Live Ear Spray footage from Hardly Strictly Personal 2016

Berkeley Arts Festival building, Berkeley CA 1/9/16

Hardly Strictly Personal Weekend #1-Berkeley Arts Festival, Berkeley, CA; 1/9-10/16

Every time that Mika Pontecorvo has one of his benefit show weekends at Berkeley Arts Festival, I marvel at how much cool music there is to be heard in the SF Bay Area. It's so fun to able to hear so much local talent, both established and emerging!
Also cool is the fact that I got to play a lot over the weekend. Here are some impressions...

Ear Spray-1/9/16
We played a somewhat quiet set, and, sadly, managed to clear the room pretty quickly. I guess that people don't really "get" our sound, but, hey, one can't really let that sort of thing get in the way of one's muse, right? Carlos suggested that we had some "surprisingly restrained and beautiful" sounds; his bass and harmonica contributions were quite new for Ear Spray! I had fun playing a stripped down kit of shakers, djembe, and cymbal, along with a new "theremin in a box" tiny pedal. Ann focused on her Cardew Choir influenced vocals and projecttions of Don Van Vliet paintings which were on large on the walls of the space.

Below: Ear Spray rig

Above: Ann sets up

Bridge of Crows-1/10/16
After a few hours rest over night, I was promptly back at Berkeley Arts Festival space for day two on Sunday. I got to catch some more great music before Bridge of Crows' set! Donald Robinson, crikey, what a drummer! Dang. Bridge of Crows played two pieces, one shamanic drone-er during which I enjoyed playing some waterphone and Free Jazz moves on the kit, and then our Saharan-Siberian mixture of the Beefheart tune Ant Man Bee during which I played a lot more rhythmically steady. I'd say that it felt pretty cosmic to me, due especially to Mika's chanting, Eli's heavy bass lines, and Kersti's North African reed instrument. A nicely spaced out set!

Below: Cartoon Justice in black and white (photo courtesy of Amanda Chaudhary, www.catsynth.com, thanks, Amanda!)

ebolabuddha-1/10/16
Well, not exactly ebolabuddha! On account of a booking mix up, and Steve being away in Japan, ebolabuddha recruited our pal Scarp Home to sit in on looped guitar. Our concept entailed using mostly Captain Beefheart lyrics, printed out and left in front of the group, as a way to entice audience members to join us. Thankfully, many did! We played as softly as possible for the most part, or to paraphrase Scarp, "...as if we weren't there at all...." It was fun and hilarious to interact with the people that did read along to our quiet sounds. They really helped us along. I got all clickey-clacky on the trap set, and spent a few minutes out front, egging the audience on. Showbiz!

Below: ebolabuddha done in iPad art! (courtesy of Russell Ward, http://ausrussell.tumblr.com/, thanks, Russell!)

Ruminations-1/10/16
Compared to ebolabuddha's set, Ruminations' set was pretty furious. This iteration of the the band featured eight members, including Heikki Koskinen, Matt Davignon, Christina Stanley, Jacob Pek, Rent Romus, Brandon Evans (in from New York City!), and Peter Whitehead. We played one 25 minute improvisation, and it felt incredibly fiery to me. Seriously off the chain at times. Christina sounded especially aggro, which was amazing. She could not be stopped! It was tough to hold back behind all that, as I was sitting right next to her. That, and all of the electronic sounds, were seriously inspiring. Fun, fun, set of Out Music!

Below: Ruminations exploding (minus Brandon Evans; photo courtesy of Amanda Chaudhary. www.catsynth.com, thanks, Amanda!)

Instagon #699-1/10/16
Finally, to end night two of Hardly Strictly Personal 2016, Instagon brought its Free Funk fun to Berkeley. I was really stoked that Lob asked me to play with him; when I played drums for Instagon at the Make Out Room last year, I had one of those "rough nights", so, in some way, it was a kind of redemptive opportunity. It's challenging to keep up with Lob's shifting bass patterns, but definitely worth the effort. I tried do lay down somewhat simple, yet interactive patterns for Kevin Ian Common, Jaroba, and Lob to play to. I basically tried to play like Bill Bruford! The set felt pretty tight to me, and Kevin got some really fine, abstract guitar tones from his axe; it also strikes me as strange that he was wearing a quite visible Alladin Sane pin on his guitar strap, now). Jaroba's bair sax was nice and low, too. Awesome stuff to play along to. Instagon keeps you on your toes.

Below: Instagon #699 (photo courtesy of Amanda Chaudhary, www.catsynth.com, thanks, Amanda!)

All told, it was a really satisfying musical weekend! Many thanks to all that attended, and to those musicians that played with me. I am extremely grateful to all of you.

This Friday, the show continues!

Cartoon Justice-KFJC, Los Altos Hills CA; 1/7/16

As mentioned in the preview for this gig, I was stoked to be able to play at one of the best radio stations ever, KFJC; when the Pontecorvos and I knocked on the front door, I knew instantly that the man that greeted us was none other than long time Fascism researcher and KFJC stalwart Dave Emory! Being a long time listener to his shows, I was pretty blown away! Thankfully, I was able to shake his hand and compliment him without sounding like too much of a geek (hopefully!)
Cartoon Justice got plenty of great support from sound engineer Eric and visual engineer Jacob. Those guys rule. We played one 50 minute improvised piece that was loosely scripted, and based around Mika's sampled and chopped Ornette Coleman sound files. It felt mostly good, with some improvised fire at times, along with quieter, more ambient interactions to begin and end, during which I enjoyed playing Waterphone and small metallic percussion. I was hoping for some wider spaces at times, but that's my only critique.
Hopefully those that listened or watched enjoyed our sounds, and we convinced some people to attend the Hardly Strictly Personal shows this weekend in Berkeley!

Below: Mika and Eli prepare to launch

Above: Eric of KFJC, great dude and great engineer
Below: drums and SO MUCH vinyl!

Below: live shot captured from KFJC live feed by Sheila Bosco, thanks Sheila!

Above: Waterphone and metals

Many thanks to Eric, Jacob, and all staff at KFJC for being such great hosts.

Cartoon Justice will play on KFJC tomorrow night!

An abbreviated version of Cartoon Justice, featuring Mika and Eli Pontecorvo on guitar/flute and bass, respectively,  and myself on percussion/waterphone, will play tomorrow night on KFJC! This appearance will be a promo for the upcoming Hardly Strictly Personal event this weekend. I'm VERY excited, as I've loved KFJC since the early 1990's, but have never played live on their airwaves. STOKED!
Tune in here at 10PM on 1/7/16:
http://kfjc.org/netcast/index.php

Hardly Strictly Personal 2016 this weekend!

Mika Pontecorvo's annual Captain Beefheart/Ornette Coleman tribute-based benefit concert will happen this weekend at Berkeley Arts Festival! I'll be playing a lot: Ear Spray, Cartoon Justice, Bridge of Crows, Ruminations, Crow Crash Radio, ebolabuddha, and Instagon will have me playing with them in some capacity.
There will be tons of great, talented musicians playing for pretty much two solid days straight!
If you're in or around Berkeley this weekend, please consider dropping some money towards Earthjustice, Homeless Action Center, and Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition, as ALL proceeds go to them.

Details:
Hardly Strictly Personal 2016
Jan. 9-10 (Sat.-Sun.)
12 PM-10 PM each day
Berkeley Arts Festival Building
2133 University Ave.
Berkeley CA 94704 

The Pure Finder-VAMP, Oakland, CA; 12/11/15

I have to say that it seems as though Andrew Palmer's Catching Monkeys series got off to a good start last night. There were really fine sets from rBeny and Doug Lynner! Doug ALWAYS amazes. What a gas to share a bill with him!
As for The Pure Finder, it seems as though we're still finding our way, our sound, etc. If you read the preview for this show, you'd have seen that I hadn't even gotten our moniker exactly right. It's a process. As for the sound, we used small contact mics, placed on my drums, that then fed signals to Andrew's modular synth. Our goal was to get as spacious a sound as possible: at times, I felt as though we did that. There were moments of silence, punctuated by busier, more full passages. I suspect that we could have used a bit more, and better, tape for the mics, but I managed to get around that challenge. Our set, about 25 minutes or so, felt fine to me. It's tough to play quietly!
Many thanks to the wonderful chill people that came early for our set, along with VAMP for hosting. What a great group of people!

Below: small, friendly crowd at VAMP

Above: The Pure Finder finds its spaces (photo by Collette Lynner, thanks, Collette!)

Purefinder will play this Friday!

This Friday, 12/11, at VAMP in Oakland, Purefinder will play our second gig! It will be part of the Catching Monkeys monthly series. Also on the bill will be Austin Cairns and Doug Lynner! It will be an evening of synthesizer sounds!

VAMP is located at:
331 19th St.
Oakland CA 94612

The show will start at 8PM, and will be free!
Looking forward to finding new sounds with Purefinder!