- This article describes the alternative rock musician/producer known professionally as 'Kramer'. For the jazz musician and producer of the same name, see Mark Kramer (jazz)
Mark Kramer, known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, performer, record producer and founder of the NY record label Shimmy-Disc. Mark Kramer ( November 3, 1945 -) is a Philadelphia -born jazz pianist composer arranger and producer/engineer In the Music industry, a record producer or music producer has many roles among them controlling the recording sessions coaching and guiding the musicians organizing Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based Record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. He was a member of such diverse musical entities as Butthole Surfers, Shockabilly, B. Butthole Surfers (also referred to as simply "the Buttholes" is an American Alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary Shockabilly was a band which included Eugene Chadbourne on guitar/vocals Mark Kramer on bass/organ and David Licht on drums A. L. L. , Bongwater, Ween, Half Japanese, The Fugs (1984 reunion tour), and Dogbowl & Kramer, and he also performed regularly with John Zorn and other improvising musicians of New York City's so-called "downtown scene" of the 1980s. Bongwater was a College rock band formed in 1985 and dissolved in 1992. Ween is an Alternative rock group formed in 1984 in New Hope Pennsylvania when Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class This article is about the band called Half Japanese, for people of mixed Japanese and non-Japanese descent see Hafu Half Japanese The Fugs are a band formed in New York City in 1965 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums Dogbowl (aka Stephen Tunney is an American Artist and Musician. John Zorn (born September 2 1953 in Queens, New York City) is an American Avant-garde Composer, arranger, Record Downtown music is a subdivision of American music. The scene the term describes began in 1960 when Yoko Ono — one of the Fluxus artists at that time His most notable work as a producer has been with bands such as Galaxie 500 (whose entire oeuvre he produced), Low (whom he discovered and produced), Half Japanese, GWAR, King Missile, The Tinklers, Alice Donut, Danielson Famile, Will Oldham's Palace Songs, Daniel Johnston, and the hit single for Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Urge Overkill's "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon". Galaxie 500 was an American Alternative rock trio that formed in 1986 and split up in 1991 after releasing three albums Low is an American Indie rock group from Duluth Minnesota. The group was formed in 1993, by Alan Sparhawk ( Guitar This article is about the band called Half Japanese, for people of mixed Japanese and non-Japanese descent see Hafu Half Japanese GWAR is King Missile is an avant-garde band that has been led in various disparate incarnations by Poet / Singer John S The Tinklers are a band from Baltimore who have been together since 1979. Alice Donut is a Rock and roll band from New York City. Formed in 1986, disbanded in 1996, and re-formed in 2001, the band toured For the borough in the US state of Connecticut, see Danielson Connecticut. Will Oldham, aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (born 24 December 1970 in Louisville Kentucky) is an American Singer, Songwriter, Daniel Dale Johnston (born January 22 1961 is an American Singer, Songwriter, Musician, and Artist. Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an Academy Award - BAFTA Award - and Palme d'Or -winning Emmy - and Urge Overkill is an Alternative rock band formed in Chicago, United States, consisting of Nathan "Nash Kato" Katruud (vocals/guitar and Eddie
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Early performances
With Eugene Chadbourne and David Licht, his band Shockabilly toured non-stop from 1982 until 1985. Eugene Chadbourne ( January 4, 1954 in Mount Vernon New York) is an American, Improvisor, Guitarist and Banjoist Shockabilly was a band which included Eugene Chadbourne on guitar/vocals Mark Kramer on bass/organ and David Licht on drums Far ahead of their time, the pressures of living on the road overcame the band, and personal differences between Kramer and Chadbourne soon escalated and caused the band to dissolve while on a US tour early in 1985, which included a brief tour of Texas with the then unknown Butthole Surfers. Forging a close friendship with co-founding Buttholes Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary, Kramer was nearby when their previous bassist took his tuba and walked off their tour midstream. Gibson Jerome "Gibby" Haynes (born 1957 is an American musician radio personality painter and the lead singer of the group Butthole Surfers. Paul Leary Walthall (born May 8 1957 professionally known as Paul Leary, is an American musician best known as the guitarist for American Kramer bought a Höfner Beatle bass and replaced him with one rehearsal. Karl Höfner GmbH & Co KG is a German Manufacturer of Musical instruments with one division that manufactures Guitars and basses, and another He soon found himself on the Buttholes debut European tour in 1985, which is noted in the underground history books as one of the most sensational tours of the era. While often acknowledging that it was without a doubt the high point of his career to date, Kramer has often said that he felt "lucky to have gotten out alive. "
Production and studio
His Noise New York recording studio (purchased immediately following the 1985 Buttholes tour with a loan of $5,000 from an uncle) was to serve as a mainstay for artists and bands both local and international, as Kramer became one of the busiest indie music producers in NYC. The first recordings at Noise New York was the Buttholes' rendition of American Woman. American Woman is an Album released in 1970 by the Canadian rock band The Guess Who. He formed the record label Shimmy-Disc two years later in 1987, and enjoyed immediate and lasting critical acclaim. Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based Record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. The label remained a favorite at college radio stations for the next decade, where Shimmy-Disc artists such as Bongwater, King Missile, GWAR, Naked City, Ruins, Boredoms, Damon & Naomi, Daniel Johnston, Yellow Plastic Bucket and Ween left a lasting impression on listeners around the globe. Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of Radio station that is run by the students of a college King Missile is an avant-garde band that has been led in various disparate incarnations by Poet / Singer John S GWAR is Naked City was an Avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. This article is about ruins in Architecture; for other meanings see Ruins (disambiguation. Boredoms ( (or more recently V∞redoms) is a Noise rock band from Osaka, Japan. Damon & Naomi are an American Dream pop / Folk-rock duo formed in 1991 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, formerly of Galaxie 500 Daniel Dale Johnston (born January 22 1961 is an American Singer, Songwriter, Musician, and Artist. Yellow Plastic Bucket was a band based in Oakville Ontario, Canada, formed in 1993 and disbanded in 1997. Ween is an Alternative rock group formed in 1984 in New Hope Pennsylvania when Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class
Association with Penn and Teller
A pivotal moment in Kramer's early career came when Jad Fair of Half Japanese introduced him to Penn & Teller. Jad Fair is the singer and guitarist of Lo-fi Alternative rock group Half Japanese. Penn & Teller ( Penn Fraser Jillette and Teller) are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and Comedy. Kramer soon found himself working 8 shows per week as Sound Consultant on Penn & Teller's 1987 Broadway show, and composing the music for their Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends special. In subsequent years, Kramer formed a band with Penn Jillette (The Captain Howdy), and together with guest artists Deborah Harry (Blondie) and Billy West (Ren & Stimpy), they made two highly eclectic CDs together, both released on Shimmy-Disc, and both featuring cover art by Tony Fitzpatrick. Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American Comedian, Illusionist, juggler and Writer known The Captain Howdy was an alternative rock band formed by Mark Kramer and Penn Jillette that existed between 1992 and 1997 Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry (born July 1 1945 is an American Singer-songwriter and Actress, most famous for being the lead singer for the Punk Blondie is an American rock band that first gained fame in the late 1970s and has so far sold over 60 million records William Richard "Billy" West (born on April 16, 1952 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American voice actor, known The Ren and Stimpy Show is an American / Canadian animated television series created by Canadian Animator John Tony Fitzpatrick (born 1958 is an American artist born and based in Chicago. Following Penn's permanent relocation to Las Vegas in 1997, the group disbanded.
Bongwater
Also in the early 1980s Kramer met Ann Magnuson, New York City performance artist. Ann Magnuson ( January 4, 1956) is an American actress Performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 This article is about Performance art For other uses see Performance (disambiguation Together they formed Bongwater in 1986 and released five critically acclaimed LPs, including Double Bummer, and culminating with their 1991 swansong, The Big Sell-Out. The relationship deteriorated quickly in 1991, and a subsequent lawsuit brought against Kramer by Ann Magnuson resulted in the financial crippling of his Shimmy-Disc label, which never fully recovered.
Changes in ownership of studio and record label
In 1992 Kramer sold his Noise New York recording studio and moved just across the Hudson River, where he'd found a house going into foreclosure with a state-of-the-art 24 track recording studio built in. Dubbing it Noise New Jersey, he continued to produce recordings. However, family illness and personal challenges weighed on him during these years, and the pressures of balancing his profile as an artist with his work as a producer and label head proved too heavy. Though it was during this time that he produced some of his greatest recordings, the consistency of his output had begun to suffer. It as at this point in time that Kramer began to look for a way to move the day-to-day management of Shimmy-Disc into what he had hoped in vain would be more able hands.
Shortly following the sale of Shimmy Disc and his recording facility to the Knitting Factory in 1998 (in which he was contracted to play a continuing role in the label as producer and Director of A&R), Kramer sued for breach of contract and soon found himself without a creative base for the first time in his professional career. Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based Record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. The Knitting Factory is a New York City, Hollywood, Boise, and Spokane music club and concert house originally specializing in Jazz This experience left him emotionally devastated and looking to exit the music business without haste. He did so immediately following his last European tour in November 1999, dubbed "The Last Tour of the Century".
Film and Theater
Envisioning a complete about-face, Kramer turned to his lifelong passion in film and theater, and in late 2000 he began studying directing under Arthur Penn (Penn & Teller Get Killed, Bonnie & Clyde, Little Big Man, The Miracle Worker, Alice's Restaurant). Arthur Hiller Penn (born September 27, 1922, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a Film director and producer. Little Big Man is a 1970 film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the 1964 novel by Thomas Berger. The Miracle Worker is a cycle of 20th century dramatic works derived from Helen Keller 's Autobiography The Story of My Life Alice's Restaurant is a 1969 movie adapted from a song by Arlo Guthrie. He spent the better part of 4 years at New York's Actors Studio, where he did sound design and music for various productions at the Actors Studio Free Theater on 42nd street. The Actors Studio is a membership Organization for Professional Actors theatre directors and Playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in This phase of Kramer's career culminated in 2002 when he composed the music for Fortune's Fool, the Tony Award-winning Broadway play directed by Arthur Penn and starring Alan Bates and Frank Langella, both of whom swept the Broadway acting awards for that year. Fortune's Fool is a play by Ivan Turgenev. The setting is a vast Russian country estate where the resident Aristocrats and their many servants The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American Theatre and are presented Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003 was a British Actor. Frank A Langella Jr (born January 1, 1938, according to the Internet Movie Database) is an American stage and film Actor Kramer had just been appointed assistant director on Arthur Penn's next Broadway play (Sly Fox) when his mother was stricken with a debiliating stroke, which drew him to Florida in 2003. She died 16 months later of complications thereof.
Work with the James Randi Educational Foundation
Having relocated to the Ft. Lauderdale area, Kramer worked for the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) from 2004 until February, 2006. The James Randi Educational Foundation ( JREF) is a Fort Lauderdale Florida Non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magician and His main job was to manage the JREF One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which offered a million dollar prize to anyone who could demonstrate paranormal ability; the money remains unawarded. Additional duties included the investigation of paranormal phenomena, exposing "psychic" frauds and "faith healers", debunking modern new-age fallacies such as homeopathy and feng-shui, and teaching critical thinking. He also maintained the JREF video library and oversaw the digital transfer of over 700 archival VHS tapes to DVD, comprising the most complete document of the life and career of James Randi, co-founder (with Martin Gardner) of the modern Skeptical Movement. During this tenure at the JREF, Kramer was privileged to meet and work beside Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Michael Shermer, Nadine Strossen, Ellen Johnson, Murray Gell-Mann, The Mythbusters, Christopher Hitchens, Julia Sweeney, and many others. He insists that the work he performed under James Randi during these two years was the most important work of his life.
Current Activities
Kramer is associated with the early days of the so-called "Slowcore" and "Shoegazer" movements, thanks mainly to his pioneering production work for Low and Galaxie 500. The term slowcore refers to a subgenre of alternative and Indie rock. Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze or shoegazer) is a genre of Alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s
Kramer currently operates a private CD Mastering and Mixing studio in Florida, and has resumed his activities as a record producer after a 6-year hiatus, during which time he produced only a handful of select artists, including Joy Zipper, Linda Draper, Jeff Lewis, and Danielson Familie. He has recently announced the return of his record company, under the new name Second-Shimmy. The debut release (released October 10, 2006) is I Killed the Monster - 21 Artists Performing the Songs by Daniel Johnston, featuring performances by Dot Allison, Jad Fair & Kramer, Daniel Smith (of Danielson) & Sufjan Stevens, Kimya Dawson, Major Matt Mason USA, Jeff Lewis, Joy Zipper, and Kramer himself, among others. Dot Allison (born Dorothy Elliot Allison, 17 August 1969, Edinburgh) is a Scottish Singer and Songwriter who For the borough in the US state of Connecticut, see Danielson Connecticut. Sufjan Stevens (ˈsuːfjɑːn born July 1, 1975) is an American Singer-songwriter and Musician from Petoskey Michigan Kimya Dawson (born November 17, 1972) is an American Singer-songwriter, best known as a solo performer and as one half of The Moldy Peaches Major Matt Mason USA is the performing name of Matt Roth a New York City -based Musician and Record producer who is active in the Anti-folk and Jeffrey Lewis (born 1975 is an American singer/songwriter Jeffrey Lewis or Jeff Lewis may also refer to Jeffrey Lewis (composer Joy Zipper is an Indie pop duo from Long Island New York, made up of Tabitha Tindale and Vincent Cafiso
SECOND-SHIMMY has struck CD distribution deals with NAIL in the US & Canada, and CARGO UK for Europe and the United Kingdom. Worldwide digital distribution will be handled by ORCHARD DIGITAL.
In 2006, Kramer worked exclusively on the latest solo release from UK artist DOT ALLISON, which he cites has his finest work as producer/arranger, and features early 60's style orchestral arrangements on each song. This LP, entitled EXALTATION OF LARKS, was released to rave reviews in September 2007 on Cooking Vinyl in the UK and P-Vine in Japan.
Kramer has released 3 solo records of "pop" music, and 2 CDs of "new music" on John Zorn's Tzadik label. For the Hebrew letter "Tzadik" see Tsade. Tzadik ( צדיק, "righteous one" pl He is presently putting the finishing touches on The Brill Building, his five-year effort to bring new life to a collection of hit singles written in the Brill Building in the late 50's and early 60's, also for Zorn's Tzadik label.
In 2007 (amongst numerous assorted mixing and mastering projects), Kramer produced Finnish legends 22-PISTEPIRKKO in Helsinki, THE NIGHTJARS in Wales, LITTLE AIDA and LEADER CHEETAH in Australia. . . and he is presently preparing to embark upon his first tour since 1999's "Last Tour of the Century"; 14 cities in 14 days in JAPAN with MIKE WATT and SAMM BENNETT in a Dueling Bass trio called BROTHER'S SISTER'S DAUGHTER, between February 8th and 22nd, 2008.
Background
Born in 1958 in NYC to a single mother, Kramer was adopted at 2 years old and raised on Long Island. He moved back into NYC shortly after graduating high school in 1976, and remained a resident of that city until 2003. He is an atheist and a freethinker. He wants his tombstone to read, Keep off the Grass.
Married in 1982 and divorced in 1994, Kramer has one daughter, Tess (born March 1992).
After living together since 1998, Kramer married artist/painter Valerie Zars in January 2005 in Las Vegas. It is the 2nd marriage for both of them. The wedding took place in Penn Jillette's backyard before an intimate group of friends, with James Randi officiating. Master magician Jamy Ian Swiss was best man. Jamy Ian Swiss is an American close-up magician. Working primarily with cards, he is a highly praised prestidigitator
External links
References
Waggoner, Eric (Summer 2007), “Kramer-Trials and Errors”, Magnet 15 (76): 72-78, 123
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