Hello. Here is a little update on San Kazakgascar happenings. We played with some great musical outsiders from the northeast at the end of winter – Emily Robb, Marcia Bassett, and Samara Lubelski. This spring’s theme seems to be out sounds from the southeast – The Electric Nature (GA) and Setting (NC). We’ll also be battling traffic on I-80 for an afternoon performance in San Francisco with Warm Spell, which is a group involving our occasional collab dude, Brian Lucas. We’re very much looking forward to playing with all of these folks. Check out the dates on the poster above and sound links below.
We have some new songs cooking and are also working on releasing a recording of some of our recent improvised sets. THANK YOU to all shops carrying our LPs and DJs spinning it on the radio.
San Kazakgascar in Oakland at Open Mind Music.
LINKS:
Listen/Order Too Many People or Emotional Crevasse LPs, CDs, or DLs at Lather.
Listen/Order Long Tones of AugustCS or DL at Trouble in Mind.
Thanks to all who continue to support and participate in creating music, art, literature, documentaries, etc. With all the things humans continue to fuck up, I value the community of people that want to make and share things, especially if they are unique and turn things upside down a bit. I appreciate the DIY word of mouth of radio DJs, record shops, and general boosters, at a time when the arts are often treated like disposable Covid masks. It is nice having other local labels like MtStMtn and Baggage Claim to bounce ideas off of and pool resources. It all gives me a little kernel of hope. The tiniest of kernels.
2023 felt like the year that the new San Kazakgascar got to be the new San Kazakgascar. After slithering out of lockdown the previous year, we busted out more with playing live and actually releasing new music. We hadn’t released any new music since 2020, but this past year we release two things. The esteemed Trouble in Mind label released our improvised drone recording, Long Tones of August. This represented a drone scratch that needed to be itched. Words from Foxy Digitalis.
It took some time, but we finally finished our new proper album, Too Many People. Again, Greg is the master of mixing things into a nice, delicious stew. We got him to do a little pedal steel on it, too. We have ordered another batch of LPs. It’s also available to CD and download. Words from Raven Sings the Blues.
We have songs new songs cookin’ and perhaps another drone tape to thrown down. Another batch of Emotional Crevasse LPs (2020) have been pressed up. We also have some neat shows brewing. Stay tuned HERE.
Through a series of miracles and nerdy will, Harvester played a 30-year anniversary show in Chico. Annoying and sloppy as ever, we had a blast. It was great to have both Bauman and Sebat back in the fold. There are plans to put together a new album… Harvester on Bandcamp & Spotify.
Harvester – 30 years?!?!
2023 FAVORITES:
Recordings: Colpits – Music From the Accident,Sunwatchers – Music is Victory Over Time, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – These Things Remain Unassigned, Forever Goldrush – Moonflower Songs, Funharm – Downotocot, Fake Fruit – Fake Fruit, Kali Malone – Does Spring Hide Its Joy,Brent Cordero & Peter Kerlin – A Sublime Madness, Colt Wave – On Call, Bellygunner– Machine Gun Built For Two
Live: Deerhoof, Fake Fruit, Baba Comandant (RIP!), Joseph Allred, Matt J. Rolin, Quasi, Bill Orcutt, Derek Monypeny, Bafus/Raskin/Shiurba, Art Lessing & The Flower Vato
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URLlatherrecords.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/new-year-navel-gaze-2024/Stick to the top of the blogPending reviewPOST FORMATAsideGalleryStandardAUTHORlatherrecordsSwitch to draftMove to trash
We have been busy in recent months, getting to play shows with the likes of Quasi, Dengue Fever, Bill Orcutt, Derek Monypeny, Grex, Roger Kunkel, etal. We also put the finishing touches on Too Many People! I have never done one of these talk about each song things, so here it goes. This batch of songs came together in a variety of ways – some in the backyard, some in the basement. There are some different textures we hadn’t used before, which is always fun. Like Emotional Crevasse, it is all over the place. Dig the beautiful cover art by Arrington de Dionyso.
HEART OF DUSK
During the first year of the pandemic we held occasional jam meet ups in Greg’s backyard. This was the first song seed from those sweaty afternoons. This tune kind of captures the hazy psych of Sacramento’s north end.
DRY HANDS OF EL PASO
If you’ve ever been to El Paso in the winter, you know that your skin is constantly cracking and peeling. This song would be especially hard to fret with such conditions.
PATH OF THE PYTHON
This naughty little serpent is anchored around Greg’s Alturia synth build-up. I love how the one-chord grinder goes into the Arabic melody with Rachel and Linda, and then falls apart.
SUBURBAN BLUFFS
It’s fun being an ambiguous little asshole when it comes to song titles. We kept thinking of things to add to this, but ended up keeping it very lean. It serves as a nice palate cleanser to end side one. And a little pedal steel from H-Bomb!
SLICKSTER SLIMESTER
Another backyard burner from the early pandemic days when we wondered if we would ever gig again. I wanted everyone to go hog wild with free jazz lunacy on those end sections and hog wild they went.
MOTORCADE FOR THE PRINCE
This thing somehow reminds me of being in Thailand, but sounds nothing like Thai music. Why?
VETS DAY AT THE DINING ROOM TABLE
More ambiguous song title bull-shittery. Spoiler – Greg and I worked on this song on Veterans Day. Care to guess which room?
CROCKETT CREEK
Great, now Jed has a fucking field recording thing on an album. Deal with it. I wanted to line up a a drone guitar note with a creek or river. I believe the Crockett Creek was churning along in F that day. I worked on this with Matt and it was another example of lots of ideas to add things, but then deciding less was more.
Order Too Many People LP, CD, or download at Lather Records.
Order our drone recording, Long Tones of August, at Trouble in Mind.
A short drone set video (w/zither!) opening for Orcutt and Monypeny.
A live review from San Francisco in the recent issue of The Wire.
New San Kazakgascar Instagram thing. Official old-style San Kazakgascar site.
Hey! We have a couple of great shows this week before we take a little break and ready the release of our new album Too Many People. On September 20, we play with Dengue Fever at Harlow’s. I actually got dengue fever back in 2005, and now I get to play with the musical version. You can get tickets HERE.
A few days later we play a quiet drone set at a house show in Orangevale on September 23 with master musicians Bill Orcutt and Derek Monypeny. We’ve played with both before and they are making some of the most compelling music in the American underground. A great way to usher in the Autumn Equinox! Email me for the address, if interested.
Hello feathered friends! I’m sitting here in our little laundry room/home office just as we get ready for our first serious Sacramento heatwave of the summer. It’s been a good ride of moderate temps, but now we must pay. The new San Kazakgascar album, Too Many People, will be ready for pre-order and my hype machine right soon. In the meantime, check out our northern California dates above. We have also repressed the Emotional Crevasse LP. Album review HERE. They’re too big to make good stocking stuffers, but it’s not December, so it really works out. We still have CD and DL formats available too. Listen and order HERE.
You can also still order our Long Tones of Augustdrone recording on the wonderful Trouble in Mind label HERE. Doing improv drone sets is an itch that needed to be scratched, and it feels good. Here is a little write up from Foxy Digitalis. Below is a little promo video that fellow cloud nerd Matthew Kretzmann made for it.
Hello. It’s been awhile since I’ve wrote a post here. Thanks for staying in our creative orbit. San Kazakgascar has been chipping away at our new proper album, Too Many People. This last August, we had the opportunity of to play a couple different improvised series in San Francisco and Sacramento. I had wanted to try doing drones sets with expanded ensembles and these shows seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Confession – I had kinda prepared myself to be disappointed. We didn’t practice for the shows and the pre-set discussion was pretty minimal. Matt set up a Zoom mic and we played. But when you gather smart people who know what the hell they’re doing, good things happen! We invited different guests to sit in at each set and they all committed to the long tone.
We had five of our core members for each set and the following guests:
SAN FRANCISCO 8/3/22:
Jed Brewer – guitar
Rachel Freund – clarinet
Greg Hain – Alturia synth
Linda Michele Hardy – flute, harmonica, xylophone, voice
Matthew Kretzmann – synth
With:
Dan Bednarczyk – guitar
Kevin Corcoran – shruti j box
Jaroba James – bass clarinet
Colleen Kelly – cello
Amy Reed – guitar
SACRAMENTO 8/15/22:
Jed Brewer – guitar
Rachel Freund – clarinet
Greg Hain – bass
Linda Michele Hardy – flute, harmonica, voice
Matthew Kretzmann – synth
With:
Eric Janssen – didgeridoo
Robert Rivasplata – synth & monotron
Charles Sharp – bass clarinet
Andrew Wayne – theremin
The wonderful Trouble in Mind label is releasing the recording as part of their “Explorer Series.” Cassette heads can get the tape (download included) or you can simply go with the DL-only option. Pre-order Long Tones of August here.
We are currently mixing our proper album, Too Many People. The same crew that joined for Emotional Crevasse, is back, and I couldn’t be happier. We also have a few winter dates – see below. Speaking of the previous album, we still have a few LP and CD copies that can be had at the link below. Our friend, Dennis Michaels, did a little video story thing about the making of the album.
URLlatherrecords.wordpress.com/2023/01/19/long-tones-of-august/Stick to the top of the blogPending reviewPOST FORMATAsideGalleryStandardAUTHORlatherrecordsMove to trash
Hello. It’s been awhile since I’ve wrote a post here. Thanks for staying in our creative orbit. San Kazakgascar has been chipping away at our new proper album, Too Many People. This last August, we had the opportunity of to play a couple different improvised series in San Francisco and Sacramento. I had wanted to try doing drones sets with expanded ensembles and these shows seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Confession – I had kinda prepared myself to be disappointed. We didn’t practice for the shows and the pre-set discussion was pretty minimal. Matt set up a Zoom mic and we played. But when you gather smart people who know what the hell they’re doing, good things happen! We invited different guests to sit in at each set and they all committed to the long tone.
We had five of our core members for each set and the following guests:
SAN FRANCISCO 8/3/22:
Jed Brewer – guitar
Rachel Freund – clarinet
Greg Hain – Alturia synth
Linda Michele Hardy – flute, harmonica, xylophone, voice
Matthew Kretzmann – synth
With:
Dan Bednarczyk – guitar
Kevin Corcoran – shruti j box
Jaroba James – bass clarinet
Colleen Kelly – cello
Amy Reed – guitar
SACRAMENTO 8/15/22:
Jed Brewer – guitar
Rachel Freund – clarinet
Greg Hain – bass
Linda Michele Hardy – flute, harmonica, voice
Matthew Kretzmann – synth
With:
Eric Janssen – didgeridoo
Robert Rivasplata – synth & monotron
Charles Sharp – bass clarinet
Andrew Wayne – theremin
The wonderful Trouble in Mind label is releasing the recording as part of their “Explorer Series.” Cassette heads can get the tape (download included) or you can simply go with the DL-only option. Order Long Tones of August here.
We are currently mixing our proper album, Too Many People. The same crew that joined for Emotional Crevasse, is back, and I couldn’t be happier. We also have a few winter dates – see below.
After a decade +, Swimming in Bengal is calling it a day. No big fist fight over the mountains of royalty cash the band has made, or anything like that. We just felt that we had run our course, musically. We are still making music in our other groups, but our last appearance as Swimming in Bengal will be on Valentines Day at Luna’s Cafe in Sacramento. (see poster above)
I am grateful to Tony for asking me to start this band and push me into the improvised zone and challenge me. Finally being in a band with old buddy, Rusi, has also been a gift. Playing with our first percussionist, Alex Jenkins, was a thrill, not to mention all of the wonderful guest players who collaborated with us for shows and recordings. A big hug to all of you.
Thanks to the folks who released out music – Baggage Claim Records, Lugubrious Audio, J&C Tapes, and Gold Lion Records. Because of Covid, we only played a couple of shows since our ensemble recording, Collective Elephant. Please check it out, along with the other discography links below. We have some other stuff recorded that we may or may not release. We’ll see. Thank you.
I actually started to write a “new year” post in December, but felt too unsettled with all the Covid and idiotic civil war fantasy stuff going on. Plus, exhausted. I began to feel a little better when I got my second jab in March and no one had yet managed to drive a diarehea-fueled Dodge Ram through the White House. So yeah, feeling less unsettled!
SAN KAZAKGASCAR
We haven’t played out since the pandemic, but we released the full-length Emotional Crevasse last fall. Read the back story here. The album received some nice words from The Fragmented Flaneur, Dusted, and Daggerzine. LP, CD, and download versions are available straight from Lather Records or from Revolver USA. There is also a new SanKaz t-shirt available for you to wear during the hottest summer ever (until 2022). About a year ago, our friend Dennis Michaels, did a video short on me discussing music during Covid closures. Check it out HERE.
Besides the occasional backyard practice, the band managed to contribute to a couple of fundraisers. First, we did a drone set for The Library of MusicLandria’s annual Big Day of Giving event. Video below. Occasional San Kaz collaborator, Ethan Port, grafted together a soundscape from a “Bay players” session to contribute to Oakland’s girl empowerment organization, Radical Monarchs. Link is below. These are both great groups and I hope you would consider donating a little $$ to them. Also, note the outside San Kazakgascar dates at the top of the page!
Swimming in Bengal at the Makeout Room in San Francisco, Nov 2019, the last date before Covid. Photo by Shawn O’Leary.
Swimming in Bengal had a quiet Covid hibernation, but is starting to stir again. We are starting work on a new album this summer and will be playing an outside show in Berkeley on August 14 at Highwire Coffee @3pm. Gold Lion Arts will be releasing a live recording we did at the Gold Lion Fest a couple of summers ago. It is a digital-only and becomes available on August 13. In the meantime, please check out the 8-member, Collective Elephant, recording we released 2 years ago.
Our friends Cloud Seeder recently released their new recording, The Sea of Alexander von Humboldt. Go to their homepage to get the CD or download. If you were a fan of 90s band, Acme Rocket Quartet, then you’re in luck, because it’s most of the same guys. Cloud Seeder is a more improvised, exploratory direction. Less cocktail, more Czukay.
Joel Goulet’s new film, The Golden Bouzouki, will be screened at three northern California one-offs – Sacramento, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. Check his site for dates and ticket info. If you’ve been waiting your whole life to watch a movie that combines the best elements of the Greek myth/fantasy genre and Elvis film, then throw your mask back on and come get it. Yours truly sneaked in as a Laconian warrior extra in the battle scene. Watch the trailer here.
The new San Kazakgascar album didn’t come together in the way it typically might. We had some song skeletons that we had been doing loose improvised versions of with different players in different cities, a couple of older songs we wanted to improve on, and some brand new stuff. In late 2019, things seemed scattered, Kaz-wise, until I discovered that there was a really good drummer living down the street from me. It’s taken me a long time, but I’m finally beginning to learn that sometimes you have to actually wait for the right people and the right time. And then strike!
We began recording Emotional Crevasse in January 2020, not knowing how much more of an emotional crevasse we would find ourselves in a few months later. Ninety-five percent of the album was recorded and in the can before covid-lockdown commenced. Anchored by guitarist Jed Brewer, bassist Greg Hain, and new drummer Anthony Occipinti, the album also features contributions from clarinetist Rachel Freund, flute/hulusi- player Linda Michelle Hardy, keyboardist Matthew Kretzman, saxophonist Chris Hall, cellist Colleen T. Kelly, bass clarinetist James Jaroba Barnes, vocalist Christine Shields, and a dash of throat-singing from Arrington de Dionyso. The album was recorded and mixed by Greg Hain.
Greg, Matt, Chris, & Rachel in the recording crevasse – Jan. 2020.
Emotional Crevasse is all over the place. There are the characteristic Kazakgascar quasi-Middle Eastern psych riffs, but also some quiet acoustic bits, and some long tones/drones. Even a couple of peppy numbers. An emotional roller coaster? Some of the album’s songs like “The Thirsty West”, “The Emerald Triangle”, and the title cut were the product of pieces that had been mostly improvised in live settings over the previous year, before landing in their finished form on the album. The supporting cast really brought the songs to life and I feel really fucking lucky that they all stepped in to contribute. And Hain…. Hain! He keeps getting better at this whole recording/mixing game.
Emotional Crevasse is available on vinyl LP, compact disc, and of course, the digital super highway. I hope this missive finds you well, or well enough for now. Who knows how things will look and feel in 2021? The thing I will remember most about putting this album together is how everything fell in place for a brief moment and then froze.
Ben Chasny/Six Organs of Admittance – Photo by Elisa Ambrogio
Teaching a class remotely and keeping your own kid somewhat focused on her school work while everyone is anxious, uncertain, depressed, and unmotivated feels like a slow-motion meltdown on some days. That said, I’ve got it pretty good. I have job security. Creatively, I’ve swung back and forth between brief moments of lightning and much longer stretches of hollow, who knows what? In talking with other musicians/artists I’ve observed quite a spectrum of these extremes. I was curious how full-time musicians were rolling with covid-quarantine. So I asked some.
Ben Chasny recently released a new Six Organs of Admittance album called Companion Rises on Drag City Records, and was gearing up for a spring tour of the US. The tour was to be a substantial part of his 2020 income until the cancellation dominoes starting falling in March. Into the “hermit hut” he went.
“I’ve recorded more over the last couple months than I have in a long time. For me it’s a time to finish some projects I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish because of a tour. I’m not saying everything I’ve done is amazing. But I am trying to work every day. Yes, I am stressed about the world but I just can’t afford not to work right now. I have to. So I am. But yeah, I lost a lot of money. So that stress is manifesting into trying to just record and write. I’m working on another Library record for KPM. I did one last year. So I feel pretty lucky to be able to do that.” Ben added, “Financially I’ve been helped a lot by Bandcamp. They are pretty much the only entity that actually cares about musicians these days. They also happen to be where I learn a lot about new music. Man, I can’t say enough good things about them.”
Christine Shields shelter in place mothership.
I was impressed with how determined and focused Ben’s adaptation to the lost tour was. I also could relate to Sacramento-based painter/songwriter Christine Shields‘ reflective response:
“For the first month it was very difficult to focus and I hardly painted but did manage to record a song. When I WAS able to focus on the song or anything else. I felt a lot of relief. I put quite a bit of effort into getting my home and food situation together, getting my ducks in a row. Meanwhile the deep dive I was taking was and is very internal, and is only, more lately, starting to bear more fruits in terms of manifesting creative output. I feel like it’s such a deep dive that I don’t even understand the extent of how it will change me, or how this species-wide experience will change us all. I endeavor to stay present and take things as they come and take good care of myself, because a lot of the stuff that comes up is from such a deep dark place that it’s scary. Like those strange creatures that live in the depths of the ocean that we know very little about. So it’s like I have to support myself while I take this journey. I feel like there is a bigger plan, a longer vision that this experience is setting up, and the only way to navigate it is by intuition and being really present. That takes a lot of energy. At this point I feel a transition into making more work, or bringing the work from inside myself into the physical world, but I’m working on feeling balanced and gentle about it so that it happens organically. I feel like one of the things we are learning about as a culture is how the constant pressure to produce, to “work”, is killing us on many levels, and there is a re-assessment of what really needs to come out of us. What is really important? What are we here to do? It’s such a personal question for each of us. As artists, musicians, creative people, we inhabit an interesting place in all this, as we tend to navigate this hazy zone between imagination and commodity.”
Sameer Gupta
Percussionist Sameer Gupta of Brooklyn Raga Massive acknowledges the challenges of his situation, especially with kids at home, but is trying to adapt and keep things moving:
“The pandemic has had its pluses and minuses for me. It’s a lot more work at the house with both kids and my spouse at home and we both have to work around each other’s schedules. I’ve been able to keep a minimal practice schedule, but really my focused hours of creative development have been reduced. But I’ve been cooking a lot more, which helps the creativity of my music. I also have been struggling with trying to find the sustainable model for my music work with the recent cancellations. I’ve started a Patreon page which I am very excited about and I hope people will see the value of supporting artists directly. It’s also been necessary to buy more gear to support the needs for live streaming…and that is something that hits the finances unexpectedly.”
For Brooklyn-based Jeff Tobias of Sunwatchers and Modern Nature, shelter in place has had a whole other layer to it:
“About two weeks after I returned home from my abbreviated tour (of Europe) with Modern Nature, I started feeling symptoms that corresponded with those of COVID-19. That was nearly two months ago, and I haven’t fully recovered. I am presently taking medication under the advisement of an ear/nose/throat specialist that he prescribed for a sinus inflammation stemming from the coronavirus infection. This has led to a near-complete pause on my creative work. Without the full health of my respiratory system, I feel totally disinclined to work on music, because I think it would be too disappointing to feel like I couldn’t reach for a horn whenever I want. I am waiting until I have made a full recovery to work on music. When the time comes, I have an album of solo music that I’ve been working on for a long time that I hope to wrap up by mid-summer. Having said that, on top of my own health problems, I have been struggling to countenance being creative generally with the encroaching collapse of the United States in the background.”
Lather Records 