New BPBS Arts and Media Youtube site!

Go here!  to check out BPBS short films and music videos...

More Kind Words About BPBS Fest and (recurring) DREAMS!!!

Beast, Please!
Today (Friday) kicks off the recurring annual Beast Please Be Still festival which runs today and tomorrow. Put on by former local Datura Blues member Oryan Peterson-Jones, you've got some experimental and mind-expanding music at multiple venues today and tomorrow. Things start off early today at Northtown Coffee at 4 p.m. with Oakland musician Vinnie Byrne along with Eva L'izard and Crowey from Portland. This kickoff of the BPBS festival is free and falls into the experimental folk genre of sorts.

At 7 p.m. the BPBS festival continues at Blondie's in Arcata with some classic rock and '80s covers courtesy of The Gritty Kitties and The Twisted Lickas. It's a free show but never feel embarrassed to leave a tip for the band. The festival has its last show of the night at The Miniplex starting at 9 p.m. with returning festival artists Die Geister Beschwören joined by Ghoulhand and Deep Dark Light. If I remember correctly, all three of these bands played last year's festival. Just $5 gets you in the door for these "darkwave, ambient, soundscapes.

Saturday
It's Day One of the North Country Fair happening in and around the Arcata Plaza so go soak up the sun and the sound of talented local musicians playing throughout the day...  The BPBS festival wraps up tonight with the seventh annual Production of (recurring) Dreams. Now here's the skinny for what happens here. Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, which is comprised of eight short bits, plays while eight bands perform, improvising music to go along with what you (and they) are seeing. It's a cool concept and has gone off well the past few years. Here's the lineup: Opossum Sun Trail performing "Sunshine Through The Rain;" Five Minutes Alone performing "The Peach Orchard;" Ghoulhand performing "The Blizzard;" Die Geister Beschwören performing "The Tunnel;" The Gritty Kitties performing "Crows;" Kit Lamb performing "Mount Fuji In Red;" Deep Dark Light performing "The Weeping Demon;" and Crowey with "Village Of The Watermills." This is all happening at the Sanctuary in Arcata at 7 p.m. for $12.."
Andy Powell
North Coast Journal

www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/beast-please/Content?oid=6105507

Kind Words about BPBS FEST and (recurring) DREAMS!!!

Dream on…

Oryan Peterson-Jones from BPBS Arts & Media can’t remain still, he’s a busy man. He just got back from Cuba where he was recording folkloric rhythms and music, now the dream machine he calls Beast, Please Be Still has an ambitious project unfolding over the weekend.  BPBS Fest 2017 features two days of music with just short of a dozen musical acts performing in four venues.

It all starts Friday afternoon with a series of shows where you’re invited to “walk or bike from one event to the next.” It begins at 4 p.m. with experimental folk at Northtown Coffee by Oryan’s friends Vinnie Byrne and Eva L'izard from Oakland and Crowey from Portland. Then at Blondie’s (at 7 p.m.) hear rock classics from past years by The Gritty Kitties and Rotten Cheeto and the Twisted Lickas. Day one concludes in the Miniplex at Richard’s Goat (at 9 p.m.) with Oryan’s experimental ambient outfit Die Geister Beschwören and two darkwave bands Ghoulhand and Deep Dark Light.

He’ll try to get some sleep to rest up for the big show at The Sanctuary: The 7th annual production of (recurring) DREAMS. Oryan explains, ”The first production was performed in 2010,” when Datura Blues (another of his projects) got into live film scoring. “Akira Kurosawa's 1990 film Dreams was adopted for its segmented narrative, thematic imagery and topical relevance. (The story is divided into eight short films, each recalling a dream Kurosawa had over the course of his life.)

“We project Dreams onto a large screen. Bands perform to the movie in real time but from behind the screen. In this regard, the audience has no way of predicting what will happen, where particular sounds emanate from, what instruments are being used, who is ‘on stage,’ etc. 

“This means the focus is almost entirely upon the movie's plot and imagery. This is what makes it different from similar events: The audience is not watching a band perform to film, they are following a story, with new eyes and ears,” and essentially joining in a waking dream state.

Drift into Dreams at 7 p.m. “sharp,” first with Opossum Sun Trail performing behind the segment "Sunshine Through The Rain,” then Five Minutes Alone ("The Peach Orchard”), Ghoulhand (“The Blizzard”), Die Geister Beschwören (“The Tunnel”), The Gritty Kitties (“Crows” with Martin Scorsese as Van Gogh), Kit Lamb (“Mount Fuji In Red”), Deep Dark Light (“The Weeping Demon”) ending with Crowey creating a soundtrack for "Village Of The Watermills.” Then it’s time to wake up, at least until it’s time to go home and dream good dreams. We can only hope.."

- BOB DORAN

www.madriverunion.com/the-hum-the-same-old-same-old/