Dean Santomieri/Thea Farhadian Duo, Berkeley Art Festival, 5/26/12, Berkely, CA

Long time S.F. Bay Area scene stalwart Dean Santomieri and his musical partner, violinist Thea Farhadian, used their debut show as an opportunity to raise money for fellow musician Eileen Hadidian, an Early Music specialist who has been battling cancer. The mood in the Berkeley Arts storefront, while not somber, was quiet and composed.

The first set, made up of duo improvisations, had the musicians exploring quiet melodic/harmonic paths, full of space and flowing rhythm. The set was characterized by a dignified, searching, exploratory vibe. Suggestions of Django, county fiddlin', Middle Eastern modes, and Tristano's groups came to Disaster Amnesiac's ears.
At certain points, preparations were used on their strings: aluminum for a drone effect, and alligator clips for Cage/Harrison type feels.

Below: Aluminum preparations on strings

Above: Dean's resonator guitar, alligator clipped

After a brief intermission, the second set featured solo pieces from each musician, followed by a few more short improvisatory songs.
Dean's solo piece, a spoken retelling of an early family trip to the wilds of Tennessee, gave new meaning to the term "praying hands". Thea's solos were made up of "duets" between her violin and Mac-based triggered sounds, which had nice old analog electronic feels.

Below: Dean describes praying hands

Above: Thea interacts with the Mac

Below: Santomieri and Farhadian bring it home

At the end of the evening, it was announced that over $1000 had been raised for Mrs. Hadidian.

Above: Brief snippet of Santomieri and Farhadian in flight

Lungfish-A.C.R. 1999, Dischord, 2012

Disaster Amnesiac is a pretty big fan of Lungfish. I have published an interview with their drummer, Mitchell Feldstein, and gobbled up pretty much anything even remotely related to the band. I mean, do you have the Daniel Higgs mouth harp CD on Northern Liberties?
As you can guess, I was excited to read about Dischord's release of these recordings, made back in 1999 at Baltimore's A.C.R. studios and subsequently shelved.
Many of the tunes on A.C.R. 1999 were included on 2000's phenomenal Necrophones, but, still, this new release will surely be of great interest to Lungfish fans. It shows heretofore unseen aspects to what are some of their best songs, and a few new gems for fans to relish.
First, to the previously unreleased music. Comprised of four tunes and one more Musique Concrete piece (Aesop), the former show Lungfish's exuberant, ecstatic Rock Minimalist approach in full force. Screams of  Joy and Symbiosis stick to their by-then finely honed simplicity, which had reached an apex with 1998's Artificial Horizon,with sublimely repetitive drum beats from Feldstein and circular riffage from guitarist Asa Osbourne. Bassist Nathan Bell was masterful at providing counterpoint sounds to his rhythm section partners, laying down big, rich, low-toned chords. The sum total is one that shows movement though steadiness. A kind of sonic aikido. These two tunes, along with I Will Walk Between You, also feature Daniel Higg's private, poetic esoterica, his words painting rich pictures of his unique vision. These songs definitely fit into the Lungfish oeuvre. They share a lot of sonic characteristics with tunes of the same era, ones that ended up on 1999's The Unanimous Hour and the previously mentioned Horizon. Perhaps this was why they were shelved? At this point it doesn't really matter. The fact that they can now be heard at this far remove is fine enough.
Secondly, on to the tunes that ended up on Necrophones. If you are a Lungfish fan, I am sure that you've listened to and appreciated that album. In Disaster Amnesiac's view, it was a high point, perhaps the highpoint of their recorded output. Its songs stuck to the Lungfish template, but there were subtle changes in playing, new tones, and a general feeling of elation that had begun to (re)emerge. For examples of the former, listen to Shapes in Space, and for the latter, listen to The Words or Hanging Bird. I can recall feeling that they had made some deep collective breakthroughs, that a kind of light had begun to shine on the band. This is conjecture, of course. Back to the early versions of Necrophones songs, though. On the whole, the tunes sound a bit more "new", with rougher edges and less refined, slightly looser performances. They sound a lot less smooth on A.C.R. 1999; this less-refined feel gives tunes such as Sex War, Shapes in Space, and Hanging Bird, rawer, punkier feels overall, compared to their "official" versions. Band-centered music is in many ways all about process, and one can hear Lungfish in process at work in these earlier versions. Lungfish fans will be treated to extra lyrics that were edited out of the later versions of Sex War and Shapes in Space, and Disaster Amnesiac was downright stoked to hear cowbell in the A.C.R. version of the former tune. Far from being cast-offs, these tracks make for fine new experiences of these more familiar tunes.
A.C.R. 1999 provides a rare document of Lungfish not recorded at Inner Ear Studios. This is telling, and the sound of the record is different from their other LP's. The guitars and bass sound more present, louder, in the mix. This at times slightly buries the drums (interesting, in light of Inner Ear owner/chief engineer Don Zientara's quote about the drums suffering at the expense of the guitars on the early D.C. Hardcore recordings), but that is just a minor quibble. Engineer Craig Bowen's work is fine, albeit different from that of the Zientara/Mackaye tandem that is featured engineering most Lungfish recordings. Craig captures the band with a lot more loud presence, giving their sound an over-driven, "live" feel that is unique in their recorded documentation.
For years, Disaster Amnesiac relished and practically revered new releases by Lungfish. A.C.R. 1999 has been providing those same feelings again. Does its release suggest a return from "indefinite hiatus"?

Noh Mercy-Noh Mercy, Superior Viaduct Records

Disaster Amnesiac suspects that there are many people like him who own a copy of the great Punk Rock coffee table book, Hardcore California. The book's twinned focuses, the post-1976 underground music scenes of  Los Angeles and San Francisco, are given thorough treatment. It is made especially clear in the S.F. section that this scene was rich and well populated, with tons of stylistic variety and personality. One of the groups that is mentioned in that section, Noh Mercy, is briefly described, given a few photos, and has the lyrics to their song Caucasian Guilt reproduced. I have often been intrigued by this group as I've thumbed through my very well-worn copy, but, up until very recently, have never heard the sounds made by the two women that made up Noh Mercy. Re-issue label Superior Viaduct has made it possible to hear this short lived group's great, arty Post-Punk. Disaster Amnesiac suspects that if you, too, own a copy of Hardcore California, or were there to see and hear Noh Mercy in person, you'll want to swoop up a copy.
Noh Mercy's most notable difference from their peers was their primarily, sparse, drums/vocals line up, featured on the first four songs of the release. In the liner notes, drummer Tony Hotel mentions their initial decision to stick with this simplified line up, and it is very hard to argue with her assertion that their music "sounded complete just by ourselves". Hotel's drumming shows varied influences. Jazz poly-rhythms, traditional international/cultural rhythms, Modern Compositional approaches; all of these elements and more can be heard within her drumming as she frames and drives Noh Mercy's tunes. Hotel's musical c.v. includes time spent at Berklee in Boston, as a session musician in L.A., and as a journeyman Jazz musician in the mid-West, and all of those experiences definitely served her well in utilising the drums as the primary instrumental focus of these songs. Hotel's drumming is not of the bashing sort by any means. Listen to her press rolls on the band's cover of the Doors My Wild Love, and hear text book clinical mastery at work. As much as Hotel shows sophistication on the drums, she plays a mean, primitive, acidic Punk guitar on some tracks, and it works to place Noh Mercy within their contemporaries' vision of a kind of Year Zero as regards musicianship. As with many Post Punk bands, the guitar is used as more of a rhythmic element within the overall sound of the band, its primacy within late 20th Century popular song taken down a peg or two, perhaps returned to its original role, more part of the overall rhythm section.
Standing bravely alone on Noh Mercy's melodic front line was vocalist/keyboardist/rattle shaker Esmerelda. Her biographical summary in the liner notes shows a life that was already rich with experience by the time Noh Mercy began. It's clear that she had plenty of sources for insight, rage, and railing from the years preceding the band, and rage she does. Her lyrics do not paint happy pictures, but more dystopian views are given full airing. Esmerelda had plenty of musical history from which to draw, and that she does. Elements of earlier vocal approaches such as the wailing style of Esmerelda's early hero Janis Joplin, post-hippie drag theater (this realm begs more retrospective documentation), Glitter (do I hear Tim Curry in there?) are fused with the then-emergent harder Punk style to give a sometimes harrowing voice to the darkened insights of her writing. Disaster Amnesiac hears the continuation of the original S.F. Punk voice of Penelope Houston and what was surely an inspiration for later voices such as those of Frightwig, Meri St. Mary, and countless others right on into the present. Esmerelda's sharp, distorted, edgy  riffing on Farfisa and Moog organs gives Noh Mercy's sound a great, shimmery, Synth Punk edginess a la the Screamers or Nervous Gender. Needless to say, I like it a lot.
As for Noh Mercy's songs, they are sharp, tight, and dramatic. They sound as if they are the product of the varied influences that Hotel and Esmerelda brought to them. Not a peep of the generic "oh, so Punky" (thank you Rozz Williams!) vibe that many groups had at that time begun to feature. Put simply, they are intriguing and fun.Despite having been recorded in seemingly less than ideal spaces (a basement, the Catalyst in Santa Cruz), these recordings sound really good. Much respect to engineers Tommy Tadlock, Gary Hobish, and Peter Conheim. Clearly, all took care with their respective parts in the push to document Noh Mercy, then and now.
Disaster Amnesiac is excited about the prospects for further archival releases coming from Superior Viaduct.
I'd imagine that if you've spent any time pouring over the pages of books such as Hardcore California, or had the pleasure of being there as its events transpired, you might be, too. Getting Noh Mercy's sounds out into the public is a fine start!

Terry Riley, Live at Old First Church, S.F., CA 3/23/12

Disaster Amnesiac would venture to guess that for many fans of Modern Composition in the S.F. Bay Area, Terry Riley is kind of considered ours. The man and his music are local treasures. Needless to say, the minute he walked out onto the pulpit of Old First Church last night, he received copious applause without having to play a note. With an acknowledging nod, he sat down at the grand piano, and played.

Above: glowing Riley strides

Terry's first set was comprised of five or six pieces, in which he showed his affinity for and skill with late 19th and early 20th Century forms, from Impressionism to Ragtime to Stride to Jazz. He melded his much-honed Kirana skills, learned from master Pandit Pran Nath, into these forms, at one point adding his signature singing to a beautiful alap. The sound struck me as a sublime fusion of Eastern and Western musical forms, very well thought out and organic.

Above: Riley's alap, filtered warm

Above: Riley ascends to the organ

For the second set, Terry played a lengthy, heavy improvisation on Old First Church's substantial organ, which featured modes much more reminiscent of works such as Shri Camel and Descending Moonshine Dervishes. It was 45 minutes of sonic bliss and rapture!

Above: Disaster Amnesiac in the bliss zone, photo sneaked by Mrs. Amnesiac

I can't say enough good things about Terry Riley. His presence is that of a holy man, although he would probably be embarrassed by that notion. Still, his long history of work, his wonderful music, and his mirthful presence make him an incredibly inspiring musician.

Above: Terry Riley glowing bow

Ilitch is Kraut for Jam Band

Disaster Amnesiac has been stone digging the Beta-lactam-issued CD by Ilitch, La Maieutique De La Quantique (Quantum Maieutics), and pondering the development of jam-based guitar music over the past several decades. I keep coming back to the issue of how deep a well the Kosmiche/Space Rock continuum has been for so long, how much of an influence, recognized (by some) or not (by many), the whole spaced-out guitar/electronics jammy vibe has been on musical culture.This CD is most definitely in that vein, and most definitely great.
Reading from Beta-lactam's web page, I am told that Thierry Muller has been doing this sort of thing since the 1970's. I seem to recall seeing his face on one of those cool cards that Galactic Zoo Dossier makes for guitar players, but up until now, that has been the extent of Disaster Amnesiac's hearing of the man.  I am happy to have heard his music.
The songs on the CD are live, in-studio improvisations, jammed out on guitars, electronics, synthesizers, and drums.There is most assuredly a Kosmiche feel to the tunes, but newer, post-Kraut influences, such as Zeuhl and Electronic/IDM are also heard. One of the more satisfying aspects of the Jam Band approach is the willful mixing of styles to form interesting aggregates, and Ilitch does this to great effect on La Maieutique.
Muller's advanced guitar playing leads and guides the proceedings. Seeing as that Ilitch is his band, this stands to reason. His playing sound is dark, very "electronic" and heavy (as opposed to, say, "Bluesy" or "Jazzy"), and quite big. He gets a lot of great sounds from his axe. He never turns the tunes into mere showcases for his chops, but his guitar does indeed wail and scream within them. That said, there is never a feeling of show off excess or the dreaded "taste". He builds up big walls of electrical sound and dredges up big chunks of grungy tone. His aesthetic approach sounds solid to this listener. He is also listed as playing keyboards. His style on keys is sounds just as raw as his guitar does. Not a lot of noodling from him there, either.
Going along for the ride with Muller on the top side of things are Fred Nipi on modular system noises and Patrick Muller on electrosonics and synthesizers. They provide all manner of cool electronic sounds and colors to complement Thierry's guitar playing. It's a bit tough to discern who does what with which, but the cool gatefold image of the CD cover shows a table with a ton of Moog, Skychord, and other systems' electronic doo-dads. Much distorted electronic whirring, shimmering, bleeping and blorping ensues throughout the recording. Needless to say, Disaster Amnesiac really likes these types of sounds. 
Drummer Franq de Quengo does a find job of pushing the big jam rhythms when the tunes  need that, or utilizing smaller percussive coloration when they are called for. His drumming approach seems to draw from polyglot sources; at times one is reminded of Zappi of Faust fame, at others of FM Einheit or any number of Industrial found sound percussionists. His kit playing features a kind of loose, circular, polyrhythmic approach.  It is refreshing to hear a drummer who can stutter with the rhythm, as he does once or twice on the CD, yet get around it and continue on. Disaster Amnesiac is a big fan of honesty in music, and these captured, un-perfect moments, suit me just fine.
The arc and pace of La Maieutique are quite cool. The disc starts slow and contemplative, drives and rocks for the next half, and then cools off and chills out for the remainder. All the while, the listener is treated to the sounds of musicians listening to, and playing off of, each others' ideas. Despite being all-instrumental, La Maieutique has the feel of a story being told. It all sounds finely engineered, too. The sounds are big, bold, and nicely mixed throughout.
Disaster Amnesiac hopes that by describing Ilitch as a jam band he has not offended those who may be put off by such a description. I just feel like the band produces their jammy psych in such a was as to give dignity to the term. Ilitch quite simply kicks out the jams. The fact that they draw from sources so much different from the typical Jam Band pallet makes them that much more compelling.

Lewis Jordan's Music at Large/Addleds-CNMAT, Berkeley, 2/24/12

Disaster Amnesiac met up with pals Joe Noble and Andrew Joron at the venerable CNMAT house, near the UC Berkeley campus, for what turned out to be a study in contrast.
Opening act Addleds play a heavily extended technique-focused discrete music. They reminded me a lot of Stockhausen's pieces for electronics. The fact that they did this, with all acoustic instrumentation, is pretty impressive.

Above: Addleds in action. Quiet interactive sounds.

Up next, Lewis Jordan's music at Large set up and proceeded to blow the roof of the CNMAT. Made up of powerful S.F. Bay improvisers, this band plays a fiery post-Free improvisational Jazz of an incredibly high caliber. Drummer Marshall Tramell was amazing, as were violin maestro India Cooke, guitarist Karl Evangelista, and band leader Jordan. One hour of pure sonic/emotional bliss!

Above: Music at Large, tearing large holes in the fabric of perception. Go and see this band!

Grateful Dead-Dave's Picks Vol. 1, The Mosque, Richmond, VA 5/25/77

In Disaster Amnesiac's opinion, there is probably no more a contentious or contested world than that of the Grateful Dead. Deadheads argue like crazy over the merits and finer points of whichever favorite aspect of the band is theirs. I've already glanced at a few chat room debates in regards to this most recent release from Grateful Dead Enterprises, and, needless to say, opinions range far and wide, from the approving to the disgusted. I consider myself more of a Grateful Dead fan than a Deadhead, if that makes any sense, and, as such, would like to venture to "describe and enthuse" about this release, which I consider to be quite a good document of a band at its zenith point.
Disaster Amnesiac feels that 1977 was the Dead's zenith point mostly because, judging by the ample recorded evidence of their live shows from that year, the band had refined their sound, as a collective improvising group, and as individuals, to an incredibly sharp point. I, like many people my age, was first turned on to this advanced psychedelic approach by the classic 5/8/77 tape that began circulating in the 1980's (THANK YOU, Marty York of Richmond, VA). According to the liner notes for Dave's Picks 1, the master tapes to that epic show in Ithica are missing, but, the Richmond show that is documented here is a great example of said refinements.
Take for example head honcho Jerry Garcia. One can hear so many great examples to prove why he was such a respected guitarist and composer. I have read in Blair Jackson's very cool book about the Grateful Dead's gear how at this point both Jerry and Bob Weir had begun to experiment in earnest with different effect pedals for their sounds. In Garcia's case, it is abundantly clear. His sounds range from sharp, cutting tones to rounded, Leslie'd ones, and everything in between. A lot of people like to diss his tones (Google Iron Prostate), but, in Disaster Amnesiac's opinion, he was a masterful, tone-centered guitarist. One gets the sense that he put a lot of thought into that aspect of his playing. Of course, there is also Jerry Garcia the lead guitarist. Obviously the man loved to noodle, playing in, out, around, and down the grooves that the rest of his cohorts laid down. At the Mosque show, his lead playing is spot on, often reminding this listener of the alto sax playfulness of Ornette Coleman or the precision banjo runs of any number of Jerry's old-time heroes, all the while showing a clarity of focus and a dizzying precision of attack. Jerry pretty much owns the show, which comes as no surprise, but, the force of that ownership is impressive, and for this fan, a joy to hear.
As for Bob Weir, he had also made great breakthroughs in his playing by 1977, and they too are on full display on Dave's Picks 1. Whenever I listen to the Grateful Dead, I am always struck by how shrewd Weir's guitar playing approach is. It seems as if he decided early on in the Dead's career that he was never going to be able to compete with Garcia's full-throttle, maximalist style, and instead developed a highly refined, percussive, minimal sound as a complement to it. Bob's stabbing, scraping rhythm guitar sound, made up of rich, angular chords and odd accents, can often be pushed to the back of the listener's consciousness; when it hits, though.......wow. In some ways, Weir's sound is a lot more unique than Garcia's. Disaster Amnesiac just thinks that it's a bit more subtle in its approach. Needless to say, Bob's playing at the Richmond show display all of the aspects just mentioned, with the added fire of their being performed in a live setting, romping through their fiery paces.
In many ways, Phil Lesh is perhaps more of a traditional lead guitar player than Weir. He never seemed to want to relegate his instrument's position in the band to one of mere support. His early education in music theory imbued the Dead's melodic sound with hints of counterpoint and later styles of compositional approach, up to and including Jazz and Minimalism. I can recall reading a quote from Garcia that ran along the lines of "if Phil is having a good show, so am I" or some such sentiment. His playing at the Mosque is full of his typical 1977 sound, from spacious, floating statements to low, rumbling charges. Much like Jerry's leads on the disc, his "leads" are precise and present as he turns the songs' structures inside and out, giving the band a buoyant bass low end, along with his characteristic treble-ey plucking and spots of pure space.
The Grateful Dead's tandem drum team of Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart was perhaps the brightest, most dominant factor in making 1977 such a banner year for the band. If 1976 was the year in which the two drummers worked on re-syncing their styles to fit the band's evolution, 1977, from all of the live recordings that I have heard, was the year in which the fruits of the previous year's labor were in full bloom. Disaster Amnesiac would opine that the best example of this can be found during the long instrumental transition between Scarlet Begonias and Fire on the Mountain on the 5/8/77 recording. That said, their drumming on the Mosque show is equally brilliant. Hart and Kreutzmann sound seriously locked, or, as Hart has phrased it, entrained, particularly during their buzzing interplay on Cassidy. Despite both of them playing pretty big-sized kits, they at no time play over each other or the tunes. There is a bounce and crackle to their playing. They sound tightly and loosely bound pretty much all at the same time, Hart going nuts on his cowbell and tom fills, Kreutzmann locking the whole thing down with his sublime beats and masterful sense of pacing. The fires of their 1968-69 partnership sound as if they had been seriously re-stoked in 1977, but tempered with many more years' experience and chops. There is a spinning lightness to the quality of their playing that marks it as highly evolved.
1970's-era pianist Keith Godchaux has often seemed somewhat of a dark horse presence to Disaster Amnesiac. Having never had the chance of seeing him play in a live setting, I only have recordings as a reference. It's my understanding that he could be rather subdued, and often the tapes give him less than ideal representation. It must have been tough for a guy who liked to play the grand piano to compete with the loud electrical din the rest of the band was cooking up. Close attention reveals a player who could keep up with the rest of the band's modes and changes. His lovely, baroque sounding  playing on Scarlet Begonias and his honkey tonkin' approach on the the more rockin' tunes of the set show this fact. Still, Keith was more a quiet fire in the midst of the larger inferno of the Dead's live blaze.
Most Grateful Dead detractors like to zero in on the vocals of the band. It's often understandable, as, they can often be off-key, and, in the opinions of some, rather dopey and "hippy dippy". The 1977 iteration of the band belies the latter opinions, and, in the case of the former fact, often proves it wrong. On Dave's Picks 1, Jerry's voice sounds strong and assertive of its better qualities, and Weir's even more so. Bob's Blues voice is emergent here, while Jerry's love of the ballad vocal approach comes to fore, especially on the dark, moving Peggy O. Even within the ranks of the Dead faithful, vocalist Donna Godchaux has been the focus of some derision. Along with her singing band mates, Donna sounds in fine form at the Mosque show, staying in key (supposedly always a problem for her in the Dead's live show), thereby gracing the songs with her lovely, Memphis-trained voice.
The Grateful Dead's music was always a gestalt, in theory a sublime whole made up of many parts, all conversing or battling within the framework of their tune-based improvisations. Again, much like other documents of their 1977 high point, Dave's Picks 1 shows the band deep within the throws of this concept, hitting musical peaks and staying on them for extended lengths, playing their asses off in a collective setting, all the while sounding as though they are strongly, sublimely  attuned to the overall feel of each tune or improvisational mode. Third set magic such as the easy transition from The Other One to Wharf Rat and back again, or the drum tight rhythmic change embedded with the blazing Around and Around provide glimpses of a band with all pistons firing, fully aware of and in control of their power.
Disaster Amnesiac just now tabbed over to another window, open to a forum on Dead.net, and, not surprisingly, the first post I read was characterized by a disgruntled listener, opining that the show documented on Dave's Picks 1 was lackluster at best. I think it's a fine document of a fine band within one of their finest periods. 1977 Dead is hard to beat, if you enjoy that sort of thing.