It was a lukewarm night at the Taphouse in Ghent.  A half full bar alluded to an even more mediocre evening, so what could Hampton Road’s residents rely on to push the night into something good?  That’s where the Famous Clever comes in.  Bringing a free form improvisation style meant to keep you on your toes, as well as them perhaps, you never know what you are going to get except that it is going to be a good time filled with unique sounds. 

Despite having absolutely no support upon introducing themselves, they have no qualms with going right into a groovy introduction, kept in focus by Russell Scarborough’s unique rhythmic over and under handed drumming style.  Heavy bass shakes the building, thanks to Lex Park’s calloused finger and Tim Fox’s flange sprinkled chords provide a calming effect to keep it laid back.  Russell gets a lot of sound out of a very simple drum kit, which is just another testament to his time honed skill.  They break down into an interlude as smoke surrounds the stage, and Tim follows suit with a mixture of flange and delay to layer over the intense rhythm provided by Lex and Russell, who looks like he’s having the time of his life while he bangs on his skins and bronze. The entire jam builds up to an incredible climax, with Russell’s progressively faster drums matching Tim’s increasingly higher notes.  Lex follows it with a simple riff to give it the proper buildup, and then they break it all down with a flurry of popped bass notes, various guitar chords mixed properly together, and a toned down but still energetic drum section.  The precision displayed between them is razor sharp, switching off seemingly on a telepathic whim.  Tim and Lex occasionally share backing vocals, but the main focus is definitely on the music. 

The second song starts a bit calmer than the last, with genre influences flying all over the place into a silky smooth mixture.  Tim’s guitar in particular in the beginning is excellent, keeping up the pace while managing to remain fresh and exciting, showing that he doesn’t need to rely on effects to make great sounding music.  Russell keeps it a bit calmer than the last tune, but only a tad, still displaying high energy that explodes on short notice.  Lex keeps his bass structured for the covers, “Wolfman’s Brother” of Phish fame, benefit as he belts out a few lyrics, surely intending to let himself go after it was done.  He doesn’t disappoint, still throwing in various edits between lines and even during, including a plethora of funky slaps on his thick four string bass.  Letting the last line before a big improv fade with held notes and quiet drums, they burst into another one of their trademark jam improvisation sessions.  A lot of wah-wah is included, as well as funky slides on the bass with a more relaxed and open rhythm on the drums that gives everyone space to breathe and go with the flow.  At one point Russell get’s quiet, using mostly his cymbals to keep rhythm, but also throwing in a loud slam on his skins to play off the quieter tone and make you notice it more, which leads into them going back into the main riff again.

The third song has a distinctly different tone than the last two, starting with an almost rockabilly riff from Tim’s fast flying fingers, and a simple two point riff that goes into a few other notes at the end to keep the riff going.  Russell responds in kind; keeping the drums fast paced but light, focusing on the cymbals to keep a high paced beat.  Never one to hold one pace too long, the drums use more of the skins to give an edge to the beat, with Tim moving from increasingly faster riffs to atmospheric setting chords that ring out a bit. Even the vocals are setting a different mood, definitely keeping an old country vibe.  It was impressive to have a band known for improv and having a lot of different styles completely surprise me.  Everyone seems to be having fun with it, and the song ends abruptly, keeping in tune with the different tone compared to the last ones.

The fourth song starts with a thick bass, with the drums slower than the last but still ready to bust into an impressive drum roll on a dime.  There’s a lot more pauses at the end of riffs in this song for emphasis, actually giving them greater effect than if they played more at those points, proving once again that you don’t have to stuff twenty notes into a bar to make it sound great.  Somewhere during the middle Lex puts some unknown effect on his bass to give it a different sound, keeping the bass heaviness present but also giving it a weird higher sound that sounds almost a bit like an effect a DJ would use.  The jamming goes on for awhile, each of them playing off each other like it was hot potato with music, before getting back into the beginning part to end the song, still ripe with those slight pauses that make it all the more inspiring. 

Throughout the night Russell kept a cheesy grin on his face, obviously enjoying the music no matter how many times it’s played.  Lex seemed focused on listening most of the night, but you could still tell when he was really getting into it, as he instinctively moved more to the music, while Tim kept his eyes closed most of the time and remained completely engrossed in the music, occasionally moving around to switch the lights and smoke on.  It’s hard to find varied enough words to explain the various sounds that hit you, or the juxtaposition of a simple drum beat suddenly going into a fast flying drum roll, or the honeysweet layering of sporadic guitar over freaky bass played with loud, fuzzy tones. They even threw in a smile inducing version of the classic Mario tune that we all (hopefully) know and love.  I’m sure the red plumber himself would have approved.  Needless to say, The Famous Clever is a band that has to be seen to fully comprehend, and even then they may leave you feeling a little confused at the end – but a good confusion that you can roll over your head.  If you in any way like jazz or bluesy improv, but played a little harder and a lot faster like you would expect from a rock group, check them out.  They are the ultimate hybrids, and you don’t even have to pay for gas.

33: What made you decide to start playing?
Lex Park: We’ll start with the youngest, so go ahead Rus.
Russell Scarborough: I’ve been listening to music since 1963, and in 1964 the Beatles came out.  It got me interested in music, and the next thing you know I’m a drummer…this was X number of years ago.

33: I hope you didn’t take after Ringo, he gets a bad rep!
RS: No, he was not my hero.  I like him more now than I did then.
Tim Fox: I don’t remember the beginning, we’ve always had instruments in my house.  Vaughn always had a big Epiphone, and it was always accessable so.  Big acoustic guitar that was larger than I was…and I had an acoustic as long as I can remember.  I always had an instrument, we always had a piano in the house so that was just one of those things.  Playing an electric guitar was just the natural evolution of being a teenager, I had a good buddy of mine who got one and was learning also.  I remember going to his house and saying “Hey man, let’s get together and play.”  We started our first band and coincidentally we rented that shop right there to play in about ’93, that used to be our rehearsal space. [There is a gift shop right behind the Taphouse]
Lex Park: I was more drawn to the vocal aspect of music when I was growing up, I didn’t play any instruments until about ’94, ’95.  A friend of mine had bought a bass, and he was going to learn how to play it.  He brought it to my house because he wanted to show it to everybody and everything, he left it there and was like “I’ll come get it some other time,” so I just kind of picked it up and messed with it, I’d put on a Nirvana CD or something and try to figure out how it went, that kind of stuff.  I started to like it, and then he wanted to get it back, so I said “Alright, well, I’m starting to like it, are you sure you don’t want to sell it?” He said he didn’t want to sell it, he was going to learn how to play.  So I said if you ever decide you don’t want to play it, let me know, because I like this bass, I’ll buy it from you, I think I like it that much.  Sure enough about two weeks later I found out he took it to a pawn shop, and that just inspired me to scrounge up all the money I had to not buy that bass, but buy my first rig.  Before that it was just listening and singing and chorus at school.  You’d never be able to tell now because my voice is shot, I am not a singer though I do sing, but that’s kind of where it all started with me.
TF: Lex used to walk around school with a tuxedo and a bow tie singing.  I saw him in between classes with the Christmas crew.

33: What are some good and/or bad memories you have from playing shows?
TF: I have a ton of good ones but one bad memory that jumps out to mind is we were playing Lewis’ back in…probably around the time we were playing in that shop, and we were loading in, and uh…someone stole all of our guitars while we were in the middle of loading in, which really sucks because it was one guitar I really liked, a marketed SG.  That was kind of a depressing moment, but we went on, played, and had fun.  Burned down our storage shed one time and lost everything we had.  That was another adventure in music.  We were going to open up at the Boathouse one time, I was probably 18 or 19 and got a call saying they need an opening band.  The drummer came and picked me up, we got into the car and about two blocks away from my house we got into an accident.  Next thing I know I was in the emergency room after being wrapped around a tree.  Good moments?  We’ve got a ton of those.  I’ll let you tell the good times, I’m the naysayer.
LP: A bad situation turned good – I thought I was some hot shit and booked us a gig in Valdosta, Georgia.  We were doing our southern tour, you know?  This was back in ’99 and we had the big south tour, going down to Florida and everything.  I kept hearing about this place in Valdosta, Georgia and said let me give them a call…booked a gig and everything was good.  We get there the day of the show and they didn’t know the first thing about anything having to do with us, as a matter of fact they had a graduation party going on at the venue that night.  So, we went back out to the parking lot, kicked some rocks, and came up with a plan.  They had a main room that had a big stage, and that’s where the graduation party was, they had a DJ and stuff.  They had this other side room that had seating in it and a kind of small shoebox stage, and as we were scoping the place out we go “Well can we just play on this? We’ll play in between.” They said yeah, that’ll work out great and we ended up having a fantastic show that night.  It was just the will to play.
TF: We played for 7 people but still, it was awesome.  Is that the same night the guy told us afterwards “Hey, you guys don’t suck!”
LP: Yeah, that’s when we knew we were on to something, hahaha.  Plenty of good moments, gosh.  I could go on and on. Russ, you got any high flying moments or low of lows?
RS: None are really springing to mind right now, no.
TF: You’re supposed to say the moment you hooked up with the Famous Clever, Russ.  That was your in.
RS: Oh yeah, after playing for 48 years, when I joined the Famous Clever, THAT was the highlight. [Everyone starts laughing]

33: How do you guys practice and prepare for something when you know you are going to be doing a lot of improv?
RS: The chaos is organized, Tim and Lex’s compositions are quite arranged and composed.  They are designed to encompass the improvisation but they are songs, per se, along the lines of Frank Zappa for instance.  It’s not written out but it’s all laid out.
LP: The main thing is just listening.  Tim and I have been playing together for a long time, since ’96.  I learned by ear so it was very intuitive for me when I first started getting up with Tim, which was really the first guitar player I started getting up with at the time, it was just intuitive to come up with something that went with whatever he was playing.  Right from the get go it was listening exercises, before we were even coming up with parts of songs we were just listening to each other and responding.  We’d play for hours and bug the neighbors and just listen to each other without really talking about it or anything.  When we formed the band it was just something that we continued to do.  We both listen to a lot of music that had improvisation in it, we listened to some of those bands to a point where we’d be breaking down...okay, how did they pull that off right there because this isn’t written, and you just learn that it’s all kind of a conversation.  It’s not so much preparation as just letting yourself go with the flow, literally. It’s letting whoever brings themselves into the conversation have their say, and everybody try to stay on topics.
TF: One thing I’ll add is I think the one preparation we do make is developing a trust.  When you play in a group doing a lot of improv there has to be a certain level of trust where you can go out on a limb and they’re going to be there to support you and when everyone has the chance to have their piece of the conversation trusting that everyone is going to listen in, offer some support, and having faith in the group.  That’s an important element for me.  Having had the experience that Lex and I have built together, and Russ being such a seasoned musician with a lot of jazz and improv background…and jam from the…when did you guys start jamming, the 1920’s?
RS: Yes. Drums were new! [laughter] They had just been imported from Africa.
LP: That Buddy Rich shit!
TF: We all have that kind of experience though.  In the practice room I really don’t do a whole lot of preparing, rather just going and not drawing the box.
LP: It’s funny, we spend a lot of time trying to get the songs together, and then we don’t really practice jamming.  You can’t really do that, it’s better to just leave it up to the wind, however it’s gonna go it’s gonna go, but as long as we get the beginning, the middle, and the end tight…everything else we try to make it happen as it happens.

33: What are some bands and musicians that inspire you guys personally?
TF: Who’s that guy we like Russ, that you keep quoting from that new stuff?
LP: Yeah … Hanrahan … Kip Hanrahan, and we’ll spell that for you.
TF: [chuckles] That’s the guy we like…mercy.
RS: The rock groups that inspired me are King Crimson, Soft Machine, the ones with lots of improvisation.  Before I became a jazz guy I didn’t know I liked them so much, since it was so jazzy I just thought they were better than the other groups.  I’m an improviser at heart so a lot of the rock groups I like had a lot of jazz and improvisational stuff going on, though I didn’t know it, to me it was just more interesting rock than the plain old rock.
TF: The obvious, we listen to Phish.  That’s a given.  They’ve actually been pretty instrumental…it’s kind of been our 111 and 121 course an d probably our biggest inspiration for an example of listening to the conversation.  Lex and I have been on the road to see those guys for the last 14 years or so.  We’ve really analyzed what they do and have been a big inspiration of course.  A lot of the other bands from the jam circuit too, but personally I’m a big Hendrix fan, love a lot of different styles of music and pull from a lot of different styles.  When someone asks me “What kind of music do you listen to?” “Well, you know I listen to traditional Turkish music.”
LP: Music from Japan.
TF: Exactly, I try to pull from those to have sounds of the world as much as possible.
LP: When I was young I listened to a lot of R&B and a lot of the Motown stuff that my mom liked, along with country music and a lot of hip-hop.  That, I think, I was drawn mostly to because of the rhythm, because of the bass and the drums, and I would really key in on the bass even though I’d never even paid attention to a bass player back then.  It was the sounds that I liked, and in R&B you’d find a lot of really interesting bass work happening.  The songs all about a melody, but there’s some really interesting bass work and I think that’s been really influential on the kind of stuff I’m trying to do, finding a pocket, just to have layers go on top of.  Phish has been very very inspirational just because of the way they do their thing, especially early on when they would do all that turn on a dime stuff.  One could only hope to really improv like that, no script at all, just staying tight by listening and responding so that’s been a big influence.
RS: I never think of Lex’s R&B influence but that’s part of why our groove is unique, because we got the Hendrix guitar, we got this funky white boy playing bass, and the jazz influence drums.  It gives it a flavor that no other group in town has, they just don’t have that chemistry.
TF: Because of Lex’s milk chocolate that’s why we play Erykah Badu’s “Tyrone” so fucking sweet.
LP: [Joking voice] Ya better call Tyrone!  We’re surprised she hasn’t called us to hook her up, actually.  We can’t understand that.
TF: Oh, it’s such a hit, it’s nasty.

33: What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
RS: Play every chance you get.  Never turn down a gig.
TF: Play with people.  I teach guitar to some young kids and I remember what it’s like sitting in your room playing by yourself, but I didn’t do that a whole lot, I had a good friend who I, as a young guitarist, we’d get together every day after school.  What’d you learn?  Let’s learn this R.E.M. song, let’s learn this, let’s learn this Zeppelin song, and we just pushed each other, similar to when Lex and I hooked up, it was the same thing.  We sat on the couch together and just go and go and go, constantly push each other to learn more.  Getting with other people I think you’ll progress more quickly and also at the same time be learning to listen instead of being so self focused on playing, learning to listen to what someone else is doing.  Chapter 6 in the human communication book at college was about listening, so that’s key.
RS: Playing with people is what it’s about, and in jazz they tell you your biggest instrument is your ears.
LP: If I had any advice it would be to listen, and don’t be afraid to not play.  I’m a firm believer in the value of space in music.
TF: I haven’t learned that. Yet.
LP: Which is why I’m saying this right now, haha.  I think it’s vital to a groove and just to let it breathe and when you play just listen.  Don’t play through the whole thing because you’re gonna miss where the space could be, you throw a little bit of space in there it makes all kind of things happen.

33: What are you guys planning to do in the future?  Anything big coming up?
TF: My mortgage is due in a couple of days, so…yeah, that’s about what I got on tap.
LP: I’ve got to go to work on Monday.  After Thanksgiving break.  Nah, honestly we’re not out here trying to take over the world or anything.  We’re not trying to go on tour, we’re not trying to make a bunch of T-shirts and shit, this is our creative outlet.  Russell plays in a lot of stuff and I’m sure he gets to be very creative, but in this is wide the fuck open.  Right now there is kind of an element of surprise going into tonight, we don’t know what’s going to happen, we have a set list that’s roughly mapped out but other than that anything can happen.  As far as our big plans, we’re playing Hell’s Kitchen next Friday night. We’ll play anywhere that’ll have us, we’re doing our thing.  We don’t really like to conform, we save that to the people making the big bucks and cover bands.  We just like to be able to have the room and the space and the time to just get creative, you know?
TF: With what we do I don’t think we’re afforded the luxury of having big plans for the future, we’re lucky if they ask us back.  The thing that Lex has been the most convincing in this is that we go in and we do what we want to do without limits, without conformity, without worry.  If they ask us back that is our ticket to do whatever we want to do again.
RS: And what we don’t do.  For years when I played rock it was “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Taking Care of Business”, but when people hear the Famous Clever they know they’re not going to get that.  So what we don’t do sort of is what we do.
TF: Without a doubt.  There is no Mustang Sally here.
LP: If we do…we’re going to freak it the fuck out.
TF: Helter Skelter, I remember one old head came up to me a couples back and said “Oh man, I love that Helter Skelter!”  It was probably 28 minutes long and sounded nothing like the song except for the end caps, we started out and ended it like the song, but this 23 minute thing in the middle.  That’s always fun, especially finding all the older heads who get off on that jam scene but don’t see it as much anymore because everything in the bar is just so …
LP: These are some of the folks who came up listening to the radio when there was some really rich music on the radio that was kind of doing that kind of stuff.  No big plans other than to be awesome.
TF: I know there was a time, Russ I imagine you probably had a few phases when you were trying to go for the moon, I know there was a phase when we probably would’ve really liked to get there and thought maybe we were working on something, but after awhile, I guess after having a family, like I said the mortgage is coming up soon, but this has really become our playground.  We won’t get rich playing 30 minute songs, but we’re having fun.  This is a way to get out.

33: Therapy from the real world.
LP: That’s what it is.  As we’ve gone on just as people as individuals you seem to conform more and more, and this is our way of breaking out of that for just a few hours and say we’re just going to play the way music was intended to play.  You can picture us around a camp fire, you can picture us in somebody’s garage, you can picture us in a room, you can picture us at the NorVa, but it’s all the same thing to us.  We’re quite surprised sometimes that places ask us back.  Not that we don’t sound good, it’s just that we’re that unconventional as far as a bar band.  We might as well as be playing the Hampton Coliseum in my mind, this is a concert, this is a concert, this isn’t a bar gig.  It’s just having that kind of fun with it, that’s the thing, a lot of people get really serious about it and say it’s got to be successful, well; success is how much fun you get out of it at the end of the day.
TF: I have to go back 12 questions ago and talk to the high point because by far, I think the high point in music, barring the moments we have in jam…sometimes we come across a thing that’s just wow, I wasn’t even trying to play it tonight and it was just happening.  Those are really the high moments, but those are kind of private bedroom high moments.  The public high moment is when we played at the NorVa this year we walked out on stage opening for Robin Trower.  It was my first time playing the NorVa, these two old pros have been there, but there was a lot of anxiety walking onto the stage.  Robin Trower’s group…they’re watching guitar players.  I’m not that good of a guitar player, especially opening for Robin Trower, so I know everyone in the crowd is looking at what I’m doing, so I was worked up about it a little bit.  We get up and start doing our thing and they’re just staring at us.  Unlike at a bar you can kind of tell if people are digging it or not, everybody is just staring at us.
RS: 1300 people.
TF: Exactly.  I wasn’t sure how it was going from Robin Trower’s crowd until we stopped, and the second we stopped the place erupted.  It was just like [relieved sigh] Okay, we made it out of Compton!  We’re okay!  And from there on everyone just dialed into fun, it was a blast. 

33: Where’d the name come from?
LP: Back when we formed it was 2001.  We were about to play a party, and this was with our original drummer, Patrick O’hare. We were going to play a party at his neighbor’s house, and we had kind of just been shedding, Tim met him and convinced me to come over and we started piecing some stuff together.  We needed to call ourselves something, so we just went around the room and the three of us each said a word, and then we put it together into a name.  That was the only thought that went into it.  It was like “Okay! That’s enough of that, let’s practice.”  There was no thought into it.  A lot of people that I’ve come across have gone “That’s a real head scratcher of a name,” and I tell them “Don’t over think it because we didn’t.”  It’s just three random words that seem to look good together, we definitely don’t personify any of it…except for maybe the word the.  We’re not famous, and we’re marginally clever at times.
RS: Yeah, ask our wives, we’re not clever. [laughter]

33: Do you have any last words for your fans?
TF: Well my wife will be here in a few minutes, so I’ll just tell her when she gets here.
LP: I would say get the fuck out and see some shows, I don’t even care whose show it is, I would prefer it be our shows but it’s weird there was a really good scene around ’98 and there seemed to be more people that embraced this kind of approach of a live show in a bar.  I think they’re still around, we get bits and pieces of it, we see it, we go to the NorVa and are like “Where are all these people when we’re playing at the Taphouse?”  I would just say come on out and see us and have a good time, don’t be afraid to get out of your seat.  A lot of times we’ll get into stuff where I want to dance, I don’t even dance a lot but I just want to stop playing and start dancing to it.  It certainly fuels us as musicians to see people really digging it, and you can’t do that when there are 7 people in the crowd.  Just support those folks because not everybody is playing the indie stuff, the one man DJ thing, not everybody is doing the singer-songwriter thing.  If you want to see some art, some creative live instant art we’d be glad to oblige. 
RS: Guitar, bass and drums is elemental.  I mean whether it’s Jimi Hendrix, or Cream, or Wes Montgomery, guitar bass and drums is the American live music format.  Come and get it.
TF: Most importantly thanks to the couple of folks who are dedicated and make a good showing when we play around town at these occasional outings, it’s really nice to see the folks who do take the initiative to get out of their chair and come out.
LP: Yeah, I didn’t want to discount those people who do come out and encourage us to keep going, keep going, you’re almost in space!
TF: Russell is the muscle.
LP: Russell is the muscle, and we’re very glad.  It’s funny, we had a drummer that was playing with us semi-regularly and wanted to take on another group more full time and it kind of put us in a bind.  I think Russell caught wind of a it from a mutual friend and student of his, and he was adhering to his play as often as you can mantra, he said “Hey, I’ll play with them, tell them to give me a call.”  We couldn’t of been happier, we kind of hit the ground running.  We didn’t even rehearse the first show.  We showed up and played all night and had a great time, then we actually started practicing.  It’s been a real treat to play with, for all intents and purposes, a local legend.  It was like who am I to be playing with Russell Scarboroug h, and I know that makes him feel terrible [laughter] but it was just so neat to play with him, we’ve never really had a drummer like him.  It’s helped to constantly learn to, he keeps it fresh, he keeps us on our toes sometimes and it’s just been a real joy.
TF: So what do you think guys, want to open with Mustang Sally tonight?

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If you’d like to meet the local legend himself, check out Russell’s own music shop, located at 504 Washington Park in Norfolk.
RussellsMusicWorld.com

By Correspondent: Ryan Mason

Ryan Mason was born in Hampton in 1989.  He grew up listening to the generic bands on the radio before discovering classic rock and expanding his horizons.  Now you'll find him listening to just about anything, from Pink Floyd to the Sound of Animals Fighting.  Naturally this lead to him playing music himself, and he is the proud owner of a Gibson SG and a 5-string bass guitar.  Unfortunately, he sucks at them both, but hey, there is always Magazine33!  Some other bands he likes are Stiff Little Fingers, the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Incubus, Hendrix, Lamb of God, the Doors and Gorillaz.