shaken, struck, scraped

Fast Forward Austin

2012-02-26T11:53:00.001-08:00

On this fine Sunday I have two things Fast Forward Austin related. One past, one future, both totally awesome.

FFA in NYC
As the weekend wraps up my head is still spinning from an exhilarating show last Thursday at the Gerswhin Hotel's Contagious Sounds Series. To bring you up to speed, this concert series is curated by the Bang on a Can Allstar's pianist Vicky Chow and this particular event was presented by Fast Forward Austin, a collective in Austin, TX who debuted their first annual Fast Forward Austin Festival last spring to much critical acclaim. Thursday's show saw myself--a quasi-Austin artist, thanks to my time living there and wonderful friendships that remain--paired with ATX saxophone quartet Bel Cuore, who brought the house down with a truly face-melting (memorized!) set featuring music by Jennifer Higdon and Nick Sibicky as well as FFA co-founders Robert Honstein and Steve Snowden. In fact, you can watch their entire set here, and I think you should!
[Click for SAXSPLOSION]

For my part, I was thrilled to represent the exploding Austin new music community in addition to serving as a sort of Central Texas new music ambassador, excited to share some hot new tracks (if you will) with an East Coast audience. I picked pieces I had commissioned from an all star, all-Austin cast of composers including Graham Reynolds and the entire FFA crew, Steve, Robert, and Ian Dicke. The only "non-Austin" piece was a duo for percussion, piano, and electronics by Daniel Wohl, but it fit the theme just fine since I was joined by Vicky who happens to be this year's Fast Forward Austin Festival headlining artist. If you're curious, you can watch my set here.
[Click for JAMS]

Which brings us nicely to...
Fast Forward Austin: April 15, 2012
I won't go on and on about how great this will be. For your convenience I will list the Reasons of Greatness in a handy, linked, bullet-point format.

Killer lineup
Sweet venue
Great cause
There will be beer. No link there, it's just kind of obvious
Handsome festival co-founders

Beats to Brooklyn

2011-11-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

This Friday, November 4th is shaping up to be killer time at Brooklyn's Cafe Orwell! Thanks to Iktus Percussion Quartet for bringing together a very cool and diverse lineup. The show was even a Time Out New York critic's pick, which is awesome. For you social media blitzers, here is the Facebook invite.

Here's how it's gonna go down...

Iktus Percussion will open the evening with some serious glockenspiel rockenspiel in the form of Steve Reich's Drumming Part III in addition to an excerpt of Dark Full Ride, a face-melting drum set quartet by Julia Wolfe.

Next will be three short solo sets from myself, bass master general Lisa Dowling, and the inventive french horn/accordion guru Nathan Koci.

Rounding out the evening will be an Iktus/Elevator Rose team up for Philip Glass' entrancing work Music in Similar Motion.

8pm, suggested donation, map.

Color Field Festival Preview

2011-08-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Next week brings the 2nd annual Color Field festival, organized by a similarly named group of musicians from the contemporary music graduate program at Bowling Green State University. The Color Field Ensemble mounted a new music festival last summer in Omaha and this year are taking their show on the road to Madison, Wisconsin. As a proud Midwesterner I may be biased, but I'm especially psyched that the ensemble and the festival are targeting that region of the country. With "contemporary classical music" you've got to build your own audience, and with the exception of emerging new music powerhouse Chicago, the Midwest has plenty of room for ensembles/bands/etc. Even culture capitol Minneapolis lacks a strong, local new music presence (if anyone can beg to differ please clue me in!). So this year we're taking our talent to Madison to see what sort of audience and support we can drum for the likes of Andriessen, Crumb, Reich, Romitelli, and a bunch more.

The starting lineup for this year looks fierce. In addition to Color Field members Amanda DeBoer (soprano), James Fusik (saxophone), Karl Larson (piano, shred hands), and Jeff Weston (bass), we have a roster of guest artists including myself, Liz Ann (soprano), Molly McLaughlin (flute), Domenica Fossati (flute), Liz Lee (cello), Alejandro Acierto (clarinet), and Derek Johnson (guitar/composer/Meshuggah enthusiast). Also joining us in Madtown for the affair are two of my favorite NYC composers and dudes in general, Robert Honstein and Ravi Kittappa.

Here's the breakdown of events:

Capitol Square Event
Friday, 8/19. 6:30pm: Capitol Square
Decantations 3, by Ravi Kittappa (premiere)

Concert One
Friday, 8/19. 8:30pm: The Overture Center for the Arts Rotunda Stage
Animans                         Andrew Smith (premiere)
Temazcal                        Javier Alvarez
Trash Tv Trance            Fausto Romitelli
cotrol/option/delete       Marcos Balter
Is It Auburn?                 Robert Honstein

Concert Two
Saturday, 8/20. 8:30pm: The Overture Center for the Arts Rotunda Stage
Duo for Flute and Voice                                   David Grant
Electric Counterpoint                                       Steve Reich
Madrigals, Book Two                                       George Crumb
Presence, Consequence & Submissiveness      Edward Hamel (premiere)

Concert Three
Sunday, 8/21. 2:30pm: The Overture Center for the Arts Rotunda Stage
Why are you not answering me?      Robert Honstein
Slapback                                           Michael Fiday
Two Seaming                                    Jane Rigler
Decantations                                    Ravi Kittappa
Workers’ Union                                Louis Andriessen

And YES, we are performing Workers Union in Madison, the epicenter of a recent, epic, and ongoing struggle for teachers' collective bargaining rights. Don't get much better than that.

My Three Favorite Books About Drumming, Ever.

2011-07-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

I'm no book reviewer, but I've always liked to read and I've always liked to play the drums (well, that came a while after the reading). Lucky for me, they even have books about drumming, fancy that! With a quick holler to the Drumchattr crew and their summer book club that got my brain on the matter, I give you three drumming books that really brought it, each in their own special way.

The Percussionist's Art, by Steven Schick

I read this one while working on a master's degree in Austin and was taken by its versatility and usefulness. The book, written by legendary percussionist Steven Schick, offers intelligent and engaging anecdotes and philosophies about the author's journey into the then mostly uncharted world of "modern percussion" and serves as an invaluable performance resource for those attempting to play (or simply learn about) a number pieces written for and performed by the author. Oh, and it comes with a CD of Schick rocking a good number of the music discussed at length in the book. Basically, the guy who wrote the book on modern solo percussion playing has actually written the book on solo percussion playing, and it is equal parts smart, interesting, and enlightening.

Drumming at the Edge of Magic, by Mickey Hart.

This book found me (as some books do) during my freshman year of college, given to me by a hippie friend's hippie father. Incidentally, those of the second generation are the only hippies my age I can get behind. I prefer an apple fallen close to the tree to dreadlocked trustafarians in Northface parkas, but I digress, as always. Mickey Hart is best known for drumming with Grateful Dead but his book, written with ethnomusicologist Jay Stevens, covers a broad range of times and places encompassing the supernatural, ritualistic, militaristic, and rock and roll applications of The Drum. Above all, Hart expresses a true reverence not only for drumming and rhythm but also a drummer's opportunity to tap into something more powerful than him or herself. It's his genuine love and appreciation of this stuff that carries the book, and all its winding stories with it.

Who is Bugs Potter?, by Gordon Korman

This book is the one. It's the reason I started playing the drums, simple as that. Why, you ask? Please... It's about a kid named Bugs Potter that goes to Toronto for Canada's version of All State band, sneaks out of his dormitory every night in disguise to get into rock clubs, sits in on the drums with his favorite heavy metal bands, blows peoples minds with his drumming skillz, and becomes a sensation ALL THE WHILE making sure no one at band camp is the wiser except his "flute guy" roommate who tags along to keep Bugs from getting mobbed by fans. You try reading this in elementary school and not becoming a drummer. I dare you. You would fail. How this is not required primary school reading I'll never know...
I tell you what, I haven't thought about this book in years, but now that I have...it might explain a lot.

So there you have it, three awesome books about drumming. What are your favorite books about drumming or music, kids? Read on, readers.

Momentary Expanse

2011-04-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a recording I did with Tristan Perich back in January. Shortest session ever. 40 minutes including setup/teardown. We were like 1-bit ninjas.
Momentary Expanse, for vibraphone and two channel, 1-bit electronics. listen here.

Here I am, photographed by Tristan, about to perform it last July at MassMoCA.

One Minute from SXSW

2011-04-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

It was a great night for a Nonclassical SXSW showcase. Calder Quartet, Sissy Eared Molly Coddles, Juice, DJ Gabriel Prokofiev, Graham Reynolds' Golden Hornet Project--everybody killed. AND, I was backstage in the Veleveeta Room's tiny hallway when in walked none other than hilarious guy Aziz Ansari, who happened to be making comedy next door. Our eyes met, I froze, and he was gone.
Anyway, here's a little taste of Graham Reynolds' Blades & Boards from that fateful night (courtesy of NPR's All Songs Considered). That Bob Boilen is the man.

SXSW in a Nutshell

2011-03-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

Yup, this about sums it up.

photo: stolen from Chris McConnel's Facebook page
A guy in some weird scoopy tank top playing guitar in a parking lot in the afternoon for three entirely disinterested people drinking beer in appropriate garb. Tiger shirt? Got that. Totally bored? Check Extra Austin-points for 3 out of 3 audience members wearing cowboy boots.
More SXSW-related hijinks to follow.

Sweet beard, Arvo Pärt

2011-03-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

He's ready for SXSW, are you?

John Luther Adams: Inuksuit at the Armory

2011-03-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago I had the chance to perform Alaskan composer John Luther Adams’s expansive work Inuksuit. On its own, the piece provided the final concert for the weeklong Tune-in festival curated by eighth blackbird and held at the cavernous and historic Park Avenue Armory. It was my second time playing the piece, having performed in it Texas last April. Doug Perkins flexed his considerable organizational muscle to oversee both performances. For this, the New York premiere, I joined an ensemble of 72 percussionists from around the country and a complement of 6 piccolo players (can’t leave them out!). Doug handpicked a crack team that proved to be a percussive super group with plenty of serious ringers. Admittedly, I was a little star struck playing alongside the likes of Steve Schick, Jan Williams, and eighth blackbird. Also representing were So Percussion, Mantra Percussion, red fish blue fish, students from the Hartt School, Peabody, Stonybrook, Yale, and many more. From the first moment of the rehearsal process (a meeting to discuss the events and flow of the piece) it was clear I was at a large gathering of really sharp drummers. It was the ultimate drum circle.

What resulted was a realization of Adams’ hour plus score that unfolded in an organic, sensitive, and mature manner shocking for an unconducted band of that size. More akin to a living organism than a percussion orchestra, we listened patiently, played our notes, and took gradual cues to slowly wade through the music. Even better than being a part of this uncommon experience was that around 1,200 people showed up to hear this massive exploration of sounds with all its wailing sirens, crashing cymbals and gongs, pummeling of drums, stone rubbing, whistle tube whirling, and conch shell horn blasts. People came out for this thing and it was well received. It also garnered some really nice press, further acknowledging the Herculean effort invested for it to be presented.

Here’s the New York Times review and a video excerpt that provides an idea of the spatial arrangement of the players and the controlled cacophony happening under a very large roof.

Haters Gonna Hate

2011-01-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that the internet is the rudest place on earth. Anyone can say anything to anyone while remaining unidentified (and often spineless). So, January's award for fighting anonymous jerkdom goes to Adam Sliwinski of So Percussion. When one of my go-to blogs for music (ok, mostly for free metal downloads), Brooklyn Vegan, posted a somewhat misinformed but honest review of So's recent concert/collaboration with Dan Deacon at Merkin Hall as a part of the ongoing Ecstatic Music festival things got a little dumb in the comments section. And by a little dumb, I mean Youtube level. Adam responded in the comments thread with a well reasoned (and well written) rebuttal to the covert assailants. At first I thought "oh no dude, don't even dignify these clowns with a response," but shortly thereafter the comments became suddenly civil and thoughtful. Well, mostly.
So, good on you, Adam! I think we can all agree that if you're going to talk shit, say it to our collective faces.

winter preview...

2011-01-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

As this particularly snowy winter drags on, here's a couple of fun things to look forward to.

The Gershwin Presents
Gershwin Hotel: Thursday, January 20th @8pm

This show features a set of acoustic and electro-acoustic solo percussion music as part of a new and exciting concert series by the Gershwin Hotel and curated by Vicky Chow.

The program will include:

The Anvil Chorus by David Lang
Composed in 1991 for God of Percussion on Earth Steven Schick, this demanding piece invokes the sounds of many blacksmiths working at a single anvil and the resulting rhythmic (and melodic!) patterns inherent in their trade.

A Watched Pot by Steven Snowden
Scored for a tea kettle, mixing bowls, and electronics, A Watched Pot explores the sonic possibilities of some everyday objects. Coupled with a complex electronic counterpart, these repurposed kitchenwares set the stage for a dream within the mundane.

Ritual by Daniel Wohl
Ritual, for solo vibraphone, stands as a refuge of quiet and serenity in a noisy, dense world populated with noisier, denser percussion music.

Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra by Alvin Lucier
In this work of near stasis, the oft underestimated triangle is given a chance to show off its full timbral spectrum. Aided by amplification, the instrument's resonance and overtones are slowly manipulated over time brushing the border between music and sound art.

Temazcal by Javier Alvarez
The title is an Aztec word for "water that burns" and this piece for solo maracas and electronics takes the folkloric Joropo traditions of Venezuela on a dark and twisted ride.

Momentary Expanse by Tristan Perich
Local composer, visual artist, and gadgetrist Tristan Perich is at the height of his powers following the release of his acclaimed 1-Bit Symphony. Where his symphony is highly active and incessant, Momentary Expanse utilizes the same technology paired with a vibraphone to create a feeling of openness and suspension of time.

The cost is $10, and $5 for students.
map here.

Tune-in Music Festival: Inuksuit
Park Avenue Armory: Sunday, Feb. 20@ 4pm

The Tune-in Music Festival is curated by eighth blackbird. This is reason enough for discerning music fans to take note, but more details are in order! The festival runs from February 16th-20th and includes performances by new music luminaries eighth blackbird, red fish blue fish, Steve Schick, Newspeak, Sympho, Argento Chamber Orchestra, among others. The festival closes with a performance of John Luther Adams' hour-plus long Inuksuit for 9 to 99 percussionists. Last Spring, I had the opportunity to perform this piece with a full complement of 99 drummers dispersed throughout the central Texas woods of Round Top'sFestival Hill. It was wild, there are videos.
For the New York premiere, the vault of the sky will be replaced with the soaring ceiling of the Park Avenue Armory and its 38,000 square feet will be filled with 72 musicians and their drums, gongs, horns, conch shells, toy pianos, etc.
Big thanks to Doug Perkins who organized both the TX and upcoming NY performances of this massive-scale work.

we want the airwaves

2010-12-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

Last night's show at the Southern Theater couldn't have been more fun. Here's a preshow writeup and radio spot from MPR News.

Listen hear.

Also, joropo maraca playing as it relates to fist pumping.

I just realized I've been in a lot of bands

2010-12-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

I tell you what, I've had a lot of fun playing solo music lately via working on my one man band. I'm working on booking shows, bugging people to write music for me, starting to write my own music--I even have a blog where I can be as self-bepuffed as I want to be about the whole thing.

But,

I never really saw myself performing music onstage by...myself. As long as I've held drum sticks it was for the purpose of playing music with other people, and I've always been in bands ever since (let me think how many*). Since I've only been at the solo thing for a little over a year now, I still feel super awkward when I finish a song and people clap and it's just me up there. I look around for band mates I could high five or toast with my drink-ticket-scammed beer. But it's just me so I do the sort of half-bow that doesn't really make sense for the recital hall or the club. Not to mention that I went from being in the back behind a bunch of drums to being right up there in the Collective Grill with nowhere to hide. At least my music school solo recital requirements gave me some practice with that but man, it's not the same.

However, as much as I miss the camaraderie I've found that being the only member in a band streamlines a lot of the process. No coordinating everyone's work schedules for band practice--it's just me! No arguments over which direction the band should take--it's still just me, and what I say goes. And since being in a band is like having 3 girlfriends (or boyfriends) no dramz or personality clashes except for my internal struggles, but we don't have to talk about that.

But when I watch bands really nail it--like Propagandhi, TOOL, the recent Bang on a Can Allstars' concert, or So Percussion with Meehan Perkins Duo a few weeks back--and remember how mind-meldingly tight sofakingdom could be in our heyday I have to concede that's where it's at. "For now, though, I'm having fun focusing on the Me Show," he said, sitting in an airport by himself waiting 5 hours for a delayed flight on the way to a gig.

*OK, here's what a brief dredging of my brain found:
sofakingdom
Written Off
Elisa Ferarri
The Tea Merchants
Cobretti
Sargeant Parkinson's Platoon
G8
Erik Espe
The Vinyl Collection
Ah, Venice!
The Pan-Metropolita Trio
Rattletree Marimba
The Aries Project
Needs No Chill
Racketball
Undertow
5 Mile Chase
Hips Don't Lie
probably more that I'm spacing right now...

If you don't talk to your kids about Steven Snowden, who will?

2010-11-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Me, that's who.

Steve is an unbelievably creative and hard working artist. He's a wizard when it comes to music technology and uses his fluency in several software programs to make sounds I've never even thought about before, and use them in musically meaningful ways. He also rides a Harley everywhere. Which is way kickass. He's the kind of guy that would write you a Max MSP patch in the morning, change your oil in the afternoon, and then cook up a dynamite chorizo stew for 20 of his friends like it was no big deal (he even made a special vegetarian bowl of it for me).

I mean, check out this piece for trombone and live electronics which uses field recordings of cattle auctioneers (Steve Parker, trombone).
Or this breathtaking piano quintet performed by Austin's Aeolus Quartet and Kevin Garnica, piano.

Steve and I had been friends for a year and a half, batting around ideas for a percussion piece before we began working on the project below. I had worked with dancer/choreographer Rosalyn Nasky twice before, once in a truly epic staging of George Crumb's Music for a Summer Evening and again in an eerie setting of Temazcal by Javier Alvarez. Naturally, I was really excited when I was able to get all three of us together to talk about a possible collaboration.

The premiere was in June, 2010 at Big Range Austin, an annual dance festival organized by the tireless Ellen Bartel. This was a particularly fun project in that it was a three headed collaborative process between Steve, Roz, and myself. Based on our schedules we had collectively about one month to put this together and for the first couple weeks Steve worked at an astonishing rate.

After deciding the instrumentation (tea kettle and mixing bowls) he and I came into the studio and recorded every single sound we could get out of those things. Steve then took all the sampled sounds and wove them together into a midi mockup mosaic of what the piece would become, meanwhile composing/building the complex electronic component. As he worked he uploaded his progress onto a blog he created specifically for our project so Rosalyn and I could witness the creative process unfold, offer feedback, and in her case find Inspirado.

Then we had couple weeks for me to try and learn the piece and for Rosalyn to work out her (and my) steps.

Steve had the presence of mind to record the live instruments through the soundboard, later syncing it with his electronic audio, AND getting multiple HD camera angles in on the action (oh, and he edited the video, too).

So, what you can watch here is our super hot off the presses performance from last summer's Big Range Austin.

A Watched Pot from Steven Snowden on Vimeo.

Aggravated Assault

2010-10-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

Here's my take on Oscar Bettison's Breaking & Entering (With Aggravated Assault).

I grew up playing really loud, really fast music with my most excellent friends in Sofakingdom, a band started in high school that graduated to playing about a gazillion sparsely attended shows in Minneapolis and mounting a handful of unbelievably fun (if not lucrative) smelly-dudes-in-a-van tours. So when I first peeked at my Breaking & Entering drum part with it's expertly-notated blast beats I laughed out loud at the fact that I'd get a chance to use those skills I developed in beer-soaked basements and scummy dive bars for the higher call of "contemporary music". However, it resulted in a personal highlight when I took the stage with my colleauges at the 2010 Bang on a Can Summer Institute marathon concert (with Brad Lubman conducting!) and proceeded to play this piece. Loud. Really loud. I was told the janitors had to use extra mops that night clean up all the melted faces. OK, not really, but you can imagine.

Give a listen from that night.

Yeah, I know, it's all about the "genre busting" these days, but I never expected a collision between my two worlds of "classical music" and full-on thrash attacks. My friends from one never really understood the other. So thanks, Oscar. But hey, who's supposed to play that part anyway? There just aren't many people schooled both in Darmstadt and Cannibal Corpse. I mean, David T. Little of Newspeak just happens to be a composer extraodinaire/rock drummer with good taste in metal and he had to learn double kick pedals just for this piece. And admirably; the Newspeak recording rocks [B&E was written for them, and they play it like it was].
Either way, I guess I missed playing with my sofakingdom dude-lifemates so much I just relished the opportunity to make an unholy racket and channel my inner Dave Lombardo once again.

Videotime: The Anvil Chorus

2010-10-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

I guess since this thing has my name all over it and even a photo of me trying to look cool I should go ahead a put a video up of myself playing. Makes sense, right?

One of my very favorite pieces in the solo percussion repertoire is David Lang's The Anvil Chorus. It's also one of the most popular ones out there and according to the composer possibly the most oft performed piece he as ever written. It also involves the most ninja-like balance and control in the rep. because of its intricate foot work from pedal to pedal [editor's unsolicited opinion: playing it seated totally eliminates the Ninja Factor©, and where's the fun in that?]

When David stopped in last spring to hear the UT Percussion Group play the so-called laws of nature he commented that even after all these years he doesn't get bored listening to performances of The Anvil Chorus largely because it always sounds radically different from one performer to the next. Obviously there's lots of reasons for this, but musical execution aside he was referring to it's largely open instrumentation. Wherever you go a piano sounds pretty much like a piano, and a violin like a violin, but a piece of "non-resonant metal" could be anything from a wok to the hood of a car.

Hearing him say that about this piece at least made me less squeamish about trying my hands and feet at it after someone like Steve Schick put a pretty indelible, Sony-recorded stamp on it years ago.
Makes me glad I don't play the piano or violin.

It was still pretty fresh when I recorded this almost a year ago, but nonetheless, enjoy!

A dance party is keystrokes away.

2010-10-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

This post is short, sweet, and dangerously full of slammin' beats and slow jamz.
Austin's best and my personal favorite DJ Mel has a ton of downloads on his blog here.

Sleeping Giant

2010-10-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about music is simply trying to keep up. Trends in art, literature, and music (and pretty much everything else) move so fast these days that it can be tough to stay aware of what's going on out there. And after all, knowing what's up can be directly related to one's own relevance.
As any classical music student, performer, or enthusiast can attest it's hard enough to get thoroughly familiar with all the essential composers from centuries past and that list is pretty finite. What I mean is that they wrote music, they died, and now we study them; it's not like more are popping up every year and writing new jams we have to learn to play. However, in the case of new music, things are much more fluid.

Keeping abreast of what composers are doing right now is more like following bands. It's daunting since there's like, a million of them out there but aggregate music sites like Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan as well as reviews from festivals like Austin's South by Southwest can help one learn who exists, who's blowing up, and even just who has the most awesome band name. However, generating buzz and generating quality music are two very distinct things. In a perfect world they would go hand in hand but remember, there's a lot of noise out there...
[Editor's note: check out The Onion's hilarious annual compendium of band names, both excellent and bogus]

Which brings me to my Power Focus Topic© for the day and a real live example of quality work nabbing attention and critical acclaim: the Sleeping Giant Collective. This group of 5 New York based composers has been writing really great music and people have been taking note (you would do well to acquaint yourself with Ted Hearne's Katrina Ballads, just saying).
Next week they are putting on two concerts, one at the Yale School of Music and one at the evercool le poisson rouge. I played drums on the premiere of Robert Honstein's Why are you not answering? this summer while we were both fellows at the Bang on a Can festival. Robert and I go back to the University of Texas where we became masters by degree and played in a band together, so it was great to make music together again. Next week marks the 2nd and 3rd performances of his piece and this time I'll be joining some Yale students as well as bassist Lisa Dowling (aka Lil Miss Dolemite).

Here's more information on the shows from Facebook, and LPR.

And since you read all those words here's a video from Katrina Ballads in which Ted has set some of Barbara Bush's dubious and now infamous post-hurricane utterances to music. Really good music.

Ted Hearne - Katrina Ballads (Barbara Bush 9.5.05) from Satan's Pearl Horses on Vimeo.

Southern Theater

2010-09-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm really thrilled to return to the Southern Theater in Minneapolis for a concert with Jace Clayton, better known around the world as DJ/rupture. Not only is MPLS my favorite town full of great friends, great year round bike riding, and general awesomeness, it's also home to one of the coolest theaters in which I've ever had the chance to play. Music programming director Kate Nordstrum has consistently corralled innovative and eclectic artists often by bringing the pinnacle of New York Cool to the Culture Capital of the Midwest [editor's note: Owen just invented that title, but it's true].

At my last dance at the Southern in 2008, I was part of a MPLS satellite concert of NYC's Wordless Music Series performing music by Iannis Xenakis and John Cage alongside guitar looping artist Andrew Broder and laptop music/video composer, sepia.
This time around I'm bringing an all electroacoustic set with music by Austin composers Graham Reynolds and Steven Snowden, as well as works by Tristan Perich and Javier Alvarez. More on these composers and their music later, but they all bring something sonically and aesthetically unique to the table.

The show is Tuesday, December 14th, and tickets are available from this link.

A little more on Jace Clayton: Turntablist DJ/Rupture occupies a dizzying variety of musical and artistic spaces from holding court at parties and soloing with the Barcelona Symphony to running a record label, a great blog, and a radio show (to name just a few projects). An avid video collaborator, here's a look at a teamup with Brooklyn-based Panoptic:

Hard Wares

2010-08-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

Many of us that make music primarily by hitting stuff with sticks tend to spend a lot of time in hardware stores. Necessity is the mother of invention and a lot of times we're asked to produce sounds that you just can't find at your local Music Shoppe. So, we cut and grind metal pipes to exact pitches, salvage auto brake drums from scrapyards, or spend a Saturday afternoon selecting the perfect set of terracotta flower pots (to the consternation of the garden department staff). It can take a little time, but it's always fun in the end to step back and see what we've created, like some kind of Mr. Wizard meets Bob Vila. And then hit it with sticks.

After a day devoted to gathering supplies and testing my carpentry mettle I've completed setup version 1.0 for Graham Reynolds' in-progress piece. Check it out:

Here's the rundown:
Four oak planks suspended on weather stripping, four saw blades mounted on blocks with cymbal sleeves drilled onto them, and four sink strainers hung from a rack made of PVC pipes and joints. And yes, I strung the strainers with old shoelaces for extra Eco-points®.
Sure it took all day, but it beats cutting reeds and after all it's the easy part: Graham has to write all the music.

speaking of saw blades...

2010-08-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

Via Daniel Wolf.

So... two composers, a hard-core complexist and an equally hard-core experimentalist, happen to meet in the lumber department of a hardware store, waiting in line to get some plywood cut to order. The experimentalist asks the complexist why he's there. The complexist answers that he's "working on a very big piece, and I'm using so many oversize charts and graphs and tables and arrays" that he needed a piece of plywood so he could add an extension to his desk in order to accommodate all his paperwork. "Why are you here?" asked the complexist in return. The experimentalist smiled: "I like the sound of plywood going through a really big table saw."

Graham Reynolds premiere, 10/10

2010-08-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Composer Graham Reynolds is as Austin as Barton Springs and the Cathedral of Junk (RIP). Between playing in the ever unclassifiable Golden Arm Trio, writing music for choreographed garbage trucks, and composing tons music for dance and films--including A Scanner Darkly--he might be the busiest musician I know. Luckily, that didn't stop him from agreeing to take on a percussion solo commission project over the summer, the premiere of which will be on October 10th at Austin's own haven for misfit music the Salvage Vanguard Theater.
After a trip to Home Depot armed with some mallets and a violin bow we settled on an instrumentation of wooden planks, circular saw blades, and sink strainers. Oh, and he suggested electronics too, which was great considering my penchant for the portability of The Electroacoustic. Got a backpack full of junk and an iPod? See you at the gig.