Guitar and cassette-based project from the outskirts of East Los Angeles, CA. Has performed with notable independent artists such as Future Islands, Former Ghosts, Lucky Dragons, Growing, Eric Copeland (Black Dice), Cloud Nothings, Gowns, French Quarter, Pulse Emitter, Pedestrian Deposit, Sean McCann, and Charlie McAlister.
Touring history since 2008 includes over 180 performances at venues ranging from staples of the punk and DIY touring circuit (The Smell in Los Angeles, Rhinoceropolis in Denver, the Bus in Oakland), universities and museums (Berkeley Art Museum, San Francisco State University, UC Irvine) and numerous basements, living rooms and galleries across the Western United States.
Directives:
A) Appropriation of the pop song form by means of combining elements and techniques from ambient, drone, noise and tape collage styles into concise, complementary and personal narratives. Composition of actual songs that can be accurately performed in the live setting and reconstructed for further inquiry. Expansion of the context in which disparate pieces are originally composed to build connections between their placement in recorded albums in conjunction with space-specific arrangement. Eschewing both meandering, improvisational nature and laptops/synthesizers for a deliberate and calculated approach to arranging live guitar/tape-based sound.
B) Stripped down bedroom pop punk focusing on the infrastructure of youthful memory and teenage fixation.
Interviews and spotlights:
Interview on Guide Me Little Tape
2-hour radio interview and label spotlight on-air in the KUSF studio, 11/15/2011
Interview on Denver Thread
Interview about label and solo music on Adequacy
Interview on Tome To The Weather Machine
Interview on Stronabe (scroll down for English translated version)
Label feature and interview by Sean Carnage
Feature on No Fear Of Pop
Feature/interview in Ascension (pages 13-17)
Interview with Jon Barba/Nicole Kidman and I by Sean Carnage
Interview and label feature on No Fear Of Pop
Interview on Microphone Memory Emotion
Interview on Hellhole Entrance
Mixtape on Warmer-Climes: words / download
Feature in Flaunt Magazine
Feature in Pitchfork cassette tape article
Reviews and quotations:
"Pillowy guitar washed bedroom pop for a lazy Sunday afternoon."
- Sam Hockley-Smith, The Fader
"A sonic feast devoured in three all-too-short minutes composed of deliciously delayed guitar pickings and crunchy crescendo-ing soundscapes."
- Ric Leichtung, Pitchfork on "Machine Shop"
"One of the most unabashedly gushed about records of last year. Full of warm and inviting guitar tones with a dangerous streak of harsh noise running beneath... 9 songs of gorgeous, hazy guitar drones that have nary an equal... a strong contender for album of the year."
- Ryan Hall, Tome To The Weather Machine review of Bracing
"A peripatetic and a workaholic, Kevin Greenspon is constantly touring around California and hocking a small library of post-noise / blistered ambient cassettes & cd-rs that he's been producing over the past couple of years. Having performed alongside the likes of Pedestrian Deposit and Infinite Body, his smoldering, sorta-shoegazing dronescapes make a lot of sense. The A-side of this tape begins with a creeping two-note guitar melody, accompanying a muffled crackle and occasional interruptions of short noise transmissions. Out of the compressed noise and overdriven distortion pedals, a summery lullaby emerges from the tape murk and grime that blossoms through harmonic clouds of organ/synth drones and guitar smear. Yeah, comparisons to Infinite Body's prickly noise-pop hybrids are definitely apt. The B-side continues with these same ideas, as serene washes of distorted noise allude to something sinister just seething below all of the shimmer, twinkle, and glisten. 25 minutes in duration, and another great tape released through Monorail Trespassing!"- Aquarius Records review of Unveiling
"His work contains discernable movements of sound that are soft and ethereal during one moment while dissonant and destructive during another. In a perfect world, Greenspon's soundscapes would be the soundtrack for Disneyland's Space Mountain, echoing all the speedy thrills and turbulence of interplanetary travel. Drone and noise are staples of experimental music, but rarely are they applied so effectively as Greenspon's moody, crescendoing sound collages."
- Abe Ahn, OC Weekly review of live performance at University of Irvine
"Greenspon has proven his chops in both ambient and pop, and “Machine Shop” combines those skills flawlessly. It’s droney and experimental, but not shapeless; beneath all the hiss and static, there’s a lovely, heart-wrenching melody."
- Boy Attractions on Rose Window cassette
"Over the past couple of years Kevin Greenspon has consistently made some of the most enjoyable ambient tracks that I have had the privilege to hear. Waves of guitar drone across vibrant soundscapes as one man bares his soul. It is easy to get lost in Greenspon's music as it almost seems to take control at times."
- Jheri Evans, Altered Zones on Common Objects LP
"...a different place all together, embracing subtle guitar ambiance and new-age sensibilities with excellent results. 'Common Objects' is constructed from found sounds, field recording, harsh noise, orchestral tones and, primarily, guitar based drones. It's an incredibly restrained affair that embraces a songwriting approach to music that is commonly improvised. Greenspon has totally mastered this technique creating a controlled and thoughtful take on blissful ambient drone that occasionally threatens to explode into violent outbursts of noise... the best I've heard and reviewed this week."
- Norman Records review of Common Objects LP
"Intentionality is where Greenspon diverges from the pack, as his compositions feel considered at each moment, and fully under his control. On 'Common Objects', he takes the tones and methods common to ambient, and builds more memorable and more repeatable (as in a live setting) tracks permeated by a soft hookiness. On a song like 'It Might Take Me a Few Years' which is led by a few melodic guitar lines, his attention to musicianship is apparent, but throughout the album, even the more droning and vibrating pieces of the puzzle – which aren’t commonly thought of in relation to musicianship – feel evenly sustained and in the right proportions."
- Greg Argo, Adequacy.net review of Common Objects LP
"[Bracing is] A dark and atmospheric album mainly of guitar compositions that run the gambit of pop to beautiful noise. Greenspon is great at portraying tone and emotion through music that has very little vocals, and when vocals are present they are understated so much so that the guitars feel like they are doing the talking. While at times Greenspon’s music can feel ambient overall it is a pop album, and I feel like it appeals as much to the fan of noise as it does to the fan of rock going from white noise to up-beat pop into a wall of sound, and even meandering psychedelia."
- Tom Pavlich, gprecs review of Bracing
"A highly personal, articulated album... On this long-player, he has certainly crafted a beautiful series of textured landscapes."
- William Cody Watson, Impose magazine, on Common Objects
"Dominated by slow, sweeping guitar ambient works, the 23-year old multi-instrumentalist explores the realms of sound without the help of others - here, the interaction is made up of an almost solipsistic communication with compositional structures, evolving abstract spaces of sound and melody the listener may get lost in until the construction occasionally collapses by means of sudden, unexpected interferences of tape manipulation or other noise production... exactly the musical category where he has established a position among the most outstanding contemporary artists.
"'Exhibit' gives a pretty representative idea of the artist's more demanding explorations into heavy tape manipulation, harsh noise and collage techniques that you will also find on 'Common Objects.' For what it's worth, Kevin Greenspon's output is among the most fascinating and exciting stuff you'll hear in 2010."
- Henning Lahmann, No Fear Of Pop
"At once warm and comforting, yet, bleak and atmospheric."
- Chocolate Bobka
"Greenspon's music easily recalls a relaxed somewhat somber day at the beach. At times you get a brief sense of children at play, or a couple passing happily; but in the background an almost sort of nostalgia constantly lingers. While slow paced and dissonant, the songs cull a feeling inside that continues to haunt hours after the tracks have finished."
- Get Off The Coast
"Gentle wave washes and lulling static hiss echoing through each track; power lines and satellite signals interfering with yr seaside ambience but then becoming an oddly fitting part of it...
'Open Book' is an infectious sub-2 minute teenage-Blank Dogs bedroom fumble taken from a forthcoming Family Time Records 12" compilation out next month."
- Shea Bermingham, Rose Quartz
"Catchy and nostalgic. Talk about crushes, science teachers, 5th grade, you get the idea. Scratchy and distorted guitars that sound like toys and vocals all up front in the mix make me feel like a young child playing in a sand box."
- Georgia Kral, Microphone Memory Emotion
"Tranquil and ethereal, yet creative and demanding. With only a guitar, Kevin Greenspon creates an ambiance that is at once inviting upon listening but that also manages to navigate you to another realm that is both sonically intuitive and inspiring."
- Jonathan Recinos, Little Did They Know
LISTEN: GUITAR / TAPE COLLAGE
LISTEN: POP PUNK