Porchfest

Band Gig 2011

show this ⇓
Porchfest

Opposite People is playing at the first ever Somerville Porchfest!

More info here.

Porchfest
hide this ⇑

Opposite People

World Music Dance Band 2010

show this ⇓

Opposite People, the Traffic Jam, the Hanging Chads

This band shapeshifts names, members, and genres

Specialists in playing outdoor and community gigs

Wake Up the Earth Festival, Jamaica Pond Lantern Parade, Spontaneous Celebrations Winter Carnival, Prospect Hill Block Party, Hyde Park Farmer’s Market, Egleston Square Main Streets…

Facebook Page

hide this ⇑

Free Play Meets Gameplay

Journal Article 2010

show this ⇓
Free Play Meets Gameplay

    Leonardo Music Journal, MIT Press, Volume 20

Leonardo Music Journal Volume 20: “Improvisation”

ABSTRACT

The author presents an experimental musical video game called iGotBand. Fans are central to the game’s narrative, capturing a feedback loop in which the audience shares responsibility for performance.

[Featured as the issue's cover image]

hide this ⇑

Dance of the Computer Lab

Time Lapse Video with Musical Soundtrack 2009

show this ⇓
Dance of the Computer Lab

The Desk
Watch video

At present, there are thousands of webcams or networked security cameras that broadcast publicly over the Internet. A simple Google search reveals countless results for these types of cameras, including many that may not intended for public scrutiny but are catalogued nonetheless by search bots. The ceaseless flow of images from these autonomous cameras is typically ephemeral and unremarked, but provides fertile material for artistic investigation.

In my project I harvest these ambient video streams, using a telematic practice of ‘sampling’ the photographs from the virtual cameras, and transform them into video-music compositions and rhythmic micro-narratives. I meld the found images, which are often disassociated from any recognizable locality, into time-lapse videos, then use the minutiae of these tiny vignettes as a visual ‘score’ for which I compose a tightly-synchronized musical accompaniment. These videos provide a means of visualizing temporary and fleeting moments that are ordinarily invisible in our experience of everyday life. The resulting rhythms of change, textures of image, patterns of human movement, and qualities of light are mirrored by musical motifs that form an expressive, subtle portrait of the original spaces, of which the location remains unknown.

hide this ⇑

The Desk

Time Lapse Video with Soundtrack 2009

show this ⇓
The Desk

The Desk
Watch video

At present, there are thousands of webcams or networked security cameras that broadcast publicly over the Internet. A simple Google search reveals countless results for these types of cameras, including many that may not intended for public scrutiny but are catalogued nonetheless by search bots. The ceaseless flow of images from these autonomous cameras is typically ephemeral and unremarked, but provides fertile material for artistic investigation.

In my project I harvest these ambient video streams, using a telematic practice of ‘sampling’ the photographs from the virtual cameras, and transform them into video-music compositions and rhythmic micro-narratives. I meld the found images, which are often disassociated from any recognizable locality, into time-lapse videos, then use the minutiae of these tiny vignettes as a visual ‘score’ for which I compose a tightly-synchronized musical accompaniment. These videos provide a means of visualizing temporary and fleeting moments that are ordinarily invisible in our experience of everyday life. The resulting rhythms of change, textures of image, patterns of human movement, and qualities of light are mirrored by musical motifs that form an expressive, subtle portrait of the original spaces, of which the location remains unknown.

hide this ⇑

Spotlight On the Candidates

Performance 2009

show this ⇓
Spotlight On the Candidates

Spotlight Poster

Band temporarily recast as The Hanging Chads. We’re backing up Mayor Menino and other aspiring political wannabees.
hide this ⇑

Traffic Jam ’09

Concert Series 2009

show this ⇓
Traffic Jam ’09

The funky 11-piece juggernaut is back this summer!

hide this ⇑

Manic Barbering

Time Lapse Video With Musical Soundtrack 2009

Traffic Jam

Funky Street Band 2008

show this ⇓
Traffic Jam

This summer I helped organize a new afrobeat/funk/world band for a series of outdoor performances out on the street in a busy intersection in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. It’s been great fun seeing the diverse audience that shows up or discovers us playing – from little kids who dance around wildly, to teenagers who start out skeptical but end up getting into us, to the Nigerian guy who got unbelievably excited to hear us play a Fela tune, to the drunken Caribbean guy who shouted along happily when we struck up a reggae tune but loudly showed his disapproval whenever we played something in any other style!

It’s been wonderful to be in a funky band again and get the people up and dancing. Everyone in the group is having lots of fun so we’ll be continuing with the project in the fall.


hide this ⇑

32 Miniature Themes

Solo Musical Compositions 2008

show this ⇓

A collection of musical compositions created over the last year or so under my solo moniker Avocado Kid.

Each song can be thought of as a soundtrack to a distinct imaginary world. As most of them are quite brief, I conceive of them as miniature themes, conjuring the essential impression of a scene and story.

The instruments I play on these tracks include electric and upright bass, drum kit, guitars, electric piano and organ, violin, bamboo saxophone, trombone, synthesizers, drum machines, african and latin percussion, melodica, voice.

skulktafunk

myseps

pineapple kugel

the flock

top of the hill

woody

south san juan swagger

southie soul

hotroots

chowboy’s lament

like a million bux

gray green

lunchmeat

taking up anew

frozenlake

impeachment dub

hide this ⇑