These two wonderful musicians majestically settled into Monkeyclaus quite comfortable. Setting up their zone in the Live Room , they began the music making process with a few home made dehydrated sour cherries picked from Peter's cherry tree outside the studio. They cut 7 tracks and then continued the session in the bus where they were interviewed in depth and out of inspiration. Soon the recordings, interview and multi media slice of the creative process for The Honey Dew Drops will be ready to enjoy online .

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mp3

Keep your ears out for the audio from this session .

The power of e-mail is powerful for the modern musician. For a DIY band, or even a pro booking agent, the process of setting up a tour can be much based in blind trust of a faceless individuals sitting in front of a computers in places far away. The meeting of the band with the venue could be compared to a blind date. When my Inbox delivered me a cryptic email from Chris Cooper, whom I had never met or seen, I had a hunch that the show he was proposing was worthwhile. He offered no website, no Myspace, no links, no blog, no photos, no mp3's or such. All he was requesting was a DIY show in the Charlottesville area. He did mention that Buddies were: himself, from the Load Records band, Fat Worm of Error, and Bill Nace of Vampire Belt, who have associations with Ecstatic Peace as well as Load. Buddies were invited to Monkeyclaus for an intimate show, and the documenting of that show.

Bill and Chris arrived late under a dark, moonless, yet starry sky. They arrived via windy mountain roads, the type which are not involved in the navigation of most rock tours. As they arrived, Monkeyclaus founder, Peter Agelasto actually saw a shooting star whiz past the Buddies heads and burn out in the darkness. We met them in that darkness, a handful of strangers who believe in music and exploring the unknown. Over dinner we realized we had a number of friends and acquaintances in common. After dinner we unloaded their gear into the studio and they arranged themselves for a throwdown, the likes of which I had never seen before. Buddies is an experimental guitar improv duo who have incredible chemistry with each other. They hold dominion over un-tame-able sounds. Their approach involves instrument abuse, beat up guitars, lots of small metal files, small gnarly amplifiers, tons of effects pedals, tuning forks, bike locks, spinning widgets, hands, feet and a forehead. They gouge files between strings, scratch pick ups, file pick ups, and bow strings behind the bridge with abrasive metal objects. They whack tuning forks on their foreheads to resonate sounds on strings. They tune and de-tune. There is no tuning. Free jazz is too uptight for these cats.

Ice fields cracking apart. Nuclear energy melting soda pop bottles. Wasabi. Cyborg whales meet birds from heaven. Factories of the future. The Big Bang. Pangea divides and the crystal underground cave fortress is forged. The language of robots. Aliens make love. Buddies make beautiful music, infused with imagery, that some might dismiss as noise. We hope you enjoy! Our first meeting went well. We can't wait until these dudes come around again.

fat worm of error on myspace

buy fat worm of error from load

buy vampire belt + can't release on load

fat worm... and vampire belt video clips available in the Ecstatic Peace archive

watch another video we made from the buddies session on you tube

Summoning the days of yore, Tanakh's Monkey Session was something which captured the true spirit of traveling musicians.  The recording session showcased the resilience of the human spirit and the power found in turning duress into beauty.  The Italian five-piece collective arrived to our studio road-weary and bleary-eyed at midnight, after a 14 hour drive from Bloomington, Indiana.  The final leg of the journey found Tanakh lost in the Blue Ridge Mountains, separated from their destination, Monkeyclaus, by only one large mountain.  Our scout, sent to collect Tanakh, found them hungry, frustrated, and tired.  Several pizzas and two bottles of wine later, a newly inspired mood was imparted and the band reborn.

Monkey Session #5
audio
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

The decision to record informally on the porch of our farmhouse proved to be a perfect match for the moment.  Tanakh set up across the porch in rocking chairs, porch swings and old wooden chairs and proceeded to manifest the gypsy-inspired sounds of genuine spontaneous Appalachain porch-folk.  Monkeyclaus is where worlds collide and influences meld into one coherent gumbo.  Tanakh played naturally and beautifully with a melange of familiar, borrowed, and improvised instruments.

Tanakh currently consists of Jesse Poe, Viola Mattioli, Oretta Giunti, Matteo Bennici, and Umberto Trivella.  Poe is the founding member and an ex-Virginian / ex-Patriot living as a musician in Florence, Italy.  The group was co-founded with Them Against Them's Phil Murphy in Richmond, Virginia many years ago.  Over time Jesse has remained the sole constant, while working with dozens of talented individuals.  *(see Jesse's myspace page to soak in the full roster)* This Monkey Session is the sound of Tanakh on tour in May 2006 in the days following their gorgeous performance at the Terrastock 6 Psychedelic Music Festival in Providence, Rhode Island.  Please also check out our previous post of an e-mail interview with Tanakh which we think you may find very intriguing.  Enjoy!

This exclusive Jackie-O-Motherfucker podcast combines excerpts from a live performance in Charlottesville, Virginia on March 18th 2006 and a track the band created in our Monkeyclaus Studio on March 19th 2006. Admiring their experimentalism, Monkeyclaus invited Jackie-O into the studio for Monkey Session #4. The Monkey Sessions are an ongoing series of John Peel inspired studio sessions. It was engineered by Abel Okugawa and Peter Agelasto. JOMF manifested spacious and liberated sounds. The live recording was made by Todd Pattison at Dust Space in Charlottesville. The live set was intensely witchy and esoteric. Monkeyclaus is proud to present this unique document. Enjoy!

Interview
audio

Podcast
audio
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

View Additional Photo Gallery

Initial ideas for the group
began with Tom Greenwood in New York City around 1992. In 1993, Tom moved to
Portland with a case of reel-to-reel tapes, that served as the catalyst for
JOMF. After many years and a rotating cast of musicians from both the US and
Canada, with the group sometimes numbering as deep as 12 or more performers,
JOMF currently is one of the very best improvisational bands of today. The
album "Flags Of The Sacred Harp", their most recent release, despite featuring
the previous line-up as opposed to the current line-up, is highly critically
acclaimed.

Vocalist Eva Saelens also performs as a solo artist under the name
of Inca Ore. Eva Saelens is brilliant. Her presence with JOMF is incredible. Inca Ore is unbelievable. 5RC is slated to release an Inca Ore record later this year. JOMF, like say The Magik Markers, is really attaining greatness with improvisation, something that many improvisational groups currently feel they are approaching or touching, but in reality, are hardly achieving. JOMF once described themselves as: "JOMF are indisputably self-aware and muse at length upon their process and goals, but in the end, instinct overrules calculation. The yield is a rich, multivalent music that reflects and refracts the larger world."

Check out JOMF at:
http://www.atpfestival.com/atp_recordings/artist_biography.php?view=20
http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/jackie.o.motherfucker.html

USAisaMonster - Monkey Session Audio
USAisaMonster Audio

Kites - Monkey Session Audio
Kites Audio

Download this podcast:

www.monkeyclaus.org/cms/pdsFiles/rss133361.xml

As a two piece band Usaisamonster boggles the mind with their overly ambitious amout of gear and how they integrate these tools into their rock. Drummer Thom Hohman sings thru his (Time/Life Books infomercial) operator style head set mic, while playing a Moog taurus foot pedal with his left foot, nimbly adding sporadic keyboard lines with his right hand (on the remaining keys not yet shattered to bits) , and deftly pounding out brutal beats. In the track we captured here at Monkeyclaus he also shows his skills with the african thumb piano. Guitarist Colin Matthews rocks an array of pedals thru a huge stack of amps supplying the bass register as well as the soaring guitar leads. Bouncing around like an yeti under the influence, Colin's guitar work varies from stoner rock riffs to delicate repetitive African inspired grooves. He is truly one of the more important lead axe men of this new century.

Due to time restraints the Monster was able only to lay down one 10 minute track, a jam with Kites and gave us an insightful interview covering topics ranging from the Iraq war to the struggle of the Native Americans to the magical powers of nature spirits. Monkeyclaus also shot video of the entire session and made a three part feature DVD documenting the session. The video also includes audio of a live version of their Bulgarian folk song recorded by Monkeyclaus the night before. The session overall is a fantastic portal into the weird and engaging world of these punk nomads in action...ENJOY

As part of the same session Kites treated us to a diabolically gorgeous dose of noise. Christopher can whip up a maelstom with the best of them. His wizardly approach and vast configuration of foot pedals create a signal chain tapping into time and space. As in his live set the previous nite he set the mood with an oscillator, giving a familar reference of moogish tones to henceforth begin deconstruction. With devices such as the "Kites Beast" and a homemade "King Tubby style" electronic handshaker Kites began a focused assault that was both calculated and well executed. Tired of everyone thinking they can be a noiseband? And delivering noise wonk? Stacking his three amps like a crucifix, Kites will school all amatuers!

If you have never seen .xml before, you will love it.Trust us .xml is the future. monkeyclaus loves .xml. If you click on the link rather than follow the instructions below you might see garble de goop depending on which browser your using. What are Podcasts

Monkeycasts/Podcasts
We like the name monkeycasts better than podcasts. After all it is distributed by monkeys for monkeys. The easy way to get these monkeycasts is to download the latest version of iTunes on your mac or your pc. Follow these directions to download our monkeycasts.

1. Launch iTunes on your computer. (iTunes needs be version 4.9 or greater.)
2. Click on the Advanced button at the top of the iTunes menu bar.
3. Choose subscribe to pod-cast under the advanced tab.
4. Paste the podcast link above .xml into the advanced window...
5. Watch the link appear in the podcast section of iTunes.
6. Click ' get ' to start downloading each of the mp3s to your computer.
7. Enjoy and check back regularly for more podcasts.

*You dont need iTunes, we just say that because it is easy and most folks have it