Member Since: 01/11/2006
Band Website: Yer lookin' at it, chim-cham
Band Members: It's just me, Jonathan Grover. I pilfer objects from my unnatural habitat, tape things to them and call them instruments. I also play traditional soundmakers (cellosaphone, guttletar, loudsoft, ketonuric drum, staplesizer) with my meat arrays. Everything you see on here is made by me. And yet, everything here is also made by everyone I've ever known and interacted with, directly and at a distance. Every piece of "music" you might have the dubious pleasure of listening to on this page is a recombination of something I've heard or experienced before. I owe every element of my so-called musicianship to the artists who've done it before and done it better. Shoulders o' giants and all that. So, do us both a favor and trundle on over to my friends list and give them all a good, hearty listen-to. You won't regret it!
Influences: To re-iterate: all the musicians you see on the list below (and plenty that haven't yet joined the digital dong-flapping contest that MySpace can be from time to time) have inspired me either directly, via their musical essence, or through their implied teachings. Both unconsciously and consciously, I attempt to recreate the emotions they elicited while staying true to their notions of progression and soulfulness. There is an element of them in every musical element of me; I'd never go so far as to say that this music is original, but merely a novel recombination of communal emotional turbulence. I offer a warm "thank you" to all those who've helped spur me in the right direction, intentionally or otherwise!I will name-drop some of the artists that have had a profound, irrefutable influence on me, in terms of my gradual progression from classical music nazi to "one of those damned noise 'musicians.'"Billy Joel (for writing love songs with half-decent lyrics), Iron Maiden (for, uh, I don't know, being played incessantly in my house by my pseudo half-brother?), the Smashing Pumpkins (I used Bullet with Butterfly Wings as a metaphor/template for my emotional bullshit for several years in my youth), Smash Mouth (for being my first sorta-kinda-not really punk band, and for having a good sense of humor, something direly lacking in the music community these days), System of a Down (my first "heavy" band, inspired me to become somewhat politically aware), Tool (first band I dubbed myself a "fan" of, bought T-Shirts for, and wrote an article about - I must have listened to Lateralus once per day for 2 years straight), Nine Inch Nails (specifically the Fragile/Downward Spiral, my first introduction to industrial music and the use of noise/dissonance as a mode of musical expression - also, Trent Reznor specifically for being my first man-crush and greasing up the ol' closet door. of bisexuality. which I then came out of), Aphex Twin (for inspiring my interest in electronic music, which lead to me picking up Reason, which is where 95% of my composition takes place), Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill continues to define me, and I can't listen to any album of his without being stunned by the scale and depth of the emotions he evokes), Merzbow (for completely eradicating my understanding of what makes music music and causing me to re-evaluate my existence as an artist and human being), and last but certainly not least, The Locust: I could write 10 pages on this group alone. Apart from being amazingly sincere, kind, warm, clever, and engaging and keen individuals, they've created some of the most intricate, challenging and progressive music I've had the pleasure of listening to. They are an inspiration to me in countless ways, and are pretty much THE reason why I still give a shit about music and began performing in the first place. I'm probably going to get some shit from my fellow 31G forum goons for all this "digital dick sucking," but fuck it, the Locust are an exceptional band and if you don't think so, I suggest applying for a Primary Auditory Cortex transplant at the very least.I'm inspired by other things too (god this is long), like 12 oz mouse, dino valls, bansky, tao lin, horror video games, marine biology, bill hicks, george carlin, tim and eric, and plenty others.
Sounds Like: A short clip from a recent show at Back Pages Books in Waltham, MAMe playing a homemade didgeridoo at the Back Pages Book store, plus noise:A longer clip from that same show, once again with me ..o accompanying my computer's gurgling misbehavior.Here's a video clip from the solo portion of my first show, as part of the Unique States series at the BUOY gallery! Mostly, I used computer-generated sounds, in addition to some found objects amplified via contact mics and processed somewhat (via guitar stompboxes).Later that evening, I performed as part of an improv ensemble set with Bhob Rainey and Dave Seidel! Here's part of that performance:
Record Label: effeffess
Type of Label: Indie