Viking Moses Influences!

23/05/06

Viking Moses is the latest incarnation of Brendon Massei, a modern-day minstrel who just happened to be making his own music when the folk renaissance struck, lifting him up and trumpeting him as a new voice from the wilderness. In a time of fickle cynicism, Massei is remarkably genuine, some might say naïve. He believes in the communal powers of live music, teaming with a few other descendents of Pan to spread the good word to those who are willing to listen. His new record Crosses on Poptones Records is out on 31st of July

Music That Has Occurred In And Around The Time Of Making Crosses, What Led To It, And What Since Has Developed:

1. Nirvana – Wipeout (Big Wave)
Prob’ly like most folks my age, I’m not alone in saying that the music of Nirvana is the first and sole inspiration for doing music to this day. It has brought me to everyone I will list below, and for this, I find importance in this acknowledgement. Wipeout is an unauthorized release of their John Peel Sessions along with demos they did with Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s the rawness of these recordings, and the simplicity of these songs that encouraged me to make music of my own twelve years ago, and share it in a humble and personal fashion. I don’t think it’s particularly easy to find this LP around, since there might not have been too many pressed to begin with, but I whole heartedly recommend people find many of these songs the legal and supportive way by obtaining the Nirvana box set With The Lights Out (Universal). Mad respect to the contributions and personal sacrifice of all who put forward to assembling this, namely Mister Noveselic, Mister Grohl, Miss Jasper and the fine folks at Sub Pop.

2. Morgan’s Orange – Wood Eye (Recycled Carbon)
This is the first “experimental music” I’ve come to know. Morgan’s Orange brought local Las Vegas themes (and I’m talking BiL and George, not Stardust and Desert Inn) together with tooth brushes and toys, and included participation of whoever was around, whether they knew it or not. Light-hearted and comic songs with deep and mysterious undertones, this is the mind of the Great Morgan. I believe the only place in the world one might find this obscure LP is at Benway Records in Venice Beach, California, where for some strange reason rests a sturdy supply.

3. Flaspar – Voice Rockets On The Satellite (unreleased)
This album arrived to me in the mail when I lived in an apartment across from Davey’s Uptown Rambler’s Club in Kansas City, Missouri. This, like the music of Morgan’s Orange, got my gears turning in the way that I enjoy things today. It’s a step out into the desert at night, belly full of mushrooms, and giving God a piggyback ride. No one ever released this record, perhaps because no one really knew about it. If anyone cares to hear it, find me, perhaps I can make you a copy of this record. Maybe one of you out there should release this! I know I would if I captained such a ship!

4. Songs: Ohia – Magnolia Electric Company (Secretly Canadian)
Like most things in life, meeting Jason Molina was pure chance. But this chance seemed slimmer than usual. We played a show together at the Galaxy Hut in Arlington, Virginia, and I was stuck with no way to get to my next appointment in Philadelphia. He offered me a ride, and ended up sharing a friendly portion of his tour with me that winter. It was the songs of this album and its predecessor Didn’t It Rain that I got to see take shape, firsthand. Lawrence Peters, a bartender at the Hideout Tavern in Chicago, and a keystone in some of the finest music that’s come out of that city, sings on this lovely album, along with Scout Niblett, one of my life’s strongest inspirers.

5. Scout Niblett – I Conjure Series (Secretly Canadian / Too Pure)
Jason Molina introduced Miss Niblett and me some years back over pizza. She was just graduating college, and was talking about wanting to start to write and record songs. There is no evolution to a song that I’ve witnessed that is quite like the development of a Scout Niblett song. She charts herself out like the stars, and transcribes it to tones and beats, to share herself in purity with this world.

6. Leonard Cohen – New Skin For The Old Ceremony (Columbia)
The production of this album is the goal I had in mind for the sound of Crosses There are some 14 musicians on this album, I believe, and still it manages to sound stark and to the point, leaving much accompaniment to the imagination. Tasteful comings and goings of this and that, instrumentally, while Mister Cohen’s nylon strings, his confident voice and soothing female singing pave our way through his world. Of course, Crosses sounded nothing like this in the end. I’d love to share a game of chess and a bottle of wine with Leonard before one of us crosses over, a dream I’ve no shame in hiding.

7. Children’s Hour – S.O.S. J.F.K. (Minty Fresh)
Rhonda Turnbough is responsible for the songs of Children’s Hour first crossing my ears. She went to school with Andrew Bar in Chicago, and had some four track demos of theirs. I invited them to a show I put together at the Hideout, and being in the same room as the source of this music ended up being a great pivot in my life. Josephine Foster’s voice would leave the microphone and fill the room with operatic grace. We left this time and place, and her voice comforted what her words simultaneously gave uneasiness. Josephine has gone on to do several great records for Locust Music, as: Josephine Foster, Born Heller, and The Supposed.

8. Roger Miller – A Tender Look At Love (Smash / Mercury)
The songs I first came to know and love in this life were the songs of the animated feature Disney’s Robin Hood. Roger Miller wrote and sang most of the songs, so it wasn’t strange, that the first time I heard his version of “Little Green Apples” I was immediately comforted and seemingly rejoined with an old friend. Hunting for a recording of this song, I eventually came across it on A Tender Look At Love (1968), which is mostly covers, but shares the same production value and overall feel. By all the “Best Of” comps at truck stops, most people, I feel, are more acquainted with his light hearted, nearly comedic style of writing and singing. This album, on the other hand, seems to be the first attempt at a more serious side of Mister Miller. This would be followed by several records of similar personality, mostly songs by other non-singer songwriters (such as Dennis Linde, Bobby Russell, and a still quite unknown Kris Kristofferson.)

9. Music Of Indonesia – Vol. 20: Indonesian Guitars (Smithsonian Folkways)
The three records Spencer Kingman and I were blasting mostly at this time were: Neil Young’s Silver and Gold, Sacred Steel (Arhoolie Records, V/A, Traditional Sacred African-American Steel Guitar Music In Florida) and Volume 20 of the Music of Indonesia Series, titled Indonesian Guitars. Although we’d belt out “Good To See You”, “This Is A Holy Church” and “Franklin D Roosevelt, A Poor Man’s Friend” with fully convicted voices, it was Volume 20 – Indonesian Guitars that gave drive to our mission! I’d like to record the rest of my music with Usman Achmad, Sahilin and Siti Rohmah. I’d like to donate all my recordings to the Smithsonian Institute to be released posthumously, and serve my country proudly and appropriately.

10. Thanksgiving – Welcome Nowhere (P.W. Elverum & Sun / Marriage)
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea had for several years now been at the top of my totem tower of totally terrific titles to turn to. This masterpiece had been joined when my path crossed that of the young Adrian Orange. Upon devoting my first hour or so with the Welcome Nowhere LP, I was sat at a stoop with Wisdom similar to Rabindranath Tagore, watching, overwhelmed, the wind’s current through a hayfield. With his words I was shown the light of Patience, Appreciation, and Hope through a tune that was dark as the times. Kindness with such Sharpness has often been a frail thing, and hard to come across but the path he makes shall be unobstructed and long lasting if he continues to lead where no one else dares to go.

By Dusted Magazine

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