{"id":3478,"date":"2015-06-05T18:59:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T17:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2018-02-06T01:02:18","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T01:02:18","slug":"dozenq-tav-falco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/dozenq-tav-falco\/","title":{"rendered":"DozenQ – Tav Falco"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 1 of 20 in the series DozenQ 2<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

In his work as a visual artist, writer and rock and roll musician Tav Falco<\/strong> has crafted an immediately recognizable blend of all things unique, visionary, familiar and yet obscure, dark\/light and straight up stylish and rockin\u2019. His recent book \u2013 Ghosts Behind the Sun: Splendor, Enigma & Death<\/em> (Creation Books<\/a>) \u2013 is a trip through the city of Memphis\u2019 history that is part Falco biography, surreal fiction, crime noir and hipster gutter trawl. Fact mingles with hallucination and Tav pins the throttle.<\/p>\n

If Tav comes to town with his Unapproachable Panther Burns combo or to do a book reading and presentation be sure not to miss it. They don\u2019t often come as cool as Mr. Falco…<\/p>\n

01 The book (Ghosts Behind the Sun: Splendor, Enigma & Death) was fabulous. I have to say though that some of the folks scared the bejeezus out of me \u2013 and I\u2019m not talking here more about the wild ones from a hundred years ago either! My guess is there were more than a few dark, hot and humid nights that you found your pace quicken on a walk home?<\/h3>\n

Although I am now far away, the dark nights and steamy red\/gray dawns of Memphis by the torrential Mississippi still haunt me\u2026 the world ends at dawn, right?<\/p>\n

02 I\u2019d like to ask you a little about motorbikes. My guess is you don\u2019t have one now, or do you? Further to that, any interest in vintage scooters?<\/h3>\n

Just sold a 1969 Norton Commando to Germany, but I\u2019ve already placed a deposit on a black & beige 1961 Norton Dominator 99 in England. I\u2019m an inveterate Norton rider, though there is a place in the stable for a late 60s BSA Thunderbolt and an early 50s Triumph Speed Twin. For a mid-60s Lambretta 150, I once drove from Paris to L\u2019Aquila (The Eagle), Italy (now destroyed by earthquake). I spent a summer with the scooter in Ljubljana. It was a fun machine with great character.<\/p>\n

03 While a percentage of your audience and fan base are more than likely familiar with the artistic concepts behind Panther Burns, those that aren\u2019t \u2013 at least as far as I see it \u2013 are still getting a heck of a rockin\u2019 combo on top of some of the more heady ideas.  What are your feelings on that component of your audience and how much your skill as a musician has developed?<\/h3>\n

Panther Burns are a vision. It is an Orphic vision\u2026 not of the cosmos, nor of the mystic and the airy heavens, but a vision of the underground, of the unconscious where dark waters swirl. We have one song to sing, and we sing it different ways: with a hoodoo gait, or with the shimmer of falling moonlight over burning mansions, or with the sensual curve of a farewell embrace as the master rides off to battle with coat tails flying, never to be seen again\u2026.<\/p>\n

04 Well then it completely makes sense that you and your musical contributors also have a taste for vintage and exotic guitars. What is the story behind that beautiful black Hofner of yours anyway? I admit to have been admiring it from afar for a great many years now.<\/h3>\n

My association with the H\u00f6fner violin-shaped 6-string guitar began rather early in the trajectory of Panther Burns. The first one I played was found in a Memphis attic around 1980 by a guitarist in the Randy Band. It was brown. I bought it and played it for awhile. Then I traded it for a Gretsch (seen on the Red Devil<\/em> record cover). The Gretsch hardly had the sound and character of the H\u00f6fner, and when I saw a black one appear in a vintage shop in Memphis, I pounced on it. The black H\u00f6fner has the same factory installed active, push-button fuzz tone and treble boost that the brown one had. The guitar has become the signature sound of the Panther Burns, and I have not played another guitar over the past 30 years. It has a neck like a baseball bat, but it is an indestructible German workhorse.<\/p>\n

05 Ghosts Behind the Sun discusses a number of the great Memphis music legends, are there any new things coming out of Memphis that you have heard lately that piqued your interest?<\/h3>\n

Sam Phillips, I once heard say that Nashville has a great thing going, but Memphis will always be a place for innovation. Let\u2019s put it this way: in my mind, the Blues are eternal, and Saturday nights on Beale St., there will always be somebody picking a guitar on the corner or in a back alley evoking the twangs of love lost and won, of a working stiff\u2019s misery, of the whip of the boss man, of the moans of hungry children, of mean women and the curse of betrayal, of dice tumbling in a leather horn, of the reaching arm of the law, of the pleasures of the brothel, and the laughter and tears of the Devil\u2019s own music.<\/p>\n

06 Your new home of Vienna is famous for a number of things including cafes. Have you found one that you can call your own?<\/h3>\n

Of the many caf\u00e9s and Kaffeh\u00e4user <\/em>in merry, sinister old Vienna, I have a number of favorites. If I were to name one that is my Stammcafe<\/em> or regular haunt, I would say Caf\u00e9 Central in the 1st<\/sup> district. It is a part of the neo-Gothic Palais Ferstil with vaulted high ceilings, enamel inlays, geometric frescoes, and lofty paintings of faded nobility. There is a fleet of waiters or Kellners <\/em>scurrying over the parquet floors, serving coffee, champagne, and chocolate on small silver trays along with tasty, yet affordable meals. The Viennese tortes served there are exquisite. One can hardly be surprised that Caf\u00e9 Central was the Stammcafe <\/em>of choice by Sigmund Freud and his coterie of psychoanalysts. A place for camaraderie, it was the caf\u00e9 where Leon Trotsky played his habitual games of chess, while the Viennese pooh-poohed his dreams of revolution.<\/p>\n

07 Sounds fabulous. Of course you have also lived in some pretty diverse places including Paris and New York but what intrigues me too is your time spent in Buenos Aries. How did that all come about?<\/h3>\n

What drew me to Buenos Aires was the lure of the Tango, which I still dance religiously. In the words of Isadora Duncan in 1916 when she visited Argentina,
\n\u201cMy first steps were timid, but the feeling of the languid music caused my body to respond to the voluptuousness of the dance. Soft as a caress, toxic as love under the midday sun, cruel and dangerous as a tropical forest.”<\/p>\n

08 Let\u2019s get back to motorcycles here for a moment… Full face helmet? Half helmet and goggles? Gloves? I imagine driving in old cities like Paris and Vienna being quite a challenge in comparison to the open highways of the south. Apart from you are certainly less likely to run into an armadillo of course…<\/h3>\n

Although the occasional armadillo crossing the road can prove to be a daunting hazard, one thing I do miss about Arkansas is riding the unfettered, leafy back roads. In Europe riding the country lanes on my Norton Dominator 99 is kind of like a sultry burn through Camelot.  For a short burn say around the Ringstrasse of Vienna or a fast burn around the Trocad\u00e9ro, I wear a half-helmet with a leather chinstrap leather gloves, and aviator goggles. For a medium run over the H\u00f6henstrasse (High Road), a scenic road built in 1937 through the Vienna Woods overlooking the city, I put on a jet-helmet that is black with a white center stripe. For long hauls at maximum thrust, I wear a solid white full coverage casque and put on long gauntlet gloves. Invariably, I ride wearing the black and silver trimmed net-vest of the PBMC (Panther Burns Motorcycle Club).<\/p>\n

09 Do you miss the comfort food of the south very often or was that never really your thing?<\/h3>\n

If you mean God\u2019s own watermelon, Yes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

10 Ghosts Behind the Sun has been out a good 7 or 8 months now. I know you have mixed up readings with a photo display and even screenings of your video work and a performance by Panther Burns. Probably a bit hard to get a rock and roll crowd to be quiet during a reading, no?<\/h3>\n

Reading in London at Rough Trade Records East on May 30th<\/sup>, you could hear a pin drop. Geoff Travis, president of RT, was there and can attest to that.<\/p>\n

11 Could you see yourself moving back to the US at some point or is life in Europe somehow better suited to your interests?<\/h3>\n

Life in Europe holds the utmost fascination, and I am living in a neutral country far removed from the aggression of war profiteering and the poisonous campaigns of Monsanto.<\/p>\n

12 What\u2019s next musically and artistically, if that isn\u2019t gonna give too much away?<\/h3>\n

Presently I am editing my new 16mm film, URANIA DESCENDING:<\/strong> an intrigue featuring VIA KALI and KARL-HEINZ von RIEGL. Set in the old world of Vienna on the Danube, the narrative follows the precipitous descent of an American innocent who falls into discreet, yet decadent dalliances at Hotel Orient and her ultimate submersion beneath the dark, swirling waters of Lake Atter.<\/p>\n

Photo: Via Kali<\/em><\/p>\n

LINKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tav on Myspace<\/a><\/p>\n

Nice Fan Site<\/a><\/p>\n

PERSONNEL<\/strong><\/p>\n