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His Majesty's Request: A Wink O'Bannon Select

by Antietam

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Commando 02:02 video
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Hundred 06:25 video

about

Produced by Tara Key with Tim Harris.
Mastered by James McNew

In the spring of 1978 in Louisville, Kentucky, several punk bands formed one of the earliest regional alternative scenes in the U.S. Wink O’Bannon was a prime architect of that scene. His smart, muscular, and kinetic guitar style, though drenched in the history of the rock, punk, and blues players he so avidly consumed, was uniquely his own. As a member of many Louisville-related acts, most notably roots rockers Bodeco and guitar-driven juggernauts Eleventh Dream Day, he continued to be a monumental force through more than 40 years of passionate devotion to rock.

Wink passed away on June 30, 2020. His Majesty's Request (Motorific Sounds) is an album comprised of some of Wink’s favorite songs performed by his friends, in most cases backed by the band Antietam (Tara Key, Tim Harris, and Josh Madell). Participants include Louisvillians Will Oldham, Todd Brashear (Slint), Catherine Irwin and Anna Krippenstapel (Freakwater), Tara Jane O’Neil, David Grubbs, Chip Nold (Babylon Dance Band), and Wolf Knapp (Antietam founding member); as well as mates Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew of Yo La Tengo; Eleventh Dream Day comrades Rick Rizzo, Janet Bean, and Douglas McCombs; and Sue Garner (Shams, Run On, 75 Dollar Bill), Carter Suter (of Lexington’s No Excuse), Jaime Fennelly (Mind Over Mirrors), and Juanita, Louisville’s pre-eminent garage band, including many of Wink’s past students, now in their 28th year.

His Majesty's Request honors Wink’s memory as a performer, an archivist of the Louisville music scene, and a teacher to subsequent generations, by directing proceeds from the project to two Louisville charities whose mission is to educate and enrich young people in the Metro area through music: Girls Rock Louisville (girlsrocklouisville.givingfuel.com/his-majestys-request-a-wink-obannon-select) and AMPED (ampedlouisville.org).

SEE INDIVIDUAL TRACKS FOR MORE DATA - BACKING BAND IS ANTIETAM UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

TIM HARRIS TO WINK O'BANNON (September 14, 2021)

Damn, Wink, I really can’t believe you’ve left the stage. I can’t believe you’re not growling “Harris!” at me anymore. It was only yesterday (July 2019) when we were playing at Turner’s in Louisville with the Ohio River 50 feet behind us, you and I paired stage left until you stepped out for a guitar duel with Tara, while Chip and I stood sentinel and Josh pounded away. Your last gig, I think. The day before that it was 2015 and you came off the disabled list and joined us with Chili Rigot and Tari O’Bannon at Uncle Pleasant’s; people were excited by that. And the day before that, The Blinders, The Endtables, and Babylon Dance Band were sharing bills in the sanctified present of 1979.

When you came down with something, Tara asked for your ten favorite songs, and you gave us 50 with notes added like “anything by the Beatles or the Stones.” Without letting on, she plotted a project to raise some money for you, asking the participants here to select from the list. The word went out to LA, Chicago, Louisville, Lexington, and the work commenced. This was a very organic, casual arrangement, so apologies to anyone who may feel left out.

Antietam recorded the basics for 10 of these in NYC, while others convened alone. Then the pandemic happened and we lost you, and everything entered a listless fog. We were so disappointed we hadn’t played you the initial tracks.

But everyone was amenable to completing the work over long distances and dedicating it in your honor to a pair of music-related charities in Louisville. So here is a jukebox of some of your favorites played by your friends, bandmates, and admirers.

1) Catherine Irwin starts the set with the opening moan of Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” joined in a burgeoning chorus by Tari O’Bannon, Will Oldham, and Anna Krippenstapel. Tara leans hard on that guitar solo. While in India with Donovan, George Harrison wrote a verse for the song; Donovan didn’t use it, but Catherine does on the last verse, the kind of flourish I know you will appreciate.

2) Rick Rizzo joins us on Joy Division’s “Shadowplay.” Apologies to Ian Curtis, but this song seems made for Rizzo’s voice. Tara and Rick duel on the guitar solos, like they do.

3) I think The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee” might be at the very top of your list! Here Sue Garner takes the lead and your heart will break when her voice does on the word “home.” James McNew adds beautiful background vocals, and David Grubbs just nails the guitar solo.

4) Here we veer slightly off to Juanita’s live version of “Crystal Blue Persuasion” by Tommy James and the Shondells, from the WinkAid benefit in February 2020. I’m really sorry we missed that, man; Chip said Juanita’s set was one of the handful of best things he’s ever seen (you know that Chip has seen a lot). I’m glad you were there! Tara and I were in Mexico City that night and listened to a stream of the show. I got chills lying across el cama listening to Mary Feiock’s inspired vocal: “All of his children!” And to think you taught many of the kids in Juanita to play some 30 years ago.

5) Wolf Knapp constructs his own interpretation of Charlie Mingus’s “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” on contrabass. That dude can really groove. You will not be able to get this tune out of your head.

6) No one loves The Kinks more than Ira Kaplan, and his vocal on “Tired of Waiting” is just one of the most-pure pop confections I’ve ever heard from him.

7) Will Oldham took on George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness” and brought along Todd Brashear to counterpoint his plaintive vocal—the pair at their Louvin bros finest.

8) Tara Jane O’Neil took the Bacharach assignment and opted for “This Girl’s in Love,” you know, like the Dusty version, showcasing all of her amazing arrangement and instrumentation skills.

9) Georgia Hubley chose The Beatles’ “The Night Before” and transformed it from a rollicking stomp to a delicate indictment being whispered in your ear, as she is wont to do.

10) Carter Suter knows The Clash better than anyone, so he does both Joe Strummer and Mick Jones on “English Civil War,” with his Lexington crew chiming in. Please make sure that Carter’s longtime collaborator and our Lexington comrade in the founding era, Tony Briggs, hears this, too.

11) Douglas McCombs, yeah you know him, matches Wolf’s Mingus for pure jazzbo-ness with another classic, Sonny Sharrock’s “Who Does She Hope to Be,” arranged and played expertly by one man, alone, in his ineluctable consciousness, on multiple tracks.

12) The Ramones “Commando”
That moment when fascism turns into farce with the line about Kosher salami is the Ramones at their situationist, Godardian best, don’t ya think? At least, that’s what Dee Dee said!

13) The Gang of Four “To Hell With Poverty”
This trio just took the whole set in a different direction! Rick and Janet just rip the guitar and vocal, respectively, and Jaime moves it into a new dimension. In the middle of a triad of really political songs by your homiest friends, this one will take you right back to rehearsing at the punk house in Louisville in 1980, when somebody or other was getting drunk on some cheap something or other, and tuning out the richer world out there.

14) The New York Dolls “Vietnamese Baby”
Of course Chip had to do the Dolls. I swear he went on for months about what Johansen was getting at in these lines. Was it the illegitimate kid of an American soldier in Vietnam? Was he talking to himself, or possibly America? Was the war America’s baby? He went at it like a literary scholar breaking down some iambic pentameter in Shakespeare! And then it all turned over in his head when he realized Johansen screamed “He said!” somewhere along in there. I’m not totally sure what he arrived at, but you can get the final analysis right here.

15) Finally, we did your song, “Hundred,” from your solo album. At the end, Tara found you playing some guitar on your site, and we laced it in with her at the end, just like the two of you dueling as usual, and then it goes out with just you, man. I know that’s a little weird. The album in your honor ends with, well, you playing. But I think you’ll like it. How about that? Something you played one morning or afternoon at your house has become part of this recording years later.

I would like to point out an aspect of the record you might appreciate. Not enough people are aware of the amazing bass work you did in The Bulls. On this record, you have a group of the finest bass players in, at least, our purview, even if they are not all playing bass here. There’s Christy O’Connell of Juanita, catching those dripping runs on “Crystal Blue Persuasion.” Then, there’s the two, count ’em, original Antietam bass players, myself and the incomparable Wolf Knapp. Then there are three of the significant bass players of the late millennium and the new one: James McNew, Sue Garner, and Douglas McCombs. Let us never forget the generosity of that badass bassist in Rodan, Tara Jane O’Neil. And, of course, there’s Todd Brashear of Slint! I’ve probably left someone out.

Really hope you like it, man. And, as they say in Catalonia, if not, not.

credits

released October 15, 2021

2021, Motorific Sounds

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