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Sidetracked

from Code Duello by DUENDE!

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Jeff Howitt - vox/lyrics, rhythm guitar
Laura "The Boom" Willem - drums
Jorge "Cortez" Krautner - electric guitar, vox
Lance T. Sanders - electric guitar, vox
Ryan Milligan - electric bass, vox

credits

from Code Duello, released November 3, 2007
Tracks 1-3 Recorded at The Cortez Summer Palace/Winter Stronghold adjacent to 8 Mile Rd in Ferndale, MI by Turtle Jon July 7th-9th 2006 with a different line up each session. Though unreleased the project that by September would be known as DUENDE! and it's title "On The Steps Of The Summer Palace" began to circulate amongst friends with this track listing:

1. Last Time
2. Feelin' Don't Feel Right
3. Code Duello *
4. Runnin'
5. Sidetracked *
6. Surrendre' *
7. On The Steps

July 7th: Feeling Don't Feel Right /Code Duello/Sidetracked/Surrendre
Jeff Howitt - vox/lyrics, rhythm guitar
Laura "The Boom" Willem - drums
Jorge "Cortez" Krautner - electric guitar, vox
Lance T. Sanders - electric guitar, vox
Ryan Milligan - electric bass, vox
*this ensemble performed as DUENDE! for the first four gigs

July 8th: Last Time / Runnin'
Jeff Howitt - vox/lyrics, rhythm guitar
Laura "The Boom" Willem - drums
Jorge "Cortez" Krautner - electric guitar
"Lo-Fi" Brian Rozman - electric bass, vox

July 9th: On The Steps Of The Summer Palace
*this the only track could be salvaged from the final session with Red China and features Ryan Milliigan on bass playing a repetitive piece of music Howitt wrote but did not play on in the recording.
Ryan Milligan - electric bass
Jason Worden - 12 string guitar
Mike Ross - wah wah pedal guitar
Frank Lee - drums

THE UNEDITED VERSION:

“A certain uncertainty” quipped guitarist L.T. Sanders of what he brought to the sonic swell of Duende, a rootsy, psychedelic rock band brandishing a layered, driving Americana rock sound that shakes hips as much as twists minds.

“Sterling called us a ‘Classic Detroit Party Band,’” said Jeffrey “Odidlee” Scott, imitating the mumble of the bearded eccentric, as music floats in from the dining room into the living room at the Cortez Winter Stronghold.

The Flamin’ Groovies, as well as (of course-) the Stones have been thrown around in casual conversations describing Duende. “Though it’s hard to do anything with rock n roll and not end up sounding like the Stones,” chuckles Odidlee.

A “diverse cast” fatefully formed on a summer-solstice jam with “each member involved a leader of their own project,” making Duende an amalgamation of long-time musicians (with the exception of intensely dedicated novice drummer Laura Willem) lead by guitarist Odidlee, veteran musical hep cat and writer who had numerous songs with which he assembled his allies to experiment. “It’s more us responding to each other than trying to have ‘a sound,’” Odidlee said. “It’s discordance rooted in Americana.”

“Like Wilco took some DMT,” said Sanders (also of Bored Housewives). The current line-up also includes Jorge Krautner (of the Brothers Cortez) who brings “dynamic flash and fireworks” and Jayson Worden (of Red China and Raccoon) who brings “raw dissonance.”

“Duende really started,” Odidlee said, “in impromptu moments at Jorge's (the Bros. Cortez) house with Ryan Milligan (the Hotwalls)on bass. Jorge and Ryan would switch out on drums and guitars as I strummed out songs that at that time had no accompaniment. During a thunder storm on the summer solstice where the power blacked out we played with Laura Willem on drums and it worked well. My engineer Turtle Jon who I met on the touring circuit was on his way back to New York so I set up a weekend recording session as he passed through Detroit. I invited L.T. Sanders(Bored Housewives),a long time collaborator to join the main line up for the session and we cut the most crucial tracks together. The chemistry, the alchemy, the duende was so potent we decided to press forward and have written as many new songs.”

“We were thrown together,” said Sanders. “It wasn’t supposed to be a band, but then it ended up being one…”

A live set can be quite enthralling – conjuring cyclones of a driving, droning, feed-back laden freakbeat.

The name means the moment one chooses between the light and the dark “and sometimes stays in-between,” Jeff explained, with a sound recalling the disorienting beauty of the Velvet Underground, the shuffle of Chuck Berry and the alluring insanity of Captain Beefheart.

Willem has been drumming regularly, “…pretty much since we decided, ‘okay, we’re gonna start playing these songs out now…” she laughs.

Odidlee is also the founder of LocoGnosis records, which will look forward to a slew of releases later this year, including perhaps an autumn debut of Duende material.

“Duende collectively seems to work most naturally from a Chuck Berry shuffling,” said Odidlee. “…country rock rhythmic core but risks a shivering entropy which drives our drummer, Laura, nuts, but we take that route, that chance to establish a snaking Beefheartying train; applying discordant Americana(folk and garage)modes in almost be-bop improv jazz style as if we went to New York to find Woody Guthrie ourselves but found Lou Reed and Sonic Youth instead.”

“The why or where of the prolific nature,” said Odidlee in regards to the amount of songwriting he’s done, staggering amounts even in the last decade, let alone his lifetime, “is probably originated in having a stutter which used to make me hold my thoughts back and when I started to write I actually felt like I was seeing my imagination for the first time and it became a ritual almost as it gave me a better guide of where I was than my own feelings. It really is a relationship. I used to call my '64 Gibson Hollowbody by the name of one of the ladies in a Chuck Berry song but recently Gino from the Gypsy Strings showed me the light with an attitude that was passed down to me about the guitar or really any instrument that you don't name it! You are at war with the damned thing. It owns you. You will never master it. Like don't think you have a pet. That pet owns you. You feed it, clean it. Give it unconditional attention which some may argue as love but you don't have to love to have respect. It may come afterward – after the struggle. So now when I open my guitar case I am like "alright you son of a bitch!" Writing is like that to. My head swims with ideas if I don't ground them and give them a place in the world. That sound didn't exist until you made it or uttered it but it exists without you."

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