Spencer Owen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spencer William Maxwell Owen is a prolific art-pop musician living in Berkeley, CA.

Owen was born 1984 in Santa Monica, CA, and was raised by Laura and composer/pianist Sandy Owen in Los Angeles. (Sandy's most recent album, One Late Hour with a Steinway, is one long continuous take at the piano.) As a toddler, Owen was introduced to the works of Laurie Anderson. Along with Talking Heads/David Byrne, Paul Simon's Graceland (and the African music that inspired it), and others, Anderson's work has been an enduring influence on Owen's musical life. Key influences to come in middle and high school were The Boredoms, The Residents, John Cage, and Elvis Costello.

Quite the auteur, Owen arranges all the compositions and performs all of the vocals, instruments and production himself for his home 6- and 8-track audio-cassette recordings.

Owen produced the mostly-instrumental music of his formative years under the pseudonym "Trigger Goldberg." By the time he retired the name, he had begun singing and writing lyrics. His first album under his real name, entitled Malheur Ln., was compiled in 2003 and collected several songs from that period, combined with several new-as-of-then recordings. Also in 2003, Owen met Jeff Eliassen and proceeded to form a relationship with him and his label Ballbearings Pinatas. Before the year's end, his first show took place at the Treehouse Gallery in Los Angeles, sharing the bill with labelmates Raven Fenbahn and Ariel Pink. Ballbearings Pinatas have released 18" x 2000'/Ribcage (2003) and E.T.R. (Electric 3rd R-Word) (2005) on CD.

Owen's vast catalogue of original material is augmented with many cover recordings, including, so far, two front-to-back cover renditions of albums by artists he admires. By this point, he has tackled Black Tie White Noise by David Bowie and Out of the Cradle by Lindsey Buckingham. One of Owen's most accomplished albums was produced through a perversion of this process. Meredith (2004) is comprised of original songs that are each exactly the same length as a song from The Beatles' self-titled White Album.

In addition, Owen has created one album of four long-form experimental pieces entitled On/Playing (2004).

Owen has also produced original music for theater and film. Some of this work can be found in the films Long Gone Daddy and The Word of a Salesman by Kalen Egan as well as many videos by Jamie Burkart (in which Owen frequents onscreen appearances).

Owen briefly studied art at UC Santa Cruz and lived/recorded at The Shop in Santa Cruz, CA before moving to Berkeley, CA in 2005.

Owen has performed as a member of:

• The Spencer Owen Karaoke Machine (Owen solo with backing tape; mainly billed as Spencer Owen)
• Bird By Snow (Fletcher Tucker) [1]
• Goodbye the Band (John Acquadro) [2]
• The Archbishops (with his brother, Alec Owen)
• The Spencer Owen Initiative (Owen backed by the Archbishops instead of tape)

Owen currently lives in Berkeley, CA with John Acquadro (Goodbye the Band). In the fall of 2006, he completed his first tour, travelling the West Coast as a solo act and in Bird By Snow, whose '06 release Sky (Gnome Life Records) features significant contributions from Owen throughout. He is currently planning a album for the first quarter of 2007 which he claims will be heavily inspired by modern, mainstream pop music by such artist-producers as Timbaland and R. Kelly.

[edit] Discography

• Malheur Ln. (2003)
  
• Pacific/Ocean Project (2003)
  
• 18" x 2000'/Ribcage (2003)
  
• Brother, What a Way to Run a Railroad (2004)
  
• Thanks for the Sour Persimmons, Cousin (2004)
  
• A Documentary by Spencer Owen (2004)
  
• Time (2004)
  
• On/Playing (2004)
  
• David Bowie: "Black Tie White Noise" (2004)
  
• Meredith (2004)
  
• Lindsey Buckingham: "Out of the Cradle" (2005)
  
• Spencer Owen (2005)
  
• E.T.R. (Electric 3rd R-Word) (2005)
  
• Bird By Snow: Sky (co-producer and arranger, 2006)
  

[edit] External links

• Spencer Owen's Maracatu Atomico
  
• Ballbearings Pinatas
  
• Several albums available for free download at archive.org (including Meredith)