(Green On Red)
^ Upstairs ^
Dan Stuart is gonna die soon, like in 20 or 30 years, a blink of an eye. And just like any good vintage fender amp, before its tubes go out for good, they glare brighter than ever and its sound plays with your mind. Has it always sounded this good? Why does it sound better than ever? No clue… just don’t fucking touch those tubes! – Howe Gelb
Dan Stuart and Twin Tones – Marlow’s Revenge out Jan 29 – European tour Feb to April
What business does an aging post-punk has-been have making a kick-ass rock record with Twin Tones, one of Mexico’s hottest young bands? Last anyone heard Green on Red’s Dan Stuart had moved to Oaxaca from NYC to escape reality. Sure, after a decade and a half hiding out, he had released both the LP and book, The Deliverance of Marlowe Billings, in 2012 on Cadiz Music in London and toured Europe twice but he wasnt satisfied which is where chapter II comes in, the revenge of Stuart aka Marlowe Billilngs.
Marlowe’s Revenge started in a concrete bunker in Oaxaca, where Daniel Sanchez Jimenez was more used to recording Oaxacan banda than weirdo gringos. Stuart wandered in one day with a dozen songs written on an opened tuned cracked Martin that mirrored Stuart’s psyche perfectly. The result was promising, simple chord changes but in interesting voicings with a strange propulsion not always in time but always somehow right. The songs were about love and loss, murder and despair: Stuart’s usual laments but with a spark, like a fire had been lit somewhere deep in his distended belly. Pleased with the results, Stuart became curious and wondered if he could find a band to play some of these songs, a Mexican band that wasn’t a caricature of Mexico herself. So he did what anyone would do, search Youtube and he found them…
There name was Twin Tones. They came from Mexico City and played instrumental music with some of the same Ital-Mex influences as the last band Stuart had recorded with, Sacri Cuori from Italy. But they were younger and rawer, and spoke a little English with a rock n roll accent. Stuart dropped by the lads studio in gritty Ecatepec and started the second half of Marlowe’s Revenge. The first song they recorded together was Soy Un Hombre, and indeed Stuart had become a man again, stiff boner and all. It was immediately clear they had a garagey sound but one in England somewhere and rented from gypsies. Pleased, Stuart sent Twin Tone’s leader and now his producer Gabriel Lopez some of the Oaxacan tapes and told him to overdub what he wanted, make yourself a nice margarita. The results blew Stuart away and so the whole enchilada was smuggled up north to JD Foster to mix. So there you have it and now time for the Revenge to start.
Dan’s new album has a worldwide release for the end of January and he will be touring Europe in April as a duo with Antonio from Sacri Cuori well as festivals with Twin Tones later in the year.
Dan has always been a force of nature, and I’m glad he kept it together enough to hang around and make this dangerous sounding record. Dan and I once ran around causing trouble and getting rewarded for it. A few nice things came our way. And those nice things? Well, we were more than happy to take a sledgehammer to them. Last year Dan put out an inspired book chronicling his misadventures, and now there’s Marlowe’s Revenge recorded with the very bitchin Twin Tones. It’s like I tell people, mark my words: Dan Stuart will end up in jail or an institution or living above a discotheque in Mexico City still writing real songs and shaking his fist at the world. – Chuck Prophet
From the time I heard the VERY first Green On Red record in 1981 to the time I first saw Dan and the boys play at the Cathay De Grande in 1982 to the time I convinced them to let me release their record on my label to the time we holed up in Dan’s apartments over a series on Monday nights writing songs and watching football to the 2 records and 2 tours we made together to the, well, to the time I heard his brilliant new album with Twin Tones, I have been nothing short of a fanatic of Dan’s talent, fearlessness, tightrope approach to performing, soulfulness and depth of intellect and streetwise savvy. Yeah, he’s Danny and I’m Dusty but more than that, he’s a longtime good pal who always has his best song and best work just around the next corner. – Steve Wynn
TICKETS
€16 available online from WAV Tickets or Lo-Call 1890 200 078 (1-8pm M-F, 4-8pm Sat)
– 50c per ticket service charge applies on phone, internet or creditcard bookings. Final ticket price may be higher from other outlets.
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