FREEDOM ROCK w/ Hilsinger & friends

Hein les filles ? (oui ! oui !)

Since it's July 4th weekend, I'm a gonna highlight some of the music of Doug Hilsinger, great guitarist, and recent birthday boy...he's a fella who flys his freak flag high and believes in the power of Freedom Rock (and friendship).

That's a picture of us above making some Freedom Rock noise right there at the SF Eagle one night. He loves to rip out Beach Boys, Neil Young, Grand Funk and other boogie rock classics with pals like Victor Krummenacher of Camper Van Beethoven and Chris Xefos of King Missile.

One of my fave tunes he ever put to tape is called Enjoy,
and that song really brings to life an uplifting, yet bittersweet tale of good times & friendships that can only be told through the magic of music.

Of those times, there is a video relic or two that I will offer up including a rarely seen 1992 Bomb European tour video, that was the predecessor I gues for today's reality TV. ( here's a quick 1.5 meg excerpt and the full 7 minute 10 meg quicktime). Produced for Warner Bros execs as a way to introduce the band upon their signing, I collaborated with Charles Cohen and Michael Dean and edited it up one twisted night at ATA. Doug has cameos throughout where he tells it like it waz...

The label brass dropped these guys almost as soon as they saw it... I pretty much knew it was a bad idea at the time... but hey... are drugs still a valid excuse?



One night back in the fall of 1994 it was Roger Waters 50th Birthday so we created a tribute act called Punk Floyd to open for Sublime's SF debut. Some guys jumped aboard the ship including Eric McFadden if I recall correctly, and some members of Helios Creed as well as Michael Dean , who was the singer for another group Doug was in called Bomb. They played a 9 song set that was replete with light showfeaturing Michael Dean blowing cigarette smoke and waving a flashlight.

It's all documented in here

LISTEN !!! (22:40 mins, 20.8 mbs, 128 kbps mp3)

Doug spent time in Bomb, one of SF's most heavy & by far notorious bands in the late 80's and early 90's. Here are a couple rarities in mp3 form from now out of print releases.

Bomb to my knowledge were the first to cover Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus, made in Germany for a rare 1990 7" , and it later appeared on a Thrasher magazine CD compliation.

Here's Doug from the Bill Laswell produced Hate Fed Love CD playing guitar on There Is No Promise Of A Future In The Moment and Hot Bloody Hearts along with Jay Crawford on one of the band's suitably doomy tracks featuring Michael's inimitable vocals.

Another of Doug's band's that I have much respect for includes his instrumental group Gifthorse that rocked San Francisco circa 1992 til 1996. They put out a limited run Cd's of 1000 copies on the tiny Piece of Mind imprint, and if their was any justice , y'all woulda heard of these guys & gal by now...

Says Doug of his Gifthorse playing on his Saucefaucet website:
We played instrumental, progressive, heavy, haunting, film soundtrack rock. Perhaps the best example of my live guitar playing, and some of my most favorite pieces ever. These songs earned me the title of 'The Gutter Stravinsky'.

Gifthorse MP3'z




Messenger Sends

Itty Bitty Titty Ditty


Itty Bitty Titty Ditty is from "First Words" CD was recorded 92/93 @ Polymorph, Oakland and Live at Komotion Int'l, SF in 1994 by David Immergluck / Jeff Mann. Messenger Sends was from a second unreleased album recorded circa 1996 at Komotion.


Download a Gifthorse (real video file) I made featuring Doug Hilsinger wailing on guitar from a July 4th picnic circa 1994 with his cohorts Dana Schecter & Jeff Whitehead. Click below to Download

Gifthorse live at Ocho Loco (Real Video)

Lately Doug has paid tribute to Brian Eno on a disc with his Waycross bandmate Caroleen Beatty called "Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" on the DBK works label. Here's a 2 minute sample MP3 of Eno's

Burning Airlines Give You So Much More by Doug & Caroleen

As you can see, there's too much Doug Hilsinger music for me to properly detail of course including projects with Gary Floyd, Laurie Hall of Knife and Fork, and many more. I really honestly suggest you take a look at his website Saucefaucet and get in touch with one of SF's finest indie rock gods ...

p.s

He can be found every Thursday holding down the show as he presents Thursday Night Live at The SF Eagle as well.. many fine bands are known to hold the stage at these casual but impressive shows including folks like Grant Hart, The Dicks, Zen Guerilla, Pansy Division, Avengers, Kelly Stoltz, Chuck Prophet, Erase Errata, Boyskout and so so many others.

Kudos to Dug... long may he free dumb rawk!