Artist Profile – James Plotkin

Guitarist/bassist James Plotkin first came onto the music scene with his band Old Lady Drivers (also known as OLD), a curious little band that started out as a noisy grindcore unit writing songs about old ladies and their broken hips and later they progessed to includes elements of other genres into their music. Initially, the band included, among others, Jason Everman (Mindfunk, Nirvana), but by the end of their career the band was pared down to just two members – Plotkin himself and vocalist Alan Dubin. After their 1995 swansong “Formula”, Plotkin started a solo career.
As a solo artist, he released 1994 “Swimming Against Clinton Street / Dead Soul Surfing Pt. 1 and Two” on Alley Sweeper label, 1996 A Strange, Perplexing on Discreet/Indescreet / “The Joy Of Disease” on Avant label and 2006 “Kurtlanmak / Damascus” and 2007 “Indirmek” (both on Utech Records).  His solo tracks also appeared on numerous compilations – 1994 “Endless 1” (Manifold Records), 1995 “Indiscreet Stereo Test Records” (Discreet / Indiscreet) and a Cleopatra label tribute to German band Neu! where he covered “Lila Engel” off of their original 1973 album “Neu! 2”.
He also collobarated with a number of musicians, including KK Null (1994 “Aurora”), Mick Harris (1996 “Collapse”), Brent Gutzeit (1999 “Mosquito Dream) and Tim Wyskida (2006 “8 Improvisations”) and an album of tracks recorded with Alan Dubin, former vocalist of Old Lady Drivers who would later join him in doom/drone band Khanate.
All in all, it appear that James Plotkin is one of those people who simply don’t have any regards for conventional musical genres / vocabularies and he’s always intent on trying hand in something new, whether it would be a collobaration, a noise band, a metal/doom band or any project that simply defies any descriptions/tags.
Selected Discography:
With Old Lady Drivers:
Old Lady Drivers LP (Earache, 1988)
Assück/ Old Lady Drivers Split 7″ (No System Records, 1990)
Lo Flux Tube LP / CD (Earache, 1991)
The Musical Dimensions Of Sleastak (Earache, 1991)
Hold On To Your Face 12″ / CD (Earache, 1993)
Formula CD (Earache, 1995)
Solo:
Swimming Against Clinton Street / Dead Soul Surfing Parts One + Two 7″ (Alley Sweeper, 1994)
A Strange, Perplexing CD (Discreet / Indiscreet, 1996)

Fuzzy