Jason Willett is an American musician, known largely for his work with experimental

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

groups including

Half Japanese Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair around 1975, sometime after the family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playi ...

, 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 Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their per ...

, 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,

David Liebe Hart David Nkrumah Liebe Unger Hart, also credited as D. L. Hart, (born April 19, 1957) is an American musician, painter, puppeteer and actor. He is best known for his appearances on Adult Swim's ''Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'', performin ...

Tim Hodgkinson Timothy "Tim" George Hodgkinson (born 1 May 1949) is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds, lap steel guitar, and keyboards. He first became known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group ...

and

Jac Berrocal Jacques "Jac" Berrocal (born 22 October 1946, Saint-Jean d'Angély) is a French trumpeter, singer and composer. He has been active since the 1970s in the independent and avant-garde music scene, and has released many albums. He also founded and p ...

, but became largely a venue for Willett's own collaborative music. He has also made records &/or performed with

Ruins Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

, R Stevie Moore,

James Chance James Chance, also known as James White (born James Siegfried, April 20, 1953), is an American saxophonist, keyboard player, and singer. A key figure in no wave, Chance has been playing a combination of improvisational jazz-like music and pu ...

, Hanna Olivegren, Jon Rose, Michael Evans, Ron Anderson, Benb Gallaher, Mick Hobbs,

Chris Cutler Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, ...

, Mu Mesons (not the other band, mu meson), Little Howlin Wolf,

Yamatsuka Eye (born , 13 February 1964) is a Japanese vocalist and visual artist, best known as a member of Boredoms and Naked City. He has changed his stage name three times, from Yamatsuka Eye, to Yamantaka Eye, to Yamataka Eye, and sometimes calls hims ...

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 Jad Fair (born June 9, 1954) is an American singer, guitarist, graphic artist, and founding member of lo-fi alternative rock group Half Japanese. Biography Fair was born in Coldwater, Michigan. In 1974, he and his brother David formed the lo-f ...

, 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 Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

's Hampden neighborhood for about a dozen years now, but has recently had to move it to Baltimore's Station North neighborhood.

Discography

*Green Exist (Cassette) 1987 *Jason Willett (Unpunk) 1992 *Jason Willett, Jad Fair & Gilles Reider (Megaphone) 1993 *The Jaunties (Stomach Ache) 1994 *The Dramatics (Megaphone Limited) 1994 *The Can Openers (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *The Jaunties: Asthma (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *The Pleasant Livers: From The Land Of Pleasant Living (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *The Dentures: 40,000 Warriors (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *The Attitude Robots (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *The Jaunties: Myoclonic Twitch In The Key Of H (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *X-Ray Eyes (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *The Dramatics: This Is International Telecom (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *The Dramatics: This Is International Telecom (Lissy's) 1995 *Jason Willett & Ruins (Megaphone Limited) 1995 *Half Japanese: Hot (Safehouse 1995) *Half Japanese: Hot (Safe House 1995) *The Can Openers: Sherbet (Megaphone Limited) 1996 *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Honeybee (Dr. Jim's 1997) *Jad Fair & Jason Willett - The Corpse Is Missing (Slab-O-Concrete 1996) *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Punk Rock 1996 (Chlorophyl 1996) *The Attitude Robots: Iron On T-shirt (Megaphone Limited) 1996 *The Dentures: 10" Voice (Megaphone Limited) 1996 *The Dramatics: Hypnotist Geese CD (Megaphone Limited) 1996 *The Dramatics: Garbage For Your Gut *Jason Willett & Jad Fair: It's All Good CD (Megaphone Limited) 1996 *Jac Berrocal: Non Connexion (Megaphone 1996) *Vince Taylor: Rock N' Roll Station (Megaphone 1996) *X-Ray Eyes: Bonemeal CD (Megaphone Limited) 1997 *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: The Mighty Superheroes (Marginal 1997) *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Wonderful World (Shrimper 1997) *Jason Willett & Jad Fair: Twister (Dark Beloved Cloud 1997) *The Jaunties: Yes Lord! CD (Megaphone Limited) 1997 *The Attitude Robots: Kings CD (Megaphone Limited) 1998 *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Wild CD (Megaphone Limited) 1998 *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Enjoyable Songs (Alternative Tentacles 1998) *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Enjoyable Songs (Alternative Tentacles 1998) *Jason Willett & Jad Fair: We're Going To The Moon CD (Megaphone Limited) 1998 *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: The Mighty Hypnotic Eye (Dr. Jim's 1999) *Half Japanese: Hello (Alternative Tentacles 2001) *Half Japanese: Hello (Alternative Tentacles 2001) *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: The Attack Of Everything (Slab-O-Concrete 2002) *Jason Willett & Ron Anderson: Be The First On The Block To Eat The Snake (Ra Sounds 2003) *Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Superfine (Public Eyesore 2004) *Leprechaun Catering: Kumquats, Lychees (Ehse 2004) *Leprechaun Catering: Male Plumage (White Denim 2006) *The Pleasant Livers: From The Land Of Pleasant Living (Megaphone Limited 2007) *Jason Willett: The Sounds Of Megaphone Limited (CD) (Mt6 2008) *The Can Openers: Is The One (CD) (Megaphone Limited 2008) *Jason Willett: Late Night Moisturizer (7" split w/ Jason Urick) (Wildfire Wildfire 2010) *Instant Coffee!: s/t (LP) (Planam 2010) *Jason Willett: Something's Going On.... (Cassette) (Player Press) (2014) *Half Japanese: Overjoyed (LP) (Joyful Noise) (2014) *Bottomless Up: s/t (Cassette) (A Megaphone Cassette Special) (2015) *Half Japanese: Bingo Ringo (EP) (Joyful Noise) (2015) *Half Japanese: Perfect (2017, Joyful Noise) *Half Japanese: Perfect (2017, Joyful Noise) *Jad Fair & Jason Willett - The Greatest Power (Dymaxion Groove) (2015) *Half Japanese: Hear The Lions Roar (2017, Fire) *Half Japanese: Hear The Lions Roar (2017, Fire) *''I Said No Doctors!'' (2017, Dymaxion Groove) *Half Japanese: why not? (2018, Fire) *Half Japanese: why not? (2018, Fire) *David Liebe Hart Meets Jad Fair & Jason Willett: For Everyone (2018, Joyful Noise) *David Liebe Hart Meets Jad Fair & Jason Willett: For Everyone (2019, Burger) *Half Japanese: Invincible (2019, Fire) *Half Japanese: Invincible (2019, Fire) *Jac Berrocal, Jason Willett, David Fenech : Xmas in March (2020, Megaphone + Knock Em Dead Records)

External links

megaphonerecords.comThe True Vine Record Shop
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willett, Jason Living people American multi-instrumentalists American experimental musicians American audio engineers Record producers from Maryland Year of birth missing (living people)