Most of my musical "Career" has been mixing things up and going with what interests and inspires me at the moment. For anyone looking for pointers I can say that is probably the worst way to present yourself commercially but it might be one of the most rewarding in terms of expressing yourself or just having fun. Of course being successful or popular need not be in contrast to being an artist but they certainly are a delicate balance if you want them both together.
Some of my biggest inspirations where people who circumvented the art/commerce world by simply supporting themselves in other ways and using those funds and their free time to do exactly what they wanted and critics (and sometimes fans) be damned. The great American classical composer Charles Ives lived most of his adult life as an accountant boldly stating "I will not let me family starve because of my dissonance." Hear hear!
I've always been a fan of Long island based sound/noise/industrial/whatever pioneers Controlled Bleeding and was even more intrigued by their no compromise highly varied output and their dedication to having one foot in the "real" world and two ears in the musical when they wanted. After the passing of long time members and a period of transience founding member Paul Lemos has resurfaced with a stripped down version that he feels captures the spirit and earns the Controlled Bleeding moniker. Eschewing the scat and operatic voices (actually skipping any vocals whatsoever) he's brought Controlled Bleeding back to it's more free form avant/Jazz live playing roots and has done some intriguing shows the past few years with just guitar, drums, and some minor loops and samples. As with all their other output it sounds nothing like any other version of Controlled Bleeding but then again, isn't that the whole point of creating sometimes?
For those shocked and awed by the "new" direction don't forget there are shards of this in a lot of their earlier and later live shows as well. Through the miracle of you tube here is a set with the mighty Joe Papa and one version of the full band live in NYC:
As a special treat, fans of the really out there might want to check out Paul and Joe Papa's side project under the name The Breast Fed Yak who's album "Get Your Greasy Head Off the Sham" prompted Amazon reviewers to write: "imagine a naked, 350-pound superhero scatting like Ella Fitzgerald having an epileptic fit " and "Picture the scene in Gremlins where the gremlins are smoking, drinking and playing cards. Now, imagine that they are also on meth and have broken into the band room of the local high school. The resulting chaos might sound like this CD" Bop on!
