The Silver Apples were odd, but Skarekrau Radio were odder still

I saw the Silver Apples on Saturday at the Empty Bottle. Oddly, the place wasn't that packed. You'd think that people would jump at the very rare opportunity to see the man that was responsible for the foundation for electronica, new wave and industrial music, but I guess others had tickets to the Hideout Block Party (I didn't, but I still would have gone and seen the Silver Apples instead...as a matter of fact, why didn't they just invite him there?).

Simeon, the singer/ electronic music guy performed alone. He is now silver haired and frail after recovering from having his neck broken in a car accident. He didn't have a roadie. Someone helped him drag out his rig to the center of the stage, but he set it up and set up a video camera, projector and screen.

Since the drummer for the Silver Apples, Danny Taylor, passed away in 2005, Simeon used a drum machine. I was wondering if he'd use another drummer, but it'd be hard filling Taylor's shoes (he was a former drummer for Jimi Hendrix).

It was a great show. The oddest thing about it was that the music, since he used a drum machine, sounded less bizzare than the recordings from the 60's. He played my favorite song of his, "Program," right at the beginning (the song is the earliest song I know of to use sampling...they didn't even have a word for it then), but it was still profoundly odd and futuristic, and I had a blast.

Simeon enjoyed himself as well. I was personally offended that he wasn't playing a larger venue and that the place wasn't packed full, but he seemed genuinely pleased that this many people had showed up and were cheering him on. He smiled, and talked to the audience (when people kept yelling out for him to play 'Ruby' he said, "Hey, I didn't bring a banjo!").

There were three other bands. People are all gaga about Warhammer 48k. They were intense, loud and creative and intense (and their drummer is solid), but they didn't make the biggest impression on me of the opening bands.

Skarekrau Radio did.



There were 13 of them on stage. Two drummers, one percussionist. Two or three horn players. Guitar, bass, drums. Metal Antlers. Two singers, a woman, dressed oddly, and a man dressed in tuxedo tails and a thong. There was a guy playing the cymbals with a drumstick...he was weaing leotard bottoms. The saxophone player wasn't wearing any clothes at all. The naked sax guy leapt off of the stage at one point and flailed around on the ground (at first I thought he was really high, then I thought he was just performing, but he continued to do this throughout every band afterwards, so I returned to my original conclusion). The lead singer (?) spent most of the time offstage in the audience performing to the band.

The guy in the leotard pants ran around licking people in the audience (myself included--I had nowhere to run), while the band skronked and banged on things and yelled strange poetry out. I couldn't understand a single thing they said.

It was pretty rad.

Their website looks like it was put together by loonies. Warning! It plays a grating sound loop when you click on it! You've been warned!

Here's a performance of them from 2003. It doesn't feature any nudity, and it's a lot less intense, since they're not licking you or yelling in your face. If you watch it long enough, the noise actually does coalesce into a song of sorts. But it should give you some sort of idea.

The Silver Apples- Not a product of anything

And now from a product to something that no one had any idea how to sell.

Tonight I'm going to see the Silver Apples in concert at the Empty Bottle. This has been a good year for seeing bands that I never should have had the opportunity to see. I've already written about Roky Erickson. Now I'm going to get to see someone nearly as important.

The Silver Apples were a duo formed in New York in the late 60's. They were comprised of Simeon and Danny Taylor. Taylor played the drums. Simeon played...well...he called it the Simeon. It was a sort of keyboard that he built out of surplus military oscillators tuned to various frequencies. Simeon couldn't read music or play the piano, so he had them hooked up to color-coded telegraph keys and pedals. He made odd 'boops and bleeps' as he called them, while Taylor drummed like a robot.



Before we go on, perhaps you should hear what the very first song on their first album sounds like.

Silver Apples, "Oscillations," mp3

Their first show was at a music festival that the Fugs were also playing at. There were something like 10,000 people there in New York City, ready to listen to some groovy hippie music, and then this band comes on. I can only imagine what people were thinking. I hope at least a few realized that they were hearing an entirely new form of music being played in front of them.

They broke up after recording their third album. They reformed about eight years ago, and then Simeon broke his neck after their bus was run off of the road. Then Danny Taylor passed away.

Somehow Simeon is still playing tonight.

I'm psyched. Their music still sounds like it comes from the future to me.