Club Foot Orchestra is an aggregation of perversely independent musicians that coalesce at various times to perform live and to showcase and record the rich scores they have composed for undersung classic movies.

CLUB FOOT ORCHESTRA

notes by Richard Marriott _________________________________________________________________

The Club Foot on Third Street in San Francisco was the brainchild of Richard Kelly, a composer/visionary who studied with John Cage and David Tudor. It was Kelly's obsession to marry high art values to the vitality of underground performance art; to fuse Frank Sinatra, Roy Orbison and Albert Ayler and project that onto the art-rock stage. I lived in the flat above the Foot and formed an orchestra to perform there. Following a peculiar egalitarian ethic, all musicians were welcome to play; beginners took simple, but essential roles, virtuosos played the showy and difficult parts, and improvisers soloed over the top. Our first name was "Orquestra FOOT A Dentra La Boca" but when we started playing out we were rechristened the "Club Foot Orchestra". We played every club in town; people danced like they were on the Titanic. This period was documented on two recording on the Ralph label, "Wild Beasts" and "Kidnapped".

A friend of mine suggested that it might be fun for the band to play bizarre music behind '50's sitcoms. With this in my brain, I watched "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", an expressionist flick done by Robert Weine in 1919. The fantastic sets and dreamlike imagery seemed eternally contemporary. But the music was wrong, so I wrote a new score. While I was writing the music for the somnambulist's emergence from his coffin, the door of my cabin violently blew open and I felt a cold hand on my shoulder.

Caligari was a success, so I wrote a score for F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu", the original and scariest telling of the Dracula myth. Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" offered an opportunity to update the Futurist music of the twenties. The classic 1926 silent portrays a technological future where workers toil with mind-numbing devotion to their machinery while the privleged few pursue their pleasures in palaces built in the sky. Our movie scores became more collaborative with six composers contributing to the Metropolis score.

Venturing away from our expressionist diet: "Felix the Cat Woos Whoopie", Max Fleischer's "Koko Convict" (score by Steve Kirk), Peter McCandless's "Pool of Thanatos" (score by Beth Custer), Rene Clair's "Entr'Acte" (score by Erik Satie) are among the films we present. Our score for Keaton's "Sherlock Jr. is due to be released on home video later this year.

Next up (big timpani roll) Neuromancer the Opera, premiering March 3, 1995 at Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley, Music by Richard Marriott, Libretto by Jayne Wenger and Marc Lowenstein, Featuring the Club Foot Orchestra and Pamela Z. _________________________________________________________________

CURRENT PERSONNEL:

Richard Marriott Brass, woodwinds, synthetics, compositions Beth Custer Clarinets, keyboard, compositions Steve Kirk Guitars, compositions Miles Boisen Bass/Guitar, compositions Sheldon Brown Woodwinds, compositions Matt Brubeck Cello Elliot Cavee Percussion Catherine Clune Violin Chris Grady Trumpet Deirdre McClure Conductor Nik Phelps Woodwinds, brass, compositions

SOME PAST PLAYERS:

Snakefinger, Eric Drew Feldman, J. Raoul Brody, Opter Flame, Dave Barrett, Gino Robair, Josh Ende, Dick Egner, Julian Smedley, Steed Cowart, Arny Young, Dave Kopplin, Doug Morton, Bob Lipton, Kaila Flexor, Kenny Wollesen, Jason Marsh, Bonnie Kane, Neil Kaku, Bruce Ackley, Eugene Chadbourne, Matt Heckert, Karl DeLovely

RECORDINGS AND VIDEOS BY MAIL

Nosferatu Video $20 Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Video $20 Pool of Thanatos Video $20

Metropolis/ Pool of Thanatos CD $12 Sherlock Jr/ Felix Woos Whoopie CD $12 Kidnapped/Wild Beasts CD $12 Nosferatu audio cassette $10

T-SHIRTS (100% COTTON, SPECIFY M-L-XL)

Nosferatu (red or black) $12 Caligari $12 Metropolis $12 Sherlock Jr. $12 Retrospective $12

POSTERS:

Complete Retrospective $5 Metropolis $5

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POSTAGE & HANDLING:

$3 first item. $0.50 each additional piece.

Make checks or money order payable to Club Foot Orchestra. Include your phone number in case we have any problem filling your order.

Send all correspondence to: Club Foot Orchestra PO Box 193202 San Francisco CA 94119 _________________________________________________________________

Richard Marriott - marriott@agames.com - VOX: 408/434-3726 Time Warner Interactive - 675 Sycamore Drive - Milpitas CA 95035