The second-annual Spy Music Festival happens June 29th through July 15th, featuring "46 sets of music at 7 venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn." That's a big expansion from last year when it took place on two nights at Shea Stadium and Zebulon. This year's fest, run by the folks at Northern Spy Records, will happen at Union Pool, the Issue Project Room, The Stone, Vaudeville Park, 285 Kent, Death by Audio and Roulette. Amongst the artists performing are Rhys Chatham, Matthew Shipp, Dustin Wong, Arthur Doyle, Eugene Chadbourne, PG Six, Guardian Alien and Magik Markers.

The full Spy Music Festival schedule -- bands, venues, prices -- is below. There's no all-inclusive festival pass, but tickets to all the shows are available here. And the fest organizers have also made a sampler featuring the artists performing this year and you can stream that below as well.

Continue reading "Magik Markers, Dustin Wong, Eugene Chadbourne, Matthew Shipp and more playing NYC's Spy Music Festival"

"For three intimate evenings, Philip Glass comes to ISSUE Project Room, New York's City's only European Chamber Music Hall. His only performance in Brooklyn this year, "Philip Glass: Music With Friends" is a rare occasion featuring Glass in duo performances with Laurie Anderson [6/15] and Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields [6/13], as well former ISSUE Artists-in Residence Tristan Perich [6/14], Ryan Sawyer [6/15], and Nate Wooley [6/13]. The full artist roster will be announced soon, under 200 seats will be sold for each performance."

Meanwhile, the William Hooker Ensemble + Thollem McDonas & Arrington de Dionyso will be "Celebrating Cecil" at the venue tonight (5/16)

They say:

Legendary pianist and poet Cecil Taylor is one of the greatest improvisers in the history of modern jazz. Since the first performances of his quartet at the Five Spot Café in 1956, he has unflinchingly and tirelessly worked to define a sound that is still light years ahead of its time. His playing has been called fierce, constructivist, percussive, and atonal. We call it a thing of beauty, an expression of pure genius.

ISSUE Project Room and Harlem Stage, in partnership with Anthology Film Archives and the Jazz Studies Department of Columbia University, are proud to present a month-long celebration of the great maestro Cecil Taylor, featuring a range of performances, readings, conversations and screenings as well as two extremely rare performances by Cecil Taylor himself at Harlem Stage and ISSUE Project Room.

Liturgy at Webster Hall in February (more by Amanda Hatfield)

If you've noticed a handful of interesting shows at The Stone happening next week, like the acoustic Vaura show (4/20) or the Amen Dunes and Guardian Alien show (4/17), they're part of Chippy Fest, which goes down at John Zorn's non-profit venue from April 17-22, and was curated by John Zorn's exclusive designer Heung-Heung Chin (aka Chippy)

On April 21, the night after Vaura plays, Toby Driver (who is a member of Vaura and also fronts Kayo Dot/maudlin of the Well) will present the world premiere of his new trio, Ichneumonidae, which includes violinist Timba Harris (of Secret Cheifs 3) and Michelle Morinaga. That same night, Toby also plays as a member of Stern with Chuck Stern, Keith Abrams, and Tim Byrnes.

As mentioned, Kayo Dot, Vaura, and Dysrhythmia share a bill at DBA on 4/28.

Other 'Chippy Fest' shows include Mick Barr (of Krallice), Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (of Liturgy), and Nymph on Wednesday (4/18) and Miho Hatori (with Ahmed Gallab of Yeasayer), Timo Ellis, and Unstoppable Death Machines on Thursday (4/19). The Stone's full calendar is here.

Speaking of Mick Barr, his music and William Brittelle's music will be performed by ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble on May 11 at 12 at The Kitchen. ACME players for this concert are Caleb Burhans (violin, banjo, and voice), Clarice Jensen (cello), Eric Lamb (flute), Megan Levin (harp), Caroline Shaw (violin), Nadia Sirota (viola) and Chris Thompson (percussion). Tickets are on sale now.

Speaking of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, he kicks off a residency at Issue Project Room on Saturday (4/14) with Liturgy bandmate Bernhard Gann. The show is free but "sold out". Other dates in the "3-month residency" have not been announced yet but presumably will be soon.

Meanwhile, Hunter's ex-bandmate Greg Fox's Guardian Alien project (who also plays The Stone next week) plays Death by Audio TONIGHT (4/13) with Black Pus (of Lightning Bolt), Mounds, Buck Gooter, and Alien Whale. Guardian Alein will return to DBA on 5/11 with DJ Dog Dick and 2 Ton Bug.

Thurston Moore & Samara Lubelski in Austin (more by Tim Griffin)

As you may have seen on BV Austin (and above), Thurston Moore brought his current tour to Austin last week and played sold out show at St. David's Church, not long after his NYC show at the Allen Room as part of the American Songbook Series (that Tune-Yards and Bill Callahan also played)...

"Why can't we play facing this way?" Thurston Moore asked during his February 2nd acoustic, solo concert at New York's Allen Room, turning from the audience and gazing through the floor-to-ceiling glass behind his band. In fact, he did. Halfway through "Ono Soul," from his 1995 album Psychic Hearts, the Sonic Youth guitarist swung around toward the winter's-night view across Central Park, holding his instrument over his head, then aiming it at his small amp like a divining rod, drawing out a broad drone of distortion." [Rolling Stone]

Thurston's band included Samara Lubelski on violin, and that's who will be playing with him next Thursday (2/23) at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn as part of a poetry event called "Littoral: Flowers & Cream" and along with sets (or poetry?) by Anselm Berrigan, John Coletti, and Ben Estes & Elaine Kahn. Admission is FREE, but you need a ticket.

Speaking of Issue Project Room, Ensemble Pamplemousse plays there tonight (2/17).

Speaking of St. David's Church in Austin, Islands plays there tonight.

Speaking of churches in Austin, Pitchfork announced their SXSW showcase.

Continue reading "Thurston Moore & Samara Lubelski playing free Brooklyn show (RSVP), played the Allen Room & Austin (pics & video)"

Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Dutch composer Jozef Van Wissem teamed up for an album titled Concerning The Entrance Into Eternity (due out 2/28 via Important Records) and performed in support of it at Issue Project Room earlier this month (2/3). The performance, like the album, features Jarmusch on guitar and Van Vissem on lute. A video from it is below.

The two will team up again for another NYC show which happens at Le Poisson Rouge on March 5. That show is with Matteah Baim and a Drag City-signed special guest. Tickets are on sale now.

In other Jim Jarmusch news, he's featured on the new 15-minute Fucked Up single, along with Austra and Annie-Claude Deschênes, which you can listen to HERE.

Video below...

Continue reading "Jim Jarmusch & Jozef Van Wissem played Issue Project Room, playing LPR w/ a "special guest""

by Andrew Frisicano

Philip Glass isn't the only 20th-century composer with a big birthday this year. Avant-garde composer John Cage would've been 100, and there are numerous chances to see his work (even more than usual) because of it. The shows below cover quite a bit of ground--eg. 1940's "Living Room Music" on the same program as 1991's "Four3"--and the best place to experience the pieces is definitely in a group.

Avant Music Festival, happening February 10-18 at Wild Project (195 E 3rd St at Ave B), explores the work of Cage at several shows. There's an afternoon/evening program on Saturday, February 11th, which includes a 4pm performance by Bang on a Can's Vicky Chow of Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes" for prepared piano, followed by a longer evening set. Tickets are on sale.

New music quartet loadbang performs as part of that Avant Music show, and will also presents an Evening of John Cage on Thursday, March 8th at Greenwich House Music School.

Issue Project Room, which just moved into a new home, has some Cage-related shows coming up, such as Stephen Drury playing his "Etudes australes" on February 24 and "On Silence: Hommage to John Cage" which features 13 new pieces that are all 4 minutes, 33 seconds long.

So Percussion hosts "We Are All Going In Different Directions--A John Cage Celebration" at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on March 26th. They'll be performing Cage's music, as well as that of Matmos and Cenk Ergün (who should be appearing) and Dan Deacon's "Bottles." Tickets are on sale.

It's the last stop in a Cage-dedicated tour, which also visits Boston, Toronto and Austin (info below). On March 27th, recordings from the tour will be released by Cantaloupe Records as Cage 100: The Bootleg Series, a limited-edition package with a blank 4'33" LP, a CD of "tracks chosen by chance operations" and a full archive of the shows online.

That show is part of Carnegie Hall's American Mavericks series, which also includes performances by Alarm Will Sound, William Basinski, JACK Quartet, San Francisco Symphony, WHY? and Danielson.

Also part of that is John Cage Unbound--A Living Archive, an online project through New York Public Library, which is going to collect performances and talks of Cage's work by musicians and students (and user-submitted videos). It's also going to have an archive of scores, photographs and other artifacts. Two videos from that--one of pianist Margaret Leng Tan showing you how to prepare a piano, and one with So Percussion crumpling paper (they love to do that)--are below.

Check out more videos, including 4' 33" performed by an orchestra, Andrew W.K. and a wall, below...

Continue reading "John Cage turns 100; lots of shows & other ways to celebrate"

"Any Jim Jarmusch buff could tell you that the man has great taste in music. Take the original scores for Stranger than Paradise and Dead Man, by John Lurie and Neil Young, respectively--stand-alone masterpieces that mesh beautifully with the director's stark black-and-white palette--or the killer lineup (Stooges, Sleep, Raekwon) he put together for the 2010 ATP New York fest. Curating isn't the same as performing, though, and even a disciple hip to Jarmusch's stint as keyboardist for early-'80s NYC art punks the Del-Byzanteens might second-guess his current instrumental abilities.

So what a happy surprise it is that Concerning the Entrance Into Eternity (Important), a new record that pairs Jarmusch's guitar with Jozef Van Wissem's lute, is one of the young year's most engaging listens: an album that dispels within seconds any sense of a filmmaker turned dilettante musician. -[Time Out NY]

Check out a song from the record as well as a live set of the pair at WNYC below.

Continue reading "Jim Jarmusch releasing album with Jozef Van Wissem, played WNYC, playing 2 shows at Issue Project Room"

by Andrew Frisicano

photo by Joseph O. Holmes

Issue Project Room will be moving into its new home at 110 Livingston Street on January 25th. To launch it, there will be a series of four shows with Dutch festival Gaudeamus Muziekweek. Those nights will include, among other things, a performance of Gyorgy Ligeti's "Poème Symphonique" for 100 metronomes and sets by the Wet Ink Ensemble and International Contemporary Ensemble.

Before that though, the folks at Issue will be closing out the Old American Can Factory room with a concert tonight (Friday, January 20th). That'll feature Jonathan Kane's February, Talibam! and MV Carbon & Tony Conrad. Jonathan Kane's February will also use the occasion to release a live album recorded at the space. Listen to a sample from that at the Free Music Archive. Tickets are on sale.

The New York Times reports that there is some work to be done by the group, which is $1.3 million short of its total construction budget. Still, moving in is a huge step. It's been four years since they first announced the new venue, and it'll be interesting to see how the space evolves.

Upcoming shows in the new theater include: Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch playing a release show for their collaborative album Concerning the Entrance into Eternity (tickets), Title TK (the trio of Howie Chen, Cory Arcangel and Alan Licht) on February 11th (tickets) and a reading with Thurston Moore and his poetry publishing company Flowers & Cream on February 23rd (tickets).

Listen to a clip of Van Wissem/Jarmusch playing from the new album on WNYC's New Sounds live, below. There are also videos from two performances that already happened at the the gorgeous 110 Livingston Space...

Continue reading "tonight is Issue Project Room's final show @ Old American Can Factory (110 Livingston here they come)"

photos by Amanda Hatfield

Now Age Karaoke

On 11/11/11, for their third and final installment of their artist residency, Prince Rama will herald in the end of the world by way of karaoke. Using the number one hit singles corresponding with the dates of eleven different predicted "apocalypses" such as Heavens Gate, Jonestown, and Y2K, they will "chop and screw" the songs to a point beyond recognition and invite anyone who wishes to participate to perform the resulting pieces. -[Issue Project Room]

Prince Rama kicked off a tour with Indian Jewelry one day later (on 11/12) at Cameo in Brooklyn. Prince Rama play Brooklyn again at Glasslands on February 23rd, though knowing them they'll play before then too. Before then they'll also visit Australia and many other places.

All tour dates, more pictures from possibly the world's first apolayptic karaoke party, and the band's new video for "Golden Silence", below...

Continue reading "Prince Rama hosted Now Age Karaoke on 11/11/11 @ Issue Project Room, schedule more shows (pics & dates)"

When William Basinski opened his nightclub Arcadia in 1992, Williamsburg had more than a decade of history as an outerborough artists' colony. Arcadia and a handful of other entities such as The Lizard's Tail, Lalalandia, Test-Site gallery, Nerve Circle Studios, Mustard and Galapagos transformed the artists' colony into a full blown urban subculture. No neighborhood in Brooklyn compares to Williamsburg for the shrillness of her declaration of artistic autonomy in the closing years of the last century. This neighborhood is the heart of the Brooklyn Renaissance. And at the heart of Williamsburg, in the pivotal years, was Arcadia. Join us on November 2nd, as we pay tribute to William Basinski and create the distinctive environment and spirited performances of Arcadia at 110 Livingston Street, our future home.
- Issue Project Room

Antony also just anounced a much bigger show happening this January.

Book fans take note of the Brooklyn Book Fest schedule, with "bookend" events starting today (9/15) and running through Sunday (9/18). One of the many events is a musical evening at Goodbye Blue Monday tonight....

Bovary? A tango for Anna Karenina? Every title, author and genre is fodder for songs written and performed by local musicians including Corn Mo, Phoebe Kreutz, Franz Nicolay, Sweet Soubrette, Dan and Rachel and Natti Vogel, inspired by Keith Richards' autobiography. Hosted by Susan Hwang.

DOWNLOAD: Prince Rama - "Rest In Peace" (MP3)

Prince Rama at MHOW in August (more by Erez Avissar)

Prince Rama are set to release their upcoming LP Trust Now on October 4 via Paw Tracks. You can grab the album track "Rest In Peace" above. Prince Rama are also putting out karaoke videos leading up to the album's release with other artists singing tracks off the new album. You can check out videos of G Lucas Crane of Woods singing "Incarnation" and Janka Nabay singing "Summer of Love" below.

They'll tour in support of the album opening for the equally otherworldly Gang Gang Dance on their GGD's previously announced tour. It hasn't been revealed if Prince Rama open GGD's October 22 Bowery Ballroom show during CMJ (which tickets are still on sale for), but Prince Rama's dates do list a CMJ show that day.

As mentioned, Prince Rama also have a residency at Issue Project Room scheduled. That residency includes a show on Thursday (9/8) at the Brooklyn venue. Admission is free and RSVP is open. According to Issue Project Room's site:

2011 Artist-in-Residence Prince Rama will transform ISSUE Project Room into a point of origins. They will construct a "sacred space" using gathered matter from off-site urban wilds of Brooklyn. Audience members will be invited to build their own instruments and utilize them in an extended jam session open to anyone who wishes to attend (regardless of musical skill). This aims to investigate the utopian symbology of "the jam session" as a poetic reenactment and microcosmic creation of an ideal democratic society. Cut off from the rest of the world, yet wholly imbedded within it, this ritual space becomes a NO PLACE.

All dates and videos below...

Continue reading "Prince Rama release 'karaoke videos', touring w/ GGD, playing other shows too (dates)"

Panda Bear at MHOW in July (more by Amanda Hatfield)

As mentioned, Panda Bear plays Brooklyn Masonic Temple on October 2. We also mentioned that the show would reportedly be taking place one day after another NYC show that would probably be at Webster Hall. It's since been confirmed that the other show will take place on October 1 at Webster Hall. Tickets go on sale Friday (8/26) at noon for the Webster show and the Masonic Temple show. An AmEx presale for the Webster Hall show starts Wednesday (8/24) at noon.

In other Paw Tracks news, Prince Rama's collaborative show with Sun Araw happens at Music Hall of Williamsburg this Friday (8/26), and Prince Rama have a bunch of other shows coming up too including September 8th at Issue Project Room.

All tour dates are listed below...

Continue reading "Panda Bear's Webster Hall show confirmed, Prince Rama shows too (dates)"

An image from Robert Longo's Pictures for Music (1979), which will be played alongside Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio...

Since 1993 the record label Table of the Elements has staked its claim on a massive enterprise, intending nothing less than to rewrite the history of American music in the second half of the 20th century, and beyond. Its projects have focused on musicians whose light shimmers outside the frames of convention, and comprise a vital contemporary archive of experimental, minimalist, improvised and outsider musics.

Friday night (5/13), " Free/Not Free" night, will honor Rhys Chatham's 1977 opus Guitar Trio with projections by Robert Longo and a performance from The Lords of Tinnitus (Robert Longo, Jonathan Kane, Robert Poss, Ernie Brooks, Zach Layton, Adam Wills, Colin Langenus, Bill Brovold). Text Of Light (featuring William Hooker, Alan Licht, Nels Cline), Jon Mueller, and Peg Simone round out the lineup. Tickets are still available.

Finally, the Table of The Elements wraps up their celebration on Saturday, "Drone x 4" night, with the previously discussed Stephen O'Malley solo show with Jonathan Kane's February, a Tony Conrad / Gastr Del Sol performance film, and Igor Cubrilovic. Tickets are still available.

R.I.P. to Table Of The Elements, but at least they're going out with a bang.

--

In related news, Zeena Parkins is also on board for the upcoming Undead Jazz Festival as part of Zeena Parkins and The Adorables.

Roger Miller also has a show coming up as part of the Alloy Orchestra who will "perform its original live score to the newly restored version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis" in Prospect Park this summer.

Stephen O'Malley also has a show coming up in Pennsylvania.

The Table of the Elements fest lineup in list format, below...

Continue reading "the final Table of the Elements Festival is this week @ IPR, Alloy Orchestra plays Prospect Park this summer"

by BBG

Stephen O'Malley on stage with Sunn O))) and Boris (more by Greg Cristman)

"Sunn O))) is on a break. We've been so for about a year now. We did a lot from 2007 to last year. Five tours supporting the album, a hundred shows in a single year I think, which is a lot. We don't really want to become a touring band. Greg said something really funny about it once: 'We're not gonna turn into High on Fire!'. Sunn O))) focuses on irregularity, so when you're taking the irregularity from it, you're kind of sabotaging it. But we're curating a line-up in April at Roadburn festival in Holland, though. We've got Winter playing, Keiji Haino, Corrosion of Conformity, Trap Them, and a bunch of death metal bands. It's going to be amazing, actually, a real mix of old and new acts. We'll be playing too, of course." - Stephen O'Malley:

The NYC show is the third night of "the final" Table of The Elements Festival where Stephen will share a bill with Jonathan Kane's February, Helen Money, and Igor Cubrilovic. Stephen describes his solo set as "Primitive, minimal & loud guitar." Mission of Burma's Roger Miller also told us earlier this year that his M2 project would be playing the same fest. Stay tuned for more details (the venue is currently not listing it yet).

Stephen O'Malley recently dropped an LP as part of Aethenor, his project with Daniel O'Sullivan (Ulver, Mothlite, Guapo), Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and Steve Noble (N.E.W., Company, etc.). Stream portions of En Form For Bla on the Midheaven distro site.

All tour dates and some videos below...

Continue reading "Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) schedules shows including the "final" Table of the Elements Fest"

If you've got some extra cash lying around, want to give to a good cause, want to help Elliot Sharp celebrate his 60th birthday in a very special way, and don't already have a ticket, note: limited VIP tickets will be available at the door of tonight's E#@60 event at Issue Project Room's 110 Livingston space. If you can't make it to the BrooklynVegan-sponsored shindig but you're free Saturday, grab a ticket now for the second part of the celebration which goes down at the (OA) Can Factory.

"Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock, and techno music. He pioneered the use of a lap top computer in live performance with his Virtual Stance project of the 1980s. He has used algorithms and fibonacci numbers in experimental composition since at least 1987. He has cited literature as an inspiration for his music and often favors improvisation. He is an inveterate performer, playing mainly guitar, saxophone and bass clarinet. Sharp has led many ensembles over the years, including the blues-oriented Terraplane and Orchestra Carbon." [Wikipedia]

E#@60" is taking place at Issue Project Room's new location (110 Livingston), and the show is a benefit for IPR, a nonprofit and an important pillar of experimental/innovative music in our community. All proceeds will go towards "ISSUE's year-round critically acclaimed programs supporting hundreds of artists in the creation and presentation of groundbreaking new work." Tickets are on sale in various levels, including tax-deductible access to a VIP coctail reception with Jo Andres, Steve Buscemi, Jack Womack, and Tracie Morris.

BrooklynVegan is a proud sponsor of this event.

More details on the show and a stream of Eliott Sharp's Syndakit is below.

Continue reading "Elliott Sharp turning 60, celebrating at Issue Project Room (with Steve Buscemi, JACK Quartet, Jo Andres & more)"

DOWNLOAD: The Skull Defekts - "Fragrant Nimbus" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Thank You "1-2-3 Bad" (MP3)

Daniel Higgs

Glasslands will host a headlining set from Zanzo (aka Hisham Baroocha of Soft Circle with Rob Lowe of Lichens) and additional performances from Thank You and Daniel A.I.U. Higgs TONIGHT (1/25). Entry will cost you a paltry $7, and the show starts at 8:30.

The show will double as a record release party for Thank You, as their new LP Golden Worry is out today via Thrill Jockey. Download "1-2-3 Bad" above and check out a video for "Birth Reunion" below. In early Feb, Thank You will hit the road in support of the LP, tagging Death By Audio on February 12th as part of that jaunt. Double Dagger is also part of the show, and will play NYU with Fucked Up the day before. Full Thank You tour sked is below.

Tonight at Glasslands is one of two NYC shows scheduled for Lungfish member Daniel A.I.U. Higgs in the near future He'll also play Issue Project Room on 2/26 with Heresy of the Free Spirit ("Jozef Van Wissem and Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalists Che Chen (violin, bowed rewap, bass recorder, percussion and tape machine) and Robbie Lee"). Tickets are on sale.

In addition to both of the previously mentioned shows, Daniel Higgs has announced that he has joined on as a member of Skull Defekts. Higgs will appear on the band's forthcoming LP Peer Amid due via Thrill Jockey on 2/15. Check out the first track "Fragrant Nimbus" available for download above/streaming below. The band will follow up the release of the LP with US dates in late March and April with Zomes, including April 3rd at Littlefield in Brooklyn.

That Skull Defekts song stream, the Thank You video, and all tour dates are below.

Continue reading "Daniel Higgs playing solo shows & in the Skull Defekts, Thank You touring w/ a new LP, Soft Circle+Lichens = Zanzo"

DOWNLOAD: Oval - "Ah!" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Oval - Ringtone II EP (zip file of MP3s)

Oval is an electronic music group founded in Germany in 1991... The band's original members were Markus Popp, Sebastian Oschatz, and Frank Metzger, although Oschatz and Metzger left the group in 1995. All three are regarded as pioneers of glitch, a genre of music that embraces the sound of damaged audio produced by the failure of digital equipment. Disdaining the use of synthesizers, Oval instead deliberately mutilated CDs by writing on them with felt pens, then processed the palette of fragmented sounds to create a very rhythmic electronic style. -[Wiki]

Oval will support the release(s) with three US shows, two of which will go down TONIGHT at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn (9/9). Tickets are still available for both the first (at 8PM) and the second set (at 10PM). The third Oval show will be a headlining date at the Sonar Festival in Chicago along with The Slew featuring Kid Koala, Martyn, Ben Frost, Nosaj Thing Visual Show, Black Devil Disco Club and many others. For more info, including ticketing, head to the Sonar site.

Oval recently released a video for "Ah!" from O which is viewable below (the song is downloadable above). In addition, Oval has released the FREE Ringtone II EP for download as well. Check out that above and dig on the tracklisting below.

Continue reading "Oval is here w/ a new double LP & A FREE EP (MP3s) --- 2 NYC shows (tonight) & then Sonar in Chicago (dates)"

photos by Greg Cristman

Master Musicians of Bukkake @ Issue Project Room

Much like its inspiration, the Pan-devoted, beatnik-adored Master Musicians of Joujouka, the floating infinity conjured by the Master Musicians of Bukkake draws on a tradition that echoes across millennia. Around in various formations since 2003, the Seattle entity has coalesced into a seven-piece in time for its first East Coast performance, headlining a marathon tribute to avant-everything label Important Records in the Issue Project Room courtyard. MMoB's collaborative web includes psych-trance-ritual ecstatics from Earth, Sun City Girls and the free-improv world, which makes each new project a mutable feast of electronic drones, Buddhist temple bells, gamelan breakdowns, fuzz-box meditations, and innovations like "Rag-Dun Tibetan trumpet" and "leprosy synth." -[Time Out]

More pics from the show are below...

Continue reading "Important Records showcased @ Issue Project Room - pics (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Chord, Cave & more) "

by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Master Musicians of Bukkake - "Perde Kaldirma" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Master Musicians of Bukkake - "Patmos" (MP3)

Ocean at Show No Mercy (more by Justina Villanueva)

Important Records will round up a gang of bands from their roster to perform at Issue Project Room on August 15th as part of a collaborative effort between the label and venue. Master Musicians of Bukkake will headline the event, bringing along Jozef Van Wissem, Duane Pitre, Helena Espvall + Fursaxa, Arborea, Kouhei Matsunaga, Ocean, The New Monuments (C. Spencer Yeh, Ben Hall and Don Deitrich), CAVE and Diane Cluck. Tickets are on sale.

Master Musicians of Bukkake musically have very little to do with that depraved sexual act, but much more to do with the Pacific Northwest's penchant for experimentalism:

Featuring members of EARTH, ASVA, BURNING WITCH, THE DIMINISHED MEN, and special guests from Secret Chiefs 3 and the thriving Istanbul music scene... MMOB has now solidified into a 7 piece cosmic psyche force. Like a reverse dark side of the New Age sound, ...Master Musicians of Bukkake perform ritualistic electric excursions into the outer and inner reaches. Relying more on the electric power of psyched guitars, analog synth chants, and exotic heavy percussion. ...Outer spaced gamelan, dusty fuzz rock from celestial deserts, meditations of a deranged Krishna gathering, and the Blurry acoustic guitar majesty of The Cascade mountains all reveal themselves....

Meanwhile, a few of the bands playing the Important Records celebration have new releases to celebrate. Duane Pitre is celebrating the release of his new LP of guitar and string minimalism, out now via Origin via Thrill Jockey Records (stream excerpts). Fursaxa has a new-ish LP of freak folk in Mycorrhizae Realm featuring Helena Espvall on cello.

CAVE has another date on the eve of the Important Records show; look for the California psychedelics to take the stage at Cake Shop on August 14th (not The Studio at Webster Hall as originally announced). CAVE's Pure Moods 12" is out now via Drag City.

Full Cave, Arborea, and Diane Cluck dates, as well as some video are below.

Continue reading "Important Records bands playing Issue Project Room & other dates - Master Musicians of Bukkake, Ocean, CAVE & more"

DOWNLOAD: William Basinski - Vivian & Ondine (excerpt) (MP3)

photos by Lori Baily, words by Andrew Frisicano

William Basinski @ 110 Livingston

Issue Project Room hosted reel-to-reel tape composer William Basinski at their new, currently being remodeled theater at 110 Livingston on June 11th. Basinski played two hypnotic sets in the former Elks Lodge, in what was only the second time they'd previewed the space.

The piece he played, Vivian & Ondine, was written, he explained, to coax his baby neice out of the womb. It's excerpted above and available on CD from Basinski's site. Joshua Light Show worked the visuals and bounced patterns around the ornate arches and ceiling. Clearly, the theater is an awesome space to hear vision-inducing loops, and will be a fun permanent home for Issue once they complete its renovation (which they're still in need of funds to finish) and move in permanently. More pictures from the night are below.

Issue has been putting on shows this summer in the courtyard of the Old American Can Factory (like Omar Souleyman for instance). The next of those is Bobb Trimble's Flying Spiders (in just his second NYC peformance), guitarist-led Loren Connors' Haunted House, Gary War and Samara Lubelski on July 11th. Tickets are still on sale.

They did an outdoor show in honor of Walt Whitman under the Brooklyn Bridge the other day, and on July 10th they'll go under the Queensboro Bridge for the first-annual Albert Ayler Festival, co-presented by jazz label ESP Live on Roosevelt Island's RiverWalk Commons. The show (and record fair) starts at 2pm and features The New Atlantis Sextet with Marshall Allen, William Hooker, Charles Gayle, Gunter Hampel, Giuseppi Logan and more. It's free, and the full schedule and poster is below...

Continue reading "Albert Ayler Festival coming to Roosevelt Island, William Basinski pics & other Issue Project Room news"

by Andrew Frisicano

Omar Souleyman @ Central Park Summerstage

"He is a legend in north Africa. Omar Souleyman in about 15 years has recorded around 500 studio and live albums and apparently has a godlike status in Syria, his country. Originally his music orbits around Syrian folk-pop, it is sung in Arabic and his audience is mainly in North-African countries.

Recently Omar Souleyman has became the hype of the indie blogosphere. He has been picked up by Pavement for their "exotic" slot on the second day at their All Tomorrow Parties festival. The hype mounted so fast that the third stage at Minehead centre was packed [with] thousands of guys wearing Pavement/Pixies/Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr T-shirts dancing to the disco music of Souleyman. Among these fans [was] the Dodos drummer who played [his own set the next day] wearing the official Souleyman T-Shirt." [Live on 35mm]

The next night in New York, Tinariwen performed with Sway Machinery at the Bell House, and Omar Souleyman played in the Old American Can Factory Courtyard with CSC Funk Band.

More pictures from Central Park, and some videos from all the NYC shows, below...

Continue reading "Omar Souleyman & Tinariwen played shows in Manhattan (Summerstage) & Brooklyn - pics & video "

Dear friends,

We are excited to announce an update regarding William Basinski's concert tonight (Friday, June 11) @ 110 Livingston with light by Seth Kirby and Brock Monroe, members of The Joshua Light Show and Light & Sound Design (LSD).

We have received an overwhelming number of reservations, and to insure that all can participate, we have added a second show at 9pm (doors open at 8:30pm) and moved the first to 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm).

We anticipate reaching capacity for both shows. Please take a moment to Re-RSVP for either the 7pm or 9pm concert. There will be a short post-concert reception after the 9pm performance.

Best & looking forward!

ISSUE Project Room