Clavius Productions presents:
The Lighthouse
1421 Buchanan St NW
http://www.myspace.com/lighthousedc202-468-7842
$5 suggested donation
show starts at 8:30 sharp!
BYOB!
Little Howlin' Wolf (The Shadow Drifter returns to DC after a one-year hiatus)
500mg (Michael Gibbons of Bardo Pond, Three Lobed/Galactic Zoo)
Thee Ultimate VAG (Philly/DC guitar/drums improv duo, mem. of Kohoutek/To Live and Shave in L.A./Scarcity of Tanks)
Michael Thomas Jackson (experimental improv from NC)
Little Howlin' Wolf (James Pobiega) has been cutting insane slabs of vinyl since the late '70s. In recent years, with the help of Twig Harper and others, his vast body of work has gained notoriety and acceptance. With a repertoire of well over 100 songs and various approaches, no two Wolf sets are ever the same. Somewhat akin to Captain Beefheart, Tom Waits, Jandek, John Lee Hooker, and Albert Ayler but nothing like any of them, the Wolf is truly in a class of his own, and if you let him, he'll school ya!
http://white-rose.net/mystere12.htmlJames Pobiega lives on the southwest outskirts of Chicago, where he has spent a great deal of time playing as a street musician. His aliases include Little Howlin' Wolf, Deacon Blue, Buccaneer Bob and Shadow Drifter. He described himself as a musicologist. He has an extensive list of credits, including street theater and his long career as a do-it-yourself musician.
If you are fortunate enough to meet him and spend some time listening, he will proudly share with you accounts of other adventures...as a bounty hunter, scuba diving instructor, activist with the solidarity movement, secret agent, even working in character as a children's entertainer in pirate guise. Famous names are sprinkled thru the conversation, mentioned as both friends (Mr. T) and those who have derived inspiration from his activities (Steely Dan).
During the time I spent with him, he was kind enough to share several of his recordings, some released, some unreleased. He also had a huge quantity of documentation of his career, including clippings from newspapers, magazines, cartoons, man on the street interviews, pictures of him playing in Europe.
He has primarily worked within the blues & freeform jazz idioms, but is very open to other influences...cajun, voodoo, pirates included. His recordings are hard to come by, and are much sought by collectors. The one LP I have, The Cool Truth, is a melange of styles: drums with chants in tongues I cannot recognize, multi-tracked blues songs that seem to threaten to fly apart, but hold together somehow, growling buccaneer-speak and channeled New Orleans spirits. I have to mention the hand-painted & lettered cover as well, becuase it reflects the quality and personality of the music in the grooves perfectly.
Hopefully, James Pobiega's work will become more available in the next year or so, as the Destijl label is set to release Shadow Drifter LP, and there is hope that his live performances with Nautical Almanac will become available at some point.
500mghttp://www.bardopond.org/http://www.threelobed.com/bardo/discography/release/VerticalApproach500mg is Michael Gibbons, and Michael Gibbons is 500mg all by himself. Except for the first track, which features additional guitar and whatnot by brother John. Vertical Approach focuses on layered guitar work (both acoustic and electric) with all kinds of other additions to the mix (sitar, loops, layers, etc.). As Ed at Eclipse says, "Michael Gibbons, of monolithic sounds-great-on-any-substance rockers Bardo Pond, delivers all the fuzzed-out good you?d expect on his 1st solo LP. However, Gibbons really is hitting the true loner path here, forged by weirdos like Deuter, Sandy Bull, early Robert Wyatt and even Neil Young?s dusty Dead Man soundtrack. Yes, these are cyclical, even largely stripped-down meditations ?- call it komische raga folk, maybe? Whatever the case, that staring-into-the-sun/Skip Spence vibe prevails -? this is a headswirler with feeling, from an underrated and understated guitar god. Sitar, plaintive acoustic guitar, electronics, sampled snatches of manipulated vocals, and that glorious trademark FUZZ. Is it for late nights or early mornings? That is for you to ruminate on. Artwork also by the talented Mr.Gibbons!"
Thee Ultimate VAGhttp://claviusproductions.alkem.org/ultimate_vag/http://claviusproductions.alkem.org/kohoutek/listen.htmlScott Verrastro - percussion (mem. of Kohoutek, Chromatic Mysteries, PRV Trio, Kuschty Rye Ergot, Insect Factory)
Chris Grier - electric guitar (mem. of To Live and Shave in L.A., Scarcity of Tanks, Kohoutek, Sean McArdle Band, Demon Fling)
Dreamy moonlit melodies as imagined by axeslinger Chris Grier and skinpounder Scott Verrastro. Setting a course for the heartland of America, this duo contructs ribald ditties derived from ancient Romanian ballads translated to these modern, not-so-chaste times. Bring your lambskin.
Drummer/percussionist Scott Verrastro utilizes a plethora of sticks, brushes, bells, shakers, cymbals, 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 from 1973-era King Crimson, and yes, even John Bonham, Bill Ward, Keith Moon, and Nick Mason. His improv psych ensemble Kohoutek explores a wide range of sonic territory, veering from drony Krautrock-inspired psych-rock 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, a trio with guitarists Anthony Pirog and Ed Ricart called PRV Trio, 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, Dan Scofield, and John Dikeman. He has also performed with Damo Suzuki (of Can), Richard Pinhas (of Heldon), numerous Bardo Pond projects, Fern Knight, and multi-instrumentalists Mike Tamburo and Little Howlin' Wolf.
Chris Grier is a Washington, D.C.-based musician who has been making brutal and beautiful music here and abroad since 2003, with results that skitter along that rarely glimpsed border where "wildly seductive" meets "what the hell?"
He has collaborated, recorded and performed with some of the planet's most interesting and inventive musicians, including Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Andrew W.K., Tom Smith, Don Fleming, Matthew Wascovich, Hugh McElroy, Ian Wadley, Little Wings and Little Howlin' Wolf. He is also a member of the long-running avant-garde collective To Live And Shave In L.A. Grier also recently played on Sean McArdle's debut solo LP, Northern Charms, some of which can be heard, oddly enough, being piped through the ceiling speakers of every Starbucks outlet in North America. As a group and solo artist, he has appeared on bills with the likes of Bob Pollard, Dan Higgs, Max Ochs, Grey Daturas, Flower Travellin' Band, Wolf Eyes' Nate Young, Sightings, Magik Markers, Wooden Wand, Religious Knives, Six Organs of Admittance, MV+EE, and many other fellow adventurers in the world's rock and underground scenes. Recordings featuring his solo and group work have been released on a plethora of labels in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. He is currently writing an LP's worth of material with McArdle, as well as songs for the next Scarcity of Tanks LP and a solo record to be released in 2009 through the Sockets label.
In addition to the terrifying drums+gtr duo Ultimate VAG, Grier most recently collaborated with Verrastro as a member of the Verrastro-run Kohoutek ensemble, which toured with legendary psych-rockers Yahowha 13 in March 2009. He has recently been born again as Draconis Aquarian.
Michael Thomas Jacksonhttp://www.microearth.com/jackson/Michael Thomas Jackson has been creating and recording music since 1985. He has been involved in fully notated composition, free improvisation, avant rock, concrete and electronic music, performance art and everything in between. He has worked with tape, found objects, analogue synthesizers, prepared guitars, various percussion, all manner of sound processing, electronic feedback systems, turntables, voice and extended techniques on the clarinet. Michael has played as, in, or with many fine projects and people including Eugene Chadbourne, Rompecabeza, Spool Ensemble, Viktimized Karcass, Alien Planetscapes, Choptsicks, Cobra Clutch, Cephalic Index, The George Steeltoe Ensemble, Brian Osborne, Chris Phinney, Martin Klapper, Rafael Flores, Isolation, Flutter, Jerry's Finger, Truncheonette, Projexorcism, Skoweyajeed, Katsu Itakura, Carl Howard, Bruce Eisenbeil, Quien Es, Thomas Dimuzio, Dave Fox, David Prescott, Pat Lawrence, Ian Davis, Scotty Irving, New Loft, Zan Hoffman, Hal McGee and O.N.E. Michael is currently active performing, recording and releasing music through the Primecuts Recordings imprint, raising a daughter and being poor.
