Music Background
from a chronological perspective of sorts
BANDS IN SF OF WHICH I"VE BEEN AN OFFICIAL MEMBER (with interesting shows we played highlighted)
- 1995 - current FROZEN CHICKEN PATTIES: (w/ two big hiatus' in middle of timeline): performed at many shows at smallish and medium-sized San Francisco venues including Transmission Theater, Coco Club, Kimo's, Studio Z, CW Saloon/Cherry Bar and the Tempest; recorded self-released CD (guitar & vocals: Dorothy Wang, drums & backing vocals: Kim Mosler) in 2005.
- 11/12/2003 - FCP performed live on KZSU, Stanford University's radio station.
- 10/6/1996 - FCP played Dirty Bird Queercore Festival benefit at the Chameleon, San Francisco, CA with Cypher in the Snow and Sta-Prest.
- 1999 - 2000 NEBUCHADNEZZER: played a bunch of local venues including warehouse shows and Lost Weekend video store to protest citywide dot com shutdowns of San Francisco music rehearsal spaces; recorded demo CD (vocals: Ace Morgan, guitar: Dorothy Wang, bass: Carmen White, drums: Colleen).
- 1997 - 1998 CYPHER IN THE SNOW: recorded 7" record and played numerous shows up and down the West Coast including 924 Gilman Street, Berkeley, CA, weird straight-edge house party in Modesto, CA and tiny little stage somewhere in Portland, OR (vocals: Anna Joy Springer and Carmen White, trumpet: Margaret Hitchcock, guitar & violin: Dorothy Wang, guitar: Elitrea Frye, bass: Chloe Sherman, drums: Paula Cronin).
- 1/22/1998 - Kathy Acker Memorial Celebration with Winston Tong, Susie Bright, Tribe 8 etc. at Slim's, San Francisco, CA.
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1994 - 2000 SLOW CLUB: (vocals: Carmen White, bass: Leslie Mah, guitar & violin: Dorothy Wang, drums: Maria Jones/Kim Mosler).
- 2/3/1995 - Slow Club performed at "Full On Asian Action" at Epicenter Zone, San Francisco, CA with Kicking Giant, Sta-Prest and Justin Chin.
- 12/31/1994 - self-produced Gray Tabby Alien Conspiracy show at Luna Sea Women's Performance Project, San Francisco, CA, featuring Slow Club, my solo project and the Gray Tabby Go-Go Dancers. You'd be surprised how many people like cats. A lot.
- 7/1/1994 - Slow Club opened for Bikini Kill at Epicenter Zone, San Francisco, CA.
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1992 - 1993 ODD GIRL OUT which morphed into WARM JETS (Iraya Robles, Aimee Patten, Aisha Stone (only in Odd Girl Out), Dorothy Wang - we all switched instruments and sang).
- 1/23/1993 - Warm Jets opened for Kaia and possibly Tribe 8? amongst others at Epicenter Switchboard benefit at Studio 4, San Francisco, CA. I still have a cassette recording of this show and it's really funny if you want to hear it.
- 10/?/1992 - Odd Girl Out opened for Bikini Kill at Epicenter Zone.
SIDE PROJECTS/COLLABORATIONS/GIGS
- 2007 to current - ongoing long distance collaboration with Minneapolis-based Purest Spiritual Pigs (Helena Thompson and various). Wrote and recorded violin part for "Three Thieves Gone", baritone guitar and bass for "Shenti" on CD, Body Misses (2010). Note: Helena has contributed several drum tracks that I used on the Oliver Starfish CD - very goth.
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3/3/2010 - Purest Spiritual Pigs (Helena Thompson on sampler + me on guitar) performed a live experimental improv soundtrack to video featuring photography by Anita Bowen at Black & Blue Tattoo, San Francisco, CA.
- 9/18 thru 10/4/2008 - sound and lighting design for play "Hey, Sailor" (Writer/Director: Miriam Kronberg, Film: Crystal Mason) at OmniCircus, San Francisco, CA. Collected sound effects, wrote/recorded intro music, audio editing and final mix. Also did sound & video tech for production.
- 7/1/2005 - played rhythm guitar in backing band for Victor Soleil (Latin pop singer) at the Bench and Bar, Oakland, CA.
- 4/24 & 4/25/2002 - played rhythm guitar with Tribe 8, opening for Siouxsie & the Banshees and Ex-Girl at the Fillmore and the Warfield, San Francisco, CA.
- 9/3/2000 - performed in experimental duo with Carmen White at Kvetch, Sadie's Flying Elephant, San Francisco, CA. (vocals & bass: Carmen, guitar & violin: Dorothy Wang).
- 3/18 thru 3/21/1999 - recorded voiceover and mixed soundtrack for "No Ordinary Chore" in Alter Ego: duality dances, a collaboration by Kathleen Hermesdorf & Dominique Zeltzman premiering at Dancer's Group Studio Theater, San Francisco, CA.
- 2/28/1996 - played guest violin with Tribe 8, opening for 7 Year Bitch and Jello Biafra at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA.
- Summer 1995 - toured (guitar) with Lucy Stoners (vocals & bass: Selena Whang, drums: Kim Mosler) on West Coast tour, opening for Sleater-Kinney and the CeBe Barnes Band.
- ? 1994 - played acoustic guitar and sang in weird unnamed experimental bluegrass duo with Aimee Patten (banjo & vocals) from Warm Jets, opening for Team Dresch at Epicenter Zone, San Francisco, CA at the first ever QTIP show (Queers Together In Punkness).
** Some of the details are a little sketchy; I didn't really keep any records of anything and it took great effort to figure out the stuff I did list. Unfortunately, I spent most of the 1990's boozing and smoking weed and chasing women and not enough time being organized and proactive. Ah just kidding!
MUSIC FOR FILM
- 2007 - "Look Again"directed by Jennifer Lin, Look Again Films, Berkeley, CA; soundtrack featuring three songs by Frozen Chicken Patties and theme song "Look Again" with words and melody by Jennifer Lin, and music written, arranged, and recorded by Dorothy Wang (vocals: Jennifer Justice, drums: Marcos Soriano, guitars, bass: Dorothy Wang). Additional: boom operator/sound mixer.
- 2006 - "Kieu" directed by Thu-Ha Vu, Sycamore Street Productions, San Francisco, CA. Formed Q String Quartet to write, perform and record film score (first violin: Joemy Ito-Gates, second violin, guitar, bass: Dorothy Wang, viola: Christine Lipat, cello: Ahram Kim). Additional: boom operator/sound mixer. (Kieu soundtrack)
- 2002 - "The Cheat" by Cecil B. DeMille; Sheri Ozeki's reinterpretation from an Asian-American perspective of this classic silent film via her own music score, performed live at the Palace Theater, Los Angeles, CA for the Silverlake Film Festival (contrabass: Sheri Ozeki, violin: Dorothy Wang, drums: Patty Schemel, guitar: Leslie Mah, theremin: Kevin Suhko Lee, percussion: Sara Dale, keyboard: Roddy Bottum).
- 2001 - "Shut Up White Boy" directed by Thu-Ha Vu, Sycamore Street Productions, San Francisco, CA - Formed band DragOn Ladies to write and record songs for soundtrack (guitar, vocals: Tina Gordon, guitar, vocals: Leslie Mah, bass, vocals: Dorothy Wang, drums: Seme Sung). Performed at Trannyfest benefit at San Francisco Women's Building.
- 1994 - "Her Appetite" directed by Katrina Fullman, San Francisco, CA. Wrote and recorded soundtrack music for video about food and its relationship to desire, body image, etc., using a variety of "kitchen sounds", cheesy guitar and groovy Casio keyboard. Also had role in it and voiceover as "Customer."
PRE-1990's
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( East Tennessee ): From elementary school through high school, I played classical piano and received a High School Diploma in Piano from the Tennessee Piano Teacher's Association. I also played violin in my junior high and high school orchestras, which included a brief stint as harpsichord accompanist. Around the age of 16, I taught myself guitar and with the aid of my Casio keyboard and its groovy rhythm/drums feature, started writing and recording bad technopop and Violent Femmes type songs at home on a boombox when no one was around.
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( Upstate New York ): When I was 18 and studying freshwater ecology at Cornell, I joined my first band, Tilt-a-Whirl, as keyboardist, violinist and eventually, lead vocalist. I also started playing solo guitar and singing at cafes, coffeehouses and bars and had a live show broadcast on the campus radio station as well as a great gig playing at Ithaca's Take Back the Night Rally where I horrified folk aficionados with an apparently disturbing cover of a Holly Near song.
Available from me:
Available online:
DISCOGRAPHY:
- Snarkism - "A Sad Poem" (guest violin) Tribe 8, 1996 Alternative Tentacles Records
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Bunch of Fuckin' Feminists Vol.2 - "Supersonic" by Slow Club (guitar) on a compilation by Louder Scully, 1996
- So You Have an STD... - Cypher in the Snow (guitar), 1998 Bad Monkey Records
- Frozen Chicken Patties - Frozen Chicken Patties (guitar & vocals), 2005 self-released
- It was a rabbit party - Oliver Starfish (solo stuff), 2008 self-released
- Body Misses - "Shenti" (guitar & bass) and "Three Thieves Gone" (violin) Purest Spiritual Pigs, 2010 Clandestin Works
"Dorothy's continued life is a miracle that heartens my ongoing struggle with my own existence!"------ Marcos Soriano, Map of Fog
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