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Pat Thomas (American musician)

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Pat Thomas
Pat Thomas in 2011 at the Experience Music Project Pop Conference
Background information
Birth namePatrick O'Hearn Thomas
Born (1964-04-06) April 6, 1964 (age 60)
Genres
  • Jazz
  • alternative
  • experimental psychedelic
  • folk rock
Occupations
  • Musician
  • record producer
  • writer
InstrumentDrums
Websiteroomonetwofour.com

Pat Thomas is a San Francisco-based percussionist, record producer, music critic, and writer.

Production

Pat Thomas was the founder in 1988 of Heyday Records. He later moved on to Water Records, and currently produces reissues at Omnivore Recordings.

Heyday Records leveraged the commercial success of Paisley Underground bands as a springboard for new artists who captured the flavor of the 1960s American and British folk scene, particularly local San Francisco artists such as Barbara Manning.[1] Thomas also made pilgrimages to England, tracking down musical artists of the 1960s such as the Incredible String Band, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Shirley Collins, Davey Graham, and Wizz Jones, before most had any of their music reissued on CD. While living in Germany for two years in the early 1990s, Thomas also promoted artists for Heyday and other labels.[1]

His credits as a producer of reissue recordings also include albums by Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Television,[2] and for Omnivore, artists such as Game Theory.

Writing

Thomas is the author of the book Listen, Whitey: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power, a 2012 work of African-American cultural history centering on the Black Panther Party,[3][4] with a concurrently released CD and double LP recording of speeches and protest songs.[5]

He is also known for his work as a music critic, and editor of Ptolemaic Terrascope.[1]

Musical career

As a musician, Pat Thomas has been drummer and percussionist for bands such as Absolute Grey, and presently for the musicians' collective Mushroom, which he founded.

From 1987 to 1997, Thomas released five solo records. He has recorded as Patrick Thomas and as Patrick O'Hearn.[6]

Thomas founded Mushroom in the San Francisco Bay Area, in November 1996. The group's sound has been described as a "diverse and eclectic blend of jazz, space rock, R&B, electronic, ambient, Krautrock and folk music".[7]

Mushroom released its first recording in 1997, a 12" single called "The Reeperbahn," described by critic Fred Mills in Magnet as a recording that "could fool a blindfolded test applicant into thinking its 25-minute psych blowout was some long lost Krautrock epic from the early '70s. Let the band's wah-wah guitar, feedback violin, volcanic bass, jazzbo percussion, and tape loops take you down the fabled motorway, never to return to the place you once knew."[6] "The Reeperbahn" provided the basis for CDs released in 1998 in the Netherlands and Germany.[6]

In 1999, the band released Analog Hi-Fi Surprise in the United States and Germany, followed by a European tour, by which time keyboard player Graham Connah had exited and was replaced by Michael Holt.[6] Toronto music magazine Exclaim! wrote that the band "dish out the tastiest psychedelic funk you're ever likely to encounter. The groove's the thang as these tasty tracks cruise on Rhodes-driven jazz, ambient beats, surf riffs, and post rock textures. The band brew all these elements into a mixture that travels the outer realms of progressive funk. Like Tortoise jamming with the Grateful Dead or Soft Machine exploring the Funkadelic catalog, these loose open-ended excursions raise the art of fusion to a new plateau. While each track works a groove toward heady epiphany, the album as a whole refuses to stay locked into any one genre. Booker T-styled organ gyrations, rock guitar virtuosity, Bootsy Collins funk ups, ambient jazz, electronic beats, and Krautrock trance all make a stand, but the bottom line is that this is music that will move you, and then some."[8]

The band then recorded Foxy Music (2001), which included trumpeter Jon Birdsong (known for his work with Beck). Q magazine in England wrote, "On the Foxy Music CD, the band steer away from determined psychedelia in favor of a friendly looseness to their playing. Jabs of electro-trombone and flute cluster alongside churning organ and splintered Rhodes Piano. Beck's trumpeter Jon Birdsong also turns on a great big blubbery blast of tuba, while musical director Patrick O'Hearn's clattering drums have an automaton rotary action that sometimes recalls Can's Jaki Liebezeit."

As of 2015, the members of Mushroom were Pat Thomas (congas, bongos, drum kit), Ned Doherty (bass), Erik Pearson (flute, violin, effects, acoustic and electric guitar, electric sitar), Dave Brandt (congas, bongos, vibes, djembe, gongs), Josh Pollock (acoustic guitar, vocals, megaphone electronics), Alison Levy (vocals), Ralph Carney (woodwinds/horns), Graham Connah (keyboards), Matt Cunitz (keyboards), Tim Plowman (guitar), Dan Olmsted (guitar), and Dave Mihaly (vibes, percussion).[9] Mushroom's current label is 4 Zero Records.[10]

Discography

With Mushroom

Albums

  • Cream of Mushroom (1998, Normal)
  • Alive and in Full Bloom (1998, Inbetweens)
  • Analog Hi-Fi Surprise (1999, Clearspot; 2002, Weed)
  • Hydrogen Jukebox (1999, Timothy's Brain)
  • Compared to What (2000, Weed) – with Bundy K. Brown, Faust, Gary Floyd
  • Leni Riefenstahl (2000, Aether)
  • Foxy Music (2001, InnerSPACE)
  • Oh, But They're Weird and They're Wonderful 2002, Return to Sender)
  • Mad Dogs & San Franciscans (2003, Black Beauty; 2012, A Records)
  • Glazed Popems (2004, Black Beauty)
  • Really Don't Mind If You Sit This One Out (2006, 4 Zero)
  • Joint Happening (2007, Hyena)
  • Yesterday, I Saw You Kissing Tiny Flowers (2007, 4 Zero) – with Alison Faith Levy
  • Naked, Stoned & Stabbed (2010, 4 Zero)[11]
  • I Don't Remember Yesterday. Today It Rained (2011, 4 Zero)

Singles and EPs

  • "The Reeperbahn" (12" single) (1997, Belmondo)
  • "Gas, Grass Or Ass - Nobody Rides For Free" (CDr single) (2007, 4 Zero)

References

  1. ^ a b c Keresman, Mark (March 12, 2008). "Producer, Label Honcho, Performer, Journalist: Pat Thomas is San Francisco's musical catalyst". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Reissue Producer Credits". Pat Thomas. 2011. Archived from the original on December 18, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Pat Thomas Bio". Pat Thomas. Archived from the original on November 26, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Thomas, Pat (2012). Listen, Whitey!: The Sounds of Black Power 1965–1975. Fantagraphics. ISBN 9781606995075.
  5. ^ Thomas, Pat (2012). Listen, Whitey!: The Sounds of Black Power 1967–74 (CD, double LP). Light in the Attic. ASIN B006R6N1FM.
  6. ^ a b c d "Mushroom". MySpace Music (official page). MySpace. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Fitzgerald, Jeff (October 2010). "Naked, Stoned and Interviewed". Aural Innovations (41). Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Danzig, Ian (November 1, 1999). "Mushroom: Analog Hi-Fi Surprise". Reviews. Exclaim!. Toronto, Canada. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Mushroom (Musician/Band)" (official page). Facebook. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  10. ^ "Indie psych and space rock". 4 Zero Records. 4zerorecords.co.uk. Archived from the original on August 13, 2014.
  11. ^ Khalil, Fady (May 24, 2010). "Mushroom: Naked, Stoned, and Stabbed". CD Reviews. Jambands.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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