The Red and the Black

well, the red and the black is finally opening this week. the website should be up any day now. my first show there is for swiss avant-jazz trio day & taxi, with DCIC.

Clavius Productions presents:

Tuesday, June 13
The Red and the Black
1212 H St NE WDC
$7, 21+
doors at 8:30, show at 9:30

Day & Taxi (avant-jazz sax/bass/drums trio from Switzerland)
DCIC (experimental improv jazz guitar/bass/sax/drums ensemble from DC)


Day & Taxi
http://www.percaso.ch/

The Swiss trio DAY & TAXI was originally formed in 1988 as a quartet with saxophonist Urs Blöchlinger (1954-1995). From the beginning, the group consisted of Scottish bassist Lindsay L. Cooper (1940-2001) and Swiss drummer Dieter Ulrich.

Besides concerts in Switzerland, DAY & TAXI toured Russia and the Baltic States in 1993, and played various jazz festivals in Canada in 1994. The trio's stock repertoire are original compositions. The initial work of the original trio is documented on CD (PERCASO11, RecRec Distr.) and is entitled "all". Lindsay Cooper went back to Scottland in 1994 and after some time apart DAY & TAXI resurfaced with a new contrabassist (Dominique Girod) and a new repertoire (documented on CD: DAY & TAXI "about" PERCASO 17, "less and more" UNIT RECORDS 4121, RecRec Distr.).

This trio toured USA and Canada in 1998 and Russia in 2000. The years between 2001 and 2003 DAY & TAXI are documented on CD with Daniel Studer on bass and Marco Käppeli on drums ("private" & "material" PERCASO 20, 21, RecRec Distr.). This edition toured Japan in 2001. In 2004 Christian Weber replaced Studer on bass. This trio toured China and Taiwan in 2005 (Documented on LP, PERCASO 22, "live in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Taipei").

Todays edition of the trio -â?? since 2006 with German drummer Michael Griener -â?? plays mostly Gallio compositions, which define and stylize a mixture of contemporary new music and jazz. The improvisation, abstract, and plastic visions are the extra important ingredients in the music of DAY & TAXI.


DCIC
http://dcic.alkem.org/

Jonathan Matis – guitar/electronics:
Jonathan Matis is a composer and performer whose work actively combines the practices of composition and improvisation. Matis has composed music for dance, incidental music for theater, and a variety of concert works. Performing with electric guitar, a small collection of low-tech preparations, and live signal processing, Matis coaxes textures from the instrument – in addition to the occasional tried-and-true plucked string approach. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Washington DC Chapter of the American Composers Forum. His last name is also Morris. It's kind of a funny story.

Mike Sebastian - tenor & soprano sax/bass clarinet:
Mike has been playing reed instruments for over 12 years. His passion to play grew when he first heard the spirituality of John Coltrane's music. Mike plays improvised experimental, jazz, rock, gospel, and any other type of music that encourages creativity. His experience includes playing in a gospel orchestra, as well as with various local improvisers. Recently Mike played improvised music for dance with Jon Matis and Mark Merella at the DC Improv Festival. A particular thrill was playing with Peter Kowald and local Baltimore musicians at the Red Room in 2000.

Ben Azzara - drums/percussion:
As a child Ben saw Kenny Clark play with Dizzy Gillespie, and ever since he has been seduced by all things drums. Jazz trained but seasoned in rock clubs across the North America and Europe, he has been the progenitor of numerous groups including the emo-punk innovators Junction, the infamous Delta 72, and most recently, Dischord's Capitol City Dusters of whom the UK's Q magazine said, "…Dischord has struck another vein of precious musical ore." Ben continues to perform with his wife SARAH AZZARA and has produced three full-length releases with her. You can listen to MP3s from all of Ben's various musical excursions at his website benazzara.com.

Snailhook, please tell me you had a hand in this.

06/22 Shorty's B-day Party

Shorty's B-day Party feat: Jamila, Flo, MOre Dierich Mafia, Triple T, S.M.S. (Space), Mr. Yuk, Kontachigh, Christylez, Green Tea $7

Originally posted by snailhook:
http://www.redandblackbar.com

whoops, they left their lipsum showing

http://www.redandblackbar.com/portal/

econo, shorty is a near and dear friend of mine. shorty has hit a few unfortunate bumps in the road of life, and mr yuk and i thought it'd be nice to throw him a birfday bash to lift some spirits.

The owners of DC9 invite you to the opening of their new place, The Red & The Black. It will open on Monday, June 12th. The Red & The Black is fashioned similar to DC9. Two levels, the first level has a long bar with booth seating. A wall-mounted jukebox allows you to select over 200,000 songs. The second floor is for live entertainment and dance night events.

Unfortunately, we were not able to get a liquor license for opening night. Next to The Red & The Black is The Palace Of Wonders. This bar is dedicated to circus sideshow entertainment and
freak oddities. The Palace Of Wonders has a full bar and will be glad to serve you.

We should have a liquor license by this coming weekend.

Here is a list of shows for this coming week:

OPENING NIGHT 8pm
June 12: Doveman w/ Davis Broughton $7

June 13: Day and Taxi (avant-jazz from Switzerland)/DCIC $7

June 16: Can a Sista Rock a Mic? Music Festival $10
Presents The Remedy - open mic jam session.

June 18: Will Soderberg w/ Roxanne Jean Polise, Adam Mokan, John Dikeman/Scott Verrastro Duo, Tone Ghosting $7

June 21: Divider w/ Waking State & The Potential

The Red & The Black is located at 1212 H Street NE, Washington, DC 20002
http://www.redandblackbar.com

If last night's first show ever, with the Doveman, set the trend for the Red and the Black, music fans (ummm except those who can't tolerate anything other than Sonic Youth, The Pixies or Drive by Truckers) are in for serious entertainment.

TheR&B is easier to find than Mapquest would indicate. There's plenty of parking on H Street, and directly across from the club is a wide-open parking lot. The R&B is beautiful; the bar next door an amazing experience too. Eventually the R&B will have an outside patio to catch some air. Plans include a four-five block area of clubs, restaurants - and the flagship - the Rock and Roll Hotel.

Worth a trip. Can't wait to hear tonight's line-up.

I have spread the word to my DC music posse. Look forward to checking it out. Thanks for the info and input, Snailhook & Bartleby!

Question – is this "H Street shopping district" Barracks Row off Pennsylvania Ave?

Originally posted by Bags:
Question – is this "H Street shopping district" Barracks Row off Pennsylvania Ave?

noooo, definitely not as gentrified as barracks row … it's in the hood, kind of near gallaudet univ … there was a great story in the city paper a while back about the firemen who work in that neighborhood who have to deal with picking up the same drunks and addicts in front of the same stores every day, really well-written

bartleby, i had no idea you were gonna be there. attendance was about 15 for the first show, which wasn't bad considering it was monday and a new venue without alcohol.

the space is small, very similar in size to the velvet lounge, but much nicer. it's a perfect room for 30-50 people, for jazz, folk, and experimental music. we'll have rock there, but it will easily get full (think about how quick the velvet fills up).

the sideshow bar next to the red and black is interesting but definitely campy. the red and the black will have liquor by thursday.

tonight will be great.

actually, sparx, i had to move that show to the warehouse next door. and it's zodiac mountain (which is wooden wand with clay ruby from davenport).

Clavius Productions presents its second show at new Northeast DC space The Red and the Black, with three mindblowing Midwestern noise merchants, the debut meeting between saxophonist (and Egyptian resident) John Dikeman and DC percussionist Scott Verrastro, and DC area vinyl mangler Tone Ghosting. Don't miss what promises to be an esoteric night of alien sounds:

Sunday, June 18
The Red and the Black
http://www.redandblackbar.com
1212 H St NE WDC
$7, 21+
doors at 8:30, show at 9:30

Will Soderberg
Roxanne Jean Polise
Adam Mokan
John Dikeman/Scott Verrastro Duo (sax/drums free jazz-influenced improv)
Tone Ghosting (vinyl and hacksaw sound manipulator from DC)


Will Soderberg
http://white-rose.net
http://www.myspace.com/willsoderberg

Will Soderberg is part of an ever-evolving, eclectic collective of musicians and sound makers, playing under various guises and making lots of racket. He has been exploring the outer limits of sound and music for more than two decades, sometimes using laptop, midi guitar, and electronics to conjure up bone-rattling sounds of ghosts in the attic. His recordings and performances cover ground from the outer limits of electronic free noise to swervy psychedelic rock 'n' roll. He's currently working with producer Mayo Thompson (The Red Krayola).


Roxanne Jean Polise
http://www.roxannejeanpolise.com/
http://www.myspace.com/roxannejeanpolise

"Steev Thompson of Roxanne Jean Polise is so embedded into the cassette world that I look to his discography to see what tape labels have come into existence while my back was turned. American Grizzly was such a discovery, a pleasant one thatâ??s only looking sunnier as the release schedule snaps into focus. While many of his blink-and-miss-it offerings (on Tapeworm, Rundownsun, Apop, and loads others) have eluded me, the density of Bottom of the Ocean provides material enough to keep the appetite sated.

Like many of his Michigan brethren, RJP flings that broken electronics shite, although the RJP recipe leaves much of the violence behind. Instead, the word harmbient has been applied -â?? with a cringe from all involved, Iâ??m sure -â?? but the term does roughly fit. Combining the attitude of harsh noise, some of its sonics, and a healthy dose of horror movie pacing (creak, creak, creak, BOOM), RJP makes ambient sounds for paranoid delusionals. The layers in his tracks sound alternately and simultaneously like burning buildings, Frankenstein footsteps, Frankensteinâ??s victims crushed – glottis gurgles, and Antarctic radio wave interference, providing just the climate of moist breath and desolation to provoke one hell of a breakdown.

Iâ??ve always been fond of the suffix "scape" in regards to music like this, so here goes: Roxanne Jean Polise spawns deathscapes, scrapescapes, and broken-metal-gratescapes, all the decrepit castles and missing persons that can fit on the rolling land of the average dronescape. RJPâ??s anger is muted, small of gesture and large of threat, and it makes for one hell of an escape." (Bryan Berge/Stylus Magazine)

"A dense unsettling blanket of liquid gloom. like mechanical ants getting under your skin slurping your blood. A shivering totally intense experience of sleep-inducing waves that lower the hydration of the brain colloids. As your mind gets buried under dust, a blackened cluster of clouds looms over the garbage. An anthem for intense sleepwalkers before getting sucked into a bottomless void." (Freaks End Future)

Highly recommended for fans of creepy, death ambience, i.e. Hive Mind, Wolf Eyes, Double Leopards, etc.


Adam Mokan
http://www.russolo.com/adammokan/
http://www.myspace.com/adammokan

Originally from Flint, Michigan, Adam Mokan currently resides in Chandler, Arizona. Adam collaborates with a wide range of artists often releasing material under different aliases or projects that range from harsh noise to ambient works. Since 1996, Adam has performed in nearly every corner of the United States with a wide variety of acts and musicians.


John Dikeman/Scott Verrastro Duo
http://www.johndikeman.com/
http://www.claviusproductions.org

John Dikeman, born in Nebraska, spent most of his childhood in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Thanks to the extreme isolation of his hometown, he spent most of his free time practicing and studying music. He quickly discovered the musics of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, and Albert Ayler and instantly connected to the unmatched expressive power of free jazz.

At the age of 16, Dikeman met New Mexican guitarist, Stefan Dill, who became his mentor. They performed together in Wyoming and Utah throughout the next couple of years. Dikeman was later featured in one of Dill's albums Flower and Song. Dill introduced Dikeman to the legendary improviser Jack Wright. Jack became one of the biggest influences on Dikeman's music, bringing him away from his overt jazz influences and opening him up to many different approaches to improvisation such as the reductionist aesthetics that Jack had been exploring at the time with Bostonian improviser Bhob Rainey.

Dikeman left Wyoming in 1999 to study saxophone and composition at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Later, Dikeman would study with free jazz legends Joe Maneri and Milford Graves. In 2002, Dikeman found himself in New York City. He played with many of the most innovative musicians around, including Jeff Arnal, Chris Forsyth, Jonathan Vincent, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mike Pride, Nate Wolley, Reuben Radding, Blaise Siwula, George Cremaschi, Daniel Carter, Lukas Ligeti, Ty Combe, Fritz Welch, Mat Bua, and dancer Zack Fuller.

A year later Dikeman moved into Jack Wright's house in Philadelphia, where he met violist Jonathan Fretheim and bassist Michael Barker. During this time, Dikeman worked regularly with his housemates and local musicians such as Toshi Makihara, Charles Cohen, Wes Mathews, Dave Smolen, and Evan Lipson. He was also an occasional guest with Philly based avant-rock group, Sharks Without Wings. In his spare time, Dikeman installed security alarms for Action Alarm Specialists.

John is currently living in Cairo, Egypt where he has had continued success performing free music, both solo and as a duo with New Zealand pianist Darren Pickering. Dikeman has also helped connect free music in the Middle East, performing in the Lebanese festival Irtijal as well as working with bassist Raed Yassin in Cairo. Besides improvised music, John works regularly with groups ranging from his own jazz and blues band, Gerry and the Facemakers, to the international Nubian pop star Mohamed Mounir. Dikeman has performed as a soloist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra; he has also performed with most of the jazz musicians in Cairo at one time or another. Dikeman works as a studio musician, teaches woodwinds at the New British School in Cairo and The Modern English School, and plays weddings, bar mitzvahs, funerals…

Other musicians John has worked with through the years include: Jon Barrios, Kurt Heyl, Damon Smith, Ben Hall, John Voigt, Bryan Eubanks, Masashi Harada, Ava Mendoza, Katt Hernandez, Jonathan Leland, Keefe Jackson, Cristina Menendez, Andy Hershberger, Daniel Barnidge, Markus Eichenberger, Sam Shalabi…

Dikeman will be performing in DC with Kohoutek drummer/percussionist Scott Verrastro, who utilizes a plethora of sticks, brushes, bells, shakers, cymbals and gongs, metal, contact mics, and household items – in addition to a traditional drum kit – to coax a wide palette of sounds. Though he never studied with anybody in particular, he received a degree in music literature from Northeastern University in Boston and continues to examine many forms of music, including all styles of improvisation and traditional folk. His main percussion influences are Milford Graves, Rashied Ali, Muhammed Ali, Sunny Murray, Han Bennink, Jaki Liebezeit, Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir on Larks' Tongues in Aspic, and yes, even John Bonham, Keith Moon, and Nick Mason. His improv psych band Kohoutek explores all of this territory, veering from drony Krautrock-inspired psych to abstract noise freak-outs and everything in between.


Tone Ghosting
http://www.panicresearch.com/

A solo project of Jeff Bagato (aka DJ Panic), Tone Ghosting features a unique homemade instrument he invented himself: playing vinyl LPs with small hacksaw and electronic FX, magnifying, modifying, and energizing the small scrapes & squeaks to create a complex musical vocabulary. The patented "Tone Ghosting process" includes looping these sounds, reformulating them in frenetic live dubs, and adding freeform vocal madness. Tone Ghosting creates a unique sonic universe somewhere between the attack of power electronics and the complex mind-body games of electronica and non-idiomatic free improvisation.

Bagato's other musical projects include the electro-acoustic free improv trio Spaceships Panic Orbit; a duo with Violet called Violet Panic; the electro-acoustic free improv + poetry group Croniamantal; and the improvising avant-punk band Alzo Boszormenyi and the Acid Achievers. He promotes the Electric Possible monthly series for experimental music in Washington, DC. His book Mondo DC: An Insider's Guide to Washington, DC's Most Unusual Tourist Attractions was published in 2005 on Panic Research Press/AuthorHouse. From 1989-2000, Bagato edited and published 13 issues of Mole Magazine, a journal of "Outsider Art, Crackpot Thought, Other Music, and the Counterculture."


Upcoming Clavius events:

611 Florida:

6/25: Dragons 1976 (free jazz from Chicago featuring members of Vandermark 5, Born Heller, and Mandarin Movie)/Andrew Lafkas (acoustic bass) & Bryan Eubanks (electronics)/New America Wing (avant-chamber music from CT)

The Red and the Black:

7/2: Stamen & Pistils/Madagascar (instrumental gypsy folk ensemble from Baltimore)/Emma Zunz (accordion/guitar duo from Seattle)/Homemade Knives/John Shaw (from Son of Eart/The Believers)
7/5: The Coughs (Load Records, noise rock from Chicago)
7/23: French Toast (Dischord)/Lucky Pineapple (Louisville post-punk)/The Family Underground (Danish improv psych ensemble)/Book of Common Gestures (Jean Smith of Mecca Normal and David First of The Notekillers)

DC9:

6/26: Brightblack Morning Light (Matador psych-folk)/Espers (Drag City, psych-folk from Philadelphia)/Mariee Sioux
6/29: Drunk Horse (Tee Pee Records)/Birds of Avalon (ex-Cherry Valence)

Warehouse Next Door:

6/23: Zodiac Mountain (mem. of Wooden Wand/Davenport)/Religious Knives (mem. of Double Leopards/Mouthus)/Chris Grier/Insect Facotry/Rivers In Fields
6/30: The Good Anna (experimental guitar/drums duo from the UK)/The Blizzards (mem. of Castanets/Owl Sounds/La Otracina)/Knife Crazy (mem. of The Bloody Hollies)
7/7: Rosetta/Day Without Dawn/Wetnurse/The Heuristic
7/10: Shearwater/The Court & Spark/Donny Hue & The Colors
7/12: Carla Bozulich's Evangelista (Constellation Records)/Dead Science
7/15: Francisco Lopez (electronic drone composer from Spain)/Violet *in Warehouse Black Box Theatre*
7/16: Vetiver (Gnomonsong/DiChristina)/Benjy Ferree
7/19: Rah Bras/Genghis Tron (Crucial Blast)/Buck Gooter
7/20: Kohoutek/Icy Demons (mem. of Bablicon/Need New Body)/Skeleton & The Girl-Faced Boys/Eagle-Ager (multi-media absurdist performance art)
8/1: Oneida (Jagjaguwar)/The Apes/Awesome Color (Ecstatic Peace)
8/5: Alkem Benefit w/ Greg Osby (Blue Note)/DCIC/Joe Lally
8/12: King Valley/Unorthodox/Admiral Browning
8/13: Indian (Chicago sludge/doom)
8/18: Wooly Mammoth (CD release)/Owls & Crows/Kohoutek/John Bustine
8/23: Beirut (Ba-Da-Bing!)/Curtains (mem. of Deerhoof)/Get Him Eat Him
8/27: HZMT/Piasa/Height/Werewolf Unit
8/30: USAISAMONSTER (Load Records)

and TBD 8/3: Pumice (from New Zealand)

TONIGHT!

Clavius Productions presents:

Wednesday, July 5
The Red and the Black
http://www.redandblackbar.com
$7, 21+
doors at 8:30, show at 9:30

The Coughs (Chicago no-wave noise-rock on Load Records)
Bret Gand Is Dead (experimental absurdist rock from Chicago)
36 (Sam Lohman of Acid Mothers Temple, Nik Turner, Radon Ensemble, Nimrod, and Cash Slave Clique)


The Coughs
http://loadrecords.com/bands/coughs.html
http://www.myspace.com/coughsbitch

Coughs are a clamouring six-piece wrecking crew with two drummers, a sax/keyboardist, a bass player, a guitarist/bassist, and an unhinged lead singer. This motley crue comes at you with a hotwired milkshake of punked-out red bull rock. Easily putting on the most memorable live shows of the 2000s, lead singer Anya Davidson is a frothing wraith of unquestionable furious intent. Backed by a double-drummer band using discarded 55-gallon oil barrels, Coughs brings the tribal whoomp to a blurry sandwich of fuzzed-out organ/sax riffery and guitar slice. This is the new ROCK, be here at GROUND ZERO!

Their previous record on Load Records Fright Makes Right, raised the bar on new panic-stricken punk stylings, and this record moves the limbo stick to impossible heights with its hi-fi/no-fi recording, making it so hard for you to fight the feeling. If you are ready to join the other footsoldiers in the battle for quality energy-driven noisy punk, look for the dotted line that says "Coughs" and sign right the fuck up. You have been drafted, now DO IT!

"A Chicago-based sextet that thrives on vintage no-wave pound ‘n’ shriek, perhaps the memorization of certain key texts in the God Is My Co-Pilot and ’80s hardcore canons, and enough art phag hijinks to compel any self-respecting indie dork to make room for them between his or her Elvis Costello and Court and Spark albums. Metal is banged on, guitars are abused, a saxophone howls away Half Japanese style, and surely the warranty on those keyboards is violated. But like Pussy Galore, there’s a primal swing here in all the junk-pound, a groove to howl to." (Joe Gross)


Bret Gand Is Dead
http://www.myspace.com/bretgandisdead

Gloomy Chicago band who supposedly lost half of the original members (including Bret Gand himself) in a horrific zeppelin crash. Unique weirdness. One song will be a zombie cabaret piece with the next sounding something like Neutral Milk Hotel on Halloween through the psychological lens of marijuana-induced paranoia.


36

I began doing solo shows as 36 over a decade ago while living in Osaka. I have releases on
www.soundsfromthepocket.com
www.radoncollective.org
www.japan-overseas.com
exile osaka zine compilation
and my greatest release ever on AEN put out by
Gary Stevens. totally unfindable.
36 has played in Japan, Australia, U.S.A., Canada,
Portugal and France.
As a drummer I'm on vinyl or disc with…
The N.K.B.s, The Baltek (d.c.)
Sheer Terror, Dust Devils (n.y.c.)
Nimrod, Arijigoku (Osaka)
Steve Mackay & The Radon Ensemble
and I've toured with Acid Mothers Temple and Nik Turner (of Hawkwind)

May I suggest you mention what the nearest Metro stop is and give walking directions on the directions page of the web site?

nearest stop is Union station, a mile away from the club. walking directions would be helpful

from union station, walk a couple of blocks north on north capitol, then turn right on h street. walk over the bridge and walk until you hit 12th street. it's quite easy to find, you just have to watch your back. there is a bus route along h.

shot, you missed a kickass coughs show, better than the one we saw last year. all 8 people seemed to enjoy it.

ya i hear theyve gotten better. how were bret gand is dead?

hey snailhook, i saw in the city paper an ad saying there's a shuttle bus on fridays and saturdays that goes down h street and stops at the red and black. do you know anything about it like where we can find a schedule, how late it runs, etc?

awesome news if thats true