Grex
Oakland, CA | Established. Jan 01, 2009 | SELF
Music
Press
Bay Area guitarist Karl Evangelista is emerging as one of the most original instrumentalists and composers of his generation... Evangelista, Scampavia and their compatriots have created an extraordinary document that should not be slept on. It is a unification of diverse artistic/personal threads, yet on a basic level Taglish is a powerful, accessible celebration of life. - Signal to Noise
Bay Area guitarist Karl Evangelista is emerging as one of the most original instrumentalists and composers of his generation... Evangelista, Scampavia and their compatriots have created an extraordinary document that should not be slept on. It is a unification of diverse artistic/personal threads, yet on a basic level Taglish is a powerful, accessible celebration of life. - Signal to Noise
True genre warping music as one might expect from a bunch of Mills kids. Personal and heartfelt songs about love lost and found, aspired and realized... All in all a very pretty and very different album, recalling past styles but taking them in entirely new directions. - KFJC
True genre warping music as one might expect from a bunch of Mills kids. Personal and heartfelt songs about love lost and found, aspired and realized... All in all a very pretty and very different album, recalling past styles but taking them in entirely new directions. - KFJC
I’ve reviewed several albums made by Mills College alumni and faculty for this site, and thus far they’ve followed a fairly standard pattern – electroacoustic, exploratory, personal, academic, austere, conceptual, &c. Grex, on the other hand, takes their cue from farther back, when art-college-gestated bands like Genesis and Henry Cow were musically voracious, ridiculously intense, and technically adventurous. In short: prog... Grex has a lot of potential to develop some really interesting, unmistakable personality as they go on.
- Foxy Digitalis
I’ve reviewed several albums made by Mills College alumni and faculty for this site, and thus far they’ve followed a fairly standard pattern – electroacoustic, exploratory, personal, academic, austere, conceptual, &c. Grex, on the other hand, takes their cue from farther back, when art-college-gestated bands like Genesis and Henry Cow were musically voracious, ridiculously intense, and technically adventurous. In short: prog... Grex has a lot of potential to develop some really interesting, unmistakable personality as they go on.
- Foxy Digitalis
[Grex] makes for an otherworldly experience that, while drawing on the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and classic jazz, creates something completely original, especially on tracks like “Stump F***ers” and “Bistellar” from their 2011 album Second Marriage: A Very Long Engagement. The duo’s sparse vocals can come off as delightfully haunting, a grittier version of She and Him. - Eugene Weekly
[Grex] makes for an otherworldly experience that, while drawing on the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and classic jazz, creates something completely original, especially on tracks like “Stump F***ers” and “Bistellar” from their 2011 album Second Marriage: A Very Long Engagement. The duo’s sparse vocals can come off as delightfully haunting, a grittier version of She and Him. - Eugene Weekly
Pan-stylism presents a challenge, in that in order to focus on doing something well, something else has to be done less well. That’s not to say there haven’t been interesting, valuable, and compelling artists, bands, and composers who have worked pan-stylistically (and rigorously so), but reaching an effective synthesis is an elusive prospect. The Bay Area outfit Grex, consisting of guitarist-vocalist Karl A.D. Evangelista and his partner, vocalist-keyboardist-flutist M. Rei Scampavia, are confounding because they have taken syncretic interests and created a near-seamless blend of modern jazz, contemporary structuralist composition, indie rock, and blues rock in which no impulse suffers by strange association... There is still much to understand about the music of Grex, but they have thus far produced some of the most incredibly affecting and simply accessible avant-garde “rock” this reviewer has heard. Although their progress will be worth documenting, for now Second Marriage is essential current-and-future listening. - Tiny Mix Tapes
Pan-stylism presents a challenge, in that in order to focus on doing something well, something else has to be done less well. That’s not to say there haven’t been interesting, valuable, and compelling artists, bands, and composers who have worked pan-stylistically (and rigorously so), but reaching an effective synthesis is an elusive prospect. The Bay Area outfit Grex, consisting of guitarist-vocalist Karl A.D. Evangelista and his partner, vocalist-keyboardist-flutist M. Rei Scampavia, are confounding because they have taken syncretic interests and created a near-seamless blend of modern jazz, contemporary structuralist composition, indie rock, and blues rock in which no impulse suffers by strange association... There is still much to understand about the music of Grex, but they have thus far produced some of the most incredibly affecting and simply accessible avant-garde “rock” this reviewer has heard. Although their progress will be worth documenting, for now Second Marriage is essential current-and-future listening. - Tiny Mix Tapes
Discography
Taglish (as Karl Evangelista/Grex) (2013) w/Francis Wong, John-Carlos Perea, Jordan Glenn, et al.
Second Marriage (2012)
Live at Home (2011)
Photos
Bio
Members: Karl Evangelista (guitar, vox), Rei Scampavia (keys, vox), Robert Lopez (drums)
Grex has been called an “otherworldly experience” (Eugene Weekly), a "near-seamless blend of modern jazz, contemporary structuralist composition, indie rock, and blues rock.” (Tiny Mix Tapes) Grex is not just "eclectic"--it synthesizes all of its influences into a brand of song based experimental rock that is unique, fun, and endlessly surprising. The band’s mighty, twisted music has drawn comparisons to English Prog Rock (Henry Cow, The Cardiacs), creative jazz (Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane), and noise rock (Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground).
Grex's sound is rooted in not only the conjunction of a variety of idioms, but also a stubborn rejection of composition and improvisation as rote, learned tasks. The synergy in the band is derived from how both a respect for various, sometimes conflicting musical traditions and a desire to push the boundaries of "genre" and "style" can lead to music that is different from--but just as interesting as--its influences.
Grex's creative derring-do has led to gigs with other like-minded musicians, including Fred Frith (and his band Cosa Brava), Eddie Gale (Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor), Scott Amendola (TJ Kirk), Ben Goldberg, Vinny Golia, Lewis Jordan (United Front), Tatsuya Nakatani, Amy X Neuburg, Damon Smith, Karen Stackpole, Moe! Staiano (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), and Francis Wong (co-founder of Asian Improv aRts), bills with notable younger artists, such as Beep, Dylan Champagne, Efft, Jack O' the Clock, Dominique Leone, Ava Mendoza, Mwahaha, and Wiener Kids, and concerts at venues as far reaching as The Great American Music Hall (SF), Cafe du Nord (SF), de Young Museum (SF), Bayanihan Community Center (SF), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SF), Los Angeles River Center and Gardens (LA), The Jazzschool (Berkeley), Trinity Chamber Concerts (Berkeley), KALX Live, United States of Asian America Festival (SF), San Francisco Asian Heritage Street Celebration, In the Flow Festival (Sacramento), Berkeley Arts Festival (Berkeley), and Sonic Circuits Festival (VA).
Links
