Monthly Archives: March 2010

JOZEF VAN WISSEM & HERESY OF THE FREE SPIRIT, CHE CHEN & ROBBIE LEE, COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT, PETE FOSCO at THE LOUNGE, Tuesday, April 13th

Leave a reply

Due to events beyond our control, the following show has been MOVED! Please note the new time and venue.

JOZEF van WISSEM & HERESY OF THE FREE SPIRIT (from Holland, on Important Records)
CHE CHEN & ROBBIE LEE (from Brooklyn, New York)
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT (from Louisville)
PETE FOSCO (from Cincinnati, Ohio)

Tuesday, April 13th
at THE LOUNGE
947 E. Madison (at the corner of Chestnut and Wenzel), (502) 889-5889
8 PM, $5, ALL AGES!

JOZEF van WISSEM is a lute player/composer from Holland. Devoted to what he terms “The Liberation of the Lute,” his compositions for the instrument have involved a dynamic mix of conceptual, minimalist, classical and improvisational strategies. Over the last two decades, he has used cut-and-paste tactics, created palindromic compositions by playing pieces forwards and then backwards and used field recordings and free improvisation to create a sound world that is at once meditative and surprising, new and arcane. An incessantly touring musician, van WISSEM‘s hypnotic live shows have taken him all over the world. He has records out on Important Records, BVHaast and his own Incunabulum label and has collaborated with James Blackshaw (as ‘Brethren of the Free Spirit’), Tetuzi Akiyama, Smegma, Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart’s guitarist) and Maurizio Bianchi. Most recently he has begun playing his compositions in a trio with Robbie Lee and Che Chen called HERESY OF THE FREE SPIRIT.

CHE CHEN & ROBBIE LEE are Brooklyn, NY based multi-instrumentalists who have been steadily and intensively developing their unique approach to free improvisation over the last several years.  Using a shifting constellation of instruments that has included bass clarinets, baroque recorders, reed and pipe organs, Renaissance keyboard instruments, flutes, saxophones, bowed and plucked strings, little drums, bells, tape machines and their voices, CHE CHEN & ROBBIE LEE create earthy, slow moving improvisations that are informed as much by the ethnic folk traditions of the world as they are by 20th century composition and improvisation. Their music places precedent in listening, attention and dynamic interaction in the moment. Chen and Lee have released an LP and several CD-Rs on their own Telegraph Harp imprint.

COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT is an experimental music trio using Moog synthesizer, clarinet and prepared guitars to generate a universe of unique timbres and textures. Norman Minogue’s Moog suggests journey of space travel while Steve Good’s use of wide intervals and multiphonics on clarinet zeros in on his original melodic constructions.  Joee Conroy then ties the two sound fields together by playing guitar and Chapman Stick side-by-side on a stand as a keyboard player might, and weaving an orchestral array with sustaining strings, two handed hammer-ons and other hetrodox techniques. The results can range from dreamy to futuristic music. They were invited to perform at the University of Louisville New Music Festival last year. Steve Good and Joee Conroy are full-time members of with New Music Ensemble, Ut Gret. Norman Minogue also performs with Ut Gret, and all three make creepy music with Crappy Nightmareville.

PETE FOSCO was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1980 and grew up in a suburb on the west side of town. Every day after school he would pillage his dad’s record collection, listen to early ’80s Phil Collins-era Genesis, eat oatmeal raisin cookies and stay up until 4 AM for no reason. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music in 2004, where he studied digital video and film production and learned how to appreciate fresh guacamole and The Green Manalishi by Fleetwood Mac. He is a self-taught guitarist and started playing out in 2007. He is inspired to live today by the soundtracks from Herzog’s Grizzly Man [by Richard Thompson — ed.], the Flower/Corsano Duo, Fushitsusha, and pot roast and mashed potatoes cooked by his wife Heather. They reside in Covington, Kentucky and live with an English bulldog and mini Italian greyhound.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113005308712376.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

SIBERIA, THOUSAND ARROWS at the SWAN DIVE, Friday, April 2nd

Leave a reply

SIBERIA (from Louisville)
THOUSAND ARROWS (from Bloomington, Indiana)

Friday, April 2nd
at the SWAN DIVE
921 Swan Street (at the corner of Swan and Caldwell)
9 PM, $5, 21-and-over

SIBERIA is not actually from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but is instead a duo from Louisville, Kentucky consisting of Mike Seymour and Syd Bishop. They cite Ennio Morricone, Stars of the Lid, Autechre, and Earth among many influences, yet their sound is uniquely their own. If you like instrumental guitar drone with actual melodies — and I know I do! — don’t miss their first show at the Swan Dive.

THOUSAND ARROWS is the solo project of Peter Schreiner of Bloomington, Indiana. Peter also plays in the Hollows (who played the Swan Dive back in January with Catherine Irwin and Elephant Micah) and Magnolia Electric Co.  This show marks THOUSAND ARROW‘s Louisville debut.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104610052902693.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

ANTI-EASTER PARTY with RUDE WEIRDO, TALK NORMAL, and NZAMBI at SKULL ALLEY, Sunday, April 4th

Leave a reply

It’s an ANTI-EASTER* PARTY!!!
with
RUDE WEIRDO (from Louisville)
TALK NORMAL (from Brooklyn, New York; on Rare Book Room Records)
NZAMBI (from Louisville, formerly PAX TITANIA)

Sunday, April 4th
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
8 PM, $5, ALL AGES!

Louisville’s RUDE WEIRDO are a return to classic, three-chord punk. Consisting of Eric Ronay, Dave Bird, Jason Hayden, and Jason Fuller, these veterans of “the scene, man” really throw it down. The first time I saw them (with an almost entirely different lineup, with the exception of bassplayer/singer Ronay), they covered Agent Orange. They’ve released a compact disc on Louisville Lip Records, and hopefully more good things are coming soon.

Sarah Register and Andrya Ambro allied as TALK NORMAL in 2007, after years of friendship, and haven’t stopped moving. Since their lightning-strike first appearance, TALK NORMAL’s sound has stormed upward and outward, referencing few and relating to many, a jarringly songful gale of rhythm and noise supporting pleas and plaints, signal-calls and marching orders. Each show builds on past ones: up-to-the-moment updates of ideas previously stated, new phrasings of old upheavals delivered with increasing focus and joy. Darkness and light; fury, silence, space and sound. Opening for Xiu Xiu in the rest of the U.S. this spring, TALK NORMAL is returning to Louisville for another rare performance!

NZAMBI is the new synth project from Christopher Cprek, who has also released work under the PAX TITANIA moniker. Christopher uses an arsenal of DIY modular synthesizers. His former projects include Darker Florida with Irene Moon, Auk Theatre with Irene Moon, and as a member of Warmer Milks a few years back. NZAMBI’s debut as a project was in October at Zanzabar, with Regression, Spykes, and others.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=391485970850.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

*please note that the “ANTI-EASTER” theme is entirely in jest, thanks.

JONATHAN GLEN WOOD, LOWER DENS, WILLIAM BRYAN RAGDALE at the SWAN DIVE, Wednesday, March 17th

Leave a reply

JONATHAN GLEN WOOD (from Louisville)
LOWER DENS (from Baltimore, Maryland; featuring Jana Hunter, on Gnomonsong)
WILLIAM BRYAN RAGLAND (from Louisville)

Wednesday, March 17th
at the SWAN DIVE
921 Swan Street
8 PM, $5, 21-and-over


Hailing from the mountains of West Virginia with a heritage of hard luck miners and horse traders, JONATHAN GLEN WOOD’s music falls somewhere between the front porch and the barroom. JONATHAN has been playing many fantastic shows around town lately, and we welcome him to the Swan Dive for this headlining venture, on St. Patrick’s Day.

LOWER DENS is a band from Baltimore, which will release its first LP, Twin-Hand Movement, in summer 2010, on San Francisco’s Gnomonsong. Sonically, they come from some place near new-wave, kraut-rock, post-punk, and pop. Twin-Hand Movement, specifically, is record that incorporates those sounds to form its own. LOWER DENS formed in late 2008. Jana Hunter (guitar and vocals) needed a touring band for her solo work and found, through mutual friends, Abram Sanders (drums) and Geoff Graham (bass and vocals.) Two months of steady touring made a collaborative entity out of them, and Jana wrote the material for Twin-Hand Movement in reaction. They pored over arrangements and the final track list for nearly a year. Will Adams, an old friend of Hunter’s, joined two months prior to recording. Twin-Hand Movement was made with the help of Chris Freeland (recording engineer, drummer for Oxes, proprietor of Beat Babies Studio just outside Baltimore), Chris Coady (mixing engineer with TVOTR, YYY’s, and Beach House records to his credit, proprietor of DNA Downtown studio in NYC), and Sarah Register (mastering engineer at The Lodge in NYC, serious player in Talk Normal.) Amongst others, they cite Wire’s Chairs Missing, Chrome’s Half Machine Lip Moves, Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, Faust IV, and Snakefinger’s Greener Postures as companions and influences. LOWER DENS is indeed at once classic and of the times, sounding familiar but not dated, recalling the warmth of nostalgia but not its tiredness.

Download “Blue & Silver” by LOWER DENS here: http://www.mediafire.com/?izowmuwnwwm.

WILLIAM BRYAN RAGLAND says that he likes “to write songs, and I’ve been writing longer than I’ve been alive.” He has played, written and performed with many Louisville-area bands, including Angst., Blackface, Ants In An Argument, The Revenants, Thee Flying Carpets, HUMAN, Ben Purdom, Tennessee Edwards, and Sarah Elizabeth, as well as contributed to the soundtrack to the Baxter Avenue Morgue several years in a row. He says, “I will continue to write until my life runs out.”

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=352509726197.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

JOE MANNING, ELEPHANT MICAH, NATHAN SALSBURG, TIME & TEMPERATURE at THE LOUNGE, Friday, March 26th

1 Reply

JOE MANNING (from Louisville, Kentucky)
ELEPHANT MICAH (from Bloomington, Indiana)
NATHAN SALSBURG (from Louisville, Kentucky)
TIME & TEMPERATURE (from Columbus, Ohio)

Friday, March 26th
at THE LOUNGE
947 E. Madison (at the corner of Chestnut & Wentzel), 889-5889
9:00 PM, $6, 21-and-over

Louisville’s JOE MANNING has been playing music around town for a while, either solo or as a member of Kings Daughters and Sons (currently), Leota and Engine (both sadly defunct). In fact, he’s been a part of Louisville’s music community for so long that perhaps no introduction is necessary. What is necessary is Joe’s music, which contains a plaintive and yearning expressiveness that somehow eases the worried mind. Check out what these nice people have to say about Joe’s music: “[Manning’s] deep voice is rugged and weary, an uncommon beauty unafraid of exposure and judgment” (Peter Berkowitz, Courier Journal). “There’s nothing hurried about Joe Manning’s music. It unfolds leisurely but intently, a slow burn snaking its way into your heart” (Jeffrey Lee Puckett, Courier-Journal).


ELEPHANT MICAH is music by southern Indiana based singer and sound recordist Joseph O’Connell.  Taking cues from 1970s songcraft (Townes Van Zandt, Joni Mitchell) as well as midwestern lo-fi rock (Guided by Voices), ELEPHANT MICAH has gradually built a cult audience over a decade of do-it-yourself releases and tours. Echoer’s Intent is the first ELEPHANT MICAH album to fully foreground O’Connell as a writer and solo performer.  These minimal, mostly live recordings often approximate more “traditional” blues or Appalachian stylings.  In the same breath, O’Connell takes up imitation and authenticty as his central lyrical themes, producing an album that is both a critique and an example of what can only be termed folksploitation. This spring, O’Connell embarks on a nine-week tour coinciding with the release of Echoer’s Intent.

Listen to “Loon Call” by ELEPHANT MICAH here: http://www.elephantmicah.com/Loon%20Call.mp3.

NATHAN SALSBURG is an archivist, producer, guitarist and writer based in Louisville, Kentucky. He has worked for the Alan Lomax Archive since 2000, for which he currently serves in the capacities of production manager, photo and video archivist, and general digital catalog editor. Since 2006 he has produced and hosted “Root Hog Or Die,” a vernacular/traditional music program on East Village Radio, and is curator of the Twos & Fews recording imprint, also a vernacular music entity, and a collaboration with Chicago’s Drag City label. Its first album, I Want to Go Where Things Are Beautiful, drew on Mike Seeger’s 1982 recordings of the late miner, union activist, and singer Nimrod Workman; its second, Ouled Bambara: Portraits of Gnawa, features 2005 recordings of several master musicians of the Gnawa, a Sufi order of trance healers, living in Marrakech, Morocco. He has recently finished the production of a tribute album to the singer/guitarist E.C. Ball, late of Rugby, Virginia, entitled Face A Frowning World, released in December 2009 on New York’s Tompkins Square label. It features contributions from Michael Hurley, Jon Langford, Catherine Irwin, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Jolie Holland, and the Handsome Family, among others. Salsburg maintains an index of on-line vernacular music resources at his blog, roothogordie.wordpress.com, and contributes occasional music writing to the Louisville Eccentric Observer and the Other Music weekly update. His most recent musical contribution was to the third volume of Tompkins Square’s Imaginational Anthem guitar compilations. He is currently working on an album of his own acoustic guitar compositions and arrangements.

TIME & TEMPERATURE is Valerie alias Val Glenn from Columbus, Ohio. Meager beginnings in 2000 under the name The Cooking Show, [with some] bad good songs. 2002 in Atlanta, [she] became addicted to ebay, acquired a 4-track, Casio SK-1 and Boss DR-202 and The Cooking Show became Juguar. Committed social suicide opening for Tracy and the Plastics that spring. With the implied eschewal of electronics in 2004, Juguar became TIME & TEMPERATURE. Played first show as T&T with best chum ELEPHANT MICAH in Gambier, Ohio in August, 2005. Something fatalistically intentional or intentionally fatalistic happened that night. The rest is mystery. Many secret recordings which were never relased. In May of 2007 Trust Apples came out in an edition of 100 on White Cassettes.

Listen to tracks by TIME & TEMPERATURE here: http://www.myspace.com/grayfavorite.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=335029798762.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.