Dosh at The Scoot Inn

The process that goes into our latest concert video is impressive...so much so, one might easily confuse Martin Dosh's drumsticks for a pair of magic wands. After all, the extraordinarily gifted multi-instrumentalist from the Twin Cities is no less than a wizard when it comes to sourcing the confetti like, loop based material that is the body of his solo material.

I say solo because I'm guessing many of you know Dosh as the percussive wunderkind responsible for propelling many of Andrew Bird's mighty rhythms. Thanks to that high profile gig, Dosh has helped make a name for him self, and turned many on to five albums worth of solo material in the process.

Playing our SXSW Party in support of his latest record Tommy, Dosh, along side his confidant Mike Lewis (another member of Bird's entourage) turn The Scoot's indoor stage into a systematic laboratory of musical expression and experimentation. Sounds a bit dangerous, I know. Rest assured, Dosh and Lewis have tested the chemicals that fuel their music. If something boils over, it's because it's supposed to.

What follows is nothing short of phenomenal to witness, as both musicians employ samplers, keys, drums, looping pedals and other bits of musical gadgetry to build blissful concoctions bit by bit, layer by layer. Here, elements of jazz, hip hop, avant-garde, and rock (among others) flirt with one another, reacting and exploding over the course of performances of "From the House of Caesar", "I Think I'm Getting Married", "Call the Kettle", and "Gare de Lyon".

Wizard? Scientist? Musician? I'm not entirely what to think of Dosh. Irregardless, our latest concert video from our day party down in Austin is absolute magic. - David Pitz

There he was, this musically lucked child of a once-priest and a near-nun, 12 years old and piled high with a Radio Shack combo stereo, stacks of records, and pockets full of dubbed tapes. It was 1984 and Martin Dosh was orchestrating the soundtracks to his junior high school dances, playing only the choice cuts for the budding romantics and perspiring wallflowers: Run DMC, Prince, Devo, the Cars, New Order... At age 3, Marty had started harassing his folks to bone up for piano lessons (after three years of persistence, they gave in); that'd he'd developed considerable musical taste before hitting puberty should come as no real surprise.

Call him a one-man band, a virtuoso, a gifted collaborator or a family man, Martin, Marty, Dosh or Dad, our subject has gotten to now by what seems an uncanny path (perhaps call it fate). When they met, Dosh's father was a Catholic priest with pile of degrees, and his mother was living in a convent in Minneapolis preparing herself for nunhood. They left the fold for marriage; subsequently the elder Dosh found himself blacklisted from local employment, and so they left Minnesota as well. Martin was born in the greater Los Angeles area, but at age 2, his health problems and the city's endless sprawl delivered the family back into the musically nurturing arms of the Twin Cities.

Returning to the Midwest, Martin was enrolled in a Montessori school (and piano lessons). By comparison high school was, "academically, horseshit" so Dosh seized his destiny at 16 and moved east to study jazz and drums at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Massachusettes. What followed was a flurry of summer jobs, road trips to see the Grateful Dead, van living around various college outposts in Mass and NY, Zappa-esque noodling in his band Como Zoo, further schooling, the requisite amount of pot, and a little too much partying. But Dosh wanted more for his music and less for his student debt, so he swallowed his pride and returned (at 25) to his parents' in Minneapolis.

He figured the move would be temporaryhe'd save up money and practice drums until he became a self-sustaining virtuosobut Dosh was going to shows every night and meeting more and more people in the local music-rich scene (a collision of avant jazz, freewheeling rock and progressive hip-hop), quickly realizing that what he needed had been there all along. And throughout his dedicated solo drum-and-keyboard sessions in mom and dad's basement, he'd record, record, record, accumulating a massive library of sound. Soon hed be a touring member of Andrew Broders Fog, and full-time player in their instrumental counterpart Lateduster.

In 2003 Anticon proudly released Doshs virtuoso debut, Dosh, a loop-building collage of shimmering Rhodes, atypical drumming grounded in groove, field recordings and spontaneous performance (much of the album was pieced together using the 100-plus hours of tape hed recorded at his parents). By then hed developed his untouchable live one-man show (swiveling on his drum stool between a kit, his modified Rhodes piano, a few pots and pans, and a simple looping pedal with a 12-second recording limit), and took to the road. Back in Minneapolis, the city hed finally recognized as home, Dosh had been teaching drum lessons to children and falling in love on the side. He formed a family with his wife Erin (who hed wooed by handing her a copy a song called I Think Im Getting Married) and her 6-year-old son Tadhg. Soon hed be composing a track titled Building a Strange Child, and so they would. Doshs second full-length, Pure Trash was inspired by his lifes most pleasant turns, and though the album was instrumental (minus cameos by Erin, Tadhg, the newborn Naoise, and his students), it emoted all the warmth and anticipation, fear and relief that comes with building a family.

Doshs third official album (hes self-released a limited series of compilations and live performances), The Lost Take showcases the mans unique approach to sound with an expanded musicality and growing guest-list. To date Dosh has recorded with Fog, Jel, Odd Nosdam, Neotropic, Andrew Bird, Redstart, Poor Line Condition, Lateduster, Why?, the Interferents, members of Tapes N Tapes, and just about any Twin Cities band with a collective ear for good taste and experimentation. He has shared the stage with Wilco, Atmosphere, DJ Vadim, Jayhawks, Why?, Damo Suzuki, Golden Smog, Sole, cLOUDDEAD, Sage Francis, the Hang Ups, Kid Dakota, Alias, Themselves, Peanut Butter Wolf, Happy Apple, Joseph Arthur, Pizza Boys, the Bad Plus, and many more.