Ralph Burns Kellogg (August 2, 1946 – June 19, 2003), also known as Ethan James, was a musician, record producer, and recording engineer best known for his work on Minutemen's seminal album ''

Double Nickels on the Dime ''Double Nickels on the Dime'' is the third album by American punk trio Minutemen, released on the California independent record label SST Records in 1984. A double album containing 45 songs, ''Double Nickels on the Dime'' combines elements of p ...

''. He also produced and engineered albums for Black Flag,

The Bangles The Bangles are an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including " Manic Monday" (1986), " Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), "Hazy Shad ...

Rain Parade The Rain Parade is a band that was originally active in the Paisley Underground scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and that reunited and resumed touring in 2012. History Rain Parade in the 1980s (1981–86) Originally called the Sidewalks, the b ...

Dos DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

, Psychobud and many others. Many of these recordings were undertaken at Radio Tokyo Studio, the recording facility he founded in the early 1980s. Under his real name, he was a member of the heavy metal band

Blue Cheer Blue Cheer was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009. Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a psychedelic blues rock or acid rock style, and ...

from 1969 to 1972. He was considered a master of the

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

, a medieval instrument, and was also noted for playing the symphonium. James returned to performing in 1989 and performed with the San Francisco Mozart Festival Orchestra, among others. James died of complications from liver cancer in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

at the age of 56.

Selected discography

* ''Shaking Hands With Kafka'' (Moll Tonträger, 1993) * ''What Rough Beast'' (Moll Tonträger, 1995) * ''The Ancient Music Of Christmas'' (

Hannibal Records Hannibal Records was a British record label and one of the first to work with the World music genre. Hannibal was started by Joe Boyd in 1980. Boyd had produced records by artists such as Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band and Fairport ...

, 1996) * ''A Garden Of Hurdy-Gurdy Delights'' (Taqsim Records, 1997) * ''Learning Chinese The Hard Way'' (Stonegarden Records, 2002)

References

1946 births 2003 deaths American heavy metal musicians Deaths from liver cancer American audio engineers Deaths from cancer in California Blue Cheer members 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American engineers {{US-musician-stub