Bands I play in currently:
Mute Socialite- Moe! Staiano (drums, percussive guitar), Ava (guitar), Alee Karim (bass), Shayna Dunkleman (drums), and newly Liz Allbee (trumpet, electronics)
(Carla Bozulich's) Evangelista- I am joining this super band for about half of their U.S. tour March-April.
Caroliner- founded by Grux the Great, many many rotating members
Jus- Jacob Lindsay (clarinets), Ava (guitar), Damon Smith (basses/laptop), Weasel Walter (drums)
And other great people I've played with in various situations:
Liz Allbee, Vijay Anderson, Carla Bozulich, Ben Bracken, Sheldon Brown, Mary Clare Brzytwa, J.A. Deane, John Dikeman, Stefan Dill, Smith Dobson, Jr., Shayna Dunkleman, Tony Dryer, Corey Fogel, Al Faaet, Travis Johns, John Finkbeiner, Ben Goldberg, Phillip Greenlief, Kurt Heyl, Darren Johnston, Henry Kaiser, Alee Karim, Kurt Kotheimer, Chris Jonas, Aurora Josephson, Jacob Lindsay, Lisa Mezzacappa, Kanoko Nishi, Aaron Novik, Tim Perkis, Noah Phillips, Gino Robair, Aram Shelton, John Shiurba, Damon Smith, Josh Smith, Moe! Staiano, Molly Sturges, Weasel Walter, Zach Watkins, Dave Wayne, Mark Weaver, Theresa Wong, and Ben Wright. Anyone still reading/interested? Caw, caw, caw.. repent, repent.. that's a nice tie.. I've performed in ensembles under the direction of Anthony Braxton, J.A. Deane, Fred Frith, Malcolm Goldstein, and Jon Rose.
Influences
Hound Dog Taylor, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Albert Ayler, Derek Bailey, Annette Krebs, Captain Beefheart, Sonny Sharrock (Black Woman), Kanoko Nishi, Ben Wright, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Julian Bream, Taku Sugimoto, Chris Forsyth, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mayhem, Emperor, Marc Ribot (Saints), Iannis Xenakis,
David Tudor, Matt Ingalls, Darkthrone, Morton Feldman, Joe Colley, Otomo Yoshihide (Cathode), Yuji Takahashi, Moe! Staiano, John Dikeman,
William Faulkner, Anton Chekhov, Antonin Artaud, Stan Brakhage, Anal Cunt, Tatsumi Hijikata, Min Tanaka, Carla Bozulich,
Reverend Gary Davis, Slayer, Joseph Spence, Charley Patton, John Fahey, Davy Graham, Paul Robeson,
Jimmie Rodgers, Kreator, Hank Williams Sr, Hank Snow, Roy Acuff, Bathory,
Jesus Lizard, the Fugs, U.S. Maple, Arab on Radar, Dog Faced Hermans, Crass, Keiji Haino, walking, cooking, Nekromantik, The Happiness of the Katakaris, trying to remember to breathe when i play guitar
**NEWS**
New CD:
BPA 013 - JUS
Lindsay/Mendoza/Smith/Walter
Jacob Lindsay - Ab, Bb, Bass & Contrabass Clarinets
Ava Mendoza - Guitar
Damon Smith - 7 String Ergo Bass, lloopp
Weasel Walter - Percussion
Liner notes by Christian Weber
Cover Art by Chelsea Pegram
Design by Alan Azalone
Recorded by Scott R. Looney
Mixed and Mastered by Weasel Walter
Please visit http://www.balancepointacoustics.com to listen
Jus will be available shortly You can send a paypal for $15 pp to damon@balancepointacoustics.com If you would like one.
**OTHER PROJECTS** This is the page for all non-band-related, i.e. solo work that I do. Please check out Mute Socialite, the band that I am currently devoting most of my time to! (www.myspace.com/mutesocialite) Jolting, hocketing rhythms, atonal surf riffs, and blackened salsa grooves combine to create a singular brutal, polyrhythmic spasmathon. Founded by drummer/percussionist Moe! Staiano.
**MY NUTS AND BOLTS BIO**
I am a guitar player, composer, and sometime-electronic musician in Oakland, CA. I play improvised music/weird rock/original compositions. Improvised music was the first type of music I got vitally interested in as a classically-trained teenager, and I suppose any musical roots I have are in free improvisation. That said, some of my music does not involve any improvising at all--I indulge the anal retentive side of my personality by composing tape (fixed media electronic) pieces, and also sometimes very through-composed instrumental pieces. Some of my solo guitar compositions draw a lot from early country and blues music, sort of reworked (or mangled?) in my own way. Both in solo and ensemble contexts I like working with very tight, specific riffs or compositional ideas and then throwing musical monkey wrenches into them in performance--forcing them to self-destruct and intersect with free improvisation. I am an extremely curious person and love a lot of very different sorts of music.
My electronic compositions have been played at the San Francisco Tape Music Festival 2005 and 2006, and at the Women's Electroacoustic Listening Room 2005. I've played guitar at the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels Austria, at the High Mayhem Festival in Santa Fe, NM in 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2007, at the Palais Ideal Festival in Chico, CA, and at the Stone curated by Fred Frith.
ava!!! sure enuf yes i am relieved my thesis show is over. i hope you had a good time on tour with evangelista, and i can't wait to see Mute Socialite play! see you very very soon!
Ava, thanks for the nice words...I adore your work! Your Steve Albini-cum-Derek Bailey approach to the old standards is delicious...love that minimalist middle verse in the waltz. Have a great time with Carla, I love her and "Evangelista".
evander music presents an evening of improvised performance
8:00 noah phillips performs solo improvisations for guitar 8:30 karen fox and phillip greenlief present improvised movement and sound 9:00 atomic bomb audition is improvised live electronics from norman conquest and alee kareem
i mean, i guess it's the DNA that expresses as a gene and not the other way around. or something. i should have paid attention in biology. point is, i'll be in the front row.
hola, from one kitty lover to an obvious another
