Battles' John Stanier Talks New Album

By Ryan Dombal for Pitchfork:

It's been more than two years since Battles dropped Mirrored, one of the most satisfyingly inscrutable and flat-out ballsy records in recent memory. Since then, the band has toured all over the world-- China, New York, Australia-- putting the "rock" in post-rock and spreading little-green-men-esque vocals to the masses. And now they're starting work on the follow-up.

Last week, we spoke with drummer John Stanier, whose sky-high crash cymbal theatrics and snare-thrashing intensity often make him the star of Battles' live assault. On the phone from his home in Cologne, Germany, he talked about what we can expect from the new Battles LP and why he sweats so damn much onstage.

Read the interview here. Battles performed at Soundlab on 4/02/07. Guitarist Tyondai Braxton performed, with Parts & Labor, at the second Soundlab's soft opening on 10/26/03.

Holy Fuck: Lovely Allen Video (No Age Remix) [Young Turk]

Holy Fuck performed with Mark Webb and Fourem/Rainbowmaker at Soundlab on 06/15/06. Check out this new video, posted at Pitchfork, here.

New Octopus Project on the Way

By Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

On July 14, Peek-A-Boo will release Golden Beds, the new EP from Austin-based instrumental rock quartet the Octopus Project. The enhanced EP includes seven music videos, including one live track from last year's Austin City Limits fest. The band is touring the American South right now.

Octopus Project visited Soundlab on 06/18/06, where they shared a bill with Black Moth Super Rainbow and Besnyo. They returned on 10/23/07.

Dirty Projectors in Auto Accident: Everybody's OK but Toronto Show Cancelled

Official Statement:

"Dirty Projectors' van flipped outside of Detroit, MI on their way up to Toronto. Although the crash was serious, we're happy to report that all members of the band have been safely discharged from the hospital. The band will be flying home to New York in the morning to regroup and rest. Unfortunately, the band will have to cancel Toronto and Montreal. Thank you for understanding and sending your well wishes."

Dirty Projectors have performed at Soundlab 3 times: on 06/29/05 with Wind Up Bird and Nat Baldwin; on 04/18/06 with Why? (and "The Getty Address," an animated film by James Sumner); and on 08/27/07 with Yacht and Vampire Weekend.

Everyone Likes Music But Is Anyone Willing to Pay for it Anymore? Daedelus' Friends of Friends

From Daedelus Embraces a Quiet, Close-Listening Approach, by Martin Turenne for Straight.com:

Everyone likes music, but is anyone willing to pay for it anymore? A few Los Angeles-based producers seem to think not, which is why they’ve started giving their releases away for nothing—sort of. The concept behind the beatmakers’ new record label, Friends of Friends, runs like this: two musicians record three songs apiece for a digital EP, which consumers can download for free when they buy a limited-edition T-shirt designed by one of the company’s graphic artists. There’s probably no money in this venture for anyone, but according to Daedelus—whose tracks lead off the recent Friends of Friends Volume 1 —that’s not really the point.

“The sale of the shirts might eventually make a small profit,” says the dance-music producer, reached at a tour stop in Baltimore, “but if nothing else, giving away music digitally assuages the terrible guilt about some of these physical products. I mean, vinyl is a petroleum product, and CDs have poisonous chemicals in them. Eventually, all these things are going to end up in landfills.”

Read more here.

Daedelus performed at Soundlab first on 11/14/07 with Busdriver, Anti-MC, FourEm & Mark Kloud. He returned on 06/12/09 headlining a bill that also included Ghislain Poirier and DJ Steve Kream.

Interview with Matana Roberts

On June 18, Matana Roberts presents Illumination, a collection of sound paintings, at the Roulette space in New York City. In this interview, conducted for the Roulette blog, Roberts discusses the work, and some of the things that inspire her.

Roberts performed at Soundlab on 7/15/04 with Josh Abrams and Chad Taylor in the band Sticks and Stones.

This Week at Soundlab... Masters of Soundlab

Wednesday, June 24, 9pm--
"MASTERS OF SOUNDLAB" feat. CHAE HAWK, BIRD DAY, SPEAKERFIRE, DJ DSTAR

Friday, June 26, 11pm--
COMMUNIST PARTY presents OH SNAP! featuring Mareo Speedwagon, Flava Braun & Sir Richard Rector

Saturday, June 27, 10pm--
BIG DIGITS, BEV BEVERLY, ABCDJ
Big Digits is a two man party attack formed from the ashes of crashed computers dusted over dented dancefloors. From Cambridge.

This Week at Soundlab... Cotton Jones

Tuesday, June 23, 9pm, $8--
COTTON JONES, featuring ex-members of Page France.

"Bucolic, sun-dappled psychedelia made for a summer afternoon of lying face-up in a field and watching the clouds drift by. On their debut Paranoid Cocoon, Nau and McGraw’s misty vocal blend evokes Mazzy Star and Vetiver melting marshmallows together around a campfire, while Nau’s guitar lines drip down like slow-poured honey, and McGraw’s trilling organ makes you wonder why every year can’t be 1967."--Rolling Stone.com

Check out them out on myspace.

This Week at Hallwalls... Sabir Mateen's Omni-Sound

Thursday, 6/25/09, 8pm--SABIR MATEEN'S OMNI-SOUND.

"Tenor/alto saxophonist, Bb/Eb alto clarinetist, flutist and composer Sabir Mateen (born in Philadelphia) has been a musician most of his life. Starting in the Philadelphia area as a percussionist, he began playing flute as a teenager. Gradually evolving from alto to tenor saxophone, he has been through a number of musical transformations. He started out playing rhythm and blues in the early 70's—which led him to the tenor saxophone chair of the Horace Tapscott Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. From there he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, William Parker, Alan Silva, Butch & Wilber Morris, Raphe Malik, Steve Swell, Mark Whitecage, Roy Campbell, Matthew Shipp, Marc Edwards, Jemeel Moondoc, William Hooker, Henry Grimes, Rashid Bakr, Kali Fasteau and numerous others. He also is a member of the cooperative band TEST. Sabir also performs with Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, William Parker's Inside The Music Of Curtis Mayfield, Earth People, the Downtown Horns and The East 3rd Street Ensemble. He is the leader of The Sabir Mateen Quintet, Shapes Textures & Sound Ensemble, The Omni-Sound, and other bands."

This Weekend at Soundlab... Shock & Awe feat. Teen Heat!

SHOCK & AWE feat. TEEN HEAT!
Friday, June 19, 11pm. Where two (or more) become one….

Islands Announce Third Album

By Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

On September 22, Anti- will release Vapours, the third full-length from Islands, the fractured pop project from former Unicorn and current Human Highway man Nick Thorburn, aka Nick Diamonds.

In news that is sure to delight Unicorns fans, fellow former Unicorn Jamie Thompson, otherwise known as J'aime Tambeur, has rejoined the group. Thompson recorded Islands' 2006 debut Return to the Sea with Thorburn but left the band for 2007's Arm's Way. And now he's back!

Islands played Soundlab on 04/16/08.

Telegram from Beckett to Joyce Among Treasures of UB Collection

R.D. Pohl, for the Buffalo News, writes:

At first glance, it's so yellowed and ephemeral, you might overlook it--a tiny wisp of postcard size paper locked into a display case of Finnegans Wake miscellany in the "Discovering James Joyce: The University at Buffalo Collection" currently on exhibit through September 13th at the UB Anderson Gallery.

It's a 1929 telegram from a then 23 year old Samuel Beckett to James Joyce clarifying the difference between the infinitive and substantive forms of a Greek phrase that would later find its way into Finnegans Wake. When it caught my eye at the opening reception for the exhibit on Saturday, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Like many Joyce fans, I knew that the young Beckett had acted as something of a research assistant (see his Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress) to the then 47 year old Joyce, whose Ulysses (1922) was already recognized as the most ambitious, most praised and reviled, most controversial and censored English language novel of the 20th century, a position from which it would not be dislodged in subsequent decades. Seeing evidence of how Beckett's dark, cryptic intellectualism (he once said that wrote most of his later work in French--his second language--to avoid the pitfalls of "style") would come to supplant Joyce's lyricism in the postwar, post Holocaust, postmodern era right in front of you in a display case, however, is enough to take your breath away.

Read the rest here.

Battles' Tyondai Braxton Preps Solo LP

By Ryan Dombal, for Pitchfork:

While we all wait to see what kind of mutant urchin fight music Battles will come up with next, the group's big-haired, chipmunk-on-speed vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton is readying a solo album. The LP, Central Market, is out September 15 in the U.S. (Sept. 14 in the UK) courtesy of your friends at Warp.

The record is a follow-up to 2002's History That Has No Effect (Braxton has been peddling his distinct brand of real-time, loop-based weirdness for about a decade) and is set to feature the same mix of electronics, guitar pedals, and polyrhythm percussion that has made him something of a godhead to prog dudes too cool to love Yes. The Wordless Music Orchestra-- who brought Johnny Greenwood's modern classical piece "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" to life last year-- help Braxton realize his skewed vision on the album.

Modern composition grad students, get ready for some ace study music.

Tyondai Braxton performed, with Parts & Labor, at the second Soundlab's soft opening on 10/26/03 (before the stage was installed!). He returned with Battles on 4/02/07

This Week at the Burchfield-Penney... Monsters of Nature and Design

Friday, June 26, 8pm--Big Orbit Gallery presents MONSTERS OF NATURE AND DESIGN 111, a performance by CRAIG SMITH (London, UK) and COLIN BEATTY (Boston, MA) with GARY NICKARD, REINHARD REITZENSTEIN and THE VORES. MND III, which takes place on the grounds of the Bruchfield-Penney Art Center, coincides with the closing of Craig Smith's exhibition, Training Manual for Relational Art, currently on display at Big Orbit Gallery (through June 28).

Craig Smith is a London-based media artist whose art practice and research focuses on the process, aesthetics, and ethics of human-to-human interactivity in contemporary art. Smith’s practice includes the production of photography, performance art, video, writing and lectures. He has been featured at an international range of venues including the PS1MOMA Contemporary Art Institute, The Tate Modern, The George Eastman House, The Hudson River Museum and galleries including Galerie Schuster Photo (Berlin), RARE Art (New York), The Kent Gallery and White Columns (New York).

Colin Beatty is an artist and healthcare consultant—currently, as the US Healthcare Provider Practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ and is based in Boston. Colin obtained his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, additionally holds a Maters degree in Fine Arts from Stanford University, an EMT certification from UCLA medical, was a studio participant of the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York, and has been an exhibiting artist of a range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, ongoing participation in works organized by Craig Smith, and more recently, self production of parafictional performance work in such venues as banking institutions, government healthcare agencies, and national regulatory groups. Colin's hobbies include doing well on standardized tests, thinking, drawing with pencils, and watching Craig find lost keys.

Oneida Live at Primavera Sound Festival, May 30th 2009 (mp3s)

From the WFMU blog:

WFMU dropped anchor on the shores of the Mediterranean last month at the invitation of Barcelona's stunning Primavera Sound Festival, where we joined 80,000 of our new best friends in an ecstatic celebration of music, good livin', good eatin', and futball victory ....

This was Oneida in a beautiful and psychotic dream: surrounded by gigantic weird paranoia-inducing ads for sunglasses, with the skyline of Barcelona behind the band and the Mediterranean Sea behind the audience, plus a killer light show. This was a one-off edition of the band, as core member Fat Bobby couldn't make it. In his temporary stead was founding member Papa Crazee, who some years back amicably departed Oneida to form the equally excellent Oakley Hall. A truly glorious evening.

Spanish Jam/ Each One Teach One. All Arounder. Sheets of Easter. Oneida played Soundlab on 08/03/06 with From Monuments to masses and Sleeping Kings of Iona

Final Call for 200 Guitarists to Perform with Rhys Chatham at Lincoln Center Out of Doors This Summer

"Those interested in being considered for one of the guitar slots for A Crimson Grail should go to Lincoln Center's website to complete an application form: www.lincolncenter.org/wordlessmusic. Returning musicians from 2008 who complete the application process will be guaranteed participation-they will be able to indicate that they participated last summer on the form. The deadline for 2009 applications is June 15; all guitarists will be notified by July 1."

Chatham performed at Soundlab with his minimalist death metal project Essentialist on 09/15/06. On 02/01/07, he assembled a group of Buffalo musicians to perform his seminal no wave-minimalist piece Guitar Trio. Read Chatham's account of the show here.

Erik Fiedlander MP3 "May It Please Heaven"

Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City. A veteran of NYC's experimental downtown scene, Friedlander has worked in many contexts, but is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with saxophonist/composer John Zorn. The LA Times wrote, "Friedlander's performance clearly positions him as the first potential star performer on his instrument." (from Wikipedia). He performed selections from his Maldoror record at Soundlab on 04/19/04. Check out May It Please Heaven here.

Red Sparowes Get New Guitarist

By Black Bubblegum for Brooklyn Vegan:

Red Sparowes have announced a new axe-wielder to their ranks, replacing the departed Josh Graham. The band comments:
I think it's safe to announce our new guitar player is Emma Ruth Rundle. She's an unbelievable guitar prodigy. A better guitarist than any of us. And, she works building and repairing guitars. Pretty awesome.
What role Rundle will play on the bands upcoming full-length is not known, but the band have completed seven demos to be recorded in August for release on an upcoming LP due in 2010. Look for some of those tracks to surface while the band plays a few dates "in Oct/Nov" including a date at the Fun Fun Fun Fest with the previously announced Jesus Lizard. More details about FFF Fest and the Red Sparowes tour are forthcoming. The band plans a full US tour, followed by a European tour in spring 2010.

Red Sparowes next release isn't that LP follow up to Every Heart... though, it's the Toshi Kasai co-produced (with the band) Aphorisms DVD+12" which is due this fall. That EP along with the entire Red Sparowes catalog is now available for download as "pay what you want" (over $2.50 that is) from the band. Check that out here.

Red Sparrowes hit Soundlab with Daughters and Versoma on 08/20/06.

Grizzly Bear Debut at No. 8 With Veckatimest

Posted by Ryan Dombal for Pitchfork:

With the space between major and indie continuing to dwindle, a top 10 indie rock showing on Billboard's Top 200 album chart isn't the kind of seismic event it once was. But still, this week's no. 8 triumph for Grizzly Bear's BNM'd third album, Veckatimest, is kinda like a big deal.
According to Billboard, the record sold 33,000 copies-- 40 percent via downloads and 24 percent via indie stores-- which was good enough to beat Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, and almost every other band/artist selling music on this earth. Kudos.

Grizzly Bear opened for Lichens and Soft Circle at Soundlab on 11/06/05.

The National, Breeders, My Brightest Diamond Team Up for Multimedia Piece

Posted by Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

Aaron and Bryce Dessner, the guitarist twins from the National, are not content to rest easy after jointly producing the twin triumphs of the Dark Was the Night album and concert. Come October, they'll present a brand-new multimedia piece called The Long Count at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The piece, done in collaboration with visual artist Matthew Ritchie, will include guest vocals from the Breeders' Kim and Kelley Deal (also twins!), My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, and the National's own Matt Berninger. The Dessners will perform it with a 12-piece chamber orchestra. And it sounds really cool.
BAM commissioned the piece as part of its Next Wave art festival, and the Dessners will perform it on October 28, 30, and 31. The Long Count somehow involves both a Mayan creation myth and the 1976 World Series. Here's how the Next Wave press kit describes it:

"Jointly conceived by the collaborators as a one-hour immersive multimedia experience exploring ideas of symmetry and creation, The Long Count weaves together disparate themes ranging from the hero twins of the Popul Vuh (a Mayan creation myth) to the epic 1976 World Series victory of the Cincinnati Reds over the New York Yankees (which occurred in the year of the Cincinnati-born Dessners' birth).

"Ritchie's large-scale sculptural environment frames a one-hour animated film made from the artist's intricate, biomorphic drawings. An evocative, complex score and song cycle composed and performed by the Dessners and a twelve-member chamber orchestra will be illuminated and sung by guest artists."

Ritchie's website doesn't offer much more in the way of details, but it does include this image, which is like whoa.

So, uh, yeah. Sign us up.

The National performed at Big Orbit Gallery on 5/30/01 with Mia Doi Todd and Clogs. My Brightest Diamond visited Soundlab on 11/02/08.

Mount Eerie Preps "Black Metal" Album

Pitchfork reports:

The music Phil Elverum has made over the years hasn't been that far removed from that of, say, Xasthur. The man behind the Microphones and Mount Eerie shares a few predilections with underground black metal: creeped-out lo-fi atmospherics, otherworldly despair, the sense that we're dealing with a fragile loner desperate to keep the rest of the world out. Doesn't hurt that the man's last name sounds like some Lord of the Rings sub-species, either.

Last year, Elverum made the connection a little more concrete with his Black Wooden Ceiling Opening EP, the first release where he explicitly experimented with black metal dynamics. The result, especially the bottomlessly sad opener "Appetite", made for some one of the most hypnotically wracked music of Elverum's career.

On August 18, Elverum will blow that experiment out to album length when P.W. Elverum & Sun releases Mount Eerie's Wind's Poem, which is being touted as his "black metal album." Elverum recorded the album himself in various locations around his hometown of Anacortes, Washington. Nick Krgovich of No Kids dropped by to add some harmonies, but as with most Microphones/Mount Eerie releases, this is basically all Elverum here.
The album will be available on CD, digital download, or a clear vinyl double LP in "a gatefold jacket with bronze foil stamping and a pull out lyric poster". One of those options sounds slightly cooler than the others.

When Mount Eerie tours this autumn, Elverum will bring a full band with him, including two drummers. A press release promises gongs and walls of amps. This is going to rule.

Mt Eerie played Soundlab on 10/31/07, with Privacy and Al Larsen.

Book Review: "Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen," by David Stubbs

From the Signal to Noise blog:

David Stubbs is a wide-ranging cultural commentator; he writes about sports, film, and literature as well as music. Stubbs' book Fear of Music discusses the perception gap between modern art and modern music. Why is it that collectors will shell out millions of dollars for avant-garde visual art while avante-garde music is still so widely derided?

The old saw regarding the issue of art vs. music appreciation is that time is the deciding factor. Stubbs acknowledges the potency of this argument; as he points out, one can look at the Rothko Room for five minutes and then head off to a café, but many Stockhausen works requires hours of a listener's time. But the author also crafts a persuasive case for consumer consumption of art objects as increasing their palatability with the public. With no easy way to create coveted musical artifacts in this era of file-sharing and digital distribution, it's easy to see music being increasingly thought by the masses of as free, disposable, and even 'unnecessary.” All the while, visual artists are able to monetize their wares with, in some cases, alarming audacity. Stubbs is able to negotiate the delicate issues of the duality between visual and performing arts with deft, knowledgeable, and subtle commentary.

Fear of Music also serves as an excellent primer on music outside the mainstream. At 135 pages, the appearance of this slender volume is deceiving. Stubbs covers a tremendous amount of musical terrain, eloquently expounding on such varied subjects as post-punk, futurism, Dada, Sun Ra, free jazz, Derek Bailey, and Webern. Indeed, the book is an excellent primer for anyone looking to take a subscription to avant-garde music journal The Wire, a periodical to which Stubbs frequently contributes. Indeed, Fear of Music is apt to bring more than a few music lovers further outside the mainstream in their listening habits.

This Week at Sugar City: Put Your Record On

Tuesday June 16 9-11pm @ Sugar City 19 Wadsworth.

Put your records on. A monthly community listening party. Bring your favorite records and play us all a song! We will be making a mix of the music we play. Bring a CD or cassette if you’d like a copy. There will be refreshments too! Donations welcome to keep Sugar City sweet.

Paul Sharits Video Interview with Gerard O'Grady (1976)

1976 Interview with Gerard O'Grady
28 minutes.
From the series Film-Makers, WNED Buffalo.
Via Ubuweb.

This Week at Soundlab... Disco Bisquits Afterparty

June 4, 9pm--The Official Disco Bisquits Thurs in the Square Afterparty feat. Pnuma Trio, Fourem (live electro-glitch-pop), Big Basha (dubstep). Discounted advance tickets available at the Biscuits merch booth at The Square!

Dynamic, scene-setting electronica youngsters The Pnuma Trio have been known for their forward-thinking compositions and moving, powerful improvisations since their explosion onto the scene in 2004. Not so young anymore, Ben Hazelgrove, Alex Botwin, and Lane Shaw are proud to call STS9's very hot 1320 Records their new home as they release their debut studio album, 'Character'. With a defined, glitch-informed electro/hip-hop feel and all the dynamic energy of their DJ-killing live show, this new album represents a significantly evolved version of Pnuma's futuristic sound; tighter, more focused, and higher resolution. The long synth solos have been replaced by careful layering; instead of building each song to it's climax the band percolates on hot remixed urban ideas, letting the production create the spacious atmosphere. Self-produced by the band and sporting a special bonus track that features Crown City Rockers MC Rashaan Ahmad, 'Character' is ready to take the scene by storm with it's vast, open feel and deep 808-driven grooves. The rest of the world can only watch and listen as these talented artists come of age and discover the depth of their 'Character'. Download the new album now from 1320records.com and hear the future as it happens!

http://www.myspace.com/pnumatrio
http://www.pnumatrio.com

This Week at Soundlab... DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer

Tuesday, June 2, 9pm--DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer Turntablist/Sax Duo with short opening sets by Novelist and the Voidologists

DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer share a passion for expanding their instruments beyond cultural preconceptions & musical conventions. In their duo they access, examine, cross-reference & play with complimentary & contrasting techniques & artefacts from their musical histories. Their performances move sometimes capriciously, other times unnoticeably between elements of free jazz, hip hop, & ambient plunderphonics, placing turntable & saxophone virtuosity amidst vinyl & cassette tape playback, looping & scratching in the context of custom hardware & software & old guitar pedals. As a duo, DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer involve themselves in a new musical paradigm free from the constraints of genre, academia, or commerce.

http://keirneuringer.com/djsniff.html
http://djsniff.com
http://keirneuringer.com/