Reeves Gabrels & His Imaginary Friends

Started by Ulrich, January 20, 2015, 10:23:14

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Ulrich

Has anyone heard this new album by Reeves & band?
I listened to the song "Drown You Out" on this page (quite a "rock" kinda sound):

https://reevesfriends.bandcamp.com/
Quote
Reeves Gabrels & His Imaginary Friends are a power trio dedicated to songcraft and sonics: Reeves Gabrels on guitar and vocals, Kevin Hornback on bass, Jeff Brown on drums.

released 17 January 2015 

Produced by Reeves Gabrels and Rob Stennett

Mixed by Rob Stennett: Songs 3, 5, 7, 9, 10
Mixed by Roger Alan Nichols: Songs 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 11
Mastered by Richard Dodd

Additional Musicians
James Haggerty, Marc Pisapia - harmony vocals (Zero Effect; The House of Usher)
Tyson Rogers - organ (Bright Lights, Big City; Who Do You Love)
James H. Rubin - chorus vocal (Won't Fall In)
Roger Alan Nichols - piano (An Inconvenient Man)

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

An extensive, very interesting interview with Reeves:
http://www.guitarmoderne.com/artists/the-ultimate-reeves-gabrels-interview
(He talks about The Cure too, plus many other things...)

This part is quite funny:
QuoteTin Machine divided Bowie's fan base. The polarized reviews didn't bother me—every band I was in in Boston had the same effect on people. I always liked the fact that you could piss people off by just making the music you wanted to make. I thought that was a good thing. That kind of stuff comes up to this day.
:lol:
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

Guess some of you now wish they'd gone to Tunbridge Wells...  ;)

http://craigjparker.blogspot.it/2015/10/robert-simon-at-reeves-show-on-oct-15th.html




QuoteLovely to meet @RobertSmith @thecure tonight, at the gig I played with @reevesgabrels - what a legendary artist.
https://twitter.com/LisaRonsonMusic/status/654778515187863552/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

Something about Reeves' pedals:

Quotehttp://www.protonepedals.com
On stage nightly with The Cure, Reeves Gabrels needs shimmery cleans, biting break up, and distorted tones in full bloom to bring the 40 year catalog of the Cure to life. Bottom line- The Distortion Engine is no 1-trick-pony. We aimed at covering a wide spectrum of tones that span decades- from classic blues break up, to the grit of the '70s glam-rock anthems to flat-out modern metal tones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVdUAVvizfw

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/article/reeves_gabrels_picks_5_great_guitar_albums_you_probably_dont_know_by_joebosso
Quote
Now that he's an acclaimed guitarist, known for his work with artists such as David Bowie and as a member of The Cure, Gabrels doesn't have to scrape his change together for much of anything. But he still frequents used shops when searching for little-known music treasures—CDs, in particular. "People are dumping their CDs because they're all going back to vinyl," he says. "Funnily enough, I'm a big believer in the CD format, so I buy them up like mad. I have about 10,000 CDs now, and it's probably grown by 500 copies in the last year."

Below, Gabrels runs down his picks for "five great guitar albums you probably don't know," most of which he bought for next to nothing during his salad days. "These are really great guitar records, but they're also great music records. You don't have to be a guitar player to like them, although it might help a little."
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

Reeves looking back on his time with David Bowie, this is an excellent read!
http://radio.com/2017/02/20/david-bowie-90s-era/
Quote
If you look at my time with him, our shows were kind of light on the hits. With Tin Machine, we didn't play any of his solo songs. With the Outside and Earthling tours, we played some, but he let me rearrange them. On those tours, we did some odd things like [Laurie Anderson's] "O Superman" because Gail [Ann Dorsey, bassist] could carry the Laurie Anderson vocal and we did "Under Pressure" because she could carry the Freddie Mercury vocal. "Under Pressure" would get people excited, and so did our version of "The Man Who Sold the World."
...
Being David's musical director and his friend, I was all about taking chances. That's to me, what rock music is about. I think some of the folks in the business office... I was not their favorite person. We didn't lose money, but we didn't make as much money as they wanted us to. We did uncompromising stuff. I grew up thinking of David as someone who did what he wanted and didn't chase the tail of something else.

In August of '96, the tour ended, and we were going to take a couple of months off, but we ended up only taking two weeks off. I was writing stuff on my computer, and some of those songs became the songs from the Earthling album. But around that time we also did his 50th birthday show. My job was to sit down with all the guests and make sure they knew the songs. That was when I met Robert Smith [of the Cure, the band Gabrels now plays in].

We went out for all of 1997 for the Earthling tour, and that was the best tour I ever did with him. Zack [Alford, drums], Mike [Garson, piano] Gail [Ann Dorsey, bass] – we feared no band at that point.

...I was David's friend, and his guitar player, musical director, co-producer, but I was also a fan. I felt like I was protecting his "thing." I wanted to make sure he stayed cool and stayed connected. He was a voracious chaser of new things. ...

I can't explain how saddened I am by his passing. But – he really pulled it off, he turned his whole career into art by doing that record as his final statement. To me, it's the real capper to a blazing career.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

http://www.reevz.net/

SUMMER 2017 TOUR

July 14-15 Nashville TN NAMM Showcase
July 18 Toledo OH A Day at Reverend Guitars
July 20 New York NY TBA
July 21 Marlboro NY The Falcon
July 22 Troy NY The Hangar
July 25 New Haven CT Cafe Nine
July 28 Louisville KY Time + Space
July 29 Lexington KY The Green Lantern
July 30 Nashville TN TBA
The holy city breathed like a dying man...


Ulrich

http://liveforlivemusic.com/features/reeves-gabrels-2017/
Quote
Live For Live Music: As a prolific musician with credits spanning genres from metal and hip-hop to what you're best known for in your time with Bowie and The Cure, what can we expect from your upcoming show at Garcia's?

Reeves Gabrels: You will hear an update of the rock-power-trio format that stretches from the Johnny Burnette Trio to Jimi Hendrix and Cream to Rush and The Police to Hüsker Dü and Dinosaur Jr. Reeves Gabrels & His Imaginary Friends play rock songs with vocals, guitar, bass and drums that are designed to grow and change from night to night. Our sets include music that I have written for and with my Imaginary Friends, along with one or two unusual blues or old-school R&B covers that we've radically rearranged to suit our power trio format. There is a strong element of improvisation in our playing that makes us sound like us and no one else.

An odd thing that happened when I stopped working with David Bowie was a reviewer wrote of my second solo album—Ulysses (Della Notte) (2000)—that he could hear everything I stole from Bowie. The writer then listed Tin Machine songs, such as "Bus Stop" and "I Can't Read", both songs I co-wrote, and mentioned albums like Earthling and Hours, albums I co-produced with songs I co-wrote. I find that more amusing now than I did at the time.

So, listeners will hear trace elements of music they like by artists I have worked with through the years without realizing that I was involved at a writing level and production level with those artists. What many people discover is that some of my music was in their heads all along.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

Reeves on re-recorded Bowie album (originally from '87):

https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/07/david-bowie-80s-box-set/

QuoteParlophone Records has announced the fourth entry in its series of career-spanning David Bowie box sets. Due for an October 21st release, the 11-CD, 15-LP collection entitled David Bowie Loving the Alien (1983-1988) features eight albums from Bowie's most commercially successful period and includes previously unreleased music.

In addition to a remastered version of 1987's Never Let Me Down, a brand new production of the record is included. Coming from Bowie producer/engineer Mario McNulty, the new version features fresh instrumentation from Bowie collaborators Reeves Gabrels (guitar), David Torn (guitar), Sterling Campbell (drums), Tim Lefebvre (bass). Nico Muhly provided string quartet arrangements and Laurie Anderson makes a camep on "Shining Star (Makin' My Love)".


See also:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/hear-revamped-version-of-david-bowies-1987-song-zeroes-702638/

QuotePrior to his January 2016 death, Bowie expressed a desire to rerecord Never Let Me Down, "a bitter disappointment" as he called it, with less-dated production and instrumentation; this version of "Zeroes" strips off the Eighties synths and gated drum sound and fills in the void with newly recorded guitar work while keeping Bowie's original vocal track intact.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

Ulrich

Reeves has been interviewed for this too:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/when-david-bowie-became-a-superstar-it-was-the-happiest-id-ever-seen-him
Quote
A new box set, Loving The Alien: 1983-1988, out now, is a deep dive into Bowie's chart-topping years. It's a period sometimes derided by critics and fans—and even Bowie himself—but it's a fascinating window into an always restless creative spirit, who had set his sights on the big time.

"David said he felt pressure from his label to deliver a hit album," offers guitarist Reeves Gabrels, who became friends with Bowie around this time. "He felt obliged to give them what they wanted, and appease this fan base that he didn't understand. He said, 'It's the same people who like Phil Collins and Tina Turner, and those are not my people.' That's why he always referred to those years as his 'Phil Collins years.'"
The holy city breathed like a dying man...

SueC

Quote from: Ulrich on February 25, 2015, 13:06:06An extensive, very interesting interview with Reeves:
http://www.guitarmoderne.com/artists/the-ultimate-reeves-gabrels-interview
(He talks about The Cure too, plus many other things...)

This part is quite funny:
QuoteTin Machine divided Bowie's fan base. The polarized reviews didn't bother me—every band I was in in Boston had the same effect on people. I always liked the fact that you could piss people off by just making the music you wanted to make. I thought that was a good thing. That kind of stuff comes up to this day.
:lol:

Yes, hahahaha!  :rofl

Of course, I think most people also take turns being pissed off about someone else's authentic things when those grate on them for personal reasons, while doing their own authentic things.  ;)

This was an excellent interview, thanks for posting.  I love intelligent stuff like this - especially when most of mainstream music journalism is such a sewer.  Interesting to get to know more about Gabrels' background and ideas - appears to have his head firmly screwed on, and to have decent principles in place.  When we're watching Cure gigs with him, we always laugh at the vibe he gives off - like, "I've got you; happy to help out here!"  ...very laid-back and unperturbed. :)

Had to really laugh about that Lou Reed anecdote.  :rofl
SueC is time travelling

Ulrich

https://amp.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/exclusive-golden-years-return-as-nine-rare-david-bowie-songs-released-for-the-first-time-1.1007099

QuoteGabrels joined The Cure in 2012 and has had a successful musical career with the British band to this day, but he still speaks with a sense of wonder about his first encounter with Bowie all those years ago. The two met by chance in 1987 backstage at a gig and spent the next 13 years writing, producing and performing together.

"He invited me to his home in Switzerland for the weekend and I ended up staying a month," Gabrels recalled.
"He had loads of Monty Python outtakes and we sat and watched Monty Python, going through his wine cellar and getting up and writing songs.
The holy city breathed like a dying man...