This track hits me on a number of different levels. It is the last recording that I did of him. This was early November 2005 and the piece was amazing. At the end of the performance, you will hear everyone going mental because it's such a good poem. It made me doubly excited because it showed me that Charlie was really thinking about a project I had suggested to him several years earlier. We wanted to do a recording of him reading Poe and this piece was tangential to that project. At the end of the recording you can hear Alan say, " to be continued" to which Charlie answered, "it's only half done". So it goes. I titled it "Pocher" (pronounce poe SHEA)
15 days ago I got the news of Charles passing and not a single day, hour or minute has gone by that I have not thought about him. Charlie was a unique personality. No one really "knew" him, but his impact on other peoples lives was intense. He was the kind of person that if you met him once and only exchanged a few sentences, those words would live with you for eternity.
The day I received the bad news, I was driving around Seattle running errands after returning home just a few days before. I had been away for quite some time and Seattle looked different to me. At that moment, I had to pull the car over to breath. I didn't know what to do next. I didn't know what to say or who to say it to. I still don't. I don't know what else to say about Charlie as there is too much to communicate and so much that wouldn't be understood. If you had a relationship with Charlie it was unique and unlike any other. I feel lucky to have known him as I did and I will miss him.
Shortly after the news became public, I received an email from the Stranger asking for comments of Charlie's contribution to music. "Wow! that's a really serious question", I thought, but then I was horrified to think that this question might have been asked of people that didn't really know his music. To speak about Charlie as a human...yes, there were many that could contribute to that tome, but his contribution to music? That even stumped me for a while.
Here was my response to that question.
>Charles Gocher Jr. Is Jazz in It's Purest Form >
>The news of Charlie's passing intersected a long discussion I've been having in my own mind for some time. The Sun City Girls are a cult band that many know of, but few have actually heard or seen. There are many bands that fall into that category and it's baffling to me. The truly talented are as under appreciated today as any time in history. Why is that? >
>To comment of Charlie's contribution to music is to put him in this same model. His impact has not even begun to surface. Why is that? Charles was a renaissance man of sorts. He played music, wrote poems, stories, plays and novels. He painted and made films but the common thread in all of this was his honesty about who he was and his need to express himself creatively. >
>I met the Sun City Girls in 1984 and became an instant fan of the group. It was entertainment. It was free form. It was multi-disciplined. It was amazing! To have your face blown clean off of your skull is a feeling that doesn't present itself very often. I thought I "got" what they were doing but it took 10 years of absorption to really understand what went into that spectacle. >
>Charlie was well versed in jazz, as it was the subculture of his time. I remember an article in Forced Exposure (I think) that had Charlie describing what it was like to be the drummer of the Sun City Girls. I don't remember the exact words, but he likened it to playing hot potato or badmitten. He described moving the sound from one side of the stage to the other. Intercepting a hand off or stopping it all together. This was jazz man! >
>Seeing the band play 35 nights in a row was an experience I'll never forget it because I realized that "good" improvisation is _really_ fucking good when it is executed by musicians who "listen" as well as they play. The Sun City Girls ruined jazz improvisation for me because no one since has been as good at it. >
>There was a mind link. Three girls drinking from the River Styx and tripping on the bacteria within. These guys filtering the world around you and spitting it back into your eye. It was completely unique. >
>Charlie's percussion style was uber unique. It was rare to see him play a straight rock beat and even in those rare moments when he did lay back into straight territory, he was rock solid. He had complete mastery of his instrument and he could make _any_ drum kit sing. What was even more amazing was to be in the room while he was creating. He was a fountain of ideas when the tape was running. Some of it planned and composed...some of it off the cuff, but all of it emotional. Emotional and intuitive playing in music is few and far between. I've always been attracted to it and the Sun City Girls were a gold mine! >
>So Charlie's contribution to music is only beginning to be felt or recognized. Someday, someone will point at his music and say, this is a great example of honest emotional playing and then _everyone_ will be in to it. Until that time there will be those that get enlightened somehow and have the epiphany that you CAN_ do as you feel. That's his biggest contribution and the proof is in the pudding. >
>écouter et répéter
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Most of February was spent in Tucson with the ANIMAL COLLECTIVE finishing up the tracking on their next release. It is an all analog recording that's influenced by Sci-Fi and Mexican food.
BUH BLAM stopped by to track a few more songs.
I transferred some SOUND GARDEN 8 track recordings.
Mastered a MANPACK VARIANT CD
The studio is almost finished.
The ARCADE FIRE record is out and everyone tells me it's great. I still haven't heard it.