Melic Sub Rosa is Pat Palma (Drums), Darryl Kanouse (Guitar) and Jeff
Schwartz (Bass)
Melic Sub Rosa play an intense blend of high-pressure avant-rock improvisations
and frenetic punk/jazz with an engaging yet uncompromising approach. The band formed
in 2008 when Darryl tracked down Jeff, his collaborator in Voodoo Stigmata, a late
'80s Santa Cruz college-rock-prog-jam-band. Jeff brought in Pat, from Reagan-era
teen-punk legends Magnolia Thunderpussy. Digital downloads and on-demand streaming
of all Melic Sub Rosa releases are available exclusively at Redline Park.
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Jeff Schwartz
Jeff plays double bass in Surrealestate, the Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra, Rich West's
Homunculus, and the Watts Ensemble. Jeff studies with David H. Young. Active in
LA's avant-garde music scene, he has performed at events and venues including Line
Space Line, the Open Gate and Lira concert series, Il Corral, Dangerous Curve, the
Edgemar Center for the Arts, Disney Hall, 21 Grand, REDCAT, the Big Sur Experimental
Music Festival, LA Sound/Shift, the Long Beach Soundwalk, the Vancouver Jazz Festival,
and the Silverlake Film Festival. He has given conference papers on music and cultural
studies and published in journals and anthologies including American Music, Popular
Music, Postmodern Culture, The Velvet Underground Companion, and A Basic Music Library.
He was the first biographer of Albert Ayler and a consultant for Revenant Records'
Grammy-nominated Holy Ghost box set. An adaptation of his dissertation on the politics
of free jazz is under consideration at a major university press. Dr. Schwartz is
currently a reference librarian at the Santa Monica Public Library.
Darryl Kanouse
In addition to Melic Sub Rosa, Darryl is a regular member of the Blueprint Ensemble
and Sonic Wave Society, and is the founding member of the Los Angeles Audio Improvisation
Lab in which he sometimes plays guitar and at other times bass. He has collaborated
with hundreds of musicians in diverse genres, from hip-hop to classical, and periodically
releases solo material under the name Brahmanista. Darryl has been a producer for
music instruction video label MVP Home Entertainment and a recording engineer at
Daryl Dragon's Rumbo Recorders. Darryl also serves as an information media consultant
for a number of Los Angeles-based entertainment entities, including the American
Film Institute and UMG.
Pat Palma
A Venice, California native, Pat brings a wealth of influence inspired from the
music of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Black Flag, Minutemen, and Swans, and drummers
Tony Williams and Lenny White, to mention a few. In the mid 80's Pat was the drummer
for Magnolia Thunderpussy, a high school band that earned a contract with legendary
indie label SST. The band played on bills with Black Flag, Saccharine Trust, SWA,
DC3, and Equidemious, and earned praise from the likes of Greg Ginn, Thurston Moore,
and Flea. After MTP disbanded in the late 80's, Pat joined the Venice experimental
jazz, free-form band Halfway to Cleveland with fellow SST-era veteran David Travis.
Led by multi-instrumentalist and bandleader "Doc" (Griffin) Williams, HWTC found
themselves collaborating in performances with Pat Smear (Germs, Foo Fighters) and
comedian George Carlin before recording an album at the legendary studio "Radio
Tokyo", owned by Blue Cheer bassist Ethan James. In the early 90's Pat joined again
with MTP bassist David Jones, D. Travis, guitarist Jesse Engel and saxophonist Corey
Wright to create the free-form outfit "Pipsqueak," an amalgam of the experimental
composition style of free-form jazz, but with a darker, edgier and sonically dense
sound. Pipsqueak recruited vocalist-poet George Murillo (Carnage Asada, Axis of
Evil) to complete the ensemble's muscular "wall of sound." After a 2005 Pacific
Northwest tour with a reformed MTP and a few years on hiatus, Pat joined MSR in
April 2009 to replace original drummer David Strayer. When not playing drums, Pat
works as an Information Systems Analyst for the County of Los Angeles.