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Author
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Topic: The Wallets
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molly coddle
Punk Posts: 2546
Registered: May 2001
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posted 10-18-2002 06:33 AM
   
So.
I always thought Steve Kramer was pretty damn talented.
I don't know if the Wallets stuff really held up well, but damnit, I really had fun going to see them.and for some reason when I think of them I think of James Chance and the Contortions.
why is that? IP: Logged |
owen
Punk Posts: 1499
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 10-18-2002 07:21 AM
If I'm not mistaken, to this day they are totally naked. They're totally nude. They're waiting for you.IP: Logged |
Evil Angel
Punk Posts: 1662
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 10-18-2002 07:54 AM
I used to live on the corner of 22nd and Aldrich. One of the Wallet member used to live a house. Once a while, in the early eveing, he would play his saxophone. It was pretty cool to hear it.IP: Logged |
Patti Pagan
Punk Posts: 1401
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-18-2002 08:22 AM
quote:
Originally posted by molly coddle:
So. I always thought Steve Kramer was pretty damn talented. <snip> and for some reason when I think of them I think of James Chance and the Contortions.
why is that?
Kramer was *in* the Contortions with that Milwaukeean James Chance in the former's NYC days. What is Chance/Black up to these days??
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zomzom
Punk Posts: 77342189
Registered: Mar 1920
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posted 10-18-2002 08:43 AM
Some nice guys in that outfit, Max is a cool sax player and all, but man, I can't stand listening to that quirky qrap.
Their shows always used to bring out the worst of the "new wave" crowd, and I had the misfortune of working on the "totally nude" video. Yikes.IP: Logged |
Ollie Stench
Admin Posts: 2386
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 10-18-2002 10:49 AM
My 2 least-favorite local bands:The Wallets
The Urban Guerrillas IP: Logged |
J.Free
Punk Posts: 139
Registered: May 2000
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posted 10-18-2002 11:07 AM
Yeah, The Wallets were definitely a fave back in the day, although I admittedly fell out of love with their latter-day disco-funk sound (i.e., when they actually started releasing records, that is). They were a live band, first and foremost, and not one note they've committed to vinyl can scratch the surface (sorry, bad pun in there somewhere) of what they were actually doing musically.I've seen them perform fairly highbrow arty sets and noisy avant-garde sets that bordered on punk, from the Walker to The Longhorn, and in that respect, never saw them re-treading the same ground twice. The earlier, noisier sets seemed loosely structured around a few basic ideas or motifs - like the free jazz of Ornette Coleman, for example. Once they started recording, it seemed like their musical themes were a bit more cohesive, in that they could a song the same way twice, if they wanted to, but never did. In many ways, some of their later musical explorations were very similar to the noveau-gypsy stylings of Tom Waits' post-"Swordfishtrombones" albums. My fondest Wallets memory is from a Longhorn show, which amounted to four songs in 40 minutes, truncated by Kramer's ejection from the premises. I think the song was called "Billfold", and he thought it would be an interesting idea to grab a bunch of bunch of money from the till at the bar, and throw it out to the audience. The bar had no idea what he was up to, and they pulled him off the cash register, and tossed him out the door. Meanwhile, the rest of the band continued to play, until one by one, they realized that Steve wasn't coming back, and stopped playing. The last guy to leave the stage was Davey "Guitar" Foley - a regular staple on the stage with nearly every band in town at the time - who had his back to the audience, and only noticed the empty stage after the drummer stopped playing his marching cadenza. Steve later explained that he never intended to actually steal the bar's money, but thought they could take it out of what he was going to be paid that night. I do remember a scene from another show, years later at the Entry, when a couple of fellows (from The New Psychenauts, perhaps?) showed up with a car load of purses and wallets of various sizes and shapes, which they proceeded to dump all over the stage; and, which the band played their entire set in the midst of. Personally, I owe Steve Kramer a great deal of gratitude, for opening me up to people like James "Chance/White" Siegfried, who in turn opened me up to Ornette and a lot of other free-jazz pioneers. My music collection, and how some of those ideas shaped the way I grew to listen to music, just wouldn't be the same without them. IP: Logged |
J.Free
Punk Posts: 139
Registered: May 2000
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posted 10-18-2002 11:48 AM
Hey, Patti, that's a good question, and one I've asked many times myself. The last I heard, James Siegfried pulled out the "Chance" moniker again in '95 for a spell, and toured briefly with a group called "The Contortions", playing a ton of new, unreleased material, none of which has been released. Somewhere in between this re-incarnation, and his last studio LP with The Flaming Demonics, he worked with a couple of new outfits - The Satanic Syncopators, and James White and the Sardonic Sinphonics, although nothing has been released by either of these groups, and their current status is unknown.The last time I saw Chance was at a Defunkt show at Danceteria in NYC, Dec. 1985. Joe Bowie invited Chance onstage to play for a few numbers, and he stayed on through the rest of their set. This reminds me - does anyone have any recordings of Chance's first band, from 1972, while he was still in Milwaukee? That band was called Death, and he wasn't the leader, but he was already playing sax. IP: Logged |
danpeterson
Lil Punk Posts: 15
Registered: Dec 2000
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posted 10-18-2002 01:04 PM
James played First Ave. with some version of the Contortions summer before last, with Things That Fall Down warming up. I used to like both bands a lot, but neither were very good that night.I agree, the early, live Wallets were amazing; loose, funky jazz with quirky, Monk-like melodies, and lots of atonal jamming. The recorded Wallets always seemed to be trying too hard for a new-wave hit. They did open up my mind to listening to more jazz and funk, though. IP: Logged |
Patti Pagan
Punk Posts: 1401
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-18-2002 01:12 PM
HOW in the world did I miss that event?? Oh well...IP: Logged |
Ollie Stench
Admin Posts: 2386
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 10-18-2002 01:36 PM
If Freakstorm ever checks this he did alot of research on the whereabouts of James Chance last year.IP: Logged |
SicGirl
Punk Posts: 41
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 11-24-2002 11:23 PM
I'm with you Ollie. They were like the uninvited guests that kept popping up everywhere. While we're at it, listening to the Violent Femmes was never a productive use of time either - so why do I STILL hear their crap on the radio??
quote:
Originally posted by Ollie Stench:
My 2 least-favorite local bands:The Wallets
The Urban Guerrillas
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Stein
Lil Punk Posts: 6
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted 11-25-2002 01:27 AM
The Wallets and 1st Ave, it's all coming back to me now...skinny ties, too many skinny ties!!!IP: Logged |
crack up
Punk Posts: 152
Registered: May 2000
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posted 12-01-2002 01:40 PM
Great interview with James Chance in the new issue of BBgun (see Shinder's or BBgun.org)that focuses mostly on No New York/Contortions/James White but does include a few paragraphs about growing up/playing in stripper bars in Milwaukee. Later on in the interview he mentions S. Kramer and The Wallets in passing.
Final question? "What have you been doing recently?". J.C. mentions that he's changed the name of his jazz/swing band to 'Terminal City' and sez he's obsessed with combining jazz, vintage R+B and film noir. No coverage though of his CMJ showcase performance last month cuz BB's live reviews only run through August.
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The Classical
Punk Posts: 127
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 12-01-2002 07:05 PM
okay since this turned into the james chance thread:he was here? a couple yrs ago? the fuck? he has a new three inch cd (I know, I know) on tigerbeat6 called christmas with satan (again I know) and I havent heard it but I am willing to bet a ham sandwich on which side of the clever/stupid line it falls on. there is a box set coming out next yr, of what I dont know, he made exactly one good record, which happened to be a very great record, buy the contortions and everything else is iffy at best, imho IP: Logged |
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