Notes from the Edge

Go to StoneRuins.com, my musical site, for more misinformation and downloadable music!
(but there are lots of lies on that site, so this page is where you'll find the truth...)

I've been involved in musical things ever since I was a tiny tot.  At some point they started taking shapes and names, so here's the rundown.

CLICK on the art to see a larger version!!!!

damage
(1985-1989)
For a long time I worked by myself in my room with my home studio.  I used a lot of synthesizers and effects, plus my usual guitars here and there.  The music is mainly synthetic, partly psychotic, and is said to positively reek of the 80's.  Well, I try to be original and not be influenced by outside forces, but a whole decade is pretty hard to ignore.

photo: Sue Capell  treatments: Fritz

Infinity Asylum
(1988)
This was a short-lived band, but its legacy lives on.  It featured myself on bass, Angus Hendrick on guitar, a certain Izac on Guitar, and an Adre on drums.  I don't even remember the last names of the last two, they came and went too fast.  The basic Infinity combination (myself and Angus) has been resurrected as Infinity Plus One, with Wade Burgett, and as Infinity Plus Two, with Wade and also Joe Capell.  These were short-lived projects, as Angus has lived on the east coast for the past few years (and I on the west).  When he's here, we usually pull together an Infinity band and make some noise.
Crawling With Emily
(1989-1991)
Originally, we set out to make intrumentals to play in the coffee shops.  Karl Gaylin and I played guitars, with Troy Hansen on bass, and we had a few drum machines to keep the rhythm down as necessary.  We played quite a few shows in this configuration, then decided to write songs with real lyrics and stuff.  Shortly after we made this decision, we had an opportunity to go on tour with another band, Baby Gets Tattooed, so we made a tape and went on tour.  The tour was a disaster, but we had a really good time.  Both bands broke up when we got back.

This music was very guitar-oriented.  The instrumental works were collaborative, and Karl wrote most of most of the ones with lyrics.  Somebody said it was stoner guitar music.  Of the 350 tapes we printed, we sold about 5 (I still have some - want to buy one?), but we got reviewed in the Oregonian and it was... well, it could have been worse.  To see the review, click here.

line art: Troy Hansen    watercolors and treatments: Fritz

Sinking Feeling
(1991)
For a few months between bands, Troy and I worked together on a more synth-oriented project, but we never really pulled it together.  We ended up with three tracks, which are good but unfinished, and it was clear we weren't going anywhere.
Handstand Skeleton
(1991-1993)
From the ashes of Crawling With Emily and Baby Gets Tattooed arose Handstand Skeleton.  It began as me, Bryan Huey, Troy Hansen, and Tim Hanson.  Bryan had been the keyboardist for the Baby.  I played guitar and keys and yelled, Bryan played keys and drums and yelled, Troy played bass and drums, and Tim played drums and keys.  We swapped around a lot.  We played one live show, on Halloween 1992.  After that show we kicked Troy out of the band, and Joe Capell joined on bass. Later we allowed Troy to rejoin, and for a while continued as a five-piece.

This was the most destructive, energetic, and dangerous band I ever played with.  We mostly argued, abused our brains, and lit things on fire, and we had a few dozen old tv's and a big visual show.  We made some great noise, though, and I learned to yell until I couldn't talk any more.  Unfortunately, we weren't very good about recording, and no good recordings survived.

This was rather aggressive synth-and-guitar techno-metal.  Very cool.  Unfortunately, we found that we couldn't work together.  There have been several movements to pull ourselves back together and record our material in the studio, but so far no happy reunions.  I guess we're not Fleetwood Mac, but I suspect that's because the price tag isn't attached.

These recordings are from our very last practice session.  I set up a couple mikes and tried to get a recording, but one of the mikes didn't work, and it turned out terrible.  I worked on the recordings for a long time after that, and got them cleaned up to the point where they are listenable, but they could still be a lot better.

art: Bryan Huey

Hafajaraf
(1993-1996, 2001-2002)
Myself and Joe joined up with my very good friend Wade Burgett on drums.  Most of the material was pretty straightforward punkish and grungeish guitar rock.  We played one show, on Halloween 1994.  Shortly thereafter, Joe left to join Tone Deaf Orchard, who later (with the exception of the singer) became the now-defunct Myth of Cyrus Tower.  They have their own now-defunct web site: click here for some pretty cool defunctness.

Hafajaraf was revived in 2001 with the addition of Lucy Capell on vocals.  We played for a little over a year, and then other life priorities (such as Lucy having a baby and Wade moving to Texas) put the project to an end.

art: Fritz

Your Ad Here
(1996-2000)
Wade and I decided to continue to play together, and to branch out into more far-reaching musical areas.  Armed with about a thousand computers, we generate tracks with very lush instrumentation, rhythmic sythesizers, samples, guitars, and anything else that seems to fit in.  We never know what we're going to do next.  Our CD could be released at any time.

art: Fritz

Piercing Debris
(1997 to present)
This is another project that Wade and I have been working on the last few years, with bassist Matt Brown.  The rules for this project are that we can't write anything down, can't plan anything, and can't play the same thing twice.  It makes for a very interesting and spontaneous mix, full of good and bad and sweet and painful magic. Usually I play guitar, Matt plays bass, Wade plays drums, we all sing or speak, and sometimes somebody will monkey around with a synth.


Musee Mechanique
(2003)
This is my newest project, a techno-metal thing that is just beginning to come together.  So far the members are me, me, and me, but I'm hoping to expand the personnel somewhat in the next few months.  We shall see!

I'm working on making CD's available, so if by some random chance you like what you hear, you can buy it.  They will be only a few dollars apeice, as I am not interested in making money, only in spreading the love, man... but if I spread too much love, by giving them away for free, I'll run out of love (or in this case, money) and I won't be able to spread love any more... so they'll be priced to keep me in the love and keep us all in the love, man...

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