the right guff

by Bing Futch

Since arriving in Orlando from New Jersey in 1991, Brian Chodorcoff has moved out of state dozens of times, only to return again. “The first five years of being here, I hated it,” he says laughing. In repeated attempts to distance himself from the town, he moved to Minneapolis, Colorado and back home to Jersey . “For some reason, I kept getting sucked back here,” says the shaggy- haired guitarist who is one of O-Town’s most dynamic axe-wielders. That reason would be Princeton’s Guff, the band that he currently focuses most of his time on. Like many other central Florida band members, he is in a few outfits–but there is a primary love for PG. Since picking up a guitar in fourth grade, he’s been into the instrument and has listened to a variety of artists as influences. He left New Jersey to enroll in Full Sail for recording engineering, but ended up dropping out because the courses were too technical. It was during that time that he was introduced to the future members of his first Florida band, Captain Ufatsee. After meeting Matt Lapham at a party, he was introduced to Paul Grant, Lester Stover and Chuck Ellis, who would all be part of the wierdly experimental rock band that formed in 1992 and would later morph into GARGAMEL! Lapham, the bassist for KOW, was also key in introducing Chodorcoff to his eventual musical soul-mate, David Schweizer. Chodorcoff played one gig with David and the rest is history. Bands like 333, Sway, the Dave Schweizer Band and now Princeton’s Guff have all featured the double threat of Schweizer and Chodorcoff. Whether acoustic or electric, they are a commanding duo–Schweizer’s gritty, emotive voice soaring high and gurgling low through catchy, spacy rock tunes while Chodorcoff turns up the heat through jaw-dropping licks and riffs, his technique is passionate and delightfully rich in melody and careful chordal rhythms. “I wanted to get involved with Davey because I knew he was doing it for pure love,” says Chodorcoff. Indeed, the two have a deep-seated passion for music and the art of songwriting. But sometimes, as it must be every now and again, it was for the money. Border Cantina, Sloppy Joe’s and even Rio Bravo were party to unsuspecting quesadilla munchers who dined to Schweizer, Chodorcoff, Lapham and his fellow KOW mate Anthony Cole performing cover tunes. Life was fun, but everyone was in ten different bands and rehearsals were difficult, plus Lapham went on the road with Papa Chubby. So piecemeal, recording began on some sort of formative project and with plenty of guest stars filling in, the Princeton’s Guff CD finally debuted. Plans began to group around taking PG out on the road. Time passed.

Flash forward to 1997 and a fateful meeting takes place in the bathroom at Sapphire Supper Club. Chodorcoff and former Beat-Me Up member Steve Burry exchange glances and inquire about the other’s musical availability. With neither attached to a project, they began to rehearse Steve’s music for a one-off gig. Soon, bassist Ralph Ameduri was on board and drummers were auditioned. My Friend Steve soon began playing to ecstatic audiences and word-of-mouth buzz had them headlining at sold-out shows in short order. Chodorcoff eventually helped write some of the tunes that aided in their popularity. The sudden eruption of fortune took the young guitarist by surprise. “It was like, holy shit man, I’m 24 years old and playing in a band that people love,” recalls Chodorcoff. “Nobody in the history of town, not Matchbox, not Seven Mary Three, had achieved the amount of success that we had achieved once [Steve] put the line up together.” Major label interest followed and as the signs of corporate music biz began to collect, that’s when the dream fell apart. Chodorcoff says that Burry was swayed by a dirty manager in the deal that resulted in himself and Ameduri being let go, despite personal assurances from Burry that the line-up would remain intact. Understandably so, emotions ran high at the news. “I don’t wanna ever fucking deal with that pop bullshit again,” says Chodorcoff. The suits, programmed for success by the textbook studies of other platinum artists , were insisting on techniques while Ameduri and Chodorcoff offered up the bottom line: the music will take care of itself. Chodorcoff continues: “Anybody who’s in A&R or in an office somewhere, they don’t have any creativity, they don’t care, they just care if you can sell records.” More hurtful than the treatment by the music suits was the assurance by Burry that everything would be alright. “The amount of shafting that went on is unbelievable–the things that Steve said to me personally, ‘don’t worry about it’–it was heartbreaking, we thought we were doing everything right so to be let go at the last minute.”

Chodorcoff says that there has been closure about the situation and that himself and Burry had sort of buried the hatchet.

But back then, Chodorcoff went away from the situation disillusioned, not knocked out. As an appropriate outlet for his musical frustrations, he formed a blues cover band called MAD CHOW CHOW with David Gibbs (CLUJ) on keyboards, Donna Rice on bass and Webb (GARGAMEL!) on drums. Their debut show at the Copper Rocket in July of 1998 proved to be so successful that they turned to writing more originals and gigging extensively. “I feel lucky to be in MAD CHOW CHOW and PRINCETON’S GUFF because neither of those things are trying to fit a format of what exists in music.” Though he continues to sit in on projects and can be found sitting in with Wellville, Umoja and Riverbottom Nightmare Band occasionally, Chodorcoff is concentrating on PG as they continue to develop the magic that takes place on stage. They’ve opened for Jethro Tull and Col. Bruce Hampton and see a new chapter of PG about to take place. Is he happy in Orlando now that the scene is starting to take shape? Though he still doesn’t like the town very much, the people have kept him here along with the laid-back nature of local musicians. “It wasn’t a scene in New York and New Jersey, it was more like competition.” He credits the number of venues for creating a more positive arena for sharing. “There’s people looking out for each other, wearing each others t-shirts. You go to NYC and there’s about 800 bands ready to cut your throat to get your gig. We get to play all the time here and you don’t get that in bigger cities.” Brian Chodorcoff is excited about the new songs that are being written within PG and knows that the best is yet to come. He feels like he’s finally in sync with his destiny and right now, that destiny is being met in Orlando. “If I die tomorrow, we’ve done something. It’s been good and it’s getting better.”