Porto Franco Records

Two songs from Bells Atlas

Peter — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:14:54 +0000

Two songs by the newly renamed Bells Atlas (formerly search-engine-unoptimized Bells). Porto Franco Files and Bells Atlas made three videos last year. We’re hoping to finish editing them soon. In the meantime, enjoy, and follow them on some social media or other.

Quinn DeVeaux covers Ray Charles

Peter — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:34:25 +0000

Last summer Quinn came by my office to record two songs. The first one – a cover of Ray Charles’ What Would I Do Without You. The second – an original Weight. Here they are.

In September released an album of duets by Quinn DeVeaux and Meklit Hadero. It’s titled simply Meklit & Quinn. They recorded three originals and nine covers of Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, Patti Smith, MGMT, Arcade Fire and The Talking Heads.

Karina Denike with Lily Taylor and Melody Ferris

Peter — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 02:04:21 +0000

I first heard Karina’s singing on the Aaron Novik record Floating World Vol. 1. Soon after I saw her group at their monthly Sunday show at Rite Spot Cafe in San Francisco and was floored. That was a few years ago. In the summer 2012 we finally got to record a couple of songs with Karina, Lily and Melody for this video series. The Beachboys cover also features James Frazier on guitar. Big thanks to James for helping record and mix these tracks.

Beth Custer Ensemble

Peter — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:54:16 +0000

We shot this episode featuring composer, clarinetist and singer Beth Custer in March 2012. It turned out to be one of the biggest productions in the history of The Files with six musicians and a production team of four. Photographed and recorded at Beth Custer’s Red House Speak Easy, this video features the Beth Custer Ensemble with Diana Mangano, Chris Grady, David James, Vicky Grossi, Jan Jackson. Big thanks to Jeff Cressman for recording and mixing and to Adam Willumsen and Federico Cusigch for helping shoot. At the end of the video I put together a few links to other videos with Beth Custer for you to check out.

That night we produced two songs. The second is coming your way soon. You can subscribe to our series on YouTube to be notified when we post new songs.

If it’s your first exposure to the music of Beth Custer, you owe it to yourself to spend some time on her website and explore her other projects:
Clarinet Thing – a quartet with Sheldon Brown, Ben Goldberg and Harvey Wainapel.
Trance Mission – with Stephen Kent, Kenneth Newby and John Loose
Duets with guitarist Fred Frith
Eighty Mile Beach – trip hop duo with Christian Jones
and more…

Quinn & Meklit backstage at Yoshi’s

Peter — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:35:34 +0000

Last week at Meklit & Quinn’s CD release show at Yoshi’s Oakland we organized a little jam session in the green room and I shot two videos. This is the first – a Mary J. Blige cover. Meklit says this CD was the first she ever bought with her own money. Check back next week for the green room version of This Must Be The Place – M&Q’s talking heads cover.

Michael Coleman & Jacob Zimmerman

Peter — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:08:36 +0000

In late February I saw Michael and Jacob play a set of old tunes at a house show in Oakland. They were scheduled to record the set a few days later at Tiny Telephone and I asked if I could tag along with a couple of cameras. To my knowledge they haven’t yet released this album, but you can find more of their music at michaelcolemanmusic.com and jacobrexzimmerman.com

Meklit, Quinn and shadow master Christine Marie make an Arcade Fire cover video

Peter — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 17:47:51 +0000

…and the first video for the first single from the most likely last Porto Franco album is here. It was designed and directed by Christine Marie. It was a blast to be part of the production team and help see it through to completion.

There is very little layered editing in this video. The multi-layered shadows were done the old-fashioned lo-fi way using handheld lights, props, gobos and a big screen screen at the Intersection for the Arts space.

Sudanese folk song by Alsarah and Nahid in the Mission District

Peter — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 23:16:01 +0000

I first heard Alsarah sing in a video posted by Meklit Hadero (a friend and PFR recording artist) on the Nile Project blog. I asked if Meklit could connect us, and it just so turned out that Alsarah was visiting San Francisco the following week and was available for a quick video shoot with her sister Nahid who lives in San Francisco.

Mark Growden – Bicycle Handlebar Improvisation

Peter — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:11:18 +0000

Mark and I have been planning to make this video for 2 years now. Finally it’s done. Took about 30 min.

CopperWire – Stories – acoustic hip hop video

Peter — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:34:20 +0000

Hey! We made a rap video.

We shot this at an undisclosed location on Valencia and 21st Street in San Francisco two weeks before their album dropped and shot up the top 5 on college radio charts. We kind of messed up the sound recording, but Chris Coniglio (who played the guitar) did an amazing job fixing it up so it sounds as good as it does in the video. Chris co-wrote much of the music and produced the album.

The EP is mostly the brainchild of Ellias Fullmore (Burntface, guy with dreads in the vid) and Chris. They’re looking for ways to create interactive experiences with music. They’re both musicians, engineers, coders etc., so they’re doing most of the technical work in house.

Check it out.