Odiorne
By wavelength ~ Posted Wednesday, August 9th 2006In 1998 Jimy Chambers was the drummer for Buffalo psych-pop band Mercury Rev, but wisely left before they got embarrassing. Now he sings and plays guitar and keyboards in his own band, called Odiorne. Odiorne has one album out, called Heavy Wish. They sound like a layer cake made up of thoughtful, weighty noise (the main cake parts) and weirder experimental stuff (that's that hard sugar icing) piled on top of each other really elegantly. As such, Odiorne is one of the few bands that could probably fulfill the music needs of smart British gutter punks who grew up and got high-ranking government jobs. Kate Carraway asked Mr. Jimy Chambers some questions, but was too pussy to inquire about the Flaming Lips and more specifically the holy Wayne Coyne, who bros down with Mercury Rev. Sorry.
Why are you interested in playing Wavelength?
We've done this before and its a good opportunity for us. We like the venue and have always had a good time.
(ps: extra-specially come to this show because the day after, SD's closes for renovations for a while, and the other bars in Toronto don't have such flattering lighting schemes)
Do you feel like part of a grand tradition of drummers from popular rock bands screwing off to front their own thing?
It's not that common.. is it? In a time, not long ago, drummers were not allowed a seat at the table, forced to feed on the scraps and often made the butt of jokes. Then came the advent of affordable recording technologies, and there was an uprising- drummers could speak! I haven't totally abandoned my roots. I consider myself the
"Keith Moon of guitar".
What did you do this morning?
I watched half of the Empire Strikes Back, drove my Dodge to the mechanic and went to work.
One of your band members plays bass and Moog. Are you guys among the Moog fetishists?
I am far too enamoured with all kinds of synths- Moog, Arp, Nord, Roland et al. We've got a Moog Opus and use it for recording but it doesn't work so great in live situations.
What makes Buffalo less of a shithole than us not-from-Buffalos are perhaps inclined to believe?
Many people find Buffalo tolerable and enjoyable because they like it! There's air, water, land and lots of big grocery markets. It's a great place to live if you travel a lot. It's not only close to most of North America's largest population centers, but it has an airport that allows one to travel to many exotic destinations like Florida. Upon returning to the city limits, you often think, "I love my shithole town."
How did Buffalo inspire orchestral psych-rock? That is East coast and/or drizzly English music.
I think it's mostly due to isothermic conditions (and we Buffalonians do consider ourselves east coasters). As far as I can remember UK bands were always influential to me and my friends.
What are your seven dream Jeopardy categories?
- Sci-Fi-Fo Fum (Guess the children's classic with a sci-fi twist)
- Gretzky Orr Messier (Hockey Dynasties, 1970 and Beyond)
- God, what's that song? (Songs that sound like other songs that nobody realizes)
- Jobim or Bacharach
- Great Horsemen of the Apocalypse (match the world leader with likely method of world annihilation)
- Thanks Salem's a lot (Famous horror and supernatural cinema trivia)
- Happy Place (Kind of like Jump the Shark except with real life social-cultural phenomena)