Pete Nolan & The Black Stones

Pete Nolan has been a figure in the U.S. underground basement psych scene for the past 2 decades. As a founding member of the Magik Markers, Pete has toured with Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., the Dirty 3, and the Black Bananas. Pete’s music with the Magik Markers has appeared on the screen in indie/foreign films Shit Year, by Cam Archer, and The Temptation of St. Tony, by Estonian director Veiko Onpu. Pete, with Magik Markers co-founder Elisa Ambrogio, has appeared live from Abbey Road on fashion icon Nick Knight’s Show Studio program at the invitation of Dazed and Confused editor Jefferson Hack. Over the years Pete’s home base has been fluid, but the gravity of forward thinking improv sound scenes have kept him rooted in the New York/New England axis of heads.

Pete is a founding member of the Magik Markers and Spectre Folk and has collaborated musically with: Steve Shelley, Jandek, J. Mascis, John Olson, Randy “Lee” Sutherland, Chris Corsano, Angst Hase Pfeffer Nase, Elisa Ambrogio, Double Leopards, Son of Earth, Julie Cafritz, Thurston Moore, Kris Abplanalp, Brian Ramirez, Steve Gunn, Aaron Mullan, Mick Flower, Ashtray Navigations, Kim Gordon and Mark Ibold…. all of whom have corrupted the musical brain of Pete Nolan along the well worn road he travels today.

Pete’s solo recording work stretches way back.. yet Easy is his first release using his own name. Pete’s recorded work has always been about amassing large collages of sound onto tape. His early work under the Creeping Jesus moniker evidenced this best: a blend of the primitive sensibilities of the tape work of outsider artist Jean Debuffet with the Michigan/Teutonic Pulse of the Stooges and Kraftwerk. His guitar/drone work has always been rooted in a Lamonte Young by way of Lou Reed sensibility. Pete’s style has matured along the way as he’s racked up a few miles in pro studios learning from producers: Lee Ranaldo, Scott Colburn, and Aaron Mullan, but he’s never strayed too far from his base as a sound collage artist.

Over the years in the Magik Markers and Spectre Folk… Pete has acquired skills in his own style of arranging and storytelling as well. On Easy, Pete brings it all together to create his outsider pop magnum opus. Much respect is due to Julie Nolan, Pete’s wife, who pushed Pete into the deepest reaches of his own brain; where he electrocutes Mark E. Smith mid-performances and enslaves the Clean, making them play the funky drummer for days and days, while Eno whirls his Revox in stormy guilt ridden dreams. But don’t be scared off, that’s just the process. The big payback of Easy is a joyful exaltation of life, freedom, mind-expansion, and Love. Pete thanks his recent experiences as a yoga practitioner, father, and husband for the worldview that permeates Easy. How very new age of him… Pete would like to invite you to get up and dance… it’s Easy.