Loading details…
Artist
75 Dollar Bill
12+ albums
experimentalrockPsychedelic Rockinstrumentaldrone
about
75 Dollar Bill is an American duo formed in 2012 by guitarist Che Chen (formerly of True Primes) and percussionist Rick Brown (formerly of V-Effect and Curlew). The duo immediately embraced an exhaustive local gigging schedule that found them playing at rock clubs, DIY spaces, weddings and on the street, quickly gaining a reputation in New York for their hypnotic, immersive live shows. Brown’s earthy, elemental rhythms, played on a deeply resonant plywood crate, are both the foundation and foil for Chen’s searchingly abstract guitar playing. Often using a custom quarter tone guitar, Chen’s improvisations are forays into a modal, microtonal sound world. The duo's electric, richly patterned music can shape-shift from ecstatic dance tunes to slowly changing polyrhythmic trance minimalism, an uncategorizable hybrid which draws on early electric blues, the modal traditions of West Africa, India and the Middle East, Sun Ra’s space chords and the minimalist and No Wave histories of their home town. After a series of self-produced cassette/digital releases, and their first LP (Wooden Bag on Other Music Recording Company), their 2nd album, WOOD / METAL / PLASTIC / PATTERN / RHYTHM / ROCK, was released on Thin Wrist Recordings in 2016 to wide critical acclaim. The record features a more layered, ensemble sound, with collaborators contributing string and horn parts to create an organic collective extension of the duo’s basic concept. While Brown and Chen are always at the band’s core,
