Jason Willett

rdf:langString Jason Willett

rdf:langString Jason Willett is an American musician, known largely for his work with experimental rock groups including Half Japanese, Can Openers, Pleasant Livers, X-Ray Eyes, The Dramatics (Martha Colburn and Jason Willett), The Jaunties, The Attitude Robots, Leprechaun Catering, and many more. His current projects are: Half Japanese, Period Bomb, Matmos, Spacience, Leprechaun Catering, and continues to put out new material in collaboration with Jac Berrocal and David Fenech. His record label, Megaphone, initially set out to issue work by performers such as The Work, Fred Frith, the Molecules, Matmos, David Liebe Hart, Tim Hodgkinson and Jac Berrocal, but became largely a venue for Willett's own collaborative music. He has also made records &/or performed with Ruins, Jac Berrocal, R Stevie Moore, James Chance, Matmos, Hanna Olivegren, Jon Rose, Michael Evans, Ron Anderson, Benb Gallaher, Mick Hobbs, Chris Cutler, Mu Mesons (not the other band, mu meson), Little Howlin Wolf, Yamatsuka Eye and his various pet ducks. The son of songwriter Fangette Willett (whose work included Tammy St. John's "Dark Shadows and Empty Hallways" and Walter Jackson's "It's an Uphill Climb to the Bottom"), Jason Willett was raised in a musical household in Maryland. After being drafted as bassist for Half Japanese in 1990, he has retained a collaborative relationship with Jad Fair, with whom he has produced 14 collaborative duo releases (at least 2000 songs still unreleased). He has operated The True Vine record shop out of Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood for about a dozen years now, but has recently had to move it to Baltimore's Station North neighborhood.