Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Byrds, Tom Petty, Spacemen 3, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, 13th Floor Elevators, the Electric Prunes, Woody Guthrie, Beachwood Sparks, the Tyde, the Rolling Stones, Wiskey Biscuit, the Quarter After, the Belle Isle, the Ragas, Jim and Roger McGuinn, George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, the Jeevas, John Coltrane, Gene Clark, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, Richie Furay, Poco, Manassas, Buffalo Springfield, Love, Bob Forrest, Brad Sucks, Harout Pamoukjian, John Berberian, Natasha Atlas, Serart, Boris Grebenshikov, Shturcite, Andy Madadian, Paul Baghdadlian and other Armenian and World music, the Velvet Underground, Plastic People of the Universe, Flat People (my brother's band), Merle Haggard, George Jones, the Louvin Brothers, Johnny Cash, Roky Erickson, NWA, people who don't give up, Anton Newcombe and You.
Here's the PR bit where I make myself look cool. No trying; I am cool. It's really not a band; it's just me. I am a rambler in pursuit of happiness who has lived in various states across the U.S. I have lived in Gunnison, Colorado, Dallas, Texas, Hollywood, California, Highland Park, Texas also known as the Bubble, and now Pernik, Bulgaria.
I have been involved in music to some degree since I was 11 years old. I was a band geek playing trombone and in my freshmen year of high school I took up the guitar. I figured why not, my last name is "Guittard." My other choice was to go sell chocolate for the Guittard Chocolate Company in California. Don't think sales is my thing so I chose to play guitar. I may still knock on the Guittard Chocolate Factory door some day.
During college I played in jazz bands and recorded on my 4-track. Then I found myself adjusting insurance claims as a career. It wasn't much of a career. If you've seen the movie "Office Space" then you know the environment. That was it.
So, I moved to Hollywood, California to study at a music school and after that I randomly met up with Roger McGuinn's son for a musical duo. Roger was one of the founders of the Byrds. The duo was with Henry McGuinn. We named it the Ragas after the style of music that emerged on the Byrds album "5D." The style stemmed from Raga Royalty Ravi Shankar. Henry and I gigged around a bit and then called it quits.
After that, I became more involved in the Brian Jonestown Massacre scene in Silverlake, California. Anton Newcombe once stepped in at my time of need to prevent me getting my head beat in at a Hollywood Hills party by saying, "This is all just a misunderstanding." It was a bit wild in Hollywood to say the least.
In Bulgaria, for the next year, I will teach English. I will record and post my new demos that I record on my laptop, the equipment I have available. After Bulgaria, I may take a trip to the moon.
Its rather fun to leave comments, and its very wonderful getting them, plus we get to say Hi too new and old friends! So Hello my friend and have a wonderful week...
I heard you were out of the corps and stickin' around bulgaria for a while. Good deal. I hope you can bring me back a Russian UAZ 31512 army personnel carrier when you come back. If you do indeed come back. I still listen to "Once Around the Moon" alot. Brings back memories that are just as strange as my daily thoughts.
i enjoy long walks on the beach, reading books by the fireplace and training carrier pigeons. My hobbies are stamp collecting, writing superman fan-fiction and seeing how many marshmallows i can stuff into my mouth at once. I once met Cuba Gooding Jr. at a restaurant in New Jersey. I can speak 3 languages (if you count pig latin and klingon) I enjoy long bubble baths with my pet mastiff, his name is mr. fluffypaws. In gym class in 11th grade I could do 6 pushups. Anyways, I just wanted to say hi and brag a bit about myself...hope you are having a great evening...you know, the kind of evening when everything is going right...Wizard of Oz is on TV and the ice cream truck has a flat tire and a malfunctioning cooler and he has tons of ice-cream to give out for free. mmmmmm. whats your favorite ice-cream? I don't really like Ice cream. But I can SOMETIMES eat peanut butter cup...but then again, ANYTHING would taste good if it has some peanut butter cup in it...you could have liver and onions with some peanut butter cup sauce and it would be deliciousness
okay, im going to stop now and hope you will respond to my delightful queries..
Jim, Actually I just finished listening to the Flat People CD. Salim sent me a copy, just arrived yesterday. Great stuff. I found you on the Flat People MySpace site. How's it way over there in Bulgaria? Ron
out of interest, how did you end up in Bulgaria, was it just one of those things, where the last thing you remember is a bit shadowy due to some outside factor that remains nameless due to dubious legality, but the occasion may have involved a cow, some fire extinguishers and an industrial size jar of marmalade, then the next thing you know you wake up in, well, in your case Bulgaria. Or not?
Thanks for finding us here in space. Read your blogs and listened to your songs. You're the guy we make music for. Keep walking the path, brother. See you when we get there.
