VICE FASHION - GUITAR TEACHER
PHOTOS BY ANGELA BOATWRIGHT
STYLING BY ANNETTE LAMOTHE-RAMOS
| United Bamboo coat, Calvin Klein shirt, Nudie Jeans, Valentino shoes |
 |
|
|
| Mike: Calvin Klein shirt, Nudie Jeans. Jessy: Samantha Pleet shirt, 55DSL skirt |
 |
Mike Bones is the favorite guitarist of every musician that you like in New York. He’s the New York music-geek world’s secret weapon, having played in the (and we don’t say this lightly) downtown supergroup Soldiers of Fortune. Everybody who saw them during their extraordinary run of shows last year was knocked flat on their asses. They sounded like Crazy Horse. Seriously, it was like seeing Crazy Horse in a tiny little room, playing at full tilt. Mike and Pat from the band Oakley Hall were the two guitarists, and they traded lines and solos back and forth in a manner that made you unashamed to say things like “Nice licks!” If you can find a bootleg of their album, Shred It Be, you are a lucky little music enthusiast.
Mike has been doing stuff like Soldiers for a while now though—he’ll just pop out with a group of musicians, or back up someone like Cass McCombs live, chop everyone’s head off, and go home.
But now, finally, he’s done a record all his own. It’s called The Sky Behind The Sea and it is totally not what we expected. We figured we would put it on and hear perfectly executed electric Delta blues with some Johnny Thunders via Howlin’ Wolf vocals. That would have been great in and of itself. But instead we were slapped in the face with an epic album that brings to mind the best work of Leonard Cohen. It’s a record that takes its time, unfolds slowly and majestically, has fucking strings on it, and contains some of the most considered and well-written lyrics we’ve heard in forever. Seriously, who does good lyrics nowadays?
Recently, Vice sat down with Mike on the banks of the scenic East River and smoked about 40 Newports, which is what he smokes, and talked some shit.
Vice: When did you start playing the guitar?
Mike: Probably when I was about six, but I didn’t have a guitar until I was 10 or 11. I would play my cousin’s all the time. The first song I learned was “Tell Me What I’d Say” by Ray Charles. My uncle showed it to me. It was the only song I played for like five years.
Did you start making stuff up early on?
Pretty much right away. But I don’t think I got good until I was 21 or so. Or at least I didn’t think I was good until then.
Tell me about this Les Paul of yours. It, um, fell off the back of a truck, right?
My dad knew this guy that somehow came into a bunch of Les Pauls. My dad brought one home for me from work one day. It’s an expensive guitar, and I doubt my dad paid close to full price for it.
But you knew what a Les Paul was at that point, right?
Sure, because it was Slash’s guitar, and he was one of my favorite guitar players when I first started. And I also knew when my dad brought this guitar home that there was something shady about, let’s say, the provenance of it. He actually didn’t let me use it for a long time. It was sort of this carrot on a stick. “Get good enough grades, and you’ll get the Les Paul.”
Did it work?
I never really got good grades, so he just handed it over when I graduated high school. It was in the house locked up for like four years.
|
|
TO BE CONTINUED:
GUITAR TEACHER | 1 | 2 | 3 |
See all articles by this contributorREAD/POST COMMENTS | |
