Duane

Duane is hard to miss: 6'10" with a personality that matches. As a youngster he was recruited by the Ivies to play basketball and had various scholarship offers including Santa Barbara to play volley ball. At Brown, he was the first in our hallway to own a printer, which everybody used often at pre-dawn the day an assignment due. I was in that line often enough. This back to '85 when a computer machine barely held enough memory for a 20-page paper and a week's work instantly lost when the thing crashed or switched-off before 'saving.' My generation technology's guinea pig - now college kids do everything wirelessly and the thought of a paper trail inconceivable. Terry Semel, former CEO of Yahoo!, once said: my generation looks at the Internet, the next uses the Internet while young people live on the Internet. Or something like that.

So back to Duane, who grew up in rural Canada so remote he commuted to school via helicopter (his father in the oil business). Post Brown, he made his mark in film writing and directing the short "Loafing," which was the winner of the Audience Award at the International Slamdance Film Festival in '97. His unreleased film "Limp" featured INXS singer Michael Hutchence and was shelved after Hutchence's suicide two weeks after completion. Bad timing. Duane then moved to New York to be a rock star forming Custom and signing to Artist Direct Records as the label's inaugural artist. He made his debut album, "Fast," in a home studio he had built in his 5,000 sf flat by north of Canal Street, playing most of the instruments himself. He earned controversy in 2002 when MTV banned the video for his single, "Hey Mister," which Duane directed himself (it follows a young woman as she frolics on the beach, hangs out with the singer, and goes shopping. The music video featured the song's sexually suggestive lyrics being written on the woman's skin as well as upskirt shots exposing her underwear. Youtube it, dude). "Fast" released in March 2002 and Duane touring ever since. His music is punchy, loud, sexually suggestive and cool.

"Hey Mister I really like your daughter.
I'd like to eat her like ice cream
Maybed dip er in chocolate"
-- Duane Lavold, "Hey Mister"