Biography

A seemingly endless -- and endlessly eclectic -- series of releases made the innovative guitarist Eugene Chadbourne one of the underground community's most well-known and well-regarded eccentrics. Chadbourne was raised in Boulder, CO, by his mother, a refugee of the Nazi death camps. Inspired by the Beatles to learn guitar at age 11, Chadbourne began experimenting with distortion pedals and fuzzboxes after hearing Jimi Hendrix. Ultimately, however, he became dissatisfied with rock and pop conventions, traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic one, and began playing bottleneck blues. When Chadbourne discovered jazz, he was initially drawn to John Coltrane and Roland Kirk and later became an acolyte of the avant excursions of Derek Bailey and Anthony Braxton. He studied to become a journalist, and during Vietnam, the vociferously left-wing Chadbourne fled to Canada rather than fight and wasn't allowed back in the country until 1976 when President Jimmy Carter declared amnesty for conscientious objectors. Chadbourne moved to N.Y.C. and plunged headlong into the downtown music scene, released his 1976 debut, Solo Acoustic Guitar, and began collaborating on purely improvisational music with visionary saxophonist John Zorn and acclaimed guitarist Henry Kaiser. Chadbourne carved out a singular style, comprised of equal parts protest music, free improvisation, and avant-garde jazz, topped off with his absurd, squeaky vocals. His subsequent collaborations and genre workouts form a lengthy list indeed, including recordings with artists ranging from Fred Frith and Elliott Sharp to Evan Johns and Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black. His better-known projects include fronting the demented rockabilly revisionist outfit Shockabilly with well-known producer Kramer in the early '80s, and collaborating with the members of Camper Van Beethoven for a one-off covers project in 1987. That same year Chadbourne released an album of his own idiosyncratic brand of country and folk, accurately dubbed LSD C&W. For decades now, Chadbourne has explored unique styles inspired by music from all over the globe, with numerous releases on labels including his own Parachute, and Leo. He also wrote the hilarious and helpful book I Hate the Man Who Runs This Bar! The Survival Guide for Real Musicians.