Wednesday, October 07, 2009
iPhone Copilot GPS navigator
this excellent app is a turn by turn talking navigator that works like a dedicated Garmin or Tomtom unit but it cost $35, with no additional subscription charges, and is amazing value. It's fast, has a very clear display and easy user interface. To mount and power it in the car I got a Belkin TuneBase FM ($89 at Frys) that plugs very firmly into the lighter socket and has a gooseneck that lets you adjust the position. The iPhone clamp works with a case fitted, and I was able to tune the car FM to hear the turn by turn directions along with the music playing. There is an output jack if you have an aux input socket on your car stereo, and a USB to charge a second iPhone on long trips or whatever else you have.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Solar Power - High and low usage and costs for the first month
The solar array continues to generate over 20KWh on a clear day, but our daily consumption varies a lot. On Sunday we were running the washing machine, dryer, pumping water from the well for a few hours, watching TV and baking/cooking/dish-washing for seven people, and we hit an all time high using almost 50KWh.
The next day, running pretty close to the minimum possible, we used about 13 KWh.
Our total generation for the month of September was about 700 KWh. The output is dropping as the day gets shorter and the sun gets lower, so our 4.2KW system peaked at about 3.4KW at the start of the month, after a rain shower cleaned the panels and the air we saw a peak of 3.7KW for a short period of one day, then it dropped back to 3.3KW and it ended the month at 3.2KW. The daily output on a clear day was 26KWh at the start of September and 24KWh at the end.
Our approximate total consumption for september was 1100 KWh, and since we are on the time-of-use E6 rate the net metering subtracted the 700 we generated and broke down the rest as -100 KWh at peak time (1-7pm), and 500 KWh mid and off-peak. We were billed $11.50 which is the base level for PG&E, and a total of $17 for 400 KWh was added to the annual accumulation.
In a year's time the net for the year is due to get settled. The very complex details are available from PG&E, but basically instead of costing us on a sliding scale of 11c-38c per KWh, the solar array keeps us at the bottom end of the scale and at the E6 rate it costs 8c off peak, 14c mid peak, and while we are running the meter backwards at peak PG&E pay us 30c per KWh. So our typical electric bill of $250 was reduced to $28.
I have been asked about the payback time for the installation. This is part of the calculation that the vendor sales-rep makes for your particular situation. In my case we made it much more complex by replacing the roof shingles, shutting down our use of propane, buying new appliances and increasing our use of electricity. However If we ignore all that and average $200/month savings, then after all the rebates the solar system installation of about $20K has a payback time of less than 8 years on a naive calculation. If we take into account a 5% interest rate on the installation cost it's more like 12 years, and if we assume that electricity costs would rise over that time it's somewhere in-between. I'm also assuming that the value of the house has gone up.
The next day, running pretty close to the minimum possible, we used about 13 KWh.
Our total generation for the month of September was about 700 KWh. The output is dropping as the day gets shorter and the sun gets lower, so our 4.2KW system peaked at about 3.4KW at the start of the month, after a rain shower cleaned the panels and the air we saw a peak of 3.7KW for a short period of one day, then it dropped back to 3.3KW and it ended the month at 3.2KW. The daily output on a clear day was 26KWh at the start of September and 24KWh at the end.
Our approximate total consumption for september was 1100 KWh, and since we are on the time-of-use E6 rate the net metering subtracted the 700 we generated and broke down the rest as -100 KWh at peak time (1-7pm), and 500 KWh mid and off-peak. We were billed $11.50 which is the base level for PG&E, and a total of $17 for 400 KWh was added to the annual accumulation.
In a year's time the net for the year is due to get settled. The very complex details are available from PG&E, but basically instead of costing us on a sliding scale of 11c-38c per KWh, the solar array keeps us at the bottom end of the scale and at the E6 rate it costs 8c off peak, 14c mid peak, and while we are running the meter backwards at peak PG&E pay us 30c per KWh. So our typical electric bill of $250 was reduced to $28.
I have been asked about the payback time for the installation. This is part of the calculation that the vendor sales-rep makes for your particular situation. In my case we made it much more complex by replacing the roof shingles, shutting down our use of propane, buying new appliances and increasing our use of electricity. However If we ignore all that and average $200/month savings, then after all the rebates the solar system installation of about $20K has a payback time of less than 8 years on a naive calculation. If we take into account a 5% interest rate on the installation cost it's more like 12 years, and if we assume that electricity costs would rise over that time it's somewhere in-between. I'm also assuming that the value of the house has gone up.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Power Usage Logging with the WELserver
Reading some forums about ground source heat pump installations, we noticed references to a logging system called the Web Energy Logger that collects data in your house and provides you with a detailed and customized view of how the systems in your house are operating. I bought a WELserver kit and have started installing some of the data collectors.
Here's the summary of what it does:
The monitors are all strung together in a daisy-chain configuration on a single twisted pair wire using the Dallas 1-Wire signaling technology. I got one of the optional current sensors and installed it in the electric hot water tank. Here is the sensor, one of the power wires needs to be threaded through the hole so it can detect current flow.
Here is the water tank. The orange wire had been installed without its protective shielding, so when that was fitted, we took the opportunity to add the sensor.
The recess in the top of the water tank has enough space to hold the sensor, with the black wire threaded through the hole.
The cover is in two parts, which gives easy access to the wiring again if needed.
At this point, I don't have the WEL configured. I need to add temperature sensors to the water pipes, and work out how to monitor the heat pump once we get it installed in place of the propane furnace. The WEL control box has an ethernet connection, and I'm not sure whether to run ethernet into the basement, or run the 1-wire cable around the house to monitor all the rooms. Spare wires in the existing telephone cabling can be used for this purpose.
Here's the summary of what it does:
Simply put, the Web Energy Logger (or WEL) is the most economical way to monitor lots of temperature sensors, and a host of other energy related devices in your home or office. It's ideal to verify the performance or a solar thermal system, or to calculate the efficiency of a geothermal installation, or even to prove that your home really is Net Zero. Not only does the WEL give you a window into your energy environment, but it also provides a live snapshot and a range of trend charts that you can share on the WEB in real-time. Finally, the WEL records all your sensor data in monthly log files that are easy to download and import into programs like Excel. It's compact, versatile, and extremely configurable.
The minimal WEL in a Box is ideal for a DIY'er, and costs $375. In contrast, the more complete WEL Starter Kit is ready to run out-of-the-box with 10 temperature sensors and costs $525. All WEL's come with full monitoring software on the board, and a dedicated WEL logging site included in the price.
The monitors are all strung together in a daisy-chain configuration on a single twisted pair wire using the Dallas 1-Wire signaling technology. I got one of the optional current sensors and installed it in the electric hot water tank. Here is the sensor, one of the power wires needs to be threaded through the hole so it can detect current flow.
Here is the water tank. The orange wire had been installed without its protective shielding, so when that was fitted, we took the opportunity to add the sensor.
The recess in the top of the water tank has enough space to hold the sensor, with the black wire threaded through the hole.
The cover is in two parts, which gives easy access to the wiring again if needed.
At this point, I don't have the WEL configured. I need to add temperature sensors to the water pipes, and work out how to monitor the heat pump once we get it installed in place of the propane furnace. The WEL control box has an ethernet connection, and I'm not sure whether to run ethernet into the basement, or run the 1-wire cable around the house to monitor all the rooms. Spare wires in the existing telephone cabling can be used for this purpose.
Friday, September 25, 2009
GP Musumeci joins Netflix....
Adrian Cockcroft's Blog: Are any (ex-)PAE Snorclers looking for a new career?
My call was answered.... GP Musumeci started work last week at Netflix. He's the author of O'Reilly System Performance Tuning, and we worked together at Sun PAE in 2000-2002. Since then he worked on the operations side, building Time Warner AoL's video streaming service, and Salesforce.com's infrastructure, then moved to become a developer of recommendation systems and distributed databases. The perfect mix...
My call was answered.... GP Musumeci started work last week at Netflix. He's the author of O'Reilly System Performance Tuning, and we worked together at Sun PAE in 2000-2002. Since then he worked on the operations side, building Time Warner AoL's video streaming service, and Salesforce.com's infrastructure, then moved to become a developer of recommendation systems and distributed databases. The perfect mix...
Solar Power - Monitoring Consumption
We finally got Solarcity to install the consumption monitor, and we are now figuring out what the various bumps in the graph correlate to in terms of appliances. The first graph shows consumption on a hot day, with a portable room A/C unit left on all day. There is a characteristic bump in the morning that seems to correlate to re-heating hot water after showers, and random bumps during the day that are probably the hot tub cycling on to filter and maintain water temperature.
Another day where we didn't leave the A/C unit on shows much lower consumption. One of the common psychological effects of measuring something is a compulsion to optimize it, so we are now challenging ourselves to try and reduce consumption...
Since we are now on a time-of-use meter, the cost of electricity at nights and weekends is very low, and the cost in the afternoons during the week is high, but that is when we are generating more than we are using, so in $ terms, the meter is running backwards at high speed, and forwards slowly. This also makes it very hard to calculate the cost savings.
Total generation for the month is looking good. We turned on the system right at the start of the month, so the lifetime total includes a week or so before the output monitoring started to log data, and you can see the last few days of consumption data. We have had typical (for us) weather, sunny from the start of the day most days. We drive down into the clouds each morning. The drop off a few weeks ago was a cloudy spell that included about 0.25in of rain, enough to make sure the solar panels are nice and clean. There is a slow downward trend in the daily output, since the days are getting shorter and the Sun is lower in the sky every day. It's around the equinox at the moment. Over-all, I'm happy with how much energy we are getting, I expected to get longer effective days than most people, and it looks as if we will be generating about 600 KWh this month, our typical consumption has been around 1000 KWh.
Another day where we didn't leave the A/C unit on shows much lower consumption. One of the common psychological effects of measuring something is a compulsion to optimize it, so we are now challenging ourselves to try and reduce consumption...
Since we are now on a time-of-use meter, the cost of electricity at nights and weekends is very low, and the cost in the afternoons during the week is high, but that is when we are generating more than we are using, so in $ terms, the meter is running backwards at high speed, and forwards slowly. This also makes it very hard to calculate the cost savings.
Total generation for the month is looking good. We turned on the system right at the start of the month, so the lifetime total includes a week or so before the output monitoring started to log data, and you can see the last few days of consumption data. We have had typical (for us) weather, sunny from the start of the day most days. We drive down into the clouds each morning. The drop off a few weeks ago was a cloudy spell that included about 0.25in of rain, enough to make sure the solar panels are nice and clean. There is a slow downward trend in the daily output, since the days are getting shorter and the Sun is lower in the sky every day. It's around the equinox at the moment. Over-all, I'm happy with how much energy we are getting, I expected to get longer effective days than most people, and it looks as if we will be generating about 600 KWh this month, our typical consumption has been around 1000 KWh.
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Solar Power - Monitoring Output
The SolarCity web based monitoring system didn't work at first, there was a problem with the data-logging board in the inverter but they were helpful and sent someone round to fix it. So now we can track how much power we are generating. The graph updates every 15 minutes, and it reports the amount of power every half hour, so when it shows 1.7 KWh that is equivalent to 3.4KW averaged over 30 minutes. So far the highest peak instantaneous output reported on the Inverter is about 4.2KW.
We are still waiting for the energy consumption metering to be added, which puts a second line on the same graph.
The day shown was a typical day up here on top of the mountain, it was cloudy elsewhere, but we had basically clear sky all day. and generated over 25KWh.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Are any (ex-)PAE Snorclers looking for a new career?
I'm looking for someone who has been benchmarking and testing web services/cloud performance to work in Los Gatos CA, no remote work, sorry.
For the uninitiated, PAE = Performance Applications Engineering, one of the groups I was in years ago at Sun that built benchmarks and did performance analysis for a living. Snorcle = Sun + Oracle sinking beneath the waves...
This is a great time to join Netflix, we are growing fast, there are a lot of open positions and we pay very well for star players.
For the uninitiated, PAE = Performance Applications Engineering, one of the groups I was in years ago at Sun that built benchmarks and did performance analysis for a living. Snorcle = Sun + Oracle sinking beneath the waves...
This is a great time to join Netflix, we are growing fast, there are a lot of open positions and we pay very well for star players.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Solar Power - "City" Inspection
We passed last week (we live outside the city, so it was actually Santa Clara County), and how have another 12 days for PG&E to put in a new time-of-use power meter and bless the installation so we can turn it on.
It took a bit of prodding for SolarCity to get the inspections setup, at least that's the way it seemed. After the install, they sent me an email saying please pay the invoice, but they hadn't sent me an invoice. I waited a few days then asked them if they were going to send me one, then they sent it. After they get paid they are supposed to schedule the inspection. They say it can take a month or so to complete the inspections. After a week or two I emailed and asked when the inspection might happen, and a few days later it was scheduled for the following week. They sent someone to wait at my house for the inspector, so we didn't need to be there, other than making sure they had access to the basement where the inverter is installed.
The ground source heat pump is taking a bit longer than hoped. The supplies have been hard to source on the West Coast, it seems that there are relatively few GSHP installations in California so far. I'm hoping to get the detailed planning approval and install done in the coming week.
It took a bit of prodding for SolarCity to get the inspections setup, at least that's the way it seemed. After the install, they sent me an email saying please pay the invoice, but they hadn't sent me an invoice. I waited a few days then asked them if they were going to send me one, then they sent it. After they get paid they are supposed to schedule the inspection. They say it can take a month or so to complete the inspections. After a week or two I emailed and asked when the inspection might happen, and a few days later it was scheduled for the following week. They sent someone to wait at my house for the inspector, so we didn't need to be there, other than making sure they had access to the basement where the inverter is installed.
The ground source heat pump is taking a bit longer than hoped. The supplies have been hard to source on the West Coast, it seems that there are relatively few GSHP installations in California so far. I'm hoping to get the detailed planning approval and install done in the coming week.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Solar Power - Installation Day 4
All the panels are on the roof, the trench has been re-filled, the wiring is done, it was tested and span the meter backwards. Next step is inspections that can take a few weeks before we can turn it on for real....
I installed the Solarcity Internet monitoring system base station by plugging it into a spare Ethernet port on my DSL modem. It flashed some lights that told me that it had connected to Solarcity successfully, then started scanning to find the monitored devices. It talks to the inverter to track how much power is being generated, and I will have an optional consumption monitor that tells me how much power the house is using. I have to wait for the install to be complete before I can see any output on the solarcity.com web site.
Also, they were out of stock of the consumption monitor, so it will need to be added on later, but it doesn't affect the operation of the system.
I have also figured out the Ground Source Heat Pump, I'm going for a vertical well based installation, its a 3-ton A/C unit and heater made by Carrier that hooks up to my existing propane furnace ducting, and includes a water heater that replaces my propane hot water tank. It exchanges heat with the ground using three 200ft deep wells, and for every KW of electricity it uses, it pumps around 4KW of heat in or out of the house. This is over twice as efficient as a conventional air based A/C unit. It costs more, but there is a 30% federal tax credit on the full price, just like the solar power installation, thanks to Obama's stimulus package (this credit started in February 2009). I'm hoping to have enough solar power to zero out the running costs, we will see how that goes over time.
I installed the Solarcity Internet monitoring system base station by plugging it into a spare Ethernet port on my DSL modem. It flashed some lights that told me that it had connected to Solarcity successfully, then started scanning to find the monitored devices. It talks to the inverter to track how much power is being generated, and I will have an optional consumption monitor that tells me how much power the house is using. I have to wait for the install to be complete before I can see any output on the solarcity.com web site.
Also, they were out of stock of the consumption monitor, so it will need to be added on later, but it doesn't affect the operation of the system.
I have also figured out the Ground Source Heat Pump, I'm going for a vertical well based installation, its a 3-ton A/C unit and heater made by Carrier that hooks up to my existing propane furnace ducting, and includes a water heater that replaces my propane hot water tank. It exchanges heat with the ground using three 200ft deep wells, and for every KW of electricity it uses, it pumps around 4KW of heat in or out of the house. This is over twice as efficient as a conventional air based A/C unit. It costs more, but there is a 30% federal tax credit on the full price, just like the solar power installation, thanks to Obama's stimulus package (this credit started in February 2009). I'm hoping to have enough solar power to zero out the running costs, we will see how that goes over time.
Classic car events in August
I go to the Monterey Historic Races every year, and this year I'm also taking my Citroen SM to a new event La Dolce Vita Automobili - it's set up to be a smaller and more fun alternative to the Concorso Italiano, which is on the same day Friday August 14th.
Here is the SM at Crater Lake a few weeks ago.
Here is the SM at Crater Lake a few weeks ago.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Solar Power - Installation Day 3
Today about half the panels were put in place on the roof, and a lot of wiring was put in place.
Here are the installers starting to put panels in place in the morning.
In the evening the lowest row of 20 are in place, and about half of the next row. There will be a total of 60 panels when it's done.
Here is the underside of a panel, in a shipping rack on the truck.
A closeup of the panel's specification label, as I mentioned before, its a Cadmium Telluride CdTe thin film technology panel from First Solar. Each panel is rated at 75W, and the total installation is rated at 4.5KW.
Here are the installers starting to put panels in place in the morning.
In the evening the lowest row of 20 are in place, and about half of the next row. There will be a total of 60 panels when it's done.
Here is the underside of a panel, in a shipping rack on the truck.
A closeup of the panel's specification label, as I mentioned before, its a Cadmium Telluride CdTe thin film technology panel from First Solar. Each panel is rated at 75W, and the total installation is rated at 4.5KW.
Solar Power - Installation Day 2
More mounting hardware is now on the roof, the brackets that hold the panels to the rails are now in place. Since the PG&E meter isn't mounted on the house itself, they also had to dig a trench. Tomorrow a county planning dept. inspector will come by to make sure everything is to code.
I also got an email from PG&E today, informing me that they know I have solar being installed and will schedule an appointment to do their own verification and turn the system on, once the hardware is in place.
One subtlety, since I also want to connect a generator for when we get power cuts (I'm on top of the Santa Cruz mountains) we had to decide what order to wire everything together. The sequence is
PG&E service meter - Solar Power system - Generator - House breaker panel
The generator is only wired into a subset of the house circuits, so it is looped into the house breaker panel. When installed, it will have a sensor that can tell whether there is any incoming power from PG&E, and if not, it fires up after 20 seconds or so.
The solar power system detects the PG&E power, synchronizes to the 60Hz phase and adds its own power by providing a few volts more than PG&E, to get the power to flow into the system. If PG&E goes away, the solar system also shuts down, then the generator detects no power, isolates the downstream components and takes over powering the house.
At one point I looked at having batteries rather than a generator, but it is a lot less efficient, they don't last very long and they are far more expensive. A 6KW battery system with inverter was around $10K, while I can get a 8KW propane generator for $2K, and I'm thinking of putting in a 14KW Generac 5503 that is currently available from Amazon for $3.3K delivered, since that can supply a 40A 220V circuit for the heat pump. I'm likely to need it for up to a week each year, and that will be the only thing that uses propane at that point.
I also got an email from PG&E today, informing me that they know I have solar being installed and will schedule an appointment to do their own verification and turn the system on, once the hardware is in place.
One subtlety, since I also want to connect a generator for when we get power cuts (I'm on top of the Santa Cruz mountains) we had to decide what order to wire everything together. The sequence is
PG&E service meter - Solar Power system - Generator - House breaker panel
The generator is only wired into a subset of the house circuits, so it is looped into the house breaker panel. When installed, it will have a sensor that can tell whether there is any incoming power from PG&E, and if not, it fires up after 20 seconds or so.
The solar power system detects the PG&E power, synchronizes to the 60Hz phase and adds its own power by providing a few volts more than PG&E, to get the power to flow into the system. If PG&E goes away, the solar system also shuts down, then the generator detects no power, isolates the downstream components and takes over powering the house.
At one point I looked at having batteries rather than a generator, but it is a lot less efficient, they don't last very long and they are far more expensive. A 6KW battery system with inverter was around $10K, while I can get a 8KW propane generator for $2K, and I'm thinking of putting in a 14KW Generac 5503 that is currently available from Amazon for $3.3K delivered, since that can supply a 40A 220V circuit for the heat pump. I'm likely to need it for up to a week each year, and that will be the only thing that uses propane at that point.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Solar Power - Installation Day 1
Here's the house, showing the mounting points and rails on the roof.
Top end of conduit at the roof line.
Bottom end of conduit at the basement level.
Bottom end and A/C shutoff switch on the front of the house at basement/ground level.
A/C shutoff switch. Safety rules mandate that this is easily accessible on the outside of the house.
Inside the basement, showing the connection to the back of the A/C cutoff switch on the right. In the middle is the D/C cutoff switch that has the conduit from the roof routed to it. There will be another D/C shutoff switch on the roof itself, again for safety.
This is the inverter on the left, and the D/C shutoff switch on the right. The pipe coming up carries the phone line into the house.
Top end of conduit at the roof line.
Bottom end of conduit at the basement level.
Bottom end and A/C shutoff switch on the front of the house at basement/ground level.
A/C shutoff switch. Safety rules mandate that this is easily accessible on the outside of the house.
Inside the basement, showing the connection to the back of the A/C cutoff switch on the right. In the middle is the D/C cutoff switch that has the conduit from the roof routed to it. There will be another D/C shutoff switch on the roof itself, again for safety.
This is the inverter on the left, and the D/C shutoff switch on the right. The pipe coming up carries the phone line into the house.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Solar Power - Installation Scheduled
The plans were approved earlier this week, and Solarcity called me on the phone and emailed to setup an installation time, which I was able to arrange very conveniently via email. The assigned installation team are finishing up another job, then I'm next, starting tomorrow (Friday 24th July) for a few days.
There has been nothing to show so far, but I will be taking pictures and posting them.
Looking at the options for electric water heating led us to consider a ground source heat pump (GSHP), plans are still in flux, but I'm looking at adding a heat pump that will heat hot water as well as heat and cool the house. The ground source part is that it doesn't have a conventional air fan based heat exchanger, it runs water through underground pipes. This is relatively expensive, but there are rebates, and it is very efficient. More later...
There has been nothing to show so far, but I will be taking pictures and posting them.
Looking at the options for electric water heating led us to consider a ground source heat pump (GSHP), plans are still in flux, but I'm looking at adding a heat pump that will heat hot water as well as heat and cool the house. The ground source part is that it doesn't have a conventional air fan based heat exchanger, it runs water through underground pipes. This is relatively expensive, but there are rebates, and it is very efficient. More later...
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Velocity conference summary
Steve Souders writes a good summary of the Velocity Conference. I'd like to present something next year, I have a few ideas already, and have been inspired to try some latency testing projects at work.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Solar Power - plan submitted
solarcity.com emailed me a very detailed pdf of the plan for 4.5KW on my roof, and submitted it to the County for planning approval today. Meanwhile the house is being re-wired this week for 220V and a 200Amp feed to replace the 110V/100A setup. Also putting in 220V outlets for the kitchen range, hot tub, dryer and hot water heater. Propane tank is now disconnected and I have to go shopping for new appliances...
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Playing with Hadoop in the Cloud
I just finished writing a paper for CMG that is a tutorial on Amazon Elastic Map Reduce. I signed up, it was easy, and after I ran two of their demo jobs I owed them 26 cents. Very cool...
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Solar Power - first step
There is a rebate for solar power systems, and the first step is that the power company (PG&E) reserves a rebate and notifies me and SolarCity that if we install a system by a deadline we will get a certain amount of rebate. I have also got an appointment on Monday for the SolarCity engineer to come and spend a whole day taking measurements and designing the system installation.
Last week we got the shingles replaced, since the old ones were getting near the end of their life, and its a good idea to put the solar panels over a roof that will last for a long time, so they won't need to be removed to fix anything.
Last week we got the shingles replaced, since the old ones were getting near the end of their life, and its a good idea to put the solar panels over a roof that will last for a long time, so they won't need to be removed to fix anything.
I will be at Usenix 09 - San Diego - June 15-17
I'm attending a tutorial on care and feeding of Hadoop on Monday, teaching my own tutorial on tuning and tools tuesday, and staying for the first day of papers on wednesday. See you there...
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
New music: MirthKon's Vehicle
Some of the most inventive new music is coming from "unknown" bands in the greater San Francisco region. Through my connections with Fractal I have been a fan of Headshear for many years and now MirthKon have released their first full CD, "Vehicle". Fractal and Headshear have played many gigs together, and MirthKon founder Wally Scharold played in Headshear for a while a few years ago.
I have seen MirthKon play a few times, and they are currently on a west coast tour, having recently played SF and Berkeley, they are in Hollywood on June 5th and San Diego on June 6th, then Chico on June 18th, and Eugene and Portland on June 19th and 20th. They have a conceptual video extravaganza to enhance the musical experience at live shows.
So, what do they sound like? Well, lets start by saying that if you like Frank Zappa, and wished he was still putting out new music, then you will be very happy to take this Vehicle for a ride to Joe's Garage. Its impossible to really say what Zappa sounds like, since the mix of styles and influences is so diverse, but MirthKon have some of the same elements, along with their own unique character. There is a strong dose of humor, very complex rhythms and time signatures, some jazzy vocals on a few tracks, but a largely instrumental mix that combines clarinet and saxophone with guitar, bass and drums
They dub it "The first full-length CD from the Bay Area's most hyphenated thrash-jazz-prog-chamber-core ensemble", which probably doesn't help much. I have been happily playing it over and over again in my car for the last week, expand your musical horizons and support local music by getting your own copy....
miRthkon is:
Wally Scharold - guitars, vocals, composition, sound design, conceptual design, text, video, producer
Rob Pumpelly - guitars, composition
Nat Hawkes - bass guitar, vocals
Carolyn Walter - piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Jamison Smeltz - alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, vocals
Matt Guggemos - drums and percussion
Jarred McAdams - video, text, conceptual collaborator
I have seen MirthKon play a few times, and they are currently on a west coast tour, having recently played SF and Berkeley, they are in Hollywood on June 5th and San Diego on June 6th, then Chico on June 18th, and Eugene and Portland on June 19th and 20th. They have a conceptual video extravaganza to enhance the musical experience at live shows.
So, what do they sound like? Well, lets start by saying that if you like Frank Zappa, and wished he was still putting out new music, then you will be very happy to take this Vehicle for a ride to Joe's Garage. Its impossible to really say what Zappa sounds like, since the mix of styles and influences is so diverse, but MirthKon have some of the same elements, along with their own unique character. There is a strong dose of humor, very complex rhythms and time signatures, some jazzy vocals on a few tracks, but a largely instrumental mix that combines clarinet and saxophone with guitar, bass and drums
They dub it "The first full-length CD from the Bay Area's most hyphenated thrash-jazz-prog-chamber-core ensemble", which probably doesn't help much. I have been happily playing it over and over again in my car for the last week, expand your musical horizons and support local music by getting your own copy....
miRthkon is:
Wally Scharold - guitars, vocals, composition, sound design, conceptual design, text, video, producer
Rob Pumpelly - guitars, composition
Nat Hawkes - bass guitar, vocals
Carolyn Walter - piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Jamison Smeltz - alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, vocals
Matt Guggemos - drums and percussion
Jarred McAdams - video, text, conceptual collaborator
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