Day Five: Ballard Takeover

Sunday morning, marching bands took to the streets for a takeover of Ballard. A march and rally down to the Farmer's Market, followed by a takeover of a public square in Ballard.

Day Four: The Night of Flaming Taiko

A night of more performance insanity. Three more performances in three different venues in Georgetown, south of Seattle. Punched in the gut by a phenomenal performance by the bone-shaking Weapons of Marching Destruction. Played with Hungry March Band and a remarkable set with Eugene's Samba Ja. Picture Jake from Samba Ja rapping in Portuguese to an extended crazy breakdown version of our Ragga.

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What do you mean silly?! This is beautiful!

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Afterward, an after-party in the street with a dozen bands playing to a hundred dancers taking over the street. Police start showing up, at least a dozen cars, dropping flares, blocking streets, disco party police car flashers.

An overheard surreal conversation:

Officer: You have to move out of the street.

Drummer: We're having fun!

Officer: You're blocking traffic.

Drummer: What do you mean? (pointing at a dozen police cars and line of flares) You're blocking the traffic!

Officer: Come on now, this is silly.

Drummer: Silly? This (gesturing) is beautiful!

The officers walk away perplexed, shaking their heads.

And after the after-party, an after-after-party at a remote apocalyptic industrial area, a deafening drum jam, and Trash Orchestra plays flaming taiko.

Day Three: Ballard Street Band Insanity

We arrive just in time for dinner and meeting an assload of people from dozens of bands from as far away as Chicago and New York. Legendary bands, obscure bands, bands we've never heard of, bands we've known forever, bands who's every song we collect and trade, and bands who've never recorded a note.

And everyone is fabulously friendly and welcoming, and everyone's heard of us, making us feel like rock stars and like maybe our ability to sell ourselves exceeds our ability to make music.

We try something different and instead of spending an hour with the whole band choosing a set list for a 45 minute set, we divvy our three sets up and work on them in pairs. A brilliant move as we'd all come to the conclusion in Portland that long, tiring meeting are uh, long and tiring.

We're playing first at the New York Fashion Academy in Ballard, a place we're convinced is actually a hip name for a bar, but turns out is exactly what it sounds like. Because we're convinced it's a bar, we don't bring any booze which we regret. Later we're playing at Mr. Spots Chai House, which turns out to be the venue of the evening.

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Hungry March is pointing at our drummers who are playing quieter and quieter convinced they are fucking something up, before they realize via boots in the ass that they are being pushed into the center for a solo

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We played our set early in the evening out in the street and it feels like a warm-up set for us, not quite on yet, but alright. Then inside for an awesome set in which I don't even remember what we played, but it was good.

Then an amazing set with the Hungry March Band in which they push us forward for little solos. At one point in the jam, they're pointing at our base drummers who are playing quieter and quieter convinced they are fucking something up, before they realize via boots in the ass that they are being pushed into the center for a solo. Each of us takes a crazy little moment of the spotlight and we all keep it going and we're kinda flushed and woozy from the rhythm and the attention.

Then up to Mr. Spots Chai House for a remarkable set in which we brought down the house with our impromptu improv craziness made-up-on-the-spot Song X.

Crazy motha fuckin time.

Day Two, Part 2: Rotture in Portland

Last Night we rocked a club in SE Portland. In an obscure industrial part of town, through an unmarked door, up a dark stairway, an experimental music show, in which we were listed on fliers all over town as the hosts.

Two sets between performances of electronic looped, bent, sampled, modulated, and generated sound. For the entire rest of the trip a lively and ambivalent debate sprung up over the twisted nerdcore rap song, I Fucked the Giraffe.

Day One: Nor'west Tour

Yesterday night we bombed through the night up to Eugene and pulled in very sleepy to this very sleepy Willamette Valley town. We'd managed to cram all of out instruments and stuff into the van and pull away from the Big Yellow House in Santa Cruz very close to when we were scheduled to leave.

I've not traveled with this many people before on a road trip, so I was surprised that we are getting along relatively well. The number of screaming knockdown fights and knife battles has remained relatively low. Only a certain general malaise and spaciness has reigned due to lack of sleep. Collectively, we might have gotten 8 hours of sleep. Blackbird Raum, Street Drum Corps, Gillian Welsh, blasting from the van on a marathon drive. Late in the night, a diatribe by Jimmy Swaggart on the hellish demon of drug use. Amen, brother Swaggart!

We played tonight at the World Cafe in the Whittaker Neighborhood of Eugene. Proprietor Bill, a friend of hobos, was kind enough to set us up on short notice. Delicious vegan pizza and fabulous beer, a light but enthusiastic turnout, and good practice for the next few days of marathon performance.

During breaks in the performance we overheard cute kids talking about Anarchism, and knew we had some kindred souls in the audience. Talking to them, we found they were from the Lorax Manor, a long-standing student co-op in town - a virtual mansion. Afterward, we were invited over to the Lorax for a rousing game of Monster Cards, a brilliant & creative DIY card game taught to us by sweet Portland kids years ago.

Trash Nor'west Tour Starts Tomorrow

Tomorrow evening we're taking off in a van we haven't yet rented, with stuff that we're still pulling together, on a journey with lots of loose ends. Exciting for us, because we've not ever had an adventure quite like this as a band.

We're looking forward to road food and swimming nekid in rivers and performances in strange new places and meeting tons of great people -- maybe you?

See you in Eugene, Portland and Seattle. Catch us at the following gigs. If we know you're reading this blog, we'll also try to update it on the road. So send us a note.

World Cafe	8pm Wed March 19th 449 Blair Blvd, Eugene, OR
Catch us in the central Whittaker neighborhood of Eugene at the funky bakery/restaurant/beergarden World Cafe. If you don't come we'll just go and get drunk, so our livers are in your hands.

Student Walkout Against the War North Park Blocks	1pm Fri March 20th Burnside, Portland, OR
As part of a nationwide day of action to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, students in the Portland metropolitan area will walk out of class on March 20. More than just symbolic, the walkout is also direct action, halting for at least one day the damage that these institutions do to our planet and our minds. The universities that students attend are very much part of the war machine, often doing weapons research and testing, administering weapons labs, and selling students into years of perilous military service. Most universities are preparing, preening, and educating students for entry into the middle-class world. This work -- something we consider the unquestioned and unavoidable dues of our citizenship -- and the consumerism that comes with it, is very much the problem, destroying what's good and beautiful on this planet and tearing apart the fabric of our relationships with each other and the Earth. We'll be there supporting the walkout, resistance to business as usual, youth liberation, and people taking greater control of their lives. Website.

Sonic Lozenge Showcase Rotture Lounge	9pm Fri March 20th 315 SE Third, Portland, OR
We join Sonic Lozenge for the night, a diverse selection of experimental music through collaborations with the surplus of excellent experimentalists of the Pacific northwest. Website.

Honk Fest West

March 21st-23rd Seattle, Washington

Across the country and around the world, a new type of street band is emerging. Acoustic and mobile, borrowing repertoire and inspiration from a diverse set of folk music traditions, these “honkers” all share a commitment to several core principles. Metaphorically speaking, they honk their horns for the same reasons motorists honk theirs: to arouse fellow travelers, to warn of danger, to celebrate milestones, and to just plain have fun. Though we don't "honk" in the traditional marching band sense, we'll be there. Website.

Everything is ready to go, mostly packed, instruments tuned, etc. And, uh, oh, do you have a credit card we could use to rent the van?

Love,
Trash Orchestra

Bringing the War to the Suburbs

by Joseph

Out in the glorious suburb of Walnut Creek, the wealthy are able to ignore the injustice of the world. There they are distracted by promises of endless consumption; new toys, new gadgets and the latest fashion. This consumption allows them to ignore the rest of the world and ignore the fact that much of the suffering in the world is due to the existence of capitalism. Consumption of natural resources, such as oil, used to create all these unnecessary items is behind much of the world’s problems. Yet those in power are only concerned about a constant flow of oil pumped out of the Middle East and into the ever expanding consumption habits of the United States; all the while, corporations make a huge profit.

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In Walnut Creek, consumption allows them to ignore the rest of the world and ignore the fact that much of the suffering in the world is due to the existence of capitalism.

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March 15th, 2008, was the third permitted anti-war protest in Walnut Creek. While the majority of the participants were obediently walking on the sidewalks, a small group of radicals took to the streets. We passed through a few parts of town that the permitted march did not, to the shock and cheers of shoppers. Afterwards we ended in the same park that the permitted march ended their rally, where we were greeted with much positive feedback from those who marched on the sidewalk. It was a small step in bringing more actions into Contra Costa County.

Trash Orchestra was there.

West Oakland Night of the Band Fags

Motha fucka! What a rockin fun time we had at the big radical marching band hoohaw in Oakland. Thanks a ton to the Loyd Family Players, Brass Liberation Orchestra, and March Fourth. We danced our asses off, blew our eardrums out, and schmoozed the night away.

We went up there on a Trash Orchestra field trip. We were talking for hours and hours about shit we saw, shit we heard, shit we learned, people we met.

We loved the all-drum bone rattling sound of the Loyd Family. Loved the dynamic and many-flavored rotating band leader action of BLO. Dug the fancy pants showmanship of March Forth and were envious of their drum carriers crafted from recycled bicycle parts.

We won't be content until we've slept with each and every one of the members of all those bands.

The Loyd Family Players

Brass Liberation Orchestra

March Fourth

Modesto: Downtown is Ours!

Reportback from Modesto Anarcho! who said:

Anarchist Cafe' last night was a large success. There was lots of free food, all of which was free - either gotten from places that throw away lots of food, or businesses that were going to throw good food out. Lots of literature and zines were taken by a variety of people. Various distros (Modesto Anarcho Distro and Wingnut's Liberation Project) had some good conversations with people. Someone from KQRP-LP (106.1 - local indymedia station) was on hand to video the event, and recordings from the Cafe (largely the band playing) will be shown on the local cable access program (channel 14) and on 106.1. Stay tuned.

The Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra was off the hook. They played a pretty long "set" and they even got some good feedback and response from the crowd, several of which joined in to play on the "instruments". Probably the highlight of the set was when the band started marching around the downtown playing music.

Problems with police were nil. While we hate to fall back on "our rights" and the language of the state to justify our actions - we were totally within our "legal rights" to be in the downtown (as long as things were 'peaceful', we didn't sell anything, and we didn't block traffic). The police did come out, including the police chief, but since this was a "free speech" event, we didn't need a permit even though they said we should get one.

The event last night got alot of people together, talking about anarchist projects, having fun, and also just creating a space where people could connect and act with each other where we felt like we had some power. The event was also good because so many "normal" people were stopping by, eating free food, picking up zines, watching the band, etc. While the size of the "audience" for the cafe was hard to pinpoint, we'd say probably about 30-50 throughout the night, at any given time.

Thanks! Until next time, Modesto Anarcho Crew