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July 23, 1995: The unofficial first JOB gig, and the first of many to take place at the wonderful Chameleon, located within the kind and loving Mission district of San Francisco. This was sort of a preliminary meeting, as Jai Young was unable to attend. Mark and Matt performed as Hemi-JOB, making noise with guitar, bass, drums, and that out-of-tune and inaudible piano that people are afraid to remove lest there actually be space to move around on the Chameleon stage.
August 6, 1995: The real first JOB show, once again at the Chameleon in San Francisco. Many attendees. Matt succeeds in stabbing himself with his bass drum during load-in. Late in the set Dan Plonsey sat in on saxophone and even joined Matt in a scat singing duet. Other than all that, this show can be considered "uneventful," as far as first official gigs our concerned.
August 13, 1995: The second JOB event, also at the Chameleon. The noise generated went unrecorded, which is just as well since some geezer wandered into the club and was hooting and hollering throughout the set. "Hoop! Hoop! Hoop!" he'd yell, in time with the plentiful grooves. Then he kind of just sulked and seethed when the music turned arhythmic, springing back to life again once there was a recognizable pulse, yelping "Hoop! Hoop! Hoop!"
September 3, 1995: Another "unofficial" JOB performance, as Mark was absent from this one, and it was held in conjuction with members of two other bands, those being Sparklecock and Dreamland. All told, this ensemble consisted of Matt (on electric bass), Jai Young (on keyboards and violin), Jenya Chernoff (on drums), Oran Canfield (on drums), Eli Crews (on upright bass), Dan Plonsey (on saxes), and Steve Mays (on saxes). Matt actually utilized Jai Young's violin during one improv, much to Jai Young's chagrin. This madness, alas, went unrecorded. And yes, this was at the Chameleon.
September 24, 1995: The official third JOB show. Guess where this was held? Wrong! It was at the Chameleon in San Francisco, silly. This event was recorded to DAT as well as video tape. Upon viewing the video tape, all members of JOB decide action must be taken in improving stage performance as well as in wearing long pants. Features what will later become known by the devoted fans as the "Astral Voyager" jam.
November 5, 1995: The last of the original Chameleon shows, and by far the best of the lot. Short and to the point. The noise was recorded, thank the heavens, parts of which ended up becoming "Dead Stop Traffic in the Middle of the Afternoon" (as heard on our Kafkaesque production K.) and "Clear" (on Let's Talk about God and Party at Ilan's). Also created was the cult classic "The North American ManBoy Love Association."
(At this point we should point out that at most of the Chameleon shows JOB played before, after, or with various members of Sparklecock, a group containing Oran Canfield, Eli Crews, Johnny "Donuts" Finkbeiner, and JOB's own Mark Schifferli.)
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April 17, 1996: After a short break, we succeeded in finally
crossing the Bay Bridge in order to hold a musical conference at the wonderful
Beanbender's venue in downtown Berkeley. We made some pretty decent
sounds considering the harsh rains that threatened to ruin all the expensive
noisegenerating equipment, and Jai Young was able to query the
audience to "raise your hand if you've never seen Harvey Keitel
naked." We opened for the Manufacturing of Humidifiers,
who were cute and cuddly and stuff.
May 18, 1996: A wonderfully delicious little event, which was held at a party in the Berkeley Hills. There were scads of long time fan club members as well as new inductees there to behold the glorious noise which JOB spewed forth in a warm, steady stream of vibrating air molecules - much of which was heavily laden with intense psychological content, but none of which was translated to tape, to our dismay. This marked the point where JOB finally felt they had reached "the next level."
July 26, 1996: The most professional noise injection yet. JOB made noise after a duo comprised of guitarists extraordinaire Myles Boisen and John Shiurba, who collectively go under the name Uncle, and before the always vivacious, challenging and dwarfing Splatter Trio. This happened at the festive Stork Club in downtown Oakland. JOB gained a hand full of new fans during the set, especially after Mark took off his pants. Included a guest appearance by the celebrated Erik Carter, who attacked Jai Young with a pool cue. Long story.
September 10, 1996: The first performance in San Francisco since 1995, held at Hotel Utah's Dark Circle Lounge. JOB followed noises made by Matt Sperry, his friends, and the drunken shouts of angered European patrons after their pinball game was rudely interrupted as Gino Robair lept off the stage and unplugged the noisy machine. Not many attendees, since it was Tuesday night. The sounds were loud yet calm, on fire yet cool, fried yet air-baked. For a moment during the show, life was good. That moment later became known as "The Dream Editor."
November 27, 1996: Once again we unleashed our demons at the Stork Club in scenic downtown Oakland. We made the soundman, Frank, wet his pants as we played well beyond the proudly imposed decibel limit within the first few seconds of our set. Matt bewildered the audience while sputtering in the microphone at the foot of the stage. This also bewildered Jai Young and Mark. Vegetarian dog food was supplied for consumption. Following us were the even louder and bloodier Foster Brooks, and then the intense and brooding High Powered Leroy. This was sort of a Feast or Famine night, as every band had recorded demos and other things at Feast or Famine Studio.
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January 31, 1997: We began this calendar year's
batch of shows by
trekking out of town and playing a fun set at the
Experimental Media Research Laboratory
in Sacramento, California. We more or less headlined the gig, performing
after the churning, cash-register abusing
Instagon
from Los Angeles and the scrumptious, hypnotic
Turk Knifes Pope from
Sacramento (now of the Bay Area). Our set included elements of
noise and chaos never before heard by our Bay Area crowds, and
the very open-minded EMRL audience ate it all up. Afterward, we
were treated to free veggie hot dogs. Good vibes all around.
During the van ride home, all three of us decided this show
earned a hearty "thumbs up."
June 14, 1997: After a long hiatus during which we focused our energies on the recently completed but as-yet unreleased CD Party at Ilan's, we played a low-key set at the Compound Eye, a hip art gallery in the ever-so-industrial Emeryville. The studio was open to the public this fine day, though the hummus-to-people ratio inside the main gallery remained quite high. On the bright side, we played a lovely ambient set, utilizing a pared down set of instruments. We were also joined by Kate Lyst on tablas and Scott Looney on bric-a-brac. Though we reached no new planes, we made a well-paced sequence of noises which made everyone involved, including the few listeners, a little bit happier to be alive.
October 18, 1997: This show, put on by
7 Hz Productions
at the Phase warehouse in San Francisco, was originally intended to be a
week earlier when Matt would not be on tour with his nationally acclaimed
slow-angst trio
Mumble & Peg. However, due to logistical fuckups and a completely
unnecessary punk festival scheduled nearby the same day, the show got
bumped forward, so Matt couldn't play. After the tears subsided,
Jai Young and Mark got their heads together and decided to do the show
anyway, and enlisted the help of
Trey Spruance
(Mr. Bungle,
Secret Chiefs
3,
Faxed Head, Nottingturd Fan,
Scourge, Three Doctors,
Forms, etc.). As well, Matt recorded
a full 50 minutes of himself on drums straight to DAT for this JOB
mutation to utilize during the performance. And what a performance!
The whole shebang included Chicago noise giant Illusion of
Safety and local techno-mindfuck hero
Thomas Dimuzio in separate sets
and intermingled duos, the most notable being between the IoS and
Mark. The high point occurred at the end of the JOB set when the
volume and intensity had reached its maximum point, and with a
surge of adrenalin Jai Young launched for the power strip and
unplugged it, sending the entire venue into frenzied silence.
Aaah... Mark forgot to press record, by the way.
November 5, 1997: JOB potentially performed for millions of people as they played the Wednesday Night Live radio show on KZSU (90.1 FM). Having missed dinner, Mark and Matt inhaled Jack in the Crack chicken sandwiches, fries, and Cokes mere seconds before performing. Because of the sudden influx of grease, sugar, caffeine, and sodium, the set revealed a firey and energetic side of JOB, which the gang at the station, and possibly listeners throughout the Bay Area, thoroughly enjoyed. Click here for a transcipt of the quackful interview with Secret Agent. In short, a great show with little to complain about. Jai Young got a flat on the ride back to the city, but band unity prevailed and we changed that fucker in no time. Viva JOB!
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February 22, 1998: After the now-typical long
hiatus, JOB returned to the venerable
Beanbender's venue. The night began with a meditative set of
singing gongs and bowls, as performed by Karen Stackpole's
Euphonics. Beautiful and calming it was. JOB then threw
themselves upon the stage, prepared to summon great, evil demons of
chaos and noise, but ending up playing the subtlety card. This may have
been their least ear-shattering gig to date, as Matt laid off the drums
more than 60% of it, and Mark was barely audible (at least on the stage).
Lots of nice, haunting stuff, with a few "moments." Towards the end
Jai Young and Mark fled the stage, and Matt found himself alone in the
spotlight, scraping a rubber mallet against a dented metal pie pan. Was
this symbolism? By the way, this set marked the introduction of a great
new piece of equipment, that being Jai Young's Roland VK-7. Pretty
sweet.
February 28, 1998: It is debatable whether this was an official JOB performance. Originally the intent was to play a set in their own rehearsal space during a birthday party for their friend, landlord, and neighboring musician Shannon Miller. It started when Jai Young disappeared from the space, presumably to kill some time, avoid his duties as DJ Space Loop in the "chill room," and wait for more friends to arrive. Mark then embarked on a recon mission to find him. This left Matt, Eli Good (long ago of The Grassy Knoll), and Trey Spruance discussing Sun Ra and Danelectro guitars.
Then Trey grew anxious, wanting to make noise then and there, so he hooked up Jai Young's keyboards. So Matt began to set up his kit and Nord. Then Mark resurfaced and joined the Matt/Trey duo (currently having a Nord vs. VK-7 battle), quickly plugging his guitar in and proceeding to deafen everyone in the room with an unfortunately loud Whammy Pedal solo. This ended after Matt threw a drumstick at Mark. Finally Jai Young returned and picked up Carolina Ramos's red fretless bass (going through hella distortion), then Eli deftly assembled his guitar rig to jump into the noise orgy. Major guitar/drum improv ensued and the ensemble was complete. The next 45 minutes ended up being the diametric opposite of last week's show: loud, complex, energetic, exhausting. Mark and Eli's guitars squealed in simultaneous joy and agony. Jai Young and Trey switched off on guitar and keyboards, both going through Jai Young's one amp, eventually blowing the speaker (a mixed blessing, considering it was a Peavey).
March 17, 1998: JOB celebrated St. Patrick's Day by presenting their sonic mayhem over the airwaves, this time on Berkeley's KALX 90.7 FM during one of Ben Wallace's final A Warm Wave of Euphoria weekly shows. This show represented yet another triumph over chaos: Matt's car almost overheated on the Bay Bridge during the rush-hour drive to the station. Rick the engineer arrived late from work, instilling in everyone a sense of panic. Mark tore his Hartke speaker to shreds during our last-minute sound check, and so he had to plug into Jai Young's sole PA speaker. Still, JOB somehow managed to pull out all the stops, going full throttle for one VERY happening hour of fire and noise. (Thanks to Kim Hamad for helping out.) After the set and a quick interview (transcript coming soon!), strangers called in, clamoring for the free CDs KALX was giving away. After the show, garlic fries were consumed at Smart Alec's.
April 22, 1998: Graciously invited back to KZSU (90.1 FM) by the kind and knowledgeable Mike Howes of "Dude! You rock!" fame, JOB drove down to Stanford to spin three hours' worth of their favorite artists. From Xenakis to Bailey, Porter Ricks to the Secret Chiefs 3, God to Squarepusher, Zeek Sheck to Kraldjursanstalten... lucky nearby radio listens got an ear and brain full.
April 23, 1998: Wow. What a night at the Starry Plough in Berkeley. The evening was ripped open by the Moog-y/costume-noise stylings of Rubber O Cement. Job played second, and wowed the crowd with a short and efficient series of one-two punches. Bam! Watch out! Oof! Right in the solar plexus! Smack! Look over there! Where?! Whammo!! Though it wasn't a transcendent set by any means (and therefore no great tragedy it went unrecorded), it was entirely successful in moving the night along, and instilling in the audience a sense of throbbing urgency, leaving them groping for more. And boy, did they get more. Or should we say, they got "Moe." That's right, the flailing fury that is Moe! Staiano and his then conducted dozens of musicians (how did they ever fit in the Starry Plough?) in a game piece that would make John Zorn (finally) leave the business. Loud rock, slow and orgasmic swells, entertaining visuals (including the anxious expressions on the faces of audience members wondering if they could make it past Gino Robair to get to the rest room), and just plain joy of improvisation and the warm feeling of musical community.
June 20, 1998: Originally, JOB was slated to play at the Sweat Shop this night in SF, opening for Otomo Yoshihide. However, due to some booking miscommunication, JOB got dropped from the gig. This ended up being quite fortunate, as they ended up picking up the middle slot at the Starry Plough in Berkeley that same night. The debut of the new Dren McDonald/Kris Langan duo kicked things off in a mellow-ish way.
There ended up being a lot of spunk in the JOB set, thanks to Matt's drumstool becoming wobbly and unsupportive, Jai Young's VK-7 organ having just been returned that afternoon, borrowed by the Secret Chiefs Trio for their month-long tour of Australia and still possessed with the spirits of a land down under, Mark working with a (unusually) limited set of effects and toys, and for the first time having a sound guy at the helm we trusted, that being the always efficient and helpful Dan Rathbun. The final set belonged to the amazing band Ether from Salt Lake City, providing lots of ambient guitar feedback, rumbling low-end bass, the relentless grooves from their two-man drum and metal army, and a quick and stunning fire performance by Oakland's own Lorrie Murray.
August 22, 1998: Once again JOB trekked out of town to Sacramento to cause a ruckus at the Experimental Media Research Labroatory, or EMRL. Upon arriving to the downtown venue, the members of JOB were happily surprised to see the sidewalk teeming with all kinds of random folk waiting to see the show. However, these people actually weren't here to see any show - a street-wide power outage brought them all outside the hotel next door to cool off. So all the equipment was unloaded and brought up three flights of stairs to the performance area with the aid of minimal candlelight. As EMRL mastermind Floyd Diebel went to figure out how to tap power from the streetlights, power was magically restored. Whew. The first band Ecomcon cancelled, so JOB took their time setting everything up and getting going. With no dinner eaten earlier - nor dinner readily available in this part of Sacto - Matt, Mark, and Jai Young energized themselves with crap bought at the corner convenience mart, and finally got to playing. A relatively good set, loud and noisy with tasty sounds and without dumbass grooves or trite improv "techniques." Matt's stool broke again during mid-set, causing him to work his Trilok Gurtu impression on the fly.
Playing next was thee cosmic psych-improv-noise collective Instagon from LA, featuring core members Lob on bass and Dr. Oblivious on synths. Joining them tonight was Matt on drums and Jai Young on guitar, and a short but sweet introductory blurt of noise was provided by Orange County conceptual minimalist Bassman, who power-drilled multiple holes into a plastic head of Darth Vader containing an embedded contact microphone. The remainder of the set floated atop tasty space-rock grooves. After much sound and sweat, the evening closed with a long party. A lot of the same people from the last EMRL show were in attendance, and so a lot of catching up, as well as philosophical discourse, ensued. At 3 am the bands packed up their cars. In the street out front they met a wandering minstrel who went by the name Tool who up until recently sang for a classic rock band called Cherry and whose father was his uncle.
September 14th, 1998: Continuing with their plans to dominate Bay Area college radio, JOB accepted the kind invitation of DJ extraordinaire Thurston Hunger to rattle the frequencies transmitted by the incredible station KFJC 89.7 FM. Time wasn't an issue, so finding the way around the cozy Los Altos Hills campus, then unloading and setting up was pleasant and chummy. The performance seemed like a progress report; another B+ and no big news otherwise. However, by show's end there was a vague yet perceivable taste of the "next level" for JOB. Afterward there was a thoughtful live interview with the band administered by Thurston himself, and then a long off-the-air chat over pizza in the station lobby. It should be noted that this set marked the first appearance of Matt's music stand contraption in over two years, and Mark's mended Hartke bass amp (which was shredded during the last college radio show). Jai Young got stuck this time in the solo car during the long 2 am ride back to San Francisco, listening to his car radio and enjoying the conclusion of Hunger's stellar show. In the other car, Mark and Matt discussed communism.
September 17th, 1998: As proof to the world the SF Bay Area embraces the improvised/experimental music scene more than any other locale, there is yet another new music series underway called Chaosophy, organized by Species Being's own Frank Grau. JOB got to headline the second show of this series, this time held in the secret, dark room upstairs at the Edinburgh Castle. Bilge started the evening granting the audience a well-paced myriad of ideas that were quirky, ambient, and groovy. The Glow set was quite revealing, and came close to answering the burning question: "Why is water wet?" JOB wrapped up with belly punches from Mark's guitar and bass, jugular vein slicing from Jai Young's keyboards and guitar, and incessant whining from Matt's drums and vocal chords. Afterwards the band packed up faster than shit through a coffee drinker so that Matt and Jai Young could catch as much of the Monks of Doom reunion show as possible, which was currently well underway at Bottom of the Hill. They in fact caught the last seven songs, including two of Matt's favorites ("Ukrainian Technological Faith Dance" and "B-Music") and one of Jai Young's favorites ("Tanguedia (Reprise)").
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