Willard's Canteen
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Willard's Canteen is the moniker of one-man band Matthew Pamatmat, a northern California musician known for being a prolific proponent of psychedelic folk, ambient soundscapes, and weird rock. Recording exclusively on a four-track tape recorder and using a motley assortment of instruments, Willard's Canteen has created around 250 songs and released nearly twenty albums on CD, including the double album How to Tell a Dead Horse from One that is Merely Resting and the simultaneously-released CDs Eatin' a cupcake in Hell and Gnap Gnightmares. Willard's Canteen music is known for its lo-fi quality and unique, inventive sounds and surreal lyrics, and on rare occasions when the reclusive Pamatmat plays live he often enlists the help of musician friends and places a glowing plastic goose onstage.
partial Discography:
Willard's Canteen I, II, 3, IV
Orangutan
Fucked Up at the Four Track
Bananer Funnel Kakes from the Old Cuntry
How to Tell a Dead Horse from One that is Merely Resting (2xCD)
Dark Side of the Scrapbook
Eatin' a cupcake in Hell
Gnap Gnightmares
Judy Garland of Freshly Severed Heads
A Spectacular Butchery Site
Morphing Fields (2xCD)
Weirdos in the Woods
Squealin' at the Teat
A Ruthless Paradise e.p.
The Ubiquitous Colonel
Nonchalant Hallucinations
Cut me Adrift
We're Trapped in our own Minds like Pigs in a Slaughtershack
Poisoned by Pollen in the Tulip Fields of Holland: Instrumenstrual Moods, Imaginary Landscapes
The most recent (last) three albums of the discography are considered a trilogy by Pamatmat.
The first five Willard's Canteen CDs are in mono, due to a simple technical glitch Pamatmat overlooked in the drunken, feverish pace that characterized the creation and release of these albums. Fucked Up at the Four Track is the first Willard's Canteen album in stereo, and all following releases are mostly in stereo.
Pamatmat makes Willard's Canteen music in rare spare moments when he is not working, writing (he has been a successful freelance writer, writing on a number of diverse and philosophically-tinged subjects), or watching saffron-colored dead parts fall from late summer trees to blanket the ground in bright mustard hues. Willard's Canteen captured the attention of music critic Sara Bir, who wrote an insightful article for the North Bay Bohemian. The article can be found at [1]
Willard's Canteen music, images, and info can be found at [2]
Pamatmat is also involved in a number of side projects, including Fatal Harvest (umlaut over the third "a" optional), Mismatched Socks, and is rumored to be behind the mysterious 1 man band Og.
