Album Notes

Artistically speaking, Richard Griffith is all over the map. His influences include everything from Edgard Varese to The Jam to TV cop shows to Neil Innes to the Ventures to 50's B sci-fi movies to Japanese power pop to 70's UFO abduction paranoia literature to Frank Zappa, Jay Ungar, Tom Waits, They Might Be Giants, The Archies (the cartoon, comic books AND bubble gum pop group), Monty Python, Ed Wood, Charles Fort, Marcel DuChamp, the Hair Bear Bunch, Jonny Quest, the Marx Brothers (but NOT the Stooges--unless you're talking about Iggy Pop), the Ritz Brothers, the Chambers Brothers, the Buscema brothers, Steve Ditko, Steve Gerber, the Fuzztones, Bart Hopkin, Harry Partch, lutenist Nigel North, those wild Japanese robot toys from the 1980's, and every single dog in the whole wide world, plus a whole bunch of other stuff for which there just isn't room to list here...

"Take the Stairs" is Richard's second CD of songs and instrumentals born from the fertile melting pot of those many and disparate influences and lovingly hand-crafted in a home studio he likes to call his "Secret Underground Laboratory." Stylistically, the music on TTS ranges from fake jazz to blues to bubble gum punk and power pop to neo-traditionalist to acid rockabilly to reggae (sort of), and the content of the songs runs a gamut from sweet to sarcastic, sublime to just plain silly. There's probably something for everyone here, especially for listeners with a love of pop cultural references and an ear for the occasional sardonically exploited musical cliche (and the guy is a pretty darned good guitar player besides). This stuff is just plain fun and no Richard Griffith CD collection would be complete without it. If you liked "The Tool Factory Project" you'll love "Take the Stairs."

Stay tuned--there's more of this stuff to come!

Oh, and while you're here, give a listen to Richard's Renaissance lute CD's "Bonny Sweete Boy" and "A Renaissance Portrait." Great for relaxation--and they make great gifts for mom!