Eugene Chadbourne has been a leading light of the American free jazz scene, teaming up with members of Knitting Factory, and much, much more.
Greg Malcolm, meanwhile, has, in his own words, been kicking the floor guitars to keep them droning on for about 15 years, and has toured the world from his Christchurch base.
Eugene Chadbourne has been to New Zealand before, but this is his first working (playing music) holiday, which comes after calls for him to play in New Zealand.
He says his shows here come from great interest and enthusiasm from New Zealand players such as Greg.
Chadbourne has been playing since the 1970s, so I asked him to pick five highlights from his career so far.
1. Getting to work with Jimmy Carl Black, who passed away in early November.
2. Getting to play an improvised solo on two rabbit traps at a workshop in Tasmania.
3. The jam session at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, circa mid ' 90s, involving myself, a cajun band, a Russian folk group, Mojo Nixon, René Lussier and Jean Derome.
4. Delivering a press clipping to John Lee Hooker and finding a teenage girl in his room.
5. Realising Julie Christie and Susan Sontag were in the front row at a gig in Prague.
He says people can expect to hear a good selection from his extensive repertoire and for him to be punctual.
He's bringing a good selection of toys with him, including a hybrid electric dobro, a five-string open-back mountain-style banjo and an electric plunger.
He's not ruling out a little collaboration, later in the tour: "maybe toward the end of the tour, sounds like fun".
As one might expect from someone who has been playing for more than 30 years across many genres, he has a wide range of influences.
"Bugs Bunny and Boris Karloff were huge inspirations. Literally anything can inspire my musical side as I am somewhat obsessed."
He has played many forms of music - country, blues, jazz, and played acoustic or electric - so what's his favourite way of playing?"Playing totally acoustically in a setting where everyone can hear very well, or even better having nobody else listening at all."
Greg Malcolm was last in Dunedin late in 2007, and played at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
"November 2007, I was touring with a group called The Crust, playing the music of Steve Lacy. A vocal-ish audience assured us of a most enjoyable, if rather surreal, evening."
Currently he's working on keeping his music simple, well as simple as you can get playing three guitars at the same time.
"At the moment I am concentrating on my solo simultaneously-played multiple-guitar performances, or SSPMGP for short. No processing or effects (well, a fuzz box sometimes), just a bunch of guitars. Some contact-miked, some with extra strings and springs and things, one at my side, one at my feet, one in my lap."
He hasn't played overseas for a while and fears he may not be flavour of the month: "Not for a while . . . the last trip was to Norway for the Safe As Milk festival in 2006."
In 2005 he played with Tetuzi Akiyama on a tour and an artist residencies project in Holland, "which was great".
He is hoping to do an overseas jaunt this year, armed with new releases and material.
He says repeat experiences in Germany were probably the most defining moments of his musical career, and seeing Chadbourne play in 1992 was also an inspiring
• On The Web: www.eugenechadbourne.com - www.myspace.com/gregmalcolm
