BE HERE NOW
I am here. You are there. Here we come together. I am simply a speck on the earth and face it, so are you. This is what i do. Now that I am here, I simply add and subtract tracks from my player. You never know what I might chose to add. Neither do I. You are you. I am me. Together we are three...you, me and this strange place called the internet. EnJoY. If you like, stop back soon. It may be a totally different place. We all change, yet somehow stay the same. My sound is consistantly me. You are always you. If you are reading this, welcome to my little page here in this big place.
"Just like cosmic dust in the rays of the sun...Tiny treasures at the bottom of a vast ocean" - exp. from 'For Moondog'
LIVE vs STUDIO
I am simply a troubadour. My band are also simply musicians who enjoy making music. We all play in other bands to make a buck, churning out classics to please the public. But the original music comes from the heart and soul. I / we are not bedroom recording solicitors. We play what we make publicly. Sure, studio recordings sound better. I am careful to not fill songs with effects and dynamics that can't be done in the woods with actual people playing battery powered instruments, or just an acoustic, a washtub bass and some sticks banging on a log.
MEDIOCRE SMOKERS 'Live'
FOR MOONDOG 'Live'
BIO
Michael Gobel Smith, aka Mik Gobel has a solid 40 year performing history. Still he manages to maintain a contemporary sound and surrounds himself with musicians of all ages, always looking to the present for music inspiration, yet drawing from the past for raw structure. Mik began playing guitar, singing and writing music in the 60’s. By 1969 he began playing with psychedelic rock bands in the Atlantic City New Jersey area. One of these bands included Seth Justman who later went on to form J. Geils Band. In 1971, Mik was lured to the Washington DC / Baltimore MD scene and formed Imaginary Cowboys and Group 9, who were often an opening band for Nils Lofgren’s band ‘Grin’. Mik moved to Oregon in 1976 and emerged into the Oregon music scene in 1979. Strangely, Mik is became known as a familiar face around the Pacific Northwest not as a musician, but as a zany juggler. Throughout the 80s and early 90's Mik traveled the world as a 'busker' or street performer, mostly in the west coast USA and Central Europe. He also did many stage, television and film appearances as Mikilito Gravitini with The Defying Gravitini Brothers and was also a member of Calamity Circus, a renegade vaudeville group. When in Europe, he was part of Theatre In Motion. At home in Salem, Oregon he became a member of JT & The Tourists, a busy working band. (Mik still plays with JT & The Tourists, since 1982, still in full operation in 2008) Mik often frequents and even hosts several 'open-mikes' in NW Oregon and developed a unique style of performance with his own songs. His reputation is known as edgy, strangely unique and a bit crazy, doing tunes with shock lyrics and stage antics. This sub-fame urban legendness commonly finds Mik as a vibrating character with a 12-string Rickenbacker or 'out of control' rhythms on a bright acoustic, playing chord-filled songs, singing with a vocal timbre that is uniquely his, often punctuated by his signature vocal 'trill'. His lyrics are a ribbon on the package...in your face reality. Mik's music recordings go back to 1979, but in 2008 he recorded the 'Play On' and 'Rubber Cars', which will hopefully be received as a pro attempt at documenting his timeless style. His albums include FOR YOU, PLEASE (1982) - CALAMITY CIRCUS GREATEST GRITS (1992) - RUFF TRACKS (2004) - PLAY ON (2008) - RUBBER CARS (2009)
Actual CD's are available at http://www.harbingernorthwest.com
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