Today's download of the week is actually two songs, both written by cohorts of mine that have had major influences on my musical life, and both performed by Zony Mash. The first is “Sex Fiend,” by John Zorn, from our first CD, “Cold Spell.” The second is “Electric Sandworm” by Tim Young.

For those of you who don’t know, Zorn is a significant composer and performer, winner of the MacArthur, and a lifelong New Yorker- and major contributor to what has come to be known, for better or for worse, as the “downtown scene.” It was in the late 70s that John and I met on the lower east side in Manhattan, and we worked together steadily throughout the 80’s and 90’s.

Tim Young, who is currently the guitar player in Reggie Watts’ band on The Late Late Show, has probably contributed more guitar playing to my music then anyone else on the planet, and I have been lucky to play with a lot of great guitar players. Why he doesn’t top guitar polls every year could be a mystery to me, but it isn’t. He certainly deserves it musically, but he just doesn’t roll that way, and honestly I don’t think he gives a shit. I’ve rarely met a musician who is so constantly inventive, and unpredictable (in a good way!).

Sex Fiend was described by Zorn, if I remember correctly, as "The Meters meets Corrosion of Conformity.” Since Zony Mash had the same instrumentation as The Meters it was a good fit. And fun as hell to play. One problem with Naked City was that we played so many different charts, the book was so huge, that we rarely got deeply inside a tune, and I certainly was always looking at the charts on gigs. It was fun to take this tune, in Zony Mash, and really get it under our skin. The bass solo at the end, by Fred Chalenor, is great. Keith Lowe, who joined the band in 1999, takes a different approach live. It’s epic, distorted, ethereal, and is often the high point of the evening.

Zorn’s music is probably, in the popular imagination, known for being challenging, different and unusual. Electric Sandworm may, however, win the prize for out and out strange. Tim doesn’t write a lot, but I wish he would more. He has a singular imagination, with a dark wit that borders on ironic but in the end is a lot deeper then that.

Zony Mash played its last shows as a quartet in 2003, at The Rainbow Tavern in Seattle, which became a home away from our real home, The OK Hotel, which closed after the earthquake in 2001.

We have performed sporadically over the last decade with Zony Mash Plus Horns (ZM plus 4 horns) mostly locally, but also in Europe and up and down the west coast.

This week, for the first time in 13 years, the band will be playing 4 shows as a quartet again. 2 in Seattle, 1 in Olympia and one in Portland. If you live in the Pacific Northwest we hope to see you there.

www.waynehorvitz.com/calendar/