Steve MacKay
Encyclopedia
Steve Mackay is an American
tenor saxophone
player, best known for his participation on The Stooges
' second album Fun House.
from his work in Detroit's avant-rock pioneers, Carnal Kitchen. He was recruited by lead singer Iggy Pop
, two days before the Stooges left Detroit for Los Angeles
to record the album, after having sat in with the band several times. Mackay toured with the group throughout 1970 but parted company with the Stooges in October 1970.
, Snakefinger
, Commander Cody
, Smegma
, Zu
, Andre Williams
, The Moonlighters, Clubfoot Orchestra, and a handful of other efforts (including Van Rozay from San Jose) continued into the late 1980s. As the 1990s approached, Mackay's profile gradually lowered as he took up residence near San Francisco and began work as an electrician.
The wider perception was that Mackay was dead. In 2000, Stooges' biography pages on websites for MTV
, VH1
, and Rolling Stone
included an item indicating that Mackay had died in the 1970s. The origin of this story is unknown, but music journalist
Nick Kent
reported the 'fact'. Scott Nydegger from the small record label
and noise collective, Radon, disproved the rumor by contacting Mackay and arranging to release his first solo recordings.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mackay became Carnal Kitchen again with then wife, Annie Garcia-Mackay, a blues
singer and bassist
.
Radon released the "Death City" single in 1999, and Mackay began to perform and record regularly with a revolving line-up of musicians associated with Radon. The first full-scale tour of Steve Mackay and the Radon Ensemble was mounted in July 2003; with a percussion-heavy lineup featured bassist Marlon Kasberg (Liquorball), drummer Sam Lohman (Nimrod 36), multi-instrumentalist Travis McAlister (Nequaquam Vacuum), scrap percussionist and vocalist Noah Mickens
(also Nequaquam Vacuum), and drummer and band leader Scott Nydegger (Sikhara). Other musicians who have performed and recorded with The Radon Ensemble since then included the multi-instrumentalist Tyler Armstrong, projectionist Ed Cooper, bassist Giovanni Donadini, Nyko Esterle, multi-instrumentalists Kamilsky and Dan Kauffman, bassist Jason LaFarge, saxophonist Vinnie Paternostro, Fabrizio Modonese-Polumbo, saxophonist Shane Pringle, Frank Pullen, Suzanne Thorpe (Mercury Rev
), John Wiese
(Bastard Noise
), and drummer Ed Wilcox.
, and he has performed with them ever since. He appeared on the live Stooges releases, the DVD
Live in Detroit and the live album
Telluric Chaos
, and toured regularly with the reunited band. He also appeared on The Weirdness
(2007).
Mackay has also appeared at recent live shows by the Violent Femmes
, with whom he has played off and on since appearing on their albums Hallowed Ground
and The Blind Leading the Naked
.
Radon released the Smegma - Mackay collaboration album 30 Years of Service in 2005, his full-length album Michigan and Arcturus (2006), a vinyl-only release with The Radon Ensemble entitled "Tunnel Diner", and in 2008 Resipiscent
released Smegma's Live 2004 featuring Mackay and Jello Biafra
. Mackay's solo discography included a self-released collection of solo and group demos from the 1980s called En Voyage, and such compilation album
s as Popular Electronic Uzak, You've Got Your Orders 3, and Multiball Magazine Issue 2. The Steve Mackay Ensemble has continued to perform live and on radio, and embarked on a tour of the US and Europe in 2006.
Mackay continues to collaborate with the Clubfoot Orchestra members, sitting in occasionally at the Bay Area Boat Club's parties.
In 2011 Radon and SOOPA released Mackay's new album Sometimes Like This I Talk
which features other members of The Stooges, and also the album Machine Gun from U.S.S. with Mackay on sax. Also in 2011, Mackay released North Beach Jazz featuring punk bassist Mike Watt.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
player, best known for his participation on The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
' second album Fun House.
The Stooges
Mackay was familiar to The StoogesThe Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
from his work in Detroit's avant-rock pioneers, Carnal Kitchen. He was recruited by lead singer Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
, two days before the Stooges left Detroit for Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to record the album, after having sat in with the band several times. Mackay toured with the group throughout 1970 but parted company with the Stooges in October 1970.
Later work
For the next ten years, Mackay played with a cross-section of underground musicians: Violent FemmesViolent Femmes
Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009...
, Snakefinger
Snakefinger
Philip Charles Lithman , who performed under the stage name Snakefinger, was an English musician, singer and songwriter. A multi-instrumentalist, he was best known for his guitar and violin work and his collaborations with The Residents.-History:Lithman was born in Tooting, South London, and came...
, Commander Cody
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen is an American country rock band founded in 1967. Core members included founder George Frayne, John Tichy, Billy C. Farlow, Bill Kirchen, Andy Stein, Paul "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow, Lance Dickerson, and Bobby Black....
, Smegma
Smegma
Smegma is a combination of exfoliated epithelial cells, transudated skin oils, and moisture. It occurs in both female and male mammalian genitalia.-Human smegma:Both females and males produce smegma...
, Zu
Zu (band)
- Biography :Hailing from Ostia, a town near Rome, Zu are an atypical trio made of drums, electric bass, baritone saxophone and electronics. Formed in Rome in 1997, they began as composers and players for theatre performances. The band is composed of three members: Luca Mai on baritone saxophone,...
, Andre Williams
Andre Williams
Andre Williams is an American R&B and punk blues musician who started his career in the 1950s at Fortune Records in Detroit.-Biography:...
, The Moonlighters, Clubfoot Orchestra, and a handful of other efforts (including Van Rozay from San Jose) continued into the late 1980s. As the 1990s approached, Mackay's profile gradually lowered as he took up residence near San Francisco and began work as an electrician.
The wider perception was that Mackay was dead. In 2000, Stooges' biography pages on websites for MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
, and Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
included an item indicating that Mackay had died in the 1970s. The origin of this story is unknown, but music journalist
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...
Nick Kent
Nick Kent
Nick Kent is a British rock critic and musician.-Career:Along with writers including Paul Morley, Charles Shaar Murray and Danny Baker, Nick Kent is seen as one of the most important and influential UK music journalists of the 1970s. He wrote for the British music publication New Musical Express,...
reported the 'fact'. Scott Nydegger from the small record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
and noise collective, Radon, disproved the rumor by contacting Mackay and arranging to release his first solo recordings.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mackay became Carnal Kitchen again with then wife, Annie Garcia-Mackay, a blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer and bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
.
Radon released the "Death City" single in 1999, and Mackay began to perform and record regularly with a revolving line-up of musicians associated with Radon. The first full-scale tour of Steve Mackay and the Radon Ensemble was mounted in July 2003; with a percussion-heavy lineup featured bassist Marlon Kasberg (Liquorball), drummer Sam Lohman (Nimrod 36), multi-instrumentalist Travis McAlister (Nequaquam Vacuum), scrap percussionist and vocalist Noah Mickens
Noah Mickens
Noah Howard Mickens is an American performance artist and showman from Portland, Oregon. He is primarily known for his contributions to vaudevillian revival and as a ringmaster and master of ceremonies for several theatrical circus troupes...
(also Nequaquam Vacuum), and drummer and band leader Scott Nydegger (Sikhara). Other musicians who have performed and recorded with The Radon Ensemble since then included the multi-instrumentalist Tyler Armstrong, projectionist Ed Cooper, bassist Giovanni Donadini, Nyko Esterle, multi-instrumentalists Kamilsky and Dan Kauffman, bassist Jason LaFarge, saxophonist Vinnie Paternostro, Fabrizio Modonese-Polumbo, saxophonist Shane Pringle, Frank Pullen, Suzanne Thorpe (Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American alternative rock group, that formed in the late 1980s in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker , Jonathan Donahue , Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a...
), John Wiese
John Wiese
-Biography:Born April 18, 1977, John Wiese is an artist and composer residing in Los Angeles, California. In the late 1990s, Wiese moved from St. Louis, Missouri to the west coast in order to study graphic design at the California Institute of the Arts...
(Bastard Noise
Bastard Noise
-History:The Bastard Noise was founded in 1991 by Henry Barnes, W. T. Nelson and Eric Wood, initially as a side project of powerviolence band Man Is The Bastard.-Project personnel and past contributors:...
), and drummer Ed Wilcox.
The Stooges reunion
Mackay rejoined The Stooges in 2003 when they played their first show in twenty nine years at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts FestivalCoachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
, and he has performed with them ever since. He appeared on the live Stooges releases, the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
Live in Detroit and the live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
Telluric Chaos
Telluric Chaos
Telluric Chaos is a live album by the reunited Iggy Pop & The Stooges. The album chronicles the closing date of the band's first ever Japanese tour, which took place on March 22, 2004 at the Shibuya AX in Tokyo, Japan...
, and toured regularly with the reunited band. He also appeared on The Weirdness
The Weirdness
The Weirdness is the fourth studio album by influential American hard rock band The Stooges.The album features founding members Iggy Pop , Ron Asheton , and Scott Asheton along with new band member Mike Watt and returning guest musician Steve Mackay It...
(2007).
Mackay has also appeared at recent live shows by the Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes were an American alternative rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, initially active between 1980 and 1987 and again from 1988 to 2009...
, with whom he has played off and on since appearing on their albums Hallowed Ground
Hallowed Ground (Violent Femmes album)
Hallowed Ground is the second album by the Violent Femmes, released in June 1984. Like the band's first album, the songs on Hallowed Ground were mostly written by singer/guitarist/lyricist Gordon Gano when he was in high school...
and The Blind Leading the Naked
The Blind Leading the Naked
The Blind Leading the Naked is the third album by Violent Femmes. It was produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and released in 1986. The title is a play on the title of the famous Bruegel painting "The Blind Leading the Blind".-Track listing:All songs written by Gordon Gano except as...
.
Radon released the Smegma - Mackay collaboration album 30 Years of Service in 2005, his full-length album Michigan and Arcturus (2006), a vinyl-only release with The Radon Ensemble entitled "Tunnel Diner", and in 2008 Resipiscent
Resipiscent
Resipiscent is an independent record label based in San Francisco, CA. Founded in 2005 by James Decker and Thomas Day.The label publishes a wide range of experimental music and film. Most of its releases are extremely limited editions involving handcrafted package art...
released Smegma's Live 2004 featuring Mackay and Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...
. Mackay's solo discography included a self-released collection of solo and group demos from the 1980s called En Voyage, and such compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s as Popular Electronic Uzak, You've Got Your Orders 3, and Multiball Magazine Issue 2. The Steve Mackay Ensemble has continued to perform live and on radio, and embarked on a tour of the US and Europe in 2006.
Mackay continues to collaborate with the Clubfoot Orchestra members, sitting in occasionally at the Bay Area Boat Club's parties.
In 2011 Radon and SOOPA released Mackay's new album Sometimes Like This I Talk
Sometimes Like This I Talk
Sometimes Like This I Talk is the second studio album by tenor saxophonist Steve Mackay. It was released on February 22, 2011, on Radon. Most of the songs on the album were done with Stooges bassist Mike Watt...
which features other members of The Stooges, and also the album Machine Gun from U.S.S. with Mackay on sax. Also in 2011, Mackay released North Beach Jazz featuring punk bassist Mike Watt.