a Hogsmanay double featurette

bearing witness for november folly

a rare spotting of the electroacoustic taro patch fiddle at the Old Hairdo on 11.11.2012:

our comrade williwaw is all lights, tumbling amps, and unresponsive strings in desperate need of replacing at the East Pollokshields Quad Festival Of Light on 16.11.2012:

the amplified automaton, unleashed!

not having the tried and true camera operator around, our comrade williwaw waits until the ultimate look-ma-no-hands portion of the ever long and longing set to take some evidence of the most recent dabbling in amplified delectation. automatic dinner music, ahoy!

this sort of thing has got the old cobwebbed cogs turning: using an ensemble of unattended 'ukuleles (can anything match the might of the williwaw ensemble? no, nothing can) to create a much automated manner of music. watch this space - no, not this one, this one - for more as it develops and eventually envelops us all.

two signs of sputtering life

first we see our comrade williwaw first battling a motley horde of stools and chairs in the middle of its first and only set in june...

and then we find that loveable scamp williwaw in the usual hunched position battling the rising din at the end of its third and last set in july...

the pace continues, ongoing slowly

spreading more amplified love, our comrade williwaw returns to the comforting confines of the go slow cafe, 452 victoria road, glasgow on the second of july, this very year of two-thousand-and-change. the night will also feature the unveiling - opening, if you will, of new visual works by simon harlow.

20. june 2009

williwaw vs. falzone

williwaw and chuck falzone (flying luttenbachers, my name is rar-rar, buck pig) present a loving set of impressions of the Symbol of their shared hometown in an evening of amplified 'ukulele & guitar tête-à-tête.

Following in fine binary form is the equally enticing duo of erica dicker on baroque violin - can you smell the scordatura? - and ryan ingebritsen on all manner of electromechanical manipulations.

The show opens with un peu de la trompette by Daniel Godston.

shameless reminders á go-go

Gather ye 'round the hearth that be Brown Rice (4432 N Kedzie Ave) for a wee bit of amplified 'ukulele enchantment on Monday, the 15th of September. Gather ye for sonic histrionics, aural exorcisms, and all manner of frolicks. Gather ye then and there, lest ye be damned for all eternity, or until the next show, whichever comes first.

download the flier, tell all the people you love, hate, love to hate and yes, even hate to love about it

in just one click, you can find the recent write-up on your comrade in smooth-sailin' JAZZIZ magazine at the home of williwaw print and hear all manner of antiquated williwaw sound as well as semi-related blatherings of sight and sound right here. Oh, this series of tubes!

fresh sounds

the artist rather occasionally known as williwaw will be making a return to the stage, well, not exactly stage, but space, and time, and the continuum that lies beneath.

williwaw
monday 15.09.2008 nine pm
at brown rice
4432 north kedzie avenue

brown rice is the intimate (possibly even cozy) performance space curated by daniel godston and friends that lies just beyond the door under the sign that reads "perfect rubber stamps" (previously known as the candlestick maker curated by michael zerang)

following on the albeit distant heels of the return of driver has no cash and the recent rise in frequency of williwaw in print, will be the return of amplified 'ukulele research. thrills, chills and spills - none of these will be there, but your sonic exorcism is guaranteed.

fresh print

comrade alexander gelfand has been a naughty kitten, and soiled his mittens with some fresh proverbial ink on williwaw in jazziz magazine. the textual portions of his fine penning can be found, wonderfully transcribed by my aching tendons (no thanks to the state of OCR software - c'mon, boffins, let's sort this out once and for all) in the williwaw newsbits section. the real article features/frightens with a larger than four-by-six-inch likeness of the artist known sometimes as williwaw and the following pull quote from said likeness

It turned into a horrible - well, not horrible ... let's call it a beautiful train wreck of sound

random sound cavalcade #7

from the nineteenth day of the fourth month of, eh, let's just call it 2003, is this excerpt of a live sound-action battle between williwaw and the sound and fury known as chad robinson (who currently rocks bells for dark fog). like several recordings made at the esteemed candlestick maker (recently reopened as brown rice - love any/all references to Don Cherry), the recording was very quiet, until the sound and fury unleashed his batterie - reconstructing some semblance of balance was not wholly successful, but the wholly impromptu sound action is somewhat audible. this is the fifth of what has been called eight great indecisive moments. behold!

random sound cavalcade #6

d'oh! started the new without completing the old - an unfinished project? never! here's another excerpt from the first installment of our very lives are being compressed (based on the inaugural voyage of the williwaw ensemble). tweaked often, but never twittered.

DHNC ¡DONE!

it was all whirlwind, heat and flash...

(photos by kim gollings)

the artist seldom known as williwaw was playing a recent acquisition for the most rollicking event: an eight-string 'ukulele - or taro-patch fiddle, for those organologists among us - with a built-in under-the-saddle transducer and pre-amp. the other two-thirds of the unstable entertainment molecule preferred it to the other numerous ukes available - the sound was admittedly pretty keen for several songs of the evening, and the tuning finally settled before the show, but euf! the string tension was revealing repetitive stress disorders the former artist didn't even know they had - wrist pads and isometric exercises for everyone this holiday season, hoo-boy! two amps were used in an attempt for bass and treble, although one of the amps seemed to provide all frequencies and the other just glistening mud. the kids just love that glistenin' mud. for those who didn't get out of bed in time, the set was a hurried six: Fix Me / Love Is Alive / SWLABR / Crash Course In Brain Surgery (the original Budgie way, not that crapulent cover version) / Hot Blooded + Jukebox Hero / We're An American Band

these guys were weird

the mysterious mister charles found the entertainment molecule to be weird, which is fine by the molecule, and he also took a nice snap of the magic aura of driver has no cash.

(photo by the mysterious mister charles)

A limited number of driver has no cash stickers are still available - Inquire within.

the great(er) hiatus

before the dawn of the great internet, people had to keep track of things. no, back then things were not left to the Great Cache, for the Great Cache was still in its infancy, and not very great at all. and all this is preamble to the simple problem that williwaw is not completely sure when driver has no cash played its last show. it was a long time ago. a long, long time ago. well, somebody has done lost their marbles, and has booked some sort of tribute to dreams unfulfilled, replete with many defunct bands from circa 1993. driver has no cash, despite poor record keeping, did play in 1993. more than once, even. and like a phoenix rising from the ashes in some sort of shambled manner, driver has no cash will now play in 2008. the 25th of may, in the heart of champaign-urbana - well, just the heart of champaign.

yes, everything old is still old, but then again, yes.

the great hiatus

the most recent williwaw show was the 22nd of march, 2005 - opening for the incomparable ed burch. yes, 2005. well, now there's an asterisk there.

on saturday, the 16th of february, williwaw wandered in late to an open-mike 'ukulele event, the Ukulele Cabaret at Silvie's Lounge. the notice for the event included such gems as "costumes, skits and props are encouraged" - euf. Precisely not the scene of choice. But as mild mannered "bill" the artist otherwise known as williwaw played a short ditty with an EHX 2880 and an old rebuilt Gibson amp (purchased at an estate auction in Rantoul, and last heard on airwaves passing through the galaxy, sent from WEFT in 1997. the sound of the amp dying is heard on the mighty disc, shimmering coaster of light). the ditty was received cordially by those in attendance, especially the feller in the tropic shirt and straw hat with his fingers in his ears - an aesthetic, not acoustic, choice. A return to the stage, true, but definitely with a whimper, not a roar. so, in short, outside of porch-side yanni-esque romps for fireworks with the incomparable kip rainey, williwaw hasn't played in public since 2005*.

celluloid ukes

several years ago, a fine gent from Kentucky (now Californee) enjoyed that magic moment when you first discover williwaw, and proceeded to film williwaw in situ (in the former williwaw headquarters, also known to the downstairs neighbor as the stolen-TV-guide stash). That filming became a small part of a greater opus dedicated to the outskirts of ukuleleville, rock that uke. The film played the festival circuit to good pablum, but now can be seen in the comforting confines of the homestead via Elderly Instruments.



Though williwaw still haven't seen the final cut (zoinks!), it's sure to make williwaw look foolish, 'cause there just isn't any other way to look, now, is there? Back circa 1993, the admiral of the fleet, the kamaka soprano uke with binding and schaller tuners, was purchased from Elderly. They doubled shipping costs and the uke came with a hairline crack in the back. The fine people at Elderly were told ever so gently that they suck on the flagpole of shame, and williwaw hasn't purchased a goddamn thing from them since. So williwaw may never see the final cut. So foolish, that williwaw.

this jug is always full

old-time goodness has come to the youtuberie - behold! the finest of champaign and vermilion counties...

unfortunately there is no documentation of a cornlikkers show at the former blind pig co. venue, circa the same time, which featured the unique and posilutely riveting double jug attack of jim and gerald. gerald also joined the williwaw endeavour on tuba in a loving rendition of færies wear boots with bill and meghan on saxamaphones. alas, there is no known document of that massive outing, either. pity the færies, pity the jugs.

on with the youtuberie

The latest in what's becoming a relatively reasonable line of
audiovisual mayhem from donkeyscratch industries:

this one was once again done with the minimal-bordering-on-useless Windows Movie Maker, hence everything is done with fades. actually fades and one vertical wipe, but really, just fades. it's not very good, but if it helps you listen to all that is ryans song [part one], than it has all be justifiably justificated. all of the films were from the American Biograph & Mutoscope Co., and were taken forthrightly from the LOC American Memory website.