Since having formed a punk quartet (Chicago’s Verbӧten, featuring Dave Grohl’s cousin Tracey Bradford on vocals) as a precocious 10-year-old, multi-instrumentalist Jason Narducy has kept busy with other bands (most notably Verbow) and as an in-demand sideman with the likes of Bob Mould, Superchunk and Robert Pollard. He’s also releasing his first solo record under the Split Single moniker, Fragmented World (Inside Outside). Narducy will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Narducy: By 2001, I had grown disillusioned with the promo work I was asked to do for my band, Verbow. I had written, recorded, toured and promoted two albums and was frustrated that we didn’t get the traction I’d hoped for. Though we toured with many of my musical heroes, like Frank Black, Bob Mould, Morrissey, the Eagles (OK, not the Eagles, as they never asked and I never liked them), we were unable to find an audience that could maintain a career.
Verbow was booked to play a summer festival in Chicago. and to help promote that event, WGN Morning News asked me to come on the show, play some songs and do an interview at 7 a.m. the day of the show. In an effort to entertain myself, I asked my friend Eddie Carlson to join me, armed with a trumpet. Eddie is a talented bassist, but he doesn’t play the trumpet. I wanted him to pretend like he might play but then never actually play a note. Eddie was game and decided his character would be named Magnus Hansson, a Swedish avant-garde jazz musician.
I played seven songs throughout the hour-long program. Eddie danced next to me with trumpet in hand and did not play a note. The producers were upset after the show. They felt they’d been pranked. The show received a flood of phone calls and emails from viewers who were outraged, perplexed or thrilled. The on-air talent (such as Paul Konrad) got the joke and were happy to replay a highlight reel of Magnus Hansson’s excellent microphone dodges.
Video after the jump.
