Stuart Ake has a problem. Raised within a music loving family, there were hopes Stu may be able to play. Unfortunately, he was lazy and refused to practice. To avoid the piano and violin, he began to pilfer records from the collections of siblings. Jimi Hendrix lead to Muddy Waters, the MC5, Miles and Keith Jarrett. Soon it was Motown, the Ramones, Bad Brains, free jazz and a somewhat baffling detour into prog rawk. In 1984, Stu attended his first Grateful Dead concert. For an unbearable stretch, he became a wide-eyed zealot who spoke only of Jerry, Jerry and Jerry. There was a benefit. This youthful obsession with Dead opened the ears to early blues, ‘50s gospel, zydeco, western swing, field recordings, funk, soul and the snot nosed snarls of ‘60s garage rock. Next, came Brazilian soul, African funk and Cumbia. As is the path with many record collectors, then things got out of hand. Stu started fixating on spoken word records which instructed listeners how to play golf, belly dance, train pets or master ESP. The weirder and more obscure... the better.
To bring focus to musical madness, in October of 1997, he collaborated with fellow DJs, record collectors and sound hounds to assemble Soundcircus. For over 20 years, Soundcircus has met monthly at various locations around the Bay Area to spin obscure, kooky and heavy sounds from across the globe around specific themes.
Stu’s collection of LPs, CDs and 45s is rarely organized and presents awkward storage problems. While he preaches keeping ears and mind open, most consider him an intolerable snob.