Clavius Productions presents a rare DC performance by legendary Swiss sound artist Sudden Infant. I know this is a tough night for experimental music in DC (Stars of the Lid, El Possible, Earth), but I can say this one'll easily be the most entertaining. No Schimpfluch performance ever fails to amuse, and neither does DC's inzane Twilight Memories of the Three Suns:
Sunday, May 4
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com 202-462-3213
$8, doors at 9pm, 18+
Sudden Infant (Berlin)
Violet (DC)
Twilight Memories of the Three Suns (DC)
Caustic Castle (Richmond)
Joke Lanz aka
SUDDEN INFANT creates a unique blend of physical sound-poetry and dadaistic vocal expressions, using contact microphones, prerecorded soundloops and noises. Member of the infamous SCHIMPFLUCH collective, singer of the notorious CATHOLIC BOYS IN HEAVY
LEATHER and long-time accompanist of Rudolf Eb.er, he's presenting his work since more than 20 years all over the world. Born in Switzerland, now based in Berlin, Joke Lanz has collaborated with the likes of Z'EV, Carlos Giffoni, Peter Kowald, Christian Marclay, Norbert Möslang, DJ Olive, G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, Christian Weber, Charlotte Hug, Jorge Sanchez-Chiong, Roger Rotor, Strotter Inst, Evil Moisture, Astro, Small Cruel Party and many more. Music for contemporary dance, theatre, sound-installations and short-films. Innumerable releases on international labels e.g. Entracte, RRR, Tochnit Aleph, Blossoming Noise, Artware, Klanggalerie, SSSM. Artist residencies in Berlin (1999) and London (2004). Composition assignment by Pro Helvetia Arts
Council of Switzerland (2006).
http://suddeninfant.com http://www.myspace.com/suddeninfant noise
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Clavius also welcomes back half of US Maple to DC. They bitched about playing in DC because nobody ever came to see them here. Prove 'em wrong -- seriously, this collaboration with Robert Lowe and Ben Vida is phenomenal psych:
Tuesday, May 6
Velvet Lounge
$8, doors at 9pm, 18+
Singer (Drag City, ex-90 Day Men/U.S. Maple/Town & Country)
Suns of Guns (DC's version of the Birthday Party without the cake or heroin)
Authorization (ex-Black Eyes, mem. of Insect Factory)
Singer http://www.myspace.com/singertheband The CD insert for Singer's Unhistories consists of two parts: one lone, jewel case-sized square -- the album's linoleum-floor cover -- detailing the song titles and members of the band on the reverse side, and a four-page fold-out. The outside of the fold-out features four black-and-white photos of the exterior of a dilapidated house; on the opposite side are the members of the band looking through the house's windows, each face filling the entire frame. You can create a tiny box with this insert if you stand it on its edge and touch the two end pages together-- a small abandoned house out in the middle of nowhere, with the band looking in at each other from the outside. It's a perfect metaphor for this confounding yet alluring album.
The record itself fittingly kicks off with some false starts, with drummer Adam Vida sounding like a lawnmower engine that won't turn over. Eventually, the band finally breaks into "Slow Ghosts", a lurching spastic number punctuated with chirpy guitar runs and bouts of harmonized moaning. With two former members of U.S. Maple on baord -- Adam Vida and guitarist Todd Rittman -- some listeners will peg this album in those terms. (Anyone hoping to draw direct sonic connections between Robert Lowe's work with 90 Day Men and this album, on the other hand, will end up disappointed.) In those fleeting moments when there's a particularly frantic guitar filigree (either by Rittman or Ben Vida), or a certain stumbling roll of the drums, it sounds like Al Johnson's indomitable hoarse wheeze is the only thing keeping the U.S. Maple name off the spine. However, where Singer's music most emulates the former works of its members is in its sense of musical anti-orthodoxy -- love them or loathe them, what they tried to do didn't sound like much else around. For Singer, this iconoclasm extends beyond the actual music.
Instead of having one frontman, Singer opts to treat the band as a true democracy, giving every member their turn at the microphone. Good luck trying to figure out which one is which, though -- the disc credits only include who's on the record and who produced it, and more often than not they're singing together. Solo or in unison, their quivering falsettos and affected croons might owe something to David Bowie or any of his followers, but ultimately the group's vocal turns are just as individualistic as their musical accompaniment. One minute they're aping the madrigal whimsy of labelmates Faun Fables (on "Divining"), the next they're looping guitar drones in back of passionate vocal quivering (on "Mauvais Sang"). Handholds and signposts are few and far between, and any groove the band locks into can just as easily be transformed or simply abandoned without warning. There's an organic jazz-like spontaneity to Unhistories that listeners will consider either obnoxious or endearing. These tracks are less like songs and more like awkward whispered conversations between people that are just beginning to know each other. While the end results of these "talks" might bear fruit that most would rather do without, these are definitely conversations worth having. (David Raposa, Pitchfork)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And lastly, Clavius presents a tribute to the great Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who invented LSD, who just passed away at the age of 102. DC's aptly named Kuschty Rye Ergot will attempt to open a few doors of perception, perhaps with the aid of Hofmann's invention, and Belgium's Portable Noise Kremator and avant-banjoist Woody Sullender will make rare area appearances as well:
Thursday, May 8
Velvet Lounge
$8, doors at 9pm, 18+
Kuschty Rye Ergot (DC improv psych, ex-Redeemers/Promise Breakers, mem. of Kohoutek)
Portable Noise Kremator (solo noise from Belgium)
All Violet (DC electronic duo)
Woody Sullender (solo experimental banjo)
Kuschty Rye Ergot http://www.myspace.com/kuschtyryeergot Kuschty Rye Ergot is the new project from long-time DC area multi-instrumentalist/vocalist John Stanton. A collective as opposed to a fixed lineup, performances range from drifty slowburn Popol Vuh-ish watercolour solo guitar/synth constructs to full blown ensemble sonic exhaust blasts, along with occasional stripped down acoustic folk musings. Elements of many of Stanton's wide-ranging previous efforts (Redeemers, Cash Slave Clique, Nik Turner/Harvey Bainbridge of Hawkwind, Spaceseed, Promise Breakers, Cotton & Billawtm) are in evidence, refracted via a prism of spatial folk, electronics, and whatever else the lineup du jour shakes loose from their collective tree. A universe where Ronnie Lane and COB channel Dome and Peter Hammill? You decide.
Woody Sullender http://www.deadceo.com/unclewoody/ Under the not-so-clever moniker of "Uncle Woody Sullender", Woody Sullender performs improvised banjo music, playing with and against the cultural baggage of the instrument. While alluding to the "traditional" musics of his home states of Virginia and North Carolina, he explores a diverse plane of plucked string music from around the world as well as incorporating punk, noise, free jazz, etc.
Over the past few years, Sullender has been defining himself as a pre-eminent experimental banjo performer, sharing bills around the US with familiar avant-garde guitarists, lutists, and psych acts such as Jackie-O Motherfucker, MV & EE, Jack Rose, Ric Bishop, Josef Von Wissem, Keenan Lawler, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Paul Metzger.
Before relocating to Brooklyn in 2005, Sullender was heavily involved in the Chicago experimental music community performing with Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kyle Bruckmann, Carol Genetti, Jason Ajemian, Michael Zerang, members of the Vandermark 5, Cheer Accident among others.
Previously, he has worked with pioneering electronic composers such as Pauline Oliveros and Maryanne Amacher (incorporating his banjo recordings into Amacher's "TEO! A sonic sculpture" which won the Golden Nica prize at the 2005 Ars Electronica festival).
Among other activites, he is currently teaching in the Media Studies department at the New School and hosts a weekly radio program on WFMU, Monday afternoons, noon-3pm.
Albert Hofmann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hofmann "I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD. It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be."
Tomorrow - "My White Bicycle"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62yWU4ryrgI RIP Albert!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Upcoming Clavius shows at the Velvet Lounge:
Sunday 5/11: Sean Mcardle/Tony Scherr Trio (featuring Anton Fier of The Feelies/Lounge Lizards/Golden Palominos/2090 (ex-The Offering, VA dark shoegaze) $8, doors at 9pm, 21+
Monday 5/12: EAR PWR (Asheville)/Hot Lava (Richmond)/Hermit Thrushes (Philly)
$7, doors at 9pm, 18+
Tuesday 5/13: Temple of Bon Matin (improv psych, Bulb/Spirit of Orr Records)/Ca$h $lave Clique
$7, doors at 9pm, 21+
Wednesday 5/14: Pup Tent/The Midgetmen (Austin trash-punk)/The Misguided Lemming
$7, doors at 9pm, 21+
Thursday 5/15: Pygmy Lush/The Convocation/Mouthbreather/Tideland $8, doors at 9pm, 18+
Friday 5/16: Deceased (Relapse, VA death metal)/Sacrifical Blood/Vermefug
$10, doors at 9:30pm, 18+
Saturday 5/17: Justin Jones & the Driving Rain/The Great White Jenkins (Richmond folk-psych)/Pepi Ginsberg $8, doors at 930pm, 21+
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
upcoming at 611 Florida (first show since December!):
Wednesday 5/28: Pod Blotz (SF noise), Harrius/Seventh Surface (mem. of Metalux), Bill Nace (solo electric guitar, mem. of Vampire Belt/Buddies/Sunburned Hand of the Man), James Amoeba, Rainbro 8pm, $5 suggested donation
