Mellotronists

I woke up this morning and saw this review in the Washington Post. I wish  
that I had been there, if only to meet Woody Jackson. I suspect there was at 
 least a Mellotron present, if not a Chamberlin. After reading the review, 
I am  led to believe that the audience was small (I know the venue well) and 
I suspect  that the only one in the room more bored than the audience was 
Vincent  himself.
 
Who is Nico Turner?
 
 
 
Vincent Gallo and  RRIICCEE stay mellow and mysterious at Jammin' Java 
By Aaron  Leitko
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 10, 2010; C02  
Vincent Gallo has a knack  for roiling up controversy. He's a celebrity 
dilettante of the first order -- a  filmmaker, visual artist, actor, model and 
motorcyclist -- whose work is often  entertaining, if only because it 
irritates so many people. When his 2003 film,  "_The Brown  Bunny,_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009VRHLK?ie=UTF8&tag=washpost-movies-20&linkCode=xm2&ca
mp=1789&creativeASIN=B0009VRHLK) " debuted at Cannes, critic  Roger Ebert 
named it the worst film in the festival's history. Gallo sparked  additional 
controversy by promoting the picture with a Sunset Boulevard  billboard 
depicting the film's concluding (totally NSFW) love scene with actress  Chloe 
Sevigny. James Franco, eat your heart out.  
Gallo's music, on the other  hand, is surprisingly smooth sailing. Monday 
night at Jammin' Java, the  multifaceted artist performed a mellow one-hour 
set with RRIICCEE -- a kind of  high-concept jam band that he formed and has 
toured irregularly since 2007.  
It was hard to know what to  expect. RRIICCEE's lineup and instrumentation 
changes frequently. The group  apparently has no recorded work -- no albums, 
singles, MP3s or even a bootleg  YouTube clip to hint at its sound. No 
pictures, either. Signs posted outside the  venue announced that, per the band's 
request, photographs were strictly  verboten.  
Which is too bad, really.  It looked cool. The stage was bathed in soft red 
light and lined with a  carefully curated array of vintage amplifiers, 
keyboards, bizarro electronic  effects. The group -- a trio including Gallo, 
Woody Jackson and Nico Turner --  emerged one at a time to patter on drums, 
strum guitars and noodle with various  doodads. Gallo, wearing a fringe-heavy 
motorcycle jacket, stationed himself off  to the side and rarely looked 
directly at the audience.  
The music, well, it wasn't  terrible. The set was largely composed of 
super-subdued melodic improvisations  -- a kind of free-form, art-school elevator 
music with a mild debt to composer  Ennio Morricone. No peaks, no valleys, 
no guitar solos, just ambiance. Gallo  dropped in one pre-composed song, 
"Yes, I'm Lonely," from his 2001 solo album  "_When_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005QDGH?ie=UTF8&tag=washpost-music-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creat
iveASIN=B00005QDGH) ." After 45 minutes, Gallo seemed to sense the audience 
 teetering on the edge of boredom and called it a night. No encore.  
Gallo's talents don't come  cheap. On his Web site, he sells his solo CDs 
for up to $150. His original  artworks, in the thousands. For $50K per night, 
he even claims to be available  as an escort. By that standard, RRIICCEE's 
Jammin' Java gig at $17 was, if  nothing else, an awesome bargain.