words & photos by Andrew Frisicano

"13 consecutive hours of experimental and avant-garde noodling" - NY Times on the Bang on a Can Marathon as quoted by Glenn Branca

The 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon went down on Sunday, June 19th, at the World Financial Center in NYC. As usual, a healthy contingent stayed for the duration (not me, I made it from around 5pm to the end). But even in just those last few hours there were some incredible performances. I caught Bang on a Can All-Stars playing with Philip Glass (who also opened with a solo performance of his "Metamorphosis IV"), a lively set from Sun Ra Arkestra, a show-stealing piece by Evan Ziporyn for himself and three other clarinetists, and a closing, full-on rock set by Glenn Branca Ensemble, who played from his album The Ascension: The Sequel.

Before that, Signal performed a droning, dramatic piece by BoaC cofounder Julia Wolfe, and Talea Ensemble and soprano Tony Arnold lead the NY premiere "An Index of Metals" by Fausto Romitelli, which tapped a laptop for atmospherics that bounced around the room's different speakers. Asphalt Orchestra similarly made good use of the Winter Garden space, marching around various quadrants of the room (and starting off the day with an outdoor performance). As you'll see in the pictures below, the Sun Ra Arkestra also made their way around the room, leaving the stage in a procession to the back.

As with past years, the Winter Garden was an adequate but not ideal venue. The sound could vary dramatically in different corners of the massive room, from bone dry in front of the stage to an echoey wash-out in the wings and the back (most noticeable when a speaker takes the mic, and is unintelligible from various vantage points). At the same time, the open space encourages the concert's free-flowing, low-pressure atmosphere, which is a huge part of its recurring appeal.

More pictures from the day, and a couple of videos, below...

Continue reading "2011 Bang on a Can Marathon (pics, video & review)"

Asphalt Orchestra outside Lincoln Center in 2010 (more by Benjamin Lozovsky)

Sunday June 19
Bang on a Can Marathon
Presented by Bang on A Can and Arts World Financial Center

Bang on a Can returns with its incomparable 12-hour super-mix of genre-defying music featuring over 150 astounding musicians and composers from throughout the world. Highlights include Philip Glass performing live with the Bang on a Can All-Stars; music by Bryce Dessner of The National; sonic downtown legend Glenn Branca; the outerplanetary Sun Ra Arkestra; the Asphalt Orchestra playing music by David Byrne/Annie Clark, Yoko Ono, and Frank Zappa; the intrepid Signal in a blistering string orchestra work by Julia Wolfe plus New York premieres by Richard Ayers, Fausto Romitelli, Poul Ruders, Toby Twining and much more! 12pm-12am. World Financial Center Winter Garden, 220 Vesey Street.

Meanwhile catch Bang on a Can performing Steve Reich at Carnegie Hall on April 30th.

In July Bang on a Can head to MASS MoCA for 20 days. Details below...

Continue reading "Bang on a Can Marathon initial 2011 lineup announced, Summer Festival at MASS MoCA too "

photos by Matthew Eisman

"His symphony No. 15 for 12 musicians, performed for the first time on Saturday night at Le Poisson Rouge and subtitled "Running Through the World Like an Open Razor," ran about two-thirds along familiar lines and one-third off the wall. It signaled a difference from the start; as it moved along, it grew weirdly wide, showing a completely different side of his musical imagination, if only to make you prefer the one you already knew." [NY Times]

Continue reading "Glenn Branca performed 'Symphony No. 15' @ LPR (pics) "

by Andrew Frisicano

Glenn Branca @ LPR in June (more by Lori Baily)

Tickets are still on sale for the two performances of Glenn Branca's new piece-Symphony No. 15 "Running Through the World Like an Open Razor" (music for strange orchestra)-happening at (Le) Poisson Rouge this weekend (on Sat, Nov 20th and Sun, Nov 21st). For the performance, Branca will be working with a 13-member ensemble armed with more than 100 instruments that'll include, according to a recent Observer piece, "guitar, bass, sitar, saxophone, shruti boxes, long-string guitar, harmonic guitar, cowbell, flute, zither, vibraphone, gong, concert bass drum, sarangi [and] panpipes."

As you might imagine, the live spectacle should be pretty engaging, though if you can't make it Branca recently launched a Kickstarter project that also has promise - it's to fund a live recording from LPR of the new piece cut onto 180-gram vinyl. You get a copy of the double-LP with a donation of $35, with other options available too. Check out a video about the project with the maestro below...

Continue reading "Glenn Branca performing new piece, raising $ to release it too"

by Andrew Frisicano

Rhys Chatham @ Lincoln Center 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Rhys Chatham, of last year's Crimson Grail 200 guitar spectacle and downtown avant-guitar fame, will be performing two nights at the Kitchen (where in 1971 he was the first music director) this weekend (October 15 and October 16). Joining Rhys (who'll play trumpet and guitar) will be drummer Kevin Shea and bassist David Sims, as well as media artist Angie Eng. Tickets are on sale.

Another downtown luminary, Glenn Branca, will be premiering a new work, Symphony No. 15 - also titled "Running Through The World Like An Open Razor" (Music for Strange Orchestra - at (Le) Poisson Rouge on November 20th and 21st. Tickets are on sale.

And an up-and-comer in the same guitarist-composer tradition: Tyondai Braxton, formerly of Battles, will join the Wordless Music Orchstra in 2011 to play "new works for orchestra and electronics from Braxton's recent Warp Records solo debut Central Market and music by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, and Caleb Burhans." The their three-show tour stops at NYC's Alice Tully Hall on March 7th. Tickets on sale TBA. Speaking of which, there's plenty of great Wordless Music/Lincoln Center shows coming up (some free too).

All Tyondai and Wordless Orchestra dates are below...

Continue reading "Rhys Chatham in the Kitchen, Glenn Branca debuting new work, Tyondai Braxton touring w/ Wordless Orchestra (dates) "

photos by Lori Baily

"Last night, in the g(l)aze of Glenn Branca's heroin eyes alongside Dan Graham and Lee Ranaldo, I found a secret meaning to the universe." - C. Kushmider

Glenn Branca & Paranoid Critical Revolution...

Glenn Branca and Paranoid Critical Revolution (guitarist Reg Bloor and drummer Libby Fab, who both play in Glenn Branca Ensemble) performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Saturday, June 19th. Glenn manned a double-bodied 'Harmonics Guitar' for a solo set, and PCR played from their new record, Euphobia. The videos below capture a few minutes of both acts' wailing improv sets. Those and more pictures below too...

Continue reading "Glenn Branca & Paranoid Critical Revolution played Le Poisson Rouge (pics, video)"

Glenn Branca Ensemble @ (Le) Poisson Rouge in September (more by Lori Baily)

Glenn Branca Ensemble will be playing the entirety of its new album, The Ascension: The Sequel, in concert at (Le) Poison Rouge on February 27th. Also on the bill is a slideshow of Robert Longo's series/book Men In The Cities scored by Ascension, the new album's prequel which came out in 1981. Tickets are on sale.

The Ascension: The Sequel is being released on Branca's Systems Neutralizers label this month. Currently it's available through Amazon or at the show.

Above you can get a live recording of a movement from Branca's Symphony No. 14 (The Harmonic Series) at its premiere on November 13th, 2008, at The Pageant in St. Louis, being performed by The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and conducted by David Robertson.

A list of the upcoming releases on Branca's Systems Neutralizers label, album info and upcoming shows are below...

Continue reading "Glenn Branca releasing new CD, performing it at LPR"

photos by Lori Baily

I first heard [Glenn Branca's] music for (mostly) electric guitars and drums, back in the '80s, when it was so new and strong it swept me away. Of course, at LPR he couldn't have 100 guitars, as he has in his symphonies, and had (or some number like that) when I heard him last, between the World Trade Center towers, obviously before 9/11. (A pang of nostalgia and history. I heard him now on 9/11 -- my way, I think, of marking the anniversary.)

But the music was strong, and sat, vollume-wise, just on the good side of hearing loss. And it hadn't changed since the '80s. Nor had Glenn. More nostalgia. The shock of the once-new, coming from the then-shocking insert of rock into classical music...the presence (as the electric guitar music builds from the simplest repeated elements) of minimalism, as the unavoidable dominant style...those things still lived in the music, put into it back in the '80s, and still ringing out with full '80s force.

What I liked most: Knowing that much of the music resides in the overtones, listening not to the notes the guitars played, but to the cloud of sound above and around those notes, hearing sound like a dark gray stone wall, pitted and fissured, with new fissures showing up every few moments. That's not the '80s. That's timeless. -Greg Sandow

Glenn Branca Ensemble will again perform from the album-in-progress THE ASCENSION: THE SEQUEL on October 17th at Issue Project Room. Tickets are on sale.

More pictures from LPR are below...

Continue reading "Glenn Branca Ensemble & Paranoid Critical Revolution played Le Poisson Rouge on 9/11 -pics"

Glenn Branca ensemble...

In "The Blood," played at P.S. 1 on Saturday [Sept. 5] afternoon, Glenn Branca's sextet took a little time to establish the Stomp, but after a few minutes it arrived. Most of the scores Mr. Branca has composed for his electric-guitar ensembles contain parts for bass and drums too, and the Stomp makes its appearance, as reliable as the other parts are shifting.

The Stomp is a four-four thump, straight from the garage. When the music gathers its prickly-heat tension, various guitars modulating at odds with one another and at least one playing steady drone chords, the Stomp becomes more stylized: a kind of rock habanera beat. If you have ever been shaken by some of Mr. Branca's electric-guitar music -- symphonies and shorter works -- you have depended on this beat to carry you through it.

Mr. Branca does too. When the beat showed up on Saturday, Mr. Branca, who conducted the ensemble at the head of the stairs in the courtyard of P.S. 1, in Long Island City, Queens, casually moved his hips, then his knees, locked together. Halfway through the performance he stood with legs wide apart, bluejeans cuffs rolled up, heels pumping, pompadour falling. Near the end he was slumped over, grasping the top of his music stand, rubbing his face in the score paper, still moving a leg. [NY Times]

The ensemble has two more upcoming shows scheduled. One is September 11th at (Le) Poisson Rouge (tonight) with noise-punks The Paranoid Critical Revolution (which features one of the Ensemble's guitarists Reg Bloor and its drummer, Libby Fab) and excerpts from Ericka Beckman's "135 GRAND ST. 1979," a film that features performances by Theoretical Girls and The Static. Tickets are on sale.

On Saturday, September 12th (at 7pm) you can catch Glenn in conversation with Dan Graham as part of the Whitney Museum's Dan Graham Retrospective. That takes place at X Initiative (548 West 22nd Street).

Glenn Branca Ensemble also list an upcoming October 17th show at Issue Project Room. The show's program and band's lineup are below...

Continue reading "Glenn Branca played PS1, playing LPR, Issue Project Room"

P.S.1 has announced the lineup for its annual series of Saturday afternoon dance parties in Long Island City. Last year's program featured live music and DJ sets by James Murphy, James Chance & the Contortions and Tony Conrad to name a few.

This year, we get the Arthur Russell ensemble Arthur's Landing, Talibam! and The Phenomenal Handclap Band (on the same bill), Xeno & Oaklander, Growing, Glenn Branca and more. Full schedule, and more info, below...

Continue reading "PS1 'Warm Up' 2009 - Long Island City music series lineup"

Vivian Girls @ Bowery Ballroom in December (more by Zach Stern)

As we pointed out back in April, and further confirmed in a list of Abe Vigoda tour dates, The Whitney is hosting some indie rock shows this July, in conjunction with their Dan Graham Retrospective. And the full schedule looks something like this:

Fri, June 26 - Acoustic Evening with The Feelies
Fri, July 10 - Titus Andronicus / Real Estate
Fri, July 17 - Abe Vigoda / Grooms (Muggabears)
Fri, July 24 - (band TBA) / YellowFever
Fri, July 31 - Vivian Girls / These Are Powers

The Feelies show is "Free with Museum admission (free for Whitney members)." and "Tickets for this [Feelies] concert are available day of show only, beginning at 1 pm at the Museum. Space is limited; tickets are first-come, first-served." The other four shows basically say the same thing, but just, "Free with museum admission. Seating is first-come, first-served. No reservations." More details below.

Other programs include "Dan Graham in Conversation with Glenn Branca" and a family performance of Rock and Roll Ice Cream by Japanther. Full schedule below...

Continue reading "indie rock shows @ The Whitney in July (Vivian Girls, Titus Andronicus, These are Powers, Yellow Fever & more) "

by Andrew Frisicano

Dan Graham (blue stripes), Thurston & Kim? @ the MOCA (ricardodiaz11)

Dan Graham has been a central figure in contemporary art since the 1960s. [Dan Graham: Beyond], his first American retrospective, traces the evolution of his art from his early conceptual projects and performances, to his films and videos, architectural projects and pavilions, and sculptures as well as his collaborations with musicians and rock bands such as Sonic Youth and Japanther.

Graham (b. 1942) has been a central participant in the development of contemporary art since the 1960s --- from the rise of minimalism, conceptual art, video art, and performance art, to explorations of architecture and the public sphere, to collaborations with musicians and the culture of rock and roll. [press release]

Graham has a strong connection to the rock and avant music world. As the press release below documents, Graham has written about bands like the Kinks, the Fall (who recently signed to Domino Records), and the Sex Pistols. And his hour-long "video-essay" Rock My Religion (1982-84) uses "footage of Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, and Black Flag, mingled with historical images of a rapt Ann Lee, the founder of the Shaker religion to trace a continuum between the Shakers, the early-American religious sect that sought spiritual transcendence through collective dance and song, and rock music."

Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore performed as Mirror/Dash at Beyond's debut opening at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art in February. The pair also joined Graham for a panel discussion as part of that event (video below).

During Beyond's run in New York, the Whitney will host a series of free Friday concerts. The shows, held in the museum's Lower Gallery, are scheduled for July 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31th at 7pm. No word on who specifically, but the museum writes, "These events feature young bands that have inherited the New York rock scene from bands that Dan Graham has written about and/or worked with, such as The Feelies, Television, and Sonic Youth. As always, admission to the Whitney on Friday evenings is pay-what-you-wish from 6 to 9pm."

Last year, the Whitney's free shows included Dan Deacon on February 8th, May and April Biennial-related-shows by Gang Gang Dance and Lucky Dragons, and four free Wordless Music showsin June (with Prefuse 73, Times New Viking and others).

Other plans for the Graham exhibit include:

A music event to kick off the series; the U.S. premiere of "Put Blood in the Music" (1989), an experimental documentary on the late-nineties New York downtown music scene, introduced by filmmaker Charles Atlas; a conversation between Dan Graham and Glenn Branca, followed by a screening of Graham's "Westkunst (Modern Period): Dan Graham Segment" (1980); and a roundtable discussion exploring key themes in the work, such as sound, perception, and performance.

The Feelies will play an acoustic set at the Whitney on Friday, June 26th (presumably the 'music event to kick off the series').

We recently talked about The Feelies' continued reunion - including their big show last July 4th (when they played with Sonic Youth). Other upcoming dates for the Feelies include July 3rd & 4th at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ (tickets on sale) and September 11th at ATP NY, where the band will perform its debut Crazy Rhythms in full (tickets on sale).

The above-mentioned videos of Dan Graham talking with Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, Mirror/Dash live, and an interview with Graham, all from his L.A. MoCA exhibit earlier this year, plus full Whitney press release, below...

Continue reading "Dan Graham exhibit @ The Whitney, The Feelies performing"