Member Since: 11/21/2005
Band Website: psycheclectic.com
Band Members: div style="position:absolute;right:0px;top:0px;..;"James Angell: Vocals, Piano, and Synthesizers. Tony "The great big voidish fiend" Lash: Drums, Loops. Eric Matthews: Trumpet. Ryerson Jr. "Knife Boy" Thee Slayer Hippie: Drums and Co-Writer on Dear Dying Friend. Phil Baker: Bass. Little Danny Riddle
Influences: Tour: XM Satellite Radio -- 2005 stay tuned for the upcoming live performance and interview on XM Satellite.
Portland: March 9th, 2002 James will perform with Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols at the Ohm.
Los Angeles: Live performance and national broadcast on KCRW & [email protected] show NewGround hosted by Chris Douridas (Past A&R DreamWorks) on April 27th, 2002. Accompanying James will be Eric Matthews (Trumpet) and Phil Baker (Bass/Dianna Ross). Following the broadcast in Los Angeles: April 30th, 2002 at the Spaceland. On May 2nd, 2002 at the Silverlake Lounge.
Oregon: August 8th, 2002 James will opened for Chris Isaak at the Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon.
New York City: September 15th, 2002: James performs at The Tonic.
New York City: September 16th, 2002: WNYC interview & live performance with host, John Schaefer. Airs 2 PM EST.
New York City: September 16th, & 20th, 2002: The Knitting Factory & The Fez Ballroom.
James Angell invited to play CMJ in New York City.
James Angell & John Taylor (Duran Duran) play the Crystal Ballroom Lolas January 4th, 2003. Music Millennium at 1PM. (Sold Out)
Psycheclectic Records DVD in the works. Not officially released yet.
Sounds Like: JAMES ANGELL "PRIVATE PLAYER"
Psycheclectic Records
4½ Stars - All Music Guide Pick "The underground classic of 2002."
- The New Yorker - Magnet Magazine - Alternative Press
One of the most interesting and ultimately valuable new records to come out of 2002, James Angell's Private Player is akin to Loves' Forever Changes in terms of overall elegance and strangeness. It becomes, in the end, a brilliant exercise in modern day psychedelia. Angell's music is unique in that he wields influences as far-flung as jazz, soul, pop and psychedelic music - often all at the same time. The result is an intoxicating, narcotic voyage, yet has all the luster of a classical piece. Its not 'easy listening' -- nor is it probably intended to be. Angell's lyrics are both freeform and literate, and combined with the multi-layered arrangements, create a cinematic, almost Bosch-esque atmosphere where the lines of sanity, reality and fantasy are often blurred. For an example of this, the listener is directed to the third track, 'Ed Blue Bottle', which puts all of these elements together. Unsettling -- yes indeed, beautiful listening, absolutely. Aside from the beautiful 'Treat Song' featuring guest trumpet player Eric Matthews, the album's highlight may be epic closer, 'Sweet Bell.' With it's eerie, childs voice providing an introduction to Angell's vocal before surrendering to a dissonant soundscape that can only be compared to Tim Buckley's Lorca album, this is one of the album's greatest moments. Private Player is an experience that needs to be played and re-played several times -- preferably in a row, before the listener can fully realize how much music is really happening. In this way, it challenges the listener to become involved. This is not always a popular thing to do in these days of doubt and limited attention span, but is indeed necessary. The underground classic of 2002.
- Matthew Greenwald All Music Guide - Pick Allmusicguide.com
Radio Live Performance/Interviews:
New York City - WNYC Radio 93.9 FM
On 'SoundCheck' WNYC 93.9 FM Radio hosted by John Schaefer, Portland singer/songwriter James Angell will perform live on the show during his interview on September 16th, 2002 at 2 PM EST. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck
Los Angeles - KCRW Radio 89.9 FM
On 'Newground' KCRW Radio 89.9 FM and Radio@AOL hosted by Chris Douridas, singer/songwriter James Angell was interviewed and performed. This broadcast can be heard on jamesangell.com Accompanying James was Eric Matthews (Trumpet) and Phil Baker (Bass). Website: http://www.spinner.com/floor.jhtml?url=%2Fnewground%2F_main_ archive121001.jhtml&_requestid=1510904
London - X-FM Radio Radio Play
Private Player debuted on London's X-FM during an interview with Courtney Taylor of the Dandy Warhols. The tracks played were: 1. Ooh love, 4. Call off the war, 7. Dear dying friend. Website: http://www.xfm.co.uk/
More Radio Play:
So far, radio play also extends to WBAI 99.5 New York City, KOPB - Oregon Public Broadcasting David Christianson/Steven Cantor, Interview on KNRK in Portland, WAPS in Akron Ohio, WCBN - University of Michigan.
The New Yorker September 11, 2002
The Knitting Factory Sept 16, Tonic Sept 15: The singer-songwriter James Angell comes out of the Portland, Oregon, scene that gave birth some ten years ago to the Dandy Warhols... (he was the front man of a band called Nero's Rome with the Dandy, Courtney Taylor as drummer.) After dropping out of the music world to raise a daughter and build a house, Angell returns with an album of ambitious orchestral psychedelia, "Private Player," that's earned justifiable comparisons to the hallmark of the genre, Love's "Forever Changes."
- John Donohue The New Yorker
Magnet Magazine June, 2002 Issue ..54
Angells piano, songs & vocalsthe latter sounding at times like the whispered sing-speak of Ira Kaplan or Freddie Mercury subdued by the purr from a pack of affectionate house catsthat row this skiff of an album over placid waters. Dear Dying Friend chugs along to the rhythm of an electronic camel, becoming friendlier with each chorus, the synthesized push-and-pull finally giving way to a more organic version of this lugubrious tempo. Treat Song, with Eric Matthews muted trumpet, lopes along like the heart of Saturday night as Angell lullabies his daughter into dreams of spaceships and log-perched ponderances. Ooh Love is a tease, flirting and breaking promises. Angell hangs onto slow, elastic cadences and comes up with an album just odd enough to have never given bloated and pallid arena pop such as ELO or Elton John any trouble, though he often sounds like a smarter version of both.
- Bruce Miller Magnet MagazineAlternative Press October, 2002 Issue ..171
This is Baroque orchestral rock thatll make you feel like youre smashed on absinthe. How is it? With its beautiful tunes and emotive vocals Private Player introduces a major new talent. Kindred spirits: David Bowie, Tim Buckley, Rufus Wainwright
- David Segal Alternative Press
Pop & Politics - James Angell "Private Player" by Tanya Selvaratnam
Once in a while, a song gets under my skin and stays there. But rarely does an artist create eight songs that seep into my psyche at the same time. That is the achievement of James Angell's latest disc "Private Player." This is music to trip to, swoon to, and jump into. And the more I listened to it, the more I got sucked into its sublime entropy.
Layering is the drug here. Every piece seems to derive its influence from a different musical archetype, but there is nothing formulaic about the tracks. Try to identify the sound and you will fail. It's as if someone threw Bowie, Eno, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Radiohead and Tim Buckley into a blender...and then threw out the recipe.
James Angell honed his nonconformist attitude after burning out on the frenetic Portland, Oregon music scene and on a deal with Capitol Records for his then band Nero's Rome. He says he can't think about the record industry because that's what screwed him up before. He couldn't think anymore about writing what naturally appeals to an audience. He wanted to get back to trusting his gut instincts and not listening to A&R guys who were mostly interested in second-guessing the mass market. So he dropped out and retreated with his wife Erin and daughter Astrid Zora to a house in the woods that he built with his own hands. During his Whitmanesque idyll, he found the hunger to make music again.
The album is appropriately called "Private Player," because he says he crafted songs that appeal to himself, especially to the self he was as a child. He explains, "Kids can smell bullshit a mile away. They respond intuitively." In his self-imposed exile, he developed a sound that he describes as "4th dimension"--strongly rooted in reality, but boldly exploring a world hidden in the subconscious. He wanted to position musical ideas together that aren't supposed to stand side-by-side. Enlisting the help of musicians like Eric Matthews, Tony Lash, brother Theo Angell (Jackie 'O Mommy Lover), former bandmate Tod Morrisey (Neros Rome), and even his daughter, Angell fleshed out his musical fantasia.
The isolation is about to pay off. Chris Douridas, the highly influential DJ of KCRW, has already named James Angell a "new ground-breaker" and interviewed him on the nationally broadcast show "Spinner's New Ground" at the end of April; All Music Guide called "Private Player" the "underground classic of 2002."
Eventually he would like to have the luxury of a record company behind him, so that he can support the right band to replicate onstage the sound of "Private Player." But for now, he's going to hit the road playing solo piano shows around the country and building the groundswell of support for his genre-busting sound. From the wandering of "Who's Wakin' Me Up?" and the heartache of "Treat Song" to the sweet sentimentalism of "Picture Perfect" and the psychedelia of "Sweet Bell," James Angell provides a complete and unusual journey. Listening to Angell's music is like watching a 1960s Kubrick film: you witness a landscape so odd, lush, disturbing, and visceral that you emerge with a hypersensitized experience of the immediate world. In fact, much of "Private Player" presents the listener with a cinematic experience, where the sounds conjure pictures that haunt and seduce.
The official release date is June 2002, but it's available online at www.jamesangell.net. Or if you're in LA, go see James play and you can pick up a CD there. And tell him Tanya sent you.
Upcoming Gigs:
Internet listening available on www.kcrw.com. Interview and performance on Spinner's New Ground with Chris Douridas. Broadcast on 89.9 FM KCRW in Los Angeles and on National Public Radio affiliates nationwide. Call KCRW at 310-450-5183 for more info.
Thursday, May 2, 2002, 9:15 p.m.: Live performance at The Silver Lake Lounge (2906 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026). http://www.popandpolitics.com/articles_detail.cfm?articleID= 1106 http://www.popandpolitics.com/articles_detail.cfm?articleID= 1104
Arts & Entertainment
Coming out of the woods
- Scott D. Lewis
'About 21/2 years ago I thought, 'How did this happen? I'm living next to my parents . . . What am I going to do?' " James Angell says, remembering the epiphany that brought him back to making music. "I knew I had to start doing music again. I thought, 'I do not want to be in a band, I am not doing that again.' "
Angell learned about the realities of band life with Nero's Rome. In the mid-1990s, Nero's Rome was one of Portland's most promising bands, with Angell handling piano duties and sharing vocals with Tod Morrisey. The group's stirring mixture of epic rock and new wave flair inspired Capitol Records to offer a deal.
"It was heartbreaking," recalls Angell, "going back and forth, getting a deal, A&R guys getting fired, new president firing everybody and deals going out the window. It was pretty harsh." After Nero's Rome made a second album, a development deal was cut with Mercury Records but, Angell says, the money was mismanaged. With the well dry and his wife pregnant, Angell retreated to his parent's property in the woods south of Portland.
There, he designed and built his house and also worked as a carpenter (he's now building Super Digital's new facilities). But, as might be said, you can take the musician out of the music but you can't take the music out of the musician. Angell began feeling the need to create again.
"I've got a big upright piano out here," says Angell, "and I just started writing tunes. I got some recording gear and started tracking. Once I got the songs down with some vocals so I could get an idea of what I wanted to do, I started calling in various players to do this and that."
That list includes such local luminaries as Tony Lash, Eric Matthews, Daniel Riddle, Phil Baker, Steve Hanford and even former band mate Morrisey. Angell also asked for contributions from his brother and sister and young daughter, Astrid.
The resulting CD, "Private Player," is a lovely listen, though at times a bit unsettling, combining influences as diverse as Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Tim Buckley. Angell's compositions are sweeping, unhurried and embellished enough to keep the surprises coming without becoming cluttered. Angell's understated, breathy voice is the ideal complement, and, overall, this is music that comes from an artistic rather than commercial drive.
Which is not to say that "Private Player" doesn't have "legs." Influential Southern California radio station KCRW made it one of its picks and has invited Angell to perform on the air in April. All Music Guide has just given the album a fawning four-and-a-half-star review for its 2002 publication; and Magnet magazine is slated to do a story on Angell's music.
Website Link: http://www.oregonlive.com/music/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/sto ry.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/entertainment/101490096017353 61.xml
What else do you want?!?!
Record Label: Psycheclectic Records
Type of Label: None