Pat Spurgeon. Honorary members include Lucio Menegon, Bill Cameron, Gram Lebron, Jeff Johnson, Brian and Joe Daley, Brett Callaway, Media Rare, Scratch Film Junkie, Smokey Lung Records.
Influences
Spacemen 3, Flaming Lips, Led Zepplin, Yo La Tengo, Elvin Jones, Red Red Meat, Brian Eno, Metal Machine Music (the record), Pell Mell, the Beatles, Elvis Costello, the Who, Steve Albini, GBV, Steve Kowalski, Black Sabbath, Flying Burrito Bros, the Band, Deerhoof, Can, Bonnie Prince Billy, Sonic Youth, Gary Numan, Buzzcocks, Archers of Loaf, 13th Floor Elevators, UI, and the Stooges. Oh yeah, the Jam, and Pavement, and the Pixies, and Nirvana, and french fries. And Pell Mell, Archers of Loaf, Mission of Burma, Volcano Suns, The Bats...
Phantom Drummer bought his first cassette 4 track recording machine (Tascam 414) in 1997, Brought it home with no box. It was a discounted floor model from a huge music store chain that eventually grabs every musician at one point in their lives and forces them to endure countless guitar, and/or drum solos. You know what I am talking about.?.
Never taking the time to read about the machine he started recording and never left the apartment. That winter was the big "El Nin~o" winter, so there was nothing to do but write songs and watch storms come in off the ocean. Today he has a milk crate and cardboard box filled with 4 track tapes.
The music is mostly instrumental, sometimes words creep in. Most of the music the PhD has made over the past few years is the product of a music forum called ICS (Immersion Composition Soceity, started in Oakland) where a group of musicians independently of one another take one day to write and record, mix... as many songs as they can. Everyone gets together at the end of the day and listens to each other's "compositions".
The idea for the Phantom Drummer came from many years of playing multiple instruments. Being a drummer first and foremost, the PhD also plays anything else he can get his hands on (guitar, bass, keyboards, banjo dulcimer, autoharp, Echoplex (yes, it can be an instrument in itself), melodica, Snoopy harp, glockenspiel, vibrophone, marimba, synsonics drum pads, feedback, transistor/shortwave radio, record players, trumpet (it almost made me pass out). There are probably more, but that is it for now.
When PhD plays live it is usually accompanied by film, and sometimes by other musicians. He rarely plays live as most of PhD's time is spent with his other band Rogue Wave.
More to come. Please stay in tune.
xoxo, PhD
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
D Tour Trailer from dtour on Vimeo.
We've got a great show coming up at the Boom Boom room SF this Friday April 10th with Nucleus ,if you like what we do you should come by and check it out .Psych Prog Funk fusion all in one show .Peace .
This is my first show out in about 2 years, let a lone by my lonesome. So please come one come all, hang out, have a few drinks. Itll be a good night, and youll hear covers youve never heard, of that I promise. Jay-Z I Know? Yeah I think so. REMEMBER November 5th, its a Wednesday and the party starts at 10.
- See ya there -
Baxter
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Steve Taylor-Ramírez brings his critically acclaimed Latin-infused neo-folk music back to Berkeley’s Starry Plough Pub on Thursday, Aug. 28.
Taylor-Ramírez joins an international, multilingual lineup that includes Geva Alon from Tel Aviv, and Krystle Warren, who hangs her hat in Paris, New York and San Francisco.
Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008 9:00 PM Starry Plough Pub 3101 Shattuck Ave. (3 blocks south of Ashby) Berkeley, California 94705 Cost: $7 http://www. starryploughpub. com 510.841.2082
A night of excellent draft beer, fine food and terrific live music played through a new, tuned Meyer Sound system. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Good news: the Sunday Contra Costa Times rated my June 11 show at the Plough & Stars a "best bet" (page D5, May 25). They even put my pic next to Death Cab for Cutie and Brad Paisley. Not bad company to be in ...
As the paper says: "Berkeley musician Steve Taylor-Ramírez takes his Latin-infused neo-folk, across the Bay to San Francisco's Plough and Stars pub, 9 p.m. 116 Clement St. Free. (415) 751-1122, http://www. theploughandstars. com."
We hope you can make it. Espero que allá nos vemos.
Hey man! I'm from Brizzie Australia! Thanks for accepting my add. Saw your drumming on letterman! Cool style! What's it like touring in your band? Do u guys get many along to shows? 500/1000 per night?
