Timothy Young

Timothy Young is a masterfully diverse West Coast guitarist whose skills have enlivened a slew of recordings and shows over the years, often as a collaborator, sideman, or session player rather than bandleader. Able to leap from heavy metal crunch to extended jazz-funk jamming, twangy Americana, effects-laden experimentalism, and Hendrixian pyrotechnics, he has also veered away from his straight guitar-playing role into realms of artful indie pop — for example, putting a singular spin on the Bacharach/David chestnut “Walk on By” with his wife Eryn in the Youngs. Difficult to place in easily defined stylistic categories, Young’s far-reaching talents have made notable contributions to a broad spectrum of somewhat off-center American music. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Timothy Young (also credited as Tim on a number of albums) began playing guitar at the age of five and had been in a variety of bands through his high-school years until moving to Seattle in 1988, where he enrolled at the Cornish College of the Arts and began establishing his credentials on the Seattle music scene. Among his longest-lasting early groups were the Scallywags, a trio also featuring bassist Mike Coffey and drummer Mike Stone; formed in 1990, the band was together for nearly a decade and released the album Tourette’s Syndrome — featuring such notable tunes as “Generic Frenchie Homicide Getaway Theme,” “Zombie Orgy,” “Stare into the Eye of the Potatoe,” and “I Like Everything Now!” — in 1995. Having connected with a sizable gang of Seattle collaborators by the mid-’90s, Young assembled the likes of Coffey, Stone, accordionist Elaine di Falco, bassist Fred Chalenor, percussionist Ed Pias, saxophonist Skerik, Cornish College graduate (and later adjunct instructor) violist/violinist Eyvind Kang, Cornish College faculty member and longstanding jazz trombonist Julian Priester, and many others for the recording of his first solo album, With Very Special People, co-produced by Tucker Martine and released by Endless Records in 1997. A head-spinningly diverse Zappa- and Beefheart-esque pastiche of hyper-swinging bop-rock, soundtracky cabaret jazz, flaming guitar workouts, ominous Phantom of the Opera-esque organ, and ethnic fusoid collaging, the album also featured Young reaching well past his guitar fretboard to take on drums, vocals, piano, Moog, bass, banjo, Casio, Hammond organ, and the ever-important “psychotic flappers,” while writing all the tracks (given such titles as “Molecular Doggies,” “Stewed Meats & Lentil Pastes,” and “What F*&%ing Planet Is This, Anyway?!“). The year after With Very Special People arrived, the Scallywags called it quits, and Young promptly set about forming, along with keyboardist Paul Moore, the tongue-in-cheek warped pop outfit Very Special Forces, which released a whacked-out satirical eponymous album in 2000. Meanwhile, Young burnished his credentials with session and touring work, appearing on various Tzadik label albums by Kang, touring with David Sylvian in 2001 and 2002, and sharing guitar duties with Bill Frisell on Robin Holcomb’s 2002 album, The Big Time, among other activities. However, Young probably garnered his widest recognition from the ’90s into the 2000s as the guitarist for Zony Mash, the Seattle-based avant jazz-funk jam band formed by keyboardist/composer Wayne Horvitz in 1995. Proving to be a highly inventive funk, jazz, and blues-informed stylist (imagine Steve Cropper meets David Torn jamming with the Grateful Dead) and able foil to Horvitz’s keyboard playing, Young featured prominently on three Zony Mash albums released by New York’s Knitting Factory Works label — Cold Spell (1997), Brand Spankin' New (1998), and Upper Egypt (2000) — and a fourth album, Live in Seattle (2002), issued by Liquid City Records, before the band called it quits in 2003. Horvitz also assembled Zony Mash’s members, including Young, to record two acoustic albums for the Vancouver-based Songlines label, 2000′s American Bandstand (subsequently reissued as Forever after Dick Clark took exception to the original title) and 2001′s Sweeter Than the Day. Young also appeared on Farewell Shows, recorded at the electric Zony Mash’s final Seattle gigs in December 2003 and released by the Kufala label in 2004 — which turned out to be a banner year for boutique label releases of albums featuring Young in a variety of roles. In 2000 Timothy and his wife Eryn (who had met at Cornish College) had formed the aforementioned Youngs, a vehicle for exploring the couple’s alternative art pop side, with Eryn singing — her vocal approach was described as equally influenced by Karen Carpenter and Diamanda Galás — and playing drums while Timothy, naturally, brought ever-shifting guitar skills to the duo’s wide range of tunes (and he also sang). The Youngs’ eponymous debut album, released in 2004 by the Web of Mimicry label, also featured the pair taking on a host of additional instruments, including banjo, bass, keyboards, and vibraphone (Timothy) and sampler, electronics, and alto saxophone (Eryn). While active with all his various projects, Timothy also formed the adventurous guitar-bass-drums trio THRUSTER! in 2003 with ubiquitous drummer Matt Chamberlain and Kneebody bassist Kaveh Rastegar; the trio’s eponymous studio-recorded debut (on Kufala) was yet another disc featuring Young to arrive in 2004, followed by Live: Seattle, WA 4/2/04 in December of that year. And as if these albums weren’t enough to keep Timothy Young followers satisfied, 2004 also saw the Ultimate Club Recordings label issue Young and Paul Moore’s loony pop album Who Wants to Lead the Band? In 2006, Los Angeles — an ideal location for Timothy to pursue session work — beckoned the Youngs, and the couple moved to the city in October of that year. The independently released Hand Up, Head Down, the Youngs’ dark yet melodic indie-flavored sophomore outing, arrived in March 2007, with the group now featuring bassist John Schiller in addition to Mr. and Ms. Young. The THRUSTER! trio also remained active following Timothy’s move to L.A., issuing the Green Heat album two months after the release of Hand Up, Head Down. And as for the session work that drew the guitarist to Southern California, Young would find himself in demand by the likes of Beck, Fiona Apple, John Legend, Pixie Lott, and film/television composer Brian Reitzell (with the guitarist appearing on several volumes of the Hannibal TV series soundtrack, among other Reitzell projects). In 2011, Young released the second album under his name alone, Gravitational Lensing, an often monstrously heavy but occasionally atmospheric and lyrical guitar-bass-drums trio record also featuring THRUSTER! bassist Kaveh Rastegar along with drummer Nate Wood (the latter of whom, like Rastegar, is a member of Kneebody). And after moving from Chicago to L.A., drummer/composer Dylan Ryan tapped Young for the trio Sand, also including Nels Cline Singers bassist Devin Hoff in the lineup. Another fine vehicle for Young’s guitar artistry, Sand released two albums on the Cuneiform label: 2013′s Sky Bleached and 2014′s Circa. ~ Dave Lynch