This weekend is the inaugural Spontaneous Infinity, the first festival in DC in years entirely devoted to improvisation and free jazz. It is a celebration of wildly varying approaches to creation in the spur of the moment, featuring such legendary musicians as Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra Arkestra), Elliott Sharp (who's been uncompromisingly exploring the guitar since the mid -'70s), Sabir Mateen (of TEST and numerous NYC ensembles), Elliott Levin (who's done time with Cecil Taylor), Uri Caine, Toshi Makihara, and Blaise Siwula:
Spontaneous Infinity
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com http://sponinf.alkem.org/ 202-462-3213
Friday, March 28
$15, doors at 8pm, 18+
12:30-1:30: Jaimie Branch/Marc Riordan (trumpet/percussion from Chicago)
11:30-12:10: Blaise Siwula/David Wilson/Toshi Makihara (reeds/percussion, NYC/PA/VA)
10:30-11:10: Elliott Sharp (legendary experimental guitarist from NYC)
9:30-10:10: Thus (sax/inventions duo from Baltimore)
8:30-9:10: Nate Scheible & Matt Wascovich (drums/guitar from Cleveland, mem. of Scarcity of Tanks)
Saturday, March 29
$15, doors at 8pm, 18+
12:30-1:30: UB-313 (Philly, featuring Marshall Allen & Elliott Levin of Sun Ra Arkestra!)
11:30-12:10: Sabir Mateen & Michiki Duo (sax/voice from NYC, mem. of TEST/No Neck Blues band)
10:30-11:10: Matthias Muller & Christian Marien (trombone/percussion from Germany)
9:30-10:10: Uri Caine (solo keyboardist from NYC)
8:30-9:10: PRV Trio (guitars/percussion from DC, mem. of Kohoutek/Ultimate VAG/Janel & Anthony/The Bang)
*Be aware that -- unlike the usual Velvet Lounge event - we will be strictly adhering to the set times due to some musicians' tight scheduling.*
Jaimie Branch & Marc Riordan Trumpeter Jaimie Branch and drummer Marc Riordan are an active presence on the Chicago music scene. Since meeting at the New England Conservatory in 2001, they have performed together as a duo and in numerous other Chicago based ensembles including Rupert, Fly Trap, Phelt, Nick Broste Quartet, Medium Sized Rabbit, and Branch/Riordan/Sexton. Their freely improvised duo music incorporates slow, introspective melodies, abstract sound-based approaches, and the high densities and energies of free jazz.
Jaimie Branch is a trumpeter working in the areas of composition and improvisation. Jaimie resides in Chicago where she is an active member in the creative music scene as a performer, recording engineer, and presenter.
Drummer/pianist Marc Riordan grew up in Boston, where he attended the New England Conservatory of Music and studied with Steve Lacy and Bob Moses. Since moving to Chicago in 2006 he has performed with Keefe Jackson, Nate McBride, Jaimie Branch, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Toby Summerfield, and others. He currently works both as a leader and collaborator in many Chicago-based ensembles, including Phelt, Rupert, and the Nick Broste Quartet.
Blaise Siwula/David Wilson/Toshi Makihara http://home.earthlink.net/~bbrjsiwula/ http://www.toshimakihara.com Blaise Siwula (saxophones, clarinets) has been active in New York's Downtown experimental music scene for the past two decedes. Siwula has been honored to work with musicians and composers such as Cecil Taylor, Tan Dun, William Parker, Joseph Daly, Donald Miller, Peter Kowald, John Fischer, Vincent Chancey, Newman Taylor Baker, John Voigt, Matthew Paris, Adam Lane and Joseph Scianni as a performer and co-composer. As an improvising musician he has found the line between composer and performer to be gray at best. Although Siwula is primarily an alto saxophonist, he also plays a number of woodwinds, percussion and string instruments at varying degrees of competency per composition requirements, and recently began including computer altered sound files in performances for compositional purposes.
David Wilson (bass saxophone) has been performing Improvised and Contemporary Classical music since the late 1970's in venues such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian, the L. A. County Art Museum, Philadelphia's Painted Bride Art Center and Wet Spot, and Charlottesville's Tea Bazarre and Pud House. He currently plays sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophones and conducts a Youth Saxophone Orchestra for the Youth Orchestra of Charlottesville-Albemarle.
Toshi Makihara (drums) studied drums, percussion and improvisation with Sabu Toyozumi, a prominent percussionist in Tokyo. Since arriving in the United States in the late 1970's he has worked with various new music ensembles as well as with numerous dance and theater companies internationally. Makihara has provided original music to Arden Theater Company, Diversions Dance Company (Wales), Pennsylvania Ballet, ZeroMoving Dance Company and Leah Stein Dance Company among others, and has worked with musicians including Steve Beresford, Peter Brotzmann, John Butcher, Nels Cline, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Amy Denio, Thurston Moore, William Parker and John Zorn. He has also collaborated with poets, visual artists, filmmakers and performance artists widely.
Elliott Sharp http://www.elliottsharp.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Sharp Elliott Sharp (b. Cleveland, Ohio, March 1, 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer who has personified the avant-garde experimental music scene in New York City for over thirty years. He has released over sixty-five recordings spanning the musical spectrum from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock, and techno music.
Sharp describes himself as a lifelong "science geek," having modified and created musical instruments from his teen years. He is an inveterate performer, both as a soloist (playing mainly guitar, saxophone and bass clarinet) and with a number of ensembles he has formed over the years, including the blues-oriented Terraplane and Orchestra Carbon. His compositions have been performed by the Symphony of the Hessischer Rundfunk, the Ensemble Modern, Continuum, the Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, Zeitkratzer, the Soldier String Quartet, and the Quintet of the Americas. He releases music under his own label (zOaR music) as well as punkSST and downtown music labels such as Knitting Factory records and John Zorn's Tzadik. Guitar Player magazine's 30th anniversary issue included Sharp among their list of "The Dirty Thirty - Pioneers and Trailblazers". label label.
He has collaborated regularly with many people, including Zeena Parkins, Eric Mingus, Vernon Reid, Bobby Previte, Joey Baron, David Torn, Nels Cline, and Frances-Marie Uitti, as well as qawaali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, blues legend Hubert Sumlin, and Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka.
Sharp attended Cornell University from 1969 to 1971, studying anthropology, music, and electronics. He completed his B.A. degree at Bard College in 1973, where he studied composition with Benjamin Boretz and Elie Yarden; jazz composition, improvisation, and ethnomusicology with Roswell Rudd; and physics and electronics with Burton Brody. In 1977 he received an M.A. from the University at Buffalo, where he studied composition with Morton Feldman and Lejaren Hiller, and ethnomusicology with Charles Keil.
He also curates the State of the Union compilations of one-minute tracks by experimental musicians, and produces records for numerous artists.
Sharp lives in lower Manhattan with designer/video artist Janene Higgins and their two children.
Thus http://www.neilfeather.org/ http://www.johnberndt.org/ Since 1992, Neil Feather and John Berndt have worked together as THUS, performing an astonishing array of strange music played on an orchestra of instruments of their own invention. Feather, who has been endlessly compared to Harry Partch, is one of the most active artists in the area of experimental instrument design in the U.S. His collaborator is intense multi-instrumentalist improviser John Berndt. Their chemistry, along with the mechanical imperatives of the unusual instruments themselves, produces an original idiom of music that is at once otherworldly, funny, and somber.
Feather's creations (which can be seen on
www.neilfeather.org) are highly refined prototypes for new families of instruments, each expressing one or more mechanical or psycho-acoustic principles new to musical history. Berndt's creations are similarly exploratory, but tend to have a more elemental character, relying on vocabulary of highly developed extended technique for their full articulation.
Collectively and separately they have collaborated and recorded with many notable figures of contemporary music including Peter Kowald, Eugene Chadbourne, Jaap Blonk, Le Quann Ninh, Joe McPhee, Kaffe Matthews, Jack Wright, Gianni Gebbia, Paolo Angeli, Jon Rose, Susan Alcorn, and many other creative musicians. They are both also founding member of the critically acclaimed Red Room performance space and international High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music.
Nate Scheible & Matt Wascovich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2vPPSvRvE http://theescarcityoftanks.blogspot.com/ Scheible and Wascovich are a drum and guitar duo from Cleveland, Ohio who record for TOTAL LIFE SOCIETY RECORDS. They play in Thee Scarcity of Tanks among other collaborations and have been members of Self Destruct Button, Jackie-O Motherfucker, X Bolex, Mr. Wascovich is an established writer with many books of poetry.
UB-313 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Allen http://www.myspace.com/elliottlevin Marshall Allen: Marshall Belford Allen (born in Louisville, Kentucky, May 25, 1924) is a free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. He also performs on flute, oboe, piccolo, and EVI (an electronic valve instrument made by the Akai company).
During the Second World War he enlisted in the 92nd Infantry Division and was stationed in France. [1] Allen studied alto saxophone in Paris and played in Europe with Art Simmons and James Moody.
He is best known for his mastery of pyrotechnic effects on the alto - he has said that he "wanted to play on a broader sound basis rather than on chords" (1971 interview with Tam Fiofori cited in[2]). The opportunity came through his long association with Sun Ra, with whom he performed almost exclusively from 1958 to Ra's death in 1993, although he did record outside the Arkestra, notably with Paul Bley's group in 1964 and also played with Olatunji's group during the mid-1960s. Critic Scott Yanow has described Allen's playing as "Johnny Hodges from another dimension."
Since the departure of Sun Ra and John Gilmore, Allen has led the Arkestra, and has recorded two albums as their bandleader. In May 2004, Allen celebrated his 80th birthday on stage with the Arkestra, as part of their performance at the Ninth Vision Festival in New York City.
Allen often appears in NYC-area collaborations with bassist Henry Grimes and has also participated in the "Outerzone Orchestra" together with Francisco Mora Catlett, Carl Craig and others in an appreciation of Sun Ra's music.
Elliott Levin: Have you seen this man walking the streets of Philly? His signature single dread emits musical spores over sidewalks, music halls, and coffeehouses. Elliott is the ubiquitous Philadelphia musician. He has played with everyone...reading his poetry into his flute, literally, improvising with Charles Cohen, Rick Iannacone, and New Ghost, the list is long. A discography appears below. Elliott studied music and creative writing at the University of Oregon. He also studied extensively with Michael Guera (former saxophonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra), Cecil Taylor (pianist/composer/improvisor), and Claire Polin (flutist/composer). Elliott has performed with groups including Cecil Taylor's Ensemble, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Odeon Popes' Sax Choir, Scram!, New Ghost, Atzilut (Fourth World), and Talking Free Bebop.
He has collaborated in performance with poets Miguel Algarin, Gloria Tropp, Mbali Umoja, Marty Watt, and Frank Messina & Spoken Motion among many others. Venues have included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The United Nations, The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Yale University, The Greek Theater, Watts Towers, Lollapalooza! and scores of galleries, clubs and theaters. In 1999, he performed at the Crossing Borders Festival in the Hague, the Sexial Jazz Festival in Lisbon and Portugal, The Alternative Festival in Prague, and the Sonic Logos Festival in Philadelphia. Elliott has received awards from New American Radio (New York), The Cityof Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and the California Endowment for the Humanities. A prolific poet, Eliott's work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, Blue Beat Jacket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, Vital Pulse, Poets & Prophets, and Intervals: The Poems of Musicians (Beehive & Sisyphus Press). A book of Poetry by Elliott Levin was published in 1996 (Heat Press, Los Angeles).
Born in 1953, Elliott Levin is a Philadelphia born and based jazz musician and poet. For ten years he toured the world with Harold Melvin & The Blue otes, as saxophonist in The Sound of Philadelphia band. His poetry has been published in several periodicals including the LA Weekly, Blue Beat acket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, The Nile, Vital Pulse, Ozone, and Poets & Prophets. He regularly performs jazz and poetry with Gloria Tropp, Miguel Algarin, Cecil Taylor's groups Phthongas and Unit Core Ensemble, New Ghosts, Interplay and Talking Free Be-Bop. His original music and poetry was recorded for broadcast throughout the USA as part of the New American Radio Series. Elliott performed as solo, and in collaboration with Frank Messina at Lollapalooza in 1994, where they also jammed with Courtney Love in Phila. at a late night jam. He is currently a member also of drummer (Ornette Coleman, Blood Ulmer, Lounge Lizards) G. Calvin Weston's BIG TREE (
www.calvinweston.com); Animus (world/fusion music); The Philadelphia Phenomenon (w/ Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Rick Iannacone, Calvin Weston).
Sabir Matten & Michiko Duo http://home.earthlink.net/~ribas/sabirmateen Sabir Mateen: Tenor, alto saxophonist, Bb clarinetist, alto clarinetist, flutist, composer, Sabir Mateen, born in Philadelphia, has been a musician most of his life. Starting in the Philadelphia area as a percussionist, he started playing flute as a teenager. Gradually evovling from alto to tenor saxophone, he has been through a number of musical transformations. He started out playing rhythm and blues in the early '70s which led him to the tenor saxophone chair of the Horace Tapscott Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. From there he has or is performing with Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, William Parker, Alan Silva, Butch & Wilber Morris, Raphe Malik, Steve Swell, Mark Whitecage, Roy Campbell, Matthew Shipp, Marc Edwards, Jemeel Moondoc, William Hooker, Henry Grimes, Rashid Bakr, Kali Fasteau and numerous others. He also is a member of the cooperative band TEST. Sabir also performs with, Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, William Parker's Inside The Music Of Curtis Mayfield, Earth People, the Downtown Horns and The East 3rd Street Ensemble. He is the leader of "The Sabir Mateen Quintet", Shapes Textures & Sound Ensemble, TRIO SABIR, and other bands*.
Matthias Muller & Christian Marien The collaboration of Matthias Mueller and Christian Marien started, when Matthias joined the band "Olaf Ton" in 2003. Playing together in various projects in the following period, they worked on a common musical language, which resulted in their duo-playing in 2006.
Not only due to the unusual combination of trombone and drums, they are very consciously trying to overcome conventions and to avoid obvious musical solutions. Free improvised music which uses and at the same time questions the full range of musical parameters such as dynamics, density, rhythm, sound, form and tonality, requires extreme alertness and concentration on the musical process of both musicians. The outcome is a raw music, at the same time brutal and peaceful, ugly and nice. Its aim to achieve the "highest form of beauty" at any time is overriding all musical decisions.
In 2007 they released their debut-CD "Superimpose" on the Portuguese label "Creative Sources".
Matthias Mueller, *1971, played together with some of the outstanding German improvisors such as Frank Gratkowski, Matthias Schubert, Gebhard Ullmann and Rudi Mahall as well as Albert Mangelsdorf.
His CD "Bhavan", released on "Jazzhausmusik" in 2004, was produced by musician, festivalmaker, producer and journalist John Corbett from Chicago. He played concerts in India, Russia, USA and many European countries.
Christian Marien, *1975, plays in various ensembles such as "Olaf Ton", "Momentum" and "Computerband". He released CDs on "Leo-records", "2nd FLOOR Edition" and others. His recent artistic work concentrates on the develpopment of his solo-playing (CD "sieben mal solo" released on Schraum in 2007) and on the collaboration with the performing artists "Ritsche&Zast".
Uri Caine http://uricaine.com/ Uri Caine was born in Philadelphia and began studying piano with Bernard Peiffer. He played in bands led by Philly Joe Jones, Hank Mobley, Johnny Coles, Mickey Roker, Odean Pope, Jymmie Merritt, Bootsie Barnes and Grover Washington. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and studied music composition with George Rochberg and George Crumb.
Since moving to New York City Caine has recorded eighteen albums as a leader. His most recent is The Classical Variations (Winter and Winter 2007) He has made cd's featuring his jazz trio, his Bedrock Trio and the ensemble performing arrangements of Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach and Schumann.
Recently Caine has received commissions from the Vienna Volksoper, The Seattle Chamber Players, Relache, The Beaux Arts Trio, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Koln and the American Composers Orchestra. Caine was the Director of the Venice Biennale for Music in September 2003, where he also premiered his new work "The Othello Syndrome". He has performed his version of the Diabelli Variations with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the CBC Orchestra in Candada and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In 2006 he was named composer in residence for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and premiered his Concerto for Two Pianos and Chamber Orchestra with Jeffrey Kahane in May 2006.
During the past several years, Caine has worked in groups led by Don Byron, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Terry Gibbs and Buddy DeFranco, Clark Terry, Rashid Ali, Arto Lindsay, Sam Rivers and Barry Altschul, the Woody Herman Band, Annie Ross, the Enja Band, Global Theory and the Master Musicians of Jajouka. He has received grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts , the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Foundation. He has performed at many jazz festivals including The North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival. Monterey Jazz Festival, JVC Festival, San Sebastian Jazz Festival, Vittoria Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, as well as classical festivals including The Salzburg Festival, Munich Opera, Holland Festival, Israel Festival, IRCAM, and Great Performers at Lincoln Center.
PRV Trio http://www.anthonypirog.com http://www.claviusproductions.alkem.org/kohoutek Anthony Pirog: "Many of you have probably heard guitarist Anthony Pirog at various bars and restaurants around the DC area, and some of you might not have even realized it. Whether playing with local jazz artists at Utopia or Tryst, as an experimental duo with celloist Janel Leppin at Bossa, or with his vintage rock band The Bang at the Velvet Lounge, Anthony's prolific guitar work seems to find its way into just about every club and every genre possible. With a laid back attitude and a signature sound, Pirog managed to catch our attention and we've been following him around this fair city for quite awhile now; he most recently wowed us with a solo performance at the Warehouse Next Door.
A jazz guitarist by training, having graduated from New York University's music school and having spent time at the Berkelee School of Music, Pirog is technically brilliant and able to take that brilliance into the experimental realm. Taking the stage already chock full of effects pedals (23 in total), Anthony began the night with an almost ambient post-rock song and progressed through the night with pieces that were at times jarring, calming, challenging and multi-dimensional. By the second song, Pirog was pulling the rug of "ordinary" out from under us. He introduced a variety of sounds through both the electronics he had onstage and his guitar (at one point playing a child's keyboard into his guitar) � tweaking them, processing them, looping them and then layering them.
Throughout the night, he painstakingly set up all his pieces; he continued to layer sounds until that moment when the cacophony could not get any more intense and then would pull everything together into one coherent and melodic piece, playing his guitar soaringly above the fray. It was at those moments when chaos triumphantly became ordered that Pirog's genius was most exposed. As he revealed to us in his interview, "I had the first loop prerecorded to get me going and that was it. The rest was improvised." His facial expressions while doing so revealed his genuine interest and curiosity in each new sound he was creating and in figuring out how best to fit those sounds into an overall melodic structure. Using his extensive knowledge of music and combining it with electronics-galore, Pirog is essentially a one-man experimental orchestra, taking the roll of composer, musician and conductor. At the end of the show, all the music geeks came out of the woodworks to look at all his pedals and discuss with him his process � which he kindly did.
Pirog continues to experiment with music when playing as Janel and Anthony. The duo improvises while playing the cello and guitar, while still using processing and looping to add layers to their songs. Whereas solo we find him confronting the more intense spectrum of experimental music, with Janel, Pirog creates soothing and exquisite mis-en-scene works. An abrupt left turn is made when we see Pirog fronting such bands as The Bang, where he delves into traditional rock songs that have an americana flair and feature a growly voiced vocalist and other stellar musicians (including Janel Leppin on bass guitar).
Wherever and in whatever form you might be able to catch Pirog play, do so. He is by far one of the most accomplished guitarists in our city, and his interest in so many genres of music means that you are sure to find him playing something your musical palate will relish."
Continues at
http://www.anthonypirog.com/html/links.php?psi=30 Scott Verrastro: Drummer/percussionist Scott Verrastro utilizes a plethora of sticks, brushes, bells, shakers, cymbals and gongs, metal, contact mics, and household items -- in addition to a traditional drum kit -- to coax a wide palette of sounds. Verrastro received a degree in music literature from Northeastern University in Boston and continues to examine many forms of music, including all styles of improvisation and traditional folk. His main percussion influences are Milford Graves, Rashied and Muhammed Ali, Sunny Murray, Han Bennink, Jaki Liebezeit, Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir on Larks' Tongues in Aspic, and yes, even John Bonham, Bill Ward, Keith Moon, and Nick Mason. His improv psych band Kohoutek explores all of this territory, veering from drony Krautrock-inspired psych to abstract noise freak-outs and everything in between. Verrastro also plays in a duo with guitarist Chris Grier (of To Live and Shave in L.A.) called Thee Ultimate VAG, often accompanies guitarist Jeff Barsky in Insect Factory and multi-instrumentalist John Stanton in Kuschty Rye Ergot, and has collaborated with saxophonists Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra Arkestra), Elliott Levin, Paul Flaherty and John Dikeman. He has also performed with Damo Suzuki (of Can), French guitarist Richard Pinhas (of Heldon), numerous Bardo Pond projects, and multi-instrumentalists Mike Tamburo and Little Howlin' Wolf.
Ed Ricart: Born in Ancon, Panama, Edward Ricart first studied in Prague, Czech Republic, with Tony Ackerman, and is a veteran of Boston's Berklee College of Muzak. As an improvisor, Edward combines elements of punk, no wave, free jazz, serialism, electronica, prog rock, and the avant-garde, on his electric guitar; his array of noisemakers and special effects boxes. This past year, he played shows supporting Eugene Chadbourne, Mary Halvorson + Jessica Pavone (of Anthony Braxton's 12tet), Fingerbang City, Yeasayer, the Conformists, Panthers, and Jason Ajemian (Exploding Star Orchestra/Chicago Underground Trio/Born Heller), and organized a local show for Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier.
His most recent projects include: the defunct Contact-Contact, a noise/no wave trio based in Washington DC, recorded at the legendary Inner Ear with Devin Ocampo of Faraquet; Motreb, a free improv/new music drum/guitar duo also from Washington DC, mixed a record with Chad Clark at Silver Sonya; Harmaline, of Boston, MA, played math/chaos rock; and the free communications project, PRV Trio.
Edward currently resides in a 250-year-old log cabin 50 miles outside of DC, where he composes music for film and listens to the spheres with his lady love and fellow musician, Katya Rose. Contact the artist:
outmuziks@yahoo.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And don't forget the post-SponInf afterglow show. John and I are going to the UK the next day, so if you have a few quid lying around, feel free to donate to our cause:
Sunday, March 30
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungdc.com 202-462-3213
$7, doors at 9pm, 21+
Kuschty Rye Ergot (DC improv psych, ex-Redeemers/Promise Breakers, mem. of Kohoutek)
Dame Satan (SF folk-psych)
Pablonious Bill (PG County's wayfaring stranger)
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.
Dame Satan http://www.damesatan.com http://www.myspace.com/damesatan "Nuanced, heartfelt folk songs that sound like they could have been written anytime in the past century or so." (Time Out New York, October 2006)
"If Quazar had sounded anything like Dame Satan, the San Francisco quartet that just played the Wednesday-night Americana Ramble at Marilyn's on K, I might be translating dispatches from Zeti Reticuli right now. Ever heard music that makes you desperately try to remember if you'd innocuously eaten a brownie earlier that could have been, ahem, herbally enhanced? Dame Satan's music had that effect. The instrumentation was boilerplate Americana -- acoustic guitars, banjos, resonator guitars, bass and maybe even a mandolin -- but the execution was closer to chamber music meets jazz. The influences, among them British folk, English post-psychedelic blues rock, spare Delta blues and the sort of weird Americana the Grateful Dead sometimes hinted at, melded into an original whole whose presence was rather startling. The four members played off each other like ancient jazz bodhisattvas, and there was a conscious awareness and manipulation of the spaces between the notes, again more a jazz trait than an element common to more straightforward genres like bluegrass or country. The overall effect is easy to recall. Its like that time you got really buzzed and played guitar in the stairwell and sang, and you heard yourself sounding like something from another dimension." (Sacramento News and Views, June 2006 Live Review)
"...Druggy, dusky hued country folks who slink about in the shadows..." (Aquarius, November 2007, regarding new split 7-inch)
"Little 'r' rock with sweetly scented underpine..." (Byron Coley, The Wire, February 2008, regarding new split 7-inch)
Dame Satan spent two years writing and recording Beaches and Bridges. They tracked and mixed their first album within the confines of the rickety Ghost Mansion itself, a Massive Pink Abode at the foot of Sunny Potrero Hill in San Francisco, home to Ghost Mansion Records and, at one time or another, Each Member of the Band. Though written, at least initially, in No Small Part between Those Four Walls, the New Album Beaches and Bridges came to life in a Studio and revels in the Electricity, Rhythm, and Volume the house's Ancient Foundation might not have sustained. Even with the Furnace on Full-Bore and Miles of Smiles and Hillocks of Barbecue inside, the Ghost Mansion is a decidedly Cold Place to write and work. Studios have Climate Control. Studios also have Fun Toys with which to play. Barbecue is Unbeatable but studios even have Taco Trucks down the street if one be lucky. In this respect, Dame Satan were.
The Quartet recorded to two-inch tape at Zilla Studios in Nearby San Bruno, California with Old Nigel at the Helm, Liam Nelson assisting, and Numerous Spicy Foil-Wrapped Snackers Riding Shotgun. They supplemented these Sessions with a series of Overdub Jams at Nigel's Pad. Andrew did Mountain Shouts, Strums and Plucks, and Synthetic Squalls. Greg handled Classic Hits, Banjo Tickles, and Cold River Hums. Brendan contributed Sound Pastures, World Beats, and Slip n' Slide. Chopko added the Deep End of a Long Dark Pool, Harmonic Trade-Winds, and Porch Vibes. Nigel played Wurlitzer on the 1st Song. Jacob Long did Auxiliary E-bowed Electric Guitar Excursions on the 5th and 6th Songs. Paula Frazer Sang on the 5th Song. Nigel and Dame Satan Mixed the Mess. Mike Wells Mastered It. It's in Your Hands thanks to Ghost Mansion Records.
Pablonious Bill http://www.myspace.com/pabloniousbill Pablonious Bill started playing music at the age of 13...maybe 14, I'm not sure. As soon as he had purchased his first bass guitar he started playing in a band with his older brother (who later became Mike Roy) and friends. This project faded out and faded into Mike Roy where P Bill still played the bass and added the occasional noise guitar track. This takes us through his should be college years. Instead of going to college, he spent all his time expanding his mind and playing the guitar. He would say that it wasn't until his brief stay in South Carolina that he actually felt comfortable on the guitar. This is also when he first tried his hand at writing songs, poetry and short stories. Four years later...he has a back log of about sixty songs, few of which have been recorded, some of which may never be recorded. The recording process has proven to be a long, slow and tedious one. All in all things are going well, and maybe in a year or so an album will be ready...
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Upcoming at Velvet Lounge:
Wednesday 4/2: Twin Earth/Women ($5, doors at 9pm, 21+)
Friday 4/4: Apes/Health/True Womanhood ($10, doors at 9pm, 18+)
Sunday 4/6: Food For Animals/Eat Forever/Snack Truck ($7, doors at 9pm, 18+)
Tuesday 4/8: Ilya Monosov/Skaters/Zac Davis (of Lambsbread)/Dolphins Into the Future/The Cutest Puppy in the World ($8, doors at 9pm, 21+)
Thursday 4/10: Thee Ultimate VAG/Eric Carbonara/Nick Schillace/FFFFs ($8, doors at 9pm, 21+)
