New ebolabuddha digital release!

Live at KFJC!

Below: strange shot of ebolabuddha playing in San Jose!

PureFinder-Studio Grand, Oakland CA; 10/24/16

It seems always more incongruous that an artsy space could survive within the ever-tonier Grand Lake District of Oakland, and yet Studio Grand continues to stand its ground therein, hosting weekly Experimental shows in the later part of the evenings on Mondays.
PureFinder had the honor of playing with mighty tenor saxophonist Joshua Allen last night within that great space. Josh is a tough act to follow, but we did our best: four or five drums/cymbals mic'd with small contacts and fed into Andrew's electronic rig. Our plan consisted of playing three zones: rhythmic, glitch-ey, and droned. The set started off space-ey, and I got to play some big, block chords on the studio's piano (!) as an opening sound.
We paced our piece well, and seemed to find each of those respective areas. I had fun using long screws on the sides of drums and the cowbell, the sounds of which Andrew treated very creatively. I guess one might define PureFinder's sound as Electronic Grime or maybe Free Industrial; I really enjoy producing it! After a quick thirty minutes or so,  with shakers being hit upon gongs, high harmonica notes, and all kinds of electronic spraying, we stopped; I figured, why keep those in attendance out on a rainy Monday night for too long? Still, we felt satisfied and had a real good time.
Many thanks to Oakland Freedom Jazz Society for allowing PureFinder to play!

Below: Andrew contemplates his mixer, drums mic'd

PureFinder this Monday!

We will be playing with Joshua Allen, who will do a solo tenor sax set.
Details:

Oakland Freedom Jazz Society Presents
PureFinder/Josh Allen
Studio Grand
3234 Grand Ave.
Oakland 94610
9:30-11:30 PM
$

Looking forward to this show! 

New Failure Cock digital release!

Live in Sacramento at Norcal Noisefest XX!

Inter-dimensional Incursion/Ear Spray-Luggage Store Gallery, SF CA; 10/13/16

These, days, whenever I go to the Luggage Store, I marvel at the changes on Market and 6th St. It seems as though there are new fancy eateries, clubs, and whatnot going up every week! At one point last night, I stood at that corner and tried to imagine what it will look like in 100 years' time. Skyscrapers towered in my mind. Wish that I could be there to see it!
Not being able to time travel, I just had to stay in the present and enjoy the small joys of the Inter-dimensional Incursion/Ear Spray gig.
For one, it's incredible, and the SF Bay Area Improvising Music scene is really lucky, that Outsound has managed to keep a toehold right on this rapidly gentrifying area!
Another source of mirth was the small group of people, all known and adored by me, that gathered for the show.
Inter-dimensional Incursion, essentially Cartoon Justice with guests Amanda Chaudhary on synthesizers and James Robert Barnes on woodwinds, played a scripted improvisation, conducted by Mika. I played the Hand-soniq drum pad and waterphone. The later was scraped with long screws and hit with a mallet. I really enjoyed the amount of space that all players allowed to happen. Really good sextet interaction, in my opinion. There were times when I just stopped and enjoyed listening to what everyone else was doing, especially James's really wonderful baritone sax passage, one that had everyone inspired and going for it.
Hopefully there will be gigs from this ensemble in the future!

Below: Inter-dimensial Incursion rig, and the group shot (mostly) live

Ear Spray's set also seemed good to me. Although, mostly on account of me being really busy with some personal stuff, I was not able to get to a rehearsal for it, I felt as though we were able to connect within the sound. At times, we can get pretty noisy, but it seemed as though we played the somewhat small space of the Luggage Store pretty well. Our set was divided into three movements, following Ann's video projections of: Nebula, Sun, and Water. I played mostly small percussion, along with a bit more waterphone (again, scraped and not bowed), and my nasty little circuit bent Casio keyboard. The latter is fun, just for its unpredictability and crazy noises! Me like. As usual, Ear Spray managed to pull together and find our voice. Now, if only we could get that projected CD finished!

Below: Carlos and Ann prepare (with Joe Lasqo in foreground!), Ear Spray gear

All told, a fun night of Electro-Acoustic exploration in downtown San Francisco! Seems fine to me, even if I can't afford dinner over there anymore!

Below: live Ear Spray footage!

I will play at the Luggage Store this Thursday!

I will play two sets at the Luggage Store on Market St.!
First up: Inter-dimensional Incursion, which is basically Cartoon Justice with special guests, and then Ear Spray. The latter hasn't played since May.

Details:
Thu., 10/13
Luggage Store Gallery
1007 Market St.
SF 94103
8 PM sharp
$5-15 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds

We'll see how far out/in we can go.

ebolabuddah-NoiseHaus 10, San Jose CA; 10/8/16

As I drove down to San Jose last night, I realized that, in all of the years that I've been playing drums in public, I've never had a chance to play there. Odd.
Great night to make my San Jose debut, too! First St. was hoppin'. First Friday events fully in effect. Live bands all over the place, taco trucks, weird people in cool costumes. Just great.
ebolabuddha finished off our "Bay Area Mini Tour Week" by playing at the offices of Metro City Paper for the NoiseHaus 10 event. Our sound was frantic and somewhat crazed, I'd say. I'd also venture to say that, on account of it being the same sextet configuration as the previous evening in Oakland, it was thick. That's my hope, anyway. We again attempted to play Saturations With Jumps, and I used the same verbal conducting method.
Did I say crazed? Yes, it sure felt like a crazed set to me. The group reading sections seemed a bit truncated: this may be my fault, as I really wanted to pound away on the nice Pearl drum set that organizer Keith had provided. This type of action led to an actual circle pit happening. That's the first time in a long time I've seen that as I've played.
What a fun, exciting night. Many thanks to NoiseHaus for letting ebolabuddha play their cool event on a well-picked night.

Below: set up and crowd

Above: Pearl kit, about to be punished

Cartoon Justice/ebolabuddha-Octopus Literary Salon, Oakland CA; 10/6/16

After a busy of day of work and then a quick recording session at Skyline Studio in Temescal (hopefully more on that at some point in the future), I blazed over to Octopus Literary Salon in downtown Oakland for a night of literary/musical fusion with Cartoon Justice and ebolabuddha. The event was organized around Sci Fi novelist Meg Pontecorvo's release of her newest work, Murder In the Generative Kitchen. Cartoon Justice was to play in accompaniment to her reading selected portions of the book, and ebolabuddha, being a kind of book oriented concept, was asked by Mika Pontecorvo to play as well.
The evening started with Andrew Joron playing theremin. I had forgotten that that I'd been asked to join in at some point during his set. This did in fact happen, but my playing felt a bit out of phase. Theremin, at least the way that Andrew plays it, requires a gentle touch and good listening. You really do have to practice with it. It's been a while since we've gotten together to do so, and I felt like it showed in my playing. Disappointing. Sigh.

Below: Andrew slips by the camera eye at Octopus Literary Salon!

After a solo reading from Meg, Cartoon Justice began our set. We started with some quiet "primordial" feels, during which I enjoyed playing big, low, block chord clusters on the house piano, along with some waterphone. The group played quietly while Meg read a few more passages. We got a bit louder, more rhythmic, and more intense when she dropped off. This set felt better to me, as Cartoon Justice has put in a fair amount of practice over the past several months. It's always fun to play along with Mika's Free Blues guitar.

Below: Cartoon Justice set up for writer accompaniment

Last up, ebolabuddha played a frantic, manic 35 minute set. We did my written score, Saturations With Jumps again, and I have to say that this time it felt much more together and melded. I used some shouted conducting, and, while not exactly graceful, seemed to work as far as guiding Tom, Lorenzo, Jason, Steve, and Eli, along with myself, through the piece. Success!!!!
The people that stuck around were also great: they all read from books as we played; this is an essential dynamic of an ebolabuddha set, and we were very grateful for their participation. Much fun seemed to have been had by all. Group glossalalia!

Below: small drum kit for a small space, and a graphic score

As usual, it was great fun to make music with the Pontecorvo family.
Looking forward to more ebolabuddha tonight in San Jose!

Below: bonus shot: Infinite Plastic Internal recording sesh; we'll see if anything worth releasing came of it (photo by Bill Wolter, thanks Bill!)

Digital/CDr release from PureFinder!

New release from Andrew Palmer's Stroma Sound Project!

Upcoming shows!

Two shows later this week!
Details:

Thu., 10/6
Cartoon Justice with Meg Pontecorvo/ebolabuddha
Octopus Literary Salon
2101 Webster St.
Oakland 94612
7PM
$
Also on the bill will be my pal Andrew Joron!

Fri., 10/7
ebolabuddha
NoiseHaus 10
Metro Silicon Valley
380 S. 1st St.
San Jose 95113
7:30 PM
$

Hope to see some pals at one of these! I'll play, regardless! 

Failure Cock, Cafe Colonial, Nor Cal Noisefest XX, Sacramento CA; 10/2/16

At a certain point during last night's Nor Cal Noisefest program (incredible!), my old pal Charlie leaned in and asked me, "...how can you tell what's good or bad...?" Fair question, my friend, and I've been reflecting upon it. Noise is inherently something NOT liked, even to the point of repulsion. It strikes me that these kinds of considerations are very subjective: a Noise act that one likes may not be liked by someone else. Ultimately, it's good if you like it or love it, and bad if you don't, I guess.
All that said, I certainly like a lot of the Noise/Experimental acts that I see in Sacramento for Nor Cal Noisefest, and obviously like playing with Failure Cock. If others do or don't, I can't say that I really care. That's their choice.
Eli Pontecorvo continues to add his low end bass vibes to our sound, this time playing two basses simultaneously. This start was according to a loose "set list" that we had cooked up in the preceding months, practicing whenever we could. He created a cool loop to start out, after which horns, looped guitar from Scarp (very cool pachinko sounds!), and dry waterphone and electronics were added.  We carried on with this for about ten minutes before some taiko-style drum jamming commenced. That part seemed to be the most emotionally heavy and pure, at least according to Eli. From there, we brought things down and ended as we started, with Eli strumming along to his low end loops. I sweated enough to feel somewhat drained.
Again, I have no idea if people liked our Noise or not. I just know that I enjoyed making all of that racket with Scarp and Eli, as usual.

Below: "set list" and Failure Cock dudes

Many thanks to Lob, the Nor Cal Noise Fest Crew, Das and Ninah, and all those that paid attention.

ebolabuddha-Gennie Jamz: Part V; Baker Beach, SF CA, 10/1/16

I guess that it was the week for me to hang out at holder haunts within SF. After Monday's El Rio event with Surplus 1980, I got to hit Baker Beach, the really lovely waterfront at the end of the Sea Cliff district.
The Gennie Jamz shows are generator shows, semi-legal ones, held at these old bunkers that are located right above the strand. We had no interference from park rangers, aside from one request to turn things down a bit.
ebolobuddha featured Eli, Jason, Steve, Tom, and myself for this one. Guitar, alto sax, bass, keys, and drums. We mostly performed a graphic piece that I've been working, Saturations with Jumps; its title comes from a sentence within an essay by Nick Land, whose somewhat darkened work has fascinated me lately. The sound was to have been divided by heavy "standing" moments, punctuated by "jumps", which were to have been made up of interactive harmonic passages. I'm not sure how that turned out, as I really couldn't hear the instrumental separation very well. After a bit, I decided to just play fiery and balls out. Seems like the other dudes may have done so as well! No worries.
We also got into some group reading passages: I read Ovid, as usual. Someday I'll find a new author for ebolabuddha readings!
Definitely a noisy and out of control set from ebolabuddha. More of an improvised Metal type of day for us.
A bit later in the day, I was asked to sit in with an ad hoc Psych group, and that was hella fun, too. As a bonus, I drove home via the Golden Gate Bridge, and the view was stunning.
Fun in the sun, SF Indian Summer style!

Above: ebolabuddha members and their pals, shot from atop a bunker!

Our set was recorded. Hopefully at some point it will be available for listening.