Meeting Jimmy G (not John Cusack)
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
On power, lack thereof, kindness and utility
One unfortunate way my photos often get used is when the people in them die. I have a fair number of clips of famed director (and Ghost Buster!) Harold Ramis.
He directed a film called Ice Harvest which starred John Cusack, his sisters Joan and Ann, and Connie Nielsen. All of them appeared at the opening, which was held in Chicago. I was hired by Getty to shoot it. I shot photos of Ramis (whom I guess didn’t get photographed too much in later life). One made it on the front page of the print Chicago Sun-Times. I also got pics of Cusack siblings together, which based my clips was somewhat rare. Apologies to Joan, because it gets used pretty often and it’s really not a good shot of her.
Oh, and Nielsen was dating Lars Ulrich from Metallica, so I got some photos of him, too. It was an interesting night.
Cusack also starred in one of the all-time great music movies. High Fidelity, which has the added distinction of being set in Chicago and full of Chicago people, locations and references. It’s based on a book by Nick Hornsby. That’s set in North London, where Hornsby was from. But when script was adapted by John Cusack and his writing partners, the location moved to Cusack’s home town.
There was a lot of excitement in 1999 when it was filming around Wicker Park and other neighborhoods. Scenes were shot at Double Door, and Lounge Ax and the film is littered with easter eggs from the Chicago’s turn-of-the-century alternative scene.
For the films’ 20th anniversary we got tickets to go see it on a big screen with Cusack doing a post-show Q&A as part of a tour he was doing (there were a couple different films including Say Anything he was doing this set-up with but of course Chicago got High Fidelity.)
We went downtown, parked, got dinner and headed to the theater only to find a notice taped to the door that it was canceled. Turns out it had been postponed far in advance, but there was no notice on any of the relevant social media nor did they bother to email or call me, despite having all of my contact info.
What pressing other engagement did Cusack have?
Well, he spent night rage-tweeting that his posts were being throttled because of his views on Palestine. John Cusack isn’t the hero here, just to be clear.
But here comes the segue.
Cusack’s character manages a record store in the movie. In one of the scenes he tells one of his coworkers, "I will now sell five copies of The Three E.P.'s by The Beta Band." He proceeds to spin the track “Dry the Rain.” I suspect that scene sold way more than five copies. I know I bought one and was an instant fan.
Which led me to interview them a couple years later in 2002 at the Vic Theater.
I was pleased to learn that their guitar tech was none other than Jimmy G (Galocy), who will be the subject of this post.
Jimmy G was part of the Poi family around the time I met all of them. He was a guitar tech among other hats and just one of the nicest guys going, in a troupe of nice people. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone speak ill of him. Poi tested his skills in any number of ways. Can he catch a guitar thrown off-stage between songs? Yup. Can he sing back-up when the road manager Eric “Honkeytonk” Buehlman sang lead on Elvis songs or “Sweet Caroline?” You betcha. And can he keep up with the mad array of instruments played by the 17 or so folks on stage? He sure could.
The folks in the wings of Poi shows – off the top of my head that has over the years included Spike, Ian, Martin, Luke, Marco, AJ, Ryan (now out front keeping time), Mark, Chaka, Tina, Ronnie, Jimmy, Frankie, Kim and of course Lemondrop Matt – really are part of the family. Some have been there forever. Some left us too soon. One became a member of the band. One had a song written about him. Even Poi’s humble photographer has been name-checked on stage a couple of times over the years.
Jimmy was, I think, the first loss in the family. I didn’t know him that well. I won’t pretend I did. But his loss was and still is felt in the community in and around this band – in the Poi family and of course his family, whom I’ve had the privilege to get to know a bit over the years as well.
To bring this back to the story, I did a pre-show interview with the Beta Band (which for the life of me I can’t find at the moment) and wrote up the experience for billboard.com (below). Before the show got started, the power went out. The band tried to persevere, at points with the emergency lights, playing acoustic. At one point Jimmy was holding a flashlight on them and also helping keep things in check when the band was passing out champagne from the stage to pass the time.
He seemed at home on stage, side stage, back stage.
That was the last time I saw him. He was gone just a couple months later.
I know I try to keep these stories coming back to the lessons I’ve learned from these people and the ways in which they were a hero. I was maybe too young when I met him to put it all together. But in retrospect…
“Be kind” is too easy and one I could attribute to many people in this series. That said, kindness is important of course, and a bit of a lost art in American these days. Many “role-models” are anything but.
But more importantly as it applies to Jimmy… be useful. Do your job, and then some. Take whatever skills you have and use them all the ways you can for whomever you can find to use them for. Then learn new skills you can use in more ways for more people. Volunteer.
I’ve been thinking about this recently as it relates to my softball coaching. I’ve come to think of myself at least as the utility coach. I’m by no means the best coach, or the most skilled or the coach who can tell at a glance when you’re dropping your hands on your swing. My super power is showing up (underrated as a super power, btw). Once there, I do whatever whenever needs doing. Keep score? Shag balls? Hit flies? Set up warm-up areas for the pitchers? Coach first? Shuttle kids to the games? Sure. Happy to help.
Being kind and being useful is what gets your name on top of a post like this instead of a bunch bigger names dropped in this somewhat meandering post.
Here’s what I wrote at the time. And I wish I’d name-dropped Jimmy in this story.
Beta Band Unplugs For Powerless Fans
There was something a little too poetic about the refrain, "I need light" in the Beta Band's signature song, "Dry the Rain," last night (April 18) at Chicago's Vic Theatre. Making the best of a power outage at the Wrigleyville area venue, singer Steve Mason repeated the phrase as he strummed an acoustic guitar and hoped his voice carried up into the balcony.
The power went out during the final pre-show warm-up film and as the 900-person audience waited patiently lit only by the venue's emergency lights, the Beta Band did its best to persevere. The group performed a handful of songs completely unplugged to a surprisingly quiet and well-behaved crowd.
Playing guitars, percussion, trumpet, and melodica, the band trotted on and off stage giving announcements and making jokes about the progress (or lack thereof) from the Commonwealth Edison repair crew. Among the songs played were "Human Being," "Quiet, " "Dry the Rain," a lengthy percussion jam, and some free jazz with the trumpet player Neil Richardson, who was also celebrating a birthday during the show.
When not playing, bassist Richard Greentree passed out some champagne and beer from the stage. Nearly two hours later, as the batteries on the back-up lights started failing, the show was called off. The band promised to return as soon as possible and promptly headed to the nearby Smart Bar with a crate of records to spin a DJ set.
The Beta Band is touring in support of its latest Astralwerks album, "Hot Shot II, " which debuted at No. 11 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart last August and has sold 50,000 copies in the U.S. to date, according to SoundScan. The group proceeds to Milwaukee tonight (April 19) and wraps its U.S. dates May 5 in Seattle.
And here’s the interview I did for MusicToday.com.
The Not So Clever Kids:
A Chat with Richard Greentree of the Beta Band
by Matt Carmichael
The lights went out on the Beta Band in Chicago. On what will probably be one of their more memorable tour stops, the venue suffered a blackout just minutes before the Beta Band were to play to their largest crowd on the three-week-old tour. They did what they could during the delay, coming on and off stage, passing out cups of champagne and playing four very unplugged songs before being forced to pack it in. Not wanting to leave fans totally in the lurch, they headed to a nearby club with a crate of records to DJ for a while.
2001 was a big year for the British foursome. They spent most of the summer in the opening slot on Radiohead's tour as well as touring on their own in support of their sophomore release, Hot Shots II. Their second album was much more acclaimed than their first (Beta Band), and saw them returning to the form fans and critics had come to expect after their stellar first three EPs. Hot Shots II returned to the form fans and critics had come to expect from their stellar first three EPs, and was far more acclaimed than their self-titled debut LP.
Musictoday caught up with the Beta Band while the lights were still on downstairs at Chicago's Vic Theater. Between a radio promotional gig, a quick sound check and the ill-fated start of the set, Richard Greentree, the band's bassist sat down for a quick chat and a cup of tea. He's itching to get back into the studio and he shared with us some insight into the process of being the Beta Band.
Musictoday: So the tour is in its third week? How has it been going?
Richard Greentree: It seems to be going well, in respect of audiences have everyone showing up and no major catastrophes on stage; everyone is well and healthy. It's not one of the most exciting tours for us because we've done this particular tour a few times this year. We're just eager to get back into the studio and do some new music, really. Every time you play the old songs it really brings it home how much you want to get in and do new ones.
MT: What do you think you'll be doing differently when you get into the studio?
RG: I don't know, we haven't gotten to that stage. We're at the stage where everyone has been coming up with ideas and making demos and working on their own at home and the next stage is when we get together in the studio and go through what everyone has done, and decide what we can do with it together. And that's when we'll get a better idea of what we'll be doing differently. I guess the only sure thing that I can think of is that we'd like to try and work the songs out so we can play them live before we record them. We always just concentrate on recording and then work the songs out live when it comes time to go on tour. Then they end up getting better once we've worked out how to play them live. So I figure if we do it this time the other way around then hopefully they'll be more developed by the time we commit them to tape. So that's a definite new direction.
MT: Do you do much writing when you're on the road?
RG: No, we don't. Not really. Not music, no.
MT: I'd read that you thought that your first album (Beta Band) was a little rushed. First off, are you tired of trashing your own stuff?
RG: Yeah. Well, we only trashed it the once but then it's one of those cases that everyone brings it up that we trashed it that one time so you have to talk about it again. It wasn't bad at all, it just wasn't what we expected.
MT: How much time do you need, ideally?
RG: It wasn't so much that we ran out of time with the first album, it was just that we just didn't do enough preparation before we went in. Generally six weeks is what we spend in the studio for an album, but it just depends how much preparing you do before. Which is why with Hot Shots II we did plenty and that's why we are satisfied with the results. This time I just think we'll do it even more.
MT: ...Then do some club gigs...?
RG: No, we won't take them out before we record them. It's just a matter of being able to play them live in the studio environment — just to breathe some life into them, because something different always happens when you get them to that stage and I often regret not having gotten that in the recording process. We've always been a better live band than we have on record. We'd just like to capture that, really.
MT: Have you thought about doing a live album?
RG: Yeah, definitely. We've got so many recordings that we could cobble together. It's just a matter of time. They don't count on your contract do they? We've got a lot of albums to get through.
MT: Do you all do some writing?
RG: Yeah, Steve does the majority of it. He'll do a demo of the bare bones —the melody, the vocal, the guitar and that —and then we'll come together and discuss a direction for it. Then we will start working on arrangements and stuff like that. But yeah, I write songs as well and I think that's happening more and more. I think this album will be much more of a joint collaboration songwriting wise than before.
MT: Which comes first, music or lyrics. Where is the balance?
RG: Every song's different the way we approach it. Sometimes we'll start with purely a rhythm —we used to do that a lot we'd start off by working the tempo and then coming up with an interesting rhythm by all playing one instrument each and getting a jam going. But we do that less since we moved into computers —a lot of rhythms now are being electronically created. And obviously,John with his samples —that comes out as well. Sometimes it will start with just lyrics. Steve will have a tune and then we'll build a song like that. Like "Eclipse" off Hot Shots II. It's a song that he wrote in just one long stream— of—consciousness, just guitar, and recorded it as he did it, luckily; and when he went back he just put on the words and the basic chords underneath it. We tried to do it more like we did before, where we split songs into different sections and tape them all together and have a journey through the song in the way that some people have it through an album. It's just very different each time. A lot of the time now we'll take a demo and then take a copy of it each into a computer and kind of work away until someone comes up with a plan of what we're doing. And someone will say, ìI like the beat out of your one, John, and I like the guitar part out of your thing, Robinî and then we'll put those two together and sort of start again and keep eliminating and adding like that.
Mt: Hot Shots II You used a lot more computers on . Is that affecting your live shows?
RG: Not really. We don't use computers at all on stage. Just for the demoing process because it just makes life so much easier to get an idea down where you can actually see it and move things around. It just seemed that we had seen some piece of equipment that we had someone operating for us but you can never quite explain to them what it is you want to do. So you just think, "Well, I've got to learn to do that myself." And that's happened. We've learned things each time we've been to the studio and I think next time we go back in we pretty much know everything we need to know. I mean, you can always learn more but we've got a good grasp of everything from recording the sounds to getting them on the computer and producing the live sounds. So hopefully the computer just helps make it easier for us to express what it is we're trying to express without having to get someone in the middle.
MT: ...And you tour with more musicians than just the four of you?
RG: Well, we have a trumpet player [Neil Richardson] we drag about, but that's it. Anything else that's computer-based just gets put onto a sample. If it's something that can't be played —if all four of us are busy playing one thing and we need something else that's on the record, then we just sample it and John triggers all the samples from a keyboard on the stage. Nothing's sequenced or looped up... it doesn't come in unless he presses the button. So he gives it a kind of loose life and filters it while he's choosing samples.
MT: You don't have an opening band right?
RG: No, we just DJ ourselves usually. It's never really appealed to us and there's really been anyone we thought was suitable for the start. And apart from that, all our equipment is so decrepit and on the edge of falling apart that it's best once it's in position to leave it there. And sure enough, before the show some of the guitar stands fell off the last leg they were standing on and the guitar tech, Jimmy G, headed out to find some new ones that might stand the test of time a little better.
MT: Yeah, I heard them running around getting you some new guitar stands for tonight...
RG: We got the last set back in 1941 or something.
MT: You're known for some of your onstage antics... What can we expect from you tonight?
RG: You never know 'til you get going on a big stage like that. Steve might pull some of his Kung-fu moves. Depends a lot on the crowd —the sort of energy level.