Velvet Lounge/611 Florida/Clavius Productions schedule

Clavius Productions presents Thee Ultimate VAG meets Thee Uncomfortable Pricks:

Friday, June 8
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
9pm, $8, 21+

Plastic Crimewave Sound (Eclipse, from Chicago, heavy brain-frying space-punk fuzz-rock a la Hawkwind, Chrome, Stooges, Comets on Fire, Spacemen 3, etc)
Howdy Duty Band (old-school boogie-rock a la Canned Heat, featuring the legendary Max Ochs!)
Thee Ultimate VAG (guitar/percussion improv duo, mem. of Kohoutek/To Live and Shave in L.A.)
The Uncomfortable pricks (psych/noise-rock from Cleveland, mem. of Thee Scarcity of Tanks/Terminal Lovers/Prisonshake)


Plastic Crimewave Sound
http://www.myspace.com/plsticcrimewavesound
http://www.nihilistrecords.net/pcs/

"Plastic Crimewave Sound is something like the musical analogue to the Galactic Zoo Dossier fanzine, and their first single 'Grade Ceased,' is about what youâ??d hope for from that connection. It is loud, crude psychedelic sludge, with heavily amped and effected guitars slicing through the swamps of midnight, with vocals buried in tanks of Japanese laughing gas, and rhythms sliding along like moist candy dropped from the lips of Alan Vega." (The Wire, 2003)

"A wonderful ball of scuzz that will drag you down the psychedelic path to self-destruction, smashing your face into a CAN the whole ride. Dirty dirges of sound swirling around my head, start to make me worry who may be watching me through the windows and I start to see little glass spiders running up and down my arms in a paranoid haze. Mr. Crimewave has done an excellent job with the record, and if you have ever had re-occurring nightmares from too much cough syrup, then this will be the tasty dish youâ??ve waited for your whole life." (Horizontal Action, 2003)

4-5 piece spacepunk unit lauded in Mojo, Wire, Julian Cope's Head Heritage, etc. Plastic Crimewave also does the Galactic Zoo Dossier mag, soundscape duo Goldblood, Secret History of Chicago Music strip and radio show, Million Tongues Festivals, sits in with ensembles like Scarcity of Tanks and DRMWPN, yadda yadda. Mark Lux was in the formative Temple of Bon Matin and twiddles knobs with Folk and Violence. Nick Myers also heads up street toughs Vee Dee. Lawrence Peters does everything, including swell country bands like Hardscrabble and the Lawrence Peters Outfit. Andy Ortmann is Panicsville, runs the fine Nihilist label, and does a zillion other sick things. Releases: "Flashing Open" (Eclipse LP and Rocket CD), "No Wonderland" (Eclipse 2LP), split 12" with Oneida (Brah/Jagjaguwar), debut 45 'Grade Ceased" (Captain Spazz) and split w/ Michael Yonkers 45 (Capt. Spazz) upcoming LP on Eclipse 2007…has toured with: Acid Mothers Temple, Oneida, The Ponys, Comets on Fire, Josephine Foster and the Supposed, Pearls and Brass, Gris Gris, Miminokoto and upcoming with Simply Saucer!

Played shows with: Zolar X, Bardo Pond, Spectrum, Sky Saxon and the Seeds, The Creation, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Michael Yonkers, Wolf Eyes, Kinski, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Kevin Coyne, Fursaxa, Espers, Charalambides, Black Dice, Six Organs of Admittance, No Neck Blues Band, etc.


Howdy Duty Band
http://howdyduty.org/default.aspx

Max Ochs' Canned Heat-style boogie-rock band, featuring members of Maryland's early '70s underground rock scene (these guys were around when George Brigman and Orange Wedge were hangin' around Charm City). Some info on Max for the uninitiated:

http://www.tompkinssquare.com/max.html

Max Ochs was featured on the very first Takoma Records compilation, Contemporary Guitar, Spring '67, and has since been criminally unrecorded. He was born in Baltimore, is Phil Ochs' cousin, was responsible for turning Robbie Basho on to folk music, and played in the seminal, if obscure, ESP raga band Seventh Sons. Admittedly enamored with Pete Seeger, Ochs until recently operated Annapolis' 333 Coffeehouse, where he occasionally performed. More information on Max can be found in this interview:

http://www.bayweekly.com/year04/issuexii12/lifexii12.html


Thee Ultimate VAG
http://www.claviusproductions.org
http://www.myspace.com/accidentswithmagnets

Dreamy moonlit melodies as imagined by axeslinger Chris Grier (To Live and Shave in L.A./Sean McArdle Band/ex-Mungo Jerry) and skinpounder Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek/Insect Factory/Sequence Chair/ex-Falco). Setting a course for the heartland of America, this duo contructs ribald ditties derived from ancient Romanian ballads translated to these modern, not-so-chaste times. Bring your lambskin.


The Uncomfortable Pricks
http://www.myspace.com/theescarcityoftanks
http://www.davecintron.com/

Scarcity of Tanks is a fluid and changing group of fellow sound investigators formed in 2004 by Matthew Wascovich. For the End Times II fest, SOT included Steve Plastic Crimewave, Matt Hartman (Sic Alps/Coachwhips), Chris Davis (Cherry Blossoms), Sam Goldberg, Chris Smith (Keelhaul), and a surprise guest.

"Scarcity of Tanks. I don't know. I guess it seems not dark so much, but mysterious and imaginative. Yeah, it really seems mysterious, kind of like when you're dreaming and not having to wake up until you're ready. That's what the images do for me." -Jack Brewer/Saccharine Trust

Scarcity of Tanks have recordings released, or forthcoming, from Slow Toe Records, Textile Records, Folding Cassettes, and Phase! Records.


Upcoming Clavius events:

Sunday 6/10 @ Warehouse Next Door: Donkey (experimental synth composition from LA)/Bonnie Jones & Andy Hayleck/SKIF (of the N-Collective)/Myo 8:30pm, $8

Monday 6/11 @ Warehouse Next Door: These Are Powers (ex-Liars/No Things/Knife Skills)/Sons of Guns (ex-Snuff Project/Measles Mumps Rubella)/The Amoeba Men (spazzy no-wave from Richmond) 8:30pm, $7

Tuesday 6/12 @ 611 Florida: Madagascar (instrumental gypsy folk)/Lord Fyre (mem. of John Wilkes Booze)/Normanoak (mem. of Impossible Shapes, Secretly Canadian)/The Horns of Happiness (mem. of Impossible Shapes, Secretly Canadian)/Ryan Jewell (experimental percussion from Columbus OH) 8pm, $5 suggested donation

Thursday 6/14 @ Velvet Lounge: Blowfly (the legendary dirty rapper!)/La Otracina (Holy Mountain)/Plums/Pup Tent 9pm, $8

Friday 6/15 @ 101 Harvard St, Alexandria: Jack Wright/Agnes Palier/Olivier Toutlemonde (avant-improv sax/vocals/percussion trio from US/France)/Layne Garrett (of Cuterst Puppy in the World)/Isaac Linder (experimental percussion on one cymbal) 8pm, $5 suggested donation

Sunday 6/17 @ Warehouse Next Door: Kohoutek/Warmer Milks (Troubleman, psych from Lexington KY)/Ospreys (cello/electronics duo from Philly)/Barkitecture/Jason Simon (of Dead Meadow) 8:30pm, $8

Tuesday 6/19 @ Warehouse Theater: Alash Ensemble (Tuvan throat singers!) with Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra Arkestra!), Elliott Levin, and Other Extra-Terrestrial Guests 8pm, $15

Thursday 6/21 @ Warehouse Next Door: Forbes Graham (experimental trumpet, ex-Kayo Dot)/Insect Factory/FFFF's 8:30pm, $7

Sunday 6/24 @ Velvet Lounge: Dynamite Club/The Late Severa Wires (experimental noise rock from New Mexico)/Twilight Memories of the Three Suns (mem. of Piasa) 9pm, $8

Thursday 6/28 @ Warehouse Next Door: Francisco Lopez (sound artist from Spain)/Violet/LSD-March (Japanese psych) 8:30pm, $10

Friday 7/6 @ 611 Florida: Mike Tamburo (Music Fellowship)/Nick Schillace (Primitive American fingerpicker from Detroit)/Tunnels (solo experimental guitar, mem. of Jackie-O Motherfucker)/Acre/Yellow Crystal Star (psychedelic guitar noise symphonies from Tallahassee FL)/Black History Moth (percussion drone) 8pm, $5 suggested donation

Tuesday 7/10 @ Velvet Lounge: Ol' Scratch (VA sludge/doom)/Palace in Thunderland (stoner rock from MA)/Bundy (DC thrash-punk) 9pm, $7

Wednesday 7/11 @ Velvet Lounge: Kohoutek/Avarus (Finnish psych, Secret Eye)/Manbeard (mem. of Black Forest Black Sea/Kites/Urdog) 9pm, $8

Thursday 7/12 @ Velvet Lounge: Richard Pinhas Trio (of legendary French prog/psych band Heldon!)/Insect Factory 9pm, $12

Sunday 7/22 @ Velvet Lounge: Tides Within (NYC sludge/doom)/Stifling (bass/drums sludge duo, ex-Valkyrie)

Thursday 7/26 @ 611 Florida: Thee Ultimate VAG/Neg-Fi/This Is My Condition/FFFFs 8pm, $5 suggested donation

Friday 7/27 @ Velvet Lounge: Wooly Mammoth/Rwake (Relapse)/Darsombra (ex-Meatjack)/Hull

Saturday 7/28 @ Velvet Lounge: Donny Hue & the Colors (CD release)/Marshall Costan (ex-Mazarin) 9pm, $7

Thursday 8/16 @ Velvet Lounge: Capillary Action/Zdrastvootie (Holy Mountain, CA experimental/prog rock) 9pm, $8

Friday 8/17 @ 611 Florida: Fat Worm of Error (ex-Caroliner, Load Records) 9pm, $5 suggested donation

Clavius Productions presents:

Thursday, June 14
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$7, 21+, doors at 9pm

La Otracina (Holy Mountain, NYC psych-rock, mem. of Owl Xounds/Blizzards/Lust Ionics)
Plums (DC instrumental psych/post-rock, mem. of Hat City Intuitive/Spaceships Panic Orbit)
Pup Tent (DC noisy post-punk in the vein of Dream Syndicate)


La Otracina
http://vorg.net/csr/artistslaotracina.htm

LA OTRACINA is a trip…
…………………………… through watermelon atmospheres……
…………….and………………………….
…………………….a diagonal eclipse of magical lemon wedges

current creators of La Otracina music are:

Adam Kriney - drums
Ninni Morgia - electric guitar
Evan Sobel - electric bass

past members and collaborators include:

Joshua Anzano - electric guitar
Dan Bates - electric bass
Nick Chapman - synthesizer, fender rhodes
Kris D'agostino - synthesizer
Joshua Hilson - electric guitar
Matt Lavallee - electric guitar
Tyler Nolan - electric guitar
Marc Orleans - electric guitar
Sara Palmquist - electric bass
Greg Vegas - electric guitar
Rylan Scherer - synthesizer
Jordon Schranz - electric bass


"Brand new limited to 100 hand-numbered copies double disk set from this heavy psychedelic/free rock group out of NYC based around the duo of drummer Adam Kriney (Owl Sounds et al) and electric bassist Dan Bates. Both discs come wrapped in covers slipped inside colour plastic sleeves, with the whole deal sealed inside a large, spray-painted envelope. Love Love Love starts out in a kinda delay-channeled almost Cul de Sac circa Doldrums style before exploding out of the gate with some dazzling string rassle that works luminous smears of fuzz into phantom architectures with alla the string vision of Robert Fripp, Tsijiz Munoz or Sonny Sharrock circa Last Exit. Keyboards give some tracks an ornate, gothic edge while later jams sound as dense as The Blue Humans instant-composing candlelit hymns to the alter-destiny with nothing but a bunch of scrap iron Sun Ra sculptures, a buncha vague jam-co-ordinates intuited from repeat-spins of the Flower Travellinâ?? Bandâ??s back catalogue and a bunch of Hendrix fuzz/octave pedals. Killer! Recommended." (David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue)

"Scalp-lifting cosmic crescendos and sprawling psychedelic rock dominate this latest handmade set from La Otracina, a New York duo of percussionist Adam Kriney and guitarist Joshua Anzano. The blatant hippy title, craft-infected artwork, and spraypainted CDs are an inappropriate package for music this powerful. Rather than a further helping of New Weird America mung bean boogie, we are instead treated to a rich psychotic blend of ruptured free-jazz, Improv excess and even a passage which nearly crashes into something that's not far away from Hawkwind's Space Ritual. Augmented by the bass rumble of Dan Bates, Nick Chapman's keyboard flourishes and Kris D'Agostino's synthesizer constructions, La Otracina's freeform inferno is well worth huddling around." (Edwin Pouncey, The Wire)

Clavius Productions presents:

Sunday, June 17
Warehouse Next Door
1017 7th St NW WDC
http://www.warehousenextdoor.com
$7, all ages
doors at 8:30, show at 9

Kohoutek (with very special guest!)
Warmer Milks (psych from Lexington KY, Troubleman)
Ospreys (cello/electronics improv duo from Philly)
Barkitecture (DC youth crew psych/prog-rock)
Jason Simon (of Dead Meadow)


Kohoutek
http://www.claviusproductions.org/kohoutek/

Improvised psychedelia ranging from harsh noise to delicate melodies, inspired by the likes of Can/Amon Duul 2/Krautrock, Acid Mothers Temple/Ghost/Japanese psych, Bardo Pond, Dead C, Skullflower, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Sun Ra/Art Ensemble/free jazz, Sonic Youth, MBV/shoegaze, drone, doom/sludge metal, etc. Textures and mood over technical proficiency by an ever-evolving line-up. For this show, Kohoutek will be joined by a very special guest.

Some new praise from Aquarius Records regarding our soon-to-be-out-of-print New Milk collaboration CDR with Soil Sing Through Me:

"Second release we've been able to get our hands on from Soil Sing Through Me, a sort of underground freak-folk supergroup featuring members of Feathers and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, who for this disc have teamed up with DC outfit Kohoutek for an evening of communal music making. The results should be no surprise, a druggy blown-out meandering laid-back psychedelic folk free-for-all. Blasted, stoned, groovy and fucked up.

You can definitely hear more SHOTM than Feathers, or maybe it's Kohoutek who we had never heard anyway, but this is not so much folky as sort of spaced-out and trippy. Simple propulsive tribal rhythm jams and simple stripped-down rock beats are the framework for these inner-space excursions, wah guitar and slivers of silvery feedback drift to-and-fro, melodies are spread out over the proceedings like a tattered old blanket, there seem to be vocals too, but they are minimal and are usually buried under a ton of FX and psychedelic shimmer. Keyboards buzz and huge spacious expanses offer the players plenty of space to stir up subtle bits of percussive clatter, glistening flurries of blurry buzz, strange spidery little melodies all tangled up amidst the stumbling drums and rumbling bass. This definitely has a Dead C vibe, but then what improvised noise-rock psych jam doesn't? No good ones, that's for sure.

The usual suspects will eat this up. Sunburned Hand obsessives for sure need this, as do all you free-folk noise-rock cd-r freaks…LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, most likely already out-of-print. Packaged in the instantly recognizable skull and crossbones Wabana purple painted digipak."


Warmer Milks
http://www.warmermilks.com/
http://www.myspace.com/warmermilks

Nevermind Chinaboise, THIS is my pick of the issue. From Lexington, Kentucky, consider Warmer Milks a real "band to watch." I really thought this was going to be a jam-noise album, with its John Olson/American Tapes-style artwork, right down to the cubist lettering. With two of the Hair Police playing on here, I figured it would be the October Faction to Hair Police's Black Flag…But oh my GOD. This is not a jam-noise album. Not at all. This is an album of songs, and they are golden electric-guitar folk-rock dreams. I was definitely digging the first three songs right away, but it was during the fourth and fifth, both recorded live, that the jaw went ahead and dropped. The fourth track "Dogs All Slain," without really sounding like My Bloody Valentine, features some of the best glide guitar playing I've heard since that band gave us Loveless. After the first 2 or 3 minutes (the part with the words and vocals), it settles on a lovely circular guitar-chord cycle and just goes and goes, until it ends over ten minutes later to small-crowd whoops of applause and a "hell yeah!" But that's nothing compared to the goes-and-goes you get with "Penetration Initials," the last track on here, a 30-minute epic that winds its way through soft uninterrupted moods and golden-slow-chord folk forms, beautifully progged-out with occasional soft-yelp vocals. On first listen, about 10 minutes in, I realized something special was happening, so I stopped the work I was doing and just laid on the floor like I was on a blanket in the grass at an outdoor concert. Everybody who is alive or has ever lived was there. Neil Young finally stopped staring out at the ocean, looked back over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. Keiji Haino and Jandek strolled by, Jandek eating an ice cream cone, dressed up just like he was onstage in Scotland. They stopped and listened, closing their eyes and nodding their heads. After the song/set ended, they went over to the merch table and Jandek bought Keiji a Warmer Milks CDR. The 24-year-old Tim Buckley was there listening, deciding that he should stick it out with the whole Starsailor vibe after all, even though it wasn't selling too well. Even the controversial but ticket-selling headliners Simon & Garfunkel, who had been confidently having a pre-party in the backstage tent with an entourage that included Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, got a little quiet and pensive during the last half of this epic song, quietly realizing that the folk-world winds were changing direction. (Blastitude)

Clavius Productions presents a very special evening with the award-winning Tuvan throat singers the Alash Ensemble, joined by the legendary Marshall Allen and other members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, as well as Elliott Levin. This is one event not to be missed!

Tuesday, June 19
Warehouse Theater
1017 7th St NW WDC
http://www.warehousetheater.com/
8pm, $15, all ages!

Alash Ensemble with Marshall Allen, Elliott Levin, and Other Extra-Terrestrial Special Guests

Alash Ensemble
http://www.alashensemble.com/

Alash takes its name from the Alash River, which runs through the musicians' native region of Tuva. The ensemble members are graduates of the Kyzyl Arts College and students of Kongar-ool Ondar, the master throat singer and former member of the Tuvan parliament who is featured in the movie Genghis Blues. In 1999 they formed the ensemble that evolved into Alash, and Kongar-ool Ondar became the artistic director. The musicians have all been trained in traditional Tuvan music since childhood, but they also know and love western music. They add non-traditional instruments, old and new, including guitars and accordions, and they draw upon their knowledge of complex rhythms and western harmonies to expand their musical possibilities.

In 2004, Alash won first prize at the International Symposium "Khoomei," throat singing competition. The group won "Best Folk Music Group" in 2000 and 2003, and they came to the United States for a concert tour in 2006 under the Open World Leaders program of the Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Arts.


Marshall Allen
http://www.elrarecords.com/ma.html

Marshall Belford Allen, alto saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and arranger, was born May 25, 1924 in Louisville, Kentucky and started clarinet lessons at age 10. At 18, he enlisted in the Army's 92nd Infantry (renowned as the Buffalo Soldiers), playing clarinet and alto saxophone in the 17th Division Special Service Band. Stationed in Paris during World War II, he played with pianist Art Simmons and saxophonist Don Byas, and he toured and recorded with James Moody during the late '40's. Upon honorable discharge, Mr. Allen enrolled in the Paris Conservatory of Music, studying clarinet with Delacluse. Returning to the States in 1951, Marshall settled in Chicago, where he led his own bands, playing in clubs and dance halls, while writing his own music and arrangements, as he continues to do today.

During the mid-'50s, Marshall met Sun Ra and became a student of his precepts. After joining the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1958, Marshall Allen led Sun Ra's formidable reed section for over 40 years (a role akin to the position of Johnny Hodges in the Duke Ellington orchestra). Marshall Allen lived, rehearsed, toured and recorded with Sun Ra almost exclusively for much of his musical career, leading the reed section during the time that the Sun Ra Arkestra won the "Downbeat" polls as number-one big band in 1988 and 1989. As a featured soloist with the Arkestra, Marshall pioneered the avante-garde jazz movement of the early '60s, expanding a style rooted in Johnny Hodges and Don Byas, and influencing all leading avant-garde saxophonists thereafter. During this time, Marshall also invented a woodwind instrument he called the "morrow," utilizing a saxophone mouthpiece attached to an open-hole wooden body. (This instrument is currently being marketed under another name, as Marshall never secured a patent on his invention).

Marshall Allen was one of the first jazz musicians to play traditional African music and what is now called "world music," working frequently with Olatunji and his Drums of Passion. In fact, Marshall is most likely the sole jazz musician who builds and plays the kora (a popular West African multi-stringed instrument), and he has been a major factor in its introduction to American audiences, as well as the world at large.

Marshall Allen is featured on over 200 Sun Ra releases, as well as appearing as special guest soloist in concert and on recordings with such diverse groups as NRBQ, Phish, Sonic Youth, Diggable Planets, Terry Adams, and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Perhaps most significantly, Marshall Allen assumed the helm of the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1995 after the ascension of Sun Ra in 1993 and John Gilmore in 1995. Mr. Allen continues to reside at the Sun Ra Residence in Philadelphia, composing, writing and arranging for the Arkestra much like his mentor, totally committed to a life of discipline centered totally on the study, research, and further development of Sun Ra's musical precepts.

Marshall maintains the Sun Ra residence as a living museum dedicated to the compilation, restoration and preservation of Sun Ra's music, memorabilia, and artifacts. Marshall has launched the Sun Ra Arkestra into a dimension beyond that of mere "ghost" band by writing fresh arrangements of Sun Ra's music, as well as composing new music for the Arkestra. He works unceasingly to keep the big-band tradition alive, reworking arrangements of the music of Fletcher Henderson and Jimmie Lunceford for the Arkestra to play, along with many other American standards.

Marshall Allen is recognized all over the world as the premier avant-garde saxophonist, appearing in solo concert in London in 1995, duet with Terry Adams in 1997 in Canada, and featured in articles in JazzTimes (12/02), Signal to Noise Magazine, and innumerable other music magazines and radio and TV interviews. He is frequently called upon to give master classes, lectures, and demonstrations of Sun Ra's musical precepts, and he Keeps himself accessible to all who have an interest in Sun Ra's legacy.

Marshall Allen plays the alto saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe, kora, and E.V.I. (Electronic Valve Instrument).


Elliot Levin
http://www.radical3over2.com/elliott/levin.html
http://www.myspace.com/elliottlevin

Have you seen this man walking the streets of Philly? His signature single dread emits musical spores over sidewalks, music halls, and coffeehouses. Elliott Levin is the ubiquitous Philadelphia musician. He has played with everyone…reading his poetry into his flute, literally, improvising with Charles Cohen, Rick Iannacone, and New Ghost, the list is long. A discography appears below.

Elliott studied music and creative writing at the University of Oregon. He also studied extensively with Michael Guera (former saxophonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra), Cecil Taylor (pianist/composer/improvisor),
and Claire Polin (flutist/composer).

Elliott has performed with groups including Cecil Taylor's Ensemble, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Odeon Pope's Sax Choir, Scram!, New Ghost, Atzilut (Fourth World), and Talking Free Bebop. He has collaborated in performance with poets Miguel Algarin, Gloria Tropp, Mbali Umoja, Marty Watt, and Frank Messina & Spoken Motion, among many others. Venues played have included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The United Nations, The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Yale University, The Greek Theater, Watts Towers, Lollapalooza, and scores of galleries, clubs, and theaters. In 1999, he performed at the Crossing Borders Festival in the Hague, the Sexial Jazz Festival in Lisbon and Portugal, The Alternative Festival in Prague, and the Sonic Logos Festival in Philadelphia.

Elliott has received awards from New American Radio (New York), The City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and the California Endowment for the Humanities.

A prolific poet, Eliott's work has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, Blue Beat Jacket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, Vital Pulse, Poets & Prophets, and Intervals: The Poems of Musicians (Beehive & Sisyphus Press). A Book of Poetry by Elliott Levin was published in 1996 (Heat Press, Los Angeles).

Born in 1953, Elliott Levin is a Philadelphia born and based jazz musician and poet. For 10 years he toured the world with Harold Melvin & The Blue otes, as saxophonist in The Sound of Philadelphia band. He is currently a member also of drummer (Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, Lounge Lizards) G. Calvin Weston's BIG TREE (www.calvinweston.com), Animus (world/fusion music), and The Philadelphia Phenomenon (with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Rick Iannacone, and Calvin Weston).

CURRENT RECORDINGS:

When We Were Young - Calvin Weston's Big Tree (www.alwaysapleasure.com)
Opportunities & Advantages - Marshall Allen & Tyrone Hill (CIMP)
Live in Berlin - Cecil Taylor's Ensemble (FMP)
Alan Silva's Vision Orchestra (Eremite)
[The Motion of Emotion - Elliott Levin Quartet (CIMP Ltd, 1998)
A Fine Intensity - Elliott Levin-Tyrone Hill Quartet (CIMP Ltd, 1999)
Souletide - Elliott Levin-Tyrone Hill Quartet (CIMP Ltd, 2000)
Live at the Tin Angel - Animus (Animus, 1999)
Live Upstairs at Nick's - New Ghost (ESP)
Olduvai Music (Tiwa Records)
Iltar (Tiwa Records)
Poetry in Philadelphia (Welcome Worlds Cassettes)
A Gift of Ghosts (New American Radio)
Postcards from the Edge…On the Road (New American Radio)
The Fourth World (Jack Kessler Productions)
If It Dropped In Your Neighborhood You'd Look Up Too! (West Philadelphia Compilation, Starfish Productions)

from the Washington City Paper:

Tuvan throat singing had its moment in 1999, when master performer Kongar-ool Ondar and American blues musician Paul Pena were the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary Genghis Blues, and Ondar released the unfortunately named album Back Tuva Future. Since then, the complex vocal styleâ??which features froggy undertones and whistling overtonesâ??has become a cultural export for the southern Siberian republic. The five 20-something members of Alash Ensemble seem to have the most advantageous setup: Ondar is the artistic director, and American-born Tuva expert Sean Quirk is the manager. Alash wisely avoids playing the novelty card, though, and to underscore its sometimes otherworldly singing, the group concocts a comfortable hybrid of Asian-steppe twang and bucolic Western folk. If anything, the sound is a reminder that throat singing will always belong to Tuva, no matter what itâ??s packaged with. Alash Ensemble performs with Marshall Allen and Elliott Levin at 8 p.m. at the Warehouse Next Door, 1021 7th St. NW. $15. (202) 783-3933. (Joe Warminsky)

Clavius Productions presents:

Thursday, June 21
Warehouse Next Door
1017 7th St NW WDC
http://www.warehousenextdoor.com
$7, all ages
doors at 8:30, show at 9

Forbes Graham (solo experimental trumpet, ex-Kayo Dot)
Insect Factory (mellow polka-psych)
Tim Byrnes (of Friendly Bears, solo synths)
FFFFs (solo guitar/electronics, Sockets)
Garbaj Kaetz (ex-Crack W.A.R., from San Francisco)


Forbes Graham
http://www.polyrhythmatics.net/

Forbes Graham's newest composition, "Kleinman", was written specifically for the new music ensemble Normal Love. Maddeningly complex and rife with numerological symbolism, it represents the pinnacle of his uncompromising principles.

At present, he is working on a new composition for trumpet, two drum machines and live electronics which will be premiered at this year's Festival of New Trumpet in New York City. The piece is currently entitled "Variations on the Fibonacci Sequence".

Forbes is currently playing music with The Interdimensional Science Research Orchestra and the Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble. He also works with a number of other musicians in the Boston area, and has his own quartet featuring Ryan McGuire, Raqib Hassan, and Luther Gray.

Forbes has toured America numerous times playing in various groups. He has also lent his trumpet to many studio recordings for the likes of such artists as Daughters, One AM Radio, The Red Chord, Love Life, Irepress, and more.

His label Ricecontrol helped introduce the music of Jeromes Dream, The Day of Man as Man, Dysrhythmia, and XThoughtstreamsX to unsuspecting audiences. Ricecontrol has returned and will be releasing Forbes' newest album I Won't Stop this summer. Self-recorded and produced and mastered by James Plotkin (O.L.D., Khanate, Phantomsmasher), I Won't Stop is a provocative electro-acoustic document. Never one to stick to one style I Won't Stop traverses the genres of free improvisation, drum n' bass, abstract glitch electronics, noise, and more.

Besides music Forbes enjoys vegan cuisine, comedy, studying Taoism, and hanging out with his beautiful girlfriend Lillian.


nsect Factory
http://www.insectfields.org
http://www.myspace.com/insectfactory

Insect Factory is the project of minimalist sounds from guitarist Jeff Barsky. His playing explores subtle and detailed textures with acute
attention to overall composition, creating hypnotic fields of dense sound. Barsky frequently adds additional minimal instrumentation to Insect Factory performances. In the mid 90's, Barsky studied classical guitar and composition for several years at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. Barsky also currently plays with the DC improv band Kohoutek, which combines elements of abtract noise, heavy rhythms, free jazz, and psychedelic rock. In addition to having collaborated onstage with avant-trumpeter Forbes Graham and bass player Joe Lally (FUGAZI), his various projects have performed on bills with acts as diverse as Kayo Dot, Mazen Kerbaj, Peter Wright, Bardo Pond, Double Leopards, Charalambides, and Carla Bozulich, and he has performed with Kohoutek at Suoni Il Per Popolo festival in Montreal. Barsky also co-runs Insect Fields cd-r, which serves as an outlet for musical projects he is involved with, as well as his contemporaries.


FFFFs
http://www.myspace.com/scdr

FFFFs is Sean Peoples' solo project. Non-ornamental, melodic loopworks, pure and clean. It explores the various impact of vocal loops and otherwise unconventional noise loops in a controlled and song-based environment. Songs contain atmosphere usually tending toward ambient but also including beat and minimal synth-oriented material. I also use found sound recordings. My music taste is all over the map – beat-oriented, tape loop noise, accessible, experimental. The music tends to reflect that wide-reaching map.

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Sunday 6/24 @ Velvet Lounge: Dynamite Club (featuring master percussionist Mike Pride)/Twilight memories of the Three Suns (DC experimental improv)/The Late Severa Wires (experimental noise from New Mexico) $8, doors at 9pm

Wednesday 6/27 @ Velvet Lounge: Alzo Bozsormenyi & the Acid Achievers (Northern VA's finest!)/TITS (all-girl psych-rock from SF, mem. of Death Sentence Panda)/Facemat/Church Clothes $7, doors at 9pm

Thursday 6/28 @ Warehouse Next Door: Francisco Lopez (sound artist from Spain)/Violet/LSD-March (Japanese psych) $10, doors at 8:30 *sadly, this will be Clavius' LAST Warehouse show*

Clavius Productions presents a night of avant-garde music, Kung Fu fighting, and wrestling:

Sunday, June 24
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$8, 21+, doors at 9pm

Dynamite Club (featuring master percussionist Mike Pride of MDC and Fushitsusha!)
Twilight Memories of the Three Suns (DC experimental improv, mem. of Piasa/Kohoutek)
The Late Severa Wires (experimental rock from New Mexico)


Dynamite Club
http://www.dynamiteclub.com/
http://www.myspace.com/dynamiteclub

Dynamite Club was formed 2001 in New York City by musicians Kentaro Saito and Mike Pride. Conceived as a "Rock Band", their avant-grade influenced sound and extraordinary energetic and unique stage performances – involving actual Kung Fu fighting and wrestling! – gathered attention from all around the New York City area.

After giving unforgettable performances at nearly every club in the New York City & Brooklyn areas, including CBGB's and Knitting Factory, Dynamite Club released their first full length CD The Legend Of Tiger Mask. Released on New Jersey-based label, Big Sleep Records, in late 2002, the album left an unforgettable impression in the U.S, Canada, and even Australia, Japan & Taiwan, gathering heavy college radio play throughout North America. Before long, the 1000 CDs were sold out, and with minimal distribution and ads.

Their first international tour, in 2003, included Taiwan, Japan, and Australia, and had a great reception. While in Taiwan, Dynamite Club gave its wild performance, not realizing the magnitude of accepting the headlining position at Spring Scream Goat, one of the biggest music festivals in the country. They don't know why exactly, but DYNAMITE CLUB gets wild love from the Taiwanese now, and was asked to headline Spring Scream Monkey in 2004 that was followed by sold-out concerts in Taipei. This was followed by the band's second successful tour of Japan.

Since then, Dynamite Club has released its 2nd full length CD It's Deeper than Most People Actually Think – an assault on pop music rather than the avant-garde it feverishly attacked on their 1st CD – on Funhole Records. This CD has already sold over 1000 copies since being released in February 2005 (again with little distribution or ads), and reached #107 on CMJ charts and was the 2nd-most added record in CMJ charts on its initial release date. The band has since gathered much radio play and a rabidly devoted cult following. Seen once, their live performance is not forgotten. They have also been included on two compilations, one Taiwanese & American, one French. Dynamite Club have also released a limited, and now sold-out, and EP entitled S.

Dynamite Club has kept a hectic tour schedule in the past 2 years and have embarked on 7 US tours (with bands like Peelander-Z, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Magik Markers & Dynasty), a European tour with punk legends MDC, Canadian tours with Daiquiri and Mindy Wind, and toured Asia (Japan & Taiwan) a total of 4 times now.

A new CD is completed and will be released shortly.

Meanwhile, the members of Dynamite Club work in an endless string of bands with the "who's who" of new rock music including: MDC (millions of dead cops), Haino Keiji's Fushitsusha, John Zorn, Trevor Dunn (of Mr. Bungle & Fantomas), Gary Lucas' Captain Beefheart repertoire band Fast N' Bulbous, Japan's RUINS and RonRuins, Anthony Braxton, Sonny Simmons, PAK, Otomo Yoshihide, Time Of Orchids, Dr. Nerve, and Eugene Chadbourne.

Dynamite Club is:

Kentaro Saito - Guitar/Vocals
Mike Pride - Drums/Vocals
Evan Lipson - Bass


The Late Severa Wires
http://www.highmayhem.com/artists/thelateseverawires/
http://www.myspace.com/thelateseverawires

Ultraviolet - turntables
Mike Rowland -drums
Yozo Suzuki - guitar
Carlos Santistevan - bass

The Late Severa Wires are a great, unusual electro-acoustic improvising group from Santa Fe and part of that areas burgeoning High Mayhem scene. Their music is non-idiomatic and has tons of character and strangeness, and an intense spirit shines through.

Founded in 2001, The Late Severa Wires has been an institution in High Mayhemâ??s philosophical and artistic development. The group consists of Ultraviolet on turntables, Yozo Suzuki on guitar, Mike Rowland on drums, and Carlos Santistevan on bass. The group creates sonic collages where the lines between instruments are blurred and new sounds emerge out of the collision and interaction of air molecules. Of â??lateâ? the ensemble has been incorporating drum machines, samplers and electronics to add to their already immense sound palette. They just released their second full-length release, an LP three minutes a second in November 2006, and have been touring the West Coast to enthusiastic crowds for 4 years.

Clavius Productions presents:

Wednesday, June 27
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$7, 21+, doors at 9

Alzo Boszormenyi & the Acid Achievers (DC improv psyh-rock)
T.I.T.S. (all-girl psych-rock from SF, mem. of Death Sentence: Panda!, ex-Crack W.A.R.)
Facemat (DC improv noise, mem. of Kohoutek)
Church Clothes (DC solo laptop drone)


Alzo Boszormenyi & the Acid Achievers
http://www.nutmusic.com

DC improvising rock band once called a "Northern VA version of The Fall", also heavily influenced by Sun Ra, Funkadelic, Gong, Can, etc. 7-piece group includes two guitars, bass, drums, keyboard and theremin.


T.I.T.S.
http://www.titsacrossamerica.com/

T.I.T.S. are a four-piece comprising Kim West, Abbey Kerins, Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough and Wendy Farina between squalling feedback and caterwauling medieval chants. An emphasis on rhythmic power and drive forms the foundation for their distinctive olde metal sound, freaked-out and doom-laden, by turns fun and frightening.

The four ladies of San Francisco – Kim West (Crack: WAR, Death Sentence: Panda!), Abbey Kerins (Verbalala, Death & Dying), Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough (MeowMeow and the MeowMeows), and Wendy Farina (Towel, Condor, Amber Asylum) – ply their trade in a kind of witchy/experimental/spaced-out/doom-laden pop, which could easily evoke reminiscences as diverse as Sabbath or Erase Errata or The Troggs or Boris maybe?

The T.I.T.S. sound is underpinned by Mary Elizabeth's black-metal bass lines and Wendy's totally animal drum pound. Abbey's guitar lays down a simple rock riff, while Kim's emits a subtly oscillating sheet of feedback. Over the top, all four harmonise with a kind of semi-operatic, fantasy whisper. The effect is this inexplicable feel of time-travelling castle metal of four ladies of the lake casting forth a single Excalibur, sinking it into stone so deep, no Arthur shall ever wield it. Ever.


Facemat
http://www.myspace.com/flittedbands

DC/MD free noise ensemble brings it strong with keyboards, guitar, percussion, machines and more. They've done noise covers of Hendrix's "Machine Gun," world-beat punk synth noise, crazy experiments with reel-to-reel tape players (as Tape Rape), and free noise blowouts (as Power Bottom Orchestra). When the Facemat posse is in the house, you know it will be wild & fresh. Avid disciples of Little Howlin' Wolf.

Clavius Productions presents its last ever show at the Warehouse Next Door, and it's a special one, with Spanish sound artist Francisco Lopez returning and Japanese psych voyager Shinsuke Michishita making his DC debut. Come celebrate three years of the Warehouse hosting excellent avant-garde and fringe music, and mourn its passing into the ever-growing graveyard of righteous venues:

Thursday, June 28
Warehouse Next Door
1017 7th St NW WDC
http://www.warehousenextdoor.com
$10, all ages!
doors at 8:30, show at 9:30

Francisco Lopez (drone/conceptual sound artist from Spain)
Violet (DC improv noise/drone)
LSD-March (Japanese psych, Last Visible Dog/Archive/Siwa)

from the Washington City Paper:

For Francisco López, less is more. His numerous records are cryptically underpackaged affairs that feature one or two extended minimal drones, often derived from field recordings. Live, the Spanish sound artist prefers his audience to remain blindfolded for the duration of his set in order to concentrate more fully on the nuanced dynamics and textures of his music. In all honesty, that sounds pretty damn pretentious: It takes a sympathetic listener to tie a rag around his head and sit in the dark for an hour listening to processed insect noises. Yet records such as 1998â??s La Selva­, with its otherworldly squalor and abstracted rain forest sounds­, make a case for indulging Lópezâ??s wish and digging down into the world inside your head -â?? a world that is in all likelihood more fascinating than the grease stains on the Warehouse Next Doorâ??s walls. Lopez performs with Violet and LSD-March at 8:30 p.m. at the Warehouse Next Door, 1021 7th St. NW. $10. (202) 783-3933. (Aaron Leitko)


Francisco Lopez
http://www.franciscolopez.net/

Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the
underground experimental music scene. Over the last twenty-five years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion. He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with field recordings, and sound installations in 50 countries of the five continents. His extended catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with over 100 international artists) has been released by more than 140 record labels worldwide, and he has been awarded twice with honorary mentions at the competition of Ars Electronica Festival. The audience will be blinded during the performance.


Violet
http://www.zeromoon.com/violet/index.html

Jeff Surak (aka Violet) is a veteran experimenter from Washington, DC. Since the early 1980s, he has explored the netherworld between improvisation and composition to create something between the two auditory realms of experimental music. Found objects, microcassettes, damaged CDs, prepared acoustic instruments, and old record players outfitted with foil are the tools of choice.

Since his early recordings under the name -1348-, Surak established himself in the international hometaper underground network of the 1980s, releasing tapes on the his own Watergate Tapes imprint, along with such artists as Controlled Bleeding, F/i, and Kapotte Muziek; and collaborating with such icons as Zan Hoffman, Crawling with Tarts, and John Hudak. At the same time Surak performed with the notorious DC-area industrial band New Carrollton.

The 1990s found Surak living and performing in Russia. There he formed the group Sovmestnoye Predpriyatiye which created site-specific works using found materials and sounds.

At the turn of the millenium Surak created a new duo, V., which quickly blew out of its initial framework of free improv into a unit that pushed the limits of composition, constantly reinventing itself with each recording and performance. After 11 albums in two years, the duo disbanded, leaving Surak to further continue explorations under his solo project called Violet. Violet has collaborated with Alexei Borisov, Frans De Waard, Betrand Denzler, Michael Gendreau, Andrey Kiritchenko, Kotra, Francisco Lopez, Andreas Tilliander and many others. Since 2002 Violet has released numerous recordings in a variety of formats and has performed across the USA and Europe.


LSD-March
http://www.myspace.com/lsdmarch

"More PSF-worthy psychedelia. Strong comparisons can be made to Les Rallizes Denudes, the first PSF Fushitsusha, White Heaven, Shizuka, etc." "LSD-March, named for a track on the first, heaviest album by krautrockers Guru Guru, slowly whisper and wander through a veil of feedback and plodding rhythms. There's both gentle and searing stuff to be found here. These guys are more serious, mysterious and melancholy than Acid Mothers Temple, with a definite Velvets vibe at times. And when the guitars get cranked, this sounds like the Neil Youngiest of Nagisa Ni Te freakouts." (Aquarius)

LSD-March, led by Shinsuke Michishita, is well established in Japan as an example of what might be called the post-apocalyptic power trio. The granddaddies of this decidedly underground style are Fushitsusha (completely alien-sounding, with almost no reference points to earthly music) and High Rise (recording levels in the red, like the MC5 taken to its extreme). LSD-March falls between these two poles, alternating avant-garde instrumental explorations with almost bluesy garage-rock. (Bob Bannister, Time Out New York)


RIP Warehouse Next Door!!!

Clavius Productions presents a night of solo guitar exploration, from looped drones to fingerpicked acoustic to abstract electric noise:

Friday, July 6
611 Florida Ave NW
Washington DC 20001
http://www.claviusproductions.org
8pm, $5 suggested donation
call 202-360-9739 for info
BYOW!

Mike Tamburo (Music Fellowship, experimental guitar/dulcimer, from Pittsburgh)
Nick Schillace (Primitive American guitar, from Detroit)
Tunnels (Nick Bindeman of Jackie-O Motherfucker/Eternal Tapestry, solo ambient/drone guitar)
Acre (solo electronic minimal drone)
Yellow Crystal Star (psychedelic guitar noise symphonies from Tallahassee FL)
The Ear Is the Brain (solo guitar/found objects, from Tallahassee)
Black History Moth (experimental percussion/drone duo, mem. of Spiral Joy Band/Black Twigs, from Blacksburg VA)

Yeah, that's right, SEVEN acts. Four in one room, three in the other. Maybe someone in the kitchen or on the front stoop. Non-stop action!


Mike Tamburo
http://www.miketamburo.com/
http://www.myspace.com/miketamburo

Hello, I was born on March 30, 1977 in New Kensington, PA. When I was around 15 months old I was diagnosed with Otitis Media. My ears had filled with fluid and I was unable to hear correctly for several months. I had surgery and was sent to ear specialists that introduced me to the world of test tones and perceptual challenges.

Music has always been a part of my life. My father played guitar and sang me Beatles songs and sometimes his own self penned songs when I was young. My Grandmother and Aunt also played piano and sang Italian influenced songs. They all seemed happiest or at least at peace when they were playing music. I guess perhaps through imitation I decided I wanted to play music as well. For as long as I can remember I was playing something, hitting something, making some kind of noise. I first started out playing chord organ and toy xylophone. I can still remember holding out long tones on the chord organ. I remember that I loved to just hold down the chord buttons for as long as I could. Oddly enough one of my first musical performances was for Ralph Nader. I was probably around 5. My mother was doing a video interview with him. I was on the floor underneath them banging on my toy xylophone. I doubt he was impressed. In school I took up clarinet and played with the school band. At the time I hated it, but now looking back I realize that I learned the fundamentals of music on a B Flat clarinet.

Aside from various art projects I took up, I don't remember ever wanting to do much other than just being in a band. I started my first one when I was 13 or 14. I met some local kids that were playing together. I ended up singing for them. We were called Lurch. A very strange, I guess emo-type, band that included a bass player with a hunchback. This went on for a few years, until guitarist Chris Pecoraro and I decided we wanted to be a little freer and more experimental. I was still singing and I took up drums. Chris still played the guitar. This became Eskimo 88. We did this for the rest of our high school careers. We recorded and released to cassettes Open Your Ears and Hear a Sound and Inside Outside.

In 1995 I went away to Edinboro University. Instead of going to class I spent all of my time reading and writing music. I decided to try to learn the guitar. I made over 200 recordings of myself trying to learn the guitar. I was reading as many books on 20th century composition that I could find and then after trying to figure out what it all meant, I tried to apply it to guitar.

I dropped out of school at the end of the semester. I came back to Pittsburgh and started playing with Ken Camden and Brian Camphire. This was the start of Meisha. Shortly after Brian left, Pete Spynda joined. We recorded several times and released Meisha, Meisha Returns, Meisha Forever, The First Lessons in New Era Time: The Universal Orchestra of Pituitary Knowledge Sing Om to the Disturbed Onlookers, Who were Meisha and Robin Anyway?, The Fourth Lesson In New Era Time: The Republic of Meisha, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, Meisha Machine Music, and A Celebration of Life.

I returned to Edinboro University to study and make films. While there Pete Spynda and I formed Arco Flute Foundation with Matt Mcdowell, Rob Dingman and Jeff Komara. We recorded and released The Second Lesson in New Era Time Exploring the Possibilities of New Wave Villains; And What of Boy?, The Third Lesson in New Era Time: Running Slow-Motion Marathons With Purple Rejoice; Who Killed the Party House?, Everything After The Bomb Is Sci-Fi, Everything After Everything Is The Bomb Is Sci-Fi, I Ate Tony Conrad's Pierogies, The Fifth Lesson in New Era Time: The Unconsciousness of Yukon Steve. We also created a new system of time that was 3 hours and 14 minutes behind Eastern Standard Time.

Both bands did several tours and imploded leaving the shattered ashes for all to see. I now play alone and am always recording, painting, making films and video, listening to music, studying Enthobotany, thinking or watching T.V.


Nick Schillace
http://www.nickschillace.com
http://www.myspace.com/nickschillace

Nick Schillace is a Detroit area artist, teacher, and musicologist exploring what it means to be an American musician. In 2002 he completed a graduate thesis on the late guitarist John Fahey, and utilizes Fahey's self-described style of syncopated "American Primitive" fingerstyle guitar as the foundation for his own technique. This style, based on early forms of blues, folk, and old-time music provides the perfect foundation for larger and more expansive musical compositions incorporating a wide range of his own idiosyncratic influences.

"Box Canyon is a collection of nine pensive and frequently beautifully played songs for acoustic guitar…initially quietly searching before segueing into something more fast-paced and aggressive – a fitting summation of Schillace's skills and versatility." (Steve Byrne, Detroit Free Press)


Tunnels
http://www.yarnlazer.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sonictunnels

Tunnels is Nicholas Samuel Bindeman (of Eternal Tapestry, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Hustler White, Malibu Flacon, Alarmist, etc.) in full-on beautiful pastoral dreamy psychedelic drifted drone mode. Colour Seance is four ambient clouds of gentle, blurred color-blasts of sampled/looped/delay-drenched guitars, chimes, synths, voice, etc., that evolve in dream-time and slowly fold in on themselves. A key example of the power, breadth and sophistication of the Portland Psychedelic-Drone underground.


Acre
http://www.myspace.com/acreage
http://www.eyeofthe.com/acre/

Acre is extremely reduced, refined synesthesia-enducing and generally psychedelically affective minimal drone using a minimal amount of equipment (including mixer feedback, sampler/loop, various filters, phase-shifters, tremelos and the like).
Candyflipping is three tracks of sweet drone-gazed, tunnel-visioned, double-dipped DMT cloud-lift. The first track, "Moth," instantly breaks out into the upper chakra registers with thick drones that hit you like LaMonte's Dream-House. Second track "Together We Are Poison" is all glossy-eyed and drooling lower-level chill-out pillow room in the rave of LIFE. Once asleep there, the third track "Drifting" will slowly, slowly slowly bring you back up like some dred head trance DJ opening up the 303 filter ever so slightly until we are again filled with ecstatic psychedelic feel-good sunshine laser light and your head and the whole moving mass of people explode upward together into another level of collective consciousness.

Clavius Productions presents:

Tuesday, July 10
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$7, 21+, doors at 9pm

Ol' Scratch (VA doom metal)
Whitehorse (doom/drone/art-metal from Australia, 20 Buck Spin/Conspiracy, mem. of Grey Daturas)
Palace in Thunderland (MA stoner rock)
Bundy (DC harcore/thrash)


Ol' Scratch
http://www.olscratch.com/
http://www.myspace.com/olscratch

Beginning life in 2004, Ol' Scratch began as a five-piece monster in a garage in Northern Virginia. Playing metal with a sludgy southern tinge, they began playing shows locally in 2005. Switching bassists halfway through the year, the new lineup went on the road for a few tours and a ton of DC-area shows supporting such acts as Alabama Thunderpussy, Trouble, and Dixie Witch.

Early 2006 saw the release of Blood Puddin', a five-song EP recorded at Harmonia Studios with engineer Greg Clark (Clutch, King Valley) and mastered by Uncle Punchy. More shows followed, playing with doom icons Unorthodox, Earthride and War Injun. On the road again, they made a strong showing at 2006's â??Maine Stonerfestâ? and played shows everywhere from Maine to Florida.

Late in 2006 the band recorded and released a split CD with Fredericksburg, VA metal band LORD, recorded by engineer Tim Otis (Admiral Browning, Black Canary) and mastered by Vince Burke (Sourvein, Beaten Back to Pure).

2007 brought big changes with the loss of another bassist, Steve changing from rhythm guitar to handle the low-end duties, and their vocalist, Joel, mysteriously quitting the band.

The new lineup, a solidified three-piece, finds Matt Williams still on drums, Steve Payne on bass, and James Haun handling guitar and vocals. The new lineup shows the band evolving into a darker, heavier doom-metal style in the vein of Goatsnake, Weedeater and Electric Wizard. A busy summer is ahead with many shows on the horizon, including a tour with MD sludge-prog outfit Admiral Browning, and a tentative slot on the legendary â??Stoner Hands of Doomâ? festival in November.


Whitehorse
http://getonthehorse.com/whitehorse.htm
http://www.myspace.com/getonthehorse

The Whitehorse Story:

Whitehorse was formed in mid-2004 when vocalist Pete gathered together guitarists Dase and Brent, drummer Emile, and tweaker Grover. Drawing from a range of influences, Whitehorse began to form epic, noise-ridden sludge songs.

Playing shows around Melbourne with bands such as Grey Daturas, Agents Of Abhorrence and the like, Whitehorse passed around a recording of their 4th and 5th shows, attracted the attention of Melbourne artist Seldon Hunt, word passed around and Whitehorse was invited to open for Isis in Sydney on their first Australian tour in February 2005.

The CD-r that was being passed around was released on CD as West of the Sun/Ocean Turns to Black in a pressing of 500 on Sweat Lung with artwork by Brent Stegeman and "doom text" by Seldon Hunt. This somewhat rough document of the beginnings of Whitehorse gathered favorable reviews from the likes of Aquarius Records and Decibel Magazine.

Whitehorse began planning a tour of Japan, changes were made to the lineup with guitarist Dase leaving the band, his place was filled by Bob, and Simon was added playing bass.

In May, the new lineup recorded the track "Caverns" live in the studio for a Japanese tour EP released by Sweat Lung.

The 11-show Japan tour took place in June/July of 2005 where the band played with Ryokuchi, Palm, Birushanah and Corrupted amongst others.

Shortly after the band's return from Japan, Bob and Brent left the band and Yeap (Pisschrist, ABC Weapons) took up guitar duties.

In October 2005, the new lineup of Whitehorse returned, unleashing a heavier, more developed body of material in support of touring acts Electric Wizard, Dismember and Pod People in Melbourne.

Since their return show, Whitehorse recorded two Live to Air sessions at PBS 107.5 FM in Melbourne and played shows with Artimus Pyle, Birushanah, Ryokuchi, Birchville Cat Motel & 1/3 Octave Band.

In October 2006, Conspiracy Records in Belgium released Fire to Light the Way/Everything Ablaze as a part of their 10 Year Anniversary LP series. The one-sided LP with screen-printed B-side features material recorded at the second of the PBS Live to Air Sessions.

Since the release of the LP, Whitehorse drummer Emile made the decision to re-locate to Los Angeles and played his final shows with the band in Melbourne, Sydney, and at the 15th and final Metal for the Brain Festival in Canberra, Australia.

Currently with Rob Mayson (Grey Daturas/Bone Sheriff/EOH, etc) taking up duties behind the kit, Whitehorse are planning a June-July 2007 US tour in support of a double CD collection of material to be released on 20 Buck Spin.


Palace in Thunderland
http://www.palaceinthunderland.com/

Andy Beresky - Guitar, Vocals
Monte Newman - Guitar, Vocals
Adam Abrams - Bass, Keyboards
Matt Netto- Drums, Percussion, we'll see what else

Palace in Thunderland create music for the 21st century, plain and simple. Embracing a sound simultaneously 30 years ahead of their time AND 30 years behind their time, the band embraces influences such as Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, The 13th Floor Elevators, Hawkwind, Rush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Captain Beyond, Pentagram, and Monster Magnet.

The four-piece specializes in fuzzed-out riffs, esoteric arrangements, dual guitar harmonies, and an overall versatiltiy that few bands can match. To top it all off, the songwriting is top-notch; this is a group of guys that know how to write a good hook and skullfuck it straight into the listener's cerebellum where it can fester into a permanent psychedelic infection.

Live, the band lays down a blanket of fuzz, feedback, and aggression as they spin their tales of the occult, existentialism, altered consciousness, and general alienation. Not for the meek, that's for damned sure.

The new album The Apostles of Silence is written. Soon it shall be done. The world only knows what awaits then…

"A four-song thirty-minute disc that I'd put straight into the mix for my personal top ten of 2007 new releases if it weren't for a couple of significant reasons. Firstly and most notably is the fact that the tracks on here are re-recordings of a 2001 release by PALACE IN THUNDERLAND that even bore the same title. Secondly, and actually something that draws me to the disc more is the fact that it sounds about 35 years old! This could quite easily be a discovery of a slab of early '70s underground rock music but then if it were then the rest of this review wouldn't work.

You see, the first thing that bursts out of the speakers on 'Heir to the King of Everything' is a riff straight out of the book of music according to THIN LIZZY and they didn't hit on this sound till about '74/'75. That splash of Gorham/Robertson trademark twin-guitar sound returns a few times throughout this release and clearly LIZZY have had some influence on a band that otherwise for the best part sound like MONSTER MAGNET infused with the psychedelic and space-rock leanings of the mighty HAWKWIND.

Those elements are perhaps best displayed on the title track 'Into the Maelstrom' where five minutes of doom-laden backing are cracked apart with some lovely clean lead guitar and a clear and legibly delivered vocal. In fact the only disappointing moment on this disc is the final couple of minutes on the otherwise memorable 'Sonic Throne.' As a fully paid-up member of the campaign to rid the world of the drum solo I can't let a recorded and released example go by without some admonishment.

Aside from this moment of madness though all four tracks quickly make themselves familiar and they each possess a depth and quality that provides new highlights and finds with each repeated listen. Quite why they've gone back and chosen to rehash an old project is something to do with a failed reissue plan last year, but I'd like to think it's also a belief that these recordings deserve attention and could be improved by revisiting them rather than a lack of new material that drives this release. Of course only time will tell whether they have the substance to follow this up. And to think that with a track called 'Bastard Of Puppets' closing the set I initially thought I'd got an album of METALLICA spoof recordings to deal with!" (Peacedogman)

Clavius Productions proudly presents an evening with one of its biggest inspirations, the legendarily hilarious and subversive Negativland:

Sunday, August 5
Warehouse Theater
1017 7th St NW WDC
http://www.warehousetheater.com
$15, all ages!
doors at 8pm, show at 9pm

Legendary trickster band Negativland brings a new version of their weekly radio broadcast (Over the Edge, on the air since 1981) to the live stage for the very first time, mixing music, found sounds, found dialog, scripts, personalities, and sound effects within a â??radioâ? theater-of-the-mind. "It's All In Your Head FMâ? is a two-hour-long, action-packed look at monotheism, the supernatural God concept, and the all-important role played by the human brain in our beliefs. Dr. Oslo Norway is your â??radioâ? host, and Christianity and Islam are the featured religions, as Negativland asks you to contemplate some complex, serious, silly, and challenging ideas about human belief in this audio cut-up mix best described as a â??documentary collageâ?. â??IAIYH FMâ? is a compelling and uniquely fun presentation of sticky theological concepts, which has actually been known to provoke arguments for days after the show is over.

Negativland
http://www.negativland.com

Since 1980, the 4 or 5 or 6 Floptops known as Negativland have been creating records, CDs, video, fine art, books, radio and live performance using appropriated sound, image and text. Mixing original materials and original music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland re-arranges these found bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. In doing this kind of cultural archaeology and "culture jamming" (a term they coined way back in 1984), Negativland have been sued twice for copyright infringement.

Over the years Negativland's "illegal" collage and appropriation based audio and visual works have touched on many things – pranks, media hoaxes, advertising, media literacy, the evolving art of collage, the bizarre banality of suburban existence, creative anti-corporate activism in a media saturated multi-national world, file sharing, intellectual property issues, wacky surrealism, evolving notions of art and ownership and law in a digital age, and artistic and humorous observations of mass media and mass culture.

While it is true that, after being sued, Negativland became more publicly involved in advocating significant reforms of our nation's copyright laws, Negativland are artists first and activists second. All of their art and media interventions have intended to pose both serious and silly questions about the nature of sound, media, control, ownership, propaganda and perception. Their work is now referenced and taught in many college courses in the US, has been written about in over 30 books (including NO LOGO by Naomi Klein, MEDIA VIRUS by Douglas Rushkoff, and various biographies of the band U2), cited in legal journals, and they often lecture about their work here and in Europe.

Since 1981, Negativland and an evolving cast of characters have operated â??Over The Edge,â? a weekly radio show on KPFA FM in Berkeley, California. â??Over The Edgeâ? continues to broadcast three hours of live, found sound mixing every Thursday at midnight, West Coast time, with online access. In 1995 they released a 270-page book with 72 minute CD entitled "FAIR USE: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2." This book documented their infamous four-year long legal battle over their 1991 release of an audio piece entitled "U2". They were the subjects of Craig Baldwin's 1995 feature documentary SONIC OUTLAWS and created the soundtrack and sound design for Harold Boihem's 1997 documentary film THE AD AND THE EGO, an excellent in-depth look into the hidden agendas of the corporate ad world and the ways that we are affected by advertising. In 2004 Negativland worked with Creative Commons to write the Creative Commons Sampling License, an alternative to existing copyrights that is now in widespread use by many artists, writers, musicians, film makers, and websites. In 2005, they released the elaborately packaged NO BUSINESS (with CD, 15,000 word essay, and custom made whoopie cushion), and debuted "Negativlandland" - a large visual art show of over 80 pieces of their "fine art" works, video, and home-made electronic devices, at New York City's Gigantic Art Space. That exhibit continues to travel and appear around the country. More recently Negativland have been touring a new performance piece called â??It's All In Your Head FMâ?, a two-hour-long audio cut-up mix about monotheism, the supernatural God concept, and the all-important role played by the human brain in our beliefs. Christianity and Islam are the featured religions, as Negativland asks itâ??s audience to contemplate some complex, serious, ridiculous, and challenging ideas about human belief in a show best described as â??documentary collage.â?

Negativland is interested in unusual noises and images (especially ones that are found close at hand), unusual ways to restructure such things and combine them with their own music and art, and mass media transmissions which have become sources and subjects for much of their work. Negativland covets insightful humor and wackiness from anywhere, low-tech approaches whenever possible, and vital social targets of any kind. Foregoing ideological preaching, but interested in side effects, Negativland is like a subliminal cultural sampling service concerned with making art about everything we aren't supposed to notice.

Clavius Productions presents:

Wednesday, July 11
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$8, 21+, doors at 9pm

Kohoutek (DC improv psych, Music Fellowship)
Avarus (Finnish improv psych, Secret Eye)
Manbeard (Providence freak prog-rock, mem. of Black Forest Black Sea/Urdog/Kites/Xerxes)
The Cutest Puppy in the World (DC improv duo)


Kohoutek
http://www.claviusproductions.org/kohoutek/

Improvised psychedelia ranging from harsh noise to delicate melodies, inspired by the likes of Can/Amon Duul 2/Agitation Free/Krautrock, Acid Mothers Temple/Ghost/Japanese psych, Bardo Pond, Dead C, Skullflower, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Sun Ra/Art Ensemble/free jazz, Sonic Youth, MBV/shoegaze, drone, doom/sludge metal, etc. Textures and mood over technical proficiency by an ever-evolving line-up.

Some new praise from Aquarius Records regarding our soon-to-be-out-of-print New Milk collaboration CDR with Soil Sing Through Me:

"Second release we've been able to get our hands on from Soil Sing Through Me, a sort of underground freak-folk supergroup featuring members of Feathers and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, who for this disc have teamed up with DC outfit Kohoutek for an evening of communal music making. The results should be no surprise, a druggy blown-out meandering laid-back psychedelic folk free-for-all. Blasted, stoned, groovy and fucked up.

You can definitely hear more SHOTM than Feathers, or maybe it's Kohoutek who we had never heard anyway, but this is not so much folky as sort of spaced-out and trippy. Simple propulsive tribal rhythm jams and simple stripped-down rock beats are the framework for these inner-space excursions, wah guitar and slivers of silvery feedback drift to-and-fro, melodies are spread out over the proceedings like a tattered old blanket, there seem to be vocals too, but they are minimal and are usually buried under a ton of FX and psychedelic shimmer. Keyboards buzz and huge spacious expanses offer the players plenty of space to stir up subtle bits of percussive clatter, glistening flurries of blurry buzz, strange spidery little melodies all tangled up amidst the stumbling drums and rumbling bass. This definitely has a Dead C vibe, but then what improvised noise-rock psych jam doesn't? No good ones, that's for sure.

The usual suspects will eat this up. Sunburned Hand obsessives for sure need this, as do all you free-folk noise-rock cd-r freaks…LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, most likely already out-of-print. Packaged in the instantly recognizable skull and crossbones Wabana purple painted digipak."

and from Volcanic Tongue:

"New instalment of Wabana's limited to 200 CD-R series is a big band collaborative shot from these two North American psych/drug units, with Kohoutek go up against a Soil Sing Through Me line-up that features Ron Schneiderman of Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Some of the backwoods garage style of the attack has a nice Crazy Horse/Savage Sons Of Ya Ho Wha meets ballroom Kosmiche feel, with plenty of serpentine string action and upper atmosphere analogue tweaking. There's even some shots of Miles '70s electro/brass confusion, albeit transmuted in a similar style to Sunburned Hand's acid funk. All laid down with a great recorded-through-a-cheap-stereo feel."


Avarus
http://www.secreteye.org/se/avarus.html
http://www.haamu.com/lallallal/

Avarus was formed in Tampere, Finland in 2001 by members of bands The Anaksimandros and Pylon. The group has gotten larger and looser (including folks from Kiila, Munuaissymposium 1960 and Kemialliset Ystävät), but the spirit is still the same. There are about 10 core members in Avarus in three different cities, and the number of occasional members is 10-20. But it's not at all important to know who's playing and when. It's about a collective sound, a play or a game. Avarus' sound is primitive, child-like, joyous and free.

"Using a muse found deep in the woods this collective base their sound on fumbling lurches of folk-rock drug groove, interspersed with weevilly keyboard stuff and quite extraordinary, persistent yowling." (The Wire)

Avarus combine psychedelic folk rock, motorik Krautrock, free jazz and modern noise into a totally mesmerising, totally unique modern avant noise/folk, unfurling lengthy, meandering, almost funereal jams, desolate and mournful, but dreamy and pastoral, machinelike and hypnotic at the same time. Strummed acoustic guitars frame distant throbbing caveman percussion, dreamy soundscapes are punctuated by occasional clang and clatter, all swaddled in the warm drone of amp buzz and ambient hum. Lo-fi, rambling, ramshackle blues jams mutate into wildly propulsive psych-folk with intensely strummed guitars and far-away flute melodies.

Dipping their toes into whatever variant of their unique 'sound' that strikes their fancy, Avarus sway woozily from atonal Jandek-ian campfire hippy hoedowns, to wild jams with spastic drumming and sing-songy melodies plucked out on beat-up, strangely tuned guitars, to wild clattery bursts of percussion splattered haphazardly over a Skullflower-ish skree, to stripped-down, jangly hyperactive psychedelic rock to loose ambient soundscapes of whir and buzz and twang, with slithery, sitar-like guitars. Occasionally Avarus kick up quite a racket, a thick slab of sound, with LOTS of guitars, feedback and some seriously dense drumming, recorded hot and overblown, adding just the right amount of distortion and haze to the recording. It almost sounds like some New Zealand noise rock band like Gate or UK psych/drone ensemble Sunroof!

Epic and endless, rumbling and stumbling, spacy psychedlic folk jams. Imagine Total or Dead C playing Finnish forest music. Or Tower Recordings covering International Harvester next door to Reynols' practice space? Droning, damaged clatter, like the wild drunken cavorting of drugged out hippy carpenters. Spacy and druggy and totally mesmerizingly beautiful.

Avarus will melt your mind and free your soul. Wander into their dark forest and join the tribe.


The Cutest Puppy in the World
http://www.questionthetruth.com/noise/cutestpuppy/
http://www.myspace.com/thecutestpuppyintheworld

The Cutest Puppy in the World is Bryan Rhodes (of Baltimore) and Layne Garrett (of Washington, DC). We explore emergent forms, extremes of saturated and empty space, scorched remnants of the familiar. We play electric piano, analog synthesizer, combo organ, guitars, found-object percussion, thumb piano, bass clarinet, styrofoam, whatever is within reach. Our music is all improvised.

Since the summer of 2005, we have performed extensively in DC and the mid-Atlantic region. Highlights include: creating improvised soundtracks for experimental films by DC artists Heather Levy, Christopher Lynn, and Jay Rees; several appearances at the Electric Possible experimental music showcase at George Washington University; the 2005 Sonic Circuits Festival in DC; and a 2-hour pyrotechnic-enhanced set in the middle of the night at Soundquilt Music Festival last summer. We've had the pleasure to play alongside a number of spectacular musicians, including: Jack Wright, Reuben Radding, Andrew Drury, Nate Wooley, Mazen Kerbaj, Mike Bullock, Vic Rawlings, Joseph Hammer, Sayo Mitsuishi, Michael Thomas Jackson, Hans Buetow, Ben Hall, John Dierker, Matt Weston, Charalambides, Volcano the Bear, Kohoutek, Na, Green Milk from the Planet Orange, Whelp, Insect Factory, Big Cats, Zach Mason, Tone Ghosting, WZT Hearts, Echolalia, Piasa, Mass Movement of the Moth, Slim Castle, Cash Slave Clique, FFFFs, etc!

In 2005, we self-released a CD-R entitled ::shut in the basement::. It made free103point9's Top 150 of 2005. Sockets put out Finfolk in early 2006, with cover art by Joseph Mills. The record received critical praise from Terrascope, Fakejazz, and Noiseweek, among others. Apotrope is due out in April on New American Folk Hero.

"What fundamentally seems to set The Cutest Puppy so far apart from the larger portion of the experimental scene is that for all their variations and stylistic diversity, they still seem very much concerned with the making of music, with all its robustly humanistic implications….The Cutest Puppy allows their pieces to flow together organically, taking in melody and discord in whatever quantities that might instinctually seem to be right….through their unpretentious, wildly humanistic ministrations on this release [FINFOLK], The Cutest Puppy in the World does succeed in underscoring some of the impressive potential that experimental music regularly fails to live up to. This record demonstrates in brilliantly unassuming terms that experimental music can not only exist without all its intellectual poses, but can also beat and shake with all the delicate passion and warmth of a heart and a soul." (Germ Ross, ArtNoise)

"The DC-Baltimore duo sound like the soundtrack to a soap opera by David Lynch." (Bob Massey, Washington Post Express)

"[The Cutest Puppy in the Worlds's] Shut in the Basement is a walk through a macabre circus sideshow, each booth revealing another bizarre character, another dark vision that laughs with joyful madness." (The Ptolemaic Terrascope online)

"Cutest Puppy in the World's songs are like Calder mobiles, made of wire, string, and dense, sweet-smelling wood." (Molars)

Clavius Productions presents the only East Coast show for legendary French drone guitarist Richard Pinhas of Heldon:

Thursday, July 12
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$12, 21+, doors at 9pm

Richard Pinhas Duo (Cuneiform, from legendary French psych/prog band Heldon!)
Insect Factory (DC improv drone)


Richard Pinhas Duo
http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/pinhas.html
http://www.richardpinhas.com/

Composer, guitarist and electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of Franceâ??s major experimental musicians. A pivotal figure in the international development of electronic rock music, Pinhas' stature in France is analogous to Tangerine Dream's in Germany: the father figure of an entire musical movement. The pioneering, aggressive music produced by his band Heldon during the 1970s, fusing electronics, guitar and rock, heralded the industrial and techno to come and remains today vital and unsurpassed. The â??Fatherâ?? of electronic music in France is also recognized as a world-class guitarist whose â??diabolical guitar workâ? (Progression) earns comparisons with Robert Fripp.

Pinhas received a degree in guitar at 17, and a PhD in philosophy from the Sorbonne, studying under philosopher Gilles Deleuze and writing on time and science fiction. He taught philosophy before abandoning an academic career for Heldon, his 3rd band, whose name derived from Normal Spinradâ??s writing. Over the course of his subsequent musical career, Pinhasâ?? ongoing philosophical studies and interest in science fiction have fired, infused, and continually renewed his music.

Heldon released 7 groundbreaking, critically acclaimed albums between 1974-78. Simultaneous with his Heldon work, Pinhas released 5 solo albums between 1976 and 1982. All of the Heldon and Pinhas recordings from this period have been reissued by Cuneiform, in a major Heldon/Pinhas CD reissue project that the US label began in 1991. Critics have lauded these 20-year-old recordings, remarking that Heldonâ??s â??trailblazing electronic pathways have rarely been eclipsed even todayâ? (i/e).

Pinhas returned to music with a vengeance in the 1990s after spending much of the 1980s away. Beginning with DWW (1992) on Cuneiform, his numerous 90s releases included projects with Peter Frohmader (Fossil Culture Cuneiform 1999), John Livengood, Scanner, Pascal Comelade, and others, as well as solo works. He also resumed performing.

During the â??90s, Pinhas began developing a system of electronic processing to use in performing live solo guitar concerts. Experimenting with tape loops and infinite delays, he expanded, transformed and even transcended the â??Frippertronicsâ? technique Fripp used in his work with Eno, and â??developed a set of personal parameters that stand on their own legs, his looping strata giving birth to interlocking patterns, chordal waves and even harmonic movements…â? [Touching Extremes].

Pinhas also began experimenting in the late '90s with projects using spoken word, first used in his work with Heldon. Spoken by prominent 20th C. visionaries and futurists, including the philosopher Deleuze, science fiction writers Spinrad and Philip K. Dick, and French novelists Maurice Dantec and Chloe Delaume, the words – either taped or live/real time, in English or French â??- add another layer of sound, texture and conceptual meaning to Pinhasâ?? rich soundfields.

In 1998, Pinhas formed an on-going project, Schizotrope, with noted cyber-punk author Maurice Dantec that fused guitar, electronics and spoken word from texts by Dantec and Deleuze. Spinrad also played a role. Schizotrope toured and released three CDs, including a live recording on Cuneiform, The Life and Death of Marie Zorn (2000), which Carbon 14 called: "A totally unique and personal approach to "electronica"; "…a veritable deluge of sounds…triumphant music."

In 1999, Pinhas released his first solo CD based solely on guitar and processing systems, De Lâ??Un Et Du Multiple (Spalax). In 2002, Cuneiform released his 2nd, Event and Repetition to widespread acclaim. Critics praised it as one of Pinhasâ?? very best works, a sophisticated and mature manifestation of his experiments with electronically processed guitar and unique interpretation of Frippertronics. In the words of Touching Extremes, â??Absolutely deep and rich, this record is a diamond.â? The BBC described it as â??Music that is in flux and stasis at the same time, with an almost sculptural presence, stuffed with overtones and rich textures.â? The All Music Guide, however, summarized Event and Repetition the best: â??…a sporadic but constant thread in Pinhasâ?? music has been his experimentation with guitar feedback, loops and effects boxes, even in the early days of Heldon…Event and Repetition may well signal the full realization of Pinhasâ?? long-time vision. The drifting, hypnotic patterns of the five pieces on this CD…have a shimmering beauty and depth that seems to suggest a destination at the end of a long journey â??- and perhaps the beginning of a new journey.â? â?? Bill Tilland, All Music Guide

In Tranzition, Pinhas augments his guitar-and-electronics palette to weave a more elaborate and textured tapestry of sound. Additional instruments such as laptop (Jerome Schmidt), violin (Philippe Simon) and drums (Antoine Paganotti, of Magma) provide additional color, while spoken-word tapes provide another layer of sound and conceptual depth, rich in detail and texture. The late Philip K. Dick can be heard on â??Moumoune girlâ?, in a 1977 tape that he gave Pinhas. The Simsi/The Sims/Sims Voice on â??Aboulafia Bluesâ? is that of Chloe Delaume, whose writings explore the notions of virtual reality + reality simulation. Arresting and provocative, Tranzition is a multifaceted and richly jeweled work in which cause and effect, acoustics and electronics, taped sound and live playing change roles and even realities.


Insect Factory
http://www.insectfields.org
http://www.myspace.com/insectfactory

Insect Factory is the project of minimalist sounds from guitarist Jeff Barsky. His playing explores subtle and detailed textures with acute
attention to overall composition, creating hypnotic fields of dense sound. Barsky frequently adds additional minimal instrumentation to Insect Factory performances. In the mid '90s, Barsky studied classical guitar and composition for several years at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. Barsky also currently plays with the DC improv band Kohoutek, which combines elements of abtract noise, heavy rhythms, free jazz, and psychedelic rock. In addition to having collaborated onstage with avant-trumpeter Forbes Graham and bass player Joe Lally (FUGAZI), his various projects have performed on bills with acts as diverse as Kayo Dot, Mazen Kerbaj, Peter Wright, Bardo Pond, Double Leopards, Charalambides, and Carla Bozulich, and he has performed with Kohoutek at Suoni Il Per Popolo festival in Montreal. Barsky also co-runs Insect Fields cd-r, which serves as an outlet for musical projects he is involved with, as well as his contemporaries.

from the Washington City Paper:

Silver Springâ??s Cuneiform Records has been the North American beachhead for French ­guitarist/composer Richard Pinhas (pictured left) since the 1990s, not only releasing his more recent output but also reissuing albums by Heldon, his seminal electronic rock band from the â??70s. That work put him in the same general class as Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Throbbing Gristle, Tangerine Dream, Can, and other influential noisemakers. But lately heâ??s been a drones-and-loops guy, using a processing system that he calls â??Metatronics,â? which allows patterns to fade and/or evolve. Itâ??s a firmly human sound: The songs go places, often with drummer Antoine Paganotti pointing the way. And to solidify the drama, Pinhasâ??a sci-fi head with a degree from the Sorbonneâ??deftly mixes in spoken word bits from such writers as Maurice Dantec and Philip K. Dick. The Richard Pinhas Duo performs with Insect Factory at 9:30 p.m. at the Velvet Lounge, 915 U St. NW. $12. (202) 462-3213. (Joe Warminsky)

Didn't realize this guy was still around. I saw him sometime in the late 90's over at Phantas with Felt.

Originally posted by snailhook:
French ­guitarist/composer Richard Pinhas

wow. he played with felt? how was that show?

OK, NOT Felt. Just looked them up. It was two guys that played obscure instruments. One word.

I got it! It was Pelt. Either way. Good gig. Pinhas was using heaps of visuals.

Clavius Productions presents:

Sunday, July 15
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$8, 21+, doors at 9pm

Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone (experimental guitar/viola duo, mem. of Anthony Braxton's Septet)
Judith Berkson (solo Wurlitzer organ)
Motreb (improv guitar/drums duo from VA)


Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone
http://www.myspace.com/maryandjess
http://maryhalvorson.com/
http://www.jessicapavone.com

"Their experimental instincts, sharpened by an affiliation with Anthony Braxton, commingle with a folksy lyricism; sometimes they even sing, without a trace of protective irony." (Nate Chinen, The New York Times)

"They listen as though they're hotwired into each other's brain, their taut structural discipline prompting a domino effect of great ideas." (Philip Clark, The Wire)

Mary Halvorson is a guitarist, composer and improviser living in Brooklyn. She grew up in Boston and studied jazz at Wesleyan University and the New School. Since 2000 she has been performing regularly in New York with various groups and has toured Europe and the U.S. with the Anthony Braxton Quintet (Live at the Royal Festival Hall, Leo Records) and Trevor Dunnâ??s Trio-Convulsant (Sister Phantom Owl Fish, Ipecac Recordings). She has also performed alongside Joe Morris, Nels Cline, John Tchicai, Elliott Sharp, Lee Ranaldo, Andrea Parkins, Marc Ribot, Tony Malaby, Oscar Noriega and John Hollenbeck. Current projects which Mary composes for and performs with include a chamber-music duo with violist Jessica Pavone (Prairies, Lucky Kitchen, 2005); The Mary Halvorson Trio with John Hebert and Ches Smith; and the avant-rock band People (People, I & Ear Records, 2005). She also performs regularly in ensembles led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Ted Reichman, Peter Evans, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jason Cady, Matthew Welch, Brian Chase and Curtis Hasselbring.

New York native Jessica Pavone is a string instrumentalist and composer based in Brooklyn who holds degrees in viola performance, music education and composition. She's studied viola with tons of classical teachers, improvisation with Leroy Jenkins and is continuously learning by working within a community of creative musicians in New York, most notably through her work with composer Anthony Braxton.

Most recently, she tours Europe and the United States with The Anthony Braxton Sextet and Twelve+1tet and in a collaborative duo with Mary Halvorson (guitar, viola, and voice). She currently leads two ensembles; The Pavones and Quotidian and improvises in groups led by William Parker,Taylor Ho Bynum, and Matana Roberts. She plays bass guitar with; Minnows, Christy and Emily, and Jason Cady and the Artificials.

She has performed at a number of international music festivals including, the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway, The Banlieues Blues Festival in Paris, The Victoriaville Festival of New Music in Canada, the Santa Annarresi Jazz Festival in Italy, All Tomorrows Parties in England, Jazz em Augusto in Portugal, The Wels Unlimited Festival in Austria, and at the Ciclo Jazz Foundation in Spain.

As a composer, she has received commissions to write chamber music for The Eastern Winds and Till by Turning, and her pieces have been heard throughout the northeast in venues such as the Kitchen and Issue Project Room in New York and Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut.

As an instrumentalist, she has interpreted new music by musicians such as Glenn Branca, Butch Morris, Matthew Welch, James Fei, Matt Bauder, David Grubbs, Loren Dempster, Aaron Siegel, and Andrew Raffo Dewar.

Since 2000, she has documented her music via her self-run label Peacock Recordings, which was recently awarded a grant from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Program, and her growing discography and list of works can be witnessed via her web site, www.jessicapavone.com.


Judith Berkson
http://judithberkson.com/
http://www.myspace.com/judithberkson

Judith started singing when her father taught her the blessing over wine in 1981. She joined the family group which toured Chicagoland and the Midwest playing shows at community centers and synagogues. After music conservatory she moved to Brooklyn where's she's been writing music and playing in bands. Judith likes the challenging music, teaching Schoenberg harmony, speaking in 3rd person, finding good clothes and hanging out with her sick creative friends.

Judith has played with folk legend Theodore Bikel, saxophonist Steve Coleman and has performed new music by Milton Babbitt, Joe Maneri and Osvaldo Golijov. Her voice was the basis of "Twilight" a multimedia project by Hans Breder and Carlos Cuellar at DOSA museum in Germany. She has worked with composer Gerard Pape who runs the Center for Music Iannis Xenakis in Paris (CCMIX) and sang the American premier of his "Two Electro-Acoustic songs" in 2004. Judith is also a Cantor and works at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation on Long Island.

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Two Safranin bands plus the amazing Echolalia…

Monday, July 16
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$6, 21+, doors at 9pm

The Antiques (Washington DC black jangle post-funk)
The Offering (VA shoegaze)
Echolalia (solo theremin)

The Antiques
"For fans of semi-obscure '80s British acts such as Comsat Angels and the Chameleons UK … well, here is your new favorite band. The songs are dramatic without being overwrought, as the band doesn't get bogged down with unnecessary instrumentation. A thick organ sound envelops tracks such as "Painted Post Road" and "Don't Stand in My Room," which plod along gingerly while Greg Svitil gives a perfect deadpan delivery of lines like, "Don't light up my life / Yours is the light I don't need / When did you become such a creep? / When did you become so psychotic?" Things are more sprightly on "One Day You'll Be Sorry Too" and "Auburn Aumbry," recalling some different obscure '80s U.K. acts – let's say Felt and Orange Juice this time. People who are serious about their 7" record collection will seriously love this album." â??Washington Post

The Offering
The Offering of Fredericksburg, Virginia are no stranger to noise violations. Started in 2005 by Charles Pinto and former guitarist and vocalist Andrew Cooke, the band's mission to modernize, but experiment with, what the two considered to be "the classics" was clear. As many bands had done in the past, the two forged their music on the foundation of guitar, bass, and drum machine, forgoing a drummer for no better reason than to create a unique sound. The result was nothing short of that. Pinto's dark, primal rhythms encompass what becomes epic turns song after song, and his driving sometimes distorted bass lines compliment the percussion amply.

Upon Cooke's parting, guitarist Billy Noom took the role of lead quite naturally. His jangly but somehow still melancholy guitar work, leads the band efficiently guiding second guitarist Shane Huffman's harmonious and piercing riffs throughout the journey. Coupled with Huffman, keyboardist Chris Critzer provides at times eerie background soundscapes, but also fills the role as a strict keys player nicely. Critzer also fills in as second percussionist on many songs, yielding only a single tom-drum as his tool. The band's live show is a finely tuned psychedelic freak-out and their tendency to sound check and tune instruments at higher volumes than most band's entire sets has earned them a spot as one of the noisier independent bands in America.

"Dark vocals, sheets of blistering paint-peeling guitars, and a propulsive drum rhythm combine to make some fantastic music akin to New Order, Skywave, Ceremony, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Chameleons, etc."- Tonevendor

Echolalia
Influenced by Found recordings, random thoughts while daydreaming, things around the apartment, walking down the street, and "ideas or phrases I hear on tv, the radio, or in everyday conversation.," Echolalia is "sometimes quiet, sometimes noisy, sometimes spooky, sometimes funny, sometimes sad or other times a mix of everything." A member of DC's legendary freak champions Alzo Boszormenyi and the Acid Achievers.
www.safraninsound.com
www.theantiques.org
www.myspace.com/echolalianova

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Tuesday, July 17
Velvet Lounge
915 U St St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$7, 21+, doors at 9pm

Thintap Woodsap (experimental psych-pop)
Afuche (Latin free jazz from Brooklyn)

Thintap Woodsap
www.myspace.com/thintapwoodsap
www.myspace.com/thintapwoodsapone

The press calls Thintap Woodsap "frighteningly talented" (Boston's Weekly Dig), but he isn't so frightening anymore. See, he will have eaten only bananas and water for a week by the time you see him and he will have lots of paper and crayons and other fun activities for you to do. He'd bring a durian for fun and sniffing but the last time he did that, the authorities ripped out the floor of the studio where he was recording thinking there was a gas leak.

So, now for the credentials and name dropping in one long, confusing sentence: Thintap's compositions and improvisations range from very complex, mammoth pieces for orchestra to neo-vaudeville musicals, noise rock operas, long term collaborations with the thaumaturgical Stormy Laughter, and with the utterly original dancer, Zack Fuller, percussionists Tatsuya Nakatani, Will Redman, and Jeff Arnal, and violinist Katt Hernandez, and reed players John Dierker and John Dikeman to intimate songs that he sings and plays on the piano and accordion all by himself, which you will hear this evening. He has also enjoyed many lentil dinners with Joe Maneri and if you want to do some snooping, he also has the name, "Jonathan Vincent". He is a completely original and nutritious protein without any gimmicks or fashionably processed sarcasm. Missing him in your lifetime will really dissapoint your children.

Clavius Productions presents an evening of dadaist performance art, interpretive dance, experimental electronic music, and accompnaying visuals:

Thursday, July 19
Velvet Lounge
915 U St NW WDC
http://www.velvetloungedc.com
$7, 21+, doors at 9pm

Chic Nerve (Rebecca Mills of Caution Curves with interpretive dancer Ginger Wagg)
Eagle-Ager (dadaist performance art with costumes/sculptures/dance/music, from NYC)
Slim Castle (solo experimental electric guitar with visual projections, ex-Kohoutek, on Sockets)
Boyzone (electronic improv theatre from NC)


Chic Nerve
http://www.thecautioncurves.com/


Rebecca Mills is a sound artist based in Washington, DC who uses found sounds and samples of live instrumentation to create laptop compositions under the name Chic Nerve. She comprises one-third of the avant-rock band The Caution Curves, described by The Sound Projector as "a single-minded trip into mild dementia that is totally engaging". The bandâ??s unique approach to sound has garnered critical recognition by sources such as The Wire and The Washington Post. Rebecca also plays clarinet in the avant-jazz horn-and-percussion ensemble Gestures, and documents aural experiments and oddities through the label Initiated Eye Recordings. Recently she collaborated with dancers Jane Jerardi and Ginger Wagg on the performance installation piece Façade, and composed a live mix from an original score by Audrey Chen for performances of Daniel Burkholderâ??s piece Together/Apart.

Ginger Wagg is a dance artist focused primarily on improvisation. She performs with two DC-based companies: Sharon Mansur/mansurdance and Daniel Burkholder/The Playground. She has performed with Shua Group (NYC), Amber Kendrick (DC), Marcy Schlissel (NYC), and Havana Select (DC) among others. She received her BFA in Dance from George Mason University, VA and has studied extensively at various improvisation workshops and festivals.


Eagle-Ager
http://www.eagleager.com

Eagle-Ager is a multimedia art team and sculpture band:

Charlotte Gibbons - dancer/performance artist
Geoffrey Nosach - sculptor/performance artist
Stephen Cooper - composer/musician/performance artist

We all graduated from Suny Purchase in 2004 and we like to read heady books. If you see us you will likely see cardboard costumes, electronic music, ritualistic actions, absurd set peices, scrap wood, blood, fancy pants, eagles, toy firetrucks, florescent Jesus figurines, thumbs, paintings of mountains, and maybe styrofoam starfish suits.

Eagle-Ager is a performance art team that is based in NYC, who have been playing around the NYC area for the past three years. The work is a mix of puppetry, performance art, and electronic music. Influences include cartoons, art history, ancient rituals, eerie disappointments, paganism, horror, fun, simulations, questions, and nature/culture conflicts. Eagle-Ager's art team and sculpture band will be touring for the first time in July 2006. The works will likely consist of sets made of scrap wood, junky trashy puppets, cardboard man suits, ritualistic actions, birds and snakes, paintings of mountains, styrofoam starfishes, and thumbs way up, all working to construct a socially relevant absurdist profundity. Eagle-Ager strives to be a totally portable art band. The art world goes the way of the capitalist elitist. The working class shaman's reaction to this is a shared passion for cheap, powerful artwork.


Slim Castle
http://www.myspace.com/slimcastle

Slim Castle is built around a goosebump factory. The engineers examined the goosebump architecture of bad bands and transposed it to a setting with a lot more taste, stretching the most cathartic sections.

The results sometimes sound like Charles Bronson's early, furtive watercolors – blunt, broad washes on burlap that aren't scared of beauty, but have some grit and backbone. Other more frilly tracks are laced with sketchy aural pentimenti and outlined mistake.

In live performance the recordings are stripped down and scrawled over with gestural guitar, lit with syncopated video, made rough and immediate.


Boyzone
http://www.myspace.com/boyszone

"These revelations preceded Boyzone, a painful filibuster of industrial noise and artless stagger. It was the first dance piece in many years that I walked out on. After a promising beginning, Charlie St. Clair and Lauren Ford's work quickly devolved into movement that mainly suggested what Martin Sheen's initial scene in Apocalypse Now – drunk and disorderly in a Saigon hotel room – might have looked like before the final edit. Pointless, eternal, and enhanced only by the monochrome, headsplitting electronica of Neill Prewitt, Ryan Martin, Jeff Rehnlumb and Kelly Reidy, this work single-handedly drove
much of Aumiller's audience into the night, before sanity – and dance – resumed in a blindfolded finale, Burnt. By then, the majority who did not return apparently felt that way themselves." (Raleigh dance critic Byron Woods)

Boyzone has performed with played with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, USAISAMONSTER, Prurient, Tom Grimley, Jason Crumer, Dan Deacon, Art Lord, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, White Mice, Dance Disaster Movement, An Albatross, Kill Me Tomorrow, Little Howlin Wolf, Kohoutek, Alissa Cardone, Breaker Breaker, Jessica Rylan/Can't

from No Future Fest III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qt-sWFI8S8
some recent pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisreallyhappenedok/sets/72157600214775419/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisreallyhappenedok/sets/72157600155578944/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisreallyhappenedok/sets/72157600116501880/