Video Premiere - David Bernabo "Material"

I am thrilled to present the exclusive premiere of  David Bernabo's latest solo offering, the debut track called "Material" off of his latest effort The Inn which becomes available on Friday.
David is hosting a private listening party on Wednesday (5/18) rather than a traditional release show because as he explains it, "Given the rule-based generation of the record, I can't adequately perform any of this music. Hence, the listening party."
He explains the making of the record."This record began as a set of rules. I recorded all of the drums first - three hours of drums.
Instrumentation was limited to guitars. My bass guitar pickup is still not working, and I haven’t taken it to the shop for repairs. For bass, I used the two fretless bass strings on my custom-made 16-string double neck guitar, built by Jeffrey Schreckengost.
The songs were written and recorded to the drum tracks, generally in a three or four hour time period. I didn’t write down any of the music and most of the guitar tracks were done with alternate tunings.
Vocals were then written and sung, often layered."



 As with anything David has done, he is thinking outside any norms when it comes to original music.
 

Image of the Day-"Totally Fatalist"

A follow up shoot for the new Host Skull video. Working with David and Lohio's Liz is always fun. It's even more fun watching someone chug black water! Ha! David is almost done editing and I will have screening info here soon.

Image of the Day-"Know It Ain't Right"

I was asked by David Bernabo to contribute my meager talents to a new music video he is directing for a song by yet another project he is associated with called Host Skull. What is so impressive about Dave and his work is that he has so many different musical projects and collaborations going and all of them are unique. I follow him on Twitter and sometimes I am bewildered how he manages to accomplish all he does musically. More on the video soon.

First/Last-David Bernabo

David has a couple interesting gigs this weekend. Tonight he is playing Garfield Artworks with Matt Griffin as a duo called Tony Blowad. Also on the bill are The Friction Brothers who play...dry ice!?! Not a song titled 'Dry Ice', actual dry ice. Must be seen to believed.
On Sunday the 27th, he is participating in Nathan Hall's Music of North Side Spaces.
As with most of David's musical contributions, it sounds extremely interesting.
He was kind enough to take some time and contribute to this latest edition of First/Last Friday.

The first album you ever bought?

Bruce Springsteen - Human Touch, however, my dad reimbursed me since we both agreed that it was a pretty pathetic effort. After that was Pearl Jam - Ten.

Your last album bought?

Technically, these were all bought at the same time: Rolf Julius - Music for the Ears, Sylvie Courvoisier - Signs and Epigrams, Jamie Lidell - Compass, Arild Andersen - Green In Blue Early Quartets, and Gangwish 7".

Favorite album of all time?
Richard Youngs - Sapphie (Jagjaguwar) - just three tracks of voice and classical guitar - incredibly beautiful.

Least favorite/most disappointing album?

This took forever for me to think of, but the Charlemagne Palestine/Tony Conrad record called An Aural Symbiotic Mystery may be the most disappointing record for me. I really just don't like the sounds on this one. But I love both artists' work in music (and beyond).

First concert attended?

Steely Dan at Star Lake!!! However, I may have seen some classical concerts prior to this, but I'm not sure who they were aside from Itzhak Perlman.

Last concert?

OPEK at Club Cafe, 6/4/10. Great show, OPEK played two sets of loose, but nicely arranged tunes from Sun Ra, Monk, Ellington, and more. 

Favorite concert ever?

Free Music Ensemble at Pitt Union Health Building. This was an alternate lineup since Paal Nilssen-Love could not make it. Ken Vandermark (reeds)/Nate McBride (bass)/Tim Daisy (drums). Possibly one of the first improvised music concerts that I had seen. Tim Daisy was playing this shifting half-time beat that knocked me out. This was also the first time I saw Vandermark live and the whole thing blew me away. (Thanks to Manny Theiner for continuing to bring these jazz shows.)

Least favorite concert?

After playing shows for the last nine years, I've seen tons of horrible bands and have played countless shows where no one comes and it can be hard to get into the mood. But, for this question, I am going to go with R R I I C C E E. This is Vincent Gallo's band with two other guys. I was really into his solo albums and some of his films, so I had moderate expectations for this show. Then I saw the gear - mellotron, vibraphone, nice amps, drums, nice guitars, and a beautiful microphone recording the set. However, the music that followed was an out-of-tune, unbalanced mess of what seemed to be most improvised ideas. Don't get me wrong - I had a great time, but mainly for the shock of how bad it was. I am still unsure if it was performance art.

Any thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?

Pittsburgh is a place that if you want to do something and you put in the work, you can achieve it on some level. We still need better distribution channels to get music out of the city - more labels, more licensing opportunities, more touring, but this is one of the best places to create freely and have an audience for it. It is a very (musically) accepting city. There are tons of great musicians around, and I'm very thankful to be able to work with many of them.

Thanks Dave. Springsteen's Human Touch, eh? I would have wanted my money back as well. Even though the shows he did promoting those records were hot!

Image Of The Day-"During The Event"

DJ Responsibility
Formalism
Carnegie Museum Main Branch
Saturday May 1, 2010
Oakland

Of all the musicians we have in town, I think none are more creative than David Bernabo. For years he has been integrating his music with art, literature, and performance like no one else. His latest project is DJ Responsibility and his first endeavor under the moniker is Formalism. He produced an album. One copy only. The only way you can hear it is to visit the library and listen to it. You cannot check it out and you cannot find it anywhere else. You can read more about it
here. When I first heard about it I was fascinated. Dave was kind enough to meet me at the library as I wanted to 'document' his latest idea. I was sort of expecting to photograph a bunch of people listening to the music and possibly producing a collage of some sort. When it was apparent that it was going to be just me and him, I gave Dave the camera to photograph me while I listened to the 19 minute album before I took shots of him. Sitting there, I was kinda blown away by the utter simplicity of the project but started thinking of the realms of participation by an 'audience' member, and to exponentially add the fact that the composer himself was documenting me for ideas I had and...um, yeah, I am sure Dave would be the first to say, "Hugh, chill". All I can say is please do yourself a favor and swing by Oakland before May 31st to at least hear the piece. After that, it's going to be gone forever. What is also exciting is the fact that this will not be the last DJ Responsibility 'experience' and hopefully, I will be able to feature some of them here, that is, if I am quick enough!

Image Of The Day-"My Gun"

David Bernabo + Assembly
WYEP Third Thursdays
Thursday February 25, 2010
Southside

David Bernabo is as much as a Pittsburgh institution as any other musician I can think of. He's been playing interesting, 'DIY' music for years now. I've always appreciated him and with his latest release, he's really impressed me. His music has as many genres (and musicians) in it you can imagine and to me it's still quite accessible. Folk music it ain't. The set is posted here. More photos here.