MWF

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MWF
Background information
Birth name	Mark Flake
Also known as	MWF
Born	1960
Genre(s)	Avant-garde
Occupation(s)	Musician, artist
Label(s)	Wood Records
Website	Official Website

MWF is a pseudonym of Mark Flake born in Memphis, Tennessee TN in 1960. MWF is a painter and sculptor, but is best known as an avant-garde musician.

He has appeared on more than fifty albums and compact discs. His early releases were homemade cassette tapes released by his own cassette only label, Wyndam Garage.

1 His Music
2 His Label
3 Educational Work
4 External links

[edit] His Music

In 1999, he founded Wood Records and gave compact disc releases of his back catalog, and has continued to release his own works at the rate of approximately two discs per year. The music runs through a wide variety of stylistic categories that includes everything from folk and experimental rock, to avante garde jazz, punk and noise, to serious chamber compositions and music concrete.

MWF is also known for a number of albums that parody other styles including metal and hip-hop. Radio Revolution described his work as "the perfect blend of Leonard Cohen and Captain Beefheart", but he has most often been compared stylistically to The Residents and to Frank Zappa.

His best known recording is probably Selling Grit (1997), a more or less satirical pop rock album. As a performer, he is best known as an electric guitar soloist and improviser, but has also released acoustic guitar works similar in style to the later works of John Fahey, albeit with a more sinister tone. As a guitarist, he has been part of a number of music ensembles, including the Blenders, the Willards, EllenM, and most recently the Ants. His own live group, the MWF trio has had a shifting line-up that has included performance artist and cornetist Barry Arthur and harmonica virtuoso Bhopal Whitaker. He has also produced a variety of collaborative works with artists such as San Francisco guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante and Indiana multi-instrumentalist Zed Salt.

[edit] His Label

His Wood Records music label has given release to albums by many artists from the U.S. and Europe, most notably Sweden's Johnny J and Italy's LAM. Flake has also appeared on a variety of tribute albums from other labels such as Blod Records of Canada's Tribute to the Eighties and a recent Roky Erikson tribute.