show of their tour, but the last show possible as the pandemic hit. Originally offered as a digital-only release on 75 Dollar Bill’s Bandcamp, Live at Tubby’s now documents a highlight and closure of sorts; this kind of musical improvisation and community interaction being on hold for the foreseeable future. The double LP on Grapefruit will have to tide us over until it can all happen again.
"75 Dollar Bill has always been a duo of Che Chen and myself, but many of our most satisfying and just plain fun experiences have involved some (or almost all) of our great crew of friend musicians who've worked with us for years and who play on our studio recordings, like 2019's I Was Real (Thin Wrist/Glitterbeat). Live at Tubby's presents a couple of sets recorded just as Spring and the coronavirus were arriving on the scene. We didn't plan for this as a “Little Big Band” concert, but we took advantage of timing and geography - as well as the fact that “everybody knows how to play WZN #3” - and sent out a call for any who could make it to come to Kingston, NY for the night's blowout, the last gig of a short tour we'd done as a duo. The material comes from I Was Real and its predecessor Wood, Metal, Plastic, Pattern, Rhythm, Rock plus a cover of the great and inspiring Ornette Coleman's song “Friends and Neighbors.” Hopefully, you'll agree it turned out pretty good – at the very least, it should be obvious that we had a good time! We sure do miss playing music with our friends and for our neighbors."- Rick Brown
credits
released December 11, 2020
Rick Brown: plywood crate, percussion, funnel horns
Che Chen: guitars, violin (F&N, WZN#3/verso), cowbell (WZN#3/verso)
Sue Garner: bass guitar
Cheryl Kingan: alto and baritone saxophones
Steve Maing: guitar
Jim Pugliese: drums, cymbals, bells, shakers (he's hidden behind Karen in the photo)
Karen Waltuch: viola
"Friends & Neighbors" by Ornette Coleman
March 7, 2020 at Tubby's in Kingston, NY.
Live sound by Zoots
Recording and photo by Jake Lyons
Editing, Mix and Cover Design by Che Chen
Mastering by Steve Silverstein
- - -
At the beginning of March, just as the first signs of the COVID-19 pandemic were starting to appear in the Northeast, Rick and I did a short run of shows in Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, and the Hudson Valley. We ended the tour at Tubby’s in Kingston, NY, which turned out not only to be the last show of the tour, but our last show for the foreseeable future. Amherst College had completely shut down its campus within days of our concert there, and New York City’s infection rate started exploding shortly after we returned home. There’s a bittersweetness to these recordings in this context. People have lost their lives, their livelihoods--which is certainly true of many musicians and “gig workers” we know--and we’re often cut off from the ones we love. No one really knows how long it’ll be before live shows will be able to happen again. And while I’m heartened by all the ways that people are finding to stay connected and keep music alive online, listening to this recording really brings home all of the reasons that playing music with people that I love, in a room full of people who are vibing off that energy and projecting it back at us, is so important to me.
It was one of those gigs that had just the right balance of energy, atmosphere and that little bit of chaos required to allow everything to fall into place. It was our first time at Tubby’s, an unassuming little bar we’d been hearing nothing but good things about, one of those places where you can tell the owners are probably nice people because everyone that works there is a nice person too. It’s a warm, worn in spot that reminded me a lot of Troost, the tiny Greenpoint cafe where the band cut its teeth in its early days, only wider. With Kingston being so close to the city, and some of our friends and frequent collaborators now living in nearby Poughkeepsie, Rick and I had put out the call to see how many members of our “little big band” we could get to come join us for the show. A few couldn’t make it because of schedules or impractical distances (we missed you Barry, Talice and Andrew!), but we were able to assemble the septet with Sue, Jim, Karen, Cheryl, Steve, Rick and I that you hear here. Two percussionists, two guitarists, electric bass, saxophone and viola. We hadn’t rehearsed, but everybody knew the tunes and I like to think our lack of preparation lent a spontaneous, if occasionally ragged, charm to the proceedings. The gift of getting on the bandstand with lovely players like these.
With the majority of the tunes clocking in well past the 10 or even 20 minute mark, we were there to stretch out. The audience had a beautiful energy and as a friend of the band likes to say, the music “played itself." Tapping out bell patterns during the verso section of WZN#3, while Karen and Cheryl took blistering viola and sax solos, with Sue’s relentless bass pulse and Steve’s modal flourishes driving hard over the dense thicket of polyrhythms Rick and Jim were creating beneath, are among my many fond memories of the night. It’s hard not knowing when this might possibly happen again, but it's nice to have recordings like this tide us over until then.
So thank you to Cory and everyone at Tubby's, Zoots for doing sound, Jen Powers and Matthew Rolin for playing a beautiful, meditative set between ours, David Grimaldi for loaning Sue the bass, Dave Salzberg for giving Cheryl a ride to Catskill after the show, Jake Lyons for recording the show, and of course the band and extended 75 Dollar Bill family. Hope we can all do it again before too long.
supported by 33 fans who also own “Live At Tubby's”
Bright gray sheets of roaring and shimmering guitar held aloft by a delicate web of percussion. Post-rock, shoegaze, psych- rock and hints of bluesy folk, all audible and enmeshed. IlsaJ
supported by 27 fans who also own “Live At Tubby's”
Sonic Youth is one of those bands where you easily run out of superlatives to describe what they created. This could've easily come off as a cynical cash-grab by a band that had broken up 11 years prior to the release of this record, but that's not what this is. Some of my favourite Sonic Youth instrumentals. sentient meat
supported by 25 fans who also own “Live At Tubby's”
Long-form trance-y rhythmic jams, with a fun shambling edge, sounding like a cross between music from Africa's Sahel region crossed with a Tom Waits instrumental... Jascha Narveson
Ska, rocksteady, reggae and dancehall re-issue label, named after its Tokyo store, drops tasty name-your-price comp. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 27, 2014
supported by 23 fans who also own “Live At Tubby's”
Now to spin this and take flight.
As a former card carrying member of jamband scene this would have fit nicely back in the late 60's-70's and the late 90's-00's when improvisational jams were king.
This is going to take the scene into another direction with Garcia Peoples.
Vinyl Purchased 10/3/20.
Arrived 10/26/20. The Midnight Toker.
