Alex Chilton

Well, he died.

Can't pretend to know much about him - his records kept bumping me at Record Fairs until i eventually bought a few. Some friends hurled Big Star records at me against my will until I eventually gave in, and came to love Kanga Roo etc with all those beautiful blends and swells and curls and waves. A great guitar sound, proper surf guitar...

Actual surf guitar doesn't sound anything like the sea, much more like newly laid tarmac and slightly fucked tires.

As far as these things go, Alex Chilton seemed very real, not that I've ever really respected that as such but still... there was no artifice, he seemed to love the music he played and produced to it's very bones... didn't try too hard to be cool, didn't play the postmodernist, just played.

Loved his production work with The Cramps, very, er, uncramped... let them breathe zombie fuzz over everything... let the guitars open doors... let the drums thud like Bargeld's ribs...

R.I.P.