Proto Play

Records and side projects from before the Chris Portka era

Before the records released under my own name there was a decade of music made under other names. Two early projects in particular — Rhiao and Beardwail — formed the proto-version of what eventually became this site. Most of these are still up on Bandcamp, some are buried on SoundCloud and YouTube, a few are gone.

Rhiao

Solo project, Oakland, 2014–2015. Pop, experimental, ambient, impressionist, primitive. Two albums on Bandcamp, both name-your-price.

Your Entire Arm Is Red

Oakland, 2014. Drone folk, experimental, noise, and (per the Bandcamp tag) “laughable.” One release.

out-takes

September 2014

Single track, the renaissance man of today. Priced at $1,000.

Beardwail

Tom Meagher’s long-running San Francisco project. Creative collaborator across decades — features Rhiao on Out of Time and Sassaphrasing, dedicated Deep Fried Killer Whale to me, and plays lead guitar across The Album Everyone Wants.