“I would say it’s orchestrated baroque glam psych” says musician Kristian Hoffman about his music. With a signature sound more Queen than “queen”, Hoffman is heading for the City of Angels to do his thing. (It’s an inside joke, it’s getting late and your newly-employed, favorite crusty chronicler is struggling for a novelty lead . . . but, I digress!)
The point is LA music lovers will be able to see this talented tunesmith perform songs from his most recent recording, the critically-acclaimed, FOP, at 8:00 pm on February 4th at The Steve Allen Theater. Hoffman, who is also a graphic artist, musical director, songwriter, and regular contributor to several other bands’ work, was queried about his multi-tasking and where his true loyalties lie
He responded: “I was ‘trained’ to be an artist as a child, and it was sort of what I was expected to do. I had a very easy facility with a pen and a brush. My parents couldn't figure out why I kept pounding away on the piano. There was much slamming of doors and snide ridicule of my keyboard ineptitude.
“But it was music that always really inspired me – that could conjure complete Technicolor environments with the touch of a record stylus, and send me into a waking dream where no journey was impossible, no statement was too outrageous, no style too outré, and no beauty too transcendent. That’s the altar I wish to serve at. And – it’s a lot of fun!
“Even at it’s most basic, you get to gather a community of friends about you to make fabulous mud pies – the creating of which is so thrilling that it almost doesn’t matter that they’re inedible! I just love music, and musicians. So I would keep writing, and hope that had the power to keep me in the warmth of that chosen community.”
Hoffman adds that on Friday night he will be “doing almost the entire (FOP) album with a string quartet (conducted by Jeff Bruner), and guest singers like Ann (Pretty Songs and Ugly Stories) Magnuson and Todd (True Blood) Lowe.” Hoffman, who plays guitar, keyboards and percussion, will also be joined by his backing band drummer Joe Borardi, bassist William Bongiovanni and guitarist David Bongiovanni.
The opening act will include a number to noteworthy friends and collaborators of Hoffman’s tentatively including: Kristi “Wednesday Week” Callahan, Carolyn “3-D Picnic” Edwards as well as Timur Bekbosunov (who Hoffman says he’s been “lucky enough to meet and work with”. Each artist will attempt to cover a Hoffman hit in his or her own inimitable style. Their choices will run the gamut from Hoffman’s current catalogue all the way back to punk pieces from his days in the Mumps.
In a recent interview this reporter asked Hoffman—a former co-founder of Mumps-- if he thought the punk genre still existed.
“DOES it still exist?” he asked. “You mean it’s not some corporate approximation of ‘Ye Olde Punque’ genre dressed up in mall brat clothes about as threatening as the CBGB logo on a shower curtain that you can buy on Amazon?
“Listen, I’m old! I’m a curmudgeon! I was there! To me actual ‘punk’ was over the minute the Orange County bands took it over.
“It stopped being about ideas and invention and outsider-ness, and started being about regimentation and collectivity and easily traced cultural signifiers that didn’t require any creativity at all. It felt unthreatening to me, except that as a f@g one of those stupid skinheads might want to beat me up. Who cares if you can put on a leather jacket and a Mohawk and scream in an unpleasant gravelly voice ‘I hate this and I hate that’. It was like a church for the converted. I don’t like organized religion!
“Is there a contemporary punk scene I don’t know about? I’m sure there is! If so, more power to them. I hope they tear the whole industry down, and while they’re at it, get us some world peace! I may seem precious about my music, but I’m only precious about trying to add something beautiful or moving or humorous to an ugly culture. So get pissed! Destroy!” Hoffman expounded.
Surprisingly, Hoffman initially seems to be a bit humble and believes he sometimes focuses on the past: “I’m pretty clueless about contemporary music, since I have a weekly radio show dedicated to late 60’s psychedelia on Luxuriamusic.com. I have to troll for vintage 45s all week, so I’m sure I wouldn’t hear the greatest music even if it were playing on my own radio. The last new band I got excited about was The Hives. I’m just sort of lost in that past, and I like it!”
The performance in LA, however, will extend well beyond noteworthy covers—punk or otherwise. In fact, Hoffman, whose numerous and eclectic musical credits include working with El Vez, Rufus Wainwright, James White and the Blacks and The Kinks’ Dave Davies, was happy to further describe the music the audience will experience at this concert.
“Kurt B Reighly, the Seattle based DJ and writer, called FOP ‘Van Dyke Sparks’. I thought that was a terrific description of what I’m attempting to do.” Indeed, anyone who has heard the FOP disc would make the same connection as Hoffman has an original, individualistic collection of songs on the project he will be playing from on Friday evening. It certainly seems as though it could be more fun that “formal”. In fact, seeing Hoffman do FOP live might prove to be similar to seeing Brian Wilson do Smile in that it could very well prove to be a memorable moment.
Mark your calendar my open-minded music mavens! The Kristian Hoffman & Friends’ FOP Formal happens here in LA on February 4th, 8:00 pm, at the Steve Allen Theater. Tickets are available here: http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=319128. (If you see your favorite scruffy scribbler in the audience, make sure to wish him a “Happy Birthday”, too!)
My name is Phoenix and . . . that’s the bottom line.
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