Patrick Elkins

Patrick Ryan Elkins (born January 29, 1976) is an American author, performance artist, puppeteer and songwriter. As a musician, he has played with a number of groups including The Rainbow Vomit Family Band, Pine Cones, Hot Meat for Young Lovers, Nausea Valley, Catch A Wave, Ever Will You Get There, Orgasmic Cookies, Video Games, Rainbow Island, Jimes, Actual Birds Mind Expansion Ensemble, (Ultimate) Catfight of the Century, Suns of the Universe, Odd Clouds, This Must Be The Place (a Talking Heads cover band), The Sonshine Band (his grandparents' country-western outfit), Adapt Collective, Zombie Gutz, Endless Vibrations, Petroleum Bloodfang, Liquid Gods, The Melting Flux Collective, and The Aleise Barnett Good-Bye Band. He released several albums of music and his writings have been published in Display Magazine, Java Traveling, Gravity Presses, the Independent Media Center, Cloudrag, and the Ypsi Mix.
Elkins' first novel, Ink on Dreams Of Transient Architecture, was published by Francis of Prussia in March 2007. Later that year he traveled to Indonesia, where he created a form of shadow puppetry known as "Wayang Kucing" (trans: shadow puppet theater for/about cats). During the ten months that he spent on the island of Java, Elkins performed Wayang Kucing shows at various outdoor festivals and performance sites, including an appearance on the television program "Mimpi Malam". Elkins also is the guiding force behind Totally Awesome Fest, an annual free, all-ages, all-species festival featuring vegan pancakes and a clothing swap in addition to the various musical/performance acts from around the world.
He continues to perform both shadow puppet shows (the U.S. debut of the Wayang Kucing series took place at the 2008 summer Shadow Art Fair) as well as marionette, rod and hand puppet shows; he also frequently hosts shadow puppet workshops. Elkins performed three 24-hour puppet shows (in collaboration with the Dreamland Puppet Troupe), from midnight to midnight on July 4, 2007 and from noon on December 31 until noon on January 1 in 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. In 2009, the Wayang Kucing soundtrack was released by "Sleepy Mammal Sound" in Chicago. [http://markmaynard.com/index.php/2008/12/31/five_hours_until_the_ypsilanti_demon_par#c63693] That same year, Elkins penned some of his most well-recognized puppet shows, including titles such as "Patrick's Weird Beard Goes Wandering", "The Very Wishy-Washy Caterpillar Meets the Most Irresponsible Piece of Cake in the World", "The Continuing and Ongoing Adventures of Suzie the Time-Traveling Sea Slug" and "Trash Mountain".
Since then, he has written and performed a number of original puppet shows including "The End of Dreams from the World of Living Creatures or Gladys & the Golden Potato", "Heaven is Water", "Split Infinitive(s)", "The History of Ypsilanti", and "Patrick's Weird Beard Goes Wandering Pt. 2: Terminal Hairline". During the 2010 Ypsilanti Jamboree festival, Elkins was scheduled to perform an original Wayang Kucing show on both nights of the festival; however, on the second night his performance was interrupted by park staff who insisted he stop the show. The incident led to the abduction of the festival's mascot and a heated public dialogue (although Elkins initially declined to speak on the matter).
In 2010, Elkins and long-time collaborators MC Trashpedal, Chris "Legs" Pierce, and Jason Voss formed The Rainbow Vomit Family Band with Chelsea Jordan. The group has released one single on the Harsh Tokes label and will be releasing their debut full-length album ("Warm Feelings") on Pleasuredome Tapez in the summer of 2011. Patrick also performs in the Why Not? Burlesque Troupe and is reported to be a member of the Math Liberation Front.
Personal
Raised in and near Grand Rapids, Michigan, Elkins moved to Ypsilanti to study Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University.
Discography
*Chew Your Own Neck (Chew Your Own, 2003)
*Maximum Volume (Chew Your Own, 2004)
*Justin + Patrick w. Justin Shay (We're Twins, 2004)
*Hobo-A-Go-Go w. Justin Shay + Jason Voss (We're Twins, 2004)
*The New Folk Sounds of Patrick Elkins (We're Twins, 2005)
*Patrick Elkins (Chew Your Own Records, 2005)
*The Bible or Africa (Ypsilanti Records, 2005)
*Greatest Hits Live Vol. 1 w. Hot Meat for Young Lovers (Chew Your Own, 2005)
*Fruits of the Spirit (We're Twins Records, 2006)
*Chew Your Own Friends Vo. 1 w. Justin Shay (Chew Your Own, 2006)
*Live in L.A. (Chew Your Own, 2006)
*Mix 96 (Chew Your Own, 2006)
*Ink on Dreams of Transient Architecture w. Arland Nicewander (Francis of Prussia, 2007)
*Beating Heart of a Crew (Chew Your Own, 2007)
*Wayang Kucing (Sleepy Mammal, 2009)
*Moon Blood is Hunger (Fever Beard, 2009)
*Nausea Valley (FM Dust, 2010)
Publications
*Ink on Dreams of Transient Architecture (Francis of Prussia, 2007)

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