Help Wanted Productions and it's bands are dedicated to not only creating and recording music but also playing it live for an audience. It is our belief that too many electronic musicians pass up the opportunity to expand their music due to the challenges of actual performance versus the comfort of studio wizardry. The technology and instruments used by many of the HWP projects often makes it impossible to duplicate studio recordings but having done a number of shows over the years we have discovered the impact of the bands does translate to this environment and the music takes on a whole new life on-stage as a result.
Tony Violence and friends
rock out at Fishtasticon 2006
Upcoming Live
Performances:
Flower Girl Debut show almost here!
After two years and four albums Philly underground spacerocknoisemeisters Flower Girl are finally floating out of the studio and into your ears in a live concer event at GERM Books and gallery. You do NOT want to miss this special and intimate venue and performance. The concert coincides with sign king Wayne Hamilton's Art show of silouetted arms (the 2nd amendment kind). Germ proves how it rules once again.
WHO:
Flower
Girl andArt Gallery concerty Wayne Hamilton. Continuing Painting show by John
Malloy
WHERE: GERM Books and Gallery 2005 Frankford Ave , Fishtown.
WHEN: First Friday September 5th, 2008.
Performance around 7 ish
Gallery Open 5-10PM
FREE!!!
Email for more information or to book a HWP band.
Recent shows:
August 24th Tony Violence and Overdrive Date Master brushed off the cobwebs in their tube amps to celebrate the life and work of Philly's own beloved amp Guru John Martin. John passed away in May this year but is not forgotten. Local bands such as The Beloved Infidels, the Dipinto Guitars crew, and many, many more folks joined hands and hearts to fill the stage at Johnny Brenda's with Martone amps and joyous noises.

Tony Violence jams with Wayne as a Green Martone looks on approvingly.
Rock and Roll over baby as DJ Wrong once again cranked up the tunes and amped up the energy at the Philly Roller Girls double header match and pool party Saturday August 9th. The Liberty Belles and Independance Dolls strutted their stuff big time in two very exciting matches. Check 'em out at Phillyrollerderby.com.
First Friday May 2nd, 2008 there was a weird Circuit bent electronic Musical performance by David Talento to accompany the Photo Gallery Show by local artist Lisa Sunshine at the High Wire Gallery on Frankford ave. A clicking, whirring, dancin' time was had by all.
Boil, Boil, Toil, and Trouble. With lots of Bubbles and Bleeps. Friday April 4th 2008 GERM bookstore hosted the CD release Party of Sweeping the Noise Floor's new cd Baseline. A wonderful crowd, good, art, great times, and weird modular synth music ensued. Special thanks to artist Christopher Wilke, David E. Williams, and all the folks who wandered in and out adding to the moment.
Spin, Spandex, Spin - Saturday night March 15th DJ Wrong spun the dirty at the Philly Roller Girls official season opener. Special songs for the special crowd flowed as ladies proved once again how they rule Philadelphia sports. Take THAT Eagles! Check out this action shot of the Broad Street Butchers warming up with the Famous DJ Wrong sign glowing in the background.
Credit: LoFi
Sat December 1st six esteemed Philadelphia musicians gathered at Germ Books and Gallery to ritually perform the Igni Natura Renovatur Integra: Closing Requiem Concert for Jennifer Bates' Art Show At GERM Books and Gallery. The artists were Jon Canady, Jerome Deppe, John Gibbons (Bardo Pond), Kennneth (Radio Eris), David Talento, David E. Williams and their sounds and spirits mixed quite well in this special one off tribute to GERM's founder the late Jennifer Bates. An audio recording of the event was made and may be released by GERM sometime in the near future. Thanks to all who attended.
NEWS Flash: A page dedicated to this event with pictures, video and audio is now up at: http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2007/12/06/requiem-for-a-queen-the-jennifer-bates-memorial/ Many thanks to the keepers of this flame.
Sunday November 11th marked the annual Northern Liberties Talent show and Tony Violence gave aspecial solo performance of Goth Girl dedicated to the stripper in the green room. Much love to all.
Where can you play the Sex Pistols, White Zombie, and LOUD live Iggy Pop and join the crowd and atheletes screaming and dancing rather than getting kicked out of the DJ booth? Why The Philly Roller Girls gigs of course!DJWrong spun their doubleheader bout October 21st and got the Philly Rollers Girls treatment in return. It was a truly rocking time. Special thanks to Hymen Heaven, Vixen Van Go Go, Bobby Sandwich, and all the ladies and teams for making this our spin of the year.
DJWrong - never says die and did another hipster wedding Sept 22nd. Don't forget you can book Wrong for your private or public adventures.
Tony Violence - played Sept 7th for the Postivespace.org FISHTASTICON III show. Special thanks to the Oil Slick Gang puppets and the whole PS lineup and artists.
David Talento provided musical accompainment for the Philadelphia stop of a several-city reading tour dubbed "Underground Literary America." Underground Literary Alliance authors, Wred Fright and Crazy Carl Robinson at GERM Books spanking new store on Frankford ave July 18th. Beatniks were beaten but only in a good way.
DJWrong - Spun Sunday Brunch at the Abbaye June 10th. Good good times.
DJWrong -
Had fun in the sun with at the PositiveSpace annual Arts and Crap sale May 5th
in the town of Fish. Also rocking was Brendan Finney.
DJWrong - spun a great sunday brunch at the Abbaey in northern
Liberties November 12th and then that evening Tony Violence debuted a new
harmonica and beatbox tune at the Northern Liberties talent show at Johnny
Brendas in the town of Fish.
David Talento did a reading at GERM books for their
event at the 215 Literary Festival titled "Readings
from the Abyss" on Saturday October 7. For the curious he read an except from
"We" by Zamiyatin along with other great performances by Jim Knipfel, Jon
Cannady, Mr. Dead Guy, A.D. Amorosi and others.
Saturday September 9th the 2nd
annual Positive
Space FISHTASTICON V. II - was Fringe
approved and successful. Performers included Proviso, Brenden Finney, and Tony Violence.
The audience and bands had their hands full sparring with the Oil Slick Gang -
Three foul-mouthed puppets doused in spilled oil - who held their own in keeping
the joint jumpin'.
David
Talento - MC'd and played a live
Acid techno set at the annual outdoor Art and Crap Sale May 9th. Also appearing
were Brendan Finney and Bill Fields brining their amazing ambient electronics to
the masses. A great time was had by all including those who bought the cool
handmade glass turntable designs.
UPDATE: The Live techno
set played that weekend is now available on a limited edition full color cd
David Talento - Acid 2006
for only $10!! DJ Wrong spun his
magic with a set of love songs for those who need them the most for the 3rd
annual Valentine's Day Sunday brunch at the Abbaye Feb 12th. Despite a late
start due to the snowstorm of the season it was the best party yet with twisted
love songs running for almost five hours. HUGE thanks to the locals who came out
for the snowball fights and fun and special thanks to David at the bar for
supplying the warming hootch to keep the afternoon flowing.
Muscle Factory
rocked the Big Bad Mustache party at the
Barbary Friday Nov 4th. The usual insanity ensued with some added bonus material
as well as two! versions of "the Spotter". What a crowd, what a crowd!!! Thanks
to Richard and his mullet and all the 70s hair for making it a magical night.
Monday Oct 10th was the 2ndGERM Books and Gallery
awareness night at Bar Noir. There was a bigger crowd that the first which means
the GERM is spreading. Opening the show was a rare full solo set by
Tony Violence (with
special emphasis on Goth Girl for the crowd) folowed with a great
performance by David E
Williams (doing a special duet with
Olivia Neutron Bomb) and Oniric Empiruim brough the haus down by midnight.
Thank yous A.D Amorosi and all who were there!
Wednesday Sept 14th David
Talento performed at the Fringe Festival
late Night Cabaret unveiling a new multimedia avant/guitar piece composed
especially for the Fringe 2005. Also the movie The Peryton
was shown to rousing response well as
other VERY late night Fringe mayhem including Needles Jones as the MC, a
rocking slimmed down band of the Str8 Razors, and a lovely Southern belle
playing metal covers on a Ukelele with some ..extra surpirses. A good and dirty
time was had by all.
Tony Violence and
David Talento performed
at the Binge festival August 19th at Tritone. Out of tune and in yo face a
good time was had by all.
Muscle Factory played a
beyond sold out hot and sweaty gig at Silk City July 28th. Sorry to the fans who
were turned away. We'll be back and pumping with a fervor
soon.
DJ Wrong spun a tasty
brunch at the Abbaey in Northern Liberties Sunday June 26th. Highlights included
more insane mixing (from Monster Magnet to Lucinda Williams to Ray Charles
to Magic Slim to Belly to... well you get the idea). Lots of mellow acoustic,
rocking indie rage, and just plaing GOOD music. Special thanks for the request
of the Chimunks doing a cover of The Knack's "Good Girls
Don't".
Muscle Factory pumped its way
into everyones hearts Sat June 25 at the Manhattan Grille in Fishtown lifting a
sweaty hot summer night to new cool heights. Also appearing was a smoking set
from Hydogen Jukebox.
FISHTASTICON the PositiveSpace Arts
extravaganza was an amazing success. Held Saturday June 18th, there was new Art
on the walls, four AMAZING and totally different bands, and great live
video/visual art which made for a diverse and entertaining evening for all.
Performers included David E.
Williams , an ambient guitar set by
David Talento ,
classical/acoustic mavens Pro Viso, and the live sonic and thought mayhem of
Parasite Milita. Waiting For Cable provided the eye candy.
Sat April 23rd was a blow out night for
The
Peryton cast and crew. In pouring
rain we had a SRO screening of the film and other 48 Hour movies from this
year's festival at Blue In Green. DJ
Wrong and Sean Gallager spun the tunes
and a good time was had by all.
Monday March 28th DJ Wrong, David E Williams, and
Angel of Decay celebrated Philadelphia's Finest Independent Bookstore,
GERM
Books and Gallery on GERM Awareness
Night at Bar Noir. Live sets were so amazing the sound system gave out and then
was revived and Svengali A.D. Amorsi oversaw all while GERM offered screenings
of post apolapytic films such as "The Omega Man" and "The Night Porter". An
incredible time was had by all.
DJ Wrong Spun his 2nd Annual
"Music For Lovers (and Everyone Else)" Valentine's Day set at the Abbaey June
13th. A partial set list of the songs of love has been posted
HERE. Enjoy
:)
The annual Overdrive Date Master Holiday Show was held
on a rocking and freezing monday night at Tritone (Jan 17th) and went amazingly
well. Also playing was YETI not to be missed in future shows for (among other
things) the life size YETI suit worn by their lead singer/guitarist
which..well... ROCKED.
The first LoFi Photography exhibition was
held at GERM Books and Gallery
the entire month of November. There was a great crowd at the opening reception
and plenty of people stopped by throughout the month. Many thanks to Jennifer
Bates of GERM. Check out the Exhibit web page here.
David Talento debuted his first
multi-media film/music project at the 2004 Fringe/Live Arts festival on Sept
15th. DJ Wrong spun some fun
June 27th at The Abbey with a special set of lots of Ray Charles. Somehow
a coherent transition from Louis Prima to Devo was made in four songs.
Good times and thanks to all that showed up.
Another killer show with Muscle Factory and
Wastoid @ Silk
City went down May 29th. Special thanks to the exceptional sound guy who made
both bands sound as amazing as they really can be.
May 1st DJ
Wrong spun a pretty offensive set of
disco/swing/and spoken word with some industrial and piano music thrown in for
residents fo the bi anual Fishtown Art's a Crap sale. Thanks to Bill and all at
Postiviespace for having the Cojones to ask for it.
Muscle Factory and
Wastoid played a
sold out show at Silk City Saturday, March 20th. A hard rocking and
lifting time was had by all with the best audience participation yet. We'll be
doing it again soon!
Sunday Feb 15th DJ
Wrong spun a post VD Sunday
brunch set of eclectic jazz, blues, pop, and of course local bands at The
Abbey restaurant in North Liberties. The Eggs benedict and Louis Armstrong, Tom
Waits bootlegs, and unreleased and bootleg local talent flowed
freely.
December 27th Muscle
Factory slammed the underground playing
a gig with Cobra Man (featuring Shawn
Kilroy and Boyd of London as the stage band)
at the Artists at Work warehouse the Saturday after Christmas in Northern
Liberties. (See below Picture) What a way to blow out the new year. Thanks
to everyone who shouted out and set a stage record for the number of audience
lifters and workout champs.
December 10th, Muscle Factory played an INSANE
wild party with Need New Body on the boarder of Fishtown and Northern Liberties.
Marc
Brodzik's film crew was there to
capture the mayhem. This was a full return to the original slap and pump MF
style: raw, muscular, and full of great fans. Thanks to everyone who came
and helped the band lift.
November 14th, a crisp Friday night at
Tritone, brought the fatihful a great show featuring
Virgil Avery ,
Tony Violence , and
Plastron. The eclectic mix of bands showed there still is a good time to
be had for those who are adventurous in their bookings. Thanks to those who came
and especially for the free cigarette.
Sunday October 26th was a busy
afternoon and evening for HWP founder David
Talento . From 2-6 PM the Rotunda offered it's 2nd
annual interactive "Plugged In" show which featured a number of local electronic
wizards giving demos and having the audience come up and play with interesting
and entertaining Gizmos such as the Zeitron .
Sunday evening was the Halloween Salon presented by Andrea Clearfield which
featured classical compostitions in addition to folk, gospel, and to add some
chaos to the event a L.I.F.E.
preformance.
On Saturday October 4th Muscle Factory played the
Khyber Pass. Sweat poured, mayhem ensued, chaos reigned and fans got the famous
Speedo salute by the end of the set. Thanks to all who came. We promise to hit
"The Spotter" next gig. Check out the Muscle
Factory web page for a live except from the band
introductions of this gig.
On Sept 6th and 7thDavid
Talento performed a double bill of underground
music and video for the 2003 Fringe Festival. Titled Guitar/Not
Guitar this show featured live ambient loops and processed
guitar synthesizer. Also appearing were LoVID from NYC who did a great set of
live video manipulation and oscillating music and images.
Thursday August 21st ROCK HARD Muscle Factory
grunted their way through their best set yet with the audience jumping in and
lifting to pump up the jams. Despite a looming curse of bass Drums 1929 and
Helio Creed also were on hand to deliver the Space rock the crowd needed.
Local madman Darren Finzio ressurected Muscle Factory
for a sold out show at Tritone in Feb 2003. David Talento sat in on modular
synthesizer, weight lifting samples, and too small tank top while the boys
plowed though a set of tight hard rock and workout roll. Also appearing
was Need New Body who blew what was left of the place away.
The 5th annual Overdrive Date Master Holiday Show went off at the Rotunda on Jan 17th this year. Also
appearing was the Great Quentini.
The Steve Phoneix Band, Killroy, and
DJ Wrong played Silk City Jan 6th for a rock and roll coochie coo that would
have made your mama proud. As it was it made us proud. look for varitions of
this all star lineup on new HWP releases in 2003.
On Sunday November 17th
the Rotunda hosted the first Philadelphia Children's Electronic Workshop.
Families and kids of all ages were treated to various workstations where they
could tweak, twiddle, bang, and swack instruments ranging from vintage modular
synthesizers to amplified drum heads and homebrew motion senstive midi
controllers. the event featured local electronic gurus David Talento
and Steven Zeitler as well as Canadian improvisors Jeff Allport and
Tim Olive. A noisy and good time was had by
all.
Monday Sept 9th David Talento hosted the Fringe
late night cabaret spinning a full set as DJ
Wrong In addition to playing a short set as Tony Violence. Hats off
to the Fringe Crew and masochistic audience members who stayed with the show on
a late Monday night, it was fun!
A dual bill at the 2002 Fringe Festival featuring
David Talento and Douglas Ovens played two shows
on August 31st and Sept. 2, both shows were well attended and
of course. Daive performed his handheld music set featuring the nanollop gameboy
synthesizer and Minimusic.com's beatpad software while Doug played a wonderufl
set of experimental marimba and malletkat midi controllers.
DJ Wrong spun a full
evening of his brand of anti-DJ turntablism May 12th at Tritone. Everything from Dixieland Jazz to Eastern Bloc
Techno to William Shatner's original infamous and haunted recordings were
prominetly displayed. Thanks to those who came out and dug recognized the
obcures SWEET tracks.
David Talento (HWP founder and the guy typing
this) performed a special live Handheld Music set at the Society for Electro
Acoustic Music in the US (aka SEAMUS ) conference in
Iowa City on Friday April 5, 2002 at Gabe's Oasis 330 E Washington Iowa
City. It went WONDERFUL thanks to Kent Williams of Corn Warning, the
other musicians (Bill Van Loo WRAITH and DJ KAO JYAN), the audience, and
the bald barteneder who gave good chat and free shots.
DJ Wrong and Tony Violence
played at a private party at BASH nightclub for the Art
Director's Club of Philadelphia's annual membership party on Feb 22nd
2002. also appearing were the fabulous Bald Mermaids and the Great Quentini. The
reception was warm and the DJ Set got rave reviews from the other artisits so
that's all we ask.
Overdrive Date Master played two different shows
back to back in December. the Frist was the album release party for thier new
Phone call message machine inspired EP "Chicken City Road" on Dec 13th at
Tritone. the Following evening the ODM holiday trio played their annual
turntable perversion at the Dec 14th Gateway to Moonbase Alpha concert.
Thanksgiving eve (Nov 21st 2001) David Talento
debuted his palm pilot improvisational sequencing setup for a live show at the
The Project Room 960 N 8th St in Phila PA.
Opening for the 4th Dimension and the Centimeters from Ca. a good groovy
time was had by all. Music For Isolation Tanks at the Fringe Festival.
MFIT played two wonderful outdoor shows at the 2001 Fringe Festival September 5
and 15th. Both shows went ahead smoothly and with ther best techincal and
professional assitance we have ever been treated to. Kudos to the Fringe team
for making these MFIT shows a true joy to play. (Keep your eyes peeled for
new tracks and a possible CD release of some of these performances!)
Tony Violence unleased some new songs in a solo
set September 9th and proudly brough out the new and improved Tony Violence
Trio Sept 14th for two short sets at the Fringe Festival Cabaret. The
definitive recording of "The Drunken Forgetful Whore" is now available for
download at Http://www.mp3.com/tony_violence check it out! Friday March 9th the Tony Violence Trio performed
Side Project? What Side Project? -An evening of Indie Song Writers featuring:
Steve Phoenix and Friends (aka Wayne Hamilton of Vibrolux, Suffcox, Floating
Dogs, etc etc), The Tony Violence Trio (aka David Talento of Music For Isolation
Tanks, etc and David E. Williams), and Stunt Girl (aka Beth Case of She-Ha). A
good time was had by all.
Wednesday February 21st, 2001 Tryptic was held at
Silk City in Philadelphia. Overdrive Date Master performed with
Dev79, Murcury, EDK, and video art was supplied by Josh Kline. Gina
and gair put it together and it rocked in an avant noise, electronic with some
DJs sort of way.
Thursday February 15th 2001 marks the live Philadelphia
debut of the Tony Violence Trio, featuring David E Williams
on keyboards playing new arrangements
of classic TV songs and stories. the show was helf at Eden Roc for the
Philadelphia Art Director's Guild and despite techinical difficulties (is there
any club with a working $#@in microphone in this town??) things were fun and
lose. Also appearing were various arists form Arrakis records a philadlephia Hip
hop label and the highlight was an appearence by belly dancer Nadja Samiya
who did her fire dance while the TV3 played as her backup band.
Friday Feb. 2nd, 2001 Tony Violence
performed opening a show on First Friday at the Upside Down Cafe in Olde City.
Also performing were Dev79, Adam Field, and an electronic jam session around
with Charles Cohen , David Talento,
and Dev 79.
Overdrive Date Master
performed their annual Christmas Show at the December
2000 Gateway to Moonbase Alpha concert on 12/15/2000. This annual ODM show
brought out dueling turntables stocked with Flea Market records, John Martin on
heavily processed electric mandolin, Binky the wonder chimp on remote controlled
percussion and "vocals", and many more heavy duty surprises including the
concert debut of the new ODM Doubleneck bass/guitar. There is one pic already on
the Christmas Show
link. Thanks to everyone at the Phila. Ambient consortium and the other
bands and staff who made it so much fun.
On Friday November 10th, 2000
Music
For Isolation Tanks performed a
two hour retrospective of all the styles it has mutated through the past ten
years at the Border's bookstore in the Whitehall Mall in Allentown PA. The
performance went extremely well there are two free 15 minute MP3s up on the
samples
page.
The FRINGE 2000 featured
three evenings of performances based around David Talento's new CD
The
L.I.F.E. Album on the Ethereal
outdoor stage Sept 9th,10th, and 16th in Olde City Philadelphia. This was the
first multi-media/musical performance put together by HWP and it was very
well attended and shocking well received. Thanks to the Fringe staff and all the
people who showed up.
As Surreal as it sounds HWP founder David Talento played
a two hour avant/electronic set as part of a Children's party from 10 PM to
midnight Friday July 7th at Border's Bookstore in Allentown PA The performance
was part of the celebration for the fouth book in the children's Harry Potter
series. Hundreds of children and parents stopped by the "Music Machine" to
twiddle joysticks and turns knobs controlling a modular synthesizer and pitch
shifting tape recorder. A great time was had by all.
Music For Isolation Tanks performed a live set of
electronic/avant nonsense as part of the Big Mess Cabaret's evening on
both June 23rd and June 24th. MFIT closed the show upstairs at the Balcony
around 1:30 AM sending a small audience out into the night a bit more confused
that when they came in.
David Talento did a short solo set as part of the
Steve Phoenix roadshow at Bob and Barbara's in May. Also appear were the
Parameciums, Wayne Hamilton, Shawn Kilroy, and others. A sloppy, ugly
time was had by all.
HWP Founder David Talento performed an acoustic show at
Bob and Barbara's Jazz lounge on Tuesday January 18th along with Virgil
Avery and an acoustic set by alternative rockers Aitch.
Music For Isolation Tanks performed on December 17th as part of the Gate to Moon Base
Alpha series sponsered by the Philly Ambient
Consortium . Also appearing were Chuck
Van Zyle's The Ministry of Inside Things and an amazing performance by Saul
Stokes.
The Fringe Festival '99 premiere of Night Nurse at the
Fresh Ears/New Hearing new composer's evening went over gangbusters on Friday
September 17th @ St. George's Church in Olde City. A great evening of music and
art was had by all. Special thanks to David E. Williams for providing the
appropriate Goth String quartet. Visit David's own great web site by clicking
here. DEW
Tues Sept 7th. Overdrive Date Master played an
early night out at the Khyber Pass. thsi show featured special guest John Martin
on electric processed mandolin and the audience brought a pup tent and ten foot
Burmese Python out to enjoy the show. Thanks kids!
Thurs Sept 2nd. Fresh on the heels of his solo Bob and
Barbara's acoustic gig , David Talento played at an evening of twisted
anti-singer songwriters including phily scensters Paul Henry and Adam Brodsky
Upstairs at Nicks.
Overdrive Date Master played the
Chicago Neu Muzik Summit.July 10th and 11th. GREAT Time. Thanks to all at
Kultbox!
The TRUE stars of the show... David Talento played a solo acoustic set with Decontrol
singer Paul Henry at the wonderful Bob and Barbara's Jazz Lounge on
Tuesday August 10. Nice write up by A.D. Amorosi in the City Paper and the joint
was jumpin'! Thanks to everyone who came out.
Here are some excellent links to calendars and musicians
who can be found challenging and pushing the limits of music. Visit them
frequently.
Charles
Cohen and Straylight contantly perform
on the East Coast. Email For
more information on live performances.
2007 Performances:
Order online from our
Catalog.
2006 Performances:
2005 Performances:
Joining him onstage was be
Rebbcca Sloan of the Bald Memaids. Special thanks to the Fringe team and crew
who helped put it all together for the performance. The piece went incredibly
well and will undoubtaly work it way into being completed as a film short and
released sometime in 2005.
2004 Performances:
Go Tom GO!!!!!
Nadja shakes it all night long while Tony and Mr. Williams keep the
Middle Eastern beat...
NGC-1275 plays
and mutates space all the time.
DJ Spacling's Ambient and Noise
Consortium keeps track of all the music and noise fit to
hear. Visit this site for info and listings on everyone from the classical
Relache Ensemble to DJ John Shenk's ambient workouts.
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