(THE MYSPACE "FRIENDS" THING: A few people have asked, so here it is...I don't put just ANYONE on here. Many of the regular people on here are personal friends and people I've known in the real world, as well as those who have expressed a fondness for my work who are not obvious freaks. The news/political/paranormal oriented "friends" are on here for obvious reasons. Now it comes to musicians/bands: I have to actually like what you do. There has to be something about it that inspires me as an individual. I do actually LISTEN to the music of those artists who send me friend requests. I think of my Myspace page as a place that people who are looking for interesting and quality musical experiences can use as a resource. But it is all a matter of my own taste...so just because I don't automatically add you does not mean that what you do isn't "good", it just means it does not appeal to me. (Oh yes...one thing I can't stomach at ALL are off-key vocals, they make me want to chew my own ears off...and I hear that a LOT on here. Not a big fan of Rap either...)
(Update 12/06: Just to remind those of you who like my songs on here that if you go onto the OFFICIAL JOHN LUDI SITE , there are a total of 71 of my songs on there that you can download for FREE! Do it now, before I decide to get greedy one of these days.)
(Update 04/07: I'M ABOUT TO GET GREEDY...)
(Update 11/06: Ummmm...I usually try to keep my personal life and my musical life as far away from each other as possible, but in response to some recent queries, yes, I am currently involved.)
John Ludi was born with the name Tim Z******i and (to use the term loosely) raised in Detroit, a now-decaying post-industrial Mid-Western American city that used to be the automotive capital of the world.
From a very early age, Ludi sensed that there was something deeply wrong with the world and the majority of the people living on it. Though of a generally easygoing and humorous nature, Ludi possessed a deep and omnipresent sense of foreboding in his heart that did not exactly translate well in his youthful attempts at communicating with his fellow humans. This particular attribute would persist indefinitely.
Ludi grew up reading voraciously, progressing from a foundation of science fiction, fantasy and horror to mythology, science, philosophy, metaphysics and world religions.
Ludi discovered a profound love for music in the form of Frank Zappa, King Crimson, and Peter Gabriel when he was in his early teens. He started singing odd and unpleasant little songs with a pianist/trumpeter friend in middle school, attempting to blend humor and dissonance in way that some would term avant garde (though on reflection could simply be termed "bad" ).
At around 13 years of age, Ludi started learning how to play guitar, bass, and later, keyboards, as well as attempting to harness his embryonic vocal skills. Though very much intellectually and emotionally moved by progressive genres of rock music, Ludi discovered the British Wave of Punk Rock in the mid/late 70's and realized that the Sex Pistols and the Clash were a lot closer to his current skill set than Gentle Giant or Yes. The overtly political nature of the lyrics also inspired him.
Rapidly growing in his guitar playing ability, Ludi teamed up with the only two other punk rockers he knew and assembled a short-lived but truly awful punk band that mercifully never made it out of the basement. No physical records exist of this project...hopefully. Eventually, Ludi discovered the atonal experimentalism of artists such as the Residents, Renaldo and the Loaf, Chrome, Fred Frith, Laurie Anderson, Henry Kaiser, and Tuxedomoon. Inspired by such music, he formed a band with two other friends, named Pliny The Elder . The focus of this band was to make music that would cause both discomfort and laughter, often simultaneously, through the use of obnoxious sounds and lyrics that were an abstract mockery of the common culture.
Release: Pliny The Elder-Torpid Liver-(unavailable).
Release: Pliny The Elder-Compound Lobster Maintenance-(unavailable).
Pliny The Elder recorded over 200 "songs" over a period of 2 years and developed a small following via word of mouth and cassette-only releases.
Ludi also recorded his own experimental music, generally increasing in compositional coherence with each release. He even managed to play some of this material live.
During this period, Ludi maintained a weird and visually flamboyant public persona, often dressing in bizarre clothing, wearing theatrical makeup, and otherwise finding ways of attracting more attention than was probably justified and going out of his way to irritate people in general.
Release: Tim Z******i-Etcetera-(unavailable)
After bludgeoning listeners with experimentalism and dissonance and finding himself only reaching those who were already well-versed with the "fringe" culture, Ludi decided to find a more populist way to reach audiences with the philosophical messages and ideas he was trying to convey.
Ludi answered an ad for a lead vocalist for a band (named Gon Moros at the time) that was much more mainstream in it's presentation, though still highly creative and musically inventive.Tim Z*******i took on the stage name "Tim Eldair", the band renamed itself Soft War, and together they began a campaign of recording and playing long weekend stints in the Mid-West, near-South, and East Coast, attempting to develop an audience.
Release: Soft War-Stay b/w Ruins-(unavailable)
Release: Soft War-Conflict-(unavailable)
"Tim Eldair", needing an outlet for his more experimental musical nature, continued to record and release his own music.
Release: Tim Eldair-Doubts, Fears, and the Death of Reason-(unavailable, some songs appear on Early Ludi)
Release: Tim Eldair-The Slow Dance to Desolation-(unavailable, some songs appear on Early Ludi)
Soft War released an EP that garnered the band a fairly impressive amount of press and airplay on the college radio circuit.
Release: Soft War-One Day It Will All Come Down-(unavailable)
Sadly, this was about as close to reaching a wide audience Soft War would reach in this incarnation. Despite the quality of the music and the prolific output of the songwriting team of Greg Kutcher and "Tim Eldair", they were not able to take advantage of this momentum and "Tim Eldair" left the fold after the band recorded a never-released full length album and played it's final show as Soft War at the famous New York club CBGB's.
Release: Soft War-Labor Day-(unavailable)
The band continued on as Trust Fund and "Tim Eldair" slightly altered his stage name to "Tim Elder" and proceeded to follow a solo musical career that also included producing a fair amount of other artists and bands.
"Tim Elder" recorded a full length album that he used as a demo and moved from Detroit to Minneapolis.
Release: Tim Elder-Unsigned-(unavailable)
The Minneapolis period was a particularly fertile one for Tim Elder/John Ludi. He formed a band with several local musicians (the Hate Gods), started a soundtrack company, created a label (Sublime Carnage), assembled a comedy troop (the Bad Poets), formed an acoustic duo and put out several releases under his own name as well as under the names "House of Usher" and "The Quiet Earth Orchestra".
Release: Tim Elder-The Hate God-(unavailable)
Release: House of Usher-The Healing Power of Oblivion-(unavailable)
Release: The Quiet Earth Orchestra-World Without Words-(re-released and available)
Release: Tim Elder-Everything b/w Crucified-(unavailable)
Release: Tim Elder-Fashionably Angry-(unavailable, the majority of these songs are on the Early Ludi release)
Taking a somewhat new musical direction, Tim Elder decided to adopt the new stage name John Ludi for the next album...as well as leave Minneapolis for the more dynamic city of Chicago.
Release: John Ludi-Hell's Laughter and Heaven's Ache-(currently available as a cd-r)
After only a little over 2 years in Chicago, Ludi was drawn to the East Coast where he accomplished very little of artistic consequence aside from remixing some of his early releases and laying the bed tracks for his next album.
Release: John Ludi-Early Ludi-(currently available as a double cd-r)
Ludi fled back to Michigan with his sanity barely intact and managed to finish his next album as well as get involved in 3 other recording projects, one of which was a collaboration with his old Soft War writing partner, Greg Kutcher.
Release: John Ludi-Rise Above or Fall Below-(currently available as a cd-r)
After 3 or so years of Michigan, Ludi fully realized why he left in the first place and moved back to his favorite city, Chicago.
Currently, Ludi is almost finished with the album he is recording with Greg Kutcher, and about 2/3rds of the way through the next release by his project The Quiet Earth Orchestra.
Ludi has long held to the currently unfashionable notion that music can change people's lives and broaden their minds. Ludi functions outside of the major label music industry by choice. He writes, records, produces, manufactures, and distributes his music on a cottage industry level, thus he is not beholden to the wishes of the music industry and can say and play what he wants to, which allows him to write songs focusing on Politics, Philosophy, and the Human Condition with lyrical depth and detail without worrying about what "the suits" think. All of which makes him far more "dangerous" to the powers that be than any of the pre-packaged models of harmless rebellion the music industry regularly spits out.
Ludi advocates a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity, frugality, and avoidance of debt. He lives in a studio apartment on the North end of Chicago with his musical equipment and a mountain of books. Ludi meditates, works out, and practices yoga...he recommends these practices (as well as vegetarianism) to anyone trying to keep their balance in an increasing unbalanced world. In addition, Ludi studies Current Events, Global Politics, Philosophy, World Religions, and the "Paranormal" in the spare time that he mostly does not have.