Clavius Productions presents:
Saturday, March 25
611 Florida Ave NW WDC
http://www.claviusproductions.org 9pm, $5 suggested donation
202-360-9739 for info
BYOB!
Apothecary Hymns (NYC folk/psych, Locust Music)
Function (electro-acoustic psych-pop from Australia, Locust Music)
Coach Fingers (mem. of No Neck Blues Band/Suntanama)
Death Chants (DC improv psych/folk, Time Lag)
Apothecary Hymns http://www.apothecaryhymns.com/ http://www.locustmusic.com/apothecaryhymns.html With a treasure trove of analogue, swirling effects, arch songcraft and a sweet yet assured vocal delivery,
Trowel & Era brings to the table the epic debut long player by the one man band Apothecary Hymns (aka Alex Stimmel). Stimmel has made a collection with one foot in kaleidoscopic coastal loner psych that floats on a musical bed of whimsical levity and another foot rooted firmly in the grand ethos of east village troubadours of the mid '60s.
Alex Stimmel: acoustic & electric guitars 6 & 12 string guitars, banjo, bass, drums, wurlitzer, analog synth, organ, flute, recorder, kalimba (African finger piano), autoharp, glockenspiel, voice, & tape manipulation
"Mr. Stimmel pulls off classic Syd Barrett moves the way most people pull off socks; combining acoustic and electric guitars to create a folk rock readymade with loner and acid proclivities. Beat that with a stick!" (Byron Coley, The Wire)
"...a splendid listening experience that no fan of melodic psych should be without." (Simon Lewis, Ptolemaic Terrascope)
"One-man acid-folk-psych sounds...here stalking strange corners of a land somewhere between The Madcap Laughs, 5000 Spirits and Relatively Clean Rivers. Eerie melodies decorated with some pleasingly freaky guitar lines. He's captured an elusive and unique sound here that really works." (Mike Stax, Ugly Things)
Function http://www.functionensemble.com/ http://www.myspace.com/function108 "At times, Function lean towards the beautiful sweep of David Sylvian or Felt, with shimmering sounds and lush atmospheres with a dark edge. But you can hear a country thread, too. Listen to this album if you're not in a hurry to be anywhere, physically or emotionally. It will slow down the passing world and maybe even alter the way you see the light coming in the window. If pain persists, put it on again." - Sydney Morning Herald, AUS
Spat out on Jaunary 2nd 1977 into small-town Australia into a landscape full of industry, universities and birth defects, Matthew Liam Nicholson took up sound experimentation early in 1991, when, getting around mostly by skateboard, he made his first audio-collage, using two family tape decks. The collage, made at the tender age of fourteen, featured a thrillingly weird arrangement of Indian, choral and avant-garde oddities stolen, collaged and re-rendered. Though the arrangement did not prove popular with local teens who had not yet discovered drugs, it signaled a love of sound experimentation that has since spiraled into something like a career.
In 1993, Nicholson co-formed the shaky supernova of the Golden Lifestyle Band, a spastic, elastic small group by turns shambolic and spectacular (and frequently both), that featured the talents of Chris Smith (Fat Cat/Emporer Jones), Dion Nania (Hi-God People/Panel of Judges) and Pat Ridgewell (Small World Experience) ?? the group becoming posthumously legendary in underground Australia. It was during his five-year tenure in the Golden Lifestyle Band that Nicholson, in 1995, coined the moniker Function, and began giving more time and attention to his solo recordings, increasing his use of naively discovered Eastern modes, rich delay figures, piano, skittering percussion and lyrical content of top-shelf poetic sensibility.
In 1998, Function self-released its first eponymous full length in Australia, a rich and raw gleaning of wooden-textured love spotted with dirty heartfelt pop, mesmerisingly layered improvisational expirements and gusts of warm feedback. It was the initial sign that a Function record will always dance freely and dissolve itself between the poles of sound-art and song, even whilst making no particular distinction between light and dark.
It wasn??t until 2003, though, that the first commercial Function LP, The Zillionaire-Retarded Speeds of Ordinary, Measured Light, appeared in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, to almost unanimous critical acclaim. Described variously as ??the finest album to emerge from Australia this year?? (Delusions of Adequacy, USA) ??one of this year??s most intriguing releases?an ambition to make something entirely new out of a very tired form?? (Francis Leach, ABC Radio, AUS) and ??a stunning masterwork of intriguing musical delights?? (mono.net, AUS/NZ), The Zillionaire... saw Nicholson, with the able hands of friends & family, expanding the palate of the self-titled record, articulating his unusual pop sense clearly and ecstatically, always interspersed with soaring and graceful improvised sounds.
Function live are an amorphous thing, appearing, over the last few years, as a solo electro-acoustic performance, sound-art duo, band, and occasionally, a larger ensemble. In 2004, a 4-piece Function band blew through SXSW in Austin, Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo, in support of The Zillionaire..., playing alongside the likes of Piano Magic, Thalia Zedek, Oren Ambarchi and the James Orr Complex. More recently, Nicholson has performed around Europe, including a sell-out show at London??s Institute Of Contemporary Arts with the legendary Fennesz, in collaboration with ::Room40:: artist John Chantler. Upcoming Function shows in USA & Europe, 2006, promise the larger ensemble with strings, horns, electronics & rock wilderness.
In recent years Nicholson has also created 7 hours worth of intricately synchronised soundtracks (via composition, as well as collage & de-composition) for the sacred art suites (triple-screen projection installations) of Advaitayana Buddhist Master Adi Da Samraj ?? in particular to the monumental-scale suites ??The Breather? and ??Kaliedoscape ?? Eleven Visions Of Countless Points Of View? (premiered mostly in California and The Netherlands thus far), as well as the sound tracks for both a DVD documentary on Transcendental Art and a forthcoming Australian film ??Lloyd Omerod Wants His Face Back??. Nicholson??s work is eminently cinematic, evocative and sensitive. Expect it to start appearing in fine films in the near future.
The fruit of innumerable trips around the world, and featuring a cast of over thirty players, recorded in 10 countries, Function??s official second LP, (and stateside debut) The Secret Miracle Fountain, is the fullest realisation of Nicholson??s talent yet. Sweeping, as it does, from sublime electro-acoustic washes to expansive tear-jerking dream-pop to arching, hook-laden ecstatic rock, The Secret Miracle Fountain sees voices arise out of indefinably sweet yet haunting electro-acoustic textures, submerged horns, rickety banjo, waves of piano, string section apparitions, and the cooing of dakinis in a landscape at once dense enough to get lost in and spare enough to hear every note. Partly produced by Australian pop luminary J. Walker of Machine Translations, The Secret Miracle Fountain, as with The Zillionaire..., travels some remarkably diverse terrain while remaining, unmistakably, the work of one man.
With instrumentation including modified flutes, trombones, trumpets, french horn, harmonium, bansuri flute, ghatam, tanpura, tabla, analog synths, violins, cellos, laptops, guitars, kalimba, djembe, and assorted electronics -- The Secret Miracle Fountain cascades blissfully irrespective of genre boundaries, landing somewhere in the ballpark of the Heart, remarkably accessible. A labour of almost four years, the fact that, despite being recorded so disparately, The Secret Miracle Fountain succeeds so well as a whole, is a kind of miracle itself. Some pieces took years, some several days, and, in the end, the record doesn??t particularly sound like anything or anyone at all. It is simply the immense and intoxicating noise of someone trying to bring something unabashedly beautiful into the world, and succeeding undeniably.
The Secret Miracle Fountain is available February 14 2006 through Locust Music.
Function will be performing in rare big-band style at Locust??s showcase at SxSW in Austin, March 16 2006 and heading thereafter to New York and Boston for more shows between March 20-26th.
Coach Fingers Evergreen is the debut solo outing by Coach Fingers, the alias of the No Neck Blues Band's (blonde haired) guitarist Jason. Known for his inspired, often hypnotic and ever evolving electric guitar work it may come as a surprise that
Evergreen contains four completely acoustic compositions. Apparently recorded on Thanksgiving "a long time ago" the songs that comprise this 8" lathe cut lean away from the psychedelic guitar work NNCK is known for, in favor of a tip of the hat to American roots and blues music. The influence of NNCK's biggest fan, John Fahey, can be heard in finger-picking and pacing of these songs, but make no mistake, Coach Fingers has no interest in solely paying homage to or imitating great guitarists of the past. There is an honesty and intimacy to these songs that is beautiful and timeless. A fantastic release, issued in a stapled sleeve, and limited to only 75 copies.
Death Chants DC-area freak folk quartet explain themselves as follows: "DEATH CHANTS WAS BORN FROM THE RIME OF GINNUNGAGAP AND NOW WALKS ABROAD THRASHING TROLL WIVES AND CHANNELING THE NUMINOUS KNOWLEDGE OF THE COSMOS THROUGH CORPSE-HEAP WOLF-SONG!! METAL AND WOOD CALLERS IN VOICE-MESH COMMUNION BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF ALL FORETHOUGHT!!!!" Those who attended the 2005 Free Folk Phantasmagory at 611 Florida will fondly recall their expansive "guerrilla" set in the bombed-out backyard. CDR release imminent on Time Lag records:
"Gorgeous new full-length disc from these newborn sonic voyagers, and their best stuff yet...all the finest elements of the band's two self-released cassettes, Natural History &
Moss Master, lifted ever higher by added electricity and some slight distillation... flickering neon smoke rings of sound dissolving into the atmosphere...alternating melancholy/ecstatic vibes with raga-esque acoustic guitars, chiming electric guitars, slippery liquid flute, harmonium, sparse percussion, blissed female/male vocal bits, low level bass drone, kosmic synth tickles and damaged tape warble, plus one beauty of a "song"...the kind of smoked-out bedroom cult, eyes to the ceiling, home-fi psychedelia we just can't get enough of..." (Time Lag)
Upcoming 611 events:
4/8: Dogme 95 (Secretly Canadian)/Twodeadsluts Onegoodfuck (Boston noise)/Triumph Of Gnomes (Texas grind/noise)/Snake Hips/Cash Slave Clique/sc.all (of Kohoutek, Scarcelight)/Harm Stryker/Bunny Rabbits (Richmond no wave)/Piasa
4/14: Kohoutek/Little Howlin' Wolf/Pigeons (mem. of Sea Donkeys)/La Otracina (mem. of Owl Sounds/Lust Ionincs/Blizzards)/Tall Firs (folk/psych on Ecstatic Peace)/Pepi Ginsberg
4/29: Tarantula Hill benefit show! acts TBA
5/19: Mike Tamburo (Music Fellowship, experimental solo guitar)/Keenan Lawler/Nick Schillace
6/18: Will Soderberg/Roxanne Jean Polise (Chicago noise)
6/25: Andrew Lafkas (acoustic bass) & Bryan Eubanks (electronics)/New American Wing
