by BBG

DOWNLOAD: Bloody Panda - "Gold" Matmos Remix (MP3)

Bloody Panda 2011

The idea of a remix album for a metal band is an odd one, but Bloody Panda is anything but conventional. So when the topic was broached about remixing their 2009 LP Summon, the NYC Doom band put out the call to a litany of great contributors including Matmos, Sanford Parker, Mick Barr, and Jarboe as well as members of Portal, The Legendary Pink Dots, Burning Witch and a host of others. The result is the self-released Summon: Invocation, a remix LP due via the band on November 15th. Between now and then Bloody Panda will release individual tracks until that release date, including the Matmos remix of "Gold" which makes its first appearance here today. Grab it above.

We asked Bloody Panda about why they would create a remix album, and cornered Matmos to inquire about their contribution. The results of both interviews are below, alongside a stream of the song...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Bloody Panda (on their remix album) & Matmos (who remixed the MP3 debuting in this post)"

by BBG

Matmos with Kronos Quartet last year

The Chiara String Quartet and NOW Ensemble come together Friday, May 6 at (Le) Poisson Rouge for a joint album release concert, celebrating two fresh albums from New Amsterdam Records with some of the foremost performers and composers of this emerging self-reliant generation: NOW Ensemble's sophomore statement, Awake (with compositions by ensemble members Judd Greenstein, Mark Dancigers, Patrick Burke, and commissioned work by Missy Mazzoli, Sean Friar, and David Crowell), and Jefferson Friedman: Quartets, performed by the Chiara String Quartet and special guest, electronic duo, Matmos.

Both Awake and Jefferson Friedman: Quartets are out now via New Amsterdam (congrats to both groups). As stated above, Matmos will join in to assist in the performance of the latter at the show, which will also house a screening of the new animated film Plan Of The City "about the architecture of New York City blasting off into outer space and resettling on Mars". Whoa, far out bro. Check out a teaser for that film below, and get you tickets for the May 6th show at LPR while they are still available.

Matmos is also scheduled to head out to the Manchester International Festival in July to join Marina Abramovic, Antony Hagerty, Willem Defoe (yes, Green Goblin from Spider Man) and more as part of the stage production of The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic:

Manchester International Festival and Teatro Real Madrid present the world premiere of a startling new piece for the stage: The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, a biography of the godmother of performance art, re-imagined by visionary director Robert Wilson.

The show features scenes from Abramovic's life and career, from her Serbian childhood to her work as a performance artist. Featuring original and traditional music, including songs written and performed by the incomparable Antony (Antony & The Johnsons), this ground-breaking show brings together the worlds of theatre, art and music to thrilling effect.

No word on if the pieces compsed for the production will ever see the light of day outside of the UK.

In semi-related news, the ever-collaborative Matmos has worked with members of The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) in the past and the collective will play 92YTribeca TONIGHT. PLOrk will bring an "evening of wildly innovative electronic music, live 3D video and hacked video game hardware." Tickets are still available.

Matmos is hitting the road in Europe in May much to the semi-disappointment of Matmos member Drew Daniel:

"Drew is very sad that he will be missing Maryland DeathFest this year, but touring Europe with Jay Lesser and John Wiese will make up for missing Corrosion of Conformity's reformation of the Animosity lineup." - Matmos

Turn that frown upside down Drew, you can still catch the Animosity lineup on tour (they play Brooklyn Bowl on 7/20, tickets go on sale at noon today).

Tour dates for that Matmos trek, the Plan of The City Teaser video and more, below...

Continue reading "PLOrk is here, Chiara String Quartet & NOW released LPs, Matmos playing with them, won't be at Maryland Deathfest"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by David Andrako

I was prepared to be disappointed by the Dan Deacon/So Percussion collaboration on Thursday night. I've seen Dan Deacon several times over the past few years and it has always seemed like more or less the same show ("Hey, it's that people-bridge thing."). With So Percussion, the last I saw of them was an evening-length piece at BAM titled Imaginary City. There the music was competently performed, but presentation was underwhelming; the ensemble got swallowed in their junkyard of instruments, too delicately played for the large theater space. My hope was that the group would be less calculated and more playful, which is when they're at their best, with Deacon (the amazing finale of their Matmos collaboration had them alternately chugging and playing beer cans).

Another reason to be skeptical: if you can remember back to May 2009, So Percussion described a Deacon-penned piece they'd be playing at a performance that month. An e-mail from the group warned that the piece "may include pouring liquids onstage, amplified coke bottles, and other oddities..." Well, it didn't end up coming together in time for the show. But it did last night. I figure, any project delayed more than two years is either a catastrophic trainwreck (Chinese Democracy) or a landmark breakthrough (Finnegans Wake or something). Part of that curiosity is what drew me to the show.

The night was divided into two halves, the first with So Percussion and Dan Deacon performing individual sets, then with the groups together. So Percussion's Jason Treuting was absent for the evening, off spending time with his new baby, who'd just been born two hours earlier, and substitute drummer Eric Rosenbaum did a great job of filling in. The band had the crowd sing "Happy Birthday" into a cell phone for the newborn, which was the first of several crowd-performances of the night.

Their opening set comprised of several short pieces, mostly based on videos submitted by friends: a bearded man using an electric toothbrush, a child playing with an orange balloon (replicas were thrown into the crowd to play with), and Martin Schmidt from Matmos looking very John Cage-ish, straight-backed and in a bow tie, playing a succession of musical objects into the camera. The ensemble improvised over the clips in meditative waves, aided by guitarist Grey McMurray.

Up next was Dan Deacon's solo set, which he didn't really perform in at all. In an obvious reach-out to prose scores (by John Cage and others I'm less familiar with) and aleatoric pieces like Terry Riley's In C, Deacon passed out a 24-step pamphlet with instructions for audience members to perform in their seats. The steps were to be repeated variously, before moving to the next in the sequence. Some instructions said to focus on breathing, others instructed you to sing a tone or scream, several involved using a cell phone, either to set off its alarm, create feedback with a neighbor's phone, or call a friend and have them sing to you (one stranger serenaded the near-silent hall to "Proud Mary"). The gambit paid off, both as a natural extension of the crowd-participation Deacon has previously employed and as a link to "new music" tradition.

There was an intermission, then "Ghostbuster Cook: The Origin of the Riddler," a collaborative piece with So Percussion, whose performance centered on drumming a row of soda bottles of varying sizes. They emitted a marimba-like sound that Dan Deacon manipulated with a row of effects. The next stop was a series of bass drums and congas, that sounded at times like a drum corps. When Dan Deacon fired up his sequencers, which took a few moments to lock in with the drums, it was the closest the night would get to a standard Dan Deacon set: overwhelming sound with chaotic execution (So Percussion didn't seem exactly at ease with their cues here). The group moved back to the pitched containers while members emptied more soda bottles into plastic tubs. Stoppers at the bottom of two playable bottles were let out and a misting sound filled the hall. Then, the silence. For what must have been more than ten minutes, So Percussion stood perched over their marimbas and vibes waiting for the running water to stop (no doubt a reference to the silence of John Cage's 4'33"). One enraged audience member exclaimed "Are you fucking kidding me?" before storming out the back. Then the water ended, and the group came in with an arrangement of twinkling mallet percussion, with a melody that hinted at Danny Elfman's film scores and polyrhythms that tugged in several different directions.

Was the night a success? Partly. Dan Deacon seemed serious about his concert hall debut; the prose score was fun and effective. So Percussion's solo set was a stellar example of what makes the group great: aural treats born out of playful experimentation. Their collaboration was a risk that had an admirable scope, and paid-off in parts, but stopped short of making a cohesive whole (again, the thing was called "Ghostbuster Cook: The Origin of the Riddler"). If Deacon and the group had put together a suite of short pieces, with spots to recalibrate and adjust, I suspect the result would have been a full success.

As it was, only one crowd member in a sold-out crowd leaving (as far as I could tell) is more than a minor victory. The biggest regret is the fact that the program's final piece, So Percussion's "I Love You, Goodnight," didn't happen. They skipped that song, possibly for time, or perhaps because Jason was absent, but I wish I had a video of it to post here: It's an amazing lullaby to send off an audience.

More pictures from the Ecstatic Music Festival show at Merkin Concert Hall (the next one is Craig Wedren, Jefferson Friedman & ACME on Saturday) below...

Continue reading "Dan Deacon, So Percussion & the audience played Merkin Hall (pics)"

by Andrew Frisicano

Matmos and So Percussion at the Whitney, 2006 (via Matador)

New music quartet So Percussion and electronic duo Matmos (Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt) are collaborating on a new record, Treasure State, set to come out July 13th (July 8th digitally) on Cantaloupe. They recorded the record at the SnowGhost Studios in Whitefish, Montana, where "San Francisco plunderphonicist Wobbly then chopped and edited the results on several tracks, and finally, with frequent interventions from Matmos' M. C. Schmidt, 'fifth' So Percussion member and produced by Lawson White overdubbed extra elements, processed, and mixed the results." The instruments used include ceramic planters, pails of water, aluminum beer cans and cactus needles - not totally surprising if you've seen their live show.

Matmos and So Percussion will be playing at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Wednesday, June 9th. Tickets are on sale now. A full tour tour for the groups will be announced soon.

Before then, So Percussion's schedule includes an appearance at the Look & Listen Festival (which they play annually) on May 8th at Gary Snyder/Project Space (250 West 26th St). The other events for the three-day fest, details here, happen at Chelsea Art Museum. Tickets are on sale.

This summer, So Percussion will play on one night of Lincoln Center's two-night "Complete Works of Edgard Varèse" program. They'll join International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) to perform music by the highly influential composer (though Poème électronique will play itself). The second night features NY Philharmonic. Details on the program are below and tickets are on sale.

If that seems far off, in 2011 So Percussion will join Bang on a Can All-Stars, eighth blackbird and Kronos Quartet for a "Music of Steve Reich" concert at Carnegie Hall on April 30th. They'll perform new works and2009 Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet.

As for Matmos, they perform at Mutek Music Fest in Montreal on June 2nd.

Album tracklist, all tour dates, and more info on the Look & Listen and Lincoln Center shows are below...

Continue reading "So Percussion & Matmos collaborate - albums, shows, the Look & Listen Festival, music of Steve Reich, more"

by Andrew Frisicano

Darcy James Argue

New Amsterdam Records is putting on Undiscovered Islands, a month-long exhibition of work by label artists and friends at Brooklyn's Galapagos Art Space (16 Main St in DUMBO). The series' four Friday shows start May 8th. Tickets are on sale now.

The lineups include two record release shows: one for Darcy James Argue's Secret Society's Infernal Machines on Friday, May 8th; and another on May 15th for Nadia Sirota's first things first. Sirota will be appearing with the Chiara Quartet, itsnotyouitsme, Clarice Jensen, Nico Muhly and others.

Friday, May 22nd's show will feature ensemble Signal premiering Sarah Kirkland Snider's Penelope with Brad Lubman, Steven Mackey and Rachel Calloway, and So Percussion playing new works.

The final Undiscovered Islands of the month will feature NOW Ensemble and Abigail Fischer premiering Missy Mazzoli and Stephen Taylor's "Song from the Uproar" followed by a preview premiere performance of William Brittelle's Television Landscape on Friday, May 29th. New work Television Landscape is described in the release as "a fully-notated concept album that brings together the epic tradition of Pet Sounds, Purple Rain, and OK Computer with Brittelle's idiosyncratic... compositional style."

Continue reading "Undiscovered Islands - an 'indie' classical series in May @ Galapagos, Matmos in Princeton & more "

tonight in NYC
* DANCE
* Mucky Pup @ Mexicali Live
* Eugene Chadbourne @ Cake Shop
* Lady Sovereign @ Tribeca Grand Hotel
* Himalaya, Signal To Noise @ Monkey Town
* Nouvellas & the Black Hollies @ Glasslands
* So Percussion, Matmos, PLOrk @ The Kitchen
* The Faint, Ladytron, Crocodiles @ Webster Hall
* Black Dice, Skint, dphokcheong 2000 @ Market Hotel
* The Jenny Scheinman Trio (w/ Nels Cline @ Blue Note)
* Extra Golden, Meta & The Cornerstones @ (le) poisson rouge
* pow wow!, The Vacant Lots, Blowtorch, Little Gold @ Cake Shop
* Francis and the Lights, Four Tet (DJ) @ Santos Party House
* Friendly Foes, Real Estate, Prussia, Sharon Van Etten @ Pianos
* Knight School, Sisters, Pants Yell!, World Atlas @ Dead Herring
* Mr. Lif, Junk Science, The Beatards @ The Studio at Webster Hall
* Violens, Apache Beat, Blonde Acid Cult, Bottle Up & Go @ Santos Party House
* Napalm Death, Coliseum, Kataklysm, Toxic holocaust & Trap Them @ Gramercy
* Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, Christina Courtin @ Irving Plaza

Andrew Frisicano says, "Last night at the Kitchen, So Percussion, Matmos & PLOrk joined together to form a 15-person ensemble that ran through songs that included Matmos' newly re-arranged "Supreme Balloon" - complete with a huge psychedelic video projection. If you check it out tonight, watch out for the rank stale beer smell that may be eminating from the room - last night's encore employed 12 cans of Bud Light ("because it sounds good"), which the group hit with sticks, spilled on much of their intstruments, and chugged to end the night."

Anvil! the movie is playing at Angelica and AMC Empire 25. Trailer below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Saturday?"

the Homosexuals @ WNYU (more by Leia Jospe)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* DJ Bob Mould @ Southpaw
* Yeasayer & Ponytail @ NYU
* Little Joy @ The Wonder Bar
* The Forms & Javelins @ Union Hall
* Drew Daniel of Matmos @ Housing Works
* Butch Walker & Jesse Malin @ Maxwell's
* Lebowski Fest w/ Tragedy @ Irving Plaza
* Sunburned Hand of the Man @ Silent Barn
* The Homosexuals & The Octagon @ Cake Shop
* The Giraffes & Goes Cube @ Mercury Lounge
* Kaiser Chiefs & Oxford Collapse @ Webster Hall
* John Zorn Improv night @ The Stone (early & late)
* Girl Talk, The Death Set & CX Kidtronik @ Terminal 5
* Fredrik, Twi The Humble Feather & Django James @ Pianos
* Calexico, Bowerbirds, & The Acorn @ Tarrytown Music Hall
* The Calder String Quartet w/ Andrew W.K. @ Le Poisson Rouge
* AC Newman, The Oranges Band & Bird of Youth @ The Bell House

@ Housing Works: "Matmos's Drew Daniel will read from his book on Throbbing Gristle (Throbbing Gristle: Twenty Jazz Funk Greats, 33 1/3 Books), answer questions, and do a solo dance music/noise laptop performance (aka dance party)."

@ Le Poisson Rouge: The Calder Quartet featuring Andrew W.K. - Performing composed and improvised music for string quartet and chamber ensemble, as well as solo compositions to be announced, Doors at 7:00pm, show at 8:00pm

@ The Stone: 8 and 10 pm - John Zorn Improv Night I--A Stone Benefit - John Zorn (sax) Scott Johnson (guitar) Ikue Mori (electronics) Jim Staley (trombone) Eyal Maoz (guitar) Trevor Dunn (bass) Ches Smith (drums) and many special guests. Come out and support The Stone! A night of wild improvisation East Village style to benefit The Stone. TWENTY DOLLARS.

@ Irving Plaza: Lebowski Fest New York Movie Party - Music by Tragedy (metal tribute to The Bee Gees), Creedence Clearwater Revival Revival plus a re-enactment of the Landlord's dance cycle by Paul Green. Followed by a screening of The Big Lebowski!

What else?

On January 10, 2008, Lou Reed and John Zorn, joined by special guest Laurie Anderson, played two benefit shows for The Stone, an avant-garde performance space on the corner of Avenue C and 2nd Street in Alphabet City that supports itselfs solely on donations, giving all door revenues directly to the performers. Zorn, an alto-saxophonist and founder of the music label Tzadik, was the principal force in establishing the Stone in 2005 and currently holds the title of artistic director. [WallyG]

Tonight (Aug 21) @ The Stone in NYC: Beirut's Jon Natchez & Kelly Pratt & Ryan Sawyer "for a set of improvisation and original composition"

Saturday (Aug 23) @ The Stone: Ryan Sawyer/Thurston Moore Duo with Susan Alcorn

September @ The Stone: Everything JG Thirwell picked.

Matmos kick off their two-night run at new NYC venue (le) poisson rouge tonight (July 18, 2008). I have tickets to give away (a lot of them). To win a pair, email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Matmos FRIDAY or Matmos SATURDAY). (the subject depends on which night you want tickets for). Include your first and last name. Winners will be contacted ASAP.

All Matmos tour dates below...

Continue reading "Matmos - 2008 Tour Dates, tonight, tomorrow, WIN TIX"

DOWNLOAD: Matmos - Rainbow Flag (MP3)

In Baltimore. soon...

Continue reading "Whartscape 2008 lineup, Matmos included "

HIGHLIGHTS:
* 158 Bleecker btwn Thompson & Sullivan in Greenwich Village
* 800-capacity flexible performance space (250 seated)
* 130-capacity attached, soundproof lounge bar
* 28' x 21' fixed corner stage w/ various staging additions
* 16' dia. portable, trundled round stage
* acoustic engineering by John Storyk/WSDG (Electric Lady Studios, etc)
* 2 cinema-sized screens with Meyer 5.1 Surround Sound
* 23' dia. hardwood sprung dance floor
* 9' Concert Grand piano
* 2 elevated VIP Opera Boxes and 2 private entrances
* full catering kitchen, concert bar menu, and daytime lounge menu
* restrooms in 2 areas at opposite ends of the venue
* furnished green room with en suite bathroom, shower & tour office

(LE) POISSON ROUGE, the awkwardly named new 800-capacity music venue ("multimedia art cabaret") opening where The Village Gate used to be in the West Village has revealed their floor plan. Click HERE for a larger version.

They've also revealed their initial schedule. Damon & Naomi, Baby Dee, Bill Frisell, Doveman, Nico Muhly, Samamidon, and Matmos all have shows coming up there. Tickets are on sale.

"The adjoining lounge will be open during the day as a café, and at night as a secondary bar and event space." The full June schedule is also pasted below....

Continue reading "(Le) Poisson Rouge - new venue's floor plan, initial schedule "

Continue reading "new video from new Matmos album (Supreme Balloons)"

DOWNLOAD: Matmos - Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan (MP3)

2/23 Saturday (RK)
8 and 10 pm
MATMOS
Dr. Drew Daniels (laptop, objects) Martin Schmidt (synth, objects)
Matmos are a duo who recently relocated from San Francisco to Baltimore. Their work is all over the place: musique concrete, pop music, rhythmic patterns, free improv, video, sound, actions. For this concert they will present their “cover” of “The Backyard”, the final act of the Robert Ashley tele-opera “Perfect Lives{, and some newer pieces that focus on pure electronic music. Expect some improvisation and some guest shenanigans.

This is happening at The Stone in NYC where Petra Haden played last night and is also playing again soon.

From Matmos

We just got back from a bucolic recording session in Montana where we worked on a new collaborative sextet project with So Percussion, ate BBQ, and played a wild and beer-soaked show for the townsfolk of Whitefish. Having blown one deadline already, Drew is desperately pulling the manuscript of his book about Throbbing Gristle's "Twenty Jazz Funk Greats" for Continuum's 33 1/3 series into quasi-acceptability. Martin is squiggling away with his all synthesizer, all improv trio project Phase Chancellor (with Nate Boyce and a now-out-of-the-wheelchair Jay Lesser). Both Martin and Drew are gearing up for some apartment hunting adventures in Baltimore, Maryland, because Matmos is moving there as of August. But before that, we're bracing ourselves for a month of European touring this summer, including a set at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Citizens of New York City, please note that Matmos & So Percussion will be playing two shows at Lincoln Center this summer in honor of National Contact-Mic Awareness Month. The concerts will take place July 20th and July 21st, and each night will feature different special top secret guest stars, so you should go to both. Please come and show your support."

Zeena Parkins and Dave Douglas are joining them for the NYC shows - not sure if they are the "top secret guest starts" they're talking about. If I had to guess, I'd say there's a good chance Antony is one of them. Tickets are on sale.