Shelly Blake-Plock

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Shelly Blake-Plock


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Background = musician
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Born = birth date and age|1974|10|08
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Origin = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Instrument = guitar, piano, organ, voice
Genre = avant, avant, experimental
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Years_active = 1995–present
Label = Fall Records Umlaut Records
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URL = [http://www.shellyblake.com]
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Shelly Blake-Plock (born 8 October 1974 in Baltimore, Maryland), is an American musician, writer, and filmmaker.

Music

Blake-Plock’s work includes elements of folk and blues as well as free improvisation and unorthodox recording techniques. [cite web | publisher = City Paper | date = July 2004 | author = Bret McCabe | title = Moments in Time | url=http://noise.citypaper.com/special/story.asp?id=8605 | accessdate = 2008-04-03 ] His early work consisted “almost entirely of rudimentary home recordings of songs committed to tape as they were being written, never to be refined or recast. Partially inspired by the field recordings of Alan Lomax, Blake [used] a one-take method to get back to the essence, as he sees it, of folk music, which once hinged on a much closer relationship between audiences and those who made it. In this light, his works-in-progress can be seen as a rather unpretentious attempt to rehumanize (and even bring the 'folk' back into) folk music." cite | publisher = Nashville Scene| date = August 2004]

Around 2004, Blake-Plock’s work took on a more wholly improvised quality seemingly inspired both by European Free Improvisation as well as American noise and performance art. Blake-Plock’s 2007 album The Violencestring is a musical narrative comprised almost entirely of free improvised music and studio manipulation. [cite web | publisher = Foxy Digitalis | date = December 2007 | author = Charles Franklin | title = The Violencestring | url=http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=3016 | accessdate = 2008-04-03 ]

In 2006, Blake-Plock and double-bassist Joel Grip performed as a duo live for 48 continuous hours. The performance was a benefit for Public Health Music, a non-profit organization; Blake-Plock is an official partner of the organization. cite web | publisher = Public Health Music | date = June 2006 | author = Joel Grip | title = Public Health Music | url=http://www.publichealthmusic.com/?p=5 | accessdate = 2008-03-20 ]

Discography

*"The Lonely Ornamental Music of Shelly Blake" - Shelly Blake (1995)
*"Color Notation on the Sociopathway" - Shelly Blake (1996)
*"Secret Breathing Lessons" - Shelly Blake (1996)
*"Folk Blues and Things to Use" - Shelly Blake (2000)
*"When I Found Out I Had ESP EP" - Shelly Blake (2001)
*"Novel Great Americans" - Shelly Blake (2002)
*"Nights of Revolution" - Shelly Blake (2003)
*"Vol I" - Shelly Blake (2004)
*"Apache, What Apocrypha Have You?" - Shelly Blake, Joel Grip, and Devin Gray (2004)
*"Tumbling Traces Scholastic Anomie EP" - Shelly Blake, Private Eleanor, and Lawrence Lanahan (2005)
*"What a Queer Thing, Democracy" - Shelly Blake (2005)
*"Discourse and Correspondence" - Shelly Blake (2006)
*"Drug Warriors" - Shelly Blake (2007)
*"The Violencestring" - Shelly Blake-Plock (2007)

Collaborations

Rather than maintain a regular band, Shelly Blake-Plock has usually collaborated with various musicians in ad hoc ensembles on recording and live projects.

"Apache, What Apocrypha Have You" a limited edition released in 2004, contained live collaborations with Joel Grip and Devin Gray recorded on tour.

Blake-Plock was a member of Joel Grip’s 2005 Unanimal Ensemble with Audrey Chen, Tom Goldstein, Tim Murphy, Devin Gray, Ben Frock, Niklas Barnö, and Sophia Jernberg.

In 2006, Blake-Plock collaborated with Marcus Doverud, Andreas Werliin, and Per Wålstedt on several performance art pieces presented at the Hagenfesten festival in Dala-Floda, Sweden.

Joel Grip was music director in 2007 on the recording of Blake-Plock’s The Violencestring. Musicians performing on the album included Carly Ptak, John Dierker, Niklas Barnö, Eve Risser, Ryan Dorsey, Lawrence Lanahan, Twig Harper, Jenny Gräf Sheppard, Lyle Kissack, Ben McConnell, and Aaron Henkin.

Blake-Plock was part of the 2008 Transformation of Sound Tour with Eve Risser, Yuko Oshima, Joel Grip, Niklas Barnö, Yann Joussein, and Lars Åhlund. [cite web | publisher = Svenska Dagbladet | date = March 2008 | author= Magnus Eriksson | title = Musik mellan lycka och larm | url= http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/scen/artikel_1016581.svd | accessdate = 2008-04-03 ]

Writing

Shelly Blake-Plock writes about culture and food for Baltimore’s City Paper and since 2007 has written a blog called Let the Sky Rain Potatoes. Much of his food-related writing deals with vegetarianism.

Filmography

* "The Toothfairies’ Union" (in production), writer and director
* “From the Graves the Music Came” (2008) a Lack of Color Production
* "Don Addersley Eats Bad Meat" (2006) directed by Christopher Fredricks

References

External links

* [http://www.shellyblake.com/ Shelly Blake-Plock] official website
* [http://www.fallrecords.com/artists/ShellyBlake.html Shelly Blake-Plock] at Fall Records (record label)
* [http://skyrainpotatoes.blogspot.com Let the Sky Rain Potatoes] Blake-Plock's Blog