New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Nothing says “I Love You” like a mixtape, and yesterday Flosstradamus offered their love up to the world. Check out the crew’s Valentine’s Day Mix. Flosstradamus will be spinning tonight (Feb. 12th) at Lincoln Hall for their annual FlosstrPROMus. The event starts at 10:30pm.
Justin Remer and his Elastic Nono Band could be considered a little bit like the NYC Antifolk scene’s own Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention – for the unstoppable productivity, for the cluttered arrangements, for flirting with absurdity and ridiculousness, for an uncontrollable urge to mix up the genres, even for the preference for what we will call graphics with some sort of "expressionist" vibe to them. Of course you’ll find a lot more folk, country, rockabilly and silly jokes (and no jamming at all) in the Nono Band’s latest double CD entitled "Fustercluck" – an effort that succeeds once again in being funnier than Bright Eyes (this has been the band’s mission since 2004). The punk element that theoretically should belong to any antifolk artist (but which doesn’t in a majority of cases) is replaced in the Elastic Nono Band’s music by a "Weenesque" repulsion for the idea of seriously conveying feelings through music – now that’s definitely something that goes against folk music’s clichés. Mr. Renerwill play The Anti Folk festival at The Side Walk Café (the East Village AntiFolk hub that for some reason rejects our magazines 9 times out of ten – no, we’re not bitter…) on 02.17.
The Khyber (56 S. 2nd St.) FRI Big Terrible, SAT Welcome to My Face and 722, SUN McRad, The Boils, Necktie
M Room (12 W. Girard Ave.) SAT Biodiesel and Sonic Spank, SUN Liz Fullerton and Johnny Miles
Tritone (1508 South St.) SAT Sgt. Sass, Homophones
Michael Bernier & The Uprising will be playing his last show before he leaves the country to go to Belize to explore more about hand-drumming. Bernier won 2nd place in the overall year end contest and 2nd place in the reader’s poll. We will be featuring an interview with him when he returns from his travels. Supporting at The Big Easy, Station 85, Div Kid and People With Instruments.
–The Deli Staff
The seed of an idea was long simmering, something discussed excitedly over coffee between Johnny Brenda’s booker Brandy Hartley and musician Birdie Busch. Brandy, inspired by a night of music she used to attend while living in Chicago called “Devil in the Woodpile” and Birdie by old television variety shows like that of Johnny Cash’s and Dick Cavett’s in the 70s, made plans to have a night at Johnny Brenda’s that brought a lot of their co-conspiring to light. Thus we present the inaugural unarguable Philly Opry on Friday, February 12th, the night of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and the kick-off for all St. Valentine weekenders with their dance cards eagerly in hand. Hosting and performing the night with her band will be Birdie Busch, and joining her as featured acts will be local songsmith Scott Pryor and the traveling honky-tonk harmony-tastic Sweetback Sisters. Tying them all together like the fine embroidery of a nudie suit will be Esposito Bandito and Sneaky Cheese weaving stories of Wild West Philly and other special guests. As you may have guessed, dressing up in your finest country flare is crazily encouraged and will be celebrated upon your arrival to the revival. – From The Deli’s Open Blog
The Deli SF’s Best Emerging Artist of 2008, Maus Haus, will release a new 7" single "Winter"/"Zig Zag" at their Noise Pop 2010 show. This is Maus Haus’s first release since 2008’s Lark Marvels and includes an additional digital only 4 track EP Sea-Sides.
The February 27th show at the Mezzanine features My First Earthquake, Sugar & Gold, Maus Haus and Brooklyn’s !!! – a lineup that promises a lot of energy and a lot of dancing. It will undoubtedly be one of the many highlights of the festival.
-Nicole Leigh
To put it mildly, Tu Fawning is a force of nature – a pulsing, bubbling, organic quartet of able-bodied musical sponges wading in the suds of Portland’s post-rock puddles. To get serious about prodding their muses and defining their sound would take the combined efforts of a self-writing quill, an encyclopedic understanding of synergy and the language of trees, and the tears of a Cherokee raindancer. So I’ll try to keep it mild.
Tu Fawning is the spawn of Portland musical luminaries Corrina Repp (of Corrina Repp and Viva Voce fame) and Joel Haege (the explosive force behind art-punk-funk trio 31 Knots). The duo recently became a foursome, inviting in the key-tinklin’ talents of Liza Rietz (also a popular PDX fashion designer), and multi-instrumentalist/mostly brass-ist Toussaint Perrault. The quartet unhinges a fluid, tribal, melancholy melange using tambourines, samples, shadowy percussion, modest guitar, trumpets, layered vocals and more to stitch together a hollow, holistic version of minimalist orchestral rock. It’s hypnotic, to say the least; and a goddamn religious experience live.
Here, Haege’s spastic, choppy guitar squalls – so patented within the carnival realm of 31 Knots – are replaced by plaintive, subtle notation. His secondary presence is due foremost to the equally engaging aura of Repp, whose fluffy-gruff vocal melodies drive the songs to parts unknown, while Perrault’s brass and percussive elements mix with the shaky-hands of Rietz and her generous key contributions.
"Multiply A House" sounds like a neo-Squanto day trip recorded in an empty jail cell with Glenn Miller’s Orchestra tripping on LSD and playing the same, echoing lines forever and ever. For clarification: This is amazing.
Go see this band right now. Even if they’re not playing. And vote for them in our Band of the Month poll to the top right of this blog if you dig.
– Ryan J. Prado
If, in the coming months, you realize that the availible selections on your ipod have become cumbersome or uninteresting, consider giving some of the artists from the upcoming 3rd annual Switchboard Music Festival a listen. Since 2007, the Switchboard Music Festival has aimed to create a "marathon concert featuring artists, primarily from the San Francisco Bay Area, whose music challenges traditional genre distinctions." At this years 8 hour marathon concert you’ll experience such Bay Area artists as the black metal bossa nova fusion band Thorny Brocky, the experimental cello arrangements of Zoe Keating [above], and the prog rock classical thrash metal of miRthkon.
If you can find a Bay Area music festival with a more eccentric lineup, tell me about it and I’ll give you $5 dollars from my own pocket*.
The Switchboard Music Festival takes place on March 28th and tickets range from $10-40.
-Nicole Leigh
photo by Lane Hartwell
*5 (five) United States Dollars will be awarded to 1 (one), only 1 (one) winner who can give me the name of a Bay Area music festival with a lineup in greater anomalus nature to the Switchboard Music Festival. This contest is in no way sponsored by the Switchboard Music Festival and is void where prohibited by law. Ps, the $5 bill I just pulled out of my wallet and set aside for this contest reads "I love you Jesus!! Thank you for provisions!!" – consider that a bonus.
Portland composer and musician Eluvium, also known as Mathew Cooper, has unveiled a new video directed by Matt McCormick for the tune "The Motion Makes Me Last." The video seamlessly edits together shots from the taller examples of Portland’s architecture, as they float by in a way that mysteriously matches the track.
The song will be featured on the upcoming album Similes, to be released February 23rd on Temporary Residence. I would describe what I’ve heard from Eluvium’s previous work as both ambient and minimalist, specifically with regard to the piano work, which I’ve very much enjoyed.
The new song is beautiful and will hopefully be consistent with the new album. It has the opportunity to appeal to a larger spectrum of listeners, while still remaining close to the dreamy and atmospheric roots that Cooper has been perfecting over his four previous albums.
Check the video out and if you like what you hear, you can snag the song as a free download from Pitchfork.
– Joel Sommer