Chris Brokaw was born in New York City and raised in the outlying suburbs. He attended Oberlin College, where he took exactly two music-related classes: Multi-track Recording and Steel Drumming. In 1986 he moved to Boston, Massachusetts; and in 2011 relocated to Seattle, Washington. Chris is perhaps best known for his work as the drummer in CODEINE and the guitarist in COME, who made several albums in the 1990's for the labels Sub Pop and Matador that are considered landmarks in American independent rock music.
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Since 2001, Chris has focused primarily on his work as a solo artist, making numerous albums of vocal and instrumental music. This has ranged from full on rock ("Red Cities", "Incredible Love") to explorations of the 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitars ("Canaris", "VDSQ Solo Acoustic Volume 3") to the experimental and abstract ("Tundra", "Gracias, Ghost of the Future"). Throughout, Chris has maintained an active solo touring schedule in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and Russia.
He has composed original music for the following films: I Was Born, But (Roddy Bogawa, 2004), Road (Leslie McCleave, 2005, which received the award for Best Original Score at the Brooklyn International Film Festival); Sospira (Lana Z. Caplan, 2011); Taken By Storm (Roddy Bogawa, 2011); and Now, Forager (Julia Halperin/Jason Cortlund, 2012). The latter two films screened in 2012 at MOMA in New York City. Chris has also performed and recorded as an accompanist to Thurston Moore, Evan Dando, Christina Rosenvinge, Jennifer O'Connor, Rhys Chatham, Steve Wynn, Alan Licht, GG Allin, and Johnny Depp. He has composed music for the Dagdha Dance Company (Limerick, Ireland) and Kino Dance (Boston); collaborated with playwright Rinde Eckert and director Robert Woodruff on the new opera Highway Ulysses (2002, American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Mass.); performed as one of 77 drummers in the Boredoms' 77 Boadrum in New York; and performed as one of 200 guitarists in Rhys Chatham's A Crimson Grail at Lincoln Center, New York. His band Dirtmusic (with Chris Eckman and Hugo Race) performed at the Festival In The Desert, in Essakane, Mali, and collaborated with the Touareg band Tamikrest on an album recorded in Bamako, Mali.
Currently, Chris plays in the bands Wrekmeister Harmonies, The New Year, and The Empty House Cooperative, all of whom have new albums in the works for 2012 and 2013. He also plays in a duo with Geoff Farina (ex-Karate), netting two albums (The Angel's Message To Me and The Boarder's Door), and in a new duo with Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))) ) called The Catamites. 2012 will see the release of Gambler's Ecstasy, a rock solo album five years in the making. Chris will do an extensive US tour in September and October, performing solo, opening for the Japanese band Mono; and will tour further in 2012 and 2013 with a bassist and drummer.
