Mark Kramer
Encyclopedia
Mark Kramer known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer
and founder of the New York City
record label Shimmy-Disc. He was a full-time member of the bands New York Gong, Shockabilly
, Bongwater
and Dogbowl
& Kramer, has played on tour (usually on bass guitar
) with bands such as Butthole Surfers
, B.A.L.L., Ween
, Half Japanese
and The Fugs
(1984 reunion tour), and has also performed regularly with John Zorn
and other improvising musicians of New York City's so-called "downtown scene" of the 1980s.
Kramer's most notable work as a producer has been with bands such as Galaxie 500
(whose entire oeuvre he produced), Low
(whom he discovered and produced), Half Japanese
, White Zombie
, GWAR
, King Missile
, Danielson Famile
, Will Oldham
, Daniel Johnston
, and Urge Overkill
, including their hit cover of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon
".
, Aretha Franklin
and other soul/R&B artists of the era. At age 2, Kramer was adopted by Gary & Rosalyn Kramer of Long Island
; Kramer did not learn of his origins until 2008.
Through his birth father, who died in 2007, Kramer has mixed African American
, Polish
and Native American
ancestry. Kramer has an older brother by birth, from the same set of parents, who was a senior VP in charge of radio promotions at New York City's Jive Records
. Kramer's great-great-great-grandfather Essex Bonner fought in an all-black battalion in the US Civil War, and his great-grandmother Pinky Gowakawa was a full-blooded Native American from a tribe based in Virginia.
Kramer's adoptive father, Gary Kramer, sold cars, while Rosalyn Kramer was a Long Island housewife who worked sometimes as a bookkeeper. Kramer graduated from Sachem High School in 1976, then moved to New York City, where he would remain a resident until 2003, living mostly in the Tribeca
district.
, in 1979 and 1980. Kramer played organ on one song on their 1979 album About Time
.
In 1980, Kramer joined the band The Chadbournes, led by Eugene Chadbourne
, which also included David Licht, Tom Cora
and John Zorn
. They played together until 1982.
, which toured non-stop from 1982 until 1985. The pressures of living on the road overcame the band, and personal differences between Kramer and Chadbourne soon escalated, which caused the band to dissolve while on a US tour early in 1985. That tour included a brief tour of Texas
with the then-unknown Butthole Surfers
. Forging a close friendship with co-founding Butthole Surfers members Gibby Haynes
and Paul Leary
, Kramer was nearby when their previous bassist took his tuba and walked off their tour midstream. Kramer bought a Höfner
Beatle bass and replaced him with one rehearsal. He soon found himself on the Butthole Surfers' debut European tour in 1985. While often acknowledging that it was without a doubt the high point of his career to date, Kramer has often said that he felt "lucky to have gotten out alive."
named "Noise New York", using a loan of $5,000 from an uncle. The studio was to serve as a mainstay for artists and bands both local and international, and Kramer became one of the busiest indie music producers in NYC. The first recording at Noise New York was the Buttholes' rendition of "American Woman
".
Kramer formed the record label Shimmy-Disc two years later in 1987, and enjoyed immediate and lasting critical acclaim, releasing albums including Songs from the Pink Death
. The label remained a favorite at college radio stations for the next decade. Shimmy-Disc artists included Bongwater, King Missile
, GWAR
, Naked City
, Ruins
, Boredoms, Damon & Naomi, Daniel Johnston
, White Zombie
, Yellow Plastic Bucket
and Ween
.
, New York City performance artist, when he ran the sound for a band she was in, Pulsallama, during their frequent performances at Club 57
. After Pulsallama disbanded in 1984, the two began to collaborate, and in 1986 they formed Bongwater
. Together they released five LPs, including Double Bummer, and culminating with their 1991 swansong, The Big Sell-Out. In 1991 they began a romantic relationship while Kramer was separated from his estranged wife, who was at that point three months pregnant with their daughter. After several months, Kramer decided to end the romantic relationship and reconcile with his wife, and the end of the relationship also spelled the end of the band. Several months later, Magnuson sued Kramer for $4.5 million for breach of contract, among other charges, and Kramer responded with a counter-suit. The subsequent legal battle resulted in the financial crippling of the Shimmy-Disc label, which never recovered. The lawsuits were eventually settled out of court in 1997 for undisclosed terms.
of Half Japanese introduced him to Penn & Teller
. Kramer soon found himself working eight shows per week as Sound Consultant on Penn & Teller's 1987 Broadway show, and composing the music for their Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends special. In 1992, Kramer formed the band The Captain Howdy
with Penn Jillette
, and together with guest artists Debbie Harry
(of Blondie
) and Billy West
, they made two highly eclectic CDs together, both released on Shimmy-Disc. Following Penn's permanent relocation to Las Vegas
in 1997, the group disbanded.
singer Jad Fair
released the record Roll Out The Barrel together on Kramer's Shimmy-Disc label. They reunited in 1998 and published the record The Sound of Music. An Unfinished Symphony in 12 Parts that year.
In 1990 Kramer discovered the two-man band Ween
when they played a show at a small New York club, the Pyramid Club
. Kramer struck up a friendship with the two, who had already been fans of the Shimmy-Disc label, and he convinced them to release their home-recorded demos on Shimmy-Disc, on what became the 1991 album The Pod
. In 1992 the three went on a brief tour of England
, where Kramer played bass. The tour did not go well, due to personality and creative differences between Kramer and the two members of Ween, although Ween band member Mickey Melchiondo said in a 2007 interview that "we're still friends".
Shortly following the sale of Shimmy Disc and his recording facility to the Knitting Factory
in 1998 (in which he was contracted to play a continuing role in the label as producer and Director of A&R), Kramer sued the Knitting Factory for breach of contract and soon found himself without a creative base for the first time in his professional career. This experience left him emotionally devastated and looking to exit the music business without delay. He did so immediately following his last European tour in November 1999, dubbed "The Last Tour of the Century", which, according to Magnet
magazine, was "a creative flop and a financial bust."
, whom he had met in 1989 when Penn directed Penn & Teller Get Killed
. Kramer spent the better part of four years at New York's Actors Studio
, where, in addition to learning directing, he did sound design
and music for various productions at the Actors Studio Free Theater on 42nd street. This phase of Kramer's career culminated in 2002 when he composed the music for Fortune's Fool
, the Tony Award
-winning Broadway
play directed by Arthur Penn and starring Alan Bates
and Frank Langella
, both of whom swept the Broadway acting awards for that year. Kramer had just been appointed assistant director on Arthur Penn's next Broadway play (Sly Fox
) when his mother Rosalyn was stricken with a debilitating stroke, which drew him to Florida in 2003. She died 16 months later of complications thereof.
from 2004 until February, 2006. His main job was to manage the foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge with a million dollar prize to anyone who could demonstrate paranormal ability (the money remains unawarded.) Kramer also maintained the foundation's video library and oversaw the digital transfer of over 700 archival VHS
tapes to DVD, comprising the most complete document of the life and career of James Randi
. He says the work he did for James Randi was the most important work of his life.
Kramer currently operates a private CD/LP Mastering and Mixing studio in Florida, and has resumed his activities as a record producer after a 6-year hiatus, during which time he produced only a handful of select artists, including Joy Zipper, Linda Draper, Jeff Lewis, and Danielson. In 2006 he announced the return of his record company, under the new name "Second-Shimmy". The debut release (released October 10, 2006) is I Killed the Monster - 21 Artists Performing the Songs by Daniel Johnston, featuring performances by Dot Allison
, Jad Fair & Kramer, Daniel Smith (of Danielson) & Sufjan Stevens
, Kimya Dawson
, R. Stevie Moore
, Major Matt Mason USA
, Jeff Lewis, Joy Zipper
, and Kramer himself, among others.
Second-Shimmy has worldwide digital distribution through Orchard Digital.
In 2006, Kramer worked exclusively on the LP Exaltation of Larks, a solo release from UK artist Dot Allison
, which he cites as his finest work as producer/arranger, and features early 60s style orchestral arrangements on each song. The LP was released in September 2007 on Cooking Vinyl in the UK and P-Vine in Japan.
Kramer has released 3 solo records of "pop" music, and 2 CDs of "new music" on John Zorn's Tzadik
label. He is currently working The Brill Building, his five-year effort to record cover versions of hit singles written in the Brill Building
in the late 50s and early 60s, also for Zorn's Tzadik label.
By the beginning of 2007, Kramer began to focus more intensely on mastering, and less on the full-time producing that has kept him on the road since the demise of Shimmy-Disc in 1998.
In 2007 (amongst numerous assorted mixing and mastering projects), Kramer produced Finnish legends 22-Pistepirkko
in Helsinki, THE Nightjars in Wales, and Leader Cheetah
in Australia. Also in 2007, Kramer remixed Mississippi for Steve Adey
and visited the studio of A Shoreline Dream
in October 2007 for a week long session mixing and mastering their album Recollections of Memory. In 2010 he returned to Sydney and Melbourne to produce a number of Australian works including The Glimmer's release Start A Fire, an album which frequently draws comparison to the music of Quentin Tarantino's films.
Kramer premiered his composition "Things to Come" in Tokyo in 2007. Hoping to perform the piece annually, he has subsequently performed it in Tel Aviv in 2008, Melbourne in 2009 and Paris in 2010. In January 2008 Kramer embarked upon his first tour since 1999's "Last Tour of the Century" with Jad Fair; 14 cities in 14 days in Japan
with Mike Watt
and Samm Bennett
in a "dueling bass" trio called Brother's Sister's Daughter.
As of 2011, Kramer limits his music-related activities to mixing and mastering at his home studio in South Florida, stating that he will "not step foot in another airport until the permanent repeal of the Patriot Act."
has "kind of nailed it".
In 2005, Kramer married artist/painter Valerie Zars; it was the second marriage for both of them. The wedding took place in Penn Jillette's Las Vegas backyard, with James Randi
officiating. Master magician Jamy Ian Swiss
was best man.
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and founder of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
record label Shimmy-Disc. He was a full-time member of the bands New York Gong, Shockabilly
Shockabilly
Shockabilly was a band which included Eugene Chadbourne on guitar/vocals, Mark Kramer on bass/organ, and David Licht on drums.Shockabilly released a number of albums during their brief existence , most were later re-released...
, Bongwater
Bongwater (band)
Bongwater was a psych rock band formed in 1985 and dissolved in 1992. The group was founded by Ann Magnuson and Mark Kramer , who had worked together previously in Pulsallama. The group also featured drummer Dave Licht and guitarists [Dave Rick] and later Randolph A. Hudson III...
and Dogbowl
Dogbowl
Dogbowl is an American artist and musician. He was a founding member of the avant-garde band King Missile and has recorded many albums as a solo act....
& Kramer, has played on tour (usually on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
) with bands such as Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
, B.A.L.L., Ween
Ween
Ween is an American alternative rock group. They formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when central members Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class. Ween has a large cult underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music...
, Half Japanese
Half Japanese
Half Japanese is a punk rock band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in their Coldwater, Michigan bedroom around 1975. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playing; vocals; and an out of tune guitar...
and The Fugs
The Fugs
The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...
(1984 reunion tour), and has also performed regularly with John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
and other improvising musicians of New York City's so-called "downtown scene" of the 1980s.
Kramer's most notable work as a producer has been with bands such as Galaxie 500
Galaxie 500
Galaxie 500 was an American alternative rock band that formed in 1987 and split up in 1991 after releasing three albums.-History:Guitarist Dean Wareham, drummer Damon Krukowski and bassist Naomi Yang had met at the Dalton School in New York City in 1981, but began playing together during their time...
(whose entire oeuvre he produced), Low
Low (band)
Low is an American indie rock group from Duluth, Minnesota, formed in 1993. As of 2010, the group is composed of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker , both founding members, and Steve Garrington ....
(whom he discovered and produced), Half Japanese
Half Japanese
Half Japanese is a punk rock band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in their Coldwater, Michigan bedroom around 1975. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playing; vocals; and an out of tune guitar...
, White Zombie
White Zombie
White Zombie was a Grammy Award-nominated American heavy metal band. Based in New York City, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band. White Zombie are better-known for their later heavy metal-oriented sound...
, GWAR
GWAR
Gwar is a satirical heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia, United States, in 1984. The band is best known for its elaborate science fiction/horror film inspired costumes, obscene lyrics and graphic stage performances, which feature humorous enactments of politically and morally taboo...
, King Missile
King Missile
King Missile is an American avant-garde band that has been led in various disparate incarnations by poet/singer John S. Hall since 1986. Currently, Hall performs with a new version of the first incarnation, King Missile ....
, Danielson Famile
Danielson Famile
Danielson is an American Rock band from Clarksboro, New Jersey that plays indie pop gospel music. The group consists of frontman Daniel Smith and a number of various artists with whom he collaborates...
, Will Oldham
Will Oldham
Will Oldham , better known by the stage name Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded under variations of the Palace name, including the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music...
, Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas....
, and Urge Overkill
Urge Overkill
Urge Overkill is an alternative rock band, formed in Chicago, United States, consisting of Nash Kato , and Eddie "King" Roeser . Their cover of Neil Diamond's song "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" appeared prominently in the movie Pulp Fiction, and became a hit in 1994...
, including their hit cover of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon
Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" is a song written by Neil Diamond, whose recording of it on Bang Records reached #10 on the U.S. pop singles chart in 1967. The song garnered a second life span when it appeared on the 1994 Pulp Fiction soundtrack, performed by rock band Urge Overkill...
".
Childhood
Kramer was born in 1958 in New York City to a single Jewish mother. His birth father was Joey Bonner, a record promoter during the 1960s and 70s who was once the tour manager for Sam CookeSam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
, Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
and other soul/R&B artists of the era. At age 2, Kramer was adopted by Gary & Rosalyn Kramer of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
; Kramer did not learn of his origins until 2008.
Through his birth father, who died in 2007, Kramer has mixed African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
and Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
ancestry. Kramer has an older brother by birth, from the same set of parents, who was a senior VP in charge of radio promotions at New York City's Jive Records
Jive Records
Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...
. Kramer's great-great-great-grandfather Essex Bonner fought in an all-black battalion in the US Civil War, and his great-grandmother Pinky Gowakawa was a full-blooded Native American from a tribe based in Virginia.
Kramer's adoptive father, Gary Kramer, sold cars, while Rosalyn Kramer was a Long Island housewife who worked sometimes as a bookkeeper. Kramer graduated from Sachem High School in 1976, then moved to New York City, where he would remain a resident until 2003, living mostly in the Tribeca
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
district.
Early music career
Kramer's first experience in the New York music scene came when he played in the band New York Gong (later renamed "Material"), led by Daevid AllenDaevid Allen
Daevid Allen , sometimes credited as Divided Alien, an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong .-Biography:In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered...
, in 1979 and 1980. Kramer played organ on one song on their 1979 album About Time
About Time (New York Gong album)
About Time is a 1979 album by Daevid Allen and Gong-offshot New York Gong. The basic line-up of New York Gong would continue as Material....
.
In 1980, Kramer joined the band The Chadbournes, led by Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but...
, which also included David Licht, Tom Cora
Tom Cora
Thomas Henry Corra , better known as Tom Cora, was a United States cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock...
and John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
. They played together until 1982.
Shockabilly and Butthole Surfers
In 1982, Chadbourne, Kramer and Licht formed the band ShockabillyShockabilly
Shockabilly was a band which included Eugene Chadbourne on guitar/vocals, Mark Kramer on bass/organ, and David Licht on drums.Shockabilly released a number of albums during their brief existence , most were later re-released...
, which toured non-stop from 1982 until 1985. The pressures of living on the road overcame the band, and personal differences between Kramer and Chadbourne soon escalated, which caused the band to dissolve while on a US tour early in 1985. That tour included a brief tour of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
with the then-unknown Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
. Forging a close friendship with co-founding Butthole Surfers members Gibby Haynes
Gibby Haynes
Gibson Jerome "Gibby" Haynes is an American musician, radio personality, and painter, and the lead singer of the group Butthole Surfers.-Early life and career:...
and Paul Leary
Paul Leary
Paul Leary is an American musician from Austin, TX, best known as the guitarist for American rock band Butthole Surfers. He is also the producer of a number of songs and albums by other bands, including U2, Sublime, the Meat Puppets, Daniel Johnston, The Reverend Horton Heat, Pepper, Maggie...
, Kramer was nearby when their previous bassist took his tuba and walked off their tour midstream. Kramer bought a Höfner
Höfner
Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments....
Beatle bass and replaced him with one rehearsal. He soon found himself on the Butthole Surfers' debut European tour in 1985. While often acknowledging that it was without a doubt the high point of his career to date, Kramer has often said that he felt "lucky to have gotten out alive."
Production and studio
Immediately after returning from the Butthole Surfers tour in 1985, Kramer took over a New York recording studioRecording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
named "Noise New York", using a loan of $5,000 from an uncle. The studio was to serve as a mainstay for artists and bands both local and international, and Kramer became one of the busiest indie music producers in NYC. The first recording at Noise New York was the Buttholes' rendition of "American Woman
American Woman
American Woman is the seventh album by Canadian rock band The Guess Who, released in 1970. It peaked at #9 on the Billboard Pop Albums charts...
".
Kramer formed the record label Shimmy-Disc two years later in 1987, and enjoyed immediate and lasting critical acclaim, releasing albums including Songs from the Pink Death
Songs from the Pink Death
Songs from the Pink Death is a 1998 album by Kramer. The album features backup musicians including drummer Damon Krukowski of Galaxie 500 and guitarist Sean Eden of Luna...
. The label remained a favorite at college radio stations for the next decade. Shimmy-Disc artists included Bongwater, King Missile
King Missile
King Missile is an American avant-garde band that has been led in various disparate incarnations by poet/singer John S. Hall since 1986. Currently, Hall performs with a new version of the first incarnation, King Missile ....
, GWAR
GWAR
Gwar is a satirical heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia, United States, in 1984. The band is best known for its elaborate science fiction/horror film inspired costumes, obscene lyrics and graphic stage performances, which feature humorous enactments of politically and morally taboo...
, Naked City
Naked City (band)
Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. Active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993, Naked City was initiated by Zorn as a "composition workshop" to test the limits of composition in a traditional rock band lineup...
, Ruins
Ruins
Ruins are the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete, as time went by, have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction...
, Boredoms, Damon & Naomi, Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2006 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in Waller, Texas....
, White Zombie
White Zombie
White Zombie was a Grammy Award-nominated American heavy metal band. Based in New York City, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band. White Zombie are better-known for their later heavy metal-oriented sound...
, Yellow Plastic Bucket
Yellow Plastic Bucket
Yellow Plastic Bucket was a band based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, formed in 1993 and disbanded in 1997.Their better-known songs include "Just Got Back/I Tried" and the Mark Kramer produced "Young Again/Empire Maple". Their members include Gord on bass guitar, Phil on drums, and Chris and Jamie...
and Ween
Ween
Ween is an American alternative rock group. They formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when central members Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class. Ween has a large cult underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music...
.
Bongwater
In the early 1980s Kramer met Ann MagnusonAnn Magnuson
Ann Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan...
, New York City performance artist, when he ran the sound for a band she was in, Pulsallama, during their frequent performances at Club 57
Club 57
Club 57 was a nightclub located at 57 St. Mark's Place in the East Village, New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a hangout and venue for performance- and visual-artists and musicians, including Madonna, Keith Haring, Cyndi Lauper, Charles Busch, Klaus Nomi, The B-52s, Futura...
. After Pulsallama disbanded in 1984, the two began to collaborate, and in 1986 they formed Bongwater
Bongwater (band)
Bongwater was a psych rock band formed in 1985 and dissolved in 1992. The group was founded by Ann Magnuson and Mark Kramer , who had worked together previously in Pulsallama. The group also featured drummer Dave Licht and guitarists [Dave Rick] and later Randolph A. Hudson III...
. Together they released five LPs, including Double Bummer, and culminating with their 1991 swansong, The Big Sell-Out. In 1991 they began a romantic relationship while Kramer was separated from his estranged wife, who was at that point three months pregnant with their daughter. After several months, Kramer decided to end the romantic relationship and reconcile with his wife, and the end of the relationship also spelled the end of the band. Several months later, Magnuson sued Kramer for $4.5 million for breach of contract, among other charges, and Kramer responded with a counter-suit. The subsequent legal battle resulted in the financial crippling of the Shimmy-Disc label, which never recovered. The lawsuits were eventually settled out of court in 1997 for undisclosed terms.
Association with Penn & Teller
A pivotal moment in Kramer's early career came when Jad FairJad Fair
Jad Fair is an American singer, guitarist and graphic artist, most famous for being a founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese.-Biography:In 1974, with his brother David, Jad Fair founded the lo-fi group Half Japanese...
of Half Japanese introduced him to Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller
Penn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...
. Kramer soon found himself working eight shows per week as Sound Consultant on Penn & Teller's 1987 Broadway show, and composing the music for their Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends special. In 1992, Kramer formed the band The Captain Howdy
The Captain Howdy
The Captain Howdy was an alternative rock band formed by Mark Kramer and Penn Jillette that existed between 1992 and 1997.They released two albums, the first of which was Tattoo of Blood featuring Deborah Harry on two tracks, guitarist Billy West on the same two tracks and cellist Soma Allpass...
with Penn Jillette
Penn Jillette
Penn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, comedian, illusionist, juggler, bassist and a best-selling author known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team Penn & Teller, and advocacy of atheism, libertarian philosophy, free-market economics, and scientific skepticism.-Early...
, and together with guest artists Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
(of Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
) and Billy West
Billy West
William Richard "Billy" West is an American voice actor. Born in Detroit but raised in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Billy launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN. He left the radio station to work on the short-lived revival...
, they made two highly eclectic CDs together, both released on Shimmy-Disc. Following Penn's permanent relocation to Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
in 1997, the group disbanded.
Collaboration with other artists
In 1988 Kramer and Half JapaneseHalf Japanese
Half Japanese is a punk rock band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in their Coldwater, Michigan bedroom around 1975. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playing; vocals; and an out of tune guitar...
singer Jad Fair
Jad Fair
Jad Fair is an American singer, guitarist and graphic artist, most famous for being a founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese.-Biography:In 1974, with his brother David, Jad Fair founded the lo-fi group Half Japanese...
released the record Roll Out The Barrel together on Kramer's Shimmy-Disc label. They reunited in 1998 and published the record The Sound of Music. An Unfinished Symphony in 12 Parts that year.
In 1990 Kramer discovered the two-man band Ween
Ween
Ween is an American alternative rock group. They formed in 1984 in New Hope, Pennsylvania when central members Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo met in an eighth grade typing class. Ween has a large cult underground fanbase despite being generally unknown in American pop music...
when they played a show at a small New York club, the Pyramid Club
Pyramid Club
__notoc__The Pyramid Club is a nightclub in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. After opening in 1979, the Pyramid helped define the East Village drag and gay scenes of the 1980s...
. Kramer struck up a friendship with the two, who had already been fans of the Shimmy-Disc label, and he convinced them to release their home-recorded demos on Shimmy-Disc, on what became the 1991 album The Pod
The Pod
* "The Stallion " was not listed on the covers of original Shimmy Disc releases, although the song is present as track #5.-Liner notes:From the Shimmy-Disc CD:-Personnel:* Dean Ween - Guitar, Vocals, Engineer...
. In 1992 the three went on a brief tour of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, where Kramer played bass. The tour did not go well, due to personality and creative differences between Kramer and the two members of Ween, although Ween band member Mickey Melchiondo said in a 2007 interview that "we're still friends".
Changes in ownership of studio and record label
In 1992 Kramer sold his Noise New York recording studio and moved just across the Hudson River, where he'd found a house going into foreclosure with a state-of-the-art 24-track recording studio built in. He dubbed the studio Noise New Jersey, and continued to produce recordings there, including, most famously, Urge Overkill's cover of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon". However, family illness and personal challenges weighed on him during these years, and the pressures of balancing his profile as an artist with his work as a producer and label head proved too heavy. Though it was during this time that he produced some of his greatest recordings, the consistency of his output had begun to suffer. It was at this point in time that Kramer began to look for a way to move the day-to-day management of Shimmy-Disc into what he had hoped in vain would be more able hands.Shortly following the sale of Shimmy Disc and his recording facility to the Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....
in 1998 (in which he was contracted to play a continuing role in the label as producer and Director of A&R), Kramer sued the Knitting Factory for breach of contract and soon found himself without a creative base for the first time in his professional career. This experience left him emotionally devastated and looking to exit the music business without delay. He did so immediately following his last European tour in November 1999, dubbed "The Last Tour of the Century", which, according to Magnet
Magnet (magazine)
Magnet is a music magazine which generally focuses on alternative, independent, or out-of-the-mainstream bands.-History:The magazine is published four times a year, and is independently owned and edited by Eric T. Miller. Music magazines with a similar focus in the 1990s era included Option,...
magazine, was "a creative flop and a financial bust."
Film and theater
Envisioning a complete about-face, Kramer turned to his lifelong passion in film and theater, and in late 2000 he began studying directing under film and stage director Arthur PennArthur Penn
Arthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
, whom he had met in 1989 when Penn directed Penn & Teller Get Killed
Penn & Teller Get Killed
Penn & Teller Get Killed is a 1989 dark comedy film directed by Arthur Penn starring magicians Penn & Teller. The duo play themselves, and the plot involves them in a satirical account of what the audience would perhaps imagine the pair doing in their daily lives...
. Kramer spent the better part of four years at New York's Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
, where, in addition to learning directing, he did sound design
Sound design
Sound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production and video game software...
and music for various productions at the Actors Studio Free Theater on 42nd street. This phase of Kramer's career culminated in 2002 when he composed the music for Fortune's Fool
Fortune's Fool
Fortune's Fool is a play by Ivan Turgenev.-Plot:The setting is a vast Russian country estate where the resident aristocrats and their many servants are jolted out of their tranquility by the arrival of someone from the city, down-on-his-luck Vassily Semyonitch Kuzovkin, whose own property has been...
, the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winning Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play directed by Arthur Penn and starring Alan Bates
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE was an English actor, who came to prominence in the 1960s, a time of high creativity in British cinema, when he demonstrated his versatility in films ranging from the popular children’s story Whistle Down the Wind to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving...
and Frank Langella
Frank Langella
-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
, both of whom swept the Broadway acting awards for that year. Kramer had just been appointed assistant director on Arthur Penn's next Broadway play (Sly Fox
Sly Fox
Sly Fox is a comedic play by Larry Gelbart, based on Ben Jonson's Volpone , updating the setting from Renaissance Venice to 19th century San Francisco, and changing the tone from satire to farce....
) when his mother Rosalyn was stricken with a debilitating stroke, which drew him to Florida in 2003. She died 16 months later of complications thereof.
Work with the James Randi Educational Foundation
After moving to Ft. Lauderdale area, Kramer worked for the James Randi Educational FoundationJames Randi Educational Foundation
The James Randi Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. The JREF's mission includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of accepting unproven claims, and to support research into paranormal claims in controlled...
from 2004 until February, 2006. His main job was to manage the foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge with a million dollar prize to anyone who could demonstrate paranormal ability (the money remains unawarded.) Kramer also maintained the foundation's video library and oversaw the digital transfer of over 700 archival VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
tapes to DVD, comprising the most complete document of the life and career of James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
. He says the work he did for James Randi was the most important work of his life.
Recent activities
Kramer is associated with the formation of the so-called "slowcore" movement, thanks mainly to his production work for two seminal bands of the era: Low, and Galaxie 500. He continues to produce, mix and master a great variety of artists worldwide.Kramer currently operates a private CD/LP Mastering and Mixing studio in Florida, and has resumed his activities as a record producer after a 6-year hiatus, during which time he produced only a handful of select artists, including Joy Zipper, Linda Draper, Jeff Lewis, and Danielson. In 2006 he announced the return of his record company, under the new name "Second-Shimmy". The debut release (released October 10, 2006) is I Killed the Monster - 21 Artists Performing the Songs by Daniel Johnston, featuring performances by Dot Allison
Dot Allison
Dot Allison is a Scottish singer and songwriter, who has made significant inroads in electronic music circles, most notably as a result of her tenure fronting the band One Dove in the early 1990s...
, Jad Fair & Kramer, Daniel Smith (of Danielson) & Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
, Kimya Dawson
Kimya Dawson
Kimya Dawson is an American singer-songwriter, best known as a solo performer and as one half of The Moldy Peaches. In Swahili, "Kimya" means "silence" or "silent".-Career:...
, R. Stevie Moore
R. Stevie Moore
Robert Steven Moore is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. In addition to having numerous albums released on labels around the world, the prolific Moore has self-released over 400 cassette and CD-R albums since 1968, as well as dozens of home videos, mostly through the R. Stevie Moore...
, Major Matt Mason USA
Major Matt Mason USA
Major Matt Mason USA is the performing name of Matt Roth, a New York City-based musician and record producer, is active in the Anti-folk and DIY music scene of New York's East Village....
, Jeff Lewis, Joy Zipper
Joy Zipper
Joy Zipper is an American indie pop duo from Long Island, New York, made up of Tabitha Tindale and Vincent Cafiso, who are also a married couple. The duo has been playing dream pop since the late 1990s...
, and Kramer himself, among others.
Second-Shimmy has worldwide digital distribution through Orchard Digital.
In 2006, Kramer worked exclusively on the LP Exaltation of Larks, a solo release from UK artist Dot Allison
Dot Allison
Dot Allison is a Scottish singer and songwriter, who has made significant inroads in electronic music circles, most notably as a result of her tenure fronting the band One Dove in the early 1990s...
, which he cites as his finest work as producer/arranger, and features early 60s style orchestral arrangements on each song. The LP was released in September 2007 on Cooking Vinyl in the UK and P-Vine in Japan.
Kramer has released 3 solo records of "pop" music, and 2 CDs of "new music" on John Zorn's Tzadik
Tzadik
Tzadik/Zadik/Sadiq is a title given to personalities in Jewish tradition considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q , which means "justice" or "righteousness", also the root of Tzedakah...
label. He is currently working The Brill Building, his five-year effort to record cover versions of hit singles written in the Brill Building
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...
in the late 50s and early 60s, also for Zorn's Tzadik label.
By the beginning of 2007, Kramer began to focus more intensely on mastering, and less on the full-time producing that has kept him on the road since the demise of Shimmy-Disc in 1998.
In 2007 (amongst numerous assorted mixing and mastering projects), Kramer produced Finnish legends 22-Pistepirkko
22-Pistepirkko
22-Pistepirkko is a Finnish popular music band formed in 1980. It was formed in a small rural village of Utajärvi in Northern Finland but moved to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, in 1985...
in Helsinki, THE Nightjars in Wales, and Leader Cheetah
Leader Cheetah
Leader Cheetah are a four-piece band from Adelaide, South Australia with roots in Americana, alternative country and indie rock genres. Formed in 2007 by members of defunct Adelaide bands Pharaohs and Bad Girls of the Bible, the band have toured nationally and appeared at festivals such as...
in Australia. Also in 2007, Kramer remixed Mississippi for Steve Adey
Steve Adey
Steve Adey is a musician and singer-songwriter. His music is characterised by slow tempos, minimalist arrangements, underpinned by a rich baritone vocal and chordal piano playing...
and visited the studio of A Shoreline Dream
A Shoreline Dream
A Shoreline Dream is a rock band from Denver, Colorado whose sound has been described as being “a moody blend of psych ... and post-rock," as sounding "like a band out of time," and possessing a sound quality unique enough that it "outruns" the shoegaze moniker which bands of this kind are often...
in October 2007 for a week long session mixing and mastering their album Recollections of Memory. In 2010 he returned to Sydney and Melbourne to produce a number of Australian works including The Glimmer's release Start A Fire, an album which frequently draws comparison to the music of Quentin Tarantino's films.
Kramer premiered his composition "Things to Come" in Tokyo in 2007. Hoping to perform the piece annually, he has subsequently performed it in Tel Aviv in 2008, Melbourne in 2009 and Paris in 2010. In January 2008 Kramer embarked upon his first tour since 1999's "Last Tour of the Century" with Jad Fair; 14 cities in 14 days in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
with Mike Watt
Mike Watt
Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...
and Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett
Samm Bennett , is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.Samm Bennett is a singer and songwriter, a drummer and percussionist, and a player of string instruments such as the stick dulcimer and the diddley bow...
in a "dueling bass" trio called Brother's Sister's Daughter.
As of 2011, Kramer limits his music-related activities to mixing and mastering at his home studio in South Florida, stating that he will "not step foot in another airport until the permanent repeal of the Patriot Act."
Views
Kramer is a life-long atheist and a freethinker who feels that the American philosopher Daniel DennettDaniel Dennett
Daniel Clement Dennett is an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-director of...
has "kind of nailed it".
Family and personal life
Kramer's first marriage was in 1982, ending with divorce in 1994. Kramer has one daughter, Tess, born March 1992.In 2005, Kramer married artist/painter Valerie Zars; it was the second marriage for both of them. The wedding took place in Penn Jillette's Las Vegas backyard, with James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
officiating. Master magician Jamy Ian Swiss
Jamy Ian Swiss
Jamy Ian Swiss is an American close-up magician who works primarily with cards.-Career as a Magician:Jamy Ian Swiss is world renowned as a sleight of hand performer specializing in close-up card magic....
was best man.
Solo
| Date | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | The Guilt Trip The Guilt Trip The Guilt Trip is a double album by Kramer, which was released in 1992.-Disc one:# "Ouverture" – 4:11# "Stupid Summer" – 4:01# "Got What I Deserved" – 4:52# "Wish I Were In Heaven" – 3:01# "Not Guilty" – 2:34# "Wisdom Sits" – 2:45... |
Shimmy Disc Shimmy Disc Shimmy Disc was an influential New York City based record label founded in 1987 by Mark Kramer. Before it was sold to the Knitting Factory, it was responsible for providing a mass audience for acts including Bongwater, Daniel Johnston, Fly Ashtray, Galaxie 500, King Missile, Boredoms, Ruins, Ween,... |
| 1994 | Secret of Comedy | Shimmy Disc |
| 1998 | Let Me Explain Something to You About Art | Tzadik Tzadik Records Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases... |
| 1998 | Songs From the Pink Death | Shimmy Disc |
| 2003 | The Greenberg Variations | Tzadik |