Dan Deacon Overview

Dan Deacon grew up on Long Island at a time when the local ska scene was burgeoning. Dan Deacon created and sang in his first band, Channel 59, starting in 1996. Channel 59 was well liked for their on-stage flair and... [more]

Dan Deacon grew up on Long Island at a time when the local ska scene was burgeoning. Dan Deacon created and sang in his first band, Channel 59, starting in 1996. Channel 59 was well liked for their on-stage flair and their absurd songs, like "Bionic Man Hands" and "Samurai Warrior Nights". Dan Deacon attended the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in Purchase, New York, where he played in many bands, including tuba for Langhorne Slim and guitar in the improvisational grindcore band Rated R. He completed his graduate studies in electro-acoustic and computer music composition. He studied under composer/conductor Joel Thome and Dary John Mizelle. He is a member of Wham City, an art collective in Baltimore, Maryland. His first two albums as a solo artist, Meetle Mice and Silly Hat vs Egale Hat were released on CD-R on the Standard Oil Records label in 2003 while he was a student at Purchase. The albums are both collections of computer music and live recordings of ensemble pieces. They are markedly different from his most popular record, 2007's Spiderman of the Rings, in that they contain almost no tracks where Deacon sings or uses vocal manipulation. Most of the pieces are instrumentals or sound collages. Following those two albums came another set of records that were pieces of sine waves. 'Green Cobra is Awesome Vs The Sun' is a 42 minute piece of 6 sine waves that slowly drift. 'Goose On The Loose' is a 60 minute piece of Wavetek 180 signal generator being processed through a Digitech Whammy Pedal and a Line 6 Loop/Delay Pedal. His next two releases were the EPs Twacky Cats on Comfort Stand Recordings and Acorn Master on Psych-o-path Records. These were the first releases that contained material with which most of his current listeners would associate him. Spiderman of the Rings was Deacon's first commercially distributed full length album, released by Carpark Records in May 2007. The album was well received by the press and was included in the Best New Music section of Pitchforkmedia.com. The album was also ranked as number 24 on the website's "Top 50 Albums of 2007". Ultimate Reality was released as a DVD in November 2007. It was a return for Deacon to composing music for others to perform. The pieces for percussion and electronics were performed by Jeremy Hyman of Ponytail and Kevin Omeara of Videohippos. The pieces were set to collaged and heavily altered video created by Deacon's long time friend and collaborator Jimmy Joe Roche. Deacon has performed at several leading art centers including Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Getty Center in Los Angeles, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC. Originally to be released in the fall of 2008, Deacon's new album entitled Bromst was released on March 24, 2009. It, like Spiderman of the Rings, was also very well received. Pitchfork gave it an 8.5/10, and it made it to the "best new music" section. [show less]