Dino DiMuro

Dino DiMuro
Background information
Birth name Dino R. DiMuro
Also known as Poindexter Holloway
Born (1957-03-24)24 March 1957
California
Genres Rock, pop, chamber music, Captain Beefheart style, experimental
Occupation(s) Soundtrack editor
Instruments Guitars, keyboards, banjo, slide guitar, drum programming, etc.
Years active 1982 -
Labels Lonely Whistle Music
Website The Unofficial Dino DiMuro Homepage

Dino DiMuro (born March 24, 1957) is an independent composer, musician and producer.[1]

Training

DiMuro's musical education began with piano lessons, from his grandmother, and his uncle, composer Harold Owen.

At age 11, inspired by the Flatt & Scruggs soundtrack to Bonnie and Clyde, he acquired a banjo. He acquired his first electric guitar at 13 (inspired by The Beatles). By age 18, he was very good with guitar and bass. At age 26, he acquired his first synthesizer.

DiMuro is rated by some as an excellent guitarist of the Zappa variety, utilizing blues, all available processing, odd phrasing, elements of noise and 20th century polyscale ideas.

Technique

DiMuro tends to construct six to eight track songs, previously using a four track recorder and a two track DAT. In 2003, he upgraded to a Macintosh Pro Tools setup. He generally overdubs all instruments, though has worked with drummer Eric Scott (3 records in 1986), with partner John Gibson in BERTH (1969 onward), and with live performing bands (1995, 2001). He achieves complete band results, when working on his own.

DiMuro has occasionally used "found sound" from garage sales as the basis for songs, such as his full vaudeville arrangement, over top of an amateur singing - in a variable tempo - "Rockabye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody".

Style

His output includes 8 track home recorded Pop music, oddball little songs, Rock and Roll, unconventional humor, and elegantly arranged keyboard compositions. There are parodies ranging from punk rock with banjo, to the most known unknowns in contemporary music (such as: The Residents, French Frith Kaiser and Thompson, NXS, The Pogues, and Garrison Keilor).

Leo Kottke style instrumentals exist alongside Chipmunk vocals, songs about Nudists and other odd subjects, many unconventional love songs, marching band or orchestra productions on synthesizer, quirky biographical numbers, avant-garde works, and experiments (such as an effective guitar solo, processed to sound like rubber bands).

He seems to walk the line between idiosyncrasy, and audience acceptance.

As one enthusiast noted in 1996:

As far as diversity goes, Dino DiMuro makes Camper Van Beethoven sound like Bachman–Turner Overdrive!!
— just john

Musical career

DiMuro's fan base varies from a few dozen, to about five hundred cassette buyers per album, yet thousands of people worldwide are familiar with his name.

On 4/13/2008, a boolean search at Yahoo for Dino DiMuro, yields about 22,000 pages.

He began selling and giving away cassettes of his music in 1983, through OPtion and Sound Choice magazines.

From 1985 to '90 I was releasing about 3 cassettes a year. Starting with GOWER STREET it became roughly one every two years, because of the new marriage and more attention to detail. I sent out Trouble at the Mutual Admiration Society and one or two earlier ones to a couple of underground labels. Not a word. When GOWER got great press, I had calls from clubs and managers, and I sent them copies. Nada. Nobody except AudioFile Tapes and Sound of Pig ever released anything by me, except for a compilation here and there.
— Dino DiMuro

With Rivalry Insanity (1984), compositional daring increased, although he had already produced multi-instrument Captain Beefheart style music. There were other albums that were merely good. Albums that resist categories include Composite, A Real Pretty Rose, Snoutburger, I Have a Purpose, and Sunday at the Airport.

That's my favorite kind of music, but difficult to achieve
— Dino DiMuro

He has produced albums for other home tapers. This allowed DiMuro to give his listeners a Trojan horse, called Poindexter Holloway: L.A. Kingpin!. It had intentionally nasal vocals, and a style ranging from grouchy to manic. It was deceptively packaged, presenting the unknown "Poindexter", as if he were a major star.

In 1991-1993, DiMuro spent two years on a major production, Gower Street, his best known work. It turned out well, despite being hampered by the L.A. riot, and moving from his long established address. Two albums from that time, Vermont Avenue and Stopgap Sam's Steaming Stew, were simpler, surprising, and almost as good.

DiMuro married Julie in 1994. Julie was in a car crash, and died in 2004.

With the release of Simple Chance of Life in 1995, DiMuro switched to CD releases. Establishing a touring band was cut short, by the birth of his two children.

Train Going Nowhere was a basic, professional studio-recorded rock album. That album took six years to finish, due to glitches, money troubles, and resistance from his wife.

He abandoned an album called Unfinished. It had exotic surprises on it, including a song for DiMuro's son, "You Gotta be as Rich as Bill Gates, to Play with Toy Trains".

album was 3/4 complete when Julie had her accident, and I couldn't relate to those songs anymore. It was meant to be called TALES FROM THE MIDDLE AGES.
— Dino DiMuro

In 1997, a stranger, 3,000 miles away, created The Unofficial Dino DiMuro Homepage.

DiMuro is a long time friend of many home tapers from the west coast of the U.S., including Don Campau, who guests on many DiMuro albums, and who recorded a collaboration with him, in 2007. Campau now releases DiMuro's CDs on his Lonely Whistle Music label.

Discography

Secondary discography

Tertiary discography

References

  1. ↑ Chadbourne, Eugene. "Biography: Dino DiMuro". Allmusic. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
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