Timo Ellis!

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Indie Ear is written by Brandon Kim. Drop him a line at indieear (at) ifc dot com

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By Brandon Kim on 05/21/2009

Filed under: Revolutions Per Minute

A man with a twinkle in his eye and the hair of a comic book hero walked into the cafe as I sipped a double espresso with the thickest crema you ever saw. Is that Timo Ellis? I met the NY multi-instrumentalist (Cibo Matto, Sean Lennon collaborator, front man of NY band The Netherlands, and a bunch of other wild stuff) one magic night in Manhattan a couple years ago. One of those party crashing, quasi private bar hopping, celebrity hang out nights where you get into places you'll never see the inside of again. It was like an 80's party movie where everyone wins except the cologne drenched Frat boy bully, mostly because of Timo.

I studied the guy at the cafe, licking the caramel foam mustache off my lip, until I noticed someone staring at me, staring at him, licking my face all caffeinated and grinning. What the hell am I doing?

I decided it wasn't him, and thought back to a Netherlands show I went to about a year ago where I had the Transitions tint blown off my glasses by Timo's guitar. This guy was too calm and soft spoken as he ordered a quadruple Americano. Only half crazed geniuses order those. Wait... it was Timo. Soon as he walked back toward me it was clear and I could easily picture him with the usual gang of gorgeous women show groupies, tall as baby giraffes.

What do you know he's been busy running his company, 70% Water Music, composing commercial jingles and beginning to dabble in film scores! I'll have to keep up with him on that. Maybe he can score your introspective film about that time when life was good, you were wild but at the height of your powers and the city was in the palm of your hands. Or is that time now? Either way.

Timo is always playing in a slew of bands too, some under his own name, some made up names, and many collaborations with others as I've said. If you're local you could even see his The Netherlands this Saturday night, May 23rd at a place called The Church in Brooklyn. Capping off one of those all day BBQ blow outs, check that link for more.

Feast on timoellis.com too.

"Quiet like Nature," by Timo Ellis.

Timo is currently working on a new record of ukulele hits, among many other things.

Also:

thenetherlands.tv
myspace.com/therealtimoellis

Tags: Cibo Matto, composers, Indie Music, Sean Lennon, The Netherlands, Timo Ellis