Who, you ask? Well, you know, he is That 1 Guy (aka Mike Silverman) and, as his name may suggest, he is a one-man show. A "magic pipe" show, to be exact.
Silverman’s signature instrument is simply a piece of metal piping with one single string attached. Yet somehow he creates without debate some of the most bizarre and complex music you may see in Madison this year, which is saying something.
OK, so I’ve told you that Mike Silverman aka That 1 Guy plays a piece of piping with a string on it. That may have been a little misleading. Actually, Silverman’s self-proclaimed "magic pipe" is much more complicated. In reality, his instrument is electronically wired steel plumbing. In his press kit, That 1 Guy claims his frustration with the traditional constraints of upright bass led him to get more creative. He added a sort of homemade African talking drum and an electrified handsaw, as well as a slit for smoke during the apex of his live act, and found himself a one-man, foot-tapping, string-slapping phenomenon. His looped rhythms are quirky, his lyrics are even more so, and his percussive melodies place him in his own musical category.
An accomplished jazz bassist, That 1 Guy’s music is a culmination of his desire to get more expression out of his original instrument. Silverman established himself as a distinguished bassist on the San Francisco jazz scene before he essentially became bored. While he once collaborated with the likes of tenor sax great Dewey Redman, he couldn’t help but feel claustrophobic. Quite simply, he couldn’t make all the sounds he wanted on jazz bass.
So in 2004, That 1 Guy took his magic pipe to the studio and released Songs In the Key of Beotch, followed by this year’s The Moon Is Disgusting. Both albums consistently deliver intelligent lyricism fused with cacophonous, driving rhythms and supernatural sound effects. The Moon Is Disgusting, however, features Silverman’s full range and fluency. Some tracks are reminiscent of an old Delta blues, while other more avant-garde songs like "Jigsaw" are disorienting in their otherworldliness. Tracks like "Buttmachine" (yes, "Buttmachine") sound like Weird Al Yankovic and techno music got in a huge disagreement — but that is not necessarily an insult.
Claiming other influences such as Dr. Seuss, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and Stanley Kubrick, That 1 Guy’s music is full of heavy beats, danceable melodies and eccentric, irresistible lyrics. Call him odd, call him gimmicky, call him whatever. He is a talented and unfathomably creative musician, and his genre-melting sounds deserve a listen.
