...and so, I figured that I'm never going to get round to posting up all this news concerning Patrik's tiny corner of the world and... well, that bothered me. So what I figured I'd do is carry on reprinting emails from my correspondents. Not least because this one is so comprehensive!
This next one is from the very likeable Torgeir Lund, the man behind Crispin Glover Records (and Torgeir, you have my abject apologies for not doing a detailed run-down on this album like yours but really I felt is was unnecessary after yours, plus I just think the whole project is great, top-notch)...
Hi Everett,
glad You liked the tracks - It's a shame we were not able to include Brutal Kuk's "Suicidal Wreck" - it really fitted nicely on the album and I wanted something from that genera + the band had worked really hard on that track.
I would like to hear Your thoughts on as much of the album as possible since You are one of the few people I know of that really like and know Patrik's work..... CGR album releases usually don't get much feedback 5-6 reviews if we are lucky so any kind of mention is always very welcome. The Norwegian radio and the little music press that we have here is in a very sad state at the moment, very few has the balls to have a view of their own - it's just "copy paste journalism" if there is a new hype or an album or artist that has a lot of international press they just google and copy. For some strange reason everyone is looking around for artists/ music that "most people" will like. The press can't get enough of idol or "I've got talent" etc... and with our luck a Norwegian gnome, with a smurf voice and a fiddle won the Eurovision frigging song contest so He is king of all media for the next year - I'm convinced the Norwegian suicide rate will reach an all time high this year (and we all ready have one of the highest in the world) - just googled this info we're not as bad off as I thought...... Norway is 39th in the world, the Swede's and the Finn's are worse off, but we'll beat them in 2009 for sure......
Well that was my little state of the nation rant - I know You know Your PF but I thought I'd give You some background details on some of the artists on the album... stories etc.......
The project started about 2 years ago, originally I thought we'd do a 7" with 4-5 songs - local bands .... no fuzz. Then I remembered a Swede named Max Lorentz who played with a Swedish blues band at Credo bar where I worked (he used to play in one of Sweden's first punk bands The Bitch Boys)- Max was the first musician (except from the new bassist of the Buzzcocks) who reacted with great fondness when He heard we where playing PF at Credo. I sent max an email asking if He would like to contribute with a song - the reply was one word in big red letters ....... "YES!" - so that gave me confidence to start sending out emails, a few even ended up with You.
I'll start on track one CD one.......
"Punch" - Motorpsycho feat. Jello Biafra
I wanted to get Motorpsycho involved because they are brilliant, the best rock band to come out of Norway - ever. Motorpsycho are releasing a vinyl only recorded album by Steve Albini in August I think..... I knew Jello Biafra is fearly interested in music so I recond He'd heard about Patrik and I knew He had a lot of knowledge about the 80's alternative scene in Trondheim so I made sure to mention that Israelvis was contributing to the project so He understood that this was serious (Israelvis rose out of a late 80's cassette band called Angor Wat).
The thing is Jello Biafra is computer illiterate, every 1- 2 months He goes through Alternative Tentacles emails addressed to Him together with George Chen (AT's press secretary) so It took two months before I received the first reply which was very positive but He had to decline because of His long history of saying yes to these kind of projects but not being able to deliver.... so I suggested "Punch" with Motorpsycho as a backing band .....after two and a half months I still have not heard anything so I called AT's office, it turned out Jello had a few of Motorpsycho's albums + He had seen them live He thought this was a great idea, Mr Chen had of course forgotten to send this positive response. After 6 more months, 3 emails and a few phone calls the track was completed - personally I think the lyrics are perfect for Jello. He also sent me a list of the Patrik Fitzgerald releases He that was missing from His collection, I managed to dig up everything apart from the Drifting Towards Violence LP....
2. Laughter Far Away - Terry Lee Hale.
You mentioned Terry Lee in Your Nirvana biography, don't know if You have seen Him live but to me He is one of the best acoustic singer songwriters out there He's been using a lot more boxes & pedals the last few years and creates more energy live than many bands I've seen, this might be hard to guess from His lo-fi PF contribution but believe me He is great! Terry Lee had some difficulties finding a song that He could make into His own among the songs I sent Him, luckily He heard a demo of "Laughter Far Away" on Patrik's myspace. Patrik said it's a song from the 80's about a South African farmer being chased from His farm - His old drummer refused to record it because He found it racist (there is a black cloud hanging over me....etc...)
3. Live Out My Stars - Max Lorentz .
As I said Max was one of the first people on board, most people I sent a selection of songs to and asked if they could choose one. With Max I only asked if He could do "Live Out My Stars", I thought it was perfect because of the Bowie reference, Max has one of Scandinavia's biggest Bowie collections and has recorded His own Bowie tribute album.
I think this version is fantastic (one of Patrik's favorites too) Max's 11-year-old son on Sax.
4. Ragged Generation - Milk Kan
Well what can I say - have to thank You for this one. It was fantastic to see them perform it live together with Patrik Fitzgerald.
5. Safety Pin Stuck In My Heart - Israelvis
Many people wanted to do this one and I guess I could have asked if I could use Chumbawamba's version but I wanted this to be an album of unreleased tracks. Israelvis is the real deal and I've always liked them. They have not recorded anything the last 5 years, live in three different cities and went to great lenght to record this, I'm very happy to have them on board.
6. Banging & Shouting - Betong Hysteria
Betong Hysteria is legendary, the first Norwegian hardcore band, they released one 7" back in 1983 (Spontan Abort).
7. Trendy - Seven
Pop rock from Oslo, reminds me a little of Siouxsie Sioux - I like it.
8. Little Fishes - Jim Jasmine.
Friendly Jim recorded this in the kitchen when the kid's where asleep...wonderful.
9. How the Fuck? - All Trouble
A great "lost" song from Patrik's first demo tape - this one 58 seconds long, Trond Frønes and the boys really nailed this one.
10. Animal Mentality - Sister Rain
Another Norwegian band that I think is no more, started by Ulf Knutsen from Betong Hysteria , they released some great albums in the 90's.
11. Tonight - Lez Marwick
Lez is a big fan of Patrik, He's never released anything before. Patrik sent me a collection of coversongs in 2006, this version of Tonight really stood out, there is a desperation in Lez's version that I like, He really made this song His own - so I contacted Lez and asked if we could use it. Check out His myspace.
12. Work. Rest. Play. Reggae. - Benjamin Zephaniah
It took me about 18 months to get hold of Benjamin, I think He has 4 managers. I finally got hold of one that bothered to forward my request to Him. Benjamin doesn't like to deal via email, face to face or phone - so He asked for my phone number ( I don't have a phone) so I gave Him my girlfriends number, one morning He called and a few weeks later He sent me this fantastic dub version....... I've included a radio interview where He talks a little about Patrik to His track on myspace.
13. Backstreet Boys - Attila The Stockbroker
We recorded this at Credo a few Years ago - it's a song that fits the Stockbroker nicely.
14. One Little Soldier - POG
Fantastic to make this into such a nice pop tune!
15. Island Of Lost Souls - The Reilly Express
The Reilly's are three brothers and a fantastic drummer called Grandma (for some reason He's called Zeb on this recording). Patrik's original recording was produced by John Fryer ( Depeche Mode, NIN, Mortal Coil etc..) John has of course moved to Trondheim since then so He kindly offered to produce this version too. The 3 Engan brothers has a nice studio (Nautilus) where we recorded many of the contributions on the tribute for free. The Boys used the studio for practise space for a few days when they played Trondheim 2 years ago( I was lucky enough to be the bands host), Casino Steel is a Trondheim native and in the late 70's His weekly "Rapport fra London" gave the readers of our lokal paper fresh news from the London Punk scene. Casino also played loads of shows as a keyboard player for the Ramones and was actually offered to come back to NY with them ( He wasn't in too good shape at the time He was diagnosed with Scurvy and it took the doctors a long time to come to that conclusion - it's safe to say it's not a very common disease these days). You must listen to Reilly's M*O*T*O*R*H*E*A*D.
16. Set We Free - Bladed
One of my favorite bands to come out of the Norwegian music scene this decade - we've sold 40 CD's of their debut album = hoah!
If You listen to their track on myspace I've included an interview snippet from Nz radio where Patrik talks a little about the album and them.
17. When I Get Famous - The Legend!
I thought the Way You shout "STOP" was a perfect end to the CD
CD2:
1. One By One - D & S
This is one of my favorite bands of all time - either You hate it or You love it - nothing in between. Patrik loves this one - He talks a little about the track before the song starts on myspace.
2. Shadow Of A Man - Jackie & Michael
Not sure if You have heard the original of this, another great song.......
3. Unaware - BC
This is truly one of the most original electronic bands to emerge from Norway - I used to grow up listening to mostly synth music and these guys blew me away the first time I saw them. We have never had a Synth scene in Norway so there is no logic to why they exist. Though Röksopp is now one of our biggest music "exports"...... but they never bothered with Norway - they went straight for the UK market. Then when they started getting reviews there, the lazy slobs of the Norwegian press woke up.....
I released BC's debut album Sinecure last September and it's one of the best sounding electronic albums I've heard in years, the sound details are amazing, Mastered in NY by Emily Lazar (DM, David Bowie, Prodigy, Lou Reed).
I've put up a live Youtube clip of BC playing Unaware on the All Sewn Up Myspace......
4. All The Years Of Trying - Geoff Berner
Brilliant!
5. Bingo Crowd - The School
Giving it kind of a post punk pop treatment..........
6. As Ugly As You - Try Love & the......
Try Love is Trygve Mathisen he helped me alot with getting a few artists on board on this project. Works as a Punk/Post Punk consultant for the Norwegian Rock museum and is the author of Tre Grep og Sannheten Norwegian punk 77-80.
7. Personal Loss - Kevin Hewick
Kevin toured together with Patrik in Sweden in the mid 80's - Great voice, fantastic guitarist and a very nice fellow.
8. Optimism/Reject - Hook,Line & Sinker
Is a brand new band with the members coming from different hardcore & screamo bands.
This is their first recording and their first live performance was at the album release.
9. No Fun Football - Liliedugg
Two of the members of Liliedugg can be seen in the All Sewn Up booklet pictures - Steinar Vikan (seen grinning and clapping with a cigarette) booked Patrik's Norway tour of 1984, called Patrik's mum to set up the tour.
Liliedugg released the 7" Neonråte in 81 one of the best Norwegian Punk/Post Punk singles ever. Their last recording was in 83.
10. Paranoid Ward/All my Friends Are Dead - 3rd & the Mortal
My dear friend Finni's band (Finni produced the Patrik Attila 7") - He's not very attached to one particular genera.
11. Improve Myself - Thomas Robsahm feat. Vera & Jara
Thomas is best known in Norway as a movie director he finished an amazing documentary series about modern slavery two months ago.
Thomas is a member of White Lord Jesus one of Norway's first electronic bands, they were supposed to do this song but the vocalist found Himself in the middle of a divorce or something so Thomas had these two Icelandic girls do the vocals. I think this is great, hoped some of the bastards at NRK even might play it a few times on the air..... but no such luck.
Thomas and Vera & Jara are now hoping to release an album next year!
12. All Sewn Up - Monolithic
I wanted some metal on the album - it's not my thing but these guys know what they are doing. Monolithic is an instrumental duo - Stian Westerhus ( Bladed, Puma, Jaga jazzist) Kenneth Kapstad ( Motorpsycho) this is the first time they "Sing". They studied at the Trondheim Music Conservatory and the last year instead of playing Jazz for their final exams they played Metal.
13. Crullest Crime - Max Lorentz
Max couldn't stop recording, He ended up recording 4 tacks - His version of "Trendy" is a bonus on the vinyl.
14. Same Coin, Different Madness - Motor Incubator
Again My Little Yellow Friend Finni - pictured here recording Attila at Credo. He managed to get hold of Nicholas Hope from one of my favorite movies Bad Boy Bubby.
Not sure if I told You this but a few months ago I had dinner with Crispin Glover who did not mind that we had stolen His name and used his hair as a logo..... on the contrary He gave us His blessing. This is so completely unlikely and absurd that I almost take it as a sign that things will change for the better.....
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