When he was doing his own in-store appearance at Exile on Main Street record store in Champaign, Illinois, Edward Burch was kind enough to invite me to join him. To a ravenous crowd of 1-3 at any given time, we brought it. Aside from the songs on which I harmonized in Edward’s set (“Second Last Call,” etc.), here’s what The Viper played.
Uncle Bud
Sing a Song of Texas
Good Morning Irene
They’re Knocking Down Our Home
The Best Things in Life Are Free
In response to the photo above, posted to facebook, John Peacock wrote:
Ryan’s best look ever!
To which I replied:
Ryan here: yes, from the flattened American Girl cap, to the hanging ties on the orange shirt, to the black socks pulled all the way up, to the look on my face that suggests I don’t know I’m standing behind a microphone, I have definitely got it going on. Wonder why Ed didn’t wear shorts?
It may be this photo that inspired the 7th Day Adventist diet that I’ve been following since.
Two Fridays past, we played a “secret” show (i.e., one we didn’t publicize) for a small but enthusiastic crowd, following a small but enthusiastic potluck, at the Humboldt Park, Chicago home of LeRoy Bach. The guests were met, the feast was set, and Edward Burch, followed by The Viper & His Famous Orchestra provided the merry din.
This was the first of 4 performances from that weekend (set lists and commentary from the other 3 to follow. Here’s what The Viper & HFO played.
Sharkin’
First Round Polka
Atomic Sermon
Sharkin’
My Seafaring Lassie
The Viper’s Blue Yodel no. 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd
Uncle Bud
Big Headed Small Minded Man
Party in the U.S.A.
Hey! Rounders
Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
This was our first fully orchestral show since 2009, and featured a ridiculously expanded crew that included The Viper, Riley Broach, Edward Burch, Victor Cortez, Rob Henn, John Peacock, and Kip Rainey, three of whom played the suitcase at any given moment.
Sue Peacock has posted a number of videos from this show to YouTube, including the “Sharkin'” you see above, at:
It took me a year to getting around to doing it, but I’ve finally managed to archive and post the recordings that Sarah Hennies made last August of the The Viper & His Famous Orchestra playing at Mike N’ Molly’s in Champaign, Illinois. The individual tracks are now available for free streaming and/or download on the archives page of the Viper’s page/blog at https://theviper.org/dig-the-archive/: 2 sets, 1 encore, 24 songs in total. Over the next few weeks, I hope to get other shows up and online as well.
This particular show show is fun and relaxed – at times very relaxed – and gives a fairly good representation of the Orchestra in its current incarnation and a pretty decent preview of the sound we’ll be bringing to Mike N’ Molly’s when we play there along with Edward Burch this upcoming weekend (Saturday, July 10 at 11:00 p.m.) and when we host the kids show and instrument-building-session at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum also in Champaign (Sunday, July 11 at 1:30 p.m.). I’ve put these up pretty much as is, leaving out only the between-song banter.
But I also am planning to do some basic editing and mastering of some of the better tracks – adjusting the volume, cutting to the chase, etc. And so in that light I present below a good performance of Liz Phair’s “Flower.”
You’ll hear the Viper on the baritone ukulele, Riley Broach on the bass, Edward Burch on the suitcase, Rob Henn on assorted percussion (is that him doing the flamenco handclaps?), and Victor Cortez on metal music stand and Thor knows what else. That great sounding electric mandolin you’ll hear belongs to Kip Rainey.
I’ve cut out some out-of-tune a cappella caterwauling I’d done at the beginning of the performance, and cut out some of the middle parts where Riley & I go out on the floor to dance (the visual effect is lost here). But I’ve left in Edward’s confessional ruminations on how things are going in his life. And I’ve left in every single one of the filthy filthy lyrics. Don’t play this for anyone under 38.
The Viper will be playing his first full shows with His Famous Orchestra since last November, with two shows this weekend in Champaign, IL.
Saturday, July 10, The Viper and His Famous Orchestra will be playing at Mike N’ Molly’s in support of a solo/mixed set by Edward Burch, on hand to celebrate the launch of an album of new Jay Bennett material that Edward helped complete. Kicking at the Perfumed Air will be available for a free download beginning the same day as this show beginning July 10 from jaybennett.org. The show will start at approximately 11:00 p.m. following the festivities of the Champaign Music Festival (with which we are not officially affiliated – we are doing our own wildcat celebrating of Champaign’s 150th Anniversary). And the show is free. So come for the Hum and stay for the Viping. (click here for the Facebook event page)
Sunday, July 11, The Viper and His Famous Orchestra will also be doing two kid-friendly sets at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum in Champaign. The music will start at 1:30; and the meat of the music sandwich will be a build-your-own-instrument instructional session with The Viper and His Famous Orchestra. One lucky child will go home with a freshlyput-together washtub bass. (click here for the Facebook event page)
Also worth noting is the fact that Edward Burch will be doing a series of afternoon in-store appearances in the area, including Laurie’s Planet of Sound in Chicago on Sunday, July 4; Exile on Main Street in Champaign on Saturday, July 10; and Euclid Records in St. Louis on Sunday, July 11.
Here’s a taste – here’s a scratch track I recorded for the other members of the Orchestra to use for practicing this week. It’s a party in the U.S.A. – from St. Louis, to Chicago, to Savoy, to Madison, to Palatine, to Milwaukee.
Both were recorded in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin with the Viper playing a Harmony soprano ukulele tuned in D. Both basically follow the directions of John Cage’s composition 4’33”: in each recording I prepare to play the ukulele at 0’0″, then lower it and lift it to prepare to play it again at the 1’31” and 3’02” marks.
Both recordings were made using a Rode M3 microphone channeled through Line6 Gearbox software and recording to the Audacity sound editing program. “Silence” uses the “Classic Vocal Front” Gearbox setting and “Noise” uses “Detroit R&B Vocal.”
I recorded these to put some content on the Facebook band fan pages I created for “silence” and “noise” as part of my efforts to be able to “like” music, movies, books, and TV in a way other than to simply self-market myself as a list of discrete, pre-commodified brands.
Of course, in a fitting final piece of typical Facebook half-assedness, the Facebook music player application is apparently M.I.A. So you’ll have to listen to it right here on the Viper blog.
the kind of music your great-great-great-grandparents warned your great-great-grandparents about
The Viper & His Famous Orchestra 