Minus, Kilgore Trout to rock
Squirrels this Saturday
by Heidi Ross, The Daily Barometer, Friday, Oct. 17 1997.
Corvallis may not be the first word out of your mouth when it comes to naming cities known for being part of the live music scene, but according to Mark France and Dave Trenkel, you just might be surprised.
This Saturday, France and Trenkel's band Minus will play at Squirrel's Tavern as the opening act for Kilgore Trout. It will remind locals that Corvallis has a sound scene of its very own
Musicians from as far away as New York City, such as Wayne Horvitz, have recognized the locale as a notable sort of hole-in-the-wall for jazz and experimental music. There are many musicians in this area, as well as other NW cities such as Portland and Seattle. This, France and Trenkel say, is due in part the people like Rob Blakeslee, jazz musician and former jazz director here at Oregon State, and Dave Storrs, who has been the impulse behind organizing local jazz nights and forums for jazz music at coffee houses and clubs in Corvallis.
While the actual number of venues here for the kinds of music performed by Minus may not be high, their jazz-influences compositions always find areceptive audience in Corvallis. They describe Squirrels as a fun place to play. It attracts people that are open to original and uncommon music.
Mark France, on guitar, and Dave Trenkel, basses and electronics, are joined by drummer Henry Franzoni to produce Minus, whose music they describe as chaos-driven electro-jazz funk dub. The musicians backgrounds include everything from noise classical and jazz to punk rock and reggae.
"We originally had a problem sticking with the stuff that was written. We found we liked more of what we stumbled on," France said. "It feels now like we're starting to assimilate all of these things in a way that's really us, music that shows our identity as a band."
"What we try to do is approachable, though maybe not popular. " Trenkel Said. " We find ourselves after a show having to explain exactly what it is we're doing. For the first two years, we were mainly improvising, working on developing a vocabulary, finding the identity that could hold all the stuf we wanted to do. So many things go into it, even traditional African music, it's all part of this vocabulary we share, even if it sometimes tends to offend some poeple's idea of improvisation."
"Improvising conjures up so many images," France said. "Right now a lot of what we're doing is 70's/Miles Davis influenced. Before, a lot of our stuff was about density; now we're interested in leaving space. I enjoy everything from classical guitar to punk rock; it's most gratifying, though, when you're doing something original."
France and Trenkel first met as students in the OSU jazz program in 1988, when France was mainly into heavy metal guitar. Both agree that the music of Minus isn't widely popular, but there's a community of musicians and listeners who have similar interests beyond the big music companies.
"There's more interest than ever before in kinds os things we want to do," said Trenkel. "You don't wait around for the record companies to discover you. People are pressing their own records, printing their own flyers and posters, people are publishing their own 'zines dedicated to the music they love etc. You occaisionally get a call from a radio station somewhere who read a review and wnats to play some of your music. Word gets around."