Coming: XFest 2010 at 119 Gallery, Lowell

   Walter Wright has assembled an incredible event once again!  The time will soon be upon us once again to gather at the 119 Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts for the Two THousand Ten XFest. 
   Wright assembles small groups of movement and sound artists to collaborate in 1/2 hour sets, 10 per night, for four nights.  Plus great food, workshops, and general communal socializing.  It'll be fun as hell whatever and whenever you get there.  But I'd say try and spend one night in town, catch at least two nights of this crazy event that won't come around again until Two Thousand and Eleven.
When::: February Twenty Sixth to February
Where::: 119 Gallery 119 Chelmsford Lowell, Massachusetts
What:::  Improv sound and movement arts festival///collaborations, food, workshops, etc.
Who:::Tons of people
LinK:: To performers, times, etc...

Review: SUN WORSHIP III, by Peter Donovan

Nailed to a tree
down a path in
the dark-this is
underground.  Forget
what you know about
sound. Full circle thru
the filter of life.
Thrown out the window
& let go.
There's a man rolling
his drum set &
one zinging a bike
rim.  Slurping Arias
to 1000 thread count
patch work sky scrapers.
Forget what you know.
close your eyes.  You're
in an underground cave
only florescent deep sea
fish see-That's what you


hear-it's the inside of
a beetle's shoe in the
mossy garden of doom.
It's warm, slow &
friendly in here.
It's gentle geek
underground abandon.
Punk Rock for the
new world.
The real deal-people
who are truly here
to listen.  This isn't
any poser mall
brought lingo & look-
this is finding that
thing that's real.
Hope you were there-
if you weren't-
oh well your loss


     -PFD.



(Photos by Eli Thompson & JBaker)

Jan. 3rd:::Underground Sound Series #2 at House of Goings On, ManChestHair, NH

The House of International Goings-On : Underground Sound Series #2

January 3, Sunday, 7PM, $5 donation mightily suggested.
301 Laurel St (intersection of Wilson), Manchester NH
603-377-9300

Potluck @ 5: spirits and victuals please feel to bring kindly.

For this evening's event we have for you straight from the Netherlands:

BRAM STADHOUDERS: freak/free ambient jazz! Guitar! Composer! Wrestling with the yoke of a youth damned by classical guitar (blue ribbon stuff), manipulating that acclaim to his deft advantage by surprising all and sundry with some jazzed out air formality.

  WOUTER JASPERS: experimental! metalbaby! drone psyche! More fertile than a crescent! Noise + xperimental folk. Active tour and release cycles - 2009 release with a.o. Emil Nikolaisen (Woven Hand), + Euro-USA-Asia tour earlier this year. To his vision, music has to spread to everybody who wants to hear it, so he plays from hi-brow artfestivals to garages in Russia, sometimes soft and laidback and sometimes killing for the ears, but always with a great passion for his only love: good music.

BAS VERBEEK: Whether he  sits down in a corner producing minimal introvert dark soundscapes or he’s raging around out loud intimidating his audience, Bas Verbeek (b. 1983) finds deep intensity in every extreme of experimental music and performance. Beauty, absurdism, dirt, minimalism, over the top, pitch black nihilist darkness; whatever he feels like he will use to go all the way to tingle your senses.

Opening will be assorted birdorgans plus Kittery, ME's Offset Needle Radius and Lowell, MA's Walter Wright (www.119gallery.org).

(This post originally sent by Marc Bisson)

Awesome Basement Event in Man CHest hair

Marc Bisson and Dei Xrist host this great event with Wouter Jaspers,  Bram Stadhouders & Bas Verbeek touring from the Netherlands.  Offset Needle Radius will be performing possibly as part of a yet unknown collaboration, parts of birdorgan and Walter Wright.  This show will be beautiful in its presentation of world class performers in the secret speak easy basement that is the House of Goings On.  A very intimate evening that should NOT be missed...  For directions, post contact information in your comment below...

Portsmouth Area's Experimental Improvisation Event of the Year

Coming soon, it's Sun Worship III event on December 20th at Buoy Gallery in Kittery. Here's the flier. This is going to be a really fun event. You will be very sad if you choose not or are unable to attend.
Click on the flier for a printable image. THen go to your favorite local coffee shop and tape it to the window. This is how we spread the word.

Nov. 10 "Strings N' Things" Recap, Manchester, NH

The 'theme' of this event sounds like a craft night to take place in a church basement, which in an abstract way, I suppose it was. I was having a difficult time getting out of town and ended up at Marc and Dei's house around 6:45pm, only an hour and 45 minutes later than I'd planned. Their basement was cleared out and strewn with strings of little lights. They had made black beans, brown rice, cornbread and provided beer, which was nice. I was starving and stressed out by the time I'd made it there.
The show started with birdorgan, Mike on bass, Mike on guitar, Marc on guitar, and Dei with her vocalizations. It sounded pretty wild, a great alternate invocation of birdorgan.
I think Offset Needle Radius performed next? Vertical guitar into two split signals into two amplifiers. Lots of the usual bowed strings with steel rod finishing up with microcassette mutterings. It didn't come off as I'd hoped. Something wasn't happening.
Next Walter Wright with a friend on toy piano and Marc Bisson on guitar was next. I didnt' get his friends name who played the toy piano. The sounds were nice, three vary different textural sounds blending, contrasting, and conforming together.
Last was Layne Garrett, who began his set on a steel guitar, improvised latin strumming style sort of a classical gypsy sound. The tunings changed as did the mood of the improvisations. Layne concluded his set with light sensitive sound generation synth and effects, more noise to contrast with the melodic nature of his guitar work.
Layne was touring via Greyhound Ameripass which is daring and brave. He had two CD's for sale, one of which he had sewed covers for on the bus between stops.
It was a great show to be at let along perform at.

Amplified Strings Event in Manchester, NH 11/10

November 10th is a TUESDAY.
Offset Needle Radius will be performing at an....................
Amplified Strings and stuff show in.....................
Manchester, NH...................
at the House of Goings On......................
301 Laurel St....................
8 pm, Donate Money for Out of Town Performer.....................Performing will be:::::::::::
Layne Garrett (DC).......................
birdorgan (NH)......................
Offset Needle Radius (ME)


Marc and Dei are hosting an evening of amplified strings and other stuff at The House of Goings On, Manchester, NH

"The Stranger The Better" Journalism

Article about the "Antipop" show at the Next Generation Theater, Brewer, ME on October 6th. Says Jay Grant of the Maine Campus University Maine Orono paper "When the crowd returned to the speakeasy-like theater in the back of the gift shop, a man named Josh Baker had set up something called an “offset needle radius,” — a bike wheel turned upside down. Baker spun the wheel, drumming on the spokes with silver rods as two improvisational dancers moved around the stage and among the crowd. As Baker continued, the performance got progressively more interesting, employing looping techniques, homemade horns fashioned from some kind of tubing and intentionally induced feedback to make for a fascinatingly bizarre few minutes of sound..."
Read it all here...

Autumn Equinox Happened, and We Were THere

Fun night at Grain Surfboards September 20th. Eli made butternut squash soup, cookies, cornbread. Marc Bisson and Dei Xrist of birdorgan brought the beans and rice. Great performances happened from Mystic Out Bop Review, birdorgan, Adam from Peace, Loving created an innovative installation with surround sound and edited Star Trek video. Offset Needle Radius kicked off the night with new perspectives on the musical wheel harp bike wheel performance. Walter Wright collaborated with Kit Demos for some beautiful electronics duetness, and then sat in for the birdorgan session as well. It's too bad Grain Surfboards is so far from any town. It was a nice intimate space for such an event. Stay tuned for developing plans for winter solstice...

Offset Needle Radius to Perform At Highest Latitude Yet!

Offset Needle Radius will be performing at the Next Generation Theater in Brewer, ME on Tues. Oct. 6th. That is to say, Offset Needle Radius will be performing above the 44th parallel for the first time ever, making this a sort of historical event.
Also performing at this latitude will be Nicole LePara, Noel Walsh, Martin Shartran, Id M THeft Able, Joe Gates,Les Trois Etoils. This is like a small slice of Frantasia Festival 2009 in freakin' Bangor Me. I would post the trippy flier here but the "file is corrupt".

Offset Needle Radius makes Front Page News

The August 28th issue of the Livermore Falls Advertiser (Not the Livermore False Advertiser), featured an article on the 2009 Frantasia Festival. A photographer for the paper was there at the very onset of the three day event, sent to cover this strange happening. What had seemed like a not so prime performance time slot turned out to be not so bad. I'm sure the photographer just wanted to shoot a few acts, get a general sense of the thing, and disappear. Lucky for Offset Needle Radius, he stuck around just long enough to take this photograph during the bicycle wheel portion of the set. The Livermore Falls Advertiser gave a sizeable space to the article, which was situated just above the article about a senior logger and his log hauling and saw models.
And now the world shall know the name Offset Needle Radius.

Quarter Inch Jack on BBC 6 Radio

Thanks largely to Marc Arsenault's diligent campaign to get the word out about our upcoming release, titles off of the record have been popping up here and there. On this latest set list of Steuart Macoine's "Freak Zone" program, our track Quarter Inch Jack fits in nicely amongst tracks from Bardo Pond, Aphex Twin, Pharoh Sanders, and Hawkwind. Not such bad company to keep! Check out the set list here, available for the next 7 days...

SunWorshipSeriesAutumnEquinoxAtGrainSurfboardsSept.20

Autumn Equinox flyer. Original color pencil illustration by myself. Click on the flyer for a larger view.

Previous Performances

Here's a list of what I can remember of significance from the various events Offset Needle Radius has performed at...
1)Mar.09: at River Run book store, Portsmouth,NH, part of a series of RPM Challenge 2008 finishers, with Nate Groth
2)Oct24/08: at Ello Gallery with Blaq Boose
3)Jan24/09 at Underground M.A.P. Project; a collaboration with Marc Bisson and Dei Xrist of birdorgan
4)Jan31/09: at Strange Maine with Id M Theft Able, Kit Demos, Pine State Mind Control.
5)Feb7/09: at 119 Gallery in Lowell, MA with Trechioctipotimus, Marc Bisson, the first Offset Sound bike wheel performance
6)Feb21/09: at Underground M.A.P. Project, Manchester. The closing all day event. SG's and Sunn amplification
7)Apr9/09: at Buoy, the Unique States series with Peter James, Forbes Graham
8)Apr10/09: at 119 Gallery collaboration with nickname: Rebel. First of a series of 4 collaboritive performances.
9)Apr11/09: at Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA. We performed to Eli and an Adam O'Toole after Gil's jazz quartet and a Berklee school jazz band.
10)Apr18/09: at The Compound, Troy, NY/with nickname: Rebel
11)Apr19/09: at The Spotty Dog, Hudson, NY with nickname: Rebel
12)May30/09: at The Monestary Arts Collective with birdorgan and ...
13)June 20/09: at B789, Rollinsford, NH with birdorgan, Asa Irons, Zeroking
14)June 27/09: at Monestary Arts Collective, Manchester, with birdorgan, Qfwfq Duo, Zeroking
15)Aug20/09: at Frantasia Festival, Livermore Falls, ME also that night: Tom Hamilton, Katherine Liberovskaya, Noel Walsh, Rebel Red, Katt Hernandez, Les Trois Etoiles, Al Margolis, Jed Speare, Forrest Larson......wow......
16)Aug22/09 Frantasia Festival, collaboration with Katt Hernandez and Noel Walsh
17)Sep04/09 Mike's House with Adam of Peace, Loving and Many Mansions

<<>> Sun Worship II, Autumn Equinox: Sunday Sept. 20th

. The second event in the Sun Worship series will celebrate the Autumn Equinox at Grain Surfboards in York, ME on Sunday September 20th. So far confirmed are birdorgan, Peace, Loving, Walter Wright, Crank Sturgeon, Mystic Out Bop Review, and of course, Offset Needle Radius. This event will begin at 6:30pm and cost $7 to attend.
This will be a combination of sound art performances and Equinox themed performance pieces with crazy disorienting lights and projections. Guaranteed to be an entertaining evening and one of the more more unusual events for the Portsmouth/Dover area.

What: Sun Worship Series no. II: Autumn Equinox
When: Sunday September 20th, 7pm
Where: Grain Surfboards, 60 Brixham Rd. York, ME 03909
Who: Birdorgan, Offset Needle Radius, Walter Wright, Mystic Out Bop Review, Crank Sturgeon, Peace, Loving

For directions or if you want to carpool to the show from Kittery, email offsetneedlesound(at)yahoo(dot)com

Silent Sun Worship

Cobwebs form around the speaker cones, the arrival of the Sun has lured all life into the embrace of its rays bringing silence to the land. Riding the fixie bike around country roads, wrenching on bikes for a living, picnics, out of town events, and errands have taken president for the moment. Resting up for Frantasia 2009....

THe Healing Therapies of Noise

I am by myself at home. It is quiet as I prepare food. Without any thought, a song begins to play in my mind. Perhaps it is by The Eagles, or Eric Clapton. Syrupy canned market research produced crap. As soon as I realize that I am hearing this inside my own mind, I instantly become irritated. A radio I can turn off, unplug, donate to the Salvation Army, throw in the river, torture and ultimately execute. My mind, containing millions of these audio viruses from contagious media sources, I have to live with. The common term for this phenomenon is "EARWORMS". To smother the irritating sounds, I create in my mind a swell of high volumed wide tonal spectrum sweeping noise, like a gigantic industrial sound sweeping machine, whooshes the unwanted viral song into my mental gutter. Guaranteed to crawl back into my consciousness eventually, I am grateful for my imagination, that it can create such a crushing noise to return my mind to peaceful silence. Perhaps this has been a driving inspiration for recent Offset Needle Radius performances consisting of dense feedback and square wave layering noise. One can only wonder...
I have also noticed that when I am confronted by popular music in an instance where I am unable to shut down or remove myself from its broadcast, I tend to change the words, or hum or otherwise vocalize the melody. Admittedly, I also do this with music that pleases me. In both cases, I suggest this is how I enjoy playing with the music that is being broadcast in the space I am inhabiting. In the context of playing this way with music that irritates me, it feels as if I am categorizing the basic elements of the song, breaking it down to focus on the ludicrousity of the material. This feels therapeutic to me and I find that when I am able to play with popular music in this way, it tends not to infect my mind so much and consequently not to invoke negative thoughts.
Years ago I embarked on a mix tape project I titled "Homicide/Suicide". The premise of the tape was to be a collection of all the most infuriating syrupy vapid pop songs I could think of. The happiest, most seemingly perfectly adjusted unchallenging pop songs always seem to conjure images of bloody, violent scenes, terrible thoughts of senseless murder. I've often thought that Sheryl Crow or Edie Brickell would be the perfect auditory backdrop for violent murder scenes in movies. It is as if this music, so perfectly elated and sickeningly sweet, reflecting an impossible reality, must thus be a cover up for terrible guilt, shame, horrible violence and destruction, as an actor who grossly over-acts their part. This range of pop music has such a negative effect on my mental well being that I thought creating the "Homicide/Suicide" mix tape would both serve to over-expose myself and thus hopefully build up my immunity, while examining and sharing for the sake of helping others understand this phenomenon. I never was able to complete the tape.
I hope this admission of my reaction to some popular music won't seem as an affront to friends who may find this sort of music pleasing. I am merely trying to share with readers some of the background that has informed Offset Needle Radius and assuredly all other music endeavors I have ever been a part of. As many of my friends might be allergic to cats and I would not wish to expose them to environments where cats inhabit, I would so request not to be exposed to this sort of music. This is how I am wired. The sounds that I create are a result of this inner circuitry

Autumn Equinox Call For Particiipants

I'm looking for creative avant garde sort of performance, video, sound, installation artists to create a beautiful 6 hour event to celebrate the Autumn Equinox on Sunday September 20th. Anybody interested in participating please contact me at
offsetneedlesound(at)yahoo(dot)com

Sun Worship Comenced Despite Rain, Darkness

It wasn't easy to invoke sound prayers to a sun that has been scarce in these parts for weeks now. But we did our best to make a sonic offering and call for the sun's return to dry out our bogs. A handful of friends were present to witness incredible sounds amidst trance inducing light shows and projections courtesy of Rick Spencer and the B789 performance space. Rick projected video and had the lights going wild while we created sounds of worlds colliding, eclipses, broken band, blowing sands. Last minute addition to the line up Asa Irons brought some of his gigantic saw mill blades to create a drone scape that led to imagery of a solar eclipse. Birdorgan was Mike Fun, Dei and Marc this time around for a sound voyage that changed and morphed over a 35 minute journey. Offset Needle Radius was a steel rod bowing growing feedback layers phasing in and out and getting a bit loud so I am told. Zeroking looped and drummed paused, shifted, repeat until Marc and Mike Fun joined in to close the night. Thanks to everyone who participated and came to witness. Special thanks to Rick Spencer for creating and sharing the B789 space with us.

Update on Sun Worship Event This Saturday June 20th

Asa Irons has confirmed he will be performing at this Saturday's Sun /Worship event at B789 Performance Space in Rollinsford, NH. Asa Irons has developed a sound all his own using giant amplified saw mill blades that resonate sound waves into every crevice. He is a welcome addition to the already diverse line up of Birdorgan, Zeroking, Offset Needle Radius. Birdorgan has been a prolifient performance group for years now consisting of a core group of Marc Bisson and his wife Dei Xrist, Mike Fun and Mike Dailey, masticating and synthisizing assistance of featured guests from time to time. Hailing from Manchester birdorgan has played all over New England. Depending on who is present and what the atmospheric pressure index is, birdorgan can vary from frienzied prepared guitar, heavily synthisized vocals, and a decombusting drum kit, to vocal loops and guitar bejangling. Never a repeat performance. Zeroking is the sound output of Shawn Dailey, Mike Dailey's brother and emerging photographer.
Come join us if you're not reading this in the future. If you are, well, you missed out. You were probably doing something far more mundane when you could have joined us at the B789.

(Oops!): Carried Away at Offset Needle Sound Lab

...this from the studio neighbor next to Offset Sound Lab...
" Hey Josh,

Can you and I try to figure out some way to sound proof against each others noise at some point. I have noticed we have a lot more overlapping hours these days. Last night what ever was happening between 8 and 9PM was so loud in my studio I had to leave (luckily my 8-9 student did no come yesterday). When I left my room I had to go the the third floor to get far enough away to have it just sound like a loud radio feeding back."

...getting carried away by lovely layers of feedback in the late evening.

Frantasia Fest 2009: August Is Coming! Time To Plan...

I discovered Frantasia Fest last year just 10 days prior to it's happening. A festival of "Out Music" featuring world class performers of improvised sound from New England, Pennsylvania, Georgia, NY. The event is held over 3 evenings, August 20th to the 22nd with improvisation workshops in the afternoons. These three days are preceded by "Water In The Woods", a two night fast in a beautiful forest setting. The Water In The Woods is a good opportunity to become more aquainted with some of the performers.
Festivals celebrating experimental sound performance works are fairly common these days in urban areas around the world. This particular festival is quite unique in that it takes place in the Public Library Auditorium in Livermore Falls, a delapitated mill town population 1,500 in Central Maine. What also makes this festival so unique is the caliber of talent and creative minds it attracts each year. It could not happen were it not for incredible spirit and personality of 'visionaries' Fran Szostek, his wife, and Edward.
About a 4 1/2 hour drive from Boston, this festival is a mini vacation in itself. Check out the Frantasia Festival Official MySpace page to link to past performers pages. Keep your ears to the rails regarding pre and post events around New England, hosting performers on their way to or on their way home from this year's Frantasia Festival.

Sat. June 20th, Summer Solstice Event at B789 venue, Rollinsford, NH

Offset Needle Radius hosts a Summer Solstice celebration at this new venue, B789 in Rollinsford, NH, on Saturday June 20th, 2009. Cost is sliding scale $7-10, with the first $5 going to support the venue.
The evening will kick off with sets from Zeroking, Birdorgan, and Offset Needle Radius. The evening will conclude with a collaborative offering of Sound Waves to the Sun (..will be sleeping at the time). Officially Summer Solstice is the following day, June 21, which I remind the reader, begins at 12:00 am. The Solstice has a tipping time of 1:45am, where the longer days suddenly turn and begin to shorten. We may not make it until that magic time. But we're going to give it all up for as long as we are physically able.
B789 is the realization of artistic visionary Rick Spencer. The name of the venue is simply comprised of the room numbers in the mill building that the venue occupys. In a recent conversation, Rick talked of his support of what he termed "Feeling Arts", that is, creative output derived from an artist's soul, mined out of deep, dark places, rather than being designed with marketability first in mind. Rick himself manifests his creative spirit in quite unique ways that may have not yet been explored. He has been constructing an experimental pool table that will wind its way around the venue once completed. Due to its design a new game will be borne of the traditional pool as we know it.
Please join us for this special event and bring your posse.

Upcomming Performance in Man Chest Hair

Offset Needle Radius will be playing in Manchester, NH on Saturday May 30th at the Monastery Hallway. Also performing will be Andy Fordyce, and Birdorgan. This space is an artists collective. Marc Bisson and Dei Xrist of Birdorgan continue to bring experimental improvised sounds to the Manchester area even after the demise of the Underground M.A.P. Project gallery.
Manchester is a strange and interesting town that I imagine only makes sense to someone who has spent a lot of time in Northeastern cities. Bring a donation for the artists, open mind, open ears. See you there...

Great Things You FInd

Seeking performers and performances, events, hidden secrets, and unknown treasures in the Montreal area prior to a visit in March, I came across the Montreal Sound Map. Not only a great concept, but a convenient way to compare sound quality of digital media field recorders. And if that wasn't amazing enough, New York has their own Sound Map site as well..

Images, Words on Recent Performances

Offset Needle Radius -vs- nickname: Rebel at Lily Pad April 12 2009. Photo by Eli Thompson courtesy of WowCool.

My friend and co conspirator Marc Arsenault of nickname: Rebel is a great archivist and documentationalist. He took photos documenting not only our collaborative performances and the venues that welcomed us, but the images we encountered on the two weekend trip encompassing Lowell and Cambridge Massachusetts, and Troy and Hudson, NY. See Marc's images here...

Offset Needle Radius: Letter Of Intent

Offset Needle Radius began in February of 2008 as I transitioned into solo improvised experimental performance from a lifetime of punk rock and metal influences. Where I still find comfort in these areas of music, my creative intent has shifted.
My goal as a performer, is to present a language of sound influenced by current events and states of being, both personally and globally. I pursue the goal of conveying emotion, a sense of connection with the listener beyond words. My hope is to invoke a state of deep connection through inspiring more critical level of listening than we are used to employing when exposed to more conventional styles of music.
At times quiet, meditative, slow moving, my intention is to draw witnesses into a deeper sense of hearing, ultimately inviting listeners to transcend their physical presence and moment in time.
In more intense performances, I strive to convey more difficult emotions, exorcise demons that otherwise restrict personal growth and well being.
These intentions are not merely narcissistic public exhibitions, but hopefully a shared experience between performer and audience; for this is how I relate to the performances of others.
This is not music intended for the purpose of inspiring dance or nostalgia for music from our past. It is an invitation to join in a collective transcendence of time and space, a shared departure from the present moment.

Seeking New Interaction with the World

Sighting a drop off of interest in MySpace and the continual addition of distasteful marketing trends used by the sight, Offset Needle Radius is pursuing alternative means of interaction with the world. After having viewed many groups utilizing the Blog as a means to promote and disburse information, we have arrived with our own blog to do the same.
Offset Needle Radius is the experimental sound outlet for one person, Joshua Russel Baker. Due to the proliferate use of the moniker I was given at birth, it was necessary to arrive at a sort of "band name" to promote and perform by.
As of May 2009, Offset Needle Radius has performed eleven times in the Northeast United States, recorded countless hours of improvised material, and appears on two releases to date. The first being the CD "Not Square With Zero", a departure from a lifetime of more traditional rock and pop song composition, and Offset Needle Radius /vs/ nickname: Rebel, combining forces with lifetime friend and co-survivor of a Schenectady, NY upbringing, Marc Arsenault.
Stay tuned for more information disbursing.