About Me I've been playing guitar since I was about 12, performing solo since I think 17. I'm now 29. Piano was my first instrument, but was never as big a part of my life. I've been writing songs and singing all my life. I like playing solo gigs, purevolume.com/daveg
but I also play in the Unravellers , doing mostly rhythm guitar and singing, mostly the songs of my good friend, John Fonseca, but also some of my own and some covers.
I play guitar and banjitar and do some backing vocals in the Omnicircus .
I also play bass in the Todd Shipley Band and in the GG Tanaka Electric Band .
The last other band that I was in was Snatch and the Fingers , which was a great time, and I really loved the music, but we're on hiatus indefinitely. That's one of the reasons I'm thinking about starting something new, but there's always stuff brewing.
Donate food for free and test your vocabulary skills at Freerice.com!
Raised primarily on the Beatles, also Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Motown, a little bit of James Taylor, country, 1950's rock and late 1960's folk. I still love the music of Jim Henson's productions. As I transitioned from Weird Al into popular music, I got into hair-glam and Aerosmith and Faith No More were my favorite bands for a little while. Then came the wave of Nirvana and Primus, and I was lucky enough to be introduced to Operation Ivy, and later the Dead Kennedys. For a long time I couldn't really stomache anything more mainstream than Nine Inch Nails and was totally into Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Pigface, Residents... I love Mr. Bungle and all of Mike Patton's experimental work, which got me into John Zorn, Naked City, Secret Chiefs 3, Zony Mash, Bill Frisell... at some point I got over myself and started opening up gradually to a broader variety of things, starting with stuff like Tom Waits. It's obvious to most who know my music that Elvis Costello is one of my very favorites; I also count Queen right up there, and They Might Be Giants, as well as T-Rex, Zappa, and the MC5. Now some of my favorite bands are in the local or underground punk/rock scene, such as La Plebe, Kultur Shock, Trouble Maker, Schlong, and far too many others to mention. There is no easy definition of my tastes, but I tend to love very strange things, if I don't perceive them as weird for weirdness' sake. The list of genres I don't like is much shorter than the ones I do: The easiest way to put it is "Radio-Pop." I suppose some of the stuff I write could be compared to that style, but I don't think of it that way. Here are a few of my other favorites which I may rotate from time to time: Cake, Black Sabbath with Ozzy and his first solo album, Meatloaf, Johnny Cash, Ben Folds Five, Dropkick Murphys, Pogues, Clash, Ramones...
Yes, weird movies, good movies, bad movies.
The Sarah Silverman Program, Simpsons, South Park, Invader Zim, Family Guy, Wildboyz, Daily Show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Heroes... it's long gone, but Freaks and Geeks!
Four Agreements/Voice of Knowledge, Celestine Prophecy. Tom Robbins, Alice Walker, Daniel Quinn, Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Robert Asprin, Stephen King... Comics! Tony Millionaire, Jim Woodring, Joe Sayers, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Sam Keith
Great activists, great artists, great rockers, great parents.