Home

Full of effect pedals and synthesizers, Transcendental Hayride is the perfect music to accompany a late-night laser light show.

The live recording of a recent show at 12 Galaxies in San Francisco starts with spacey and wandering guitar, suddenly interrupted by the disturbing sound of a child calling for its mother.

At first it sounds like something caught by accident at the live show, but it's not.

"That's Bambi," singer/songwriter Dano Kildsig said. "It's a sample. To me, that cry represents the archetypal loneliness. I was adopted, and something that has informed my music is never knowing my mother. Despite having a good (adoptive) family, it's a primal thing that runs through a lot of my music -- 'mother, where are you?'"

Though Transcendental Hayride has the organic sound of most jam bands, Kildsig brings an electronic (and darker) undercurrent to the stage.

"I spend most of my time in front of the computer, sampling," he said. "We have synthesizers with CD decks in them."

A favorite sample to incorporate is the voice of someone named Brent, recorded from Kildsig's answering machine.

"(Brent) was there for the birth of the Hayride," Kildsig said. "He would call my house every night, and he was a part of our pretend rock star thing -- coming home late at night, listening to him on the machine and laugh. It was like the Jerky Boys.

"Years later, I realize he was just a lonely, single alcoholic on the road, and I was the only person he could call drunk at 2 in the morning. We were a perfect audience."

Transcendental Hayride's brand of mixing electronic media with bluegrass-style, Grateful Dead influenced music has gained the attention of the jamniscenti.

On its Web site, Hayride tells fans to look out for a mention of the band in the September issue of Relix magazine's "On the Verge: Artists too new to know ... for now" section.

The mention is good news for the Hayride, a band that has formed slowly during the past decade, but didn't hit its stride until two years ago when its current five members came together -- Kildsig, Kurt Moss on guitar, Brackett Clark on keyboards, Nick Massaro on bass and Jack McFadden on drums.

In the past year, Hayride has opened for bands including The Dead, Derek Trucks, Garaj Mahal and the Om Trio.