After a decade-long absence from concert promotion in Louisville, The Other Side of Life returns with two exciting concerts of contemporary experimental music, both presented at Art Sanctuary in Louisville’s Schnitzelburg neighborhood. Online ticketing is now available for the following performances:
Guitarist BILL ORCUTT returns to Louisville for the first time since 2014, in his acclaimed duo with drummer CHRIS CORSANO:
$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show Advance tickets available online at Art Sanctuary; physical tickets available soon for in-person purchase at Surface Noise (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204
$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show Advance tickets available online at Art Sanctuary; physical tickets available soon for in-person purchase at Surface Noise Records (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204
The Other Side of Life is a sole proprietorship venture whose mission is to promote contemporary music events in Louisville, Kentucky. In its prior incarnation from 2008 to 2015, The Other Side of Life was responsible for bringing hundreds of legendary international and national touring musicians featuring all kinds of musical genres to Lousiville, including unforgettable concerts by acts such as Faun Fables, Wire (UK), CJ Ramone, Shonen Knife (Japan), Sir Richard Bishop, Tashi Dorji, Steve Gunn, Helmet, Oren Ambarchi (Australia), Spider Bags, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, D.R.I., Endless Boogie, Peter Brotzmann (Germany)/Hamid Drake/William Parker trio, Marisa Anderson, The Skull Defekts (Sweden), Loop (UK), Colin Stetson (Canada), Bombino (Niger), Helado Negro, Daniel Higgs, Cave, Josephine Foster, Horse Lords, and many more. The Other Side of Life also promoted events with such local, Louisville-based musical talents as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, State Champion, Parlour, OldBaby, Coliseum, Young Widows, Tropical Trash, Anwar Sadat, Cher Von, The Java Men, Black God, Tyrone Cotton, 1200 (Jecorey Arthur), and White Reaper, among many others.
$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show Advance tickets available online at Art Sanctuary; Physical tickets on sale Monday June 16th for in-person purchase at Surface Noise (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204
18+ 8:00 PM doors 9:00 PM music
(Photo by Obie Feldi)
Based in Baltimore, MATMOS is Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt. The two have been making music as MATMOS since 1997, first in San Francisco, and then relocating to Baltimore in 2007 when Daniel began to teach at Johns Hopkins University. They are respected, innovative auteurs in the world of electronic music and sampling culture whose very first album was hailed as “entering electronics Valhalla” by the WIRE magazine for sampling highly unusual sound sources such as the amplified nerve tissue of crayfish. Ever since, they have made music out a wildly heterogeneous set of objects and sources, including the sound of the pages of bibles turning, water hitting copper plates, liposuction surgery, cameras and VCRs, chin implant surgery, contact microphones on human hair, rat cages, tanks of helium, a cow uterus, human skulls, snails, cigarettes, cards shuffling, laser eye surgery, whoopee cushions, balloons, latex fetish clothing, rhinestones, Polish trains, insects, life support systems, inflatable blankets, rock salt, solid gold coins, the sound of a frozen stream thawing in the sun, a five gallon bucket of oatmeal, snails interrupting the path of a laser and altering the pitch of a light sensitive theremin, a PVC police riot shield, silicone breast implants, and their own washing machine. These raw materials are manipulated into surprisingly accessible forms and often supplemented by traditional musical instruments played by internationally celebrated guest musicians from their circle of friends and collaborators. The result is a model of electronic composition as a relational network that connects sources and outcomes together; information about the process of creation activates the listening experience, providing the listener with entry points into sometimes densely allusive, baroque recordings that have the direct sensory immediacy of pop music.
MATMOS have collaborated with a wide array of artists across media and distinct disciplines. A partial list of musical collaborators includes Bjork, The Kronos Quartet, Terry Riley, Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra), So Percussion, Anohni, Yo La Tengo, The Rachel’s, Oneohtrix Point Never, Jefferson Friedman, Zeena Parkins, J.G. Thirlwell, Jeff Carey, Wobbly, David Tibet, and Mouse On Mars.
MATMOS’s practice of creative constraint has made them one of the most consistently exciting acts in electronic music. Their new album Metallic Life Review is the sound of two people who have collected field recordings of metal objects from around the world for years of their lives together, collaging their magpie hoard into rhythmic patterns, sometimes writing melodies and basslines, but sometimes just letting sound be sound. Metallic Life Review features the late Susan Alcorn’s pedal steel, Owen Gardner’s (Horse Lords) glockenspiel, Thor Harris’ drumming, Jason Willett’s (Half Japanese) guitar, and Jeff Carey’s aluminum cans, which were melted, molded into custom aluminum rods, and then bowed and struck. The most dramatic difference from any previous Matmos album is that side two was recorded “live in the studio”, ala Throbbing Gristle’s Heathen Earth. For the first time on recording, Matmos capture the evolving, shifting, slithering dynamic that happens when they play live and let patterns emerge out of chaos and then collapse and then re-form. Their playful blend of compositional brilliance and improvisational playfulness meld perfectly, truly capturing ecstatic moments in a way that can only happen live.
ED SUNSPOT is the nom de guerre of Robert Beatty, an artist and musician based in Lexington, Kentucky. Best known musically as a member of the excellent long-running noise trio Hair Police, Beatty has also released solo electronic music as Three Legged Race on the Spectrum Spools, Mountaain, and NNA Tapes labels, his own label Resonant Hole, and the “Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata” album under his own name on Glistening Examples. Beatty has also designed album covers for the likes of MATMOS, Oneohtrix Point Never, Tame Impala, Kesha, the Weeknd, Warmer Milks, Thee Oh Sees, The Flaming Lips, The Soft Pink Truth, and many more. https://robertbeattyart.com/
ANDROSPORE is Edwin Ramirez, a chicano, queer, multimedia artist working and residing in Louisville, Kentucky. His audio and visual art is a manifestation of his lived experiences as a synesthete, guided by the auroras from field recordings, music, video games, nature, and memories. Edwin has exhibited at various galleries in Kentucky, including recent shows at Kore Gallery (“The Education of Desire” and “Unknowns: Artists you Should Know”), as well as part of the ongoing traveling exhibition “Our Kentucky Home: Hispanic/Latin American art in the Commonwealth” curated by The Kentucky Arts Council. His works have been worn by local musicians, models, and entomologists, commissioned by an internationally renowned author, and installed at various venues for local events including “Bjork Ball” and “Radio Arcane” at Art Sanctuary. https://edwinramirezart.com
MATMOS live visuals by SEETHINGS, Louisville’s own Tim Furnish, a multi-faceted musician, graphic designer, photographer, and VJ. Furnish is a founding member of classic Louisville bands Parlour, Cerebellum, and Crain and has been a member of The For Carnation and Aerial M. As SEETHINGS he has provided visuals for Old Baby, Shedding, Flanger Magazine, Jungle Boogie, Jaye Jayle, and many others. https://www.youtube.com/user/timfurnish https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkgHn6E1QjNRWEOET_tQttXBn-Gkddv1y&si=_-7s4BwvNf1CCDaL
MATMOS is M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, aided and abetted by many others. Currently based in Baltimore, the duo formed in San Francisco in the mid 1990s, and self-released their debut album in 1997. Marrying the conceptual tactics and noisy textures of object-based musique concrete to a rhythmic matrix rooted in electronic pop music, the two quickly became known for their highly unusual sound sources: amplified crayfish nerve tissue, the pages of bibles turning, water hitting copper plates, liposuction surgery, cameras and VCRs, chin implant surgery, contact microphones on human hair, rat cages, tanks of helium, a cow uterus, human skulls, snails, cigarettes, cards shuffling, laser eye surgery, whoopee cushions, balloons, latex fetish clothing, rhinestones, Polish trains, insects, life support systems, inflatable blankets, rock salt, solid gold coins, the sound of a frozen stream thawing in the sun, a five gallon bucket of oatmeal. These raw materials are manipulated into surprisingly accessible forms, and often supplemented by traditional musical instruments played by the group’s large circle of friends and collaborators. The result is a model of electronic composition as a relational network that connects sources and outcomes together; information about the process of creation activates the listening experience, providing the listener with entry points into sometimes densely allusive, baroque recordings. Since their debut, MATMOS have released over eight albums, and in 2001 they were asked to collaborate with the Icelandic singer Bjork on her Vespertine album, and subsequently embarked on two world tours as part of her band. In addition to musical collaborations with Antony, So Percussion, David Tibet, the Rachel’s, Lesser, Wobbly, Zeena Parkins, and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, MATMOS have also collaborated with a wide range of artists across disciplines, from the visual artist Daria Martin to the playwright Young Jean Lee to Berlin-based choreographer Ayman Harper. Their newest album, The Marriage of True Minds, will be released on February 19th, 2013 by Thrill Jockey Records.
HORSE LORDS is a band from Baltimore, Maryland. According to baltimorefishbowl.com, they “offer that rare opportunity: witnessing a ragged, seething kind of greatness from a band not yet heralded by any major taste-making media outlets. Which is to say you can just unselfconsciously enjoy them. Bands like this remind you that musical greatness is not manufactured by record labels and hype machines; they’re snatched up by those entities somewhere further down the line.” HORSE LORDS are supporting and performing with MATMOS on the latter’s entire US tour.
PARLOUR originally began as a solo project from Tim Furnish following the mid-90s dissolution of CRAIN – the seminal Louisville rock group he co-founded in the late ’80s. Currently playing with new drummer (Greg Morris) and synth player (Brian Sweeney), Furnish’s PARLOUR evokes “A unique combination of interweaving guitar shards… driven by a dark, relentless rhythm section.” Their most recent album, Simulacrenfield (released on Temporary Residence), was one of our favorites of 2010.
UPDATE, 2/26/2013: Here’s a couple of things to note about this show:
1. Doors to this event will open at 8 PM, and music will start at 9 PM sharp! That means Parlour will play first, right at 9 PM. Due to time constraints, the show will have to start at 9 PM. So get there early! Horse Lords will play at approximately 9:45 PM, and Matmos will be onstage by 10:45 PM, ending at midnight (if not a little before).
2. There’s a good chance this show may sell out, so if you haven’t bought advance tickets already, you probably should. You can buy them here: http://zanzabarlouisville.ticketfly.com/event/219061-matmos-louisville/ 3. There will be a separate DJ event afterwards, starting at midnight. Generally, Zanzabar gets crowded early on Friday and Saturday nights so, again, buy advance tickets and show up early to ensure you don’t miss anything!
4. The show is general admission, with very limited first-come, first-serve seating around the bar and the booths ONLY, with no reservations. So if you need a seat, please be sure to be there at 8 PM.
The Other Side of Life 