Gary Floyd RIP

 

Along with seeing him sing, and OH! what a singer he was, Disaster Amnesiac would sometimes see Gary Floyd out and about in San Francisco. He was one of those people that, when espied in the wilds of the City, would make me smile. I have no doubt that there are countless others across the country who feel the same way. Such a great frontman and probably a good person to have as a friend as well. RIP Gary Floyd!

Live shot #113!

 

Guitarist, composer, visual artist Jacob Pek at Berkeley Arts Festival Building ca. 2015. I've posted a different shot of Jacob here, from the same event, but saw this one recently and just had to post it as well. Too cool of a shot not too! 

The small festivals that Mika Pontecorvo organized under the moniker of Hardly Strictly Personal were generally sparsely attended affairs. It seemed to me that the participants would use them as opportunities to work out ideas that they were entertaining, or to possibly try different configurations of personnel to see what worked or did not work. They were always fun, albeit somewhat exhausting. As Jim Ryan said to me during one of them, "festival fatigue" would set in after a bit. Still, I have very fond memories from them, as one can probably tell. 

I have a large cache of photos from the 2024 Wonder Valley Experimental Music Festival, and hope to post some of those here in the coming months (and this despite the fact that the flash on my camera did not work for several exposures that night!) 

Go out and hear some live, local music. 

Random shot!

 

Mount Tamalpais, Marin County. Shot from downtown Corte Madera ca. 2018. A very mysterious mountain.

Sounding the Deep-A Union According to Energy; Sonic Meditations Records 2010

 

A Union According to Energy, the 2010 CD from Sounding the Deep has been in kind of a heavy rotation with Disaster Amnesiac for a couple of weeks now. Recall purchasing it way back then and wanting to enthuse about it, but for some reason that never happened. I came across the disc in the "S" box when looking for some Slayer to be pummeled by. That pummeling did indeed occur, but soon afterward A Union According to Energy was played, and its gorgeous guitar tones just had to be noted here. Six string man David Williams concocted lots of really lovely and fascinating sound from his electric guitar and amplifier. At times during listening to the disc, Disaster Amnesiac has thought that he pulled pretty much Electronic Music sounds from his rig. Realize that the electric guitar is inherently an electronic instrument, of course, but seek out and find this album and I'm sure you'll get my drift. Along with that abstraction, Williams played lovely, pastoral, spacious chord progressions as well; his techniques on the guitar are notable for their creativity and vision. I've seen online that Sounding the Deep morphed into a mostly all-acoustic configuration, and totally understand why. Williams, judging from his music, must be very inclined to go deep into the sound world of his chosen instrument, and guitarists often seem to turn to the acoustic side in order to get to those desired zones. The electric version of Sounding the Deep, and its guitar performances, are no doubt imbued with a deepness of hearing, too. Also great to hear is the sparse, considered drumming of Mike Vera. He utilizes a playing style which isolates selected pieces of the drum kit and really digs in within limited parameters as such. This gives rhythmic and percussive-tonal framing to the guitar sounds, but never gets in their way. A really creative way to approach percussive performance, and admirable in its humility. Vera never bashes through any of the pieces. He lets them develop, free from a lot of the controlling impulse that often besets drummers. Mention must also be made of the audio engineering from one Jamaj. Great tonal/sound capture throughout the entirety of this seven piece album. And that cover art, too! An alluring listen throughout A Union According to Energy is pretty much guaranteed for any fan of spacious guitar-centered meditation sounds.

Greg Walls-Walls of Sound; via Amazon streaming, 2022

 

Walls of Sound, the 2022 EP length release from Greg Walls came into Disaster Amnesiac's view by way of a YouTube clip. In said clip, Walls explained how he was present for the initial formation of Anthrax, and about how his contribution, so vital to the early music of the long running Thrash Metal group, has been obfuscated and ignored. At times during its sixteen minutes and change duration, this clip is punctuated by some very noisy and creative guitar sounds from Walls. Additionally, Greg astutely mentioned that Walls of Sound could be heard online. Naturally, I had to check these sounds out. What one finds on Walls is five well constructed Heavy Metal songs, ones that feature plenty of in your face guitar riffage and soloing. These sounds are supported by solid mid-tempo drumming, very non-Thrash in performance from all of the rhythm section parts, and classic Heavy Metal singing. Walls of Sound is proudly Heavy Metal in its delivery; it's a release that would likely please fans of the genre in its sincerity of formulation and performance. Disaster Amnesiac must opine that it's an improvement upon Fistful of Metal, the album that Greg Walls insists that he wrote mostly on his own, for the burgeoning Anthrax. That album was quite confusing to the adolescent Heavy Metal fan that I was at the time of its release. Walls of Sound is not confusing. Its point of view is very clear and that makes it rock. Stream it over at Amazon, it's a release that deserves some attention from attentive listeners of that most pure of genres, Heavy Metal. Greg Walls was on the ground floor of the initial wave of its American wing, and it'd be a shame for his musical contributions to be ignored and possibly obfuscated for too much longer.

Random shot!

 

 

Twentynine Palms CA; 4/5/2024. Don't tell a soul.

Live shot #112!

 

The Beths at 191 Toole, Tucson AZ 4/17/2024. 

A New Zealand guitar Pop band with a drummer that has the perfect touch for their compositions and harmony singing. This group knows exactly what they're doing, and they have a rabid following in Tucson. People were ecstatically singing along. Pretty major deal music for a big slice of the popular music demographic I'd say. Tickets for Mr. and Mrs. Amnesiac courtesy of KXCI. Real music for real people is their motto. I like this town.