Doppler
Effect's Earliest Days, 1979 to 1980
by Steve
Gelsi
Three teens
gather in the suburban town of Dobbs Ferry, NY to spend a wasted summer
afternoon
in the basement bedroom hangout at Kol's house. Armed with only a Rhodes
electric
piano, a violin, a Panasonic portable tape recorder, and 3 grams of Hashish,
Kol,
Nick and
Bob began recording music which can only be described as "inspired" and
would
later come
to be known as "Sheesh Recorded Live August 14, 1980". First they picked
some
books out
of Kol's collection, consisting mostly of science fiction and electronics
books.
Then, with
little or no preconceived plan or arrangement, they pressed record on the
Panasonic
cassette recorder, and began spontaneously generating songs. Kol held down
the
groove with
trademark left handed octave bass parts and simple chords above, as Bob
improvised
melodies on his violin. Nick, using words from the assorted books and magazines,
sang, shouted
and moaned the lyrics. In between the songs Kol acted as "disk jockey"
for the
tape, giving
each song a title and fictitious band name credit. That infamous afternoon
they
gave birth
to 11 songs, many of which became "Doppler Effect Classics". The only
recordings which precede this historic
event are some of the "Splurge" recordings made by
Bob, Kol and his girlfriend Angela
beginning in 1979. These too were spontaneous works,
free flowing and completely improvised,
usually consisting of just keyboards and violin. |
Emory
Anderson tells the story of how
Doppler
Effect got it's name:
by Emory
Anderson
It was
something like late 1981, but it could have been early 1982.
Kol
and I were in his bottom floor apartment on West 10th street, that was
between
2 gay bars and down the street from a nursing college. Hot summer nights
were
difficult in that apartment, as the roaches would be steamed up out of
the
cracks
by the hundreds. After tripping and seeing Eraserhead one night at the
Waverly
Cinema (some of the dudes there would dress up like Eraserhead), I
remember
crashing out at Kol's place and going to the bathroom: there were
roaches
on the walls, roaches on the ceiling, roaches in the bathtub...I
remember
counting 5 roaches on a beer can alone...
Anyway...one
night Kol and I were jamming on a totally distorted Kol-ified bass,
creating
some sounds we called "Metallic Fluids" in those days, probably
classified
as a form of Splurge by future Dopplerites. These deep, reverberant,
maxi-minimalist
sounds must have been flowing upwards through the roach cracks
into
Kinky Friedman's apartment who lived upstairs (and who used to inform us
of
quittin'
time with a few solid pounds on the floor with his boot), as one day
there
was a knock on the door.
Opening
the door, there was a couple of dudes, one of whom British or something.
The
British guy spoke: "That's the most amazing thing ah've evah huudh" he
says,
stunned
both by music and whatever metallics were flowing through HIS fluids at
the
moment. This was a friend of Kinky Friedman who was visiting him when he
was
blessed
by the Doppler Sounds.
Some
moments later they were inside. The British dude looked around and mumbled
"How
do you LIVE here..." and asked us to "do it again", but we were kind of
zoned
and never got around to it. "No, of course you can't repeat that..." I
remember
him saying.
So we
were hangin' and Kol had a copy of the Village Voice on the table,
and
the
other non-British dude started leafing through the gigs section. I noticed
John
Cale was playing soon, and mentioned it. "Oh, this is John Cale" says the
american
dude.
I remember
him talking about Eno, Tom Verlaine, and being excited about Glenn
Branca
who was really becoming known at the time. He eventually got around to
asking
us to play with him at an upcoming gig. We had been talking about band
names
and i had mentioned that "Doppler Effect" was interesting (it came from
hearing
the pitch from an ambulance change as it passed by), "so you'd be
Doppler
Effect, then?" he asked us, and somehow we responded in the affirmative.
The
gig was cool, and I remember playing classic Cale Tunes such as Fear, and
Heartbreak
Hotel (!). It was at the club Stillwende, and I happened to notice a
couple
of weeks ago (in December 1999) that the building has half of a Statue
of
Liberty
head on top of it now.
The
funny thing was, none of us had ever really listened to much Cale, or even
much
of the Velvets. As always, Doppler Effect existed and still exists in its
own
space time continuum: some influences manage to seep in through the roach
cracks,
but it has always been its own, original thing. Amen.
Sincerely,
G Emory
Anderson
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Surviving
the 80's:
by
Emory Anderson
Eventually
Kol moved East to east 10th Street, right by third avenue, perhaps in
late
1982. For a while he ran the "psycho phone", and at one point got laid
off
from
some job. Seeing a Fender Telecaster in a pawn shop window, he bought
it and
taught
himself how to play electric guitar, getting better than your average
garage
band guitarist in a matter of weeks.
Anyway,
the apartment was a stone's throw from St. Marks place, which at that
time
was still kind of edgy (it's kind of a tourist dump now, but there are
still
a lot of interesting CD joints there). I remember grabbin' a couple of
slices
at St. Marks pizza at about 3:00AM on a Saturday night. It was still
somewhat
busy, but now the interesting types were out and about. Standing next
to
me was a conservatively dressed....uh..lady, who ordered a slice in what
sounded
a hell of a lot like male falsetto. Looking up into her face (I'm 6'1'')
it
became clear that this was a man, but in very convincing drag. The look
on
his
face as he realized I realized he was male was something like panic mixed
with
fear, which really creeped me out. In the other direction (towards 2nd
ave)
there
was a hinged sculpture laying out in the middle of nowhere. Smoking,
tripping,
and the drinking of $5 bottles of wine occurred, and we would go and
re-sculpt
the urban toy/sculpture-thing into different shapes, as appeared to be
the
artist's intention. Ecstacy was still legal at this time, and Cindy X-tacy
would
shuttle up to MIT (I think) and occasionally distribute a new batch.
Musically
Doppler Effect was kind of meandering at this point...we generated a
bunch
of Tabla and Marimba multitracked polyrythmic stuff that i would be
surprised
still existed on tape somewhere. But it was Brooklyn where Doppler
Effect
started to turn into a real band...
So Nick,
Kol, Angela, and (I believe) Margie moved in over on the edge of Park
Slope
(Brooklyn), on the top floor of a 4 story brownstone (it seemed
like
we were moving Kol's furniture every few weeks!). Not technically a loft,
but
what in NYC we call a floor-thru. This was within walking distance of my
own
home,
so nights i would march past the housing projects to go over and
jam/smoke/etc....
This is where some of the first real Doppler Effect songs were
written,
and where the band started to take on a character of its own. Most
notably,
this was where Nick really turned into a songwriter/lead singer: Heart
on
a Chain...Andropov Drop-off (which got some college radio
airplay)..shoebox...I
wrote lyrics to Bent out of Shape, Arrival Before Image,
Energy
Rollercoaster, and parts of Cowboy Ronnie...Kol as usual was the musical
anchor,and
also wrote such tunes as "The Doppler Effect Equation", and some
killer
counterpoint guitar licks. Musically Doppler Effect had no pre-set
sound
or
agenda...it could be hard, soft, funny, naive, and angry as living hell.
By
accident
we had a set that told the odd story of a loser who wanted to go to war
and
kill stuff in order to make something of his life...kind of a prototypical
Beavis/Butthead
type but real angry and on crack or something, and maybe a tiny
bit
schizophrenic. Massive parties were held in that space, the aftermath of
one
being
a baby doll tossed into the hardening green Jell-O filling the bathtub,
downstairs
neighbors complaining that they couldn't hear their own TV above
Doppler's
set, and soon-to-be real drummer Sasha grabbing my ass as some kind of
angry
goof and certain I was gay (Note to the ladies: I'm not.)
Around
this time Nick, Kol, and I kind of moved in different directions with
respect
to the music: Sideways, Up, and Down, respectively. As for me, I had to
choose
between getting serious about music or finishing my physics degree. As
the
oldest son of pro musicians, I knew enough to choose physics, and eventually
moved
to China for a while, to sit out the last of the Reagan years. Kol was
the
one
who really knew how to play a variety of instruments. I think he never
had
to
make a choice. Nick found a way to keep a fairly sane lifestyle but still
continue
manning the Doppler wheel and eventually manning the manor, the defacto
hub
of the Doppler wheel, which he does to this day.
Well,
this is basically where I get off. Someone else will have to tell the
story
from here on out if they want. As for the future? Who can tell...but it
was
one hell of a manic, euphoric, psychedelic, hilarious ride...arguably the
only
way we knew how to survive the 80s.
Sincerely,
G Emory
Anderson
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The
Further Expansion of Doppler Effect:
by
Kol Marshall
In 1985
Doppler Effect's line up in the grew to include drummer
Kevin
Baetz,
bassist
Michael
Henegan and saxophone player Jonathan Gotleib.
Doppler
Effect performed at clubs in Manhattan, including CBGB, The Five's,
Tramps,
and The Dive.
For a while we performed as a trio, and we also
did some
gigs
with Jonathan. This group recorded several Doppler Effect "standards" and
some
original songs by the drummer, Kevin Baetz.
In 1987,
the members of Doppler Effect began to branch out into other projects.
I
began working with the band See No Evil which was signed to
CBS/Epic
Records in 1989 and that band released two albums with
Richard
Robinson producing.
Throughout
this time I was also making new recordings with Nick Kane. In 1986
Kane and I
recorded
a live jam with Bob Barleen (of Critical Mass/See No Evil) which we titled
"Screams
In
Space" and in 1987 we produced the legendary "11:11" sound collage. In
1988 we began
working
on "Metaloplastika" with Bob Barleen, after being exposed to The Beastie
Boys.
Some
of these recordings are available through our Discography.
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See
No Evil & The Return of John Cale:
by Kol Marshall
  
In 1989,
I joined forces with a band then known as Critical Mass.
The
band was signed to CBS/Epic Records and re-named See No Evil,
by
producer Richard Robinson. Robinson had been friends with John
Cale,
and
had played for him some rough mixes of See No Evil's self titled debut
album.
Cale
was intrigued by one song, called "At Night", and offered to play viola
on
the
track. After recording his track I approached Mr. Cale to give thanks and
praises
for both his viola track and for being such a great early influence on
me.
Cale
asked what specifically was referring to and I said "Does the name
Doppler
Effect ring a bell?". Remembering those days of "metallic fluids" Cale
responded
with a sigh and the words "Oh no." We briefly reminisced about our
chance
first meeting and the gig we played at Stillwend in SoHo, then he went
on
his merry way. Taking into consideration the expansion of the universe,
space
and time, and the divine truth of Chaos, perhaps one day
John
Cale will return to bless the ever expanding realm of Doppler Effect once
again.
Sincerely,
Kol
Marshall
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