A Gentle Reminder
Leave a reply
Category Archives: Activities
R. Keenan Lawler, Nick Hennies at the SWAN DIVE Saturday, August 8
(Image of R. Keenan Lawler at Terrastock 2008 swiped with love from Chris Barrus’s Flickr photostream. Image of Nick Hennies and a dog swiped from whiskeyandapples.com.)
R. KEENAN LAWLER
NICK HENNIES (Austin, Texas)
Saturday, August 8
The Swan Dive
9 PM
$5, 21 and over
R. KEENAN LAWLER is a musician and sound artist based in Louisville Kentucky. For over 25 years his musical journey has taken him from early experiments with reverb tanks, noise and tape decks to all manner of avant-garde, “new” music, psychedelia, electro-acoustic, drone, ethnic and sampler-based work. LAWLER is best known for developing a highly personal and exploratory language for the metal bodied resonator guitar which Baltimore’s John Berdnt called “Cosmic, monolithic and deeply American.” Indeed his work is informed by carnatic classical, Charles Ives, Albert Ayler, blues, minimalism and non-western trance musics. Primarily a solo performer, he is also known for collaborative work. The “Keyhole II” album he recorded with Pelt and metal worker Eric Clark is one of Pelt’s most beautiful and memorable recordings, and his guitar playing is also heard on releases by Paul K., Jack Wright, My Morning Jacket and most visibily on Matmos’ “The Civil War.” He has collaborated or performed with a wide range of forward-thinking musicians and mavericks including Rhys Chatham, John Butcher, Eliott Sharp, Charalambides, Ignaz Schick/Perlonex, Kaffe Matthews, Burning Star Core, Jason Kahn, Ut Gret, Thaniel Ion Lee, Ed Wilcox, Ramesh Srinivasan, Kevin Drumm, Arco Flute Foundation, Helena Espvall, Ian Nagoski, Connor Bell, Andy Willis, Alan Licht, Taksuya Nakatani, Tom Carter, Bhob Rainey, Aaron Rosenblum, Joe Dutkiewicz, Evergreen,Eric Carbonara and Joseph Suchy.
NICK HENNIES is a percussionist and composer from Louisville, KY. He received his M.A. from UC-San Diego where he studied with world-renowned percussionist Steven Schick and performed with ‘red fish blue fish’, the SONOR Ensemble, Castanets, and in a duo with trombonist Tucker Dulin. Since relocating to Austin, TX in 2003 HENNIES has performed regularly with The Weird Weeds, the Austin New Music Co-op, Peter & the Wolf, and numerous collaborations with local and visiting musicians. He has worked with a wide array of musicians including Arnold Dreyblatt, Radu Malfatti, Eugene Chadbourne, Stuart Saunders Smith, and Jandek in his first ever U.S. performance. HENNIES’ solo work involves minimalist experiments in timbre with percussion instruments, as well as working with found sounds and electronic sources. His first official solo CD “Paths” was released on Thor’s Rubber Hammer in 2008 and also has released or forthcoming work on B-Boim, Sentient Recognition Archive, and Spectral House.
Listen to a clip from NICK HENNIES’ solo CD “Paths” here: http://nhennies.com/audio/paths-sample.mp3.
For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcomingevents for updates and/or email hstencil@gmail.com.
Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/31 – 6/5
(photo swiped from http://hadleighhighlibrary.wordpress.com/about/.)
John Fahey, The Yellow Princess CD
Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest CD (Warp)
Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly CD (Thrill Jockey, available here)
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD (Drag City)
Big Business, Mind the Drift CD (Hydra Head)
Spacemen 3, The Perfect Prescription CD
Iggy Pop, Preliminaries CD
Savath & Savalas, La Llama CD (Stones Throw)
Etran Finatawa, Desert Crossroads CD (available here)
The Damned, Machine Gun Etiquette CD
Freddie Hubbard, Without a Song: Live in Europe 1969 CD
Sir Richard Bishop, The Freak of Araby CD (Drag City)
Swans, The Great Annhilator CD
V/A, The Roots of Nick Cave CD
Sperm, Shh! LP (Destijl)
V/A, Mexique: Fetes de San Miguel Tzinacapan mp3s
Oneohtrix Point Never — Ruined Lives, Betrayal in the Octagon, and Young Beidnahga mp3s
Gas, Konigsforst 2LP
Last updated Tuesday June 2, 2009.
Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/24 – 5/30
(image swiped from http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/wireless_gallery.html.)
Group Doueh, Guitar Music from the Western Sahara and Treeg Salaam LPs (Sublime Frequencies, available here and here)
Omar Souleyman, Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria 2LP (Sublime Frequencies)
V/A, Ethiopian Modern Instrumentals Hits LP (L’Arome)
Noah Howard, At Judson Hall LP (ESP-Disk, available here)
V/A, “Musiques de l’Asie Traditionnelle vol. 4: Tibet LP (Playa Sound)
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Soul Finger CD
The Field, Yesterday and Today CD (Kompakt)
Vieux Farka Toure, Fondo CD
V/A, Phantom Guitars CD
Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come CD
Elvis Presley, Roustabout LP
Boards of Canada, Music Has the Right to Children CD
Kardinal Offishal, Not 4 Sale CD
Ennio Morricone, Film Music Vol. 1 CD
Big Business, Mind the Drift CD (Hydra Head)
Patto, s/t CD
Iggy Pop, Preliminaries CD
Fire on Fire, The Orchard CD (Young God)
The Inner Space, Agilok & Blubbo CD (Wah-Wah)
DJ Shadow, Endtroducing CD
V/A, Ghana Soundz Vol. 2 CD
Hawkwind, In Search of Space CD
The Damned, Machine Gun Etiquette CD
Saccharine Trust, Past Lives CD
Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Blank Generation CD
Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly CD (Thrill Jockey)
James Blackshaw, The Glass Bead Game CD (Young God)
J.G. Thirlwell, The Venture Bros.: The Music of J.G. Thirlwell CD
The Stooges, S/T CD
Iron & Wine, Around the Well CD (Sub Pop)
V/A, 1970’s Algerian Proto-Rai Underground CD (Sublime Frequencies)
Last updated on Tuesday, June 2, 2009.
Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/17 – 5/23
(image swiped from http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/09/08/worlds-greatest-radio-listening-post/.)
Jim O’Rourke, I’m Happy, and I’m singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4 2CD (Editions Mego)
Small Faces, First Step CD
John Lee Hooker, Hooker n’ Heat 2CD
Kurt Vile and the Violators, Hunchback CD (Richie Records)
Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation CD
Cold Sun, Dark Shadows CD
John Fahey and his Orchestra, Of Rivers and Religion LP
The Inner Space, Agilok & Blubbo mp3s
39 Clocks, Zoned mp3s (Destijl)
Nomo, Invisible Cities CD
Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris CD
Obits, I Blame You CD (Sub Pop)
Can, Ege Bamyasi CD
Savath & Savalas, La Llama CD (Stones Throw)
Naked Lunch, s/t CD
Roky Erikson, I Have Always Been Here Before 2CD
Pink Floyd, Meddle LP
The Bengal Minstrel, The Music of Bauls LP
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, The Voudon Effect: Funk & Sato from Benin’s Obscure Labels 1972 – 1975 2LP (Analog Africa)
Spirit, The Family That Plays Together LP
Mahmoud Ahmed and the Ibex Band, Ere Mela Mela LP
Tyvek, s/t CD
V/A, Bird Up: The Charlie Parker Remix Project CD
Fred Fisher Atalobhor & His Ogiza Dance Band, African Carnival 2CD
Passion Pit, Manners CD
Grizzly Bear, Vekatimest CD
Group Doueh, Treeg Salaam LP
Christopher Tignor, Core Memory Unwound CD
Traffic, Mr. Fantasy LP
Spirit, Clear LP
Last posted on Sunday, May 24, 2009.
Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/10 – 5/16
(image swiped from bridell.com; read about Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen’s Listening Post installation here: http://bridell.com/tag/listening-post/)
Music listened to during the week from Sunday, May 10 to Saturday, May 16:
Pere Ubu, Dub Housing (Chrysalis) LP (available here)
Harappian Night Recordings, The Glorious Gongs of Hainuwele mp3s
Philip Glass, Music In Similar Motion and Music in Fifths (Chatham Square) LP
The George-Edwards Group, 38:38 (Drag City/Galactic Zoo Disks) LP (available here)
Vinko Globokar/Luciano Berio/Karlheinz Stockhausen/Carlos Roque Alsina, Discours II pour cinq trombones/Sequenza V for trombone solo/Solo fur Melodie-Instrument mit Ruckkopplung/Consecuenza op. 17 fur Soloposaune (Deutsche Grammophon) LP
John Wiese & C. Spencer Yeh, Cincinnati mp3s
Hecker, Acid in the Style of David Tudor mp3s
Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories mp3s
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, Kings of Benin Urban Groove 1972-1980 CD
Dead Child, Attack CD
Double Dagger, More CD
V/A, Welcome to the Party CD
The Original Modern Lovers, s/t CD
Dungen, 4 CD
Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power CD
Doug Paisley, s/t CD
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Segu Blue 2LP
Omar Souleyman, Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria CD
J.D. Emmanuel, Solid Dawn: Electronic Works 1979 – 1982 mp3s
Scott Walker, Scott 3 and Tilt CDs
Alice Coltrane, Eternity CD
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD
Pearls Before Swine, The Use of Ashes CD
Astor Piazzolla, Essential Tango CD
Roy Ayers Ubiquity, He’s Coming CD
Bob Dylan, Together Through Life CD
V/A, Ghana Soundz Vol. 2: Afro-Beat, Funk and Fusion in 1970’s Ghana CD
Wooden Shjips, Dos CD
39 Clocks, Zoned CD
Shedding, the Poison Arrows, Spritely — live at Skull Alley
Last updated on Sunday, May 17, 2009.
Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 5/3 – 5/9
(uh….)
Thunderclap Newman, Hollywood Dream LP
Patto, s/t LP
V/A, Nigeria Special: Part 1 2LP
Fleetwood Mac, Tusk 2LP
Bishop Perry Tillis, In Times Like These mp3s/LP
Tyvek, s/t mp3s
TwinSisterMoon, The Hollow Mountain mp3s
Rhys Chatham, A Crimson Grail (For 400 Electric Guitars) CD
DJ Shadow, Diminishing Returns CD
Alela Diane, To Be Still CD
Kurt Vile and the Violators, The Hunchback EP CD
Monks, Black Monk Time CD
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, The Kings of Benin Urban Groove 1972 – 1980 CD
Vaselines, Enter the Vaselines 2CD
El Michels Affair, Enter the 37th Chamber CD
Magik Markers, Balf Quarry LP and Baltimore Trust mp3s
Woods, Songs of Shame CD
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD
Double Dagger, More CD
Mix Master Mike, Anti-Theft Device CD
Portishead, Third CD
Isis, Wavering Radiant CD
Omar Souleyman, Dabke 2020 CD
Trembling Bells, Carbeth CD
Don Cherry, Eternal Rhythm LP
Moebius & Plank, Rastakraut Pasta CD
V/A, Hammond Street 3 CD
Monks, The Early Years CD
La Dusseldorf, s/t LP
Townes Van Zandt, Flyin’ Shoes CD
Madlib, Beat Konducta Vol. 3-4 CD
V/A, Nigeria Rock Special 2LP
Kurt Vile/BJ split 7″
Steely Dan, Katy Lied LP
Faust, IV LP
Last updated on Saturday, May 9, 2009.
Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 4/26 – 5/2
Daniel Higgs, Bill Nace and Shakey live at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge
This Heat, Out of Cold Storage 5CD box set
Cluster, 2 CD
Clockcleaner, Nevermind CD
Monoshock, Runnin’ Ape-Like from the Backwards Superman: 1989 – 1995 CD
Incredible String Band, Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air CD
Wooden Shjips, Dos CD
Deerhunter, Microcastle CD
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz CD
Lungfish, Rainbows from Atoms CD
Obits, I Blame You CD
Gary Higgins, Red Hash CD
Pink Floyd, Relics LP
Royal Trux, Thank You LP
Can, Soundtracks LP
Das, Non-Chalant LP
Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage CD
Fred Neil, s/t CD
Ras G & the Afrikan Space Program, Ghetto Sci-Fi CD
V/A, 1970’s Algerian Proto-Rai Underground CD
Rodriguez, Coming from Reality CD
Kraftwerk, Computer World LP
V/A, Love Is Love LP
The Green Arrows, 4 Track Recording Session 2LP
Nick Drake, Five Leaves Left LP
Air Conditioning, I’m In the Mountains, I’ll Call You Next Year LP
Dojo Cuts, s/t CD
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Segu Blue CD
Mayer Hawthorne promo CD
Peter, Bjorn & John Living Thing CD
Doug Paisley, s/t CD
Monks, Black Monk Time CD
V/A, Local Customs: Downriver Revival CD
Orchestre Regional de Kayes, s/t LP
Group Bombino, Guitars from Agadez vol. 2 LP
Double Leopards, Halve Maen 2LP
Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics, Inspiration Information 3 CD
Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career CD
V/A, Stax: The Soul of Hip-Hop CD
Mastodon, Crack the Skye CD
Last updated on Sunday, May 3, 2009.
A Brief Interview with Daniel Higgs
(a picture of Daniel Higgs performing at Bard College in May, 2007 by the author.)
The music of Daniel Higgs — who is playing in Louisville tonight at Lisa’s Oak Street Lounge (10 PM, $5) — is sometimes difficult to understand in its simplicity, but very rewarding given the effort. I sent him a few questions (for an aborted feature in LEO Weekly), and Swingset Magazine published the results here:
Daniel Higgs does not have a publicist. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have a manager or a booking agent, either. He occasionally obscures his identity by adding extra middles names, such as “Belteshazzar” or “Arcus Incus Ululat.” In the liner notes to some of Lungfish recordings on which he’s sung, he’s not credited with his proper name. There’s no official Daniel Higgs web site, no MySpace page, no Facebook profile. And certainly no digital press kit, or any high-resolution jpegs.
What Higgs does have is a crucially singular approach to the song, an approach that is so unique and intensely beautiful that few musicians alive in the world today can match its power. That is no mere exaggeration. And he achieves his sound with only his voice, a long-necked banjo and, occasionally, a jaw harp.
The Baltimore-based Higgs has been performing in public since his band Reptile House formed in the 1980s, and for the past two decades has been the front man for Dischord recording artists Lungfish (currently on an unofficial hiatus from recording and touring). His solo material – which has been released by labels such as Holy Mountain and Thrill Jockey – is substantially different from his previous bands. Generally he’s alone and unaccompanied. Yet there’s a power to this solo music that is similar to the locomotive strength of Lungfish’s proto-punk propulsion.
In anticipation of his upcoming performance in Louisville on April 26th with Massachusetts improviser Bill Nace and Louisville duo Shakey, consisting of George Wethington (of Speed to Roam) and Peter Townsend (of King Kong), I sent Higgs a few questions in an attempt to unravel the mysteries involving his music. What I got in reply were concise, one-sentence responses – but not to every question.
Over the years, you’ve either listed pseudonyms on Lungfish releases, and now you add great middle names such as Belteshazzar. Is there a reason for the name changes? Do you find a certain comfort in relative anonymity, or is it just a sort of puzzle for your listeners to decode?
The changing extranyms reflect a desire, at times, for a more precise identification of oneself, in relation to certain tasks-at-hand.
In an age when so much music is mediated by marketing and commercial concerns — even with declining record sales — is there also a certain comfort in doing things “the old-fashioned way,” ie. releasing physical records/cassettes and touring? To what degree should music be allowed to speak for itself?
To sing with the body in-and-through space-time (unto Godhead) is sufficient.
What preparations and adjustments do you need to make in order to sing? That is, how does singing affect you emotionally, spiritually and physically? What do you need to do to let your voice sing?
Preparation: awareness of immediate degree of ignorance, and a mindful, heartful offering of songs as-they-occur.
Do songs exist beyond time? Can they?
I can not here and now explain to you the way in which songs exist.
Do your songs have a point when they feel “finished” to you? That is, can a song continue even after the musician finishes playing it? Do you see recording a song as just one version of an eternal song?
You spend a considerable amount of time on the road — what aspect of live performance do you find essential? In the moments on tour when you’re not playing, what experiences strike you as most like your songs?
The rest of the questions will have to remain unanswered at this time.
Thank You, Daniel.
UPDATE, 4/27: LEO Weekly actually ran a condensed version of my introduction as a staff pick. Unfortunately it was kinda buried on their web site, so if you missed it (as I did) it’s here: http://events.leoweekly.com/?p=1567 (scroll all the way to the bottom).
Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post: 4/18 – 4/25
(all apologies to the Allman Brothers)
In an attempt to increase the content of this blog (and perhaps gain a reader or two in the process), I’m embarking on a new, weekly feature with this, the inaugural installment of Tie Me to the Listenin’ Post. It’s pretty simple: all this feature will entail will be, y’know, a post chock-full of what I’ve listened to in the past week (including live shows), updated daily (for as long as I don’t get bored with it). Eventually, I may even get around to asking guests what they’ve been listening to, since that would be far more interesting. Anyway, let’s get to it. I’m starting the week on a Saturday — this past Saturday, April 18th (aka Record Store Day) to be exact. Given that I work at a record store, see if you can spot which selections were either picked by my fellow employees and/or required in-store listening!
The Week That Was, April 18 – 25:
Rude Weirdo, The Teeth, Mothertongue — live at the Pour Haus
Shedding — live at ear X-tacy
Wooden Shjips, Dos CD
Death, …For the Whole World to See CD
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz CD
Extra Golden, Thank You Very Quickly CD
The Juan MacLean, The Future Will Come CD
Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life CD
Roland P. Young, Isophonic Boogie Woogie LP
Eno, Music for Airports LP
Blues Control, Puff LP
Psychedelic Horseshit, Magic Flowers Droned LP
The George-Edwards Group, 38:38 LP
Kurt Vile, God Is Saying This to You LP
Tom Rapp, s/t LP
The Blue Note 7, Mosaic CD
Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle CD
V/A, Ninja Tune Fall 2008 Sampler CD
Pontiak, Maker CD
V/A, Dillanthology: Volume 1 CD
Mercury Rev, Deserter’s Songs CD
Barbara Manning, In New Zealand LP
Walter Marchetti, Per La Sete Dell’Orecchio LP
Throbbing Gristle, Emeralds — live at Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago
Blues Control, s/t CD
The Howling Hex, 1-2-3 CD
The Early Years, s/t CD
Sir Richard Bishop, Salvador Kali CD
The Fall, 458489 A Sides CD
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, “The Vodoun Effect”: Funk & Sato from Benin’s Obscure Labels CD
Updated on Monday, April 27th, 2009.
The Other Side of Life 