Captain Onboard

Captain Onboard was the first solo project by San Francisco guitarist Joe Goldring, a veteran of numerous indie bands starting with the early-'90s post-punk of Toiling Midgets. From there he moved on to a gig playing bass with New York's notorious gloom merchants the Swans, then returned to the Bay Area to play with the sadcore band Faith Burns, which released an album in 1998. He next joined June of 44 drummer Doug Scharin in the experimental dub project Out of Worship (aka Out in Worship), which produced two albums over 1998-1999. A bumpy supporting tour helped dissolve that project, and Goldring moved on to work as a sideman for both Porn (The Men Of) and Touched by a Janitor. He also began work on a set of solo recordings, which harked back to early experiments in ambient music, employing conventional rock instrumentation and studio processing. This material was assembled under the solo alias Captain Onboard and issued in the form of a self-titled EP on Perishable Records in 2001. Pressed in a limited edition of 500 copies, the EP was mixed by Scharin and featured guest bassist Phil Spirito (like Scharin a member of Rex and Loftus) on one track.