Brainpan Litterbox

Hometown

Madison, WI

Bio

"Whatever may inspire, wherever I may find it, and everything in between. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations. It is all just shit that I scoop from my head."

Once upon a time I was asked to justify my artistic existence. Now mind you, the question was posed to me by an extremely intoxicated and belligerent man outside a bar I had just finished a performance at. I'm pretty sure he was only trying to pick a fight with me. But I wasn't going to allow it. I had a concise and cohesive response for everything. I could see his boiling frustration. You cannot fight someone who has been nothing but calm, informative, and polite. I think I was quoted as saying something like, "There is a very fine, very blurry, line between my art and music. It is all whatever I scoop from my head. I'm just a shit head with a brainpan litterbox."

I have always functioned in the "out of nothing" vein. Never any preconceptions. No underlying messages. People sometimes have a very hard time understanding that there is often nothing to "get." I find for the most part people don't have the attention span to make those kinds of decisions for themselves. They expect the artist to do that for them. What happens then is that I end up with a very devoted group of followers with highly specialized interests. I work a slim demographic. Whatever I pull from my head is for my own personal amusement. If others happen to find me entertaining as well... I enjoy being a piece of their cultural puzzle. It's what I do. Stewing away in my studio for months and then pop in and out of existence with my multimedia performances and installations. For that the name Brainpan Litterbox has proved quite successful. It is a simple joke, easily understood. People don't have to think about it. It instantly evokes pictures in peoples minds. I have been through countless monikers. I have been making music for close to 20 years now and have been exploring various other forms of art for just over a decade. Brainpan Litterbox was the decided cumulative whole of my artistic existence. I have been and will always be all over the board. Artistically and musically I take the inspirations as they come. I do this on my time with what I have at my immediate disposal. It is not often I make myself giggle Brainpan Litterbox did that.

Influences

A-Z: These are a few of my favorite things - 160.4 GHz Cosmic Microwave Radiation, Abstract video, ambient soundscapes, Amon Duul II, analog potentiometers, Asians Out of Control, audio collage, The Beatles, Captain Beefheart, black holes, bulk erasers, Wendy Carlos, cathode-ray nipples, circuitbending, crosswired feedback devices, Dada, Miles Davis, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, drum and bass, Einsturzende Neubauten, Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, Ron English, The Fire Sign Theatre, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, guitar torture, hardbeat and down tempo electronica, infinite improbability technology, livewire magnetic field responses, Madison Truax Regional Airport and Air Force Base, Meat Beat Manifesto, The Monkees, Monty Python, nano-probes, naturalist field recordings, Negativland, no-wave, obscuro garage rock, Bob Ostertag, John Oswald, outer space, Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters, Mike Patton, Pink Floyd, Plunderphonics, psychedelia, psychoacoustics, Rabies, razor tapes, readymades, Romulan Ale, Saurian Brandy, The Sonic Arts Union, Spinal Tap, SubGenius, Talking Heads, technological transmogrifications, Throbbing Gristle, scrap metal sculpture, Sunken Duck, surrealism, Slava Tsukerman, turntablism, vacuum tubes, visual collage, waveform generators, Weird Al, Otomo Yoshihide, Frank Zappa, Z'ev, and John Zorn. Someway, somehow, each and everyone of these things have influenced me, my life, art, music, and my life philosophy.

 

 

Upcoming Events

Friday, August 8, 2008 - Crazy Eights - Location TBA - Madison, WI

Friday, August 29, 2008 - Fete De La Tete - Location TBA - Madison, WI

Thanks

[dB] daydreaminBoy, Dahni Distortion, Rev. Ahrt Heawyre, Prof. Greenfield 12b and Greenfield Laboratories, Don Music.