Cello Joe
There aren’t very many singing, rapping, beatboxing, cello players in the world. You could probably count them on your fingers, if you knew any of them. But there’s a particularly funny and funky curious one you should remember and he goes by the name of cellojoe.
Like most cello players, Joseph Abraham Tal Tien-Ru Chang Jr. Senior III esquire (or just Joey for short) started out as a classical cellist. A mild-mannered suburbanite kid from Los Altos, California, Joey began studying the cello at age ten. His first instrument was actually piano which he started at age nine. For the first eight years, there were weekly private lessons and many music summer camps. There were also weekly youth orchestra rehearsals. And from this fertile classical ground sprang forth a very unusual weed from a crack in the suburbial sidewalk.
Joey discovered playing on the street after eight years of classical training. First, he played his classical repertoire over and over. This practice got old pretty quick. He realized that playing on the street was a great opportunity to begin improvising. After a fair amount of purely instrumental improvisation, he thought that being able to sing and play the cello would be infinitely cool and different and would thus attract more attention and hopefully fill the case with money. Slowly and surely this talent developed. Hip hop had always been part of Joey’s listening diet and because of this habit, beatboxing naturally began to work its way into his improvisations on the street.
In addition to being a veritable cello monster, Joey is also very interested in organic farming and has traveled to and worked at organic farms in Canada, the west coast of the U.S. and the island of Maui in Hawaii through the organization WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms or Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms.)
He is currently living in Santa Cruz, and working on a puppet show and a west coast U.S. tour on an xtracycle equipped bicycle for the cello. If you know any great places to play, be sure to contact him!
Read MoreFor booking, please contact cellojoe at cellojoe@cellojoe.com
SHAKE YOUR PEACE!
Bicycle-music-touring since 2005, folk band SHAKE YOUR PEACE! continues to define and embody the values of the sustainable music community. With the rallying call of: “harmony onstage and harmony offstage,” SHAKE YOUR PEACE! plays everywhere from green meadows to green festivals, red rock outcroppings to San Francisco music halls, and has gone on 4 bicycle-based music tours (no van support) hauling all their own gear and instruments (including a Rock The Bike human-power rig), and a walking tour, with more of both on the horizon.
Above: SHAKE YOUR PEACE! breaks it down at one of their many stops during the Bay Rising Tour
The band strives to not only reduce its negative environmental impact in ways you may have seen before (hosting their website with 100% wind power, using only 100% recycled and eco-benign CD packaging, etc.), and in ways we all hope to see more of (touring exclusively on bikes, on trains, walking, hitchhiking, public transit, and on boats, and often using a human-powered PA system). It aims to extend the green-cultural field of vision entirely ~ from the: “same old shit, just greener, and slightly more expensive” vision, to a vision as broad and free as the Earth itself. One way SHAKE YOUR PEACE! enjoys doing this is by presenting its songs and merchandise in their vulnerable, unfettered, and wild state: un-copywritten, and un-pricetagged. They sum up the philosophy as: “No prices. Like nature: nothing’s for sale and nothing’s for free.” You can read more about SHAKE YOUR PEACE!’s vision on their website.
SHAKE YOUR PEACE! is proud to align itself with the other artists on this page and organizations like Rock The Bike, in the collective effort to bring the performing arts down to earth.
For booking, please contact Gabe at gabe@bicyclemusicfestival.com
Get the crowd movin’ and shakin’ at your next event with SHAKE YOUR PEACE!
The Ginger Ninjas
In 2007, the Ginger Ninjas became the first band in the history of rock and roll to tour by bicycle, unsupported by automobile. On a 5000 mile odyssey from their home in Northern California to the pyramids of southern Mexico, they promoted transportation cycling while also exploring the frontiers of pedal-generated electricity, using their own bikes to power a hyper-efficient sound system. The audience took turns getting on stage to pedal the bikes to make the sound, taking crowd participation to a new level. Originally conceived as a one-time adventure/statement/experiment, the band became addicted, and now has its sights set on a world tour.
“Before the Mexico tour, I honestly didn’t know if what we were setting out to do was even physically possible,” says front man Kipchoge Spencer. “A couple of months in, we realized that it wasn’t just possible, but there was something easy about the rhythm of it (despite the grueling uphills with 200 pound bikes), and the next logical thought was, ‘let’s tour the world this way.'”
The Ginger Ninjas’ mobile human-power stage is the first of its kind in history. Coupling super efficient digital amplifiers, lightweight components, and generators attached to working bicycles (as opposed to purpose-built stationary bikes), the system allows a band to play off-grid anywhere, wall outlet or no, and to also carry the system to a gig on the same bicycles (Xtracycle sport utility bicycles, a company started by Spencer). This enables a new kind of completely self-sufficient bicycle touring, sans automobile support. On the band’s most recent tour, the system and touring style enabled them to avoid generating close to 60,000 pounds of CO2, or 95% of what a similar sized band creates in a similar tour.
They call their style “mind shaking love groove folk funk roots rock explosive international pedal powered mountain music for a pleasant revolution.”
The Ginger Ninjas and supporting act, Crystal Stafford (indie-electro-folk), will be launching their world tour in August, hitting the Democratic and Republican Conventions before cycling around the East Coast and Florida through September and October, and then leaving the country for points south, east, and west.
A feature film of the first tour is expected in 2009 from the award-winning Argentine director Sergio Morkin, and his crew will film the current tour as well.
Read MoreFor booking, please contact kipchoge@xtracycle.com
Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper
Fossil Fool is a San Francisco-based street performer who uses his custom-made Soul Cycle party bikes as amplification and transportation.
Fossil Fool performs at the Gaia Festival:
Fossil Fool at Barcelona Bicycle Music Festival:
Read MoreFor booking, please contact the Paul at paul@fossilfool.com
Antioquia
This SF bay Area-based quartet of three men and a lady create music that dances from genre to genre as if there’s no such thing. Their influences include Talking Heads, Primus and Grace Slick, and their sound has been called “Afro-Colombian Progress Rock.” Peppered with fits of improvisation, bouts of silliness and crowd-rousing AfroColombian percussion pieces performed off stage, an Antioquia set is everything but predictable. That said, each show can be depended upon to bring the audience closer to the stage and closer together.
Maddy from Antioquia pops in.
Antioquia dreams of touring the country with a pedal-powered sound system and a veggie oil tour bus “hub,” rocking festivals & street shows, giving free music lessons to kids, and getting kids young and old stoked on pedal power. In the meantime, they can be found cramped up in style in their beloved and decrepit band van “Bessie,” bringin the dance party to here there and everywhere.
Aside from making music and riding bicycles with their helmets on, Antioquia enjoys eating healthfully, flossing daily and getting plenty of rest. Rock n roll.
Antioquia’s debut album Gringolandia (2008) is available for purchase at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/antioquia and on iTunes.
You can also find Antioquia (and free music downloads) at the following convenient Interweb locations:
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Antioquia/33721698344
MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/antioquiaband
SONICBIDS: http://www.sonicbids.com/antioquia
Read MoreFor booking, please contact Brett “Trout” Martin at brett@antioquia-band.com
MaMuse
The Muse fell from the sky one night and landed in the spaces between our heart beats.
She instantly took a liking to the rhythm in our chests, and her sweet melody joined the pulse.
One of us picked up father bass, and thumped it’s belly in response.
The other picked up father mandolin, and plucked its ribs.
Mother guitar and sister flute could not resist being a part of such sweet merriment and soon joined in.
The Earth, hearing the whole incident, called out words of inspiration and encouragement.
“Yes!… keep going!”
When the Earth calls, one must listen…..
So we opened our hearts and let sweet harmony roll off of our tongues.
In unison our voices shot out into the deep of night and
a star fell from the heavens; the magic spark!
MaMuse is born.
Hailing form Chico, California, MaMuse is a large part of the Bike Revolution by adding their solid acoustic sounds to enrich the spirit and vibe wherever they are at.
For more information check out their website, and consider getting them on the bill of your pedal powered entertainment!
To listen and buy their album All the Way (2009): http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/MaMuse
Read MoreFor booking, please contact Sarah Nutting or Karisha Longaker at hello@mamuse.org
