Crow Crash Radio Recording, 12/29/12

Today Crow Crash Radio convened at Daniel Humphrey's Montclair, CA studio to record some demos. I think that we got about four or five usable takes of tracks. Mixing will reveal that answer to that question.
The process felt really comfortable to me, and it was fun to get wacky and weird with my pals Brian Strang and Andrew Joron.

Above: Brian tunes up
Below: Guitars

Above: Andrew demonstrates his technique for Daniel
Below: Bongos!

Stay tuned to see how our recordings see the light of day!

Happy Solstice!

Last night the men of Cloud Shepherd convened at Crow Crash Radio leader Brian Strang's house for a Christmas party/Solstice jam. Howling basement psyche/folk ensued. Melissa snapped this "candid" photo. Brian's neighbor Peter also participated. Whatever holiday it is that you celebrate at this time, have a great one. Joy and music to the world. We need them, now and always.

Janina Angel Bath-Art House, Berkeley; 12/14/12

This gig was sort of last minute for me, as I had been unable to attend the rehearsals, due to illness. Janina sent me an email a few days before the gig, and suggested that we convene a few hours before the gig, work up arrangements of some tunes, and go for it. I think Janina is great, so, of course, I agreed.

Above: Cloud Kit trance!

It was a fun show. The band, consisting of Brian Lucas on guitar, Michael Lowe-Grandi on guitar, along with myself on Cloud Kit, played somewhat quiet, trance music behind Janina's esoteric incantatory songs.

Above: Janina invokes, Michael concentrates
Below: Guitarists in repose

It was great fun to jam under the liquid light display, and to see old friends.
Thanks to Melissa for taking the pics, and to Janina for letting me participate!

Crow Crash Radio-Awaken Cafe, Oakland, CA 12/12/12

I guess the lesson for me from this gig was: soldier on. Despite feeling ill from a cold that I just can't shake, and getting a bit perturbed by the street noise from Broadway, along with the blasts of cold air that would hit me (the drums were directly parallel to the front door), the audio evidence suggests that Crow Crash Radio played fine. We were pretty loose, ragged but right, I guess. That fits our dynamic, though. People seemed to enjoy the tunes, too. Yeah, soldier on!
Many thanks to Chris, the Awaken Cafe sound tech, for going the extra mile.

Door Knockin'

Upcoming Gig: Crow Crash Radio, 12/12/12

Crow Crash Radio will be bringing our Space-a-billy Blues to Awaken Cafe in Oakland next Wednesday, 12/12/12!
Awaken Cafe is located at 1429 Broadway in downtown Oakland. Crow Crash plays two sets, starting at 7PM. See you there!

Cloud Shepherd-Unknown; A Beard of Snails Records, 2012

http://abeardofsnails.com/shop.html

The men of Cloud Shepherd are pleased as punch at the release of our CD Unknown, out on A Beard of Snails Records. Please consider buying a copy!
A million thanks to all members of Cloud Shepherd and A Beard of Snails!

Mountain vs. Buildling-November Null

New Mountain vs. Building tracks for November, up here!

 http://mountain-vs-building.bandcamp.com/album/november-null

Thanks to Brian Lucas for taking the time to edit them.

Crow Crash Radio live shots

Andrew's wife Rose took these photos of Crow Crash Radio at the Uptown Garage in Oakland, CA 7/6/12. We were playing as part of the Art Murmur for that month!

Thanks, Rose!

Crow Crash Radio is preparing for a gig in December. More details to follow soon.

Cloud Shepherd-City Lights Books Poetry Annex; SF, CA 11/3/12

Last night the men of Cloud Shepherd crammed ourselves into a tightly packed Poetry Annex at City Lights Books in SF, as part of the Carnivale Pataphysique in North Beach. The event was originally scheduled to take place in a large basement, but Hurricane Sandy prevented the owner of said basement from making it to San Francisco. The staff at City Lights graciously allowed the show to go on in their space. Fantastic!

Above: Cloud Shepherd invokes
Below: Brian and Mark interactive

We responded to the close quarters with what I felt was a very  good set, two pieces, both of which started out somewhat quietly and then proceeded to lift off into more frenetic spaces.

Above: Andrew, Brian, and Joe
Below: Andrew dances

Above: More Shep
 Below: Poetry Annex Flight!

After our set, a great poetry set and puppet show followed. All in all, a very Pataphysical event!
Thanks to Melissa for taking the pics!

Cosmists-Studio One Arts Center; Oakland, CA 11/2/12

Last night Cosmists had our debut public performance at Oakland's very friendly and cool Studio One Arts Center, located in Temescal District.
We opened the ceremonies with a very quiet (Andrew said he could not hear me at all!) piece, setting the stage for wonderful poets Michael Leong and Dora Malech. They are both very talented writers. Their books are available: grab them!

Above: Micheal Leong orates.
Below: Dora Malech describes her travels

After a short break, Cosmists delved into our louder side, doing a short, 11 minute set. I felt somewhat self-conscious; it's quite and abstract approach, just theremin and percussion! That said, Andrew said he was happy with it, as did a few friends. Hopefully it wont be that last time that Cosmists appear in public.

Above: Cloud Kit, prepared
Below: Andrew reads

Andrew closed the evening out, reading four of his poems, including my favorite piece of his, which describes cubic forms and linear time.
All in all, a fun night! Thanks to event MC Robert Andrew Perez and event organizer Casey McAlduff and the great staff at Studio One Arts Center!

Cosmists' first gig next Friday 11/2! Details below!

Studio One First Fridays presents Andrew Joron, Dora Malech, and Michael Leong, plus a special performance by Cosmists—
Friday, November 2^nd at 7:00 PM

Join us on Friday, November 2^nd for an All Souls Show of poetry and music with poets Andrew Joron, Dora Malech and Michael Leong!  The night will also feature theremin and drums duo Andrew Joron and Mark Pino--AKA Cosmists. 

The event begins at 7:00 PM.

Beverages and snacks will be served.

Special thanks also to our emcee for the evening, Robert Andrew Perez!

**please note that this reading will start @ 7:00 PM, rather than our regularly scheduled time of 7:30

Studio One Arts Center

365 45th Street

Oakland, CA 94609
http://goo.gl/maps/Og6ku

Andrew Joron is the author of Trance Archive: New and Selected Poems (City Lights, 2010). Joron’s previous poetry collections include The Removes (Hard Press, 1999), Fathom (Black Square Editions, 2003), and The Sound Mirror (Flood Editions, 2008). The Cry at Zero, a selection of his prose poems and critical essays, was published by Counterpath Press in 2007. From the German, he has translated the Literary Essays of Marxist-Utopian philosopher Ernst Bloch (Stanford University Press, 1998) and The Perpetual Motion Machine by the proto-Dada fantasist Paul Scheerbart (Wakefield Press, 2011). Joron plays theremin in the dark ambient group Cloud Shepherd as well as in the instrumental rock trio Crow Crash Radio.

Dora Malech was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1981 and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. She earned a BA in Fine Arts from Yale College in 2003 and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2005. She has been the recipient of a Frederick M. Clapp Poetry Writing Fellowship from Yale, a Truman Capote Fellowship and a Teaching-Writing Fellowship from the Writers’ Workshop, a Glenn Schaeffer Poetry Award, a Writer’s Fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy, and a 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. The Waywiser Press published her first full-length collection of poems, Shore Ordered Ocean, in 2009 and the Cleveland State University Poetry Center published her second collection, Say So, in 2011. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Poetry, Best New Poets, American Letters & Commentary, Poetry London, and The Yale Review. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa; Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington, New Zealand; Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois; and Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga, California. Her paintings and drawings are available at the Chait Galleries in Iowa City, Iowa. She lives in Iowa City, where she writes, draws, teaches, and coordinates the Iowa Youth Writing Project, an arts outreach program for children and teens.

Michael Leong is the author of two books of poetry: e.s.p. (Silenced Press, 2009) and Cutting Time with a Knife (Black Square Editions, 2012), which won a "Face Out" grant from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.  He has also published a translation of the Chilean poet Estela Lamat, I, the Worst of All (BlazeVOX [books], 2009).  He is the recipient of a 2012 &NOW Award for his chapbook The Philosophy of Decomposition/Re-Composition as Explanation (Delete Press, 2011), and his newest chapbook, Words on Edge, was chosen by Rob Fitterman as the winner of Plan B Press' 2012 Poetry Contest.  He is a lecturer at Rutgers University where he completed a dissertation on the contemporary long poem and the archive.

Mark Pino began playing the drums at age eleven. Previous to that he had loved listening to music, and his parents’ catholic tastes in music opened up his ears to many different styles. Pino began playing publicly in the SF Bay Area in the early 1990’s, and since then has played regionally and nationally in many different bands. Mark considers himself a band player; the interaction with other musicians remains important to him, as does the act of manipulating physical instruments for sound and music making. Over the course of his career, Pino has played with all sorts of people in all sorts of settings, and is grateful to all of them, as well as to his teachers who shared their knowledge with him. 

Robert Andrew Perez lives in Berkeley, California with two biologists. Unlike most poets, he is literally rolling in the dough, working for a deep dish pizza company not in Chicago. He holds various other odd jobs, including but not limited to mobile DJing for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs and miscellaneous aca-drone for the English departments of UC Berkeley and Saint Mary’s College (where he earned his BA and MFA, respectively). He is also the blog manager for the Underpass Reading Series and an associate editor for speCt!, a book arts letterpress poetry imprint, both based on Oakland. He is the recipient of the Lannan Prize for Saint Mary’s College and a Lambda Literary fellow. His recent work can be found in publications such as The Cortland Review, Writing Without Walls, and The Offending Adam.

Mountain vs. Building

Since about August I have been involved in this project. Bass player Brian Lucas has put together a Bandcamp page! Thanks, Brian!

Infinite Plastic Internal-In Walked Hermes

More improvised sound from Infinite Plastic Internal.

Infinite Plastic Internal-Space Jump

New IPI recording, utilizing a contact mic that I bought from one of the Liver Cancer guys at the Norcal Noise Fest 2012, up in Sacramento.

   Infinite Plastic Internal-Space Jump by Mark Pino on drums

Cloud Shepherd; NorCal Noise Fest, 2012, Sol Collective, 10/6/12

Last night Cloud Shepherd was happy to play the annual NorCal Noise Fest at Sol Collective in a lovely neighborhood in Sacramento. While CS's noisiest bits are WAY less noisy than the most quiet bits by groups on the bill such as Liver Cancer or Bastard Noise, the NorCal Noise Fest organizers asked us to play and we are grateful to them for that.
I feel like I played a bit frantically, dare I say noisily, as I felt the need to compensate for Andrew, who was not able to play the gig due to illness. And, after all, it is the NOISE FEST! All in all, a fun time, an interesting gig, and a chance to hear and see some interesting, noisy acts.

Above: Brian's got moves
Below: Joe Noble, happily making noise

Below: Cloud Kit, post freak

Below: Cloud Shepherd, Power Trio Version 3.0

Above: Cloud Shepherd in amber. Thanks to Marc Schneider for this pic!