Clavius Productions presents:
Thursday, September 16
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com202-462-3213
$8, doors at 8:30pm, 21+
Amps For Christ (CA, Henry Barnes of Man Is The Bastard/Bastard Noise)
Kuschty Rye Ergot (DC/PA, mem. of Kohoutek)
Sean McArdle (CA)
Tiny Concept (France)
Amps For Christhttp://www.myspace.com/ampsforchristAmps For Christ (AFC) is about the combinations of many styles of music and sound from hardcore and noise to traditional musics (Folkcore and Musnik). The subjects go from war and runaway corporate capitalism to peace and the love and mercy of God. The warp in the harmonic scale, experimentation with waveforms and "beat-tones" are matters of great intrigue.
Henry Barnes has been building stringed instruments, pre-amps and amplifiers of an experimental nature for many moons and used them while in the hardcore/noise band Man Is The Bastard (MITB). Barnes and Connell (drums in MITB) started a side band called Two Ambiguous Figures with Barnes playing sitar and Connell on the tablas. It evolved into AFC after Barnes' amicable departure from MITB in 1996.It should be said that before MITB, Barnes played guitar in THE DULL, playing with the Silver Chalice and Jhonny Thunders in SF, The DULL was with TOXIC SHOCK. Since '92, Barnes has also been working with Wood -- and sometimes Nelson -- on another side band called Bastard Noise.
Amps For Christ has strong elements of pure noise and experimental throughout. Back in 1996 Barnes met Enid Snarb who is a recording freak and preparer of Hammonds. They started recording AFC. There have been many collaborators. Claremont, California is home base. His mom is a folklorist and traditional ballad singer and has been very influential on his traditional side from early childhood on. Barnes' dad was into John Cage and Harry Partch and had an early jazz band for which he was songwriter, washboardist and singer for many decades. Barnes' Grandma (Lita) was the organist at a church and taught piano lessons at home in San Bernardino, California. So you see some of the eclectic influences, eclectic desires and reasons for the eclectic sounds of Amps For Christ.
Kuschty Rye Ergothttp://www.myspace.com/kuschtyryeergotKuschty 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. In addition, John sometimes performs as a member of DC improv-psych band Kouhotek, playing guitar, synth, electric piano, and other instruments.
Sean McArdlehttp://seanmcardle.com/Bay Area musical veteran, Sean McArdle cut his teeth in the '90s with Driving by Braille (Troniks Records) and most notably with The Cost (Lookout! Records). The Cost?s album, Chimera, was released in 2002 to widespread applause, even receiving 4/5 Ks in the prestigious Kerrang Magazine. The band toured extensively in the US and Canada.
Moving to Washington DC in 2005 and turning down the volume on a new set of songs, McArdle joined forces to record and perform with a host of Washington DC's prominent musical luminairies. McArdle's album, Northern Charms, was recorded in the living rooms and basements of musicians across the district and finally finished at the legendary Inner Ear Studios, in Arlington, VA. McArdle is now back in San Francisco working on new material, and trying to do something about his relentless insomnia.
"Sean McArdle is an elusive character and engaging musician who is as reflectively brooding as he is soulfully expressive. The 33-year-old singer-songwriter plays music that is accessible and enigmatic, gentle and forceful, reassuring and heartbreaking." -- San Francisco Examiner
"McArdle offers a mature, muted version of himself...in honest Americana and gothic folk." --DC Decider
"DC songwriter, freed from the post-punk straightjacket, produces a quiet monster of a single. The A side combines drone organ with neo-countryoid guitar and plaintive vocals into something reminiscent of Yo La Tengo at their least emblematic. The flip is an instrumental in the Renbourn tradition." -- The Wire Magazine
