[Text by Luke Z. Fenchel for Live Wire in the Ithaca Times] Though Ithaca-based Willie B (aka Brian Wilson) is a familiar name to anyone who follows the local music scene, in the past year or so he has been conspicuously absent. Once a prominent member of both the avant-blues prog-rock outfit The Johnny Dowd Band and the surf rock group the Mofos, Willie B has spent the last ten months or so on tour with the internationally-renowned neo-soul star Jamie Lidell. Luckily for music fans, Willie B returned to town in January and will be performing four times in the next month.
Willie B has always been an ambitious musician, a fact that has been a boon for an increasingly wide audience. Though he grew up on the outskirts of Boston, he came to town for college and he is as much an Ithacan as any other locally-based artist. Starting out as a grunge drummer, his repertoire rapidly expanded to incorporate jazz, prog rock, country and virtually every other genre. A longtime collaborator with Johnny Dowd — another preternaturally restless artist — Willie B grew over the course of a decade-long association from a spectacular percussionist to a mind-blowing artist.
“We have spent a lot of time together,” Willie B said of Dowd by phone last week, specifically about their last collaboration, the phenomenal Drunkard’s Masterpiece. “Johnny has a bunch of ideas, like a hundred puzzle pieces. The process was to practice together over and over, and rehearsal after rehearsal, and my involvement was to figure out how it all fits together.”
In the last few years, Willie B has rapidly grown from being one of the best drummers in town to a nationally touring musician, performing with Neko Case, Sally Timms of The Mekons, Warren Zanes of The Del Feugos, and most recently Jamie Lidell.
Though Willie B had toured Europe and the U.S. extensively with Dowd and the Mofos, Lidell’s tour took him across the globe, hitting festivals in Japan, Portugal and Australia as well as garnering an opening slot for Elton John. For a spell, it seemed that Willie B was featured on every late-night talk show on network television.
But if his relentless touring schedule has expanded his visibility, Willie B remains firmly devoted to the local music scene. Commenting on his myriad upcoming performances about town, he said, “Now I just want to play. It’s great; that’s the way I see my friends now. I want to see my friends all at one time, and actually play music together.”
In the upcoming month, Willie B will appear with TZAR, his musical partnership with organist Mike Stark, as well as with Eric Trichon from his old band the Mofos. Further, he will reunite with Jay Spaker from the Analogue Sons in a project that was an early incarnation of Sugar Moan, the so-called Alternity Lounge Band (including Stark, Lee Hamilton and Tom Sayers).
Two weeks ago, Willie B sat in with Stark’s Orbiting Art Ensemble for a double drum and bass session with Brian Dozoretz and Matt Saccuccimorano. Most striking was the intuitive connection that these musicians have. Later, Saccucimorano, who has produced Willie B and toured with the Johnny Dowd Band when his friend toured with Lidell, praised Willie B’s distinctive brand of artistry: “He could have stayed a grunge rocker, while in Pet Stinky [an early project]. The whole reason he started playing bass with his foot is because drumming got too easy.” He went on to say that though Willie B’s style is distinctive, it never overwhelms or detracts from the ensemble. “He defines a song. That doesn’t mean that he stamps on his personality.”
Willie B’s versatility is his strength. He is best known for incorporating organ bass pedals into his drum setup, allowing him to play bass and drums simultaneously. The original sound has become his signature, yet it never prevents him from truly intense thrashing. Though you might first hear the explosiveness of the snare and the gregariousness of the hat, further emersion reveals a conceptual cohesiveness unmatched by any musician in town, or in the landscape of current popular music.
Drawing from his experience both as a producer of the Johnny Dowd Band and as a current member of the ensemble Saccuccimorano said by phone, “Willie doesn’t so much follow the leader as make what the leader does sound great.” While Dowd is liable to turn on a dime, Willie keeps things rooted. When performing with an individual like Dowd — a rabble-rouser in his own band — Willie B directs Dowd’s energy from the wings, making what the leader does sound right.
This month, Willie B will perform all over town. TZAR will perform with Those Particular Individuals at Castaways on March 6; Willie will hit a reunion of sorts with the Alternity Lounge Band, comprised of Mike Stark, Jay Spaker, Lee Hamilton and Tom Sayers at the Lost Dog Lounge March 10; March 27 Willie will perform a few Clash songs with Mofos’ Eric Trichon; and April 4 will see another TZAR show at Castaways.