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intuit's fifth annual music series 2004

Press Release:
Intuit’s fifth annual Intuitive Music Series will feature performances by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Fran “The Singing Psychic” Baskerville, Brute Force, Ed “Moose” Savage, Bingo Gazingo, and Gentleman John Battles. The series also includes documentaries on Wesley Willis and Captain Beefheart, and a lecture by David Greenberger, founder of The Duplex Planet. All events take place at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, 756 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago (312.243.9088; intuit@art.org).

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy w/ Gentleman John Battles

Saturday, November 13, 2004

The inspiration for David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character (Bowie covered the Ledge’s “I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship” on a recent album, repaying a 30-year-old debt owed by Bowie for lifting the Stardust moniker from the Ledge), The Legendary Stardust Cowboy returns to Intuit for a rare public performance, backed by a dynamite band that includes Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys on bass. The Ledge will play favorites including “I Took a Trip on the Space Shuttle,” “Standing in a Trashcan (Thinking of You),” “My Underwear Froze to a Clothesline,” and, of course, “Paralyzed.” Local musician Gentleman John Battles opens.

“Plagued by lack of music industry interest, and blessed by a hugely loyal cult following, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy's music, lyrics, enthusiasm, and style defy description. Imagine Captain Beefheart meets Dick Dale. Imagine a rodeo cowboy ‘whoooo hooo’-ing at the sight of a pretty girl coupled with Hasil Adkins, or Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant playing with Johnny Rotten, and I think you'll get the picture. From his humble beginnings playing on the hood of his car in Lubbock, Texas, to his appearance on Laugh-In, the Ledge doesn't lose his energy for a minute.” – Hollow Ear.

The Ledge himself puts it all in perspective: “Music critics and record reviewers the world over have written about me: that I can’t sing, that I can’t play the guitar, that I don’t know how to carry a tune. Well, neither can Kenny Rogers nor Mick Jagger. All of us are in the same boat.”

 Wesley Willis: Daddy of Rock ‘n’ Roll & Captain Beefheart: Some Yo-Yo Stuff

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Wesley Willis, a beloved Chicago artist/musician who passed away in 2003, was featured in last year’s Nitty Gritty: Slim’s Bike and The Street Art of Curtis Cuffie and Wesley Willis summer exhibition at Intuit. This poignant documentary chronicles Willis’ dual art and music careers. “ Filmmaker Daniel Bitton turns the spotlight onto musician Wesley Willis, in this fascinating portrayal of the talented performer. Bitton's approach to the film is to highlight the talent that Willis possesses, and also to illustrate the problems and misfortunes that he has encountered in his life. The resulting film runs the full gamut of emotions.” – Rotten Tomatoes

 Lecture by David Greenberger of The Duplex Planet

Saturday, November 20, 2004

David Greenberger started The Duplex Planet in 1979 as a small homemade magazine, which he still publishes. The Duplex Planet is an ongoing work designed to portray a wide variety of real characters who are old or in decline. Greenberger will speak about the musical aspects of The Duplex Planet, including poet/lyricist Ernest Noyes Brookings; Jack Mudurian, who once boasted he knew as many songs as Sinatra and recorded a one-take, 45-minute medley containing 129 songs; and a resident with no background or training in music who became what Greenberger describes as an “outsider” music critic.

 Ed “Moose” Savage and His Litany of Complaints w/ Bingo Gazingo

S aturday, December 4, 2004

“Ed ‘Moose’ Savage is a one-of-a-kind entertainer, performing without a band, just a drummer, in a kind of a cappella stream-of-consciousness, to a steady live drumbeat. You haven't lived until you've heard Ed's song, “Iceberg Lettuce,” a hilarious, rhythmic rant about the vegetable kingdom's most overlooked dinner accoutrement. Never one to write songs about mere romantic love, Ed chooses to pen songs about the price of teabags and bad freeway driving.” – Cool and Strange Music Magazine

Opener Bingo Gazingo is “a cantankerous, retired street poet from Flushing, NY. Gazingo is a dazzling wordsmith of Beefheartian proportions, whose wry lyrics reward close scrutiny on a literary level,” writes Irwin Chusid in Songs in the Key of Z. Bingo’s unforgettable poems include “Up Your Jurassic Park,” “I Love You So Fucking Much I Can’t Shit,” “Two Pack Shaker,” and “Oh Madonna (You Stole My Pants).”

Frances “The Singing Psychic” Baskerville w/ Brute Force

Saturday, December 11, 2004

“Fran Baskerville not only psychically predicts and sings – she’s Texas’ foremost finder of lost persons!” enthuses Irwin Chusid in Songs in the Key of Z. Fran’s loopy songs focus on UFOs, vegetables, the Kennedy assassination, and her own near-death experience being impaled by an 18-wheeler lumber truck. Her firm, Baskerville Investigations, specializes in “missing children, insurance claims, and surveillance.” She has appeared on Good Morning America and The David Letterman Show. She also makes frequent call-ins to the Howard Stern Show, on which she sings her predictions. She memorably predicted the outcome of the previous week’s Bears game upon taking the stage for the predictions portion of her show at Intuit in 2001. Oops. But several of those for whom she did sing predictions three years ago have attested that her prognostications did indeed come true!

“Definitely a cool and strange fellow, the odd legacy of cult favorite Brute Force began when Columbia released the quirky Confections of Love on an unsuspecting public in 1968. With songs like “Tapeworm of Love” and “To Sit on a Sandwich,” his warped cosmic cabaret pop continues to mystify. Before embarking on his bizarre solo career he'd written songs for such acts as the Chiffons, the Cyrkle, Del Shannon, the Creation, and the Tokens. Brute Force even released a rare and controversial single, The King of Fuh, on the Beatles' Apple label.” – Cool and Strange Music Magazine