Tall Young Men
Gig Seeker Pro

Tall Young Men

| SELF

| SELF
Band Rock Alternative

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Interview with Doris Schenk"

How I Was Bamboozled by Tall Young Men...
by Doris Schenk
When I was asked to interview Brick Briscoe and Tedd Klipsch from Tall Young Men I admit I was a little suspicious. After speaking to Briscoe pal, singer/songwriter Matt Sullivan, I was prepared for anything.
Sullivan put me in touch with Briscoe's right hand man Dean Corteen. Corteen is a loose cannon of a jet-setter with the heart of a little boy. He's on fire about Tall Young Men and the CD they are producing. I first met with Corteen to get to know a little about the history of the Tall Young Men. But when we had lunch at a Petersburg, IN bar all he had to say was, "Just ask them yourself." In fact I had the feeling he only met to hit on me. Which after speaking to Brick and Tedd I confirmed. I know he kept trying to get a look at my knees.
"Dean is our boy, but sometimes he... uh thinks with his... you know..." murmured Klipsch. As if you don't! Chimed in Brick to a blushing Klipsch. I don't buy it about Klipsch... but Corteen...
We settled in at the notorious Pillbox (Mobile) over a few bottles of Sangiovese and two gallons of Perrier. Klipsch was very proper and a sharp dressed guy. He is very tall and fit and I get the impression he doesnt drink at all. His words are chosen carefully and I bet he's read a lot of books. Brick on the other hand is all kinetics. Seldom sitting still even for his own thoughts. He is a round faced, wild haired ball of energy. He is the instigator. He, too, is tall and together they are somewhat impressive. You wouldn't want to meet these two in a dark alley... that is until you look them in the eyes and talk to them finding two gentle but intense souls.
Doris: Heres a quote Id like to open with... "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-- / The Truth must dazzle gradually /Or every man be blind..."
Tedd: Emily Dickinson...
Doris: On the nose! What do you think of telling the truth a la Dickinson?
Brick: Well I think the truth has its uses... particularly in art where without truth you've got nothing... even when it is a lie. In day to day life I know she's right... otherwise life would be impossible.
Doris: Why this? Why now?
Tedd: My short answer would be, why not? The reality is, we've not worked on anything together for quite a while, so it just feels like it's time to.
Doris: Seeing that you Tedd live in Seattle and Brick you're here in Indiana most of the time... How difficult is it for this to happen?
Tedd: That's kind of a loaded question. Given today's technology, not too difficult. Given things like expenses, other projects and obligations, it'll be somewhat difficult to schedule. We'll manage.
Doris: Tell me about what you two have in common musically?
Brick: A lot of history together.
Tedd: I think what's not common between us is more important. Brick's very much an improvisor -- an emotional, one-take kinda guy. I tend to piece things together more slowly. What works is that I can get him to think about something from a different perspective sometimes, and he keeps me from over thinking.
Doris: You used to be punk rockers. What happened?
Brick: Have you heard what passes for Punk rock these days? Punk rock only lasted a few months anyway. It was destroyed because all the smartest people were playing it and smart people tend to progress, thus bigger ideas entered into the picture that didnt fit into the niche. Now the genres that have been created are just selling tools... is all about money. Money is fine, but it is seldom a reason to follow your passions.
Doris: Your list of influences is pretty all-inclusive, which is as it should be in my opinion. Life changes. Do you think that even though your influences have progressed, or at least been added to, that at heart youve pretty much kept the same attitude toward the world and the universe and all that stuff?
Brick: Yes and no. Yes because Ive always been a do it yourself sort of guy or maybe more appropriately a learn by doing sort of fella. Im always searching for things be it art or commerce that are inspiring. No... because I think I've grown most in the last few years when I decided to approach life with unbridled optimism. But I've hung onto my influences because most of the things that have had that affect on me were essentially positive even if they called for deconstruction.
Tedd: What he said...(laughs)


Doris: Can you sleep in a van with this man?
Tedd: Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Jaysus!
Doris: Dont you look forward to doing this on the road?
Tedd: Definitely. There's nothing like playing in front of people, whether it's 10 or 10 thousand.
Brick: Absolutely... We've woken up in some strange places together... why not Cleveland?
Doris: Have you been in bands together before?
Brick: You know the answer to that..
Tedd: Get that sort of info from Dean... Im not comfortable talking about it.
Doris: When you guys were really tall young men, what did you listen to?
Brick: What are you saying?
Tedd: All the usual stuff, but mosly LPs.
Brick: Yeah, all the usual stuff (laughing)
At this point Brick and Tedd resort to a level of communication normally reserved for twins or married couples. There is a smattering of in-jokes and innuendo and requests that Dean call client A to reschedule a meeting, client B to come a half hour late for a photo shoot, etc. Tedd in particular makes use of executive privilege and tells Dean to go to the store for some turkey pastrami. After Dean leaves it gets a little looser as the wine has been flowing freely and Tedd chews on a clove cigarette (never lighting up).
Brick: Dean and Tedd never really got along...
Tedd: Thats not true... not true at all.
Brick: Well, there is some jealousy there.
Tedd: Right... you got it! Asshole...
Doris: why are there so few pics of the two of you together...
Tedd: I defer that question to Dean....
Brick: See?
After a brief and uneasy moment, they burst out laughing. Then it is back to normal. Strange? Not in the Pillbox.
Doris: Are you doing it for the girls?
Tedd: Yeah, of course. But probably not how you are thinking.
Doris: do you have any artistic sensibility or theories that permeate your work?
Tedd: Brick would probably have something else to say about this, but personally I'd hesitate to call this art. That said, my personal theory on just about everything is that it's driven out of a need for sex. And fear. Or at least a fear of not having sex.
Brick: Yeah, I have a different take on that.
Doris: Do Tell.
Brick: What if I ignore that one? Its misleading and perhaps makes me not trust you.
Doris: Okay then.
Tedd: Tell her what your favorite condom is...
Brick: Im on a mailing list for Condomania. I dont know why. I have no favorite. What do you use them for?
Doris: I've always wondered myself.
Tedd: You seem more like Dean's type.
Doris: Hes cute.
Brick: Go for it! Have another drink

Doris: How does your belief system influence your music?
Tedd: Better let me take that one... Well, it makes it very sexy and fearful, all at the same time.
Doris: Whats the best show you ever saw?
Brick: Gang of Four "Solid Gold Tour" in Seattle or Midnight Oil's "Red Sails in the Sunset Tour" at the Roxy in New York or the Dictators at CBGB. Tedd and I went to see Gang of Four together... what were we 21?
Doris: Any similarities between say Gang of Four and Midnight Oil and Tall Young Men?
Brick: Oh yes. We arent as political but we come from the same rock heritage, and like them even then, were old enough to know what we are without the pretense of youth. I dig Art Brut a lot though. But what I mean is that our politics come more from relationships be they romantic, social or atmospheric.
Doris: Atmospheric?
Brick: Yes. (looks at me like I have three heads)
Doris: Okay lets wrap this up with something general. Tedd... What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
Tedd: Only that it was okay that I didn't know as much as I thought I did -- or do.
Doris: Brick, Whats your favorite word? Why?
Brick: Yes... Just say it.... everything opens up.
We spend the rest of the day eating turkey pastrami roll-ups with cheese and tomato. Brick and I drink wine until his photo shoot arrives. Tedd chews the hell out of the clove.
While we eat and drink they play me a few tracks from the CD. It is intense and personal and alienated. I'm reminded of the Talking Heads and then Sonic Youth and then Teenage Fanclub and then the Kinks. It is really wonderfully original stuff... but it rocks and there are guitar parts that almost rip your head off. I keep thinking that I cant wait to see this played live. I know Brick and Tedd can't either.
Finally it is time to leave and for Brick to get back to work and Tedd to work on some mixing. The young model who comes into the studio probably has no idea that these two guys in their forties are producing their intense rock music and planning to take control of their lives at the same time. Brick here in Indiana and Tedd on the other side of the country in Seattle. Viva FTP! Viva Cheap Airfare... Viva Tall Young Men.
Im going to dinner with Dean Corteen for the second time this week. He pays for everything. I think Im beginning to understand why the Tall Young Men like to have him around.
- Who Cares


Discography

"Saint EP" released January 2008
"Saint Record" is finished!!! Out as soon as we put it there.

Track "Jack the Ripper" garnering airplay on some internet radio stations. Other Track, "I've Got a Lot of Money For a Poor Boy" is flat out good... so listen to it.

Photos

Bio

*************************
Meet Tall Young Men on video at
http://myspace.com/tallyoungmen
*************************
A Saint for Troubled Times

Tall Young Men’s new release sings to the masses about life, liberty and the pursuit of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness during these days of hope and strife.

Seattle, WA, October 30, 2008 – Denouncing the past as just another set-up for the future, St. Record by Tall Young Men creates a driving, edgy atmosphere of gutsy rock that reminds us tough times call for a poetry of the people. The songs on St. Record don’t blatantly put forth a comrade’s call to arms, but in a more subtle way, talk about those day-to-day things that make up lives from Petersburg to St. Petersburg, Compton to Camden.

Hopes run high that a new direction will come with the new administration. But miracles don’t happen overnight. St. Record doesn’t offer miracles, but talks about the people who could use one…

Tall Young Men is a band of working-class artists (or actually guys who have jobs, well sort of...) who’ve taken powerful lyrics and patch-worked them into songs that are at once catchy and rough, in sort of a punk pop way that overcomes the saccharine of pop and the nihilism of punk.

Behind the raspy, puncuated vocals and guitar of Brick Briscoe, Tall Young Men have put together an opus that gives you a sense of déjà vu, where it eerily seems familiar, but you can’t quite put your finger on why. You hear it the sing-along quality of the chorus of “For a Canadian Boarder Guard”, where the moment is simply expressed in “I wish I had a cigarette and a beer. Or a whisky. Or a anything.”

Briscoe, and band mate Tedd Klipsch (yes, he’s related to the Klipsch speaker dude), have some ideas about what makes the songs work. “When we decided to do this project,” Briscoe recalls, “we wanted to do something personal, but not about us personally. That freed up some of the creativity to be someone like a character instead of being yourself.”

Klipsch is less introspective: “We talked about this being a band, in the sense of creating together. While we wrote songs individually, there was a lot of collaboration. We agreed from the beginning to keep ourselves out of the main story lines. And that we wanted this to be a rock and roll album.”

The result is somewhere between blue collar rock and street corner poet and French storyteller. “Dress Up” uses a simple, bass-driven rant infused with Andy Gill-inspired guitar work to deliver a message of taggers and panhandlers on the loose in the big city. That song rubbed up against “Jack the Ripper” with its catchy hook and street violence imagery might make you think this was a pretty pessimistic vision of the future from these two. The reality is, life is rich. Rich with imagery and feelings. We’re lucky that we get to experience.

When the gut-wrenching of “ILOVEYOUSOMUCH” unleashes, it comes from a place not so much where love relationships are hard as, is this what it means to be in love? Why didn’t someone warn me about this?

The music of St. Record carries the same quality as the lyrics: at one time in your face, at others a little less so. But always with a sense that there’s something a little unusual coming around the bend. And occassionally, without warning, it all comes to an abrupt halt.

Probable T-Shirt Slogans:

Tall Young Men...
Will do you.
Will personally answer your email queries...maybe.
Write love songs with a 'get out' clause.
Socially conscious. Consciously social.
Have walked in yer shoes. And panties.
...and we vote.
Doing it for the girls.
Understands the high cost of low prices.
Have paid their debt to society.
Paying their debt to society.
On the frontlines of truth and justice.

Tall Young Men have finished recording their debut CD, "Saint Record," in Seattle and Petersburg , Indiana.
The band grew out of a life long obsession between Brick Briscoe and Tedd Klipsch after growing up in small Southern Indiana towns.... an obsession based mostly on the Jam, a Gang of Four show they both saw in the eighties and the Supremes.

Tedd has a penchant for black leather and Brick is partial to sweaters, t-shirts and sport coats, so it is a marriage made in heaven.... Tedd loves the Stones and Muse... Brick likes Patti Smith, Levon Helm, the Who and Sigur Ros... Tedd wore finger nail polish in High School, Brick was blamed for putting him up to it and never forgot or forgave him for it. Tedd refuses to confess his voice has changed and an extra "d" has been added to his name since he moved to Seattle... Brick refuses to accept that he doesn't live in California anymore. It is rumored that neither Tall Young Men have tattoos... hopefully this won't be held against them.

During the process they agreed on a simple rule... "if it sounds like Gang of Four having a roll around with Roxy Music or Tom Verlaine had he been in Prefab Sprout let's keep it!"

Brick lists his guilty p