RE: BAY AREA new music scene: was Noise Pancakes in the news!

["Timothy Mungenast" <mungenast@earthlink.net>]

Good letter!
Four people, huh? I've had plenty of shows like that for my rock gigs here
in Boston, and maybe 3 times as many peole for my avant shows. Maybe if I
stick to avant I'll be famous! (LOL)

Your Pal,
Tim Mungenast


> [Original Message]
> From: loop.pool <looppool@cruzio.com>
> To: LOOPERS DELIGHT (posting) <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
> Date: 4/6/2006 4:01:58 AM
> Subject: BAY AREA new music scene:    was  Noise Pancakes in the news!
>
> Tim Munengast wrote this about the San Francisco noise scene:
>
> "Once again I find myself on the wrong coast. Seems like the West has all
> the cool cars, the trainspotting action, and the most vibrant avant
scene."
>
>
> I agree with you about the coolness of the scene but people should know
that
> the scene, like almost every fringe musical scene in the world, is 
>peopled
> by people who are fanatical about promoting it and creating opportunities
> where none appear to be.
>
> I just saw an amazing concert with new music luminaries   Herny Kaiser, 
> Scott Looney,
> our own loopers delight member,  Italian guitarist Roberto Zorzi and 
>four 
> other really talented musicians.
>
> There were four people in the audience.
>
> Roberto wrote me back and said he'd love to come play in Northern
California 
> and said he'd just need
> a minimum of three gigs to be able to afford to come (mentioning a sum
that 
> would be a rather embarassingly
> low paid casuals/wedding gig).
>
> I had to tell him that it wasn't possible......that even I , who have a 
> decent draw in SF for new musical events considered myself
> lucky if my expenses are paid when I do a gig (they a frequently aren't)
>
> ********
>
> Lately there has been  a amazing collection of new music people in the
East 
> Bay because many of the bay areas best and brightest
> young musicians lost there lucrative software day jobs and could no
longer 
> afford to live in the pricier cities of
> San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Cruz.    I'm on tribe.net which is full
of 
> electronica musicians and it seems like
> 1/3 of the people on that website are from Oakland.
>
> Is there a scene there?    No?     The reason?      Well, at least one 
>of 
> the reasons is that there are very , very few places to play and even if 
> people would play the people would not come out to see them.     The
other 
> reason I think is that like a lot of people on this list,  a lot of
people 
> who do new or unusual musics are not particularly social people to begin 
> with but that's the subject for another discussion.
>
> My own wife once said,  "How ironic is it that we live in the wealthiest 
> empire in the history of the entire planet and that we
> live in one of the wealthiest per capita urban areas in that vastly
wealthy 
> country and that,   instead of the arts flourishing
> with support and patronage, that they are, instead,  barely breathing.
>
> The singer/songwriter Sam Phillips (the woman, not the man) said,   "No 
> matter who is the president of the record company or the A&R person or
the 
> lawyers or whatever,  the artists never go away.   We are always here and
we 
> always will be.
>
> I say,  yeah verily to the Scott Looney's of the world who open up their
own 
> homes to money losing new music concerts..........to
> the Roberto Zorzi's, Bernhard Wagners and Andy Butler's who will risk
their 
> own money in an effort to spread their artistry outside of the confines
of 
> their own countries and cities;    to the Sunao Inami's who will risk 
>the 
> very small amount of money they have to put out recordings of artists 
>who 
> don't recoup their costs just so this beautiful music gets heard;   the
Matt 
> Davingons' who produces a monthly new music series that rarely pays for 
> itself;
> to the Murias/Pheaki Boi'a who put his whole financial situation on the
line 
> to produce the 1st ever 2 day Dark Elektronika festival in San Francisco
and 
> lost his shirt even when the even was a stunning success.
>
> If things are happening artistically in the SF Bay Area and environs it
is 
> because there are about 30 people who are fanatically
> committed to 'la causa',  come hell or high water.................paying 
> gigs or not.
>
> Buy a dinner for one of these people the next time you see
> them at a gig you dig!   It'll lighten their load and keep 'em going,  I 
> assure you.