Monday, July 30, 2018

CDP-Community Music Center, San Francisco CA; 7/27/18

CDP had spent what was for our collective members a lot of rehearsal time leading up to last Friday night's show. Amanda Chaudhary, Tom Djill, Joshua Marshall and myself are all heavily involved in all kinds of stuff, but we all found time to put in the extra effort for our Outsound Summit 17 show. As for me, the extra work felt as though it had sunk in: I was ready to play. I got in a nice walk around the Mission before our set and marveled at the weird dusky humidity and fog. San Francisco is always so strange at that time of day. Anyway, back to the set. CDP had a nice little crowd at Community Music Center, enough people to feel inspired. Our set started off maybe just a touch shaky, but we seemed able to shake off the jitters and get down to really playing Amanda's wonderfully sweet charts and their attendant improvisations. I had a grand time within these spaces, especially during North Berkeley BART (this song should be put out on 7"), and the new tune, Rambutan. This latter one had some fun audience participation, to boot. It seemed to me as though we really filled up our 45 minute set with a good mix restraint and bombast, all the while having fun and grooving really well. Tom got some really funny sounds going on the 12/8 shuffle of Marlon Brando that had me lol'ing while trying to keep that groove going. Not too bad, I must say; I almost have that one within grasp. Josh as usual played great, at times growling with his tenor, at others playing very lyrically, especially on his soprano. Amanda lead things really well, conducting the group into some very cool sonic realms. It's always a pleasure to realize the music of CDP!
After our bubbly set, Dire Wolves hit and put out some serious trance moves. Awesome.
What a fun damn night at CMC!
Many thanks to Rent, Ray Schaeffer, Eli Pontecorvo, Sheila Bosco, Dire Wolves, and the members of CDP for an exceptionally fun event. Hooray for Outsound!

Below: CDP on a good stage, where it belongs (photo by Jason Berry, thanks Jason!)

Below: video of North Berkeley BART, shot by Bill Russell (thanks, Bill!)


Saturday, July 28, 2018

New Infinite Plastic Internal digital track up!



Friday, July 27, 2018

New Brandon Evans/Mark Pino digital release!



Very proud of this music! Check it!

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

CDP plays in San Francisco this Friday!



CDP will be playing this Friday as part of the 17th Annual Outsound New Music Summit!

Fri., 7/27/18
Community Music Center
744 Capp St.
San Francisco 94110
Doors at 7:00
Music at 8:15
CDP
Dire Wolves
$18-15-12 at door ($15-12-10 advance)
 

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Josh Allen/Mark Pino Duo-Luna's Cafe, Sacramento CA; 7/16/18

Playing music of any sort with Josh Allen has been a literally decades long aspiration of mine. I first became aware of him in the mid-aughts, having seen and heard his incredible tenor saxophone playing at various BART stations around Oakland along with venues such as Stork Club and 21 Grand. Josh has always blown me away. Such powerful and sublime sounds, holy moly. At some point last year, we got together and played, and have done so intermittently from that point onward. A few months ago, we talked about maybe setting up a gig, and I promptly contacted Lob in Sacramento to see about getting a gig at Luna's Cafe for the Nebraska Mondays series. Thankfully, Lob set us up.
We managed to get a nice number of rehearsals in, which is very important. Josh's attitude about rehearsing, essentially "practice your instrument or shut up", is VERY inspiring to me, and I am very happy to get in line with it. This aspect is so important, and it's great to be reminded of that.
After a relaxed trip up I-80, we hit Luna's in plenty of time, and were able to set up and get accommodated at a good pace. Our 45 minute set started off with a pretty energetic pace, and I felt as though I was able to get over the jitters of playing out pretty quickly. Things stayed up energy-wise, but we also managed to get some subtle interplay going. I seemed to be focused on playing what felt like little micro pieces within the longer improvised arcs, with lots of quick stops and syncopation with Josh's melodic and harmonic lines. Especially enjoyable and inspiring were the parts during which brushes and mallets fused with Josh's sounds. The whole set had what to me felt like a very dynamic movement: we played together within the improvised matrices that we set up. What a fantastic feeling!
The people in attendance gave really positive feedback, and seemed pretty inspired by our sounds. Who could ask for more!
A few days later, and I'm still buzzing. Many thanks to Josh for taking the time to make some music with me, and thanks to Lob and Art Luna for the booking. Hopefully more of these duo shows with Mr. Allen will be forthcoming.

Below: Josh Allen and Mark Pino playing improvised music (photo by Lob, thanks Lob!)




Friday, July 13, 2018

Duo with Josh Allen this Monday in Sacramento!

I will be playing in a duo with Josh Allen this Monday, 7/16 at Luna's Cafe in Sacramento!
Details:
Mon. 7/16/18
Luna's Cafe
1414 16th St.
Sacramento 95814
Nebraska Mondays
Allen/Pino Duo
Winterell
7:30 PM
Donations accepted

I know the weather will be hot, and the sounds will be, too. 

Monday, July 9, 2018

New Dead City Shaman digital release up at Aural Films!



Many thanks to Jack Hertz for initiating and continuing this project with me!

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Early July Show Roundup

As a really pleasurable weekend of muse chasing winds down, I'm already feeling a bit nostalgic. Just have to remember to take my time as I write about it!

Crow Crash Radio-Hemlock Tavern, SF CA; 7/6/18
A bizarrely fast Friday evening trip across the Bay Bridge had Andrew Joron and I meeting up with Brian Strang at Hemlock Tavern well before our set time. Seeing as that Rabbles drummer Dave had volunteered his beautiful Pearl drum set as a back line, I had minimal gear to schlep. So, after a bit of a wait, Crow Crash Radio hit to open the show. Things felt good pretty much right away, and stayed that way for the duration. We strung about three opening pieces together, using quieter interludes to connect our riffs. Brian has added some cool pedals to his set up, getting nice repeater sounds and electronic squalls along with his tasteful guitar playing. Andrew and I did a brief Cosmists-style duet to start the latter part of our thirty minute set; I even got in a few solo drum passages! Stoked. A set of slower, Psych-colored feels, and a fun way to start off a fun night of music, in which all of the bands had similar approaches but diverse sounds. I was happy to be there, especially on account of seeing so many friends.

Below: great back line kit; Crow Crash Radio photographed by Brian Lucas (thanks, Brian!)
Above: the tallest building in SF lit by the sunset. I guess it's OK
Below: Crow Crash Radio's set from Hemlock Tavern!





Aural Monsoon-BAMPFA, Berkeley CA; 7/7/18
A few hours later I found myself being picked up by Andrew Joron, with Will Alexander in tow, for our trio set at Berkeley Arts Museum's Pacific Film Archive. The set was added on to a solo reading from Will. If you're not familiar with his work, get familiar with it. His writing is stunning, and his live delivery is as well. Very impactful. Will has become more and more obsessed with playing piano, and as such had requested that he be allowed to bring Aural Monsoon in to play a bit. It's a testament to the respect that he commands that BAMPFA rounded up a piano in order for us to do so. We only had about fifteen minutes in which to play, but I felt as though we made the most of the time. I brought a visual score, dubbed "Valleys and Volcanoes" after a long talk with Will back in May. This piece was taped to the floor of the very cool auditorium and used a cue, with the loose instruction being that we work upward from lower tones and into higher tones at a slow pace. We seemed to follow this concept pretty well. To start, I played the bass drum taiko-style, from a semi-seated position and using mallets to get low rumbles. Andrew got great, low sounds from his theremin, as Will did with the piano. At times, it was tough for me to follow the piano's sounds, as its sounding board was turned away from me, but I felt as though I was able to play interactively with Will for the most part; this is important in Aural Monsoon, as the group's sound is all about call and response from attentive listening. I would have liked to have played longer! Ah well.

Below: Aural Monsoon gear from above; Valleys and Volcanoes score
Above: a happy trio!

Much more music scheduled for this month!




Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Upcoming shows!

I have lucked into a few shows in early July!

Crow Crash Radio
Fri., 7/6/18
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk St.
SF 94109
8:30 PM
with Novio Electro and Rabbles
$

Will Alexander/Andrew Joron/Mark Pino
Sat., 7/7/18
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
2155 Center St.
Berkeley 94704
6 PM 
Will reads, then we will play
$$

A fine weekend of sound awaits!