NEW YORK NEOPHONIC ORCHESTRA

Once upon a time I played in a big jazz band called the New York Neophonic Orchestra. It was directed by Joel Kaye, who played baritone sax on just about all my disco work. You can find a copy here. There were a lot of Ten Wheelers in the band, and notables such as Lyle Mays and Joe Farrell.

Tags: aram, schefrin, the tenth cow, novel, novelist,writer, fiction,historical fiction, book, books, audiobook, podcast, mp3, music, rock,jazz, jazz/rock, ten wheel drive, cd, itunes, disco, d.c. larue, marwan, consider the elephant, john wilkes booth, little big horn, mobipocket, kindle, amazon.com, polo, cathedrals

AMAZON.FR REVIEW

To keep it eclectic, here's a review from amazon.fr: 1 internaute sur 1 a trouvé ce commentaire utile : 5.0 étoiles sur 5 GENYA RAVAN,UNE DES GRANDES VOIX DU ROCK, 11 février 2008 Ne cherchez pas trace de ce groupe dans les encyclopedies du rock, il n'y est cité dans aucune, et c'est une injustice car il s'agit d'un des tout meilleurs et sa chanteuse Genya Ravan a peu d'equivalent dans la categorie chanteuse , hormis janis Joplin a laquelle on la compara beaucoup.D'abord chanteuse du groupe americain Goldie and the gingerbreads qui tourna en europe a la fin de sixties avec les Stones,les kinks ,les yardbirds ou les Hollies, elle fonde en 69 Ten Wheel drive avec le guitariste Aram Schefrin et le pianiste Michael Zager plus toute une section de cuivres.Apres avoir electrisé la foule lors du fameux atlanta pop festival de l'été 69, le groupe fera 3 albums studio de 69 a 71 ( construction, bref replies et pecular friends)dans un style de fusion rock, jazz et Rythm and blues, on pourrait comparer au premier Blood sweat and tears , a l'electric Flag de M. Bloomfield ou au premier Chicago transit authority. Genya est une puissante chanteuse (egalement capable d'emotion comme sur "stay with me"), une des premieres du rock,et le groupe autour d'elle fait la part belle a la guitare de Schefrin et la section cuivre chauffe egalement (ecoutez "eye of the needle" ou "tightrope") . Le groupe se separa en 71, Genya fera 5 albums solos interessants ("urban desire"et "and I mean it" sont dispo en cd)avant de devenir productrice. Tags: aram, schefrin, the tenth cow, novel, novelist,writer, fiction,historical fiction, book, books, audiobook, podcast, mp3, music, rock,jazz, jazz/rock, ten wheel drive, cd, itunes, disco, d.c. larue, marwan, consider the elephant, john wilkes booth, little big horn, mobipocket, kindle, amazon.com, polo, cathedrals

MUSIKZIRKUS REVIEW

Here's a new TWD review. Have fun! TEN WHEEL DRIVE Zwischen 1969 und 1974 veröffentlichte diese Band aus New York vier Alben, und zwar „Construction #1“, „Brief replies“, „Peculiar friends“, „Ten Wheel Drive“. Damals paßten sie gut in die Riege BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS, CHICAGO etc…. Die Band um die mit einer kraftvoll-rauen Stimme ausgestatteten Sängerin Genya Ravan, Mike Zager(keyboards) und Aram Schefrin(guitar) als Hauptakteure und Komponisten hochklassiger Songs startete mit ihrer ersten LP auf Polydor mit einem furiosen Sound, einer Mixtur aus Jazz, Blues und Funk, aus Rock und Psychedelic. Lange Stücke wie das 8:11 – Stück „Eye of the needle“ untermauerten dieses grandios. Songs mit Hitcharakter wie „Polar Bear Rug“ und „I am a want ad“ trugen sicher zur anfänglichen Popularität bei. Nach dem 3. Album verließ Ravan die Band für ihr Soloalbum(1972) und wurde für die letzte Scheibe durch Annie Sutton ersetzt. Aber mit dem Weggang Ravan’s zerbrach die Band 1974 schließlich. Bis heute gibt es leider nur eine „Best of“-Kollektion auf CD. Wolfgang Tags: aram, schefrin, the tenth cow, novel, novelist,writer, fiction,historical fiction, book, books, audiobook, podcast, mp3, music, rock,jazz, jazz/rock, ten wheel drive, cd, itunes, disco, d.c. larue, marwan, consider the elephant, john wilkes booth, little big horn, mobipocket, kindle, amazon.com, polo, cathedrals

CATHEDRALS REVIEW

Here's a review of D.C. Larue's Cathedrals on a site selling the LP: A classic marriage of disco and progressive rock -- served up in this mini "opera" of sorts by DC LaRue! The album's got a very odd feel -- almost spare and thoughtful at times, yet always moving in an uptempo disco groove throughout. Michael Zager plays organ on the record, and arrangements are by Aram Schefrin. Titles include "Deep Dark Delicious Night", "Cathedrals", "I Don't Want To Lose You", and "I'll Still Be Here For You". Tags: aram, schefrin, the tenth cow, novel, novelist,writer, fiction,historical fiction, book, books, audiobook, podcast, mp3, music, rock,jazz, jazz/rock, ten wheel drive, cd, itunes, disco, d.c. larue, marwan, consider the elephant, john wilkes booth, little big horn, mobipocket, kindle, amazon.com, polo, cathedrals

DEEP DOWN AND DISCOFIED

Cathedrals appears in a greatly shortened version in this mix compilation CD.

Tags: aram, schefrin, the tenth cow, novel, novelist,writer, fiction,historical fiction, book, books, audiobook, podcast, mp3, music, rock,jazz, jazz/rock, ten wheel drive, cd, itunes, disco, d.c. larue, marwan, consider the elephant, john wilkes booth, little big horn, mobipocket, kindle, amazon.com, polo, cathedrals

TEN WHEEL DRIVE VIDEOS

The Video Data Bank of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has four videos of TWD live performances. I inquired about getting them. Here's the answer I got: Hi Aram, Thanks for the email. I wish I had better news, or news that would be less costly. Quoted just below is the information on the Videofreex archive from our website: The archival collection of Videofreex titles consists of around 1400 videotapes on a variety of formats. Most of these formats are obsolete (1/2 ² open reel, 3/4 ² Umatic, 1 ² open reel, etc.) They are also quite old for videotapes, and often require cleaning or other special handling before they can be re-mastered to modern formats, or be made available digitally. This is usually an expensive process, and there are currently not enough funds to preserve the entire collection. We prioritize titles for preservation based on written information sources (titles, notes on the tapes, etc.), dialogue with the Videofreex, and other research. If you are interested in a specific tape that has not been preserved, you can help out by paying for its preservation. This usually costs $400, and you will receive a DVD of the title for personal or educational use. Additional rights for footage use can be negotiated. It should be noted that the results of the preservation are not guaranteed, it is possible that the tape has been damaged during its lifespan, or has degraded due to storage conditions. Most of our results however have been positive. As it stands the Ten Wheel Drive titles are not near enough to the top of the priority list that they would be preserved any time soon. You do have the option of paying for the preservation, and receiving the DVD copy of any or all of the four titles we have (Ten Wheel Drive I, II, III or Ten Wheel Drive: Harrisburg I). This does get costly, however- roughly $400 per title. We would, of course, greatly appreciate any help with the preservation, so please do let us know if this is a route in which you might be interested. We may go ahead and do this with one of these videos. No promises as to quality, apparently, or even if the videos are reproducible. However, anyone who kicks in $25 to pay for this will get a DVD of whatever we get back. If you're interested, comment on this post or email me at arslaw@comcast.net. Tags: aram, schefrin, the tenth cow, novel, novelist,writer, fiction,historical fiction, book, books, audiobook, podcast, mp3, music, rock,jazz, jazz/rock, ten wheel drive, cd, itunes, disco, d.c. larue, marwan, consider the elephant, john wilkes booth, little big horn, mobipocket, kindle, amazon.com, polo, cathedrals

BLOG ADVERTISING

I have been running ads for The Tenth Cow on blogs through blogads.com, which arranges space on about 1500 blogs at huge variations in price and audience. So far, the results have been interesting. In terms of the ratio between clicks-through and dollars spent, book blogs (Beatrice.com) and humor blogs (The Gilded Moose, The Rude Pundit) have been worthless (NB: The Tenth Cow is funny and it is a book). I guess funny people don't read, and book people aren't funny. The blogs where the ratio has been excellent are blogs catering to politically inclined intellectuals, and particularly Europeans (A Fistful of Euros, Brendan Nyhan, Eyeteeth). I'm fucking doomed.