Reviews
Eric McFadden: Let's Die Forever
By: Andy Tennille
Jambase.com: Eric McFadden : Let's Die Together... Forever
"It was around that time that I started hearing things in my head."
Eric McFadden in Barcelona by Kayceman
Sitting on a bench in a bricked courtyard behind his apartment, Eric McFadden snickers a wicked little laugh as he casually strums a Manuel Rodriguez e Hijos acoustic guitar while discussing his most recent studio release, Let's Die Forever... Together.
"Inspiration can come from anywhere for me, man," the 38-year-old San Francisco guitarist and songwriter explains as dusk falls on another warm summer evening in the Haight Ashbury district. "It could be anything – a movie I saw, some book I read, something a girl says, a beautiful sunset, a sunrise after getting too drunk the night before, really anything. I hear music in pretty much everything." Click here to read the rest of the article!
ERIC MCFADDEN - 2 NEW reviews for Let's Die Together... Forever from France!
Eric McFadden : Let's Die Together... Forever - Amb France Music
Eric McFadden : Let's die forever...together (2007)
ERIC MCFADDEN - by Bill Picture
POP BEAT- San Francisco Chronicle
The trio, McFadden's vocals and guitar with James Whiton on the stand-up bass and Paulo Baldi, of Cake, on drums, is most often compared to Tom Waits. The comparison is valid enough to be repeated, with slower, deep rhythm guitar and creepy leads going along with a story-telling lyrical approach. But McFadden's voice is more like an angry, deep-voiced grunge rocker than the satanic Russian that Waits imitates.
The band's newest album, Joy of Suffering, glides from the crunchier, Waits-esque tracks into faster, country sounds and on to noisier, apathetic diatribes. "The Ghost of Saint Patrick" touches on McFadden's frustration when he sings, "We wanna change the world but there's no time/ We want to celebrate but there's no wine/ We want you to please give us a sign/ The ghost of Saint Patrick's doing time." There's an overall vibe on the album of "I know what's really going on here and this is what I think about it … you jerks." And it's quite refreshing.
ERIC MCFADDEN - Dementia - (Bad Reputation)
Rockpages Web Magazine - CD Review
Who's Eric McFadden... yeap, that's a good question. We are talking about a multi-talented guitarist, participating in a dozen bands (Holy Smokes, LIAR, Angry Babies, to name a few), while playing live with huge Eric Burdon.
This particular album (double CD), a best-of, which has been released a few months ago, contains songs and instrumentals from Eric's works in general.
For those of you hoping to listen to powerful gear-on electric guitar and that sort of stuff... you'll be covered in some of the songs (Workin' for a dead man, Bury our sins and three or four more), in the first CD only. All the rest 32 in total (!) are based on the "crystal-clear-clean cut" guitar, without any distortion. You'll get to listen to Flamenco themes, slide passages, blues and honky tonk "stories", even classic hybrids, yet... no electricity.
However, deciding not to pay attention to that, we face the fact that the songs are quite fancy. "Rich" orchestrations, mandolin, violins and harmonica as well as "street" vocals. An album for all listeners.
"I feel too good to die" is superb. Picture the following. Hendrix and Lou Reed are jamming and suddenly... D-A-D enter the room! Power!
Costas Koulis, Rockpages Web Magazine
Click here to read the online article.
ERIC MCFADDEN
Dementia
(Bad Reputation)
Eric McFadden rides the wave of Dementia hard with a tight rein, six-string precision, and an eerie eye-of-the-storm demeanor that terrifies. The double album acts as a "best of" and menacingly strokes the darker recesses of human nature. Painted with sinister circus art that would give Mark Ryden or Trevor Brown the all-overs, Dementia reminds us that it is high time we give McFadden his due.
"Sicko Gets the Girl" and "Waltz Right Home" pay homage to McFadden's cabaret fetish and paint him as a maniacal provocateur who tiptoes into town and steals all the virgin daughters away. "Bury Our Sins" is a thick, sinister, and rasping troubadour tale told with reckless abandon: "Dig in the dirt where we bury our sins/ The day we're born is when our troubles begin."
"Babylon Milkbird" is full of delicately tugged strings, flamenco whimsy, and all the invasiveness of pure metal — as if a Bollywood troupe and narcocorrido band were meeting at the crossroads to steal the devil's pocket change. McFadden croons and wails, growls and whimpers, and laughs with the conviction of a madman, effortlessly lacing country, blues, gypsy, flamenco, rock, metal, and punk together into one of this year's most exciting releases. (Tighe) San Francisco Bay Guardian / September '06
Check out this cool review from The Animals @ Museumsmeile - Bonn, Germany - 7/30/06
Sunday was also a night of blues – but this time the lyrics took front of stage. Willy De Ville and Eric Burdon brought with them two great voices and many, many more great songs to enjoy.
Eric Burdon: ‘Bring it on Home’ by The Animals was one of the discs found on a jukebox belonging to John Lennon from the late 60’s. Lead singer (and only original member) Eric Burdon takes the stage in a t-shirt quoting Lennon’s observation that as a Beatle from ‘Up North’ the ‘southerners treated us like animals’. The Animals were presumably similarly despised, although Burdon himself was seemingly not overly keen on his Newcastle home, once famously saying it was a city where ‘the rain comes at you sideways’.
‘Bring it on Home’ and ‘We gotta get outta this place’ are R&B classics given fresh life as is the bands mega-hit ‘House of the Rising Sun’ which escapes sounding like a tired time piece thanks to stunning lead guitar work on a classical guitar body from Mcfadden – fantastic stuff.
‘I wrote this one in 1968, when I thought I could change the world – what a schmuck!’ says Burdon introducing his anti-Vietnam anthem ‘Sky Pilot’. And of course Burdon is right, music doesn’t enable you to change the world. It does make the world a better place to be though, and by the time the last drum beats of ‘Ring of Fire’ were echoing round the Museumsplatz Willy DeVille and The Animals have done just that.
 Burdon undoubtedly has the CV of a top bluesman – his band’s appearances in the 60’s with Sonny Boy Wiliamson II in themselves being legendary. But this is 2006 so a more restrained BB King approach would be understandable. As it turns out Burdon is fuelled on by a dynamic band and, although there is a stool onstage he rarely stays still long enough to sit on it. Paula O’rourke, the first female bass player I’ve seen in a long while (ever?) and Eric Mcfadden on guitar complement each others music perfectly yet play with the enthusiasm of a first gig – can’t remember when I last saw musicians enjoying simply playing so much. All-in-all the band provides a fresh punch for Burdon’s time weathered songs and vocals.
The Double Bass of David Keyes keeps a steady tempo whilst Jeff Levine’s glorious jazz/blues piano adds just enough colour to lighten the dark mood that DeVille, with his somewhat melancholic manner, occasionally seems to be heading into. Blues classics like ‘Trouble in Mind’ seem right up DeVille’s (ghetto)street and he does the song enough justice true enough. It’s the unexpected numbers plucked from all sorts of genres that catch the ear though as he deftly stamps his own mark on each one. The victim on ‘Carmelita’ who's "all stretched out on heroin" is perfect material for DeVille, but then he kicks off ‘Spanish Harlem’ and the Latin rhythm and Blues style again seems perfectly matched, as does ‘Heartbreak Hotel’.
Reinforcing the importance of THE SONGS themselves, DeVille takes a new guitar for almost each one. It’s like a writer taking a new piece of paper for a new poem – DeVille has been around long enough to know that, like many of the writers he mentions, It’s too often the song not the singer or the writer that gets remembered. Do I detect a form of ‘Punk’ like rebellion still deep in DeVille’s heart? In an age of TV pop idols, all hype and nothing to say, a stand for quality songs? I really hope so!
 Jambase.com: ERIC MCFADDEN ON TOUR
April 2006
Eric McFadden may just be one of the hardest working performers in the business. Fresh off a European tour with Eric Burdon and the New Animals, McFadden returns to the states and hits the ground running. He will finish out the spring on the road with the Eric McFadden Trio in support of their new album, Joy of Suffering. The Eric McFadden Trio features McFadden on guitar and vocals and James Whiton on the acoustic bass along side drummer Jeff Cohen a long-time friend and musical compatriot - this dynamic line-up is the latest incarnation for one of music's most prolific personalities. In addition to being in several successful bands on the west coast, McFadden has independently produced several solo albums which are regarded as underground masterpieces by fans and critics alike. Click here to read the entire article.
 Guitar Player Magazine: Eric McFadden’s Multi-Colored Iconoclastic Gypsy Soul
April 2006
Eric McFadden was destined to be different. His mother sang in an early incarnation of the Fugs, the Ed Saunders-led New York ensemble that was arguably the first underground rock band. Bob Dylan slept on the McFadden couch while Eric was still in the womb, and counter culture poet (and neighbor) Allen Ginsberg successfully protested when the family was faced with eviction from their Greenwich Village apartment. McFadden’s father turned Eric on to Jimi Hendrix and the Mahavishnu Orchestra at a young age—influences he would combine with flamenco, punk, and heavy metal to form a unique style. Click here to read the entire article.
 Bill Graham's 75th Birthday Bash / 40th Anniversary of the Fillmore Acid Tests
01.07 & 01.08 :: The Fillmore :: San Francisco, CA
Jambase - Show Review - January 2006
Eric McFadden may have been the most well-known of all the participants in Sunday's show, having gigged regularly around the Bay Area for years with both his Trio and Experience, as well as being a member of George Clinton's P-Funk AllStars and Stockholm Syndrome, the brainchild of Jerry Joseph and Widespread Panic bass player Dave Schools. As always, McFadden did not disappoint, both in his own short set as well as during the various sit-in appearances he made throughout the rest of the night. Part raging rock star, part flamenco gypsy, McFadden is one of the most talented musicians in San Francisco today, bar none. Whenever he steps into the spotlight, McFadden turns up the energy level a few notches, and the unexpected becomes the norm.
- Andy Tennille
View entire article: BILL GRAHAM'S 75TH BIRTHDAY BASH
ERIC MCFADDEN TRIO - Joy of Suffering - Terminus Records
Jambase - CD Review - February 2006
From the first notes, it's clear we're in for some heavy weather. But in these featherweight days, it's invigorating to find an axeman who bears down hard like Robert Johnson sparring with Metallica AND whose tunes hum with apocalyptic menace. McFadden infuses a Dylan-esque landscape with punk and metal seasoning. The initial flavor is aluminum and regrets, but the bittersweet aftertaste will stay with you. Wisdom only comes after years of healing and introspection. There's a whole range of emotions in between experience and insight, and McFadden and his extraordinarily organic rhythm partners, Paulo Baldi (drums) and James Whiton (bass), excel at exploring what happens when life pricks us. "Long Way Up" is about the pang of almost getting what you want, or maybe more accurately, almost being what someone else wants. Suspect the buzzing cover of the Talking Heads' "Memories Can't Wait" is a nod to Byrne and co. but also Living Colour, who used to do the song regularly. Parts bring in elements of flamenco and pure country, but the bouillabaisse works well. Rather than simmer in bitterness, McFadden sifts the interesting parts hiding in life's dark matter. Sunny it ain't, but the evening has rarely had badass odes like these.
- Dennis Cook
ERIC MCFADDEN TRIO - Joy of Suffering - Terminus Records
Rootshighway.it - CD Review
La band di Eric Mc Fadden avrebbe ben ragione d'esser considerata power
trio, non fosse che la definizione calzerebbe alquanto anacronistica per un
gruppo le cui sonorità sono fin troppo attuali e irriverenti, rispetto a
quanto una classificazione di tal fatta potrebbe far pensare (Slow-Hand &
soci, Jimy & Co). Tant'è, ma l'esperienza del titolare emerge gradevole
nell'ensemble sì da non risultare invadente, in una formula di rock comunque
potente e protesa a lontane eco di crossover, nell'ostentare accordature
abbassate e ritmiche quadrate, corpose negli accordi quanto nei supporti al
basso e batteria, di James Whiton e Paulo Ubaldi. La compagnia pertanto si
addentra in un terreno insolito, se vogliamo, nel coniugare i nomi del
suddetto mancino di Seattle, le venature oscure dei Black Sabbath e il
cantautorato waitsiano, con tinture da western di Sergio Leone e accenni da
nu-metal, in una rielaborazione della materia rock più classica nella
rivisitazione avuta dal grunge in poi, attraverso un certo stoner-rock. Un
insieme di influenze, che dalle radici vissute dalla trafila professionale
di Eric con gli Widespread Panic, l'ultimo Joe Strummer o persino Bo
Diddley, approda quasi fuori dal seminato in un'insolita via, talora di uno
stile molto particolare, se non piuttosto originale. Qualcosa di fortemente
contaminato, che rischia di non essere apprezzato né dai fautori del rock
più tradizionalista, né dai più intransigenti per quel che riguarda queste
evoluzioni neo-contemporanee. Intanto, l'ascolto regala una spigolosa
apertura esemplare per ciò di cui si è detto in Bury Of Sins, dalla voce
cupa e abrasiva, disarmonie su di una ritmica martellante, un assolo tecnico
ma di gusto e persino un mandolino; così ipnotica e persino hendrixiana
potrebbe apparirci nel suo arrangiamento la fantasticaMemories Can't Wait,
librandosi in un crescendo finale tra voce e chitarre. Tiratissima è The
Ghost Of Saint Patrick che mostra i toni più aspri e scuri di un gruppo che
non cela affatto questo lato, mentre l'aggressività muta in malinconia nella
ballata dai toni flamenco di Never Gonna Burn. Alcuni esempi da un album,
Joy Of Suffering, a tratti ruvido e petroso, da cui potrebbe non trapelare
alcunché degli spazi aperti di un'America cui piace ricondurre le nostre più
note geografie musicali, ma soltanto ombreggiature metropolitane di un più
feroce rock urbano del nuovo millennio. -
(Matteo Fratti) Roots Highway
ERIC MCFADDEN TRIO - Joy of Suffering - Terminus Records
1340 Magazine - CD Review
The Eric McFadden Trio is like a gem buried in a pile of rocks. The indie music scene has become so congested with talentless, average, non-inspiring rocks, yet the Eric McFadden Trio is a gem that shines amidst the rocks and they have returned indie rock back to its original state and purpose.
Indie music veteran Eric McFadden has joined up with acoustic bassist James Whiton and drummer Paulo Baldi to create one of the best indie rock bands of this day. There are moments when EMT reminds is a mixture of sounds including a hint of Latin American sounds, a touch of funk and a heavy dose of good ole hard rock. Vocally McFadden really reminds me of Soul Coughing's Mike Doughty and his guitar playing is a raw, yet fresh style that spans across the musical styles board. From the opening rock song "Put it Down", to the funkified American western influenced "Miranda" to the driving sounds of "Memories Can't Wait" EMT’s "Joy of Suffering" is a great listen. If you enjoy independent music but you are getting sick of the "averageness" (I know it’s not a word) of this scene then the Eric McFadden Trio is a band you may want to check out. -
Reviewed by: Jeff Holton
ERIC MCFADDEN TRIO - Joy of Suffering - Terminus Records
Relix Magazine - CD Review
Any band that titles its album Joy of Suffering presumably has a delicously
dark sense of humor and such proves true for the Eric McFadden Trio. "When I
arrived at the carnival/They were taking down the tents," sings McFaden on the
representative "Bury Our Sins." The Trio brings that black circus vibe to the
album as a whole. And sure enough, it woks. McFaddden's "Iron Man" riffage
provides the appropriate bed for his guttural, often-sinister vocals to sprawl
down on. The unique instrumentation (James Whiton plays an acoustic upright
bass like his back hair's on fire) leads to a similarly unique attack, and
influences ranging from gypsy jazz to punk-rockabilly round out some of the
corners. But make no mistake, Joy of Suffering is a rock album, grimy rock that
gets under your skin like dirt gets under your nails. For once, thats a good
thing.
BENJY EISEN for RELIX
ERIC MCFADDEN TRIO audio tracks added to playlist on KRFC (RadioFreeColorado)!
The best times to hear Limitations, Long Way Up, and Never Gonna Burn will be the four hour slots on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday beginning at 9, 10, 11, and noon MST. KRFC's station page link is: KRFC (RadioFreeColorado)
ERIC MCFADDEN TRIO - Joy of Suffering - 4.5 stars!
Salt Lake City Weekly - Utah
by Bill Frost - 10-20-05
This is rock & roll, jam-heads, not undercooked noodling. Singer-guitarist McFadden blends Tom Waits/Morphine seediness with Gov't Mule heaviness, and even tops Living Colour's revered cover of Talking Heads' "Memories Can't Wait." (EMTMusic.com)
Eric McFadden's got an ax to grind.
San Francisco Weekly - San Francisco, CA
by Silke Tudor - 8-11-04
Since becoming George Clinton's guitar player, Eric
McFadden has turned into one of San Francisco's
phantom treasures, a rarely glimpsed dark angel of
blurred guitar strings, swinging dreadlocks, and
flashing teeth; but rest assured, McFadden's talents
continue to mature even as his countenance remains
frozen in time. McFadden began winning awards for his
guitar playing decades ago, but his youthful flair
would hardly appear as a glimmer next to the player he
has become. Mercurial rock improvisations, sexy R&B
rhythms, elegant gypsy jazz runs, whirling bluegrass
fills, opulent classical chords, and deep European
mandolin strains flow effortlessly from McFadden's
fingertips while his dusty, road-parched voice
embodies the crossroads where he must have sold his
soul. Over the years, the Bay Area has been privy to a
number of McFadden's musical permutations (Liar, IZM,
the Eric McFadden Experience, and Alien Lovestock, to
mention a few), but the Eric McFadden Trio, comprised
of McFadden, longtime collaborator and drummer Paulo
Baldi, and long-lost friend and bassist James Whiton,
is the finest yet. In Whiton, McFadden has found his
musical foil. A virtuoso of acoustic upright double
bass, Whiton slaps, bows, maneuvers, and manipulates
his instrument with orchestral precision and
street-corner desperation, reflecting the sinister
world of desert derelicts and carnival cons who have
so long proliferated in McFadden's songs.
-
Eric McFadden Trio - Joy Of Suffering
The Eric McFadden Trio's Joy of Suffering gets my vote as the best and most
original guitar recording of the year so far. The overdriven tones McFadden
conjures by amplifying an ancient Gibson archtop (as well as a classical
nylon-string) are as unique as his Gypsy-jazz-inspired trills and
carnival-noir tales of sin and redemption. His gruff, Tom Waits-like vocals
fit perfectly with the dark and haunting nature of the material, which
ranges from the slammin "Bury Our Sins" to the spaghetti-western feel of
"Miranda" to the surf-music-gone-mad instrumental "The Ghost-Maker."
McFadden has been an underground sensation for years - finally gaining
recognition playing mandolin and guitar with George Clinton's P-Funk All
Stars from 2000-2004 - and he realizes his potential on Joy of Suffering, a
record that may just win him the legions of devotees an artist of his
uncompromising character and unquestionable quality rightly deserves.
Terminus.
Jimmy Leslie / Guitar Player Magazine, October 2005
Devil Moon review from France!
"McFadden is a master of guitar and
mandolin, a 25 year veteran who waltzes the
dark, eerie corridors between Jimi Hendrix
and Django Reinhardt. As a true testament to
his deft touch and intuition, he's also one
of the few performers who can play either
acoustic or electric and still severely
excercise your
eardrums." ( Jonathan
Zwickel -San Francisco Bay Guardian, October
2004)
“A meeting of the devils and angels
defines the Eric McFadden Trio’s sound. At
times, their sound mimics elements of Tom
Waits’ dreamy, sordid underworld with a
harder edge, and at others even approaches a
Motorhead heaviness. The all-acoustic band
comes forward as a fully plugged-in Mack
truck.” – (Ryan Heinsius, Flagstaff Live,
10-09-03)
Artist: ERIC MCFADDEN
Album: Devil Moon
The Scoop : A genre-straddling, jaw-dropping guitarist who moonlights as a touring member
of Parliament/Funkadelic , Eric McFadden seems afraid of no musical challenge. His latest
offering is a voodoo-haunted batch of songs, as beautiful as they are spooky. There are a
lot of comparisons that crop up, and most of them have been made before; most importantly,
the grizzled pipes of Tom Waits and the nimbly inventive touch of Django Reinhardt.
McFadden seems attracted to the darker corners of human life, but he isn¹t without a sense
of humor. His rendering of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" is a mischevious kindred
spirit to ³You¹re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.² But McFadden also carries the sorrowful soul of
a bluesman, demonstrated when he mourns wasted days (³Nostalgia Song²) or bellows about the
days growing so long (³Don¹t Make Me Explain²). Guitar virtuosos are hard enough to find;
it¹s even harder to find one who has such a commanding voice and presence.
Highlight Tracks : "Devil Moon" and "Don't Make Me Explain"
(Adam McKibbin, Suite101.com, June 2003)
Showin' that guitar who's boss, injecting his acoustic blues with a
devilish pang that will set them coyotes howlin', fogging up the
windshield of mainstream blues with his rattling, growly bass voice,
this kindred spirit to Tom Waits and Nick Cave is spittin' some
smoky, dark, americana gypsy-blues for the hopeless and undecided.
However gloomy and lead-heavy his style can be, this man knows how to
pick it up with a carnival twist, cousin to a danse macabre. This is
one artist with an unflinching command of his muse; highly
recommended.
(Derek Sivers - President, CD Baby, April, 2003)
Virtuosity award: Eric McFadden (guitarist for George Clinton, Liar (R.I.P), Izm, Alien
Lovestock, Faraway bros.) in this post DIY-era, being able to actually play your instrument
has often become a novelty. To have mastered it, is almost unheard of.
(Ian Brennan / Zero Magazine, February 2002)
Local Guitar marvel Eric McFadden has been hired by one Mr. George Clinton as a full-fledged
member of Parliament / Funkadelic. And considering how versatile and downright dazzling
McFadden¹s guitar and mandolin work is-whether playing sinister circus rock or jazz, bluegrass
or blues, funk or flamenco-it¹s hard to say whether this is better news for him or
Parliament / Funkadelic.
(Sam Hurwitt / East bay express 2001)
An acoustic trio with an electrifying sound, Faraway Brothers is an opportunity for McFadden,
Baldi and Tuba and bass man Ed Ivey to play a heavy melange of country, jazz, blues and rock covers
alongside rock-solid originals in all styles. This mix is gorgeously captured on The Brothers recent
live cd, "Start the engine and drive away".
(Sam Hurwitt / Rock in a hard place 2000)
Tonight's show was at the Arnada Café in Vancouver. The turnout was heavy for a very hot billing,
starting with a performer out of San Francisco named Eric McFadden. This guy was really amazing!
Usually, he's with his band, The Eric McFadden Experience, or tours with George Clinton but
tonight he was solo, playing an acoustic nylon-stringed guitar through the whole set. His
classical influences were obvious and his riffs were mind-blowing! Watching him perform gave me
shivers. Keep your eyes out for him to swing through P-town again and make it a point to go
see him!
(Steve Kinchen, April,2001 F-Stop section of Jam Magazine)
Says the SF Weekly; "Eric McFadden's guitar playing would stand out in any environment; it
negotiates the terrain between Flamenco, C&W, and Acid Rock with ease. Add to that his
distinctly rasp voice and macabre lyrical sensibilities and you have a blend that has made Liar,
and now The Eric McFadden Experience, a local favorite."
"If I were asked who's the artist of the year 'round these parts... I would have to say
Eric McFadden. His sextets' shadowy carny-rock and gloomy Americana beautifully showcases
McFadden's flamenco-fueled guitar work, husky baritone and gleefully twisted lyrics..."
(Sam Hurwitt, Pacific Sun)
"McFadden's fingers dance across the guitar strings with an ease that betrays a pact with
the devil..."(Silke Tudor)
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