There are benefits to doing thing the wrong way. Moe! Staiano at Bar 355 in Oakland. Guitarist, Kevin Thomson calls this “Hoovering.” If you get the right amount of friction going as the guitar headstock is swept across the floor you get sublime sounds.
Guitarist and composer, Ava Mendoza, is an essential member of the SF Bay Area creative music scene. She is part of a breed, comfortable in a wide variety of situations – playing the yearning rock of Carla Bozulich’s Evangelista, note-y guitar sparring with Nels Cline, or performing a live score to a Buster Keaton silent film with Tune-Yards. Her recent focus has been Unnatural Ways, a jazzy rock(or rock-y jazz?) ensemble with Dominique Leone on keys and Nick Tamburro on drums.
In this episode she discusses her reasons for expanding the sonic palette of her electric guitar by adding various pedals to the signal chain and the use of conventional and unconventional ways to physically coax sound from her instrument.
For more info about Ava go to:
avamendozamusic.com
weirdforest.com
lennygonzalez.wordpress.com 