Willard's Canteen

Willard's Canteen is the moniker of one-man band Matthew Pamatmat, a northern California musician known for being a prolific proponent of psychedelic folk, ambient soundscapes, and weird rock. Recording exclusively on a four-track tape recorder and using a motley assortment of instruments, Willard's Canteen has created around 250 songs and released nearly twenty albums on CD, including the double album How to Tell a Dead Horse from One that is Merely Resting and the simultaneously-released CDs Eatin' a cupcake in Hell and Gnap Gnightmares. Willard's Canteen music is known for its lo-fi quality and unique, inventive sounds and surreal lyrics, and on rare occasions when the reclusive Pamatmat plays live he often enlists the help of musician friends and places a glowing plastic goose onstage.

Discography:

Willard's Canteen I, II, 3, IV
Orangutan
[...] Up at the Four Track
Bananer Funnel Kakes from the Old Cuntry
How to Tell a Dead Horse from One that is Merely Resting (2xCD)
Dark Side of the Scrapbook
Eatin' a cupcake in Hell
Gnap Gnightmares
Judy Garland of Freshly Severed Heads
A Spectacular Butchery Site
Morphing Fields (2xCD)
Weirdos in the Woods
Squealin' at the Teat
A Ruthless Paradise e.p.
The Ubiquitous Colonel (forthcoming)

Pamatmat himself considers the double album How to Tell a Dead Horse..., notably the second part/disc, some of his finest work of the Willard's Canteen canon.

The first five Willard's Canteen CDs are in mono, due to a simple technical glitch Pamatmat overlooked in the drunken, feverish pace that characterized the creation and release of these albums. [...] Up at the Four Track is the first Willard's Canteen album in stereo, and all following releases are mostly in stereo or a combination of stereo and mono.

Pamatmat makes Willard's Canteen music in rare spare moments when he is not working, writing (he has been a successful freelance writer, writing on a number of diverse and philosophically-tinged subjects), or watching saffron-colored dead parts fall from late summer trees to blanket the ground in bright mustard hues. Willard's Canteen captured the attention of music critic Sara Bir, who wrote an insightful article for the North Bay Bohemian. The article can be found at 1

Willard's Canteen music, images, and info can be found at 2