gARTen mUSic, Skullboy, BAS

Since they're both musicians who perform solo, gARTeners Mark Davis & Joe Harvard often add music to their volunteer shift, whenever they aren't busy interacting with visitors, or with their other work. They also play clubs and art shows on a regular basis as Xylophone of Wrench and Doctor Danger, respectively. It's rare, though, that they are on the same bill, outside of our Asbury Underground appearances on Cookman Avenue. So it was exciting when Skullboy, AKA artist Chris Young, invited both of our curators to perform at his Skullboy's Rodeo of Art and Music at Pino's, in Highland Park, NJ on July 22.

Music began with the always-amazing Mike Noordzy's jazz quartet Noordzo, with upright bass, electric guitar, drums and percussion, and ended with a set of wryly crafted, sometimes hilarious tunes featuring Adam Padavano and Pablo Galesi on guitars and vocals. Here's some video from each of these acts, Noordzo above, Adam and Pablo below -- sorry about the weird shaking, it's apparently a phone glitch.

I really liked the one about the spider who built his complicated web across the corner doorway, a prob I've encountered, too. As a metaphor, sometimes people do things that seem to involve a lot of effort and that I know will f*ck me up somehow, and from now on when that happens I will think of their advice to the spider: "hey, that door gets used a lot!"

Joe Harvard and Skullboy both go back to Big Art Show, the great volunteer, mobile, music-and-art show organization that eventually brought their road show to other states as far afield as Texas. Joe donated his PA and mixed a number of early BAS shows, and performed at Brooklyn [with Mimi Cross] and Asbury Park [JH Band] events. He also sold his first found object pieces at BAS events in 2004-5. Along with Paul Yavarone, Tom Phillips, and Rachel Ade, Skullboy was one of the handful of principals who kept BAS going. I remember loading and unloading the original, heavy-as-hell, 2x4 grid wall to and from his parent's garage, back before the discovery of relatively lightweight retail metal grid wall.

It was at a BAS show at the Boardwalk Hojo's [now MacLoon's Supper Club] that I 'paid off' my lost '04 election bet with my Saint co-worker Jim Curran to cut my hair as short as his [if he lost, he would've had to wear a sweatshirt at his Saint job all month that read: "I (heart) Affirmative Action"]. I figured I'd be adding some drama by asking for an audience volunteer, & I got one, too. She had never given a haircut before but did a really good job while we played the Modern Lovers "Pablo Picasso". A few years later I ran into our volunteer, who was now ... no sh*t ... working cutting hair.

In addition to his BAS participation, Skullboy began promoting his own, more compact mobile music-and-art shows in that first decade of the new millenium. Where BAS's unjuried, open-to-anyone events might feature 30 - 75 artists, Skullboy's artists were selected because he liked them, and would number more like 10-15 artists. One of the visual artists chosen for this July 22, 2017 'Return of the Rodeo' was Doug Z, another BAS veteran, founder of Fabric Staircase and Muck literary 'zines. Joe H had written pieces for Doug's publications, and a reunion tet-a-tet resulted in a quick change that left Doctor Danger sporting a Doug Z Evolve or Dissolve t-shirt for his set [seen below].

BAS lost its leader after Paul Yavarone relocated to Philadelphia, and Skullboy eventually took a decade-long break from show promotion to focus on his own, very popular skull-themed art. We like to think the gARTen @ 713 Cookman is part of the continued Asbury Park / Shore tradition of DIY, volunteer-based, mobile art and music, with a sprinkle of anarchy, a lot of Punk rock spirit & "a little help from our friends" like art629, Parlor Gallery and Cookman Creamery. Below are a pair of Doctor Danger videos shot at the Rodeo, a bit of Xylophone of Wrench, and some info about our gARTen musicians ... yeee haww!

[below] Mark Davis: Xylophone of Wrench

Doctor Danger performs solo "garage electronica", using a one man band approach that Joe Harvard initially developed over several years performing as One Banned Man, playing a snare drum and suitcase kick drum with his feet while singing and playing guitar or bass. Doctor Danger swaps traditional for contemporary tools: a looping foot petal, a pair of delays, and the "Love Wagon" -- a milk crate on an aluminum walker, loaded with Korg & Novation mono synthesizers, an iPad and an Ableton Push controller triggering dialogue and providing an array of sampled ethnic, rare and medieval instruments that the Doctor plays live. You can download most of his music free at Bandcamp.