So where did I leave off? It looks like over 4 months ago in L.A. Well that morning we tried to get out the door at a reasonable hour. I know that we didn't have a show tonight so the reasonableness of it was stretched beyond reason. We went to Amoeba Records again! I finally found Soft Machine #4 that afternoon. All the great jazz records would be found in Berkeley Amoeba. Yes, we hit all 3 Amoebas on this tour. But that detour held us back a long time! Then came the traffic, which we narrowly escaped, or was it Sunday?

So we were in Santa Barbara at sunset. This shows just how far we were from the projected Big Sur. Delays delays... I just thought in my home town, I would find something and we could make it to Oakland in no time. Instead we drove and drove through the night, sleeping in the car, miserable.

But we made it to Oakland in the morning, heading immediately to Mama Buzz, close to 21 Grand (our venue that evening.) And so, we hung out and in short time we had serendipitous run-ins with friends from Portland who were now living in San Francisco, who just happened to be in Oakland around Noon that day. So there we were, faced with our options for sleep in the evening.

Our friend Cory was one such person to have accidently Ended up at mama Buzz that day. She pointed us to a hush hush place in which vagabonds of the best sort have set up a shanti-town on the bay. We were granted use in one such shack on a sort of peninsula overlooking the bay, provided that we keep it mellow and clean up when we leave. The sleep that night was more restful than any arrangement on the entire tour. Further, the morning was bright and we would only have to travel to Davis, sometime in the next 6 hours.

Of course we had earned it, sleeping in such un restful places as my compact Tercel wagon, and performing late, un rested, with such maniacal noise projects as Wiggwuam and some new Weasel Walter group. This WW quintet employed the talents of each member in the group, it was dynamic and interesting to watch. Whoever that singer was, I hope to cross paths with again. And we performed with a guest that night, a friend of JP's, Matt, whose last name slips in to my inner memory recesses. So with a good show under our belt, we went to sleep in a shack on the beach.

And in that bring morning on the bay, we enjoyed our relaxed trek to Davis. This was the most publicized show on the tour. It would be the first time my band was interviewed in a campus newspaper. It was put together by DJ Rick of KPSU in a series of 3 shows called the Feats of Strength. On this night we were scheduled with Aids Wolf, AH Kraken, and The Mayyors. Arrington De Dionyso had joined this bill with Aids Wolf, in the last minute.

Coincidentially, we would be sharing our homecoming show with Arrington's free band, Naked Future at the Hush a few days later, the same night Aids Wolf would hit Portland to play the East End. So they took Arrington to the Hush, to play with us.

But this addition had caused a timing panic. The KPSU team had plans of their own, and of course so did the booking agent. All was well in the end. However, being pushed to play even earlier did not suit us well because we were biding our time with Mitchell Brown who just happened to be in the Sacramento area that day for a funeral. Yes, a funeral brought him in to the Death Worth Living band that night. But Mitchell did make it on time and we had a sufficient audience. Lots of Sacramento pals came out that night. Arrington and Aids Wolf would go to stay with our friends Daniel and Liz and the fun castle.

Dan and Liz showed me their shop, the Buff Castle in Sacramento and traded me the sweater off my back for the lovely knit brown and tan felt striped piece you see me wearing in a lot of these photos. Thanks guys.

But while they went to fun castle, Mitch went back to his Mother's home, the trio went to the Horse Cow. This was perhaps the real highlight of the trip. If you haven't been to the Horse Cow, take a look at some of our pictures. Its a giant industrial farm with art cars, robots, scrap materials of all kinds, performance venue, moldings, sculptures, fire pits, animals, chickens, homosexual cats, and on and on. We slept in an RV that night. Again, quite restful. I would return 3 months later on a tour with Imra for two nights.

The hospitality and accomodations at Horse Cow was beyond expectation. Larry of Art Lessing and Flower Vato was our main man. We played at the Argus Lounge in San Francisco that night with Larry, who had slapped us on that bill as the result of double booking himself with us in Sac, which actually fell through, so this Argus Lounge was a blessing in disguise.

But I had landed a last minute slot on a radio show, hosted by Simmi, who was at our Fun Castle performance when it was Shane and I, but who we didn't know had a radio show on KPSU. And so we showed up, there he was. Our performance was minimal. Mostly percussive bits. Fun, silly. But I was also hungry and anxious to get there that day, and the campus was built to keep drivers in some kind of maze. I dented my drivers side front panel against a post. Ridiculous.

The Argus Lounge that night was packed in all night, with people chatting and zoning. It felt like an old San Francisco piano bar, in which nobody really listens to the music being played, still appreciating the cerebral energy there flowing from the artists, which does so well to aid the stream of chatter flowing from these drinkers' brain. Not even Mom, with her bizarrre antics and nudity could take the attention of the room.

And before we could get through all 5 bands on this minature stage, DWL was off to stay with the friend of JP's whom we had run in to at Mama Buzz, two days prior. (Her name, Molly? The names continue to be lost in my unconscious after 4 months).

But this woman was wonderful as a host and personality -- a successful actress I might add -- and to the careful attention of JP, who would hang with her late in to the night as Shane and I slept in the living room of her San Francisco apartment. There in, I awoke early the next morning, as usual, and again alone with my morning, as usual, off to a coffee shop to set this lap top up, to plan the next step in our endeavour.

I walked around, impressed by the "poshness" of her neighborhood. Yet there was no cafe that spoke to me, asked me to sit down, until finally an Italian cafe' spotted me and called me over. I attempted to do something, but not much there was to do. Our tour was over, we had a homecoming show in Portland the next day. Where do we drive, where do we stay? We haven't any contacts. But to no avail, attempting to begin a couchsurfer.com account. It was not handy and truthfully a pain of a website. So I went back to the apartment.

Nobody was home. They had gone off for Coffee and Soup, of which I had a taste and it was delicious. We enjoyed it on the roof, blue sunny day. It hit me that in some way November weather was only perfect in San Francisco. Consistently while in the Bay area, the weather was fine, but it was San Francisco that comforted us with perfect temperature.

The day off, we had, in San Francisco. We delayed yet again, so as to hit Amoeba records and Safeway. Shane was ill. We all had some stomach problem. But Shane was ill from his medications, or lack there of. He could hardly stand it. We weren't hardly but 20 miles from San Francisco at sunset, as we stood by Shane, who desperetely need his medications from this suburban posh Rite-Aid. Thankfully they carried Thrifty's ice cream. Something I so very miss about California.

But we were far from home, driving north in the dark with no place to go. JP and I arguing about the routes, without any sort of map to corroborate our arguments, drifting without aim, lame. In agony, and having learned the lesson of sleeping in the car, we made it as far as Arcata before snagging a Motel 6. Shane hooked up the elderly discount.

In the morning we pretended to have the where with all to pull over and hang out and enjoy our trip. We never did make that stop. We just kept driving. After all, we were totally pushing it with our many previous, less enjoyable delays. We make it to Portland, happy together, eventually.

The Hush was upstairs, 3 flights. We were right on time, not too early nor too late, 7pm. We set up. The night was busy. Use Value opened the evening. We had to set up two bands at a time, one on the floor, one on stage. So it went on with Naked Future on the floor, Linda Hagood on the stage (break down), DWL on the stage, Evolutionary Jass Band on the floor. The show ended by midnight. We cooperated and had a great show.

And I made a new friend. Linda would help me set something up at the Hemlock in San Francisco for my tour in February with Imra. She is a big heart and energy, and talent of course.

So then what else? DWL didn't play any shows up until this day. JP and Shane and I continued to play, but distractions kept things moving all this time. But last Saturday we convened with Tony, Ryan, and Pete to rehearse for a radio performance on KPSU on April 4th. Two days from now.

We are on our way to recording sessions and editing sessions to compile a unique CD for release some time in 2009.

Still no camera to call my own. However, there is JP's camera now. Unfortunately, we didn't receive photos or shoot any of our own of all these Los Angeles area shows.

So J.P. Jenkins flew in last night for our set at the Echo Curio. He woke me in the morning and I rarely get back to sleep after waking at 8am or later. So I got up and did laundry, walking around the building in only a towel, breakfast in a towel, smoking a cigarette on the porch in a towel. Liberating.

DWL took the collaborative route and became Mitch Brown's Paramecial Wedding, last night. He also had Bill Leavitt, Rick Potts of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, and others. The recordings are likely going to be released, for they are great, otherwise I will post them on virb.com. We also did a session at Mitch's house the other night, and it was great. Rick brought McCoy Tyner tickets over! So Mitch and I caught half of his set at the Greek Theatre. Reminding me that its time to get back in to bebop, hard bop, post bop, and all that jazz as soon I'm back in Portland.

Yesterday was Echo Curio, the night previous was a recording session, the night previous was Santa Ana at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts, put on by the Eclectic Company. It was pretty fun. I like Santa Ana. Met some cool people. Giant smoke stream from nearby forest fires! It happens all the time. But it was a coinciding event with the above the radar music festival called Sound Downtown, with bands like International Noise Conspiracy and Bus Driver. All the indie rock and hip hop your hearts could take. However, our show was not promoted as such. But it was a festival a lot like No.Fest (myspace.com/stjohnsnofest) in which multiple venues were employed to host different artists of varying draw and aesthetic. I really was inspired, as one of the curators of No.Fest, by their layout and planning. I'm surprised they did not include our show or OCCCA in their program because the venue is right in the heart of it. After our set we ran back to Hollywood for a chance to play this afterparty, right next to a packed in Hip Hop club, and we're talking like L.A. muthafuckin scene, man. Totally wild. Inside this after party at Studio 1636 was an amazing multimedia experience with multiple projections and psychedelic images and performances. I think it was Scarnella that really blew me away. Shows like that are probably common in L.A., but we have to wait until T.B.A. festival in Portland to get that sort of show.

Before that we had the day off. We spent it with Mitch for the most part. Went to Amoeba Records. Have to, got ta go to Amoeba. The day prior to that, we spent in Riverside at Back to the Grind Cafe. We were the casualty of an un-promoted show. Voice on Tape was the man behind it and his set was great. He missed his set at the Echo Curio so 5 of his fans (about 1/3 of my entire audience) refunded their money after watching Paramecial Wedding! Not cool.

So I must thank everyone who helped to set things up for us in L.A. Mitch,

Today, as the boys sleep in, I imagine what we're going to do next. We have today off. We play Oakland's 21 Grand tomorrow. And I really want to hit Big Sur. These boys sure are sleeping. Thats okay, I want the time to write this chronicle.

Sean

I do not have a digital camera any longer. I want one. Photos will be added whenever I get other people's photos. Write now I sit in a Peet's Coffee Shop in Midtown Sacramento.

So leading up to this tour, I spent 2 months restoring a 1986 Toyota Tercel 4WD Hatchback. Menacing job. Amazing learning. But only in the week prior to tour did I install my first ever hydrogen fuel cell design.I'm taking this car on tour order to promote it. I want to install one on every gasoline chuggin' van and wagon my friends drive on tour, and basically any DIY musician who wants to reduce the cost of their tour and improve the drive ability of their vehicle.

The results? Frankly, unfortunately, not as great as I was hoping. Positively though, I feel greater power and smooth sailing on the highway. I believe the Hydrogen is functioning for a cleaner combustion. I am getting 30 MPG so far. But this Toyota should be getting that anyway! So whats wrong? I have gone through and worked on sealing all fuel lines carrying HHO gas and I'll be changing the water daily at best, but certainly at least once every tank. If I don't find and solve an issue with my HHO design then I'll be looking at my carburetor and find inefficiencies in the vehicle itself. They say too, that over X many miles, dependent on the cleanliness of your carburetor, the HHO gradually cleans out build up related inefficiencies and you see a slow climb in miles per gallon. But not if your vacuum lines aren't getting potent gas in the carburetor.

So as for the tour in itself.

Shane and I are driving south. We get along like family, and you know how family gets along.Were it not for the love it would fall apart. And we played at L and 23 house in Sacramento last night for whoever was hanging out. The house is called Fun Castle. Daniel and Liz have a great little odd bits of clothes, records, etc. style shop in mid town Sac called, Buff Castle and I got an amazing sweater.

JP will be joining us in L.A., 5 days from now. Tonight we join Mitchell Brown at KXLU. I don't know if we're going to play records or play instruments.

So our first show is actually tomorrow at Back To The Grind Cafe... I hope things are fun over there.

Sean

Quick DWL History
D>W>L> was conceived at a time of creative cross roads with the intention of playing with as many players and varieties as possible. Having started out in metal, progressive, and indie rock, I was learning of world music, noise, free jazz and improvisation at the age of 23 in September of 2006 when setting up a giant friendly jam for the radio and Zac Nelson's solo project at this time called Faulouah. (Without knowing it, I had embarked on a path of music making that had been laid down decades ago and my new improviser friends were already doing this without the self-consciousness.) So, to start with I recruited a gang of people to help start the project, but only two stuck through awkward phase 1: Zecki Bengry and Anthony Thomas Schatz. By December 2006 we were Death Worth Living. By January '07, Shane Ronet came in to orbit with tenor sax, and in April Pete Bryant on tenor, causing Shane to be our percussionist and drummer. But unlike 20 of the 22 members, these guys stuck the whole way through various formations until July when Zecki moved back to Sacramento, which became an excuse to start an all Sacramento band. So I stayed in Sac for two weeks and this is how "regional collaborations" came to be. Upon return, things were less than stable and musically inspiring. On Thanksgiving Eve, a fellow who became number 23 on the DWL roster joined and became the glue of this band: Jean-Paul Jenkins. After that, the band became a frozen line up and instrumentation: Me (piano/modular synth), Shane (percussion and toys), JP (synth bass, loops), Pete (tenor sax), and Tony (prepared electric guitar). I didn't want to add another player until is was absolutely necessary, and after 7 months of this line up, JP took a break from all his bands and I was left in search of 24. I pulled in Dana Valatka, Ryan Stuewe, and Jerry Soga. These musicians were great, but things fell apart. The magic was missing. We missed JP. After a frustrating performance under the moniker "Pink Floyd", I decided to hold off, book a tour, and see who would jump back on the wagon. As of October 19, 2008, over two years from the start of the band and 26 players, we are resuming with a split tour with Shane Ronet in southern California and Jean Paul Jenkins in northern California, and regional guests.

-Sean

DWL on Music Releases
Like most young bands today, we released various recordings in home made packaging and CD-R pressing. Today, in consideration of the iPod and laptop, we are releasing all music on the internet as MP3's for free. We will bring a few CD-R versions for tour. We are awaiting an offer for a vinyl release in box set format. The newest release will be a "double disc set" entitled "EATv", featuring studio sessions of the Quintet: myself, JP, Shane, Tony, and Pete. Due available by Nov 12th.

BIO's for the Upcoming Tour (So Cal)
Shane Ronet has paid his dues over several lifetimes and several names all wrapped in to one; without expecting a return on these dues, he remains in obscurity, almost encouraging it. A young adult in San Francisco from 1965-1970, he explored "all of that" and enjoyed friendships with many artists in that time. In the 70's he quit "all of that" and became a family man. In Omaha in the 80's and 90's, nobody but Shane carried the avante-garde torch: a member of the famous Magic Theater, various improvisation projects including one with 13 year old Conor Oberst , and he was also a successful painter. In Los Angeles in the 90's until 2002, Shane took on stand up comedy taking on the monikers Pixie Storm and Papa Sweat. After an affair with a Scandinavian hash smuggler, he moved to Portland to become for the first time, "a musician". In Portland, 2002-2008, Shane has worked himself through the improvisation scene, helping to start projects such as Cexfucx, Portland Bicycle Ensemble, DWL, and the legendary but brief 411 performance venue. At the age of 60, Shane is going to LA to make it all over again hopefully to return in Portland as the weather clears those gray skies.

(No Cal)
Jean Paul Jenkins has been said to put together 600 shows in 10 years. Cexfucx, Portland Bicycle Ensemble, Foster/Jenkins/Eubanks trio -- ad hoc with countless improvisers, a fuse in the improvised music festival circuit, Jenkins has payed his dues dozens of times over from free jazz to minimalist electronics. Sharing/caring/opening/listening/we have hands not tentacles/no earlids/high frequencies are so 2001/tea/cheap rent/time to stare/comfortable shoes/tape releases/daily porch show Functionally he resides in the space between what and huh?

both so cal and no cal because he is the driver of dwl
Sean Ongley is a chameleon. He is too young to know what he is doing. 26 years old, as of two weeks ago, he has pretended to be stable for years. Writing indie rock songs alone in the vain of Pavement, he moved from Canoga Park, CA, to Portland, OR in 2003. There he met his fate and would turn his back on indie rock. In 2004, he joined progressive metal band, Danava. It was his first band and he didn't know how to behave so was gladly squeezed out. They became famous, Sean became jealous, he got over it, and We love each other anyway. He cycled through various rock bands until 2006 when he wanted to start the anti-band, called Death Worth Living (DWL). It was at this time that he moved on to a farm where Shane Ronet resides and became fixed on improvised music and noise. Currently he focuses on ad hoc and solo performance, with a twist of composition, and street performance with Rainbow and the Kittens. He is a radio show host for local experimental performance on KBOO 90.7 fm. A festival organizer (No.Fest:Nu.Music.Arts). He is an editor. A writer. A composer (sax quartet piece to debut in December). A farmer. Sometimes a model. Sometimes a business man. Sometimes a mechanic. Always changing. Searching ground in this abysmally creative universe.


Thanks for Reading
Sean Ongley

Here is some stuff people have said of us:

from Portland Mercury
I AM THE ARM, DEATH WORTH LIVING, PULSE EMITTER

(Rotture, 315 SE 3rd) Hooray for eclectic bills! Pulse Emitter is a one-man paint-peeling noise scather from right here. Actually all these folks are local except for some of the many guests that Death Worth Living have enlisted to make their ten-piece "big band" idea into a special one-time event. Amongst these players are a drummer from Sacramento that will be shared by headliners I Am the Arm tonight. The Arm recently got a lot of press for their short-lived collaboration with drummer/whirlwind/freakout Lauren K. Newman. LKN's work is explosive, but truly I Am the Arm have deserved attention on their own merit for their melting pot of rock styles that recall other indescribables like the Minutemen and Nomeansno. Check out their no bullshit fusion at the equally no bullshit Rotture. NATHAN CARSON

from Portland Mercury
DEATH WORTH LIVING, FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY!, ELFIN ELEPHANT

(Rotture, 315 SE 3rd) Philosophy is how the great questions of our existence get pondered—yet most philosophy majors deliver pizza to pay the bills. Either that or they start a band, and use instrumentation and experimentation to further the mental track laps that keep them up at night. Death Worth Living is just such a philosophical band, based on the assertion that "If life and death are a continued process, then going toward death is the process of living" (according to their MySpace page). Sound uplifting? Philosophy rarely is. The music, however, isn't the kind of vibration that makes you want to slit your wrists. It's an out-there concoction of tones and moods, saxophones and electric clarinets, led by Sean Ongley ..s. Ongley is a constant, but DWL takes pride in a rotating lineup of musicians. Just what will you get from this show? You'll have to show up to find out. MD

D>W>L> goes on tour to experiment and make new friends and enemies. It hasn't the image nor interest of a single band. This time we have split one tour in two: So Cal and No Cal. In southern California we will be putting on the Shane Ronet comedy show featuring a band by Mitchell Brown. In northern California we will leave Shane behind and pick up Jean Paul Jenkins for a string of improvisations.

In the past, DWL has put together an entire showcase band from Sacramento players.

DWL has also played out of town with the Portland cast. Shane has been in each of those.

And in the future we would like to move toward interdisciplinary performance.

That is all for now. Check in soon.

The band will improvise as a sextet featuring Shane, Ryan, and Dana on percussion. Pete and Jerry on saxophones, Sean and Tony on piano and guitar.

The Waypost is located on Williams blvd in N. Portland and can be found on the internet at waypost.org.

And sharing the bill are percussionists Matt Hannafin and Jay Morales performing with electronics. Also, Dos Ignorance which is a debut of Jerry and Alejandro.

That is all for now.

We will play as "Pink Floyd" at the barn with Shaky Hands and Mega Church on August 15th.

Some links to see and preview or download Death Worth Livin' material.
http://rererato.com/galleries/sean/MOV08477.MPG
esnips.com/user/seanongley
youtube.com/seanongley

So above you are able to download old DWL releases. And that is where I'm posting new stuff also.

I am not interested in doing such convoluted releasing such as CD-R and xerox style printing or various corporate powered websites, such as myspace, esnips, even virb, I think. But I like what I've been calling the "Radiohead Model". Who pre-released their new record on the internet, on their own site, and put a link up to offer whatever you wish beyond a very small transaction download fee. The really important thing is that they did this as an unsigned artist. I would amend this by offering it free for download longer than they would and not enforce a download fee. However, if they can avoid the entanglements of recording contracts and self-release a box set, why can't we? So that is my aim. Right now I am in the works of recording a totally analog album to be released as a very nice package sometime within the next 6 months. However, the audio should be up within the next 3 months. We ask that you assist us in funding the box set by donating for the music. All you have to do is go to paypal.com and send an electronic payment to seanongley@yahoo.com. But anyway, when there are more details I will fill it in.

Love

-Ongley

New Summer Demo called "Delving in Ear"
Track 1) "Frantic Walls." Recorded live way back on January 25th this year. It was our first important show and it was at Rotture` with I am the Arm and Pulse Emitter. Important because we had an epic piece to debut that has now become our signature. The show featured a skeleton composition by Sean Ongley on Piano, Tony Schatz and Zecki Bengry on guitars/pedals, Zac Nelson on drums, Ezra Reece on violin, Jason Schmidt on Clarinet, Shane Schneider on tenor sax, and singing was Evelyn Weston and Melissa Hawley.

Track 2) "The Fire of Clinging." October 7th 2006 at the Salad House, my birthday party with Mr. Frederick. The first show, in a sense, and it is a totally improvised number edited down for your enjoyment. Recorded on Pro Tools routing 8 tracks, so its very clean. We didn't have a drummer but Jay Morales (my former drummer from History of the Future) showed up at the last minute to party and we asked him to play. Tony on loops and guitar/vocals, Ali Ippolito on accordion, Sean on Arp Odyssey and Roland synth, Boyd Anderson on bass.

Track 3) "Spirit Dance." Recorded live at Luna's Cafe March 24th this year, Sacramento. Shane Schneider on drums. The previous night, just before our final pre-tour practice, Shane falls in to his llama pen nearly breaking his arm, scraping and swelling it. He played like a monster, especially in our first improvisation (this is number 2). Its Sean on Arp Odyssey, Shane, and Zecki on guitar and loops/tapes.

Track 4) "Cogito Wow." Recorded over various sessions at the farm, in April this year. The drone features Ezra, Jason, Shane, and Sean. The bells feature Shane and the chant accompanying it is with Ezra and Sean. The 3rd piece features the discovery of these rubber noise makers and the sounds made with Zecki, Tony, Gary, trippin on psychedelics, and Shane and Sean not. The 3 pieces feature rain sounds at the start, cricket sounds in the middle, and bird sounds at the end. I wanted to signify the elements through istrumentation in the final part, self-awareness and emerging from darkness in the second, and birth in the first part. As a whole the instrumentation includes gamelon, various bells, quartz tibetan singing bowl in F, violin, clarinet, tenor sax, voice, arp odyssey, rubber noise makers, drum kit, trumpet...

Track 5) "The Sorrowed Rejoice." Recorded at KBOO in February this year. Megan Remy and Bomb Banks are the featured artists here, and we never played with them again. Indeed, we never experimented with these sounds since. But here we have a special jam that sounds very tribal to me. Megan sings an awesome, emotional melody, Banks bangs the drums enthusiastically instigating a collective scream, Joe sings many memorable improvisations, Boyd, Tony, and Sean make do with minimal parts and instruments.

Track 6) "Space Sloths Visit Earth." This is a rehearsal 4-track recording in preparation for a show with Not Yeti at Ground Kontrol, December 1st. We each came up with a concept for 3 ten minute pieces strung in to one long song: UFO take off with load of Space Sloths and the effect of Sun Freckling on the new inhabitants of Earth. This was the beginning of an epoch for Death Worth Living that is now coming to a close: the union of Tony, Zecki, and Sean as the core of the band. We're playing arp odyssey, loops, percussions, and guitars.

One would consider this experiment more like a tour of musicians and a collaborative experiment rather than the touring of a band to promote ourselves per se. It was a tour of ourselves in a sense, which disclosed to us our own powers at doing something hasty and whimsical.

After our Luna's show, which was a sort of band warm up for what was to come, we had a week until our 21 Grand gig. Zac couldn't do our Cool Cat Gallery show, which as a performance was disasterous, but the gallery was very generous and that indeed helped keep things going. So we set off to 21 Grand in a state of fragmentation; as a band there was tension; as a bandleader, Ongley was frustrated at the lack of practice; we had hardly scratched the surface of developing a chemistry together. But what can one expect when forming a band that one can not afford to pay? Everyone has their own things going on and it is hard to remove oneself from that just to boot camp style start a band just to end it while its getting real good. The important thing was collaborating as friends and having a good time. 21 Grand and Audio Waffle went well; when we're on the spot we pull it together, truly listening and playing tastefully as a unity. Word is that Henry Kaiser saw us play, but I don't know if he liked it or not.

The show opened with Jacob Felix Heule's (drums etc.) improvisational quartet featuring Sarah Barnat of 16-Bitch Pile Up on electronics and trumpet and others on koto and upright bass. It was all about texture: no rhythm nor melody for any given stretch of two or three pieces performed.


We followed JFH and the mood was set for a minimalistic improvisation with brief outbursts, but overall a very contained piece. The improvisation was short and was merely to introduce "Frantic Walls." This time we had Chennelle doing the vocals which definitely give an additional dimension to the piece. Her voice is powerful.


Weasel Walter's Quartet (quintet by the end of it) followed us. The set was introduced as a trio and incrementally Weasel signalled people in. By the end of it the saxaphones were dominating even over Weasel's overdrive death jazz drumming. I loved these sax players. The man looked like an ex-con -- or since we're in Oakland perhaps a former Hell's Angel -- who found his way back on the path by blowing his horn until all his demons were released and absorbed by Weasel. The lady was very cool but she didn't join until the last five minutes. They ripped it.


Following Weasel was one of my favorite futurist rock bands, Who's Your Favorite Son God?, featuring Zac Nelson, Robby from the Advantage, and somewhat more obscure but no less talented Eric from the broken up Cozy. By hearing their music one would never guess their zen-like stillness throughout the set, but of course the music isn't balls out rock the cock, its arkestration! So with these guys headlining the event we had quite the show.


Following the show a party sprang up and so we went, enjoyed ourselves, played for people some joyful songs with Michael on guitar, Zecki on snare, and Ongley on recorder. No pictures... sorry. But in the hung over morning we had a show at noon at Sacramento Audio Waffle. It wasn't so much a DWL as a noise improvisation featuring Zecki, Ongley, and the magical Hailey from Night Nurse. With dunkin donuts coffee to wake us up and some partially hydrogenated waffles fill the belly, I would say we were in quite the mood for some noise. Zecki supplied the beats, Hailey supplied the space sounds, and Ongley supplied the melody.


Following us was Scapulamancy who brought the energetic, percussive and high tempo sound-scape vibe
and Art Lessing Flower Vato brought the hypnotic minimal beats, drone and drawl style. A good time.

Last night at Luna's Cafe with Woman Year and Chad Stockdale Quartet. Death Worth Living featured Zac Nelson drums, Daniel Trudeau tenor sax, Zecki Bengry clarinet, Michael Saalman guitar, and Sean on piano.



Woman Year opened the show. These prolific young garage students of music led by Michael is coming to Portland in October. Michael's concept of jass is new and open to the innovations of rock and roll -- especially their drummer -- with sax, trumpet, old yamaha student keyboards, and michael's guitar.



Chad Stockdale was brilliant free jazz organized by a series of duets spaced between 4 piece skronk-mania (but so much more musical that skronk-shit-jazz) with cello, Chad on sax, and two drums.