Jon Mueller | |
---|---|
Born | 1970 (age 53–54) Waukesha, Wisconsin, US |
Genres | Experimental, rock, jazz |
Occupation(s) | Drummer, percussionist, composer |
Instrument(s) | Drums, percussion |
Years active | 1997–present |
Labels |
|
Website | www |
Jon Mueller (born 1970 in Waukesha, Wisconsin) is an American percussionist and composer, active in experimental and rock disciplines.
Jon Mueller was introduced to music through his parents, and began taking guitar and piano lessons at an early age. After quitting both, he became interested in the drums after his friend inherited a drumset. The instrument appealed to him due to its focus away from melody. In an interview with Natasha Pickowicz, Mueller stated, "Hitting the drums and cymbals sounded good, no matter the combination." He then began taking snare drum lessons before moving to a full kit. [1]
In 1990, he studied with jazz musician Hal Russell while attending Columbia College in Chicago.
Mueller graduated in 1995 from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee with a bachelor's degree in English. In 2008, he earned his Master of Business Administration degree. [2]
In the 1990s, he met guitarist Chris Rosenau, with whom he developed a long-time association. Together, they founded the groups Pele and Collections of Colonies of Bees. The latter group later co-founded Volcano Choir with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. Their debut album Unmap reached number 92 on the Billboard 200 chart.
He has also worked with a variety of musicians such as James Plotkin, Rhys Chatham, Asmus Tietchens, Z'EV, Jason Kahn, Marcus Schmickler, Bhob Rainey, Jack Wright, and others.
In 2003, he began experimenting with vibrating drums on top of speakers. This direction is documented on his What's Lost is Something Important CD, Metals CD, Physical Changes LP/CD/DVD, and Alphabet of Movements LP. [3]
He has performed solo and in various groupings throughout North America, Europe, United Kingdom, and Japan, in venues including New Museum (New York), Arnolfini (Bristol, UK), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, (Montréal, QC), Issue Project Room (New York), Guggenheim (New York), and Cafe OTO (London, UK). His solo and collaborative recordings have been released by labels such as Table of the Elements, Polyvinyl Records, Type Recordings, Jagjaguwar, Hometapes, Important Records, Taiga Records, and many others.
In 1999, he formed the record label, magazine, and music distribution company Crouton. Crouton published over 40 releases, mostly in limited editions, featuring the work of The Hafler Trio, Asmus Tietchens, Daniel Menche, Robert Hampson, Robert Haigh, Jarboe, Lionel Marchetti , Jason Kahn, Aranos, Alessandro Bosetti, Osso Exotico, Z'EV, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Pele, and many others, as well as his own releases. Crouton also organized events in the Milwaukee and Chicago areas. These were documented by the press and even filmed as part of a PBS documentary (on Ken Vandermark). The business closed in 2009. [4]
In 2009, he was referred to by Pitchfork as "an audacious ringleader for new music." [5]
In 2011, he started his Death Blues project, described by Mueller as, "a multidisciplinary project that addresses the inevitability of death as impetus to become more present in each moment." Performances for the project took place throughout the U.S., including Hopscotch Fest [6] and Alverno Presents. [7]
He has spoken to audiences about creativity and new business approaches at The Music Forum: Loyola University (NOLA), WMSE's Radio Summercamp (Milwaukee, WI), Viva! Festival (Montreal), Wesleyan University (Middleton, CT), PRSA (Milwaukee, WI), and MARN (Milwaukee, WI).
He has written a novella, Pianobread (1999), a box of short stories, Endings (2004), and has contributed non-fiction writing and reviews for ChangeThis.com, Pear Noir!, The Shepherd Express, OnMilwaukee, Amoeba Records Hollywood, and contributed to The 100 Best Business Books of All Time (Penguin/Portfolio) by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten.
(also released on the Rosewood Union (UK)), 1998
Agoraphobic Nosebleed is an American grindcore band. Its line-up has changed often over the years, with guitarist and drum programmer Scott Hull being the only continuous member. The current line-up includes vocalist Jay Randall, and Richard Johnson of Enemy Soil and Drugs of Faith, along with John Jarvis of Pig Destroyer and Fulgora on bass guitar.
Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and (briefly) Gong/Mothergong. He has collaborated with many musicians and groups, including Fred Frith, Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins, Peter Blegvad, Telectu and The Residents, and has appeared on over 100 recordings. Cutler's career spans over four decades and he still performs actively throughout the world.
Doom are an English hardcore punk band from Birmingham whose first lineup were together from 1987 to 1990. Despite its short existence, the band is considered pivotal in the rise of crust punk, a genre of punk rock that takes influence and elements from extreme metal. They recorded for Peaceville Records and are cited as an early precursor to grindcore. Doom were also a favourite of BBC Radio DJ John Peel.
The Hafler Trio is an English conceptual, performance and sound art collaborative project. It was originally a duo formed in the early 1980s by Andrew McKenzie and Chris Watson. The third person in the 'trio' was a fictional scientist named Dr. Edward Moolenbeek. The Hafler Trio became the solo project of McKenzie with a strong focus on dadaesque sound art works and multimedia work. His recordings often having carefully and elaborately designed packaging. Chris Watson went on to a critically regarded career as a field recording artist and sound engineer.
PBK is a composer that works in the genres of Noise, Drone and/or Ambient music.
Z'EV was an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels. He is regarded as a pioneer of industrial music.
Decibully was an indie rock band based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin that formed in 2001 and played their final show early in 2011.
John Duncan is an American multi-platform artist whose body of work includes performance art, installations, contemporary music, video art and experimental film, often involving the extensive use of recorded sound. His music is composed mainly of recordings from shortwave radio, field recordings and voice. His events and installations are a form of existential research, often confrontational in nature. Duncan currently lives in Bologna, Italy.
Pele is an instrumental post-rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The group formed in the summer of 1997 by guitarist Chris Rosenau, bassist Scott Schoenbeck and drummer Jon Mueller. Ever-evolving in sound, the band was difficult to classify. Early in Pele's career, critics had dubbed the band post-rock. However, later many fans began to hear them as jazzy, with "nimble" guitars, "rolling" bass, and "skittering" drums "with angular fills and layered beats." These so-called jazz elements shone through untraditional "syncopated handclaps, voices, and various blips and bleeps."
Part Chimp is an English noise rock band from Camberwell, London, that was formed by Tim Cedar, Jon Hamilton and Nick Prior in 2000. Their current line-up is Tim, Jon (drums), Joe McLaughlin (bass), Robin Freeman (bass), and Iain Hinchliffe (guitar).
Terence Ashley Burrows is an English author, multi-instrumental musician and producer based in London. Best known as a cult performer under the alias Yukio Yung, Burrows is also a prolific author of books relating to music history, theory, and tuition, technology, business, popular psychology and modern history. His works include The Art of Sound, Mute: A Visual Document, Guitars Illustrated (Billboard), 1001 Guitars... (Cassell), KISS Guide to Playing Guitar, Total Guitar Tutor, and ITV Visual History of the 20th Century (Carlton). His books—now numbering close to one hundred titles—have been published in sixteen different countries and translated into a dozen different languages. As a writer, his pseudonyms include Terence Ashley, Harrison Franklin, Hans-Joachim Vollmer and Yukio Yung. He has also written for numerous periodicals in the UK, US, and Germany.
Fred Frith appears on over 400 recordings. This is a selection from bands he was/is a member of, collaborations with other bands and musicians, and his solo recordings. The year indicates when the album was first released. For a comprehensive discography, see the Discography of Fred Frith by Michel Ramond, Patrice Roussel and Stephane Vuilleumier.
The Work were an English post-punk rock group, founded in 1980 by multi-instrumentalist/composer Tim Hodgkinson and guitarist/composer Bill Gilonis, with bass guitarist Mick Hobbs and drummer Rick Wilson. The band toured Europe in 1981 and 1982, and recorded their first album, Slow Crimes in 1982. After a tour of Japan later that year and releasing Live in Japan, the band split up. In 1989, the Work reformed to record Rubber Cage and performed throughout Europe between 1989 and 1994, releasing another album, See in 1992. A live album, The 4th World, recorded in Germany in 1994, was released in 2010.
Birds of Avalon is a rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina whose sound fuses elements of psychedelic and progressive rock. The band consists of Cheetie Kumar (guitar), David Mueller (bass), Scott Nurkin (drums), Paul Siler (guitar), Jason Alyward (drums) and Missy Thangs (keys).
Richard Chartier is a sound/installation artist and graphic designer from the United States. He works in reductionist microsound electronic music, a form of extreme minimalism characterised by quiet and sparse sound.
Klopfzeichen is the debut full-length album by German experimental music trio Kluster.
Zwei-Osterei is the second full-length album by German experimental music trio Kluster. The album title translates to English as "Two - Easter egg".
Collections of Colonies of Bees is an American musical ensemble from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Lionel Hampton Presents Buddy Rich is a jazz album recorded by Buddy Rich and released by the Who's Who in Jazz record label in 1977. The album has been re-issued by different labels under different names including, Buddy's Cherokee, The Lionel Hampton Sessions and Sounds of Jazz Vol. 10.
Bureau B is an independent record label, music publisher and booking agency from Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2005 by Gunther Buskies as a sister label to Tapete Records. The label releases varieties of electronic, free-spirited music, with the spectrum ranging from pop to avant-garde. The label has amassed an extensive catalogue of reissues and new productions, including classics from the genre of electronic music in the 1970s and early 1980s popularly classified as Krautrock, alongside new recordings by such formative artists as Faust, Kreidler, Roedelius, Tietchens, Moebius.