Grex (greks) n. 1. a multicellular aggregate of the groups Acrasiomycota or Dictyosteliida, formed for the purposes of travel and food collection. 2. a Bay Area creative music partnership composed of Karl A.D. Evangelista (guitar, vox, etc.), Margaret Rei Scampavia (keys, winds, vox, etc.), and Robert Lopez (drums).
Grex has been called an "otherworldly experience" (Eugene Weekly) a "near-seamless blend of modern jazz, contemporary structuralist composition, indie rock, and blues rock." (Tiny Mix Tapes)
Grex is not just "eclectic"--it synthesizes all of its influences into a brand of song based experimental rock that is unique, fun, and endlessly surprising.
The band's mighty, twisted music has drawn comparisons to English Prog Rock (Henry Cow, The Cardiacs), creative jazz (Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane), and noise rock (Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground).
Grex's sound is rooted in not only the conjunction of a variety of idioms, but also a stubborn rejection of composition and improvisation as rote, learned tasks. The synergy in the band is derived from how both a respect for various, sometimes conflicting musical traditions and a desire to push the boundaries of "genre" and "style" can lead to music that is different from--but just as interesting as--its influences.
Discography:
Live at Home (SUA, 2010)
Live at Trinity Chapel (SUA/Unofficial, 2010)
Second Marriage (SUA, 2011)
Taglish (as Karl Evangelista/Grex, SUA, 2012,
(Selected) Venues Played: The Great American Music Hall (San Francisco), Cafe du Nord (San Francisco), de Young Museum (San Francisco), KALX Live (Berkeley), Artisphere (VA), Bayanihan Community Center (San Francisco), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Chapel of the Chimes (Oakland), Red Poppy Art House (San Francisco), Hemlock Tavern (San Francisco), The Makeout Room (San Francisco), El Rio (San Francisco), Trinity Chapel (Berkeley), In the Flow Festival (Sacramento), Berkeley Arts Festival (Berkeley), The Starry Plough (Berkeley), West End Theater (Quincy), Kingman's Ivy Room (Albany), Littlefield Concert Hall (Oakland), Luna's Cafe (Sacramento), Mama Buzz Cafe (Oakland), ResBox (Los Angeles), Echo Curio (Los Angeles), Que Sera (Long Beach), The Stork Club (Oakland), Bows & Arrows (Sacramento), Human Resources (LA), The Handbag Factory (LA), Subterranean Arthouse (Berkeley), Totally Intense Fractal Mindgaze Hut (Oakland), Awaken Cafe (Oakland), Actual Cafe (Oakland)
Formal Collaborators (members of expanded ensembles, past and present): Francis Wong (saxophone), Cory Wright (reeds), Rob Ewing (trombone), Eli Wallace (piano), Jason Hoopes (bass), John-Carlos Perea (electric bass), Jordan Glenn (drums), Bob LaDue (percussion), Chad McKinney (harmonium), Curtis McKinney (electric bass), Caitlin Moe (vocals/piano), Jim Kaiser (bicycle wheel/electronics), Patrick Rost (electronics), (in Dino Piranha:) Phillip Greenlief (tenor saxophone), Will Redmond (guitar), Noah Phillips (guitar), Doug Stuart (bass), (in Swarm Intelligence:) Kasey Knudsen (tenor sax), Dan Seamans (bass)
Obvious Debtsare owed to Fred Frith, Ornette Coleman and Prime Time, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Anthony Braxton, The Blue Notes/Brotherhood of Breath, Jack Bruce, Bill Dixon, Julius Hemphill, Eric Dolphy, James "Blood" Ulmer, Massacre, Monteverdi, Roscoe Mitchell, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Mal Waldron, The Shadows, Elvis Costello, Dengue Fever, Skeleton Crew, Lou Reed, Henry Cow, The Battered Ornaments, Lou Reed, Radiohead, Can, The White Stripes, Liberation Music Orchestra, Flying Lotus, Outkast, Erik Satie, Don Cherry, Jimi Hendrix, DNA, The Smashing Pumpkins, Marion Brown, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Rollins, Myra Melford, Arnold Schoenberg, AMM, Grachan Moncur III, tUnE-yArDs, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Supersilent, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radu Malfatti, St. Vincent, John Carpenter, Portishead, Tyshawn Sorey, Steve Lehman, Wu Tang Clan, Dave Holland, Sonic Youth, Cream, Crazy Horse, The Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky, kulintang, and Javanese Gamelan