Dr. Chad Guitar Festival Summer 1999 by Eugene Chadbourne

06 Oct

Written by Glenn Astarita
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Guitarist Eugene Chadbourne organized a conglomeration of avant-garde guitarists for this little festival held at the New York City venue known as, "Tonic." It’s a 2-CD set, featuring a homogenization of styles, via duo and trio settings spinning various moods, discordant themes, odd tunings, and counter-harmonies.

Chadbourne and guitarist Joe Morris sound a bit tentative during the first few minutes of track 3 (no song titles). However, Morris’ fluttering single note lines is countered by Chadbourne’s freeform picking, as they develop a sequence of asymmetrically inclined patterns. But it’s all about creativity and the output of ideas throughout these multifaceted pairings featuring, Thurston Moore, Jim O’ Rourke and others. There’s quite a bit of howling, and electrified distortion techniques to coincide with strings scrapings, rumbling undercurrents, and rhythmic tapping maneuvers. While disc two is a continuous piece featuring various guitarists entering and exiting the scenario.

Ultimately, there’s quite a few cosmic meltdowns and deconstructions of themes. Chadbourne seemingly achieved his goals, where he states on the CD cover: "20,000,000 fans of avant-garde guitar can’t be wrong."