8.26.19 by Ryan Masteller

Do we call them supergroups in the underground? It’s a legit question. Nobody really has much of an ego (right?) and everybody gets along super well (yeah?), so “supergroup” simply may not carry the cache of something like the Traveling Wilburys. 

Doctor9 are the Traveling Wilburys of underground outsider culture. 

OK, sorry, I’ll stop with that, but you may know these cats: Patrick Shiroishi on drums, Felix Salazar on guitar, and Mike Meanstreetz (of Tingo Tongo fame!) also on guitar got together for a couple of performances that are captured on this here tape. First up is “Character Projects,” recorded 12/5/18 in Los Angeles, and it’s a slow burn. There’s a bit of squiggle leading up to a lengthy slow passage, but then it morphs into a honking free-jazz hoedown (or the jazz equivalent of a hoedown). Then it fizzles back out. 

Sounds like a MILLION LAUGHS.

Seriously, these guys have to be having a blast. I remember when my roommates and me used to jamma lamma ding dong down in our basement, and we were pretty good. We did some pretty crazy stuff. Shiroishi, Salazar, and Meanstreetz (let’s see that birth certificate, mister), though often subdued, do some pretty crazy stuff as well. “Art in the Park,” recorded 9/9/18, also in Los Angeles, slow builds again, running itself into some great no wave guitar squirts from axemasters. The track builds, and so does the sweat on everyone’s brow. Everybody spasms for like five minutes. Or more. Less? Hard to keep track of time when this stuff’s plowing through your ear canals. 

So, supergroup? Let’s ask Weird Cry Records – they’re selling these suckers after all.