Monday, September 30, 2019

Two Feral Luggage shows recalled

Feral Luggage played two shows with Tuvan Psych Rock band Hartyga this past Thursday and Sunday. Some recollections!

Feral Luggage-The Luggage Store, SF; 9/26/19
This show was supposed to have us as the second of two acts, but Mika Pontecorvo wanted to hook Hartyga up with a show in SF. Accordingly, we shortened our set to allow time for our Tuvan pals to play. This was a cool thing to do, and I was totally into into it. That said, our set was frustratingly brief for it. We really only got about 15 minutes of real interactive playing time in. Still, it was really nice to have some two drum set interaction going on with Patrick Telesfore, Jr. Man, that guy can play. As is usual with the Luggage Store, it was a bit tough to hear the entire mix of the band. Being situated near Kersti, I felt as though my best dialogues were with her alto saxophone. It was nice to have a small, enthusiastic audience for our sounds, and, as always, playing the Luggage Store is a great experience, save for the parking hassles, which are getting worse as the neighborhood around 6th St. and Market changes.

Below: my Jungle Jazz Feral Luggage kit! Love it!






Feral Luggage-Starline Social Club, Oakland; 9/29/19
Thankfully, at the Starline Social Club, there were only two acts, us and Hartyga. I'll start by stating that the performance space at Starline is sweet! Really intimate, but well decorated and cool. A neat place. Feral Luggage jumped into our scheduled set and laid down what felt to me to be some pretty groovy Null Wave, as Mika has dubbed our sound, for a good 40 minutes of spaced out sounds. I was feeling pretty introspective in the hours before we played, and think that this may have colored my hearing of our sounds. Even better "chatter" with Telesfore, really connected feels with Eli and Kersti as well. Things just seemed to flow as we played. We even  managed to hook some people in and keep their attention for the duration. Very nice. This set was recorded in stereo, and it's my hope that it ends up on Soundcloud at minimum.
Below: a lot of gear on a small stage



Hopefully Feral Luggage plays some gigs again soon, as it's quite good in my estimation. Many thanks to Mika and Hartyga for hooking these cool shows up.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Feral Luggage plays two upcoming shows!

Cartoon Justice has seemed to have morphed semi-permanently into Feral Luggage, after adding a second drummer. We'll be playing two shows with Hartyga, who have traveled to the U.S. from Mongolia!

Thu., 9/26
Luggage Store Gallery
1007 Market St.
SF 94103
8 PM Sharp
Joel Nelson
Feral Luggage
Hartyga
$8-15 sliding scale

Sun., 9/29
Starline Social Club
2236 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Oakland 94612
8 PM
Feral Luggage
Hartyga
$15

Looking forward to seeing how these shows pan out! 

Friday, September 20, 2019

Crow Crash Radio at Red Musuem Sacramento video!

Many thanks to Elisa Brasil for filming us. Edits by Brian Strang!

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Crow Crash Radio-Red Museum, Sacramento CA; 9/15/19

I never really thought that Crow Crash Radio would play a Noise Music show, but last Sunday we found ourselves doing just that at Sacramento's lovely Red Museum, located just at the edge of the ever-hoppin' downtown, for the Audio Waffle Series.
Accordingly, we planned out a much less song-oriented set, deciding instead to get into some more free form improvisation. This plan seemed to have worked out nicely. Brian, Andrew and I got into some pretty abstract jamming for I don't know how long. Time really stopped for me as we played. We hit maybe four or five different zones, and each one felt as though the guitar (with loops), theremin, and drums were able to link up in a cool,  loose way. The only problem for me was some forward creep of the somewhat odd back line drum set that I was using. Thankfully, I was able to adjust accordingly within the jam. One audience member said the we reminded him of Ummagumma era Pink Floyd. I'll take that as a compliment, for sure.
A fun, albeit somewhat frustrating in that we didn't get to play too long. I think that Crow Crash Radio will surely begin incorporating some of the vibes at Red Museum within our longer sets, though.

Below: odd back line kit; very cool arty photo of Crow Crash Radio by and courtesy of Timothy O'Sullivan, thanks, Timothy!
Many thanks to Lob for booking us at Audio Waffle.


Thursday, September 12, 2019

Crow Crash Radio this Sunday in Sacramento!

Crow Crash Radio will be playing what is nominally planned to be a Noise show. We will bring our own version!

9/1519
Sacramento Audio Waffle
Red Museum
212 15th St.
Sacramento 95814
12 PM Sharp-2:00
All ages
$8-10
Lots of friends' bands, along with Crow Crash Radio! Wahoo!!!!

Monday, September 9, 2019

Aural Monsoon Trio-Bird & Beckett Books, SF; 9/8/19

Some gigs just really glow, and Aural Monsoon Trio certainly seemed to have that going on, at least from where I was sitting. It was really exciting, as usual, to hook up with word master and piano improvisor Will Alexander for a nice, deep dive into the out zones. My now long-time collaborator Andrew Joron joined us for the ride. Between Will's modal explorations of Bird & Beckett's upright piano, and Anrdrew's theremin drones, I felt totally free to explore my current favorite kit. That's definitely where said glow comes in for me. What a pleasure it is to use the drums and cymbals and gongs as expressions of what feels to me to be deeper emotions. I don't know if those feelings transmitted themselves to anyone else in the room, but they were present for me as we played a good, four piece set that lasted about 45-50 minutes. Aural Monsoon Trio got into some pretty heavy, at times spacious, at times whirling parts, and I loved every minute of it. Just such a great time. Hopefully we can cast more storms in the future.

Below: my drums and Will warming up


Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Aural Monsoon Trio this Sunday in SF!

Aural Monsoon Trio, featuring Will Alexander, Andrew Joron, and myself will be playing the Sunday at Bird & Beckett Books in San Francisco!

Sun., 9/8/19
Aural Monsoon Trio
Bird & Beckett Books
653 Chenery St.
SF 94131
2:00-3:300
Free (donations accepted)

Stoked to be improvising with Will and Andrew again!