“Grafting dissonant nods to Brian Eno, Autechre, and My Bloody Valentine, Anticon affiliates Alias and Dosh inject their own genetic peculiarities into the ever-pulsing pedigree.” —Austin Chronicle
Spend an evening exploring the sonic worlds of Minneapolis avant-rock sound sculptor Martin Dosh on Saturday, May 3, 8 pm in the Walker Art Center’s William and Nadine McGuire Theater. Dosh, known as much for his solo work as with local bands Fog and Lateduster, here teams with frequent collaborator Andrew Bird and guest local and national luminaries Jel (Anticon), Andrew Broder, Mike Lewis, JT Bates, Adam Linz, and Jeremy Ylvisaker for an evening bridging jazz, electro, hip-hop, minimalism, and ambient music.
Martin Luther King Chavez Dosh (born 1972), known in music as Dosh, is a musician and multi-instrumentalist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As an artist, Dosh is a percussionist who uses various electronics, often with a Fender Rhodes. Dosh has been characterized mostly as experimental and electronic-based due to his use of many samplers and looping machines and the rhythmic feel of much of his music, with songs often relying on Dosh alone on keyboards, xylophone, and drums. He is known locally and nationally for often being in collaboration with other musicians during live sets and on recordings.
In May, Dosh will release Wolves and Wishes, his fourth full-length CD, featuring Mike Lewis, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Andrew Bird, Fog, Odd Nosdam, and more.
Dosh grew up in the Twin Cities. At a young age he also took piano lessons and then discovered FM radio in the early ’80s. He began drumming at age 15. By the time he left home for Simon’s Rock College at age 16, he had decided music would likely be his profession, however, he subsequently got a degree in creative writing.
Throughout the ’90s, he played with a number of bands on the east coast. When he moved back to Minneapolis in 1997, he started his own band, as he had begun to compose his own music. He also worked at his alma mater, Lake Country School, teaching percussion, driving the school bus, and assisting classroom teachers. Immersing himself in the local scene, Dosh played with many bands over the next five years: Nasty Goat, Fog, Best Red, Animals Expert at Hankering, Iffy, Vicious Vicious, “T,” and Lateduster; all this time, recording tape after tape of original music on a 4-track machine.
Dosh’s work with Andrew Broder in Lateduster and Fog gave him an experience that helped him begin to perform solo. In 2002, he released his debut recording, Dosh, which he had recorded himself, mostly in his basement. The CD developed a following in the local Twin Cities scene. After playing many shows, City Pages voted him second on their annual “Picked to Click” list.
Dosh’s self-titled debut was re-released internationally in September 2003 on Anticon records, and was reviewed in the Village Voice, Pitchfork, Urb, Flaunt, Xlr8r, The Big Takeover, and a number of online magazines. Dosh is also known for the incorporation of his family life into his work. His EP Naoise is named after his son. One song on Naoise is Happy Song for Tadhg, a reference to his son’s half-brother. He is also known for writing a song for his future wife at the time called, I Think I’m Getting Married. Dosh performs frequently with Andrew Bird and contributed significantly to his 2007 album, Armchair Apocrypha, co-writing the song Simple X, playing drums and adding layers of Fender Rhodes atmospherics.
Tickets to The World of Dosh are $20 ($18 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600.
