During the early 2000s, Jeff was always there. If it was a show in New England, Jeff would inevitably show up. He was so supportive and open to what was going on with DIY post-punk music scene. He supported Cerberus Shoal with his Pipeline! show, as well as when he was writing for the Northeastern Performer magazine. It was so obvious how turned on by music Jeff was, and he supported everything I did: Fire on Fire, my solo stuff, and SNAEX. He was also a bit of an enigma as I had hung out with him on many, many occasions and I never really knew much about him. It wasn’t until recently that I figured out how awesome the Typewriter Orchestra is and how committed Jeff was to that project. Successful music scenes depend on people like Jeff Breeze. Without Jeff, so many connections would never had been made. He was a soul.
appearances: Aug. 2, 2016 (with Snaex); June 2, 2020 (as Chriss Sutherland)
Breeze liner notes (from Bandcamp): I was working at a record store in college when the emo kids came in looking for the new Cerberus Shoal. I had missed their debut album but these kids found it a post-rock wonder. “...And Farewell To Hightide” was a step outside of the box, and it was weird enough to fit my own listening habits. Years later, I’d find them again and realize those steps to the weird were nothing compared to where they got by “Chaiming the Knobblesone.”
Chriss Sutherland was one of the constants in that band, and in the time since has worked in Fire on Fire, Olas, and now Snaex. While the songs are not the intricate hundred-part epics that marked the late Shoal era, he has put himself bare with stark and beautiful songs that make an equally deep impression, and really embraced the Mexican troubadour aesthetic along the way (he even teaches Spanish up in Maine these days).
When it came time to put a cover tune in this set, Sutherland chose the traditional Spanish folk song “De Colores.” To most it’s known from Joan Baez’s version, but “All the Colors” is universal enough to even have a version by Raffi, and nearly everyone in the Spanish-speaking world with a guitar or a charango.