Electric Organic::Avant Garde Trash Bin vol.1

                                           Sidewalk Surfer. photograph by Josh Bucci Morris, 2010

Electric Organic:: Avant Garde Trash Bin is my new blog.  I plan to expound on the happenings of my creative processes, projects, ideas, and other minutia that may be of interest to the adventurous culture fan.

First, let me say a little about myself as an artist.  I like to make things, including audio recordings.  In a variety of styles. From folk to noise, to beats, to jams.  I take musical styles as launch points to use as I will to make what I make.  I am an avid music fan as well (maybe too much, maybe not enough).  The styles I tend to explore in my musical process are varied, maybe even polarizing.  Perhaps this variety is one of the reasons for me starting this Avant Garde Trash Bin blog.


http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/track/stirred-and-flustered
Stirred And Flustered.  An 8-track home recording by Electric Organic, 2001



My first instrument after harmonica, was elementary violin as a kid.  That didn't last long.  I have since added violin back to my aural pallet, in a performance-based, primitive/noise/play-by-ear fashion.

http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/track/sunflowers-pt-2
Sunflowers Pt. 2.  Experiments in sound from Electric Organic, 2008


In jr. high I began singing/screaming in a punk rock band.  It was fun and we even played a few shows.  Then I was kicked out of the band, as they took on a more sXe hardcore posturing that I didn't have the throaty growl for.  If I wanted to continue making music I would have to find a new band, or learn to play some kind of instrument.  At first I wanted to learn bass guitar, I liked the heavy bottom end.  However, I wound up getting an acoustic guitar for Xmas instead.  And I ran with it.  I started learning folksongs like a champ.

                                                                 Joyful Mile. An acoustic Electric Organic live 
                                                                         line-up playing at Bug Jar, 4/20/2009 
           

I still play tons of singer/songwriter acoustic guitar, and was/is a huge building-block in my next stylistic exploration: The Power Trio.

                                             Away.  An Electric Organic power trio performance 
                                                                          live at Bug Jar, 10/29/2007

I saved some doe and bought my first electric guitar, an Epiphone Sheraton. I was 15.  It was 1993.  The guitar's headstock said "Epiphone by Gibson."  It's a collectors item now, and sometimes I wish I had held onto it.

                                        
I ended up trading it for a vintage Moog synthesizer, so I guess I can't complain.  I blasted that Epiphone Sheraton through a big Ampeg amp that would electrocute me all the time.  I got some stomp boxes at Buzzo Music in Geneseo, NY and I was ready to rock.  I played through an Electro-Harmonix Russian Big Muff (later know as the "civil war" model), a Marshall Blues Breaker Pedal, a Dunlop Rotovibe and a Cry Baby Wah.  I went through several hard hitting rhythm sections, and even played at some hardcore shows at RIT.  We were more on the Dinosaur Jr end of the hardcore spectrum.  Post-Hendrix psyche rock.  I got a physical and my heart rhythm was messed up, and they told me to stop electrocuting myself with my ancient Ampeg stack.  So I traded it for a safely grounded 4x10 Fender Blues Deville. It was very loud, we wore earplugs. Rocking power trio action.  We recorded a couple of demos, one at Holt Studios and one at Watchman Studios.  We played live shows all the way from Ithaca, NY to Oberlin, OH.  Then Bringing On Nutritious Grooves broke up, and I got rid of all of my gear to start fresh.

                                         FOSTEX XR-5 4-track recorder

I traded my Epiphone guitar for a Moog Opus 3 synth.  I got a drum machine and a 4-track tape recorder.  I started going through cheap electric guitars like it was going out of style.  I hankered down and started my life long experimentation with home recording.  I made tons of noisy, lo-fi recordings on my 4-track. I put out a tape compilation of my DIY efforts called Tank Daze.  I don't have anymore of the comp, so they're out there some where.  I have digitized the tracks and plan on putting more of them up on bandcamp.com at some point.  They are noisy and raw by professional musician standards, but there they are.  Avant garde trash.


http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/track/down-to-the-wire-single
Down To The Wire.  a pre-EO Josh Bucci DIY 4-track, 1996

I went on the road, for a few years, a laboring Beatnik, first in sewers and concrete, then later in arms with Uncle Sam.  I got home to Western New York a few months after the turn of the millenium.  I went out and bought a couple nice Fender Telecasters and a Boogie Mark IV amp.  I started a new power trio, The Phain.  We got really tight. We played one show, in a crowded, beer-soaked barroom.  We recorded a studio demo at Holt.

http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/album/the-phain
The Phain.  Power-trio indie action, recorded at Holt Studios.



Then the drummer went off to grad school. So I hunkered down to do more home recording.I got a deal on a floor model Roland CD-RW 8-track recorder.  I recorded lo-fi, DIY avant pop for years in various home studios I set up.  I made a lot of output before the 8-track machine eventually wore out.  Song after song, album after album, demos or audio albums on their own.  Titles like Love Noir, VOID, Vast, Dwelling Wheels #1, Pan Da' Mixtape, and others came and went. Some of these DIY titles (Vast, VOID, ect.) are available at

http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/

I went out West and worked as an intern at K Records' Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, WA.  I wanted to pitch my DIY efforts to K Records, a preeminent DIY label.  I figured if I was in the building, they'd have to give me a shot as a recording artist.  They weren't interested, in the least.  They just wanted a mailroom intern.  I was playing VOID in the warehouse for some other interns, and one of the managers heard it and said it was good.  When I told her it was my music, she said, "I think it's weird when people listen to their own music."  To each their own, I guess.

http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/album/void

I returned from my failed quest to get a dream record deal, in search of new creative outlets. I had got a cheap mini-dv camcorder in Olympia and decided I would start using moving images as well as sound in my art.  Here is one of my earliest experiments:

                                         Drunk. An experimental video by Josh Bucci Morris, 2006

On the strength of that video and some of my photography I got a spot at a small art school in Rochester, NY, Visual Studies Workshop.  I could explore filmmaking, photography, and to a lesser degree, sound art, and get an MFA in the process. Sounded good to me.

                                         Welcome To Electric Organic, pts. 1&2.  An experimental
                                                           documentary by Josh Bucci about his music and some of 
                                                           his musical collaborators, 2008
              
Then they told me to stop using guitars in my work. Then the told me to stop taking pictures of myself.  They were going to challenge my comfort zone. That meant going away from the direction I had been following all the while, that of a facitiuex DIY "Pop Star."  They encouraged my flights of fancy with synthesizer music and film, however, and I set out to become an experimental filmmaker Auteur.



Ghost Water Train from Electric Organic is an experimental film, 2010


I have several new films in the works.  Right now, I'm trying to fine-hone my home recording skills on my laptop and work out songs with my newest power trio line-up to make another demo.  I have been making some headway with work, but it seems that I am an alien even to the more experimental elements around me. We get down in my live power trio music is guitar driven psyche rock, and that varies so much from my home recordings, synthesizer experiments, and challenging films.  I think there is a lot to do for me to rise above the Avant Garde trash heap that I created around myself and actually connect to new people who may give a hoot about my art.  You know, people out there in society beyond my immediate circle who would view, listen, and  pay for (gasp! the lad wants biscotti!) my songs, movies and shows.  I appreciate feedback for the countless years and hours of work put into making the songs and other art featured in this edition of Electric Organic::Avant Garde Trash.

                            
In future blogs, I plan on discussing more gear, influences, and things I think are cool in general.  This is all part of my plan to be engaged in process, even if it is only in the cool twist of the Avant Garde Trash Bin.

Here are some of Electric Organic's most recent albums:

http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/album/civic-grit
Civic Grit- Experimental, psychedelic, analog, digital synthesizer dubbed out compositions. Frozen night in a silent city. Sci-fi soundtrack to a fine art piece.



http://electricorganic.bandcamp.com/album/revillusion-luminescence

revillusion luminescence- Space is the place for this disco chill-out instrumental electronic production. Complete EP$5.90, because this music is great to listen to on the highway.

                                         untitled.  Joshua Bucci Morris, 2008

"

[A] Dada exhibition. Another one! What's the matter with everyone wanting to make a museum piece out of Dada? Dada was a bomb ... can you imagine anyone, around half a century after a bomb explodes, wanting to collect the pieces, sticking it together and displaying it? L
-Max Ernst

I've heard it stated that fish is "brain food." While I'm not sure what that means, exactly, I take it to mean that fish has a certain nutritious consistency that improves brain function.  Today I had some very well prepared salmon tacos at a cook-out, and have been getting things done ever since.  I spent the evening taking care of business and getting projects, slowly, out of the gate.  I'll just say that, simply, I needed proper nutrition to unroll a virtual bombardment of ideas and actions to move forward with my process.

I have started on an outline for my next film project.  I plan on expanding my exploration of my own collage aesthetic, as typified in my film Ghost Water Train.


I have a working title and a swirling current of underlying concepts that I hope to touch upon in the film.  I feel that I have worked out literal delivery with Ghost Water Trains non-linear narrative to the point of abandon, and hope to be able to explore a more implied and sublime impression in this next project.

Some of the overreaching fuel going forward with the new project include items that have been haunting my dreams: GMOs, environmental stewardship, corporate media manipulation, and the individual in society, with concerns of the struggle to honor future generations of humanity, from the immediate family unit, into the reaches of abject being.  Matters of existential religieux must also be explored, as they are an overwhelming factor in my personal psyche as an artist currently.

I am not planning of overtly challenging my previous process of amassing a contemporary archive of my own material and recombining it as I see fit.  An advantage of the current nice Spring weather, leading into Summer, to work on this project is there will be not trying to manage in sub-freezing temperatures as I did with the making of Ghost Water Train.  A disadvantage, or at least challenge to my previous aesthetic of not using many people in my films, will be finding suitable locations in which to shoot.  I will tackle that problem as I see fit, when the opportunity presents itself.

I am looking forward to this film project, and may update on this blog as see fit.

In other works, I have a two-piece drums and bass rhythm section for my rock band.  We have played some shows and recorded a bit.  I feel good about it, going forward.  There are few indulgences I enjoy more than being lead guitarist in my own rock and roll band.  We may not being playing coliseums anytime soon, but we have fun in our little corner of the underground.  That's the way I like it, anyhow.

It has been a while...

Soooo, I haven't used this blog in sooo long. I almost forgot I had it. My band Electric Organic has gone through many changes and has landed on a very talented line-up, all of whom are considered, by them and me, sit-ins. We have played a bunch of shows, and the line up seems to always be shifting in one way or another. So be it. I'm happy to just have some great musicians who are down to play my songs and improvise with me. And they are good at it. Sweet.

I finished art school at Visual Studies Workshop and received my MFA. My final project was a short film titled Ghost Water Train. It was conceived as a meditation on artistic alienation. It turned out to be more of a "love letter" or portrait of the waterways of Western and Central New York. The mighty Genesee River, the Niagara, Lake Ontario, Letchworth, Taughannock were all featured in my audio/ visual Musique Concrete tone pome. It took me a year to make, and it was a labor of love. Check out the motion media link at www.electricorganic.com to view it, fullscreen and 720HD.

As far as shows go, this Summer (2010) I have checked out the bare bones of what I consider essential, as far as big shows go. There was Furtur, Phish, Dub Squad, Jimmy Cliff. Looking forward to Levon Helms and Willie Nelson later this week. As far as club shows go, oh boy, where to begin? I really dug Woven Bones out of Austin, Texas. Heavy lo-fi psych rock at its best. If they keep it up I bet they'll be huge... Or maybe I just have a skewed opinion of what is brilliant. They even crashed at my pad and took me out for tacos in the morning. Cool cats.... Then there was Tortious at the Bug Jar. I couldn't get in because it was wayyy sold out, but I chilled within hearing distance and they sounded amazing.... Then there was Jeff the Brotherhood. I try to check them out every time they are in town, because, hey, they f-in rock my socks off.... That's all I can think of off the cuff for shows right now.

AND last but not least, the beta version of www.electricorganic.com has launched!!! A long time in the making, and whoa, soooo much farther to go, but it is there. Thanks big time to Tracey at VSW summer workshops for teaching me a thing or two about how to get the ball rolling on the site. It is pretty bare-bones design-wise, but I think that the content is what it is about. No big distractions, it just sends you to the entertaining parts (I hope) with a click, and there you are, rocking out to vintage Electric Organic or checking out some of my photography galleries or films. Sweetness to the maxxxx.
Later

So, I haven't updated this in a while... What has been going on this summer?  Ratdog, Phil & Friends... I hung out with Derric Trucks at a vintage guitar store.  I went to see the Sadies, from Ontario, who were amazing.  

I've played some solo acoustic shows. I went and recorded an album in a recording studio, Holt Studio, in Western New York.  That was great, but I still think that the music needs some touch ups, percussion mostly, before I put it out as a CD.  I think the music is very Byrds-ish.

Art school started again. I'm the gallery assistant for the upcoming John Wood retrospective. I've been working on a lot of synthesizer music and short films.  I did some music for a short film my friends from Brooklyn made, called The Last Great American Folk Tale. They used my song Void and one of my synth compositions. Here it is:

Tonight I went to see Bloody Noes, Clan of the Cave Bear, and Science Vs. Witchcraft.  

The first band was performance art, in my humble opinion, a human sized slinky pupa with some weird percussion.  Fuckin' groovy shit, if you had seen/heard it you would have felt the love.... 

Clan was crazy for me, two piece metal band, sort of like Hella except more metal....

Science Vs. Witchcraft was noisy and then angsty once the vocals kicked in. 

 Bad ass might beat down... A girl got her head bounced off the window by a passer-by and violence/ peace making occurred../ 

...what kind of fuck up decks a girl, whatever she said... 

Psychedelic Therapy goings ons and it was soulfull.... Made me want to dance even though I didn't... Yeah, there were some classics, stuff out of left field you wouldn't anticipate unless you had that mellow zen happening... Whatever, Maybe ///

Old Time Relijon at Bug Jar

Yeah, so I had Old Time Relijon the band over for dinner on Sunday.  I knew Arriongton from my internship at K Records a few years ago, so I dropped them a line and they came over for dinner before their show.  I made collards and rice, guacamole, and chicken.  It was fun, they brought wine and talked about their tour of Europe and Jane Austin and George Forman and all sorts of fun stuff.  

We went over to the Bug Jar and played pool before the show.... The Greviances and Ian Downy Is Famous played first, both were rocking.  Old Time Relijon's set was so high energy and funky and danceable and indescribable.  I talked to the bar owner tonight, and he said he couldn't describe it, but "it was fucking awesome".  I must say I agree. I rarely dance at shows, and while I wasn't totally gettin' my freak on, I was moving.  They are great people and great musicians.