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| 300 POUND PARROT |
| CLICK HERE TO LET SOME OLD AND NOT AT ALL REPRESENTATIVE PARROT MP3s OUT OF THE CAGE! |
| What is 300 Pound Parrot? 300 Pound Parrot is essentially comprised of Jory "Jor-ra" Cunningham on bass & electronics and Nathan Clevenger on organ, rhodes, synths, monkey calls, etc. Drummer Eric Lindberg was a founding member (and is in the above picture, with Nate and Jory), but he is now Parrot Emeritus, enjoying his musical semi-retirement in the wilds of Oakland. The core duo is supplemented with various drummers and assorted other instrumentalists. Most recently these have included drummer John Foord (of Brown Baggin fame), saxophonist Lenny Sherman, and trumpeter/guitarist Joe Balestreri. How to explain this band? Well, Jory once described 300 Pound Parrot as "a rare and exotic Jazz/Funk/Noise experience", which is a pretty good attempt. I sort of think of us as either one of the world's most noisy and dissonant groove bands, or one of the world's most grooving noise bands. The music we make is largely improvised, with only occasional (and usually skeletal and oft-forgotten) bits of song/form here and there. We also throw in the occasional soul-jazz nugget for fun (often from the book of my favorite organist, Big John Patton) and, even more rarely, tunes from the repertoire of the late band troutfarm (1991-1996), which Jory and I were both members of back in high school and college. The results often teeter on the brink of chaos, which is just what we intend. (Perfection is even less of a goal in this project than usual!) Evil sounds are highly regarded, and, in fact, 300 Pound Parrot was recently selected as an adjunct member of the Axis of Evil. The mysterious Parrot is rarely spotted in public. nc P.S. - One more thing: It has recently come to our attention that there is currently a dreadful band called Ten Ton Chicken playing around the Bay Area. Despite the similar monikers, 300 Pound Parrot would like to formally disavow any connection to them and assert that a 10 Ton Chicken wouldn't stand a chance against a 300 Pound Parrot. |
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| 300 Pound Parrot live, July 2003 l-r - John Foord, Jory Cunningham, Nathan Clevenger & Lenny Sherman. |
| for a sample of a recent live parrot mayhem(July 2003), go to Jory's site, click on 300 Pound Parrot and then the sound file. This clip features Nathan Clevenger (rhodes/organ), Jory Cunningham (bass/laptop), John Foord (drums), Lenny Sherman (laptop/alto sax), and Joe Balestreri (guitar/trumpet). |
| Parrot spin-off units: The Rented Mules The Sleazy Count |