Monday, November 28, 2005

sleeplab, william bryan massey III

just got back from the little wreckroom. heard that sleeplab was playin' the fwac acoustic monday thingy, so we decided to take a walk wreckwards (unusual for us on a non-wednesday night jam schoolnight). i dug their cd ever since jefa laid a copy on me at the jam and of late, i've heard that 1) the lineup had expanded a bit and 2) they're playing the gallery part of experience the art of music, on friday, december 16 at 7pm to be exact. now, i'm not a big fan of the axis, but the gallery lineup on that friday (sleeplab! electric mountain rotten apple gang! dave and daver! tammy gomez! william bryan massey III!) and the one on the main stage the following night (hochimen! goodwin! ph7! darth vato!) makes it pert hard to pass on either night.

tonight's deal wasn't really a gig, more of a "rehearsal-in-public." wreck room wizard o' sound andre had the night off, so jefa had to run the board as well as play, with more 'n a little help from bartender extraordinaire / ex-woodeye bassist graham richardson. besides jefa and his bud fern on nylon-string gtrs, the onstage assemblage included jesse sierra hernandez on congas, michael preble on drums, and matt skates on bass. they were eminently chill and sounded as if they'd been playing together forever -- like the cd, only better. michael's brushes-on-snare-and-bongos sounded like breakbeats at times, and the interplay between that sound, jesse's more organic percussion layer, the two gtrs flowing together like twin streams of water, and skates' bass punctuating and commenting on the proceedings sounded like _the start of something_ (like skates and brian batson playing on the street downtown a coupla yrs back in the earliest, baby-step incarnation of confusatron). fern 'n' jefa have been working on these toons for four or five yrs now; jefa sez he thinks of it more as a project than a band, and wants to include other players in future performances. with that in mind, trumpeter brian sharp and a coupla kulcha far i musos were in the house, taking it all in. as more ppl find out about this, chances are they're gonna want in on it, too.

william bryan massey III was in the house and spent some time visiting with me and my sweetie, talkin' about old times they both remembered but i wasn't around for. there's a gentleness to the cat that belies his "wildman redneck" rep. besides writing, massey does some graphic art with found objects and others he works from wood and metal. "bryan has a cynicism that can only have its origins in too much hope," my sweetie said. "a world of simple pleasures and simple considerations would be enough for him." true of many of us, i think. myself, i'm just glad he's around.

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