ABOUT

Since the Fall Equinox, 2005, A Year of Songs has dished up a series of mostly quite informal acoustic recordings of songs written and performed by TK Major — many of them tied to microfiction or actual remembrances inspired by the song. Over 400 posts and almost that many original recordings and videos, the AYoS podcasts have had over a half million downloads (using the download statistics at the Internet Archive, where almost all the content is freely available).

In addition to the highly informal (we like to think of them as amiably sloppy) acoustic versions  of TK song’s in AYoS, you can find  some of his finished, ‘studio’ recordings at tkmajor.bandcamp.com

TK Major is also the front man of his own one man band. (Funny how that works, innit?) one blue nine makes what TK likes to call mutant outsider roots pop, a dash of blues, some electronics, a snip of punk sensibility, a whisp of hip hop, and more than a little country. It all makes sense to  him.  And, lately, he’s been leaning a little more on the roots factor in the equation… As the  30-somethings would say, desperately trying to reconnect with a youth culture that’s already moved on, he loves him his banjo.

But a man can’t play music all his life… someone’s gotta buy ocean whitefish and tuna pate  for the kitty. And to that end, TK applies himself to developing sophisticated modern, socially enabled websites for small businesses and organizations as well as for writers, galleries, and artists. You’ll find his day job at www.TKMajor.com.

Other projects by TK Major…

Frippenstein (aka Tranz Azul) — TK’s solo, live, all-improv synth echo loop act, founded in 1991 and active through the 90s. Frippenstein played scores of solo shows but also did a number of performances in improvisational collaboration with  Michael Rothmeyer. You can find their  1993 album  (recorded live with one practice warmup and no outtakes) at their Bandcamp store: rothmeyer-frippenstein.bandcamp.com. And for a year or two in the mid-90s, TK banded together with his old pals, Caz Camberline (aka Steve Becker) on lap steel, guitar, and clarinet, Ann Dejarnett  on violin, and the late Kurt Schnyder on percussion, recorder, flutes, and whistles.

The Disintegrators was a goof. TK was looking for a project to prod himself into a new round of songwriting and came up with the idea of a concept album comprised of girl name songs — using the names of the current distaff staff at his favorite local coffee house. He called it the Barista  Cycle. He thought it might be fun to return to the music of his youth, and do it in a rock style, even though he was far more into electronica, post-dub, trip hop, and noise pop. That said, by the time he was done, he felt like he really was done with rock.

Limón y Chocolate was intended to be a side effort where TK would channel his more Latin-flavored efforts. Currently, there are only two versions of the same song on their ReverbNation page — but, by all rights, the one blue nine mini-hit “Bebe’s Bossa” should have been folded into their oeuvre…  One of these days, TK’s going to get back in that  Latin groove.

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