The Clickster
Born po' and raised in San Francisco ,Click and his Mom moved every six months to a new neighborhood , and a new school . At age ten he started adopting large families in between adventures on the street. (for money and adrenelin). The fraction of the food stamps which he recieved at home wadn't cuttin it. Packed up his Hi Boys , Pimp socks, Leather Jacket, Converse and moved out. He gravitated towards the homes and dinner tables of large families; usually African-American.


Click Dark always had a transistor radio glued to his ear during his formatives (year-wise). Heard mainly Soul, R&B, Salsa and Gospel, with a smattering of Rock. It wasn't until he was 14 that he started listening to Rock in ernest. When Click was 14 he had a freak accident : he saw himself in the mirror and realized that all those taunts of "White Boy", W.B., and even the classic "Honky" , were directed at him . In order to better understand himself , he immersed himself in the Rock of the time :Yes, the Doobie Brothers , Led Zepplin , Lynard Skynard , the Grateful Dead even Peter Frampton.

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...It didn't work .


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Dubbing at Home

We used to sit around and allow the external to "interfere" with our Dub; wheather that would be traffic sounds, political speeches, construction sounds, unrelated conversations, almost anything will overlay on top of a bare bones instrumental track. There is an astounding truism about Dub. The Rhythm of the spoken word (melisma) naturally coincides with most musicial rhythms. Try adding a speech (MLK, JFK, Malcolm X, etc...), 2 to 10 seconds at a time, over a dub track such as "King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown" Augustus Pablo or "Dub Fire" A New Chapter Of Dub by Aswad, Scientist, Black Uhuru, Tackhead, go on. As an extension of this, by using delays and reverbs, instruments from the studio, you can also change the environment or adjust the context. Take it one step further, by adding recordings of other environments with the sampler. Check out the recording of 25th and Mission (SF) in Love Supreme III on the album III C.



Does it have to coincide for you to hear it? Next time your at a busy street corner try and just hear it; the sounds (and conversations) that coincide and the ones that don't.



the Punk and the Funk

the APPLIANCES
The Appliances was a collection of disparate individuals with wildly different backgrounds whose group sound was Punk and Funk at its core, Bass (Robin Banks) and Drums (Click Dark). On top of that were the rhythmic (and sometimes not) electronic shards of Rocket playing various string and furniture sculptures like "the boot" and "sex machine", then add screaming guitar Charlie Hagen, powerhouse vocals and exortations Domanique di Prima. Horn jabs provided by John Gruntfest; saxes and Opter Flame; trumpet. Gigs at the Fabulous Mabuhay Gardens, the Russian Center, the Stone, the Offensive and of course Komotion there's a recording out there somewhere
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Band History


Parenthesis


LSD Saved My Life

And I definetly do not recomend this to other 11 year olds, but I'll be godamned if these 3 initials didn't help turn around my sense of morals to those of non-violence and the futility of what my life was becomming (it did take 3 or 4 years). Also allowing me to slow down enough to hear some of what Alan Watts (Zen speaker and theorist) was saying and apply some to the way I thought. I'm not a Bhuddist but, his teachings were such a stark contrast to what I had known that, I had to take notice. Thru the commerce of the Pane, the Blot and other related tinctures, I was finally able to feed and clothe myself on a regular basis although I didn't discover vegetables until I was 20.



The Pizza Cook

And of course the availability of free food is enhanced greatly by increased proximity to restaraunts. Especially if you are employed therein. So I must confess to making well over a million pizzas (1979-2000).


Cab Driver


Gardener


Dishwasher


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Chronology:
The pursuit of the Funk consumed his life to the point that he can now sccessfully ignore the lyrical jist of rabidly sexist recordings; "Work To Do" by the Isley's, any James Brown record, the Ohio Players, Cameo, even Too Short. The crea m of the crop in the Sexist Lyric Hall of Fame.

It is now Click's personal mission to compose and play Funk without swishy poobah B sections and wimpy lyrics about womens' bodies .



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The Reason
Click Dark wanted to take the various elements gleaned from his experience with avant garde, electronics, acoustics, and ask them to dance. The introduction of hot-blooded Funk into cold-blooded electronics, breathes fire into the mechanics of electronic music and signal processing. Add a little Punk (do-it-yourself ezzthetics) and water BAM
! It don't mean spit if it aint got the fritz.

Toe jam, Butt hair and Squeaky Deek, name your outPOOT. Damn!

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Moe Dark
--nightcrawler, hukster, denizen of the lighter side of urban decay. Now fully seperated from his siamese twin Click (the drummer, leader and composer for P B), Moe has become the chameleon of shifting personalities that populates the inside of the collective head (the Dark family) : a schizophrenic stew of TV characters, pop icons, and some real lifers to boot. Wheather he's the testifying preacher from "Gank Sins", the seedy swinger from "Jackpot", or the noir-ish raconteur from "New the Bee Sumpth'n", Dark's ominous baritone and agile falsetto remain distinctly unsettling.


Merl Saunders

Merl Saunders was an influence in many ways; musically, politically, always giving of house and hospitality, and of course for introducing me to the world of Music by allowing me to roadie (ages 13-16) with his Band. Where I met some of the most influential Drummers in my life; Bill Vitt, Larry Vann, cousin Eddie Moore, Gaylord Birch, Ron Tutt.



Scatter Tactics


DJ


Bay Area 70's Funk

Got's to be waxin' nostalgia here Cuz I'll be damned if it wadn't all that. The Bay Area Funk scene of the 70's was so completely, stone cold, goin' on. But I must start somewhere so how 'bout this; there was a DJ on KSOL am a one mister Sly Stone. When his multi-genre Pop aesthetic combined with (bass god) Larry Graham and drummer Greg Ericco. Then apply the Fam-Fam principal (nothin' works better for the Pocket) with the addition of Freddie Stone on guitar and Cuz Cynthia Rose on trumpet. From then on Tower of Power, Cold Blood, The Fourth Way, George Duke, Herbie Hancock, Hammer, The Sons of Champlin, Merl Saunders, the Pointer Sisters, Santana even (like Sir George sez) the Doobie's are in yo' Funk. For a most serious slice of Bay Area gut-bucket Funk you must check out the self titled Betty Davis album. The one with 'Anti Love Song', and 'If I'm in luck I just might get picked up'. This album features a virtual who's who of Bay Area Funk; Gregg Errico, Hershall Kennedy, Merl Saunders, Doug Rauch, Larry Graham, Neal Schon, Richard Kermode, Doug Rodrigues, Victor Pantoja, Pete Sears, Greg Adams, Skip Mesquit, Jules Broussard, the Pointer Sisters, Kathi McDonald, Patryce Banks, and even Sylvester (the singer). Raw.


Free Jazz goes Blue Collar


What's a Gang?



Parenthesis



Dr. Funkenstein meets the mad hatter...
in the soul of Click Dark, the musical visionary and bad dude behind President's Breakfast.

P.B. throws out all the irreverence and groovability of funk into an improvisational stew that includes influences ranging from world music, to downtown jazz, to computer geekiness, to avant bohemian mayhem.



Click Dark massages the skins and tries to organize the chaos. P.B. may be the closest thing to Big Bang that the Bay Area has Experienced.

Ann Powers - SF Weekly

" Drummer Click Dark is the most eclectic of the three (Trio on Fire), sounding sometimes like Billy Cobham or John French, at other times like some nut banging on junk and yelling incoherently.

THE RESURGANCE OF THE QUARTER NOTE
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Cuz White People did too forget how to play these little recurrent metronomic gems. Especially on the kick drum.
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I am more and more impressed with his ability to choose just the right elements from within and without his multi-dimensional kit."

Dan Plonsey (freeway 2.1)


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People Click has had the good fortune to play with:

Bands eeese been in:
Parenthesis (79-81), Appliances (81-82), Paradigm (79-86), Haven (88-92), Scatter Tactics 91-94)
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Appeared on CD's by:
Consolidated, Dub Club, Watts Prophets, Ed Herrmann, and the Mumia Abu-Jamal\Man is the Bastard CD
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After Doo Process

Every 5 or 6 years I run out of money and I have to retool. After 'Doo Process' and 'Bar B Que Dali' I decided that recording in my own studio would ultimately be cheaper. So while building a studio I have also had the pleasure of working as a session dude; as an Engineer (on Mumia Abu Jamal first 2 CD's), as a Composer/Producer on several commercials and as a Player with Consolidted, Ed Hermann, Andrew Voight, the Watts Prophets, and Dub Club.



Paradigm


Haven


Mumia's CD's


Hoop for Safety

I discovered an effective way to avoid gettin' my butt kicked at school was to get my hoops together. So after my Paper Routes (and other nefarious commitments) I would book down to the schoolyard around 6:30am to practice around the back foul shots and dribbling between my legs, the important stuff. I have to admit that I didn't really see the whole Jazz-Funk-democracy-Basketball thing until my late 20's.



Fam Famin'

the Fam, all the Fam, Nutin' Butt

The warm and inclusive vibe of the of the families, which I was lucky enough to be a part of, were indispensible to my growing up. Definitely a counterforce to the group of, no father havin', young men I hung out with on the street. I must forward the big props to whom they are most certainly due: Lawani, Branner (Eugene R.I.P.; the victum of a Drug task force bust in the projects), Trimis/Ford (I had no idea how to comprehend the disappearance of 5 year old Anna, still don't), Jensens (Karen you'll always be with me, Jeremy you changed), Collins, Geary's; (Moms), my brother Danny and even the Turk. Most especially the Saunders's; Merl Sr, Pam (Carrier), Merl Jr, Tony and Susan And of course these families (definitely the ones with no men in the house) featured strong women, Sometimes Moms. Sometimes strong grandparents in the absence of parents. Without this I wouldn't be me and probably I wouldn't be here.