Friday, November 16th, I caught Six Organs of Admittance at Amoeba. I don’t know much about Six Organs of Admittance other than it’s all one man Ben Chasney and whomever he gets to play on his records. He also plays guitar for Comets On Fire and has worked with a bunch of groups including, The Fucking Champs, Current 93, Magik Markers, Badgerlore, among others.
The first thing I took notice with Six Organs of Admittance was the guitar work. He opened up with an instrumental piece that really impressed me technically. His guitar playing is also evident in Comets On Fire as they just wail for minutes on end. Comets On Fire have also playing with Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth, and you couldn’t pick better bands to play with them. Continuing on with the topic at hand, after the first instrumental jam, he continued on with his set but added vocals to the mix. As one would expect with a Drag City artist, it was very folky and what one would also expect from a depressed sounding singer song-writer. If you’re into more of the Callahan-Cohen-Banhart-Califone thing at all (which isn’t me per say, and I have my own little vendetta with William), and haven’t heard Six Organs of Admittance for some reason, then you definitely should check him out (his latest release on Drag City is titled Shelter From The Ash and comes out today). In an interview Banhart said, and I quote, “Ben Chasney really is the leader of the revolution of now, tomorrow, and yesterday”. Alright. Hit the nail on the head Banhart? Ben did add some cool loops and noise stuff during the show that was either pre-recorded, or some other magic coming mysteriously from of his acoustic guitar in a few of his songs which made it a bit more interesting and not the standard “folk” thing.
I wouldn’t rush out and see him again solo, but that could change after I obtain a record and/or be in a funky mood on certain days. I will say though that sometimes the Six Organs of Admittance full band sound is a bit more on the “lighter” side, and he does some crazy guitar jam stuff (as can be expected when you’re Ben Chasney in your very own rock band) to the likes even Doug Martsch would be proud. After listening to Six Organs of Admittance for a little bit now I actually think he’s pretty good, but we’ll see where the final Ben Chasney journey takes me.
Listen to this wailing noise guitar solo in the middle:
End Scene,
Dan Tana
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November 20th, 2007 at 3:43 am
Halbert Roquensheift
Just picked up Shelter From The Ash and it’s pretty great. You should get it Dan Tana.