Bob Log III
by Brett Lemke
March 2003
Bob Log III loves his "Boob Scotch" - buy him one if you see him and mention you saw it in Maximum Ink!!
He’s the bastard stepson of a Tucson, Arizona trailer park and the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta. Bob Log III is Fat Possum Records’ veracious slide guitarist/one-man-band that will kick your adrenal gland into overdrive. He matches his de-tuned, f-hole guitars with the endless stomping of his rhythm section left and right foot respectively on bass drum and kick cymbal. Bob Log is a one-man-band of international acclaim who’s raw hill country guitar and drums are only magnified my his ominous appearance. The sepia-tinted visor on his gray motorcycle helmet obscures his identity, and a microphone cord runs to a mouthpiece on the bottom of a mid-70’s black rotary phone receiver. It protrudes from the front, functioning as his vox.
Maximum Ink caught up with Bob during a tour stop in Rochester, New York. His newest release is entitled simply “Log Bomb.” Released on January 18th of this year, the album features 13 primal tracks, all played in a ultra-low tuning. “I tune to where I’m singing at,” says Log, “I don’t break strings as much when I tune down and run thicker strings.” Song’s like Drunk Stripper and F-Hole Parade whine down to the low end of the spectrum. The first single on the album is “Boob Scotch”. Bob gave us his own thoughts on the recipe for his favorite drink. “I was getting down one day about a year ago, and I needed me a pain pill. It was mellow, and took my pain right away.” He illustrates, “I prefer a nice single malt but you can put a boob in anything and take a sip of it, and you’ll feel better.”
The question still remains on who the mysterious one-man-band who looks like he races Moto Guzzi’s is. Folks have theorized that he could be anyone from Tom Waits to a member of The Strokes. “I won’t deny any of the rumors of who people think I am,” Log said, “I could be any or all of them. I think the music speaks for itself.” Rumors have also been floating across the Internet that his left hand was lost in a boating accident, and had been replaced with a monkey’s paw. He felt the need to clear this up. “I’ve got a hairy motherfuckin’ hand. Somebody must have taken a blurry picture and thought I had a monkey paw.” says Log, “It is a human hand, it just moves faster than a normal human hand.”
Bob’s influences are clearly straight out of the Mississippi Delta and his approach is totally simplistic. “In Japan, everybody speaks guitar and drums,” says Log, “It doesn’t matter where you are… I’d rather speak to someone in guitar and drums [than] in English.” Bob draws influence from Bukka White, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and “That slide dude from Foghat.” The Log Bomb world tour started in January, and will be running through at least the end of June. His first two albums, “School Bus” (1998), and “Trike” (1999), were released on both LP and CD on the Fat Possum label, and became cult hits in Japan.
Bob had one last request for Maximum Ink’s readers: “All I ask from you Madison, is [to] put your boob in my drink.” Bob Log III will be stopping through to drop his Log Bomb in 2003 perfoming with Quintron and Miss Pussycat: 10/24 Abbey Pub in Chicago, 10/25 Onopa Brewing Company in Milwaukee, and 10/26 Triple Rock Social Club in Minneaplis, MN.
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Bob Log III
CD: Log Bomb Record Label: Fat Possum Records
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