Monthly Archives: August 2011

WOODEN WAND, NATHAN SALSBURG, and DANE WATERS at ZANZABAR, Tuesday, September 13th

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The Other Side of Life and Cropped Out! present:

WOODEN WAND (from Lexington, on Young God Records)
NATHAN SALSBURG (from Louisville, Kentucky; debut album forthcoming on No Quarter)
DANE WATERS (from Louisville, Kentucky; member of Sapat and Softcheque)

Tuesday, September 13th
at ZANZABAR
2100 S. Preston Street
9 PM DOORS, $6, 21 and over
BUY TICKETS HERE!

James Jackson Toth has been playing and recording (and releasing) music for over a decade, most notably as leader of the now-defunct New York-based collective Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice. After a solo album in 2007 on Rykodisc, and Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label and the Mad Monk label, he continues under the name WOODEN WAND with his new release on Michael Gira’s Young God Records label, Death Seat. Abandoning the psychedelic wail of WW&VV for a starker, more direct songwriting style, WOODEN WAND’s most recent tunes are harrowing and hellaciously good. Michael Gira writes that Toth is “a passionate singer and guitar player and inhabits the songs as he performs them with straightforward, unpretentious, and confident gravitas. I’ve been listening to this record over and over for the last several months—we went through dozens of equally compelling songs before choosing the line up of tracks—and the more I listen, the more honored I am to be associated with James Jackson Toth.”

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.  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. This past week, the Tompkins Square label just released Avos, a collaboration between Salsburg and Chicago guitarist James Elkington (formerly of the Zincs), and Salsburg’s first solo album, Affirmed, is due November 15th on No Quarter.

DANE WATERS is one of Louisville’s brightest musical talents. As a member of SAPAT and SOFTCHEQUE, she displays an impeccable melodic sensibility, and has a voice so wonderfully haunting, it sends chills down your spine. Dane is in the midst of working on her first solo album, which we can’t wait to hear!

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=183890385017722.

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE at UNCLE SLAYTON’S this Thursday, August 25th

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(pic swiped from Uncle Slayton’s web site.)

We really, really miss Skull Alley. Jamie Prott ran a great-sounding venue, and when we started booking shows there, we were so pleased that Jamie was super-friendly and easy to work with. We miss the DIY spirit that pervaded the place, from the mosaic-tiled bar  to the, ahem, ever-changing decor. Since the venue re-opened with a new name, Uncle Slayton’s, this spring, we haven’t been interested in going to check it out, mainly because there hasn’t been a show worth going to, in our estimation.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise that SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, the vehicle of the incredible Ben Chasny, is playing there this Thursday. Who booked this? Who cares? We’re glad! Here’s the particulars:

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE 
w/Donovan Quinn and Band of Carnies
Thursday, August 25
8:30 PM / 8:00 doors
$8 / 18+ with ID
Purchase tickets here
Experimental, Out-Folk, Pop Rock

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE is basically just one man (but what a man!) – Ben Chasny, along with whomever he ropes in for recording or for shows. This man-band started in 1997 when Ben self-released his first LP in an edition of 400, little dreaming that one day Six Organs of Admittance would sell 37 times as many records. Over the years, Six Organs has had many releases on a variety of labels, most notably Holy Mountain, and became one of the most influential sounds in the free world. In 2005, Ben found a home at Drag City and released the landmark album, School of the Flower. “Free jazz ninja drum master” Chris Corsano joined Ben and the results were a perfect blend of melody, out-folk, minimalism and noise, getting much critical applause and ending up on year-end best-of-the-year lists by magazines such as Mojo, Wire, and Magnet. Among other projects, Ben has played in the touring band of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and plays guitar in the bands Current 93, Badgerlore, and Comets on Fire. Six Organs’ 10th album, Asleep on the Floodplain, released in February – ten portable slabs of home recorded blur-and-ripple (and warble) from a (mostly) acoustic man-band.

No idea who the opener(s) are, but really, if you can, you shouldn’t miss Six Organs. Ben is one of our favorite living guitarists, an absolute killer player with impeccable sensibilities. Yowza! Here’s the video for “Light of the Light,” off his new album Asleep on the Floodplain:

Oh yeah, Uncle Slayton’s is located at 1017 E. Broadway, near the corner of Broadway and Barrett. Yeah.

TENDER MERCY, GIVING UP/PUTTING OUT, SLITHERING BEAST at MAG BAR, Tomorrow! Monday, August 22nd

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Our friends at CROPPED OUT and SOPHOMORE LOUNGE are putting on this fantastic show tomorrow at Old Louisville’s favorite watering hole, the Mag Bar. Here are the particulars:

The triumphant return of Sophomore Lounge’s pop-slop magicians, GIVING UP (Louisville, KY/Garner, IA) and PUTTING OUT (Chicago, IL). Featuring members of STATE CHAMPION and MEAH!, with special guest openers SLITHERING BEAST (Clark County country cookin’).

JUST ADDED: Louisville heartstring-strummer and friend of the family, Mark Kramer a.k.a. TENDER MERCY will round out the night with some stripped-down, hauntingly sparse acousti…c numbers of his own. For fans of: Little Wings, Red House Painters, Spokane, etc.

This is the last show of a three-week tour for GU/PO, so come on down, buy yourself a beer, drink half of it, pour the rest of it on them, then buy one of their records to say you’re sorry. Then buy yourself another beer, and put a Warren Zevon song on the jukebox. It’s Monday night, what else is there to do?

http://soundcloud.com/tender-mercy
http://givingup.castlemorbius.com/
http://www.gooddrawers.com/puttingout
http://www.slitheringbeast.com/

9 PM. $4. 21 and over.

The MAG BAR is located at 1398 South 2nd Street, at the corner of Magnolia and Second. You knew that, as you’ve been going there since before you were old enough to drink.

The ubiquitous Facebook invite is, of course, here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=252908064739438.