The Missing Parts are an acoustic, instrumental quartet, formed in 2009 in Tucson, Arizona, 60 miles from the Mexican border. The band is comprised of Oliver Blaylock on violin, Douglas Francisco on the lap-steel guitar, Brian Hullfish on cello, and Paul Wright on acoustic guitar. The Missing Parts may be the only group with this instrumentation.
Listeners have classified their music as everything from “chamber-core” to “alt-punk”, “string metal” to “Jew-grass.” While The Missing Parts can be a bit difficult to categorize, their sound is instantly recognizable. The tunes borrow from/pay tribute to many folk traditions while ultimately serving as a bizarre field guide for the sonic traveller. The Missing Parts have been compared with Kronos Quartet, Ennio Morricone, Béla Bartók, and Gogol Bordello, among many others.
In the Fall of 2007, the members of the band all somehow happened to meet at Shot in The Dark Café in Tucson, improvised together in the alley next door, and liked the result. Douglas’ lap-steel guitar, Paul’s intensely percussive style of rhythm guitar, and the cello and violin created vivid soundscapes, capable of conveying odd emotions and ideas. Oliver had already planned on moving to Seattle, though, so the quartet became a trio. Yet, as the trio prepared to tour in the Summer of 2009, Oliver returned, and the quartet, The Missing Parts, was born.
One interesting part of the story of the group is how its virtuosic violinist, Oliver Blaylock, made a journey from his birthplace in Juarez, to his adoption and subsequent American citizenship. Ask him about it, and, if you’re lucky, his violin will provide a running commentary.
The Missing Parts create the majority of its compositions by steadily gathering improvisational parts, and then collaboratively stitching these parts together and deciding how they move and feel, and what those parts want to become. The Missing Parts fully believe in the power of improvisation and collaboration.
The quartet has collaborated with the singer/songwriter Cathy Rivers; the pyrotechnic/acrobatic performance troupe Flam Chen; and has shared bills with acts as wide ranging as March Fourth Marching Band, The White Buffalo, the Bay Area-based trio Judgment Day, and Swedish hip hop/swing group Movits! The Missing Parts are anxiously awaiting the release of a number of upcoming films featuring music from the new album.
The Missing Parts have successfully toured throughout the Rocky Mountains and along the West Coast in 2009 and 2010 (playing such venues as The Fox Theater in Boulder, Colorado, and The Taos Inn in Taos, New Mexico). The Missing Parts will be on the road again in June, 2011 to promote the new album, “Sueños”, before an audience of fans old and new, from octogenarians up past their bedtimes to green-hared teenage punks, and all manner in between.
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