ROXWORD: Spiritual Demons

Roxword

Spiritual Demons

© 2002 Stephen Roxborough & Midnight Music (656613755228)

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The latest word in spoken word featuring a variety of musical and intellectual directions, moving seamlessly from r&b to jazz to rock to classical to soundscape to new age to music beyond category, all expertly punctuated with mind-bending poetry.

tracks

1 Descent Into Paradise
2 No One but One
3 Groovy Life
4 Sober Awakening
5 White Man's Burden
6 Another Roadside Attraction
7 Old Man of the Forest
8 Good Job
9 Gridlock Blues
10 Ecological Logic
11 Earth to God
12 Wide Awake in Eden
13 Return to Grace
14 Inside Out
15 Flux
16 Soul of Physics
17 Drunken Awakening
18 Buzzzzzzzzzzen
19 Timely Awareness
20 Deathless Death
21 Immaterial Witness

notes

roxword Bio

Born in New York, roxword was raised on the tunes of Ellington and Ella with a healthy dollop of Basie. He studied the words of Wordsworth and Blake. He understood Whitman and Ginsberg and Beckett and Borges and Kerouac and Dylan. He admired the art of Van Gogh and Duchamp and Warhol and Dali. He formed his first band when he was 16. Influenced by The Fugs, Captain Beefheart and Little Walter, Rocky Raccoon's Abnormal Tabernacle Choir and Swing Band, an energetic big band punk blues dada hybrid, were doomed from the start to enigmatic cult obscurity.

No matter. He dug further underground and took harp lessons from Blues Boy Bain, studied Sonny Terry, and rediscovered the pulsating rhythms from the Kalamazoo train yards of his youth. He performed solo in front of sketchy liquor stores, edgy skid row bus stops, and under dark overpasses for dimes and nickels and the odd quart of low-class high-proof vodka. But his luck was changing. He was invited to an audition for a back-up band. roxword was chosen.

As a charter member of the Supersonics, he supported the legendary Eddie Silver, and became a small cog in the big wheel of the first great rock 'n roll revival. Unfortunately, at the height of their popularity, bass player Biker Mike Carter (the Stu Sutcliffe of the group) was fired for incompetence and soon after, real tragedy struck the band. Hotshot drummer Mister Dean and dynamic Silver City Dancer Boy Orbison died too young for a reunion tour. Eddie Silver and the Supersonics soon fell apart, emotionally and musically. Eddie returned to his native Scotland and instead of groupie tarts, he picked up legal torts. In retrospect, the Supersonics were a showtime band and had no patience for the studio. Their only recording, "Live from Lebanon, The Best Damn Dolphin Christmas Party Ever!", was a searing performance perfectly captured by reclusive, misunderstood genius cab driver/producer, Gerg Llewop.

In university, roxword joined the midwest avant-garde scene (Madtown, Wisconsin). He teamed with Broose Presston and Beezer Pohle in a raw but spontaneously crunchy band called The Psycho. Their hard-to-find release "Symphonies for Found Objects" was hailed 'an eerie masterpiece', and disturbed almost everyone who heard it.

After stepping out one day for a divorce, and some fresh air, roxword hopped on his trusty 10-speed and kept on going...over 5,000 miles later, he stopped in Vancouver, Canada and persuaded star vocalist Dentist Dave of the grungy punk wave phenom band The Sluts to defect and join him in the ill-fated "Frippertronics for Fools" project. They worked on it for four years, but could never get it off the ground with only one of the mandatory two Revox tape machines.

He moved to Toronto and met co-conspirators Marcus Hildebrandt and David Junkin. Together they created the infamous under- ground dadaist drinking/performance/art club, 'The Group of Three and a Half'. Shouts of "COCCCKKKROOOOOOOOACH!" were often heard in hip pubs and better restaurants throughout the city. Livers were seriously challenged. The mysterious half-member was never fully revealed. roxword issued a short-run series of lithographs called 'Visual Rap'. Featuring 13 designs, these retro-punk ransom note Zen-poems cut through the clutter in galleries, bookstores, offices, restaurants, homes, dustbins...wherever they're found.

It was a long 10-year stretch before roxword released another statement. After a vagabond trip around the world (doing time in Buddhist monasteries and urban zoos) he moved to the suburban wasteland of Las Vegas and hand-picked two lunatic young men from the advertising grind. In Keyboard Karl Sutton and Bachelor Christopher Benham, he saw the perfect foil for his spoken word rants and Duchampian funk. "spiritual demons" is the result of their collaboration in the desert.

reviews

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  • loved your poem on the clean sheets site - very hypnotic
    author: jimfan

    sorry- haven't heard this cd as of yet - live in small town up north ontario canada - don't get alternative music much.just want to tell you i loved your poem. the tantric reference in your bio sounds interesting too..regards.

  • fer shizzle,it's gr8
    author: rose wild

    ok mr roxword. i have listened more to this cd and feel my previous rating needs an upgrade.think leonard cohen or tom waite. i really dig the sounds but your voice still rox my world

  • love the artist,.would like to hear more of his whispers.
    author: rose wild

    there is something about his voice that carries his words to my heart.for me the music was a bit overpowering and i found the words from his lips didn't always make it to my earlobe.

  • Get this CD if you have not heard anything original for awhile..
    author: Stan Knoblich

    I received a copy of Spiritual Demons about a month ago. About a week ago I finally listened to it. After playing music for 40 years and listening to every would be lyricist and poet, songwriter from here to Bogotá. I thought I was going to hear another Ginsberg want-to-be reciting gibberish with some new age techno crap playing in the back ground. Boy, was I wrong! This is some of the most original stuff I have heard in years. Listening to this CD re-ignited a lot of creative juices I thought were gone. Get this!

  • Makes me thirsty!
    author: Greg Dorian

    Saw a few amazing shows in Vancouver this summer, the most electrifying, a night of spoken word with Roxword and Canadian sound poet legend bill bissett. Roxword ranted, whispered and exploded on stage. Haven’t experienced something as wild and intoxicating in a long time. Left thirsty for more poetry and whisky or ale, as Roxword resurrected ‘The Ghost of Dylan Thomas’ beautifully. A highlight of the show. Just recently purchased, “Spiritual Demons,” a wild ride into the wisdom and humour of this artist. Throw Burroughs, Bill Hicks, Sam Beckett and Duchamp into a petri dish and see Rox emerge, smiling.

  • Great...an opera of poetry
    author: Ricky Yeo

    I saw Steve last week celebrating his 50th...and doing it with a poetry reading in style. Picked up this CD, and I have not listened to anything since...powerful, haunting, funny words, and some great music. Amazing!

  • A Rembrantian rant. Behan like pint sized logic. Powerful.
    author: eddie silver

    An electric and eclectic collection of Rembrantian rants, funkadelic parliamentarianism, transparent lies and cool jazz. On one track, he's the noisy drunk at the end of the bar who just might be the reincarnation of Brendan Behan, on another track...well, there are enough demons here to suit anyone's fancy. All you have to do is listen.

  • author: Tony Prior

    Just got home to Budapest after a long flight and met a guy on the plane who was listening to Roxword's Spiritual Demons. He kept playing it over and over (it's a long flight) and I eventually asked him what he was listening to. He told me the little he knew about Roxword and let me have a listen (pointing out a few of his favourites). I immediately starting grooving (the poetry is insightful and full of wisdom yet not without a beautiful, mild altering rhythm). I just got off the net, looking for where I can buy it and found cd baby. I'm buying it and looking forward to its arrival!

  • Plays well in coffee shops
    author: Wendel Evans

    In our coffee shop we often play new, cutting edge funk, jazz and spoken word. Last month our boss returned from the states with a new cd, 'Spiritual Demons' by Roxword. It went into our carousel and in no time, there was a flood of customers asking who the cd was by. It became our late night request among staff and never left the cd player. Interesting mix. Never gets boring. I've never been to Vegas but after hearing 'Roadside Attraction' I want to make the journey. This guy is a visionary. I hope to catch his performance some time.

  • 4-3-2-1 engage engines and take off....
    author: Shane McNee

    After seeing roxword last june in a poetry festival, i was compelled to steal one of his cd's off his chapbook/cd table. I walked out, feeling kind of guilty, and went home and plugged him in. I played the entire cd over and over that night and, with penance in my heart, made a vow with god. I will not steal cd's or chapbooks from struggling artists ever again. Roxword's 'spiritual demons' helped me see the light. Buy it where you can. This guy's vision is amazing...

  • it shocked me, it tantalized me, it woke me up
    author: rivka

    what an album! this guy has it all: great voice, powerful performance and haunting poetry. this one is a winner. for anyone who likes a little life with their lyrics, this is for you. Wake Up and drink it in...roxword doesn't pull his punches.

  • Rox scores a homerun in his demonic debut
    author: iain macleod

    "We are all ghost poets simply composing our complicated lives…" Track 9, Gridlock Blues I've enjoyed the poems and prose of Roxword for several years now. This is a guy who never loses his sense of humour while tackling head-on all the questions we find so hard to answer in life-or else find hard to accept. I mean, who can argue with the rapier-like point of "Ecological logic"… flush it dust it wash it bag it burn it plant it dig it suck it sweep it keep it but all we do is move our dirt around. That same kind of in-your-face-with-a-sense-of-grace attitude is now spread across 21 tracks on Roxword's debut CD, "Spiritual Demons". This time he's in the company of a team of equally poetic musicians including Christopher Benham ("america's most wanted playboy on the ultimate bachelor make-out drum kit"), and Karl Sutton ("feature-flavored maestro on retro-ghetto keyboards"). "There's a saw in my brain buzzin like a hurrican and it's takin' down trees like they had some disease…" Track 8, Everyone needs a good job There are some real masterpieces here, beginning with track two, no one but one, in which Roxword plays the role of a small-town circus barker inviting one and all to "step right up and witness the six-headed monster of your own desires". Check out track 6, roadside attraction, a poem sprung from the moral twists and turns on the road of life Still trying to get a fix on what Roxword is all about? Take a tablespoon of TomWaits, add a cup of conscience, stir in a siren voice, combine with one beat machine plus guitars and a keyboard--then let rise for one hour as you sit back and relax while gems like 'return to grace' and 'immaterial witness' wash over you. Go ahead and treat yourself to this wonderful debut by a truly gifted poet/performer.

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