Brian Ritchie

Brian Ritchie (born 21 November 1960) is the bass guitarist for the alternative rock band Violent Femmes.

Brian Ritchie
Ritchie performing at a benefit for Wayne Goodwin, Sydney, Australia August 2008
Background information
Born (1960-11-21) November 21, 1960
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
GenresRock, punk rock, folk music
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
InstrumentsBass guitar, shakuhachi
LabelsThylacine, Unhip, Slash, Warners, Reprise, Electra, Rough Trade, London
Associated actsViolent Femmes, Zen Circus
At Day on the Meadow on July 2nd, 2006 in San Jose, CA

In addition to his bass playing, Ritchie is proficient at the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute. He acquired a Jun Shihan (shakuhachi teaching license) in March 2003 from James Nyoraku Schlefer, and his professional name is "Tairaku" ("big music" in Japanese).[1]

In 1987, Ritchie released his first solo album, "The Blend." In 1989, he released his second solo album, "Sonic Temple & Court of Babylon." Ritchie's third solo album, "I See A Noise," was released in 1990.

Since 1998, he has collaborated with American shakuhachi maker Ken LaCosse developing a wide bore style of shakuhachi called "taimu."

In 2007 Ritchie produced and toured with the Italian punk/folk band The Zen Circus, which subsequently changed its name to The Zen Circus and Brian Ritchie. The first international album of the band, Villa Inferno, was released in 2008 for the Italian record label Unhip Records.

In 2008, Ritchie and his wife, Varuni Kulasekera, moved to Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, where he has guested in a band called The Green Mist.[2][3] Ritchie does most of his work in DV (David Vartanian) Studios.

On Australia Day 2012, Ritchie and his wife were naturalised as Australian citizens.[4]

In 2009 he curated the first Mona Foma (MoFo) festival[5] in Hobart, Tasmania. Since 2009 he has curated Mona Foma every year. At the 2012 MoFo, he organised an impromptu performance of the entire Violent Femmes first album by a 'super band' consisting of musicians playing at MoFo: the Dresden Dolls (Amanda Palmer, vocals, and Brian Viglione, drums), two musicians touring with PJ Harvey's band (Mick Harvey, guitar, and John Parish) and with Brian Ritchie himself on bass guitar and vibraphone.

In 2010 he toured as bassist with the Australian surf instrumental band called The Break, composed of ex-Midnight Oil members Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey. [6] Their debut album Church of the Open Sky was released on April 16, 2010 on the independent label Bombora, distributed by MGM.

In 2011 his home in Tasmania, designed by architect Stuart Tanner, was featured on the TV series Sandcastles.[7]

Discography
  • 1987 – The Blend
  • 1989 – Sonic Temple & Court of Babylon
  • 1989 – Sun Ra – Man from Outer Space
  • 1990 – I See a Noise
  • 2004 – Shakuhachi Club NYC
  • 2006 – Ryoanji
  • 2007 – Taimu
  • 2008 – Villa Inferno (with The Zen Circus)
  • 2010 – Church of the Open Sky (with The Break)
  • 2011 – Tea Life (with Silas Be Ritchie)
  • 2012 – Tea Life 2 (with Silas Be Ritchie)
  • 2013 – Space Farm (with The Break)
  • 2013 – Tea Life 3 / Teenage Strangler 12" vinyl split (with Silas Be Ritchie)
gollark: `ssh sinthorions-computer.com cat /proc/cpuinfo`
gollark: That's horrible.#
gollark: processor : 0vendor_id : AuthenticAMDcpu family : 23model : 1model name : AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Quad-Core Processorstepping : 1microcode : 0x800111ccpu MHz : 3410.279cache size : 512 KBphysical id : 0siblings : 4core id : 0cpu cores : 4apicid : 0initial apicid : 0fpu : yesfpu_exception : yescpuid level : 13wp : yesflags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw skinit wdt tce topoext perfctr_core perfctr_nb bpext perfctr_llc mwaitx cpb hw_pstate sme ssbd sev vmmcall fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 rdseed adx smap clflushopt sha_ni xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves clzero irperf xsaveerptr arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean flushbyasid decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold avic v_vmsave_vmload vgif overflow_recov succor smcabugs : sysret_ss_attrs null_seg spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypassbogomips : 6989.20TLB size : 2560 4K pagesclflush size : 64cache_alignment : 64address sizes : 43 bits physical, 48 bits virtualpower management: ts ttp tm hwpstate eff_freq_ro [13] [14]
gollark: Look, it even lists the bugs!
gollark: Get a stupid home.

References
  1. "Biographies – Brian Ritchie". Bigappleshak.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  2. "Violent Femmes' Brian Ritchie moves to Australia on". Fasterlouder.com.au. 2006-06-27. Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  3. Otterman, Sharon (29 July 2007). "Tasmania Goes Boutique, Nice and Slow". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
  4. Darby, Andrew (27 January 2012). "Tasmania more fun than blisters in the sun". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  6. "The Surf Instrumental Will Never Be The Same". The Break. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  7. "Episode 05 | Sandcastles". Sandcastlestv.com. 2012-04-19. Archived from the original on 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
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