Tonal Oak profile picture

Tonal Oak

Psychedelians in diaspora

About Me

It was the beginning of time ... a time when many Scientific Things occurred. In order that Tamagotchis could someday exist, the inflaton field decided to release its potential energy and violently expand (the "big bang"). Soon after that, at the Caveman Institute of Upper Mesopotamia, Homo Sapiens invented Luxembourg, torture, and environmentally-friendly detergent. Then, their least-important invention: the computer. And you, fair reader, know the rest of this particular story ...
Here’s another idea ... we need a rag-tag crew of reluctant misfits ... we shall meet up and enjoy each other’s company for a few, too-short days in the face of an ominous future, realizing we will never experience such innocent merriment again ... we will part, each assigned a perilous task which there’s little hope of ever completing ... we will face trials, tribulations, deadly challenges; and things will seem bleak, very bleak ... but, against all odds, we will succeed! ... triumphantly, we shall reunite ... waves of relief, friendship, and camaraderie will sweep over us ... we will be very happy ... yet, somehow, also, things will be bittersweet ... we will have a bond that can never be broken, but we will all go back to our homelands ... maybe, someday far in the future, we will meet again, and we’ll remember ...

Watch for it on A&E Biography!

Photo by Ryan Keberly

Select Discography

Ur-Album (1915)
Duke Tony And His Oakestra Present A "Psychedelic" Concept Album (1947)
(As "Cedric and the Tonetones") She’s 15, I’m 42 (Boppity Boo) (1956)
The Times They Are A’ In the Process of Differentiating Themselves from the Times that Preceded Them (1962)
Senator Flapjack’s Hallucinogenic Filibuster (in stereo) (1967)
Marmalade, Unicorns, And Cotton Fucking Candy (1968)
Relaxin’, If I Do Say So Myself (1971)
H. R. Pufnillegalnarcotics (1972)
The Seven Poisonous Space-Herbs Of Captain Oliver Garbage-Sticks (1976)
Nostril Pricks (1978)
Video Game Graphics Have Peaked (Like Our Love) (1985)
Cut, Buff, and Ready For The Russkies (1987)
Have I Told You Lately (That I’m From the Streets)? (1990)
Calculated Rejection of Bloated ’80s Excess (1992)
Severe Booty Watch (1994)
Live: The Y2K Bunker Sessions (1999)
Oakle Folk EP (2004)
The Burnt District (2005)
Man Trouble (2007) You buy on iTunes?
Future-Tron Space-Thousand EP (2007)

Projected Releases

Oops, I Never Did it Ever (2010)
Revolution No. -9 (RFID-only release) (2012)
The White, Black, Grey, Pink, Orange, White, Green, White Album (2014)
Ephemeral Pool Shanties (2019)
No President, No Funny (standup comedy) (2022)
Algae-Powered Remnant Population Retrospective (2038)
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"The trees are singing my music", Elgar wrote. "Or have I sung theirs?"

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/13/2005
Band Website: tonaloak.com
Band Members: Ian Qala-e-Bost (guitars, voices, computers, clapping, chair squeaks, honey locust pods)
Helper Elves:
Ryan Keberly (guitar, bass)

Pat Padilla (saxophone, bass clarinet)

Jen Lowenberg (flute)

Odenwrath (guitar solo)

Influences: greyhounds (the dogs) , Heatwave, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, early Was (Not Was), Slave, Snoop, S.O.S. Band, Tim Hecker, Vladislav Delay, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Luke Vibert's various guises, Chic's productions, Kevin Godley & Lol Creme, Ray Davies & The Kinks, Brian Wilson-y stuff, Aphex Twin, Gentle People (dreamy), 10cc, Steely Dan, Stackridge (if only their catalog was available!), Frank Zappa & the MOI, 70s Canterbury "prog"--like, say, Hatfield and the North, Caravan, Gong, Steve Hillage, etc.; Todd Rundgren, Sparks, The Free Design, Nellie McKay, death (etc.) metal (i like jolts of power and adrenaline from time to time), shoegazer-doom-metal (for example, Nadja sounds good), Joni Mitchell (maybe her weird jazz-ish bits, Hissing, etc.), Curt Boettcher, My Bloody Valentine, 1st 3 Mercury Rev albums, Venetian Snares, The Orb, Curse of the Golden Vampire, Mouse on Mars, Aaron Copland; Van Dyke Parks, Shuggie Otis, Curtis Mayfield, Mighty Sparrow; Steve Reich, Dvorak & Josef Suk (czech it out), My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable (the comic strip); The Russian Futurists, Dykehouse, Ariel Pink--y'know, one-man band kinda stuff; Lilys, Belle & Sebastian (catchy, good songwriting), Field Music, Lansing-Dreiden, Isolée, Uusitalo, Burger/Ink, The Modernist, Metro Area, Herbie Hancock, Parliament, Bark Psychosis, Roy Wood's various projects (and Jeff Lynne is nothing to sneeze at, either), Animal Collective, the Left Banke/Montage, Max Tundra, Little Brother, Final Fantasy, Stereolab, and all other awesome things discovered and yet to be discovered.

And one mustn't forget ...

Very early (mid 80s-about 1990) yet possibly current influences: Fat Boys, Rappin' Duke (Da hah), Pet Shop Boys (still lush & good), The Cure, Skinny Puppy, REM ("The One I Love" was one of the first things I heard on the radio that actually sounded deep), Ministry (you see, when you're an angry teenager ...), etc. ...
Sounds Like: little ripples in the big, big ocean
Record Label: On The Quercusp/None
Type of Label: None

My Blog

updata

Haven't been real update-y lately. Here's the (non-)scoop: I still plan to finish my EP "Future-Tron Space-Thousand", which was delayed indefinitely after a tragic laptop mishap (I *told* him not to...
Posted by Tonal Oak on Sun, 13 Jan 2008 07:25:00 PST

Webb’s Sight

Thanks to the fine Ryan Keberly, there is a classy, non-myspace web presence for T. Oak. Why, simply visit tonaloak.com for more of a look-see. Won't you? (You won't? You bastard!!)
Posted by Tonal Oak on Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:26:00 PST

Zappleganger

One time in France a lady almost fainted because she thought I was the ghost of Henri Philippe Petain.  It's uncanny. ...
Posted by Tonal Oak on Tue, 06 Feb 2007 03:00:00 PST

hunger

Famine ravaged Rockezuela throughout the 1970s ......
Posted by Tonal Oak on Sat, 18 Nov 2006 02:54:00 PST

"Man Trouble" to be finished?

I am hard at work at--well, that's not true.  I plan to be hard at work finishing up my album which I'm calling "Man Trouble".  I need to be done by the end of November, for the Shadow Art F...
Posted by Tonal Oak on Sun, 29 Oct 2006 05:00:00 PST

It's totally rediculous ...

... that so many people can't spell ridiculous.  Seriously.  I don't mean to--um, ridicule, but ... just think about it for a second.
Posted by Tonal Oak on Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:55:00 PST

Whoa!

I want to announce that I have just signed to Post-Modern Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Records, a fake new record label coming out of Alpena, Michigan.  I'm really excited to be part of their r...
Posted by Tonal Oak on Fri, 08 Sep 2006 08:06:00 PST

Warning: Tornado

My current favorite painter:  www.johnbrosio.comBefore him?  Well, I didn't have one.  I've gotta dig my paints out someday ......
Posted by Tonal Oak on Sun, 27 Aug 2006 08:18:00 PST

Scandal!

I have it on good authority that A POWERFUL FIGURE in WASHINGTON may be involved in a SCANDAL!  Of course I wouldn't expect the mainstream media to cover this, but my sources are rarely wron...
Posted by Tonal Oak on Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:13:00 PST

Blog want to know

Blog caveman.  Recently come out of ice.  Blog want to know why color-light boxes talk about Blog so much!  Is Blog god?  Blog get very angry if color boxes make fun of Blog!!...
Posted by Tonal Oak on Wed, 23 Nov 2005 08:31:00 PST