2015: Vacuum Tree Head

Jason Berry: keyboard, electronics
Amanda Chaudhary: keyboards
Richard Corny: guitar
Michael de la Cuesta: guitar, orchestral chimes, synthesizers
Tom Ferguson: electric bass guitar
Richard Lesnik: saxophones, bass clarinet
Justin Markovits: drums
Amy X Neuburg: voice, electronics

Vacuum Tree Head is a band which was formed in 1989 by Jason Berry and Michael de la Cuesta. JB and Mike form the nucleus of an ever-evolving, ever-changing musical concept; VTH has created music ranging from ambient electronics pieces scored for feedback, bass clarinets, singing bowls and bowed gongs (Tar'Hai Wizard, a piece dedicated to the great Jean “Moebius” Giraud), to tightly composed, guitar-based punk/prog songs (the album THIRTEEN), to abstract electronics and audio collage (the album Aum Carve Etude H), and all stops in between. The band is currently moving into areas involving the intersection of tightly composed compositions and free improvisation.

Many amazing musicians have performed or recorded with VTH over the 25+ years the band has been active. Some of the more notable have included Amy X Neuburg, Thollem McDonas, Matthew Waldron (Irr. App. Ext., Nurse With Wound), Steve Mackay (Stooges, Snakefinger, Club Foot Orchestra), Gino Robair, Tim Byrnes and Keith Abrams (both from Time of Orchids and Kayo Dot), Thomas Scandura, Michael Mellinder, Moe!Staiano, Ross Bonadonna (Eric Mingus Trio), Charles Lloyd, and countless others.

“Explaining this music to the uninitiated is almost impossible, stylistically jumping from punk rock to prog, to avant-garde atonalism, to klezmer, Arabian and Bollywood themes, and beyond. Or perhaps something like the vocal numbers on the CD version of Zappa’s Sleep Dirt, as played by Black Flag. In short, it must be heard.” —Exposé Magazine, Issue #39, Summer 2011

“Bay Area polymath Jason Berry's under-appreciated, but amply recorded Vacuum Tree Head can almost be heard as a post-rock tribute band.” —Dr. Thomas Stanley, The Execution of Sun Ra, page 119

Artist (photo by Photographer)