upcoming Skeletons & Skeletons Big Band shows

by Andrew Frisicano

Skeletons Big Band…

Hilarious. From the Grooms blog:
“One Hundred Things to Try and Sound Like besides Animal Collective’s Last Three Albums

1. Their first 5 albums.
2. If Charles Mingus were in the Beatles pre-Revolver.
….
19. Skeleton$.
20. How Joan of Arc felt.
21. Nudity.
22. The Cocker Spaniels.
23. The Geddy Address.
24. Mountains of hate eroded into hills of ambivalence.
25. Hills of ambivalence eroded into plains of apathy.
26. Plains of apathy eroded into valleys of love.
27. Plastic Ono Band.
28. Plastic Ono Band.
29. Going on Nicorette at age eleven.
30. Running out of Nicorette at age eleven.
31. Meeting someone on the internet.
32. The soundtrack to John Mayer and Gary Busey’s buddy-cop romp.

This is in no way saying anything nasty about AC and their tunes.” [Grooms via Skeletons]

The rest of those 100 things are posted below.

Skeletons Big Band will be reforming for a two-night residency at Roulette on June 8th and 9th. Tickets are on sale. They’ll be playing “brand new tunes and pieces and ideas and arrangements with a 13 piece ensemble of amazing players (who play in zillions of other amazing bands).” The full lineup for the band is below. Matt from Skeletons goes on to write: “Last year we did a similar residency, with 3 nights at Roulette followed by a night at Death By Audio. We’ve taken the recordings from those nights and made a record. You can hear the first track “NUMBERS” and watch a video we made for it…” That video is posted below. The Big Band record he mentions is different than People, their forthcoming follow-up to 2008’s excellent Money.

On Thursday (6/10), Skeletons have another gig, this time at Death By Audio where they’ll be playing as the big band and regular quintet. Also on the lineup are Grooms, Unstoppable Death Machines and Starring, for whom the show serves as the release party for Wife of God, their new LP on Death By Audio Records.

Skeletons videos and more are below…

Skeletons Big Band lineup
Matt Mehlan: guitar, alto sax, singing
Jason McMahon: guitar
Jonathan Leland: percussion
Mike Gallope: piano, farfisa
Peter Vogl: electric bass, sfx
Sam Kulik: trombone
Justin Frye: contrabass
Elliott Bergman: tenor sax
Johnny Butler: tenor and baritone sax
Adam Markiewicz: violin
Amy Cimini: viola
Justin Walter: trumpet
Dan Peck: tuba

Skeletons – Barack Obama Blues at Death By Audio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City on May 08, 2010.

The remaining of ‘One Hundred Things’

3. If Charles Mingus were in the Beatles from Revolver on.
4. “I Talk to the Wind” by King Crimson
5. The first side of Low.
6. The second side of Low.
7. Your parents’ best impression of their last 3 albums.
8. Charles Ives auditioning for Can.
9. The sense of embarrassment you (understandably) feel when you’ve poured yourself what you thought was vodka, but was, in fact, white vinegar.
10. Marital sex, conact-mic’d and run through a Digiverb pedal.
11. Guitars strung with human ligaments.
12. Muslim sacred music.
13. The Trees Community.
14. Kira Sedgwick trying, through song, to win back Kevin Bacon.
15. John Cage’s “Dream”.
16. William Baines.
17. Joan of Arc.
18. Joan of Arc.

33. Doctor Came at Dawn/Red Apple Falls
34. Wild Love.
35. “Obscured” by Smashing Pumpkins.
36. Rachel’s
37. The score for The Mosquito Coast.
38. A dirty bedroom.
39. Sharon Van Etten singing in Sisters.
40. Staten Island’s answer to Penderecki.
41. “Long Long Long”.
42. Siamese Dream with a better drum sound.
43. Illumination by the Pastels.
44. Eureka by Jim O’Rourke.
45. TNT by Tortoise.
46. Drum’s Not Dead without drums.
47. Very early Centro-matic.
48. My cat’s early morning squeaks.
49. Mellow Gold and old Beck b-sides.
50. Johnny Cash and Donovan, together at last.
51. The weirder Smiths moments.
52. The sadder Solex moments.
53. “Torture Day” version with Cynthia Dall.
54. Cynthia Dall.
55. This Heat.
56. The Ex.
57. Fuck.
58. Bone Machine.
59. Xiu Xiu
60. Murmur.
61. Fables of the Reconstruction.
62. Automatic for the People.
63. Q Lazarus’ “Goodbye Horses”.
64. Portishead’s Third.
65. In a Silent Way.
66. Bedhead.
67. The Dirty Three
68. The Fugs.
69. Calexico’s darker moments.
70. Kyp Malone and Daniel Johnston with lots of helium and machine guns.
71. Unemployment.
72. Mission of Burma’s more introspective moments.
73. Karate.
74. Karate.
75. Macha Loved Bedhead.
76. A literally insane kitten.
77. Millennial fear.
78. Laughing until it hurts.
79. Kissing.
80. Michael Jackson fronting U2.
81. Pregnancy, after trying for 20 years.
82. How purple everything gets when the sun is going down in the summer, in certain parts of Texas.
83. Sticking things like screws, needles, coils, and glass flecks inside your skin.
84. Swans.
85. The world, if the ending of Lost hadn’t been so terribly disappointing.
86. The first taste of meat after not eating it for 10 years.
87. Staying up all night for good reasons.
88. Staying up all night for bad reasons.
89. Sleeping all day.
90. How you’d feel if you ingested nothing but sugary soda for a week.
91. Being cloned.
92. Flattop Tony and the Purple Canoes.
93. Honesty in Motion.
94. Wetness.
95. Songs original to David Lynch movies/shows / Angelo Badalamenti’s scores thereto.
96. Drum circles where the drums are compressed to sound like Ringo’s.
97. Ponytail.
98. Church bells.
99. Life in the fast lane.
100. The way Animal Collective’s most recent 3 albums sounds to your pets.