Ratskin Records Outsider Sounds and Visions Festival - 20 Years of Ratskin First Church Of The Buzzard, 26th St x Adeline.West Oakland Friday, March 27 2026 8pm -1am Saturday, March 28 2026 2pm - 1am Ratskin Records marks its 20-year anniversary with a two-day festival celebrating a collective built on persistence resistance, and an uncompromising DIY ethic. What started as a tiny bedroom label project from founders Andre Stafford, Jsun McCarty, MD, and Tyrone Davies in 2006 eventually turned into a diverse platform for experimental, underground, and outsider music and art—prioritizing artistic risk, emotional honesty, and long-term creative relationships over trends or commercial systems with artists Wizard Apprentice and Beast Nest helping usher in a more concrete vision and mission. This 20 year anniversary festival brings together past and present collaborators for over thirty performances across two days, alongside art and food vendors, creating a living cross-section of the label’s history and community. All proceeds directly support the artists performing and the continued work of the label, making the festival not just a retrospective, but a reaffirmation of collective creativity, autonomy, and why radical, independent music and art made on its own terms still matters, maybe now more than ever. Tickets: $20-30: per day $32-40:

Ratskin Records Outsider Sounds and Visions Festival - 20 Years of Ratskin Records Fri, Mar 27 @ 7:00PM — Sat, Mar 28 @ 11:45PM (PDT, UTC-07) First Church Of The Buzzard, 2601 26th St., Oakland

Ratskin Records Outsider Sounds and Visions Festival - 20 Years of Ratskin First Church Of The Buzzard, 26th St x Adeline.West Oakland Friday, March 27 2026 8pm -1am Saturday, March 28 2026 2pm - 1am Ratskin Records marks its 20-year anniversary with a two-day festival celebrating a collective built on persistence resistance, and an uncompromising DIY ethic. What started as a tiny bedroom label project from founders Andre Stafford, Jsun McCarty, MD, and Tyrone Davies in 2006 eventually turned into a diverse platform for experimental, underground, and outsider music and art—prioritizing artistic risk, emotional honesty, and long-term creative relationships over trends or commercial systems with artists Wizard Apprentice and Beast Nest helping usher in a more concrete vision and mission. This 20 year anniversary festival brings together past and present collaborators for over thirty performances across two days, alongside art and food vendors, creating a living cross-section of the label’s history and community. All proceeds directly support the artists performing and the continued work of the label, making the festival not just a retrospective, but a reaffirmation of collective creativity, autonomy, and why radical, independent music and art made on its own terms still matters, maybe now more than ever.

RATSKIN RECORDS presents …..

The long awaited return of RATSKIN RECORDS Explastical Series

$5-20 / 7PM SHARP masks required / encouraged /

with live performances from…..

ZACHARY JAMES WATKINS

Zachary James Watkins studied composition with Janice Giteck, Jarrad Powell, Robin Holcomb and Jovino Santos Neto at Cornish College. In 2006, Zachary received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College where he studied with Chris Brown, Fred Frith, Alvin Curran and Pauline Oliveros. Zachary has received commissions from Cornish College of The Arts, The Microscores Project, the Beam Foundation, Somnubutone Radio Series free103point9.org, sfsound and the Seattle Chamber Players. His 2006 composition Suite for String Quartet was awarded the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for Composition and has subsequently been performed at the Labs 25th Anniversary Celebration, the Labor Sonor Series at Kule in Berlin Germany and in Seattle Wa, as part of the 2nd Annual Town Hall New Music Marathon featuring violist Eyvind Kang. Zachary has performed in numerous festivals across the United States, Mexico and Europe and his band Black Spirituals opened for pionering Drone Metal bandEarth during their 2015 European tour. In 2008, Zachary premiered a new multi-media work entitled Country Western as part of the Meridian Gallery's Composers in Performance Series that received grants from the The American Music Center and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts. An excerpt of this piece is published on a compilation album entitled "The Harmonic Series" along side Pauline Oliveros, Ellen Fullman, Theresa Wong Charles Curtis and Duane Pitre among others. Zachary designed the sound and composed music for the plays "I have loved Strangers" produced by Just Theatre, which listed "top ten of 2007" in the East Bay Express and the 8th Annual ReOrient Theatre Festival. His sound art work entitled Third Floor::Designed Obsolescence, "spoke as a metaphor for the breakdown of the dream of technology and the myth of our society's permanence," review by Susan Noyes Platt in the Summer 05 issue of ARTLIES. Zachary releases music on the labels Sige, Cassauna, Confront (UK), The Tapeworm and Touch (UK). Novembre Magazine (DE), ITCH (ZA), Walrus Press and the New York Miniature Ensemble have published his writings and scores. Zachary has been an artist in resident at the Espy Foundation, Djerassi and the Headlands Center for The Arts.

GOLDEN CHAMPAGNE FLAVORED SWEATSHIRT

Golden Champagne Flavored Sweatshirt Self taught multi disciplinary artist- electronic music producer/watercolor/pen/cross-processed photo manipulation/digital art ​ Musical expression is an incredibly cathartic experience. Expectant is my debut release- presented as an auditory voyage through my anxiety, confusion and depression. ​ Recording music has completely changed my approach to artistry and creativity.

Currently, in my art journey, I am pushing against the idea that my art must reflect the political aspects of my existence. I am weary of Black women having to be the pawns of men- uplifting an entire community with no compensation. Being drained by weak, “well-meaning” whites who are fueled and energized by the exploitation of Black suffering with no real efforts for change.

Shaping my existential rage and anxiety into a journey of self actualization through color and sound has been a profound

LA MACACOA

La Macacoa is Puerto Rican Bay Area experimental sound artist Alexandra Buschman-Román (she/they). As a singer and improviser, they use multiple microphones, electronic hardware, and body gestures/movement to expand the voice. As a composer and electronic percussionist, they draw from Afro-Caribbean music and Taino (indigenous Caribbean) stories. Performances are mystical rituals.

Part of Alexandra’s roots are in the Puerto Rican classical and electronic music vanguard studying composition at the Music Conservatory with Manuel Ceide (Berio student), and Rafael Aponte Ledée (Ginastera student). They moved to Oakland in 2007 to study Composition and Improvisation with Fred Frith, Chris Brown, and Maggie Payne, and Deep Listening with Pauline Oliveros at Mills College.

Alexandra is half of avant-tropical duo Las Sucias, with Danishta Rivero. They also perform and tour under monicker Demonsleeper, singing songs about nightmares and lucid dreams using dark ambient, drone noise, and heavy somnambulist pulses

MEANSTREETZ + RICHARDS

Stevie Richards (Melbourne, Australia) and Mike Meanstreetz (Los Angeles, CA) will be performing a duo of improvised saxophone, drums/percussion and electronics for a fall tour of the North American West Coast

Stevie Richards is a DIY electronics and woodwind player and performer currently based in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia. Stevie has performed in Europe, United States, Mexico and Japan and is an active participant in the avant-garde / improvisation environment of Naarm / Melbourne. Stevie has performed in many past and ongoing ensembles worldwide playing noise, free jazz, ambient and electroacoustic music both as a soloist and through deliberate international collaboration.

Collaborators past and present have included: Morishige Yasumune, Tetuzi Akiyama, Takeo Toyama, Takumi Moriya, E-Da, Seiichi Yamamoto, Alessandra Rombolà, Geir Opdal, Øivind Olsen, Espen Friberg, Villem Jahu, Ryosuke Kiyasu, Whitehorse, Cavies !, Ray of Creation, Mike Meanstreetz, Robbie Avenaim, Doug Lynner, Jon Bafus, Masami Kawaguchi, Paloma Carrasco Lopez, Nuno Veiga, Arne Borgan, Andrea S Giordano, Nathan Hubbard, Rick Jensen, Sharon Gal, Johan Moir, Breeze Smith, Martin Q Larsson, Rory Brown, Simon Toldam,Rama Parwata, Aviva Endean, Akio Jeimus, Elvis Aljus, Moment Trigger, Matthew Brown, Brad Smith,Carmen Chan Schoenborn and Kota Yamauchi.

Mike Meanstreetz is a Los Angeles based multimedia artist whose non-tradtional craft seeds new genres while reaping the fallen fruit of old. Auditory, visual, and word rarely appear in the singular, most often materializing in a tangle of synaesthesia. His rigorerd wabi-sabi invites the daydream and its ushering of both resonant and dissonant perspectives/perceptions in an inclusive synthesis betweenst. Most of his work focuses on the improvised, situational and shared, and is rooted in the belief that collaboration is a practical divination of that fount pushing all. Sonically his practice primarily explores and expands upon both more metrical genre adjacent sensibilities and more fluid extended techniques via drum kit/percussion, musique concrete/electronic manipulation, and harmonically loaded electro-acoustic nylon MIDI triggered guitar. In these various modes he has performed throughout the US, Mexico and Europe.

More than 25 years after his first experimental solo release under the namesake, he currently operates the 1234 Test Kitchen studio in Los Angeles, both the seat of his practice and recording love, and has performed and recorded in various combos including: Anna Homler, John Wiese (Sissy Spacek), Los Angeles Free Music Society )including Joe Pott's Airway), Martín Escalante, Henry Barnes (Amps for Christ), Patrick Shiroishi, Hayden Jiménez (Hidhawk), Rob Magill, Tatsuya Nakatani (Nakatani Gong Orchestra), Arrington de Dionyso, Derek Monypeny, Divinebrick, Stevie Richards, Danilo Casti+Dalila Kayros, Pure Shit, Gasp, Whereas, Anything and Sobbing Honey

MALOCCULSION

Malocculsion, or Michael Daddona, is a sound, visual, and performance artist currently based in Oakland,CA, currently exploring relationships of sound, the body and the exterior space in which they exist, psychosis, mortality, the prison system and the omnipresent entropic trap door of life. Through high tension multimedia performances , videos, photography, sculpture, curation, and other various documents, Malocculsion explores the negative spaces of our perceived realities, and the social and physical spaces that surround us

"Nightmare In Paradise" Album Release Show w/ TYLER HOLMES, SPELLLING , PLANINGTOROCK August 27, 2021 7-10PM PDT Tickets: $5-25 Suggested Donation

To celebrate the release of Tyler Holmes new full length on Ratskin Records, titled "Nightmare In Paradise" Tylr has curated a fantastic evening of virtual performances to celebrate the release. There will be performances from SPELLLING , PLANNINGTOROCK, and TYLER HOLMES themselves.

TYLER HOLMES ratskin.org/tylerholmes https://tylerholmes.bandcamp.com

TYLER HOLMES (They/Them) is a singer-songwriter, visual and performance artist who uses music as therapeutic device. Coming from a turbulent and traumatic ‘cult-like’ early life, Holmes has spent a lifetime crafting their own Black, Queer narrative by pushing the limits of their imagination. In a constant state of reinvention they make a mixtape of every moment, from song to song the audience is getting a wholly different animal. Holmes has a chameleonic singing style that ranges from Folk inflected whispers, to morose Goth wails, to Gospel bellows. Envisioning themself as the imaginary child of Björk and Tricky, Tyler Holmes is on an isthmus between Trip Hop and Experimental Pop. They use a surrealist lens on a wide variety of genres, often blending diaristic narratives with dark, dream-like whimsy. Autobiographical and absurd, their writing is alluring and uncomfortable. Both brutal and beautiful, bringing the audience into a shared space of healing and catharsis. They perform with a constantly changing electro-acoustic arrangement, always finding new ways to showcase an intimate horror. Most recently Holmes' released their music video "Nothing" via Paper Magazine. In 2019/20 they released a series of EP’s and Spring 2021 marks the release of their highly anticipated new LP “Nightmare In Paradise” on Ratskin Records.

SPELLLING https://spellling.bandcamp.com

Venturing to push the boundaries of her primarily synth-based work, SPELLLING took on the ambitious task of orchestrating and self-producing an album that features an ensemble of 31 collaborating musicians. The Turning Wheel incorporates a vast range of rich acoustic sounds that cast SPELLLING’s work into vibrant new dimensions. The double LP is split into two halves — “Above” and “Below.” Lush string quartet shimmer combines with haunting banjo and wandering bassoon leads, as the album progresses from the more jubilant, warm, and dreamy mood of the “Above” tracks to the more chilling and gothic tone of the “Below” tracks. This progression is anchored by SPELLLING’s familiar bewitching vocal style that emphasizes the theatrical and folkloric heart of her songwriting.

The release of The Turning Wheel was delayed by almost a year from its intended release date in September 2020 but the forced pause ended up serving as a blessing in disguise. Navigating the chaos of recording and producing the remaining instrumentalists – either remotely or through rigid socially distanced studio sessions – was immensely difficult, however the delays ultimately opened up the opportunity for SPELLLING to dedicate more attention to her lyrics. The Turning Wheel demonstrates a distinct evolution of lyrical style, from the more incantatory and abbreviated approach of her previous work to a more expansive, narrative production.

The Turning Wheel is a manifestation of this considerable effort, time, and collaborative energy and will surely become a classic for its elegance. And while the artist’s eclectic influences, from soul to psych to pop to noise, remain present, something entirely new has also been born in the cosmic soup of this massive undertaking: a grand and genreless adventure. One that allows the artist’s authenticity to shine and also marks her as a conduit for something with a magic of its own.

SPELLLING’s previous bodies of work have earned her critical acclaim. Her 2017 debut Pantheon of Me was Bandcamp’s #4 Album of the Year and they raved: “Cabral has it, from her careful sense of composition to her charismatic presence to her ability to communicate with her music straight through to the listener’s heart.” Her first release on Sacred Bones, the Hard to Please single, was named a Best Track by The Guardian, who said the song was “like Solange looking in a haunted mirror.” Her second full length Mazy Fly saw great support from the likes of Pitchfork (“it’s the sound of an artist’s vision sharpening, pointing outward.”), Stereogum (“It’s a gorgeous and evocative and provocative record, and it points to a future where Cabral could pretty much do anything.”), Paste (“too appealing to resist”) and once again found its place in The Best Albums of 2019 at Bandcamp.

PLANNINGTOROCK https://planningtorock.com

Born in Bolton, UK, Planningtorock – aka. singer-songwriter, producer, composer and director Jam Rahuoja Rostron – has been using music as a mirror to learn more about themselves for the last seventeen years.

Jam uprooted to the Estonian capital – a beautiful and gentle-paced, cobble-stoned city on the Baltic coast - after spending two decades in Berlin. Already feeling restless and ready for a change, everything fell into place when the musician met their partner through mutual friends in Helsinki; soon, Jam relocated to Riinu’s home city full-time. Last September the couple married. LGBTQ+ marriage isn’t legal in Estonia, so the ceremony took place at the city’s British Embassy – in theory, the country recognises marriages which took place abroad. In reality they have been struggling to get their partnership acknowledged in their home country while under a right-wing coalition government. With the prime minister now ousted over an alleged corruption scandal, Estonia is going through a time of great political upheaval. Distant hope of a more progressive government is on the horizon – and ‘Gay Dreams Do Come True’ represents Planningtorock’s own personal exploration of queer love.

A loud, proud, unabashed celebration, Planningtorock’s new EP ‘Gay Dreams Do Come True’ stands in opposition to the tragic queer narratives which can sometimes dominate the mainstream, Jam set out to make a record which basks in the all-consuming joy of queer love instead, and the sense of belonging and safety that comes with it. “I feel there’s something very political about owning queer happiness,” Jam says, “cutting it out and saying: we have a right to be happy. I want to make quite blatantly gay music to take up space. I felt like I was gay-dreaming on the day Riinu and I got married! There were little birds and stars around my head,” they say, laughing. “I was really pinching myself.” Speaking further about the track, Jam says, “this song is a dedication to my love, my wife Riinu and to the Black trans women who fought for the rights we have today as queer, gay, non binary lesbians.”

Propelled by buoyant synthesised strings and house-inflected urgency, warmth and contentment pours out of ‘Girl You’ve Got My Heart’ as Planningtorock promises their devotion: “your love is good, so good for me,” they declare. There’s also a fire burning at the core of ‘Her Heart Is My Home’ – skittering beats bursting forth out of cinematic orchestration as a pitched-up Planningtorock sings of the sanctuary they have found in love. It’s the artist’s most personal release to date – inspired in part by the process of making 2018’s similarly exposing album ‘Powerhouse’. “When you open up to people and you share your painful experiences, people are like, ‘thank you, I’ve got a load of bags too!’” Jam says. “It’s a fantastic exchange, and it made me really grow in a way I couldn’t have grown without it. It released me, quite literally.”

We are so excited to bring back VOLTAGE DROP. For now in digital format streaming at proartscommons.org and ratskin.org. THURSDAY JULY 29TH, 2021 7-10 PM PDT $5-10 Suggested Donation, NOTAFLOF meaning you can still watch even if you don't pay.

"DJ" Sets by BOBBY GANUSH (Ritmos Tropicosmos, Discos Extraños) BONUS BEAST (Coral Remains, Ratkin) BASS MELCOCHA (Las Sucias, Demonsleeper, Ratskin) FLOWER PATTERN (Daisy World, Ratskin) MALOCCLUSION (Ratskin/Coral Remains) VJ Host FLOWER PATTERN (Daisy World, Ratskin)

VOLTAGE DROP is a mobile (*virtual, for now) Dance Club with DJs, Live visuals, and Live Music, celebrating the convergence of early Industrial, classic Electro, underground Hip Hop, experimental, noise, collage and other esoteric, sometimes differing styles of music - all of which have a rich and longstanding history in the fringe Bay Area music communities. VOLTAGE DROP brings together a tight knit core with occasional guests and collaborators, accompanied by national and international creators. VOLTAGE DROP is BONUS BEAST, BOBBY GEE, cFLOWER PATTERN and MALOCCULSION aided by friends and peers.

VIRTUAL HYBRID SERIES: A New Virtual Series Raising Money for both Pro Arts Gallery & Commons Sustainability Fund and Mutual Aid Efforts To combat White Supremacy In The Bay Area and Beyond Virtual Hybrid Series: Stop AAPI HATE FundraIser w/ Perfomances from:

HEADBOGGLE https://headboggle.bandcamp.com https://ratskinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/polyphonic-demo

Derek Gedalecia, a.k.a. Headboggle, has been performing electronic keyboard-based soundscapes for several years in the Bay Area in over a hundred local performances at venues ranging from GTK to YBCA. Incorporating lowbrow with highbrow art, music, and comedy, Head Boggle’s intent is to fuse together a new ecstatic improvisational performance style with a carefully crafted musical underbed. In his formative years, Gedalecia studied classical and ragtime piano from noted ragtime composer/revivalist Dr. Brian Dykstra

MYNAMEISBLUESKYE https://mynameisblueskye.bandcamp.com/

Boston-based musical polymath whose lo-fi music ranges from psych pop to space rock to new wave. Keyboard-heavy, but an overall guitar-free pop music. Also goes underneath the beat name blank videotapes. Audio awesomeness in spite of lo-fi production. LIYL: Sparklehorse, Grandaddy, Youth Lagoon, Tim Fite, cars and trains, recent Flaming Lips

WHETTMAN CHELMETS https://whettmanchelmets.bandcamp.com

ambient drone shoegazey composed. Confrontational, uplifting, and silly.

MALOCCULSION https://malocculsion.bandcamp.com

Malocculsion, or Michael Daddona, is a sound, visual, and performance artist currently based in Oakland,CA, currently exploring relationships of sound, the body and the exterior space in which they exist, psychosis, mortality, the prison system and the omnipresent entropic trap door of life

STREAMING LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aroq6CxQ5E

MYNAMEISBLUESKYE Presents AUTISOMENESS ON DISAPLAY: A Virtual Night Of Performances from Artists On the Autism Spectrum. Curated by mynameisblueskye FRIDAY JUNE 18TH, 2021. 7PM PDT. $5-20 suggested donation. Streaming at: twitch.tv/ratskinrecordsofficial Please follow and support all of the performing artists. <3*

Featuring Performances From:

---- Mosst Ghost ---- https://mosstghost.bandcamp.com/ BIO TBA

---- CENSORED Dialogue ---- https://stkhm.bandcamp.com/ For the last 3 years, CENSORED dialogue has hidden their talents in the shadows. Instead of releasing solo music, the Texas artist has taken the backseat approach as they focused their efforts on building STKHM, an independent record label and creative umbrella. STKHM members Waylin Flaza, Chloe Hotline, Tmpest, and Chris Geezy inspired CENSORED to learn how to produce their own music using programs such as Ableton Live and Logic Pro. While glimpses of this new creative direction were shown in 2020’s “Self-Produced CENSORED” and 2021’s “DECEMBER,” CENSORED dialogue has yet to release a solo project…until now. While Afro Pessimist, CENSORED’s self-produced debut album, is a grave departure from their previous work, in their eyes it is “the kind of music [they’ve] always wanted to make.” An indication of the future of their career. ---- Savan DePaul ---- https://savandepaul.bandcamp.com/album/divine-ecdysis they/he/she bad apple commnue // tiergarten records + grimalkin records // sagan theory // magicicada for the creation of musical projects that take listeners on wild experimental journeys. every possible genre, ones this side of the galaxy and beyond, collide in one consciously charged package. revolutionary, sensuous, contemplative, vibrant

---- RobinPlaysChords ---- https://robinplayschords.bandcamp.com RobinPlaysChords album Teardrop Girl-Star LP finally saw the light of day in 2017, Robin Jax opened up. Support slots with the likes of Purple Pilgrims, Alabaster dePlume, Thomas Truax and Madonnatron, roles in multi-disciplinary shows by Spectra Arts Company and Room Art, singing in a choir alongside Wolfgang Buttress' BE Music (and 50,000 bees) in Coventry Cathedral, the launch of "transatlantic Autistic duo" The Companions with musician/author Amber Bird, founding the neurodiversity-focused record label Tiergarten Records and guest contributions to The Shining Tongues, the project of The Infinite Three's Dan Knowler - a relatively hyperactive burst of activity for someone whose studio debut took six years to complete. Robin has been interviewed by The Guardian relating to experiences of access for autistic people within the music industry, and is affiliated with Attitude is Everything's Next Stage artist programme.