GUEST LIST: Chaki the Funk Wizard

Blue Gene Tyranny, Flo & Eddie, The Roaches, Albert Ayler, The Isley Brothers

If you’ve spent time in the Los Angeles punk scene, or the bay area or at a weird music festival, you may have crossed paths with Chaki the Funk Wizard. Chaki has been described by CBS News as a “hysterical one-man groove tornado,” and by himself as “funky alien wizard from outer space.”

To see Chaki live is to witness a sound and vibe comprised of everything from Parliament-Funkadelic to Zapp & Roger, to Devo to Oingo Boingo to Kate Bush all compressed into a one-man band (usually). It’s a real delight, made all the more delightful by Chaki being such a sweetie-pie (a term I do NOT use lightly).

I met Chaki through the Best Show where he managed to revive me (with the power of punk-funk) after a 24-hour marathon I produced. He’s also known for punk rock tours of the Hollywood Forever Cemetary, highly recommended if you’re more into seeing the graves of Johnny Ramone and Paul Reubens as opposed to the non-public figures. LA is missing Chaki as he’s relocated, and I am missing Chaki because he’s a delight.

I had Chaki pick some songs, and here are those:

Blue Gene Tyranny - Without Warning

It’s a long one folks.

A confounding piece of music. Gorgeous and dissonant, taken from a concert series held at Berkeley's University Art Museum in November 1976. Blue Gene and his buddy Peter Gordon (heard here on saxophone) were presenting their new sound - concepts based both in pop and experimental and minimal compositions. Equal parts Terry Riley and Burt Bacharach.

There’s something about Blue Gene’s lyrics, Patrice Manget’s vocals, the quality of the live recording (you can really hear that room!) that hits me right in the chest. Bonus music nerd fact: a young Steve Bartek from Oingo Boingo is on bass!

Flo & Eddie - Keep it warm

Like many music nerds my age, I got into Zappa as a petulant-bitch-ass teen, particularly with the Flo & Eddie lineup on Just Another Band From L.A. (Aynsley Dunbar on drums!). Lately I’ve been really trying to write songs about songs. Music about music. This has been one of the inspirational flagship numbers that I’ve been striving towards.

The Roches - Big Nuthin

God, we’ve all been there. You pour your heart into something, think to yourself “This is the thing that everyone is going to finally love! It's going to be huge!” And then… crickets. That’s Big Nuthin’ in a nutshell. Written after an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Too real.

Albert Ayler - Heart Love

Albert wanted to make a pop album and The Jazz Police hated it and called him a sell out. But listening to this you can clearly hear, it’s a pop structure but he took it THERE. He took it way way out! I think this is his wife singing and it’s so full of joy and unabashed LOVE. Fuck academic jazz Nazis! They’re still out there by the way. Just hiding in Argentina.

THE GOLD STANDARD

The Isley Brothers - Voyage To Atlantis

Not only is this the best slow jam of all time (13 million plays), but my favorite video on all of Youtube is this dude named Warren who is buzzed on beer in a garage teaching us how to play this guitar.

Peace to you, Warren, wherever you are.