Hear New Thermals - "I Don't Believe You"

By Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

On September 7, Kill Rock Stars will release Personal Life, the new album from inveterate Portland punk bashers the Thermals. And on August 10, KRS will release the album's first single, the characteristically catchy pummel "I Don't Believe You", as both a 7" single and a digital download. (It's backed by the B-side "There's Nothing You Can't Learn".) You can download the track simply by clicking here. If you needed a reason to pogo frantically on a Tuesday morning, you now have one.

The Thermals visited Soundlab on 05/02/09 with Shaky Hands and Point Juncture, WA.

Andrew Bird Brings Sound Sculpture Installation to Guggenheim (NYC)

By Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

Whistling indie star Andrew Bird has teamed up with sculptor and inventor Ian Schneller on a sound sculpture called "Sonic Arboretum", which will come to New York's Guggenheim Museum on August 5. Schneller, formerly of the 80s experimental indie band Shrimp Boat, has built an army of various-sized horn speakers shaped like old-fashioned Victrolas, which will be arranged into an "ecosystem" on the Guggenheim's rotunda floor.

If you've seen Andrew Bird play live, you've probably seen Schneller's work in action, as Bird usually performs using his horns. You can see a few images of Bird and Schneller among the horns on this website.

On August 5, Bird will perform in the sound sculpture, using the forest of horns to project his music. It's part of the Guggenheim's Dark Sounds Concert Series, which also includes a show from Beirut on July 15 and one from Cinematic Orchestra on September 3. Dark Sounds is in conjunction with the exhibition "Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance", which runs at the famed museum until September 6.

In a press release, Bird explains "Sonic Arboretum" as sounding like "The din of many voices. When the mind focuses on a single voice, it is forced to track its trajectory. When there are too many to process it submits, but never fully relaxes. Echolocation is always engaged. Dozens of horns, a sonic field of poppies, an experiment of sound and sculpture."

On 11/03/04 Andrew Bird played Soundlab with The Stay Lows, John Long/Amber Long.

See The Friction Brothers at Hallwalls

Monday, Jun 21, 8pm, $15 general, $10 members/students/seniors, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center--THE FRICTION BROTHERS

Michael Colligan (dry ice, implements)
Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, implements)
Michael Zerang (percussion, piano insides)

The Friction Brothers are perhaps the only dry-ice/cello/percussion trio in the visible world. Begun in 2005 to perform improvised works that explore their love of scraping, rubbing, hitting and freezing various objects to the point of vibration, they have appeared at a number of questionable venues in Chicago. While often sounding like electronic music, they make all their sounds mechanically. To produce these sounds each member has developed an expansive vocabulary of extended techniques. Zerang has raised the back scratcher to an essential component of the modern drummer's stick collection. Colligan warms up metal objects and the super cools them on a block of dry ice making them vibrate in the audible range. Lonberg-Holm's grind tone remains an unexplainable phenomena by acousticians ... Although the trio is a relatively new group, the members have worked together extensively for over 15 years in a wide variety of settings from the seminal lowercase quartet Pillow to the internationally known free improvised jazz powerhouse Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet.

Read: Hire-Wire Act to Tout Art Exhibit

By Colin Dabkowski for the Buffalo News:

In downtown Buffalo, where the skyline has held its shape for more than 30 years, visitors usually keep their eyes trained at ground level.

But on a Thursday in September, anyone within viewing distance will have a good reason to look up.

On Sept. 23, French performance artist Didier Pasquette plans to attempt a tightrope walk across a steel cable strung between the two towers of the 23-story Liberty Building.

Read the rest here.

Attend Screwed Anthologies with Dave Dove & Lucas Gorham at Hallwalls

Wed., Jun. 16, 2010, 8pm, $12 general, $8 members/students/seniors, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center--SCREWED ANTHOLOGIES WITH DAVE DOVE & LUCAS GORHAM.

Dave Dove (amplified trombone with effects, screw tracks) Lucas Gorham (guitar, lap steel guitar, effects, loops)

Read "Reich's Adventurous Music Propels Festival's Start"

By Geraud MacTaggart for the Buffalo News:

June in Buffalo is always interesting, and this year’s version of the venerable festival of modern classical music promises to be more of the same.

Young composers get their works performed by world-class musicians and critiqued by master composers. For a solid week, all kinds of sounds come from the auditoriums and classrooms at the University at Buffalo’s Amherst campus, and people come from across the continent to sample them.

Steve Reich’s scores have had a prominent place at June in Buffalo recitals during the last decade, and Monday night’s performance of “Sextet” and his 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Double Sextet” was an early highlight of the season.

Read the rest here.