What a year!

At this time last year, I was pondering what the fallout from the changes in my music life would look like. I was cautiously optimistic, despite the let downs that 2010 brought to me.
I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised in 2011! Interesting, fun gigs with Cloud Shepherd, Silencer Assembly getting a guitar player, Failure Cock recording with Dean Santomieri and Brian Lucas, jamming with Andrew Joron and his theremin: all of these have been GREAT, and well worth the effort.
It is my hope that 2012 brings further developments within all of these spheres.
I would like to thank and acknowledge my wife Melissa for putting up with my sometimes crazy musical schedule. Also, thanks to all of my musical compatriots for jamming with me. I really appreciate all of you guys.
Onward to 2012!

Firecracker Shrimp

Recorded in my garage, 12/24/11. Homage to East Asian percussion approaches, so advanced on so many levels!
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/firecracker-shrimp

Cosmists-Solstice Within Mithraeum

New Cosmists track, recorded 12/21/11. Winter Solstice!

Barney Cauldron-Echoes off of Crumbling Walls

Barney Cauldron began its relatively short life at Sound Wave Rehearsal Studios in Oakland, June of 2007. This recording is a document of our guitar/drums duo phase, which lasted until 2008. It's not particularly virtuoso, but I like its skewed energy and stumbling Minimalism!
On this recording, Barney Cauldron was:
Scott Jones-Guitar, loops, phantom Blues voice
Mark Pino-Drums
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/barney-cauldron-echoes-off-of

Old Million Eye v. Infinite Plastic Internal, live on the radio, 12/14/2011 4PM PT

http://dfm.nu/
Brian Lucas and I will be blending our respective sound worlds on live, internet radio this Wednesday at 4PM Pacific time. Tune in and trip out!

Birdsaw-Live at the Paradise Lounge, SF CA Feb 18, 1998

http://www.archive.org/details/Birdsaw-liveAtTheParadiseLoungeSfCaFeb181998

Cloud Shepherd with India Cooke, Berkeley Arts Fest 2011, 12/3/11, Berkeley Arts Store Front

Cloud Shepherd had the  honor of playing with world renowned violin maestro India Cooke, aka L'il Nimbus (her Cloud Shepherd moniker)  for a show in the Berkeley Arts 2011 Fest. To a man, we were stoked.
Thankfully, we had a pretty good size audience to play for, and performed two sets, both of which were made up of two distinct improvisations.

Above: me, setting up the Cloud Kit
Below: India wails, Andrew buzzes, I try to keep up

The night's music felt very rhythm-oriented to me; India's presence definitely had that effect on my playing. I spent a lot of time on the drum portion of the Cloud Kit, and even took a solo at one point. Hopefully it was fun to hear. I know we had fun!

Above: L'il Nimbus in full flight!
Below: L'il Nimbus and Baby Bro, preparing for launch! 

Cloud Shepherd will play Berkeley Arts Festival, Sat., 12/3/2011!

Master violin player India Cooke will sit in with us. We're STOKED!

Dance of the Malletears

Sometimes music can be a channel for sadness. This is one of those times.
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/dance-of-the-malletears

Old Million Eye vs. Infinite Plastic Internal

Brian Lucas and myself, getting Avant-Garage-ey in the summer of 2011! Note several friends' art work.

A Tense Verb

A tribute to Han Bennink, the great Dutch Free Jazz Master!
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/a-tense-verb

Cloud Shepherd-IAMINDUST Festival, the Lab, S.F., 11/11/11

Cloud Shepherd's end of the year spate of shows continued at the Lab in S.F. on World Psychic Day (I have the hand out as proof), as part of the IAMINDUST Festival.
It was great to play with so many amazing drone/ambient/noise bands! Very fun and cool, and a quite freaked out Mission crowd!

Above: Andrew and Joe take in the Lab's ambiance.

Above: Headliner Helios Creed surveys the Cloud Kit.

Our set started out with a bang. I felt a sense of urgency, as we only had 30 minutes to play. I wanted to get to "the space" as quickly as possible.  It seemed like we got a good response from a relatively large audience.

Above: Cloud Kit
Below: Joe's gear

Above: IAMINDUST organizer Yuri, and his amazing pendants. Thanks, Yuri!

Cloud Shepherd/New Leaf Society, 11/6/2011, Musicians Union Hall, SF

Last night Cloud Shepherd shared a bill with New Leaf Society, at the Earl Watkins Memorial Hall of the San Francisco Musicians Union. It was under the auspice of the SIMM Series, which is organized by Rent Romus. Rent is a tireless supporter of S.F. Bay Area music, and should be acknowledged. He's also really friendly.
New Leaf Society played first. They are a very string-oriented band, led by their guitar player Michael. Very spacey free improv is their specialty. I was particularly impressed by their percussionist, who played electronic percussion. He was great.

Above: Joe, Brian, and Andrew set up for our trip into the Clouds
Below: Cloud Shepherd in severe mood! 

After a short break, Cloud Shepherd played. We performed one long piece. I felt like it was a very primordial, raspy, churning piece. I was happy with its primitive feel.
Thanks to all who attended!

Cosmists-The Impossible Room

The title of this recording, and those of its tunes, come from Andrew Joron's poem of the same name, published in the 1992 book Science Fiction.

Missing Link, 1988!

Getting all Hardcore and shit! Thanks to Josh Sullivan for putting these shots up on Facebook!

 Note the Marginal Man t-shirt, one of my prized possessions at that time.

I was stoked on that day. An actual SHOW! Wow!

Ovipositor with Tom Herman, Live at the Stork Club, Oakland, CA 8/12/2005

Pere Ubu was very important to Ovipositor. Colin did a great web site with comprehensive interviews with most of the members of the band. I have been enjoying their music since the mid-1980's, when my aunt Barbara bought me a copy of 360 Degrees of Simulate Stereo. I once even naively emailed Pere Ubu, asking them if Birdsaw could open for them at Slim's. Uh, yeah, right!
Colin and his wife Jane are pretty good friends with Ubu guitarist Tom Herman, and at some point, Colin convinced Tom to play a few songs with Ovipositor in a live setting. Apparently, Tom was not the biggest fan of our music, but he graciously agreed to do so. About a year later, he played a full set with us, but by that time Ovipositor had much different dynamics, and the show was a bit lackluster.
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/ovipo
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/ovipositor-autumn-leaves-live

Upcoming Cloud Shepherd Shows!

The men of Cloud Shepherd will convene and play several shows within the next two months. I remain grateful for the chance to play the Cosmic Shepherd music!
Dig the cool flyer by Joseph Noble. Find his books, too. The man can write!

Barney Cauldron-Boogie With B.C.

Summer 2010 was busy for Barney Cauldron. We played two shows, and had a nice, once a week rehearsal schedule going, with full band. This recording is from that time. By autumn, it would be over.
On this recording, Barney Cauldron was:
Dylan Haas-Saxophone
Scarp Home-Drums, vocals, trumpet
Scott Jones-Guitar
Dan Kennedy-Bass, engineering
Mark Pino-Drums, vocals

http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/barney-cauldron-boogie-with-b

Cosmists-A.C. Punkte

New Cosmists track!

Mark Pino-In Motian's Weeds

Recently I had to move the kit that I use in Failure Cock back to my garage.
I have been wanting to do a tribute to the great Paul Motian, whose brush technique is breathtaking.
This seemed like a good time to add pieces of the Cloud Kit  to the standard drum kit that is the Failure Cock kit, and have a go at said tribute.
As you can hear, I used brushes a la Paul Motian, on this track, In Motian's Weeds.  I'm quite pleased with the results!
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/mark-pino-in-motians-weeds

Digital recording-Failure Cock, Strategy Pills, session 3

Failure Cock continues to work on Strategy Pills. It's getting pretty complicated, but in a good way!

Above: Dean Santomieri uses his own amp this time, nails it.

Above: Scarp engineering.

A few evenings later, our former Barney Cauldron band mates Dylan Haas and Dan Kennedy came over, and added saxophone and keyboards, respectively, along with a bit of vocalizing.

Above: Scarp lays down some trumpet sounds.
Above: Dylan's controlled alto chaos!

Above: Dan finds the sound he wants.

Now all that we have to do is mix and master!

Cosmists-Kosmischer Eissturm

 New track from Cosmists!

Shards-Live in Salinas, CA 8/26/2003

A VERY rough recording of George Earth and I, in full live wig out mode. This show occurred at a party near Salinas, CA, in August of 2003. We played with Dopavore and some other bands. Dig on George's requiem for Echo the dog, the recently deceased pet of Steve, who did some recording/engineering for us at his place in Malibu, earlier that year.
https://archive.org/details/shards82603

Cosmists-Strings Oscillate

 New Cosmists tune!

Infinite Plastic Internal-Jupiter

New work on the Cloud Kit.
Thanks to Srdj Brown for use of the great photo!
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/infinite-plastic-internal-3

Cosmists-First Flight

Cosmists is a branch of the Cloud Shepherd collective of musicians.
Cosmists is made up of Andrew Joron on Theremin and myself on Cloud Kit.
The recording here is our first, and I hope that there will be more to follow.

Digital recording- Failure Cock, Strategy Pills, session 2

Last night Scarp and I were joined over at Scarp's S.F. studio by the great Bay Area musician Dean Santomieri, who put guitar tracks down on two of the Strategy Pills jams from July.  We're getting closer to completing it!

Above: Dean lays in with his nimble-fingered attack!
Below: Scarp runs the board.

We have one more session tentatively scheduled with Dean, then it will be time to mix the sucker!

Above: Dean Santomieri, kosmiche pilot!

Infinite Plastic Internal-Chitipati

New Cloud Kit plus electronics from Infinite Plastic Internal. Rattle them bones!
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/infinite-plastic-internal-2

Failure Cock-Buzzy Buzzy/Pan Feedback Flute/Earth Island Warfare/Trail of Tears

Blackened New Age from Failure Cock. This piece features the Pan Feedback Flute, and instrument unique to Failure Cock.
Scarp Home-Drums, Loops, Keyboards, Vocals
Mark Pino-Drums, Pan Feedback Flute
http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/failure-cock-buzzy-buzzy-pan

Failure Cock-Marching Robots Bleeding Acidic Foam

Failure Cock continues to record. We have a special release coming down the pike. Here is some primal pound from Scarp and myself!
Scarp Home-Drums, Loops
Mark Pino-Drums

http://soundcloud.com/mark-pino-on-drums/failure-cock-marching-robots

Cloud Shepherd live shots, Luggage Store Gallery, 8/25/11

These shots are from our show at the Luggage Store. Brian is out of the frame, as he was only there in spirit.

First above: Golden Cloud Kit
Second above: Andrew directs the energies of his theremin

Above: Joe wails!

Above: Getting creative with the gongs!

 Above: Golden Shepherd!