Music

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Crashworthy was born out of one of my first bands, Crashworthy Grasshopper. After disbanding, I turned to solo creations in my home studio. In 1999, I moved to an apartment on southeast Taylor and 25th in Portland, Oregon, right around the corner from a house my father's family lived in during the early 1930's. Grandpappy was hanging wallpaper in the house and the family lived there for a spell. There is still the half-lot between houses where dad cut his leg down to the bone on a blade of grass as a ten year old kid.

After playing thrash metal for a few years in the local Portland scene, at places like Satyricon, X-Ray Cafe, and Aladdin Theatre, I left the pointy electric guitar and half-stack behind and poured myself back into the acoustic guitar. The heart of my home studio was the Yamaha MT8XII, 8-tracks of multi-tracking goodness on analog cassette tape. It had knobs and faders to properly twiddle; a tactility that is often lost in modern recording environments.

Around the time I attended massage therapy school, I began exploring my voice and singing over my music. While I was learning so much about the healing arts, and myself, I recorded a couple albums, letting loose my silly side, who grew up with Monty Python, Kids in the Hall, and The Muppets.

From 2000 to 2001, I recorded and self-published the Anymouse Hazard Report Gala CD: Songs About Cookies (tracks 1-9). In 2002, I released the ridiculous follow up, Festival of Oddities (tracks 10-22), burning compact discs at home, giving them to friends, and mailing them around the country.

In today's messed up, modern world, I felt a few folk might need a chuckle from these early musical concoctions. Crashworthy Chronicles is a collection of my favorites from this kooky, glorious, beautiful, scary time of life, starting out a long career of living the life of a creative human being.
An exposition on letting go. Impermanence is a collection of recordings made in the empty rooms of my childhood home. For most of the album, I used Lucky, a cheap 3/4 size Fender acoustic guitar that would rarely stay in tune that I found over on Hawthorne at a music shop that is no longer there. I played a Taylor GS Mini on track 13 and used a round bottom longneck dulcimer from Wendell Powell on track 14. The album is largely comprised of first take improvisations, layered and recorded with an iPad 2 and Multitrack DAW. Track 14 was recorded with a Tascam DR-44WL. Home grown music, made through transition and catharsis, from the Pacific Northwest.
Quite recently, I have gotten the itch to take up the electric guitar again and see what's been left unsaid. The past few months, I've been building up a pedal board and even acquired a fab electric guitar and a looper. Many thanks to Trade Up Music in Portland, Oregon for helping me put together a great kit, as most of the gear is used or I traded in old gear to help with the costs. The missing piece… I have been saving my pennies for an amplifier. I've never actually owned a proper valve amp in my musical career. Well, quite recently, my dear friend and musical collaborator, made sure I have a tube amp in my life. Oh, my friend… you've given me a Festivus miracle!

So, in this first week of letting the valves warm, I did a bit of recording. Here is a collection of raw, improvised works, recorded live, and is about the closest thing to being here in the room with me, merrily making music that makes my heart happy in the quiet hours at home in Milwaukie, Oregon. An exploration of tones, from ambient to rocking with the Ibanez Talman TM302, the Blackstar HT-5R, a fistful of pedals from TC Electronic, and a Crybaby Mini Wah pedal. Thus, I offer, for your listening enjoyment… The Tube Amp of Kindness EP… for Yonti Ma, in deepest gratitude...
Hamid Shibata Bennett, LMT, CAMTII
3810 SE Belmont Street
Portland, Oregon 97214
Phone/Text: 503-975-1259

 OBMT #301 • © 2013-2020 ​