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past projects and incarnations

The Dunes -
North African Grooves

(2004-11)

Gnawatronic (2006-07)

The Square Roots
(1985-88)

Marhaba (1993-98)

Guitardoz (1983-85)

The Cousins Gibb
(19??-20??)

The Silly Frogs (1981-82)

The Virgin Unplugged - Tim Fuson's Acoustic Madonna Revue
(1991-93)

The Dunes - North African Grooves

Maghrebi Fusion In Your Face

dunes_lapena

I spent many moons with The Dunes - a North African Fusion (Chaabi Funk Gnawa Rock Berber Metal Arab Reggae) band project. I sang, played guinbri, bass, guitar, clarinet and bendir with the group, and wrote songs in English and Moroccan Arabic for the group to perform. The band members brought together an improbable mix of influences, approaches, attitudes and aesthetics. When it worked, it rocked heavily. Highlights: I got repudiated by the Hendrix estate for writing Gnawi lyrics to Voodoo Chile, then wrote a better song in response. I jumped around like a maniac, and impersonated a dictator. And I returned to writing songs with my own voice after many years of pseudonymic and support/sideman activity. Yeah, it was a good time!

dunes_yerbabuena


Stream or download The Dunes' music here:
SoundCloud

Find The Dunes here:
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Gnawatronic

Gnawa experiments in clubland

gnawatronic

Side project between myself (guinbri and singing) and Anis Sehiri (loops and beats) of The Dunes band, exploring the possibilities of techno-Gnawa grooving. Made a spate of live appearances around Berkeley in 2006-07

Listen to "Ghumami-Musa" by Gnawatronic


Marhaba

The best Bay Area Moroccan almost-band

marhaba_marina

Led by multi-instrumentalist, storyteller and Sufi shaykh Yassir Chadly, the Marhaba group drew on a wealth of talent to present traditional Moroccan music to Bay Area audiences in the mid-90s. I held my own with rhythm, Gnawa-ing and the occasional oud-ing, while the mega-talented Bouchaib Abdelhadi (violin, oud, percussion and singing) and the soulful Hafida Ghanim (vocals and bendir) shone. Lack of creative direction meant the group never developed a real identity - but there were some lovely moments...

Listen to "La ilaha illa Llah" by Marhaba and friends


The Virgin Unplugged: Tim Fuson's Acoustic Madonna Revue

Uuuh...

virgin_valencia

In 1991 I was finishing degrees in music and anthropology. While pondering music and culture at Cafe Strada, I brewed up a musical project that was great fun.

In my days with The Square Roots, I had worked up a few cover songs to play and sing if Jerry broke a guitar string. One of these was Madonna's "Like a Virgin". The idea of doing Madonna covers held a sort of hip currency in indie circles in the late 80's and early '90's. The Lords of the New Church had recorded "Like a Virgin", Sonic Youth had covered "Into the Groove" and John Wesley Harding had recorded an acoustic version of "Like A Prayer". My response was that, well, anybody could do one Madonna cover. But it took someone special to do an ENTIRE SHOW of Madonna covers. I was determined to be that person.

Between 1991 and 1993, I performed my Madonna Revue on Sproul Plaza, KALX-FM, and several times at the Starry Plough.

virgin_alley virgin_24th

Listen to "Vogue" live on KALX, 1991


The Cousins Gibb

Post-Anachronistic Pop from the Isle of Wight (or was it Man?)

qrax_aprilful

OK look - I have a very special relationship with the Cousins Gibb, the obscure purported cousins of the famous Brothers Gibb (i.e., the Bee Gees.) In particular, during my years of contact with them, I developed an almost symbiotic relationship with Cousin Tomothy. I helped him record demos, I teased out the archaeology of the lost "Fes" album and helped produce its recording in the early '90s, and I appeared in the Cousins' 1988 Christmas special as a clarinet-playing member of the Salvation Santa horn section.

But people continue to believe that Tomothy Gibb and I are in fact one and the same person! I mean, that's crazy! Why would I adopt an alter-ego? OK sure, at the end of the Square Roots I was having writer's block and renegotiating my relationship to the whole creative enterprise, but would I really go to the length of writing and recording in character as another person? That's just silly conspiracy theory stuff.

So anyway, The Cousins Gibb claim that their more famous cousins, the Bee Gees stole scads of creative ideas, songs and structures from them over the years. You may think that the Cousins' music is derivative of the Bee Gees. In fact, according to the Cousins, the influence was in the other direction.

cousins2
The Cousins Gibb on stage with The Young Fresh Fellows - Cotati, 1988.

Probably as much as you need to know about THE COUSINS GIBB

Listen to "Bighead" from the album
"Fes - A Failed Rock Opera" here:

find The Cousins Gibb / Tomothy Gibb here:
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The Square Roots

A once-in-a-lifetime thing.
A fully-turned-on, beautiful moment in time.

roots_KAOS

Acoustic 2-piece that sounded like a full band, punk energy, Beatle-Everly harmony, cranking out infectious pop nuggets left and right, as comfortable (and convincing) playing at the Fillmore as on Sproul Plaza - The Square Roots tore it up like nobody's business.

It's Time To Live by The Square Roots
A Friend In Need by The Square Roots

My reflections on THE SQUARE ROOTS

Find The Square Roots here:
myspace


Guitardoz

Shorter, Faster, Louder & Catchier than you'll ever be...

guitardoz_can

One of the great lucky occurrences of my life was to join the Guitardoz when they answered my ad in BAM magazine in the spring of '83. Jerry and Oscar were already punk veterans when I got on board the train - it was a delight and honor for a green kid like me to ride with them!

My reflections on GUITARDOZ

Listen to "No Money" by Guitardoz:

Find Guitardoz here:
myspace


The Silly Frogs

A band that pretended to be a band.
But what else could one do in high school in Novato?

frog_advance

New wave and punk took a little longer to get to Novato than it did to other parts of the world. Something had to be done. Unfortunately, it was The Silly Frogs...

My reflections on THE SILLY FROGS.

Listen to "The Back-Off Treatment" by The Silly Frogs

photo by Shaun Roberts






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