TEN EAST | THE PERFECT RAT "Ten East: surfy, soulful, heavy, dark, introspective, instrumental, grooving. The Perfect Rat -twisted, nervous, maniacal, eccentric, churning, 'out there' jams." "Ten East and The Perfect Rat originate from some jamming Gary [guitar] and I did with Greg Ginn from Black Flag back in 2001", says Bill Stinson [drums]. "Greg was playing bass mostly instead of guitar. It was really cool sort of King Crimson meets Black Sabbath types of jamming where structure and improvisation combine into a massive sound. Later, Gary just invited in other musician's that he thought would get what he wanted to do musically, like Brant Bjork [bass] & Mario Lalli [guitar]." "The Perfect Rat was a totally different vibe as Gary was playing with a more exploritory gutiar style, very different from Yawning Man's mellow surfy sounds. Greg Ginn's bass playing was very unusual but sublime and powerful... he always found a totally unexpected bass line that ended up making the musical end result, very new and grooving. Jack Brewer's manic, nervous poetic vocals will surely takes this one over the edge." Ten East's 'Etraterrestial Highway' and The Perfect Rat album will due out on Spain's Alone Records in March. Words | Gary Arce & Bill Stinson Gary: "The Ten East recordings were done in Palm Springs, California. The idea going in to this project was pure jamming. Walk in the studio with some ideas for heavy grooves and let the tape roll". "I personally felt comfortable knowing that with Bill Stinson being the incredible drummer that he is would keep a steady flow of heaviness to the music. I have only played with Brant a few times with guitars but never the bass but Mario assured me he would bring in some tastiness and backbone to the table. Mario and myself grew up playing together and we know each others styles and runs on the guitar so playing with him is like breathing,its natural." "The first jam started ala Yawning Man, sounding mellow, melodic, thoughtful. Brant and Bill locked in like a machine. From that point those two carried the heaviness while Mario and myself worked around each other like two spiders building a web." "Come the third jam, we were wired for more and the ideas kept coming and the grooves got heavier, tastier and thicker. Some of the jams went into 10 minute lengths. "Mario and myself have not played together since Yawning Man' s 'Rock Formations' and we were letting months of not playing together come out in 3-4 hours. I was really into what brant was doing as well -simple, heavy melodic grooves following the initial idea." "And Bill Stinson!!What can I say. He definitly brought the meat to the meal. After you hear it. Hopefully he will finally get some recognition for being one of the heaviest,tastiest in the pocket drummers out there. He plays some of the most memorable beats. Reminds me of Bill Ward." "There are eight jams we did, and another three to four more are on the way. This music comes from dudes who learned their instruments and forged their styles from jamming with friends and the music is a reflection of a true respect for improvised balls out jamming." Bill Stinson: "Ten East is more structured, based on guitar riffs / ideas. The musicians involved shared a similar musical direction and concept. The energy and sounds that were put to tape were pure telepathic jamming where the end result sounds like we had all been playing together for years when in fact it was improvisation based on guitar ideas Gary presented and everything was built up from there. "Gary, Mario, Brant and I had an energy together that comes from having similar musical tastes and ideas and influences... surf, rock, punk, jazz, instrumental music... whatever!" "The first real recordings we did were back in April 2005 when I went out to Palm Desert to record with Billy Cordell [The Wizards, Unida, Yawning Man] on bass -as Mario was unable to participate at that time. So Billy and I did about five or six really cool bass and drum jams and it was structured material based on bass lines Billy had." "I found out later that there was some issue with the way we recorded in terms of the formatting and so Gary said we needed to re-record some material and then Gary informed me that neither Billy or Mario could record at that time so Gary said he spoke with Greg Ginn about recording some stuff down at SST where Gary, Greg and I first jammed as a trio in 2001. I origially met Gary through Greg when I was recording with Greg back in 2000." "I don't know if Gary was intending that recording session to be Ten East or whatever but that recording session we did over at SST with Greg on bass ended up being what Gary made into The Perfect Rat. So my understanding is that Jack Brewer from Saccharine Trust is doing the vocals on The Perfect Rat -so really these two projects will be quite different." "Mario talked to Brant Bjork who wanted to be involved in Ten East. In November 2005, Mario, Brant, Gary and I met up in the desert to record more Ten East songs and this is where the best music so far has come from. These sessions were the ones I called 'telepathic jams.' We really sounded inspired and cohesive but it was mostly being created in real time. You can hear that Spirit and Soul in the music." "Here are some characteristics I would use to describe each recording: Ten East -surfy, soulful, heavy, dark, introspective, instrumental, grooving. The Perfect Rat -twisted, nervous, maniacal, eccentric, churning, "out there' jams."