SPY MUSIC FESTIVAL » ARTISTS

RHYS CHATHAM – RYAN SAWYER BRASS DUO

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 15:44:09 +0000

Rhys Chatham Brass Duo (with Ryan Sawyer)

Avant-garde composer and multi-instrumentalist Rhys Chatham has reached legendary status in experimental music circles. The Paris-based, New York-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, Chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the relentless, elemental intensity of the Ramones. He is perhaps best known most recently for high-profile productions of his resplendent symphonies for hundreds of electric guitars, works which certify Chatham’s position on the front lines of post-minimalist and contemporary music.

For this concert, Chatham takes up the trumpet and joins forces with drummer Ryan Sawyer. Chatham deploys extended playing techniques inherited from bastions of free jazz – Don Cherry, Bill Dixon – as well as leaders of the minimalist movement – Tony Conrad, Jon Hassell, La Monte Young. Live processing of the instrument through a host of electronic devices gives rise to an ebullient cascade of sound and a truly unique and personal voice, carrying forward Chatham’s life-long pursuit of fusing the textural intricacies of the avant-garde with the visceral punch of punk rock.

Ryan Sawyer is a Brooklyn-based drummer who has performed and recorded with an incredible list of improvisers and bands. Currently Sawyer aka, Lone Wolf, is working on a solo record, a trio with Darius Jones, Shahzad Ismailly; a quartet with Nate Wooley, C. Spencer Yeh, and Colin Stetson: A duo with Tunde Adebimpe. Sawyer recently performed in Nik Zinner’s 41 Strings, at the Sydney Opera House. He also co-led/wrote the IIII performance at the same venue all as part of the Sydney Festival. In the recent past Sawyer has also worked with artists such as Charles Gayle, Thurston Moore, Tony Malaby, Nate Wooley, Lee Renaldo, Trevor Dunn, TV on the Radio, Celebration, Jandek, and has led and co-composed the 2008 New York staging of The Boredoms’ 88 Boadrum, an 88-minute composition for 88 drummers. Sawyer was the sole percussionist for Rhys Chatham’s 2009 performance of A Crimson Grail for 200 Guitars at the Lincoln Center. From his teenage years with At The Drive-In to his current recording/live projects Sawyer continues to be a sought after musician/drummer.

Buy Rhys Chatham Outdoor Spell at Northern-Spy.com

FRIDAY JUNE 29TH

@ Union Pool

$12 – 8pm doors

Skeletons
Rhys Chatham – Ryan Sawyer Brass Duo
Gunn – Truscinski Duo
Peter Stampfel

GUNN – TRUSCINSKI DUO

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:19:12 +0000

While the Gunn-Truscinski Duo takes its cues from American traditions (blues, folk, jazz) and psychedelic- and country-rock, strains of Indian raga and Indonesian gamelan stretch the music further. This is modal blues with Gunn building upon a root note to improvise as Truscinski both swings and strays from the beat like jazz drummer sitting in with Jefferson Airplane.

photo by Ash Crowe

FRIDAY JUNE 29TH

@ Union Pool

$12 – 8pm doors

Skeletons
Rhys Chatham – Ryan Sawyer Brass Duo
Gunn – Truscinski Duo
Peter Stampfel

SKELETONS

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:15:45 +0000

Founded in 2002 while still students at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, Skeletons has called New York City home since 2005, making an indelible mark on the underground music scene in the city and beyond. In its various incarnations (Skeleton$, Skeletons and the Kings of All Cities, Skeletons & the Girl Faced Boys, Skeletons Big Band), the band has released 7 full length albums.

FRIDAY JUNE 29TH

@ Union Pool

$12 – 8pm doors

Skeletons
Rhys Chatham – Ryan Sawyer Brass Duo
Gunn – Truscinski Duo
Peter Stampfel

PETER STAMPFEL

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:15:07 +0000

Peter Stampfel was born in Wauwautosa, WI, in 1938. Stampfel formed the folk-pop unit Holy Modal Rounders with his collaborator Steve Weber. Stampfel also played in the bands Bottle Caps and the Fugs. In 1994, he and guitarist Gary Lucas began a duo, the Du-Tels, to play originals, and covers of Charlie Patton, the Stanley Brothers, and other such personal heroes.

FRIDAY JUNE 29TH

@ Union Pool

$12 – 8pm doors

Skeletons
Rhys Chatham – Ryan Sawyer Brass Duo
Gunn – Truscinski Duo
Peter Stampfeli

RHYS CHATHAM GUITAR TRIO

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:14:06 +0000

Composer Rhys Chatham performs his now-classic Guitar Trio (1977), presented at ISSUE Project Room in partnership with Northern Spy Records. This performance will feature Rhys Chatham with nine guitarists, one bassist, and one drummer. Including Charlie Looker (Extra Life), Caley Monahan-Ward (Extra Life), Steve Gunn, Mark Pearson (Neptune), Jason Sanford (Neptune), Colin Langenus (Colin L. Orchestra), and Sarah Lipstate (Noveller). Full list to be announced shortly.

“GUITAR TRIO IS MY LIFE!” This disarmingly concise personal manifesto — bellowed by an ecstatic fan at the top of his lungs during a 2006 Rhys Chatham concert in Cleveland (the de facto capital of rock ‘n’ roll, of course), pretty much says it all.

Written in 1977, Guitar Trio is Rhys Chatham‘s signature composition, and with good reason. With a single, repeated chord, Chatham permanently altered the DNA of rock by splicing the gritty, overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the elemental fury of the Ramones. The amalgamation was inspired. It energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, and made Chatham a founding father of the notorious No Wave movement. The influence of Guitar Trio spread even farther as former ensemble members carried its shimmering swagger into the rock mainstream.

Buy Rhys Chatham Outdoor Spell at Northern-Spy.com

SATURDAY JUNE 30TH

@ Issue Project Room

$15 – 6pm doors

Rhys Chatham Guitar Trio
Rhys Chatham — guitar
Charlie Looker (Extra Life) — guitar
Caley Monahan-Ward (Extra Life) — guitar
Mark Pearson (Neptune) — guitar
Jason Sanford (Neptune) — guitar
Kevin Micka (Neputne) — guitar
Sarah Lipstate (Noveller) — guitar
Sarah Richardson (Blues, ex-Creeping Nobodies) — guitar
Steve Gunn — guitar
Chris Weiss — guitar
Sam Kulik (Starring) — bass
Kid Millions (Man Forever, Oneida) — drums

Neptune
Mark Pearson — guitar, oscillator organ, sine wave generator, vocals
Jason Sanford — guitar, vocals, feedback organ, oscillator, amplified gas can, radio sequencer
Kevin Micka — drums, amplified drums, kick oscillator, small feedback organ, electronics

Extra Life
Charlie Looker — vocals, synth, acoustic guitar
Caley Monahan-Ward — guitar, backing vocals
Nick Podgurski — drums

NEPTUNE

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:13:24 +0000

Neptune’s origins trace to 1994 as a sculpture project by Boston artist/musician Jason Sanford, who forged the band’s haphazard guitars and reluctant drums from scrap steel and found objects. Eight lineups, twenty-four releases and hundreds of instruments later, the band continues to wrench its sound spatter on self-built instruments to often confounded audiences around the world. In 2007, they released Gong Lake with avant arbiter Table of the Elements, home to art heroes Tony Conrad, Rhys Chatham and Faust. Neptune has shared the stage with a variety of influential artists such as The Ex, Mission of Burma, Ut, Oneida, Lightning Bolt, The Flaming Lips, Blonde Redhead, Melt-Banana, Charles Hayward, Liars, Black Dice, James Chance & the Contortions, Gang Gang Dance, The Dresden Dolls, Six Finger Satellite, and Wolf Eyes. Sanford and longtime Neptune collaborator Mark Pearson are currently joined by musician/instrument inventor Kevin Micka, redefining their music and creating new sounds from scratch. Propulsive percussion and sonorous electronics tangle with Sanford’s microtonal string creations with a refined minimalism, adding a new chapter to the band’s ever-evolving story.

Buy Neptune msg rcvd at Northern-Spy.com

SATURDAY JUNE 30TH

@ Issue Project Room

$15 – 6pm doors

Extra Life
Charlie Looker — vocals, synth, acoustic guitar
Caley Monahan-Ward — guitar, backing vocals
Nick Podgurski — drums
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EXTRA LIFE

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:12:50 +0000

Brooklyn-based Extra Life have challenged various underground circles with their dark, unclassifiable fusion of Experimental, Pop, Industrial, Prog, Classical and even Medieval aesthetics. The band’s dramatic sound, labeled by some as “Plague Pop”, has been called everything from “genius” to “pretentious” to “religious”. Extra Life was formed in 2007 by singer/keyboardist Charlie Looker after his departure from influential noise-chamber cult Zs and his brief stints with Dirty Projectors and Dax Riggs. After some lineup changes, the band gelled as a trio with guitarist/violinist producer Caley Monahon-Ward (of Snowblink) and drummer Nick Podgurski (of Feast of the Epiphany).

Extra Life has toured the US and Europe extensively, performing at festivals including Primavera Sound (Barcelona), Kilbi (Switzerland), Villette Sonique (France) and Moers Jazz (Germany), and sharing bills with Sonic Youth, Deerhoof, Sunn 0))), Owen Pallett, Xiu Xiu, Deerhunter, Lightning Bolt and Liturgy. By confronting both the so-called Indie world and the experimental noise underground which birthed them, Extra Life has built a devout international following of kids who refuse to take the easy way out. On April 10, 2012, Extra Life will released their third full-length album Dream Seeds on Northern Spy Records (US) and Africantape (EU/UK).

Buy Extra Life Dream Seeds at Northern-Spy.com

SATURDAY JUNE 30TH

@ Issue Project Room

$15 – 6pm doors

Extra Life
Charlie Looker — vocals, synth, acoustic guitar
Caley Monahan-Ward — guitar, backing vocals
Nick Podgurski — drums

LOREN CONNORS

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:11:48 +0000

Guitarist Loren Connors was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1949. Best known as a composer and improviser, Connors has issued over 50 guitar records on his own imprints (Daggett, St. Joan, Black Label) since the late 1970s and over two dozen on other labels across the globe. He has recorded under the names Guitar Roberts, Loren Mattei, Loren MazzaCane Connors and other variations. Connors’ singular adpation of the blues is a distinct personal vision combining the Delta bottleneck sound and the ancestral blues voice (appearing as distortion, baying hounds or multi-tracked guitar), with hauntingly unexpected sounds. Outside of Connors’ three decades of solo work, he has collaborated with Suzanne Langille, Jim O’Rourke, Darin Gray, Alan Licht, Christina Carter, Keiji Haino, San Agustin, Jandek and many others, as well as leading the group Haunted House. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Buy Haunted House Blue Ghost Blues at Northern-Spy.com

SUNDAY JULY 1ST

@ The Stone

$10 per set - Cash only / first come, first serve

8pm
Loren Connors
solo guitar

10pm
Animal Hospital
Kevin Micka — electronics, guitar

ANIMAL HOSPITAL

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:11:06 +0000

Kevin Micka has long been Boston’s most modest, capable and prolific sonic architect. Those of us who have followed his work know he’s rarely one to hype up his own. Whether it be recording and mixing some of the city’s best rock records, building microphones, repairing instruments, touring with friends’ bands, or performing amazingly and intricately as his one-man-band, Animal Hospital, Micka has always been the city’s quiet genius. In short, he is the hope and fulfillment of all that is good in our underrated town.” – Interview with Nolan Gawron

SUNDAY JULY 1ST

@ The Stone

$10 per set - Cash only / first come, first serve

8pm
Loren Connors
solo guitar

10pm
Animal Hospital
Kevin Micka — electronics, guitar

BRYAN & THE HAGGARDS + EUGENE CHADBOURNE

tomabbs — Sat, 05 May 2012 01:08:46 +0000

West Virginia native Bryan Murray, now lives in Brooklyn and leads Bryan and the Haggards – New York’s Most Decorated Avant-Country Instrumental Merle Haggard Cover Band. The band features the same line up as Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord but here they put their own spin on the Merle Haggard and Strangers song book. They have two albums on the Hot Cup label.

Eugene Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1954, He is an American improviser, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne’s most formative influence is free jazz. Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but quickly grew bored with the form’s conventions. He then studied other genres, including blues, country bluegrass, free jazz and noise —eventually synthesizing all those heterogeneous influences into a unique style of his own. He was also influenced early on by the experimental stylings of Captain Beefheart and the Mothers of Invention. A notable solo album, Songs (Intakt 026: 1993), features politically oriented originals, such as “Knock on the Door” and “Hello Ceausescu”, and covers, such as Nick Drake’s “Thoughts of Mary Jane”, and Floyd Tillman’s “This Cold War With You”.

MONDAY JULY 2ND

@ Vaudeville Park

$10 – 8pm doors

8:45 & 9:45pm
Bryan & The Haggards + Eugene Chadbourne
Bryan Murray — tenor and balto! saxophone, nose whistle
Jon Irabagon — c melody and sopranino saxophone, penny whistle
Jon Lundbom — guitar and banjo
Moppa Elliott — bass
Danny Fischer — drums
with special guest Eugene Chadbourne — banjo, guitar and vocals