LEO Weekly ran my review of C.S. Yeh’s new album, Transitions, in today’s edition:
Defying expectations is risky, but even more difficult for experimental musicians playing pop. That challenge — of a player known for more demanding fare stretching out into “less serious” realms — is readily accepted by C.S. Yeh on Transitions. A violinist known for his Burning Star Core project, Yeh plays every instrument here, with a shaky retro sensibility reminiscent of 1980’s one-man band My Dad Is Dead. Yeh takes more than a few chances on Transitions: His icy vocals, rudimentary guitar work and synth-driven rhythm tracks are far more direct than previous experimental efforts, while lyrics like “I thought that good luck routed me to Cleveland” might be too tongue-in-cheek to take seriously. But with sly nods to the underground and the mainstream, covering both Father Yod and Stevie Nicks, Yeh makes their songs his own.
Friday, Oct. 19 Sic Alps
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
715 W. Main St. kentuckyarts.org $6-$8; 8 p.m.
Sic Alps have a not-unpleasant tendency to sound like scraps of an overheard conversation interrupted by a 10-car pileup. To perhaps understand the stops and starts, the utterly lo-fi, heavily fragmented style, know that frontman (and only constant) Mike Donovan drives a cab in San Francisco when he’s not touring. On their new album, the new lineup ditches noisy home recording techniques in favor of a clear, crisp style (including some string arrangements), and the result is like graduating from The Crying of Lot 49 to Gravity’s Rainbow. While former versions have been mystifying, enjoyable and unique, this new recorded version is more cohesive, expansive and epic — without being yawnsome “epic rock.” However, expect a white-hot live performance — their set at the 2010 Cropped Out festival was one of the more blazing moments. —Joel Hunt
Not sure why mention of Lexington’s excellent CROSS was excised, but they’ll be opening the show. Their new album, Die Forever, is now available from Sophomore Lounge.
We’re seeing some unfortunate news today on the internet that Danish saxophonist John Tchicai has died, though so far without any official confirmation. This is terrible news, if true, as Tchicai has been long known as one of the best players, yet he was sort of weirdly unheralded outside the jazz cognoscenti. His discography is long and broad, going back to early 1960s work with Archie Shepp, the New York Art Quartet (with Roswell Rudd, Milford Graves, Lewis Worrell, and Amiri Baraka), and John Coltrane‘s classic Ascension. It should also be said that he continued to play and compose some really great stuff over the past few decades, though the last time we saw him play was in Chicago in the late 1990s. He will be greatly missed.
We’ll update when we find official (or otherwise) obituaries and tributes posted, and hopefully we’ll post some of Tchicai’s music to sample, as well.
We’ve got one week until the first day of this year’s CROPPED OUT festival, beginning next Friday, September 28th (which, coincidentally, is my birthday!), so let’s take a look at this year’s lineup, schedule, and tomfoolery. Firstly, if you haven’t seen this preview video yet, what planet are you from? Well, you better get in your saucer and get here soon! Check it out:
Wait, you want more? Well, we’ve got more for ya! How about a DOWNLOADABLE MIX of lots of this year’s CROPPED OUT performers, put together by CROPPED OUT homie James Ardery? Sound good? Well here it is! And here’s the tracklist:
1. Jozef van Wissem, “Lux Divinitatis”
2. PC Worship, “Tides”
3. Wooden Wand, “Servant to Blues”
4. CRYS, “Pass on the Third”
5. Shaved Women, “Circles”
6. Eugene Chadbourne, “Wine Me Up”
7. Globsters, “Roll You Up and Smoke You”
8. White Walls, “The Milk of a Lonely Man”
9. Microwaves, “Hammerspace”
10. Lil B, “Still Cookin'”
11. Guerilla Toss, “Breeding Snakes 4 Variety”
12. Buck Gooter, “Consider the Grackles”
13. Merchandise, “Time”
14. Wet, “Wetter than Wet Pt. 2: Pink Pearl”
15. Gangly Youth, “Jangly Youth”
16. The Ritchie White Orchestra, “Matt Says 2”
17. Chain & The Gang, “If Only I Had Your Brain”
18. R. Stevie Moore, “Schoolgirl”
19. Lantern, “Dreammine”
20. The Phantom Family Halo, “Black and White Magic”
It’ll only be up for a limited time, so grab it like it’s hot. Yeah. And enjoy.
Of course, a wealth of information, including tickets, is available at www.croppedoutmusic.com. Don’t miss what promises to be an awesome weekend! And we’ll see you there, by some bonfire, tellin’ jokes or something…
UPDATE, 9/27/2012: CROPPED OUT IS A DAY AWAY!
Some lineup changes to note: DAHM is unfortunately sick, so he will be missing this year’s CROPPED OUT. Get well, Dahm!
In his place are not one but two doozies: 90’s power-violence pioneers SUPPRESSION (from Roanoke, VA) and FAT HISTORY MONTH (from Boston, MA; on Sophomore Lounge).
Lots of food trucks and vendors and whatnot will be there too, so don’t forget the tomfoolery!
Thursday, Sept. 13 São Paulo Underground
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
715 W. Main St. kentuckyarts.org $5-$10, 8:30 p.m.
Living in Chicago in the 1990s, it was nearly impossible to miss trumpeter/cornetist Rob Mazurek’s many projects. Whether he was gigging with Tortoise, workshopping at the Green Mill, or playing with drummer Chad Taylor in Chicago Underground Duo, Mazurek’s signature style (reminiscent of Dark Magus-era Miles Davis) was inescapable. After adding electronics to the mix, Mazurek’s sound got even bolder, charting a new course that wasn’t quite jazz in the traditional sense but was exciting in its boundary-crossing openness. After moving to Brazil, he started São Paulo Underground with Mauricio Takara (drums, percussion, cavaquinho, electronics), then enlisted Guilherme Granado (keyboards, electronics, samplers) and Richard Ribeiro (drums). The result is a smoothly rendered Brazilian/American melodic hybrid, held together by a fluid rhythmic sensibility. This rare performance — part of KMAC’s “Storytelling As Craft” exhibit — should not be missed. —Joel Hunt
Hey people! Most everybody’s favorite completely-DIY, underground-ish music festival for Louisville’s weirdos is back and… hey… wait a minute… DOES THAT SAYJANDEK IS PLAYING IN LOUISVILLE?!? HOLY SHIT!!!
SEPTEMBER 28-30, 2012 IN LOUISVILLE, KY, USA.
You read it right, folks! The time is yet again upon us. Cropped Out’s annual extravaganza is back for 2012. This Fall (September 28th-29th), we will be taking over the American Turners Club — our home for year one, as a few (literally, a few) of you might remember. Last year at the Crummy Den was not only a blast but also a milestone for us as an organization. However, as fun as it was watching Scratch Acid play in a crowded warehouse shortly after cops accosted them at gunpoint, having mistaken them as armed robbers, we decided it was time to take our festival back to more…”welcoming” grounds of operation.
As always, we’ve carefully chosen a solid stash of local, national, and international performing artists to spotlight in our hometown of Louisville, KY. There will also be a familiar face or two from festivals past, along with the usual “tricks up our sleeve.”FRIDAY + SATURDAY: Our third year kicks off at over 30 bands spread across 3 days (two main days with an unforgettable closing party on Sunday, 9/30). A short list of attractions lined up for Friday (9/28) and Saturday (9/29) include the proto-doo-wop sass of Chain & The Gang led by DC legend Ian Svenonius (The Make-Up/Nation of Ulysses), a very rare performance from elusive Texan blues/folk outsider Jandek, the silky lo-fi New Wave croon of Tampa, Florida’s Merchandise (ft. members of the late great Cult Ritual), the bitingly sour, self-deprecrating social stabs of “World’s Funnyman” Neil Hamburger, live music by David Liebe Hart of Adult Swim’s “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job,” and as always, plenty of organically grown, freshly picked, fairly traded locals like Twin Sister Radio, Gangly Youth, and Kark, just to name a few…
FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY:
Ashcan Orchestra (Brooklyn, NY)
Binary Marketing Show (Little Rock, AR)
Buck Gooter (Harrisonburg, VA)
Black Kaspar (Louisville, KY)
Cave Bears (Providence, RI)
Chain & The Gang (Washington, DC)
Cool Memories (Chicago, IL)
Crys (Indianapolis, IN)
Dahm of Phantom Family Halo (Brooklyn, NY)
David Liebe Hart Band (Los Angeles, CA)
Disco Doom (Zurich, Switzerland)
Eugene Chadbourne (Greensboro, NC)
Gangly Youth (Louisville, KY)
Globsters (Hazard, KY)
Guerilla Toss (Boston, MA)
Jandek (Houston, TX)
Kark (Louisville, KY)
Lantern (Philadelphia, PA)
Merchandise (Tampa, FL)
Michael Zerang/Darin Gray Duo (Chicago, IL/St. Louis, MO)
Microwaves (Pittsburgh, PA)
Neil Hamburger (Los Angeles, CA)
PC Worship (Brooklyn, NY)
R. Stevie Moore (Nashville, TN)
The Ritchie White Orchestra (Louisville, KY)
The Sediment Club (Brooklyn, NY)
Shaved Women (St. Louis, MO)
Slug Guts (Brisbane, Australia)
Street Gnar (Lexington, KY)
TV Ghost (Lafayette, IN)
White Walls (Cincinnati, OH)
& others to be announced!
Holy CRAP! I could not possibly be any more excited! Never in my life did I think I’d get to see THE REPRESENTATIVE FROM CORWOOD in my hometown, on my birthday weekend to boot! The rest of the artists and bands booked, at least the ones we know, are pretty awesome in their own right, too. And with lots of names I haven’t heard of, it’ll be another great opportunity to hear some new sounds as well.
Wednesday, May 30th
at ZANZABAR
2100 S. Preston
9 PM doors, $6, 21-and-over
PILLARS AND TONGUES is a trio based in Chicago, Illinois whose musical pursuits seem to defy genre categorization. The ongoing result of these pursuits has been called, variously, “holy” and “sexy” and it may well be the tension between these two concepts which lights the fire under (over?) PILLARS AND TONGUES. Think on those things which are so beautiful they become obscene. Speaking literally, the trio makes extended use of the human voice, violin, double bass, drums, bells and organs. The music is perhaps distinctly American in both its affair with American forms and its refusal to adhere to them at all.
John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions) is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer who is perhaps best known as the drummer for Oneida. MAN FOREVER, his vehicle for exploring the outer limits of drum performance, was created to overwhelm, to investigate the nuances that bloom in the midst of repetitive music, and to act as a pure sound experience. Thrill Jockey will release MAN FOREVER‘s first album, Pansophical Cataract, on May 15th.
(Photo of New Mother Nature by Tim Furnish.)
NEW MOTHER NATURE is a relatively new band on the Louisville scene, but filled with familiar faces. Members of NEW MOTHER NATURE are current or former members of Old Baby, The Phantom Family Halo, Natural Geographic, and many more. They’re quickly becoming one of our favorite new bands, and we think you’ll like ’em as well.
Tuesday, April 3rd
at ZANZABAR
2100 S. Preston
8 PM Doors, $8, 21-and-over
(Photo of The Phantom Family Halo by David S. Rubin)
Since their relocation to Brooklyn, THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO have announced the release of two recordsin 2012 on Knitting Factory Records – a “dark” and a “light” album. When I Fall Out is the first of the releases, issued on February 14, 2012. The second of the albums will be released in the fall of 2012. THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO has shared stages and/or toured with Slint, The For Carnation, Guru Guru, Hawkwind. Black Angels, Black Mountain, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Roky Erickson, and are about to commence on a tour with Acid Mothers Temple. Read an interview with THE PHANTOM FAMILY HALO here: http://leoweekly.com/music/phantom-family-halo%E2%80%99s-future-now.
BALACLAVAS are from Houston, Texas where everything is eternally blistered, chemically altered, and forlorn. They are a band in the realest sense — they come on like a gang, play with one mind, hunt in one pack, party and fight together in a flat wild nowhere. Unlike the common livestock being unloaded into music, this is a band of predators. Perpetual outsiders; there will always be a wrong side of the tracks and they’ll always be from it. Ennio Morricone and scratchy noise guitars on storm-dub rhythms like if the heaviest incarnation of 1970s Pink Floyd were a future punk band invested by Jodorowsky to score Dune. You can hear storms approaching and sandworms underfoot. It’s an evil dance they’re bringing.
(Alcohol Party photograph by Bryan Volz)
Conjuring an intense, claustrophobic ‘more is less’ framework where every moment is scarred with pummeling bass, jagged guitar and ADHD drumming, ALCOHOL PARTY is a three-headed noise rock project from Louisville, Kentucky.
Cropped Out and The Other Side of Life present:
The Distonal.Com Launch Party with…
PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT (Columbus, OH; on Fat Cat Records) NATIVES (Louisville, KY; on Rad Tantrum) WET HAIR(Iowa City, IA; on Night-People/De Stijl) TROPICAL TRASH(Louisville, KY; on Loin Seepage/Sophomore Lounge)
Tuesday, March 6th
at HARLEY’S MAIN STREET TAVERN 122 W. Main (between 1st and 2nd Streets)
8 PM, $6, 21 and over.
This is the launch party for a new Louisville-based web publication called Distonal (from the creative forces that brought you the recently retired Decibel Tolls). In the words of the head honcho himself, Michael Powell:
Distonal is an online magazine spread across an anchored open source WordPress home and an accompanying Tumblr that will cover… well, whatever I feel like writing about. It’s the opposite of The Decibel Tolls in that regard, and it’s hard to say what will end up there, which excites me. The thread that binds everything, though, will be thoughtful and attitude-laden writing from myself and others (to be announced) that reaches toward broader universal topics, as well as articles that retain a strong commitment to the happenings of my native Louisville. I’ll still be reviewing records and photographing shows, but I may also drop some secret Bloggins curry recipes, March Madness picks, gastropub critiques, absurd manifestos, and my thoughts on the body politic. Distonal promises to be fluid and freeform, while brandishing a distinct voice all the while. It should go live sometime in late February, or early March at the latest. It’ll be a fun ride, and I hope you’ll follow me over there.
Artist Mike Kelley has passed away at his home in Los Angeles, having apparently taken his own life. The tragic news was confirmed to BLOUIN ARTINFO by Helene Winer, of New York’s Metro Pictures gallery, a long-time associate of the artist.
“It is totally shocking that someone would decide to do this, someone who has success and renown and options,” said Winer. “It’s extremely sad.” She added that the artist had been depressed.
Kelley was born in 1954 in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. He became involved in the city’s music scene as a teen, and while a student at the University of Michigan, formed the influential proto-punk band Destroy All Monsters with fellow artists Jim Shaw, Niagara, and Cary Loren (a retrospective devoted to Destroy All Monsters was held at L.A.’s Prism gallery last year). Together, the band hatched a style of performance that skirted the edge of performance art.
After graduating college in 1976, he moved to Los Angeles to attend the California Institute of the Arts, studying alongside teachers like John Baldessari and Laurie Anderson. Music continued to be a constant passion: he formed another band, “Poetics,” with fellow CalArts students John Miller and Tony Oursler.
Kelley’s career took off in the early 1990s, with solo shows at the Whitney, LACMA, and other international venues. He and Oursler organized a well-recived installation — a kind of monument to punk — at Documenta X in 1997. In the early 2000s, he began exhibiting with Gagosian Gallery after 20 years with Metro Pictures.
For his 2005 exhibition “Day is Done,” Kelley filled Gagosian with found yearbook photos, video footage, and automated furniture, prompting New York Magazine critic Jerry Saltz to describe the show as an example of “clusterfuck aesthetics.” More conventionally, he was associated with the notion of “abject art,” highlighting the irrational and the repulsive.
Kelley’s work will be included in the upcoming Whitney Biennial. It is the eighth time his work has been included in the biannual exhibition.
Perhaps best known in the music world for his cover of Sonic Youth’s Dirty album, Kelley was also a founding member of Destroy All Monsters and Poetics, and worked with many musicians over the course of his career.
The Other Side of Life 