Plural Dolt

About Plural Dolt: Mark Shepherd and JC Wegman met at Cal_ARTs a dream school started by Walt Disney where talented artists of the various disciplines of Theatre, Dance, Film, Art, Animation & Music can work together. On one evening after an unbearably hot day in Summer of 1987 at Ahmanson hall on Edna Disney balcony with nothing more than a guitar, synthesizer, digital delay, a microphone, a guitar amplifier that had all the instruments plugged into it and a VHS camcorder duct taped to a chair to record the event. I think before we even played some minutes JC on guitar and over the microphone in a voice that echoed into Valencia, the valley below sang... What´s that sound?... Who are those jerks making that noise?... Somebody call the cops. and so Plural Dolt was born.Mark Shepherd & JC Wegman practiced whenever they got the chance and soon had musicians that spontaneiously stopped by to jam with. Jazz cats on stand up bass, saxaphone, clarinet, drums & harmonica. Those guys are out there again... let´s go over and play. That´s the way it was the rest of the Summer. And it was always different. We had no plan or idea what direction the sound would go in on any particular night. It was an experiment right from the start and I think we all joked that it had something to do with the Harmonic Convergence.When school started there was a BarbeQue for new and returning students beside the pool by Chuinard hall dormitory. Mark Shepherd and JC Wegman set up their instruments outside a dorm room and just started playing. Before they knew it they had someone on bongos and conga drumms, saxaphone, harmonica and various percusionists playing with them into the evening. Completely spontaneous and out of the blue. They had an audience too so I guess that was Plural Dolt´s first gig.Plural Dolt started playing regularly at Mels dormroom/makeshift bar on a Saturday night. That´s where we met Adrian Lavelle Williams a short Blackman whose voice carried even in a crowded room. You always knew when he was around. He just came into Mels one night while Plural Dolt was playing got on stage and started singing Suck my dick, Suck my dick, Suck my dick We all tried to calm him down by telling him that that was really not appropriate and all the girls would probably leave. Mels Bar was shut down later that night by the RA´s who pointed out it was illiegal. Shepherd and Wegman later found out Adrian Williams could play drums from jazz to jazz/rock fusion like a locomotive in a thunder storm and soon earned the nickname of Thunderchoof that´s how Plural Dolt met its drummer.Mark Shepherd, JC Wegman & Adrian Williams practiced whenever they could get away from schoolwork. One afternoon after practicing they all talked about the seemingly absurd and funny direction seemed to be going. There was a definite and profound theatrical quality to Plural Dolts performances and a style that seemed to defy falling into any one category. They all came into agreement that it was a form of Music Theatre of the Absurd.JC Wegman designed and constructed a series of hand painted masks out of foam rubber. I think someone lost a mattress that night. JC Wegman was a Red headed Cat mask. Adrian Williams wore a mask like a giant Carrot and Mark Shepherd wore a large Purple Fish mask that made it particularly difficult to see anything less than a foot in front of him. For almost a week the three could be seem with these ridiculous masks on running past the Chouinard swimming pool, Nobies Adobe and all around the Cal_ARTs campus videotaping as they went.On March 3rd, 1988, Plural Dolt played in Cal_ARTs Roy O. Disney music hall to a standing room only crowd that turned the place upside down as the Red Cat, Carrot Head and Purple Fish stumbled around on stage argueing as they went. The crowd was rolling in the aisels as the event unfolded growing more absurd by the moment. The concert was less than an hour but in that short time there was more laughing screaming energy in that room than Roy O Disney Music Hall had seen in a long time.In 1988 Shepherd Created a Series of Plural Dolt Music Videos using Fairlight CVI. Plural Dolt has played in and around the Los Angeles area at CalARTs, parties, The Other 45 Minutes & clubs like The Wiskey A Go Go, The Roxy, Space Land, Als Bar & The Martini Lounge. ?Plural Dolt" recordings include SOD(1996), Slappy Woot(1997), Griston Absurtos (1998), Mars Radio(1998) Many of Plural Dolts recordings are in the process of being digitally remastered for re-release. Plus an archive of recordings that have never been released that we are currently considering.