Clavius Productions presents the first Rake show in four years, in conjunction with the acid-folk Summer of Golden Blood tour featuring Jana Hunter.
Friday, August 19
611 Florida Ave NW WDC
9pm, $5 suggested donation
http://www.claviusproductions.org call 202-360-9739 for info
BYOB!
Rake (reunion of legendary VHF band!)
Jana Hunter (NYC-via-Houston psych-folk, new LP soon on Devendra Banhart's label)
Mouth of Leaves
Lights (wyrd-folk femme duo)
Meadows
Rake http://www.rake.info/ http://www.vhfrecords.com Rake, formed by bassist Bill Kellum (owner of the alternative label VHF) in Fairfax (Virginia), belong to the florid progressive school of the 1990s. They established themselves as one of the most creative ensembles of the Washington scene via the single "Cow Song/My Fish Died" (L Records, 1990), the EP "Motorcycle Shoes/Look at Rocks, My Miserable Existence/The Center (VHF, 1991), the cassette
The Day I Remembered Seeing Ice (Sweet Portable Junket, 1992) and the single "Subterranean Marijuana Garden/USTV" (VHF, 1992).
Their first album,
Rake Is My Co-Pilot (VHF, 1994), contains two lengthy improvisations, "Thin the Herd" and "Motorcycle Shoes," driven by a jazz guitarist who listened to John McLaughlin till he went nuts and by a keyboardist who fell in love with the Moog. The sound is an aberration of Albert Ayler and Borbetomagus.
Rake's stylistic debts towards Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Can are also evident on
Intelligence Agent, also known as G-Man (Squealer, 1996). But Rake also bridge psychedelia and progressive rock with Slint's math-rock and Japanese noise. In "PunkRock Glo" a jam of frantic percussion and guitar dissonance deteriorates in an eerie silence and bursts of spare noises. The dynamic is intriguing per se, but, on top of it, the noises proceed in a sort of galactic wake and are distorted in a sort of hallucinated manner. If Hawkwind explored the rock side of psychedelia, Rake explore the experimental, noisy side of psychedelia.
Jana Hunter http://www.janahunter.tk "Jana's frail, reedy voice and delicate fingerpicking make her sound like a young man lost in a peat bog and plucking toads from toadstools to see whether they'll spill their secrets." (Boston Phoenix)
"Jana Hunter is back in town. These days she's doing a solo thing, just her, a guitar, and a Mini-Disc full of backing tracks -- it doesn't sound like much, maybe, but it's absolutely mindblowing. The songs are as creepy and kind-of-sort-of menacing as Matty & Mossy's could be, but Hunter's expanded her musical palette somewhat, breaking out of the prog-blues-rock of her old band and dabbling with electronics and even pretty pop. The voice, of course, is still the same, and that's what really makes the whole thing work -- on top of some amazing songwriting, she does the most incredible impersonation of a down-on-her-luck '40s blues diva trapped in the body of a shy, kinda geeky girl. Hunter looks a little strange sometimes up there on stage, but as soon as she opens her mouth, everybody in the room is absolutely transfixed. I swear, she's got that crazy Chan Marshall/Beth Gibbons magnetism...come to think of it, Beth Gibbons' own recent post-Portishead effort,
Out Of Season, is probably the closest thing to Jana Hunter's solo stuff. Will she keep doing her thing? Hell, I dunno...anybody know if she's recorded anything? I certainly hope so -- but just in case, I'd go see her at the first chance you get." (Space City Rock)
upcoming 611 Florida events:
9/24: The Free Folk Phantasmagory II w/ Jack Rose, Fursaxa, Samara Lubelski, Sunwards, Paul Metzger, Forgotten Works, Timothy Revelator, more TBA
10/14: Nautical Almanac (Load Records)/Life Partners (Twisted Village)/PSI
