You know what we love here at Actual Size Creative? We love it when two things come together to make something even better. You can think of the classic combinations as easily as you can think of your own name. Peanut butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Ketchup (Heinz, of course) and French fries. (Man, I must be hungry!) Well, this past weekend, two of our favorite things came together: the Three Rivers Arts Festival and Maurice, ASC's super cool web developer (and also one of the people who helped me to figure out how to use the bus!). I had a chat with Maurice about one of his bands, The Bureau of Nonstandards - here's what they're all about.

It all started in 2004, when Maurice met Kevin while they were both recording Glenn Branca's Symphony No. 13 (it called for 100 electric guitar players, can you believe that!?). They got to talking about Pittsburgh and their mutual friends there, so when Kevin moved back to the 'burgh in 2006, he gave Maurice a call. The rest, as they say, is history. The Bureau of Nonstandards currently has one release and plays local gigs. They use circuit bent toys - such as Furbies, which Maurice jokingly refers to as the "little divas" of the whole production - as well as keyboards to creative a cool, improvisational brand of music that ranges from "ambient machine noise" to "everything breaking down at once." Maurice says that it fits in with the other work he's done before - you can check that out here: http://onezeromusic.com - and notes, "Every event is a unique challenge - you can't rehearse. The results are generally surprising to everyone."

To hear more from The Bureau of Nonstandards, check out their full-length release (http://nonstandards.bandcamp.com). Enjoy!