Punked-out blues, boob scotches and women bouncing on his knees while he plays guitar and drums at the same time — this is just another day in the life of Bob Log III.
The Tuscon, Arizona, native brings his rock ’n’ roll madness to Taipei tomorrow night for the Urban Nomad Film Fest’s opening party at Taipei’s Paris Night Club in Ximending.
Full of bizarre, hilarious and possibly fictitious tales and a sense of humor worthy of Spinal Tap, Log is both one-man band and vaudevillian spectacle.
He plays a salvaged 1950s electric guitar, a kick bass drum with one foot, and a cymbal and electronic drum machine with the other.
On stage, he wears a shiny, full-body “cannonball man” suit and motorcycle helmet with a darkened visor (you can’t see his face, but he says he can’t see the audience either). He sings through a telephone strapped to the front of his helmet.
“I’ve been singing through telephones since 1990,” he said in a mock serious tone on the phone from Melbourne, where he just finished a three-month tour that included stops in Europe.
“People say, dude, that’s so strange, singing through a telephone. Then they talk on a telephone all goddamn day. Look! We’re doing it right now, the telephone is perfect,” he said.
And so is his music, says Log. His latest album, My Shit Is Perfect, carries his vision of the best things about rock ’n’ roll: slide guitar, boobs and silly fun.
“I’ve got songs about absolutely nothing,” he said proudly. “My newest song — Bump Pow! Bump Bump Bump Pow! Bump Pow! Bump Bump Bump Baby! Bump Pow! Bump Bump Bump Pow! Bump Bump Bump — there’s no reason for that song. But when I play it, people jump around.”
But Log’s ribald numbers get the most attention. Before playing Boob Scotch, he invites audience members to dip their breasts into his whiskey (or their neighbor’s drink).
For another show standard, I Want Your Shit on My Leg, Log calls on two audience members, usually female, to sit on each of his knees while he plays.
Judging from videos posted on YouTube, audiences in Australia, the UK and Japan have enthusiastically obliged.
However, fans generally draw the line at his song Clap Your Tits. “It’s a very rare thing when somebody actually claps their tits with me. But it’s happened,” he said.
The songs and antics might be over the top for some, but Log stresses that anything that happens is between consenting adults. “People that come to my shows are the people that would think that’s funny.”
Besides, he said, “it doesn’t have to be girl tits, if a guy wants to clap his tits, either against his own if they’re big giant fatman tits, great. Or if he claps against a friend, fine. As long as it’s boobs against boobs, you know the party level goes up a notch. That’s the whole point of that song.”
Talk to Log long enough, and it’s hard not to wonder if he hasn’t gotten carried away with his breast obsession. He says one of his weirdest gigs took place in Belgium, where he says a woman with three breasts came up on stage for Boob Scotch.
“And she’s presenting all three of them, like ‘which one do you want in your drink?’ And it’s like, the middle one of course! How can I not take the middle one?”
Log sounds a bit like Primus playing thrash metal with Tom Waits (who is reportedly a fan), and says he draws inspiration from Delta blues musicians like Mississippi Fred McDowell.
In keeping with hill country blues, Log churns out funky, hypnotic rhythms, but he adds a modern touch by playing at faster speeds, often using an electronic drum machine for an additional layer of beats.
Log cut his teeth playing in the 1990s with punk-blues outfit Doo Rag, which toured Europe with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and R.L. Burnside, the Mississippi delta blues legend who died in 2005.
During that tour, Log wound up filling in for Burnside’s accompanying guitarist, who had to miss a few shows. “I learned more in eight days than I learned in eight years, playing with him,” he said.
After Doo Rag dissolved, Log decided to pursue his current one-man band act and released his debut album, School Bus, in 1998 through Burnside’s record label, Fat Possum.
The album turned out to be a cult hit in Japan, where, according to Log, he outsold Celine Dion for two weeks. He enjoys a loyal following there; Sony Japan even has a special Web site in Japanese dedicated to Log.
For Log, who cites AC/DC and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins as major influences, his goal is to both entertain and rock. “What you got to do is turn the party up, however you can, but the music’s got to be able to stand on its own, on a CD as well. You can’t just get up there with a skull on a stick and expect someone to buy your record, the song’s got to be something people want to hear.”
After his show in Taipei, Log, who says he loves to tour, heads to the US for 36 gigs in 36 days. He knows his body will pay for it someday, but he says it’s already worth it.
“Someday I’m not going to be able to walk like a normal human being, but it will be because I bounced too many women on my knee. So if it’s that’s the case, every time I limp, I will smile,” he said.
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