This Weekend at Soundlab... Shock & Awe feat. Teen Heat!

SHOCK & AWE feat. TEEN HEAT!
Friday, June 19, 11pm. Where two (or more) become one….

Islands Announce Third Album

By Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

On September 22, Anti- will release Vapours, the third full-length from Islands, the fractured pop project from former Unicorn and current Human Highway man Nick Thorburn, aka Nick Diamonds.

In news that is sure to delight Unicorns fans, fellow former Unicorn Jamie Thompson, otherwise known as J'aime Tambeur, has rejoined the group. Thompson recorded Islands' 2006 debut Return to the Sea with Thorburn but left the band for 2007's Arm's Way. And now he's back!

Islands played Soundlab on 04/16/08.

Telegram from Beckett to Joyce Among Treasures of UB Collection

R.D. Pohl, for the Buffalo News, writes:

At first glance, it's so yellowed and ephemeral, you might overlook it--a tiny wisp of postcard size paper locked into a display case of Finnegans Wake miscellany in the "Discovering James Joyce: The University at Buffalo Collection" currently on exhibit through September 13th at the UB Anderson Gallery.

It's a 1929 telegram from a then 23 year old Samuel Beckett to James Joyce clarifying the difference between the infinitive and substantive forms of a Greek phrase that would later find its way into Finnegans Wake. When it caught my eye at the opening reception for the exhibit on Saturday, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Like many Joyce fans, I knew that the young Beckett had acted as something of a research assistant (see his Our Exagmination Round His Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress) to the then 47 year old Joyce, whose Ulysses (1922) was already recognized as the most ambitious, most praised and reviled, most controversial and censored English language novel of the 20th century, a position from which it would not be dislodged in subsequent decades. Seeing evidence of how Beckett's dark, cryptic intellectualism (he once said that wrote most of his later work in French--his second language--to avoid the pitfalls of "style") would come to supplant Joyce's lyricism in the postwar, post Holocaust, postmodern era right in front of you in a display case, however, is enough to take your breath away.

Read the rest here.

Battles' Tyondai Braxton Preps Solo LP

By Ryan Dombal, for Pitchfork:

While we all wait to see what kind of mutant urchin fight music Battles will come up with next, the group's big-haired, chipmunk-on-speed vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton is readying a solo album. The LP, Central Market, is out September 15 in the U.S. (Sept. 14 in the UK) courtesy of your friends at Warp.

The record is a follow-up to 2002's History That Has No Effect (Braxton has been peddling his distinct brand of real-time, loop-based weirdness for about a decade) and is set to feature the same mix of electronics, guitar pedals, and polyrhythm percussion that has made him something of a godhead to prog dudes too cool to love Yes. The Wordless Music Orchestra-- who brought Johnny Greenwood's modern classical piece "Popcorn Superhet Receiver" to life last year-- help Braxton realize his skewed vision on the album.

Modern composition grad students, get ready for some ace study music.

Tyondai Braxton performed, with Parts & Labor, at the second Soundlab's soft opening on 10/26/03 (before the stage was installed!). He returned with Battles on 4/02/07

This Week at the Burchfield-Penney... Monsters of Nature and Design

Friday, June 26, 8pm--Big Orbit Gallery presents MONSTERS OF NATURE AND DESIGN 111, a performance by CRAIG SMITH (London, UK) and COLIN BEATTY (Boston, MA) with GARY NICKARD, REINHARD REITZENSTEIN and THE VORES. MND III, which takes place on the grounds of the Bruchfield-Penney Art Center, coincides with the closing of Craig Smith's exhibition, Training Manual for Relational Art, currently on display at Big Orbit Gallery (through June 28).

Craig Smith is a London-based media artist whose art practice and research focuses on the process, aesthetics, and ethics of human-to-human interactivity in contemporary art. Smith’s practice includes the production of photography, performance art, video, writing and lectures. He has been featured at an international range of venues including the PS1MOMA Contemporary Art Institute, The Tate Modern, The George Eastman House, The Hudson River Museum and galleries including Galerie Schuster Photo (Berlin), RARE Art (New York), The Kent Gallery and White Columns (New York).

Colin Beatty is an artist and healthcare consultant—currently, as the US Healthcare Provider Practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ and is based in Boston. Colin obtained his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, additionally holds a Maters degree in Fine Arts from Stanford University, an EMT certification from UCLA medical, was a studio participant of the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York, and has been an exhibiting artist of a range of media including painting, sculpture, installation, ongoing participation in works organized by Craig Smith, and more recently, self production of parafictional performance work in such venues as banking institutions, government healthcare agencies, and national regulatory groups. Colin's hobbies include doing well on standardized tests, thinking, drawing with pencils, and watching Craig find lost keys.

Oneida Live at Primavera Sound Festival, May 30th 2009 (mp3s)

From the WFMU blog:

WFMU dropped anchor on the shores of the Mediterranean last month at the invitation of Barcelona's stunning Primavera Sound Festival, where we joined 80,000 of our new best friends in an ecstatic celebration of music, good livin', good eatin', and futball victory ....

This was Oneida in a beautiful and psychotic dream: surrounded by gigantic weird paranoia-inducing ads for sunglasses, with the skyline of Barcelona behind the band and the Mediterranean Sea behind the audience, plus a killer light show. This was a one-off edition of the band, as core member Fat Bobby couldn't make it. In his temporary stead was founding member Papa Crazee, who some years back amicably departed Oneida to form the equally excellent Oakley Hall. A truly glorious evening.

Spanish Jam/ Each One Teach One. All Arounder. Sheets of Easter. Oneida played Soundlab on 08/03/06 with From Monuments to masses and Sleeping Kings of Iona

Final Call for 200 Guitarists to Perform with Rhys Chatham at Lincoln Center Out of Doors This Summer

"Those interested in being considered for one of the guitar slots for A Crimson Grail should go to Lincoln Center's website to complete an application form: www.lincolncenter.org/wordlessmusic. Returning musicians from 2008 who complete the application process will be guaranteed participation-they will be able to indicate that they participated last summer on the form. The deadline for 2009 applications is June 15; all guitarists will be notified by July 1."

Chatham performed at Soundlab with his minimalist death metal project Essentialist on 09/15/06. On 02/01/07, he assembled a group of Buffalo musicians to perform his seminal no wave-minimalist piece Guitar Trio. Read Chatham's account of the show here.

Erik Fiedlander MP3 "May It Please Heaven"

Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City. A veteran of NYC's experimental downtown scene, Friedlander has worked in many contexts, but is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with saxophonist/composer John Zorn. The LA Times wrote, "Friedlander's performance clearly positions him as the first potential star performer on his instrument." (from Wikipedia). He performed selections from his Maldoror record at Soundlab on 04/19/04. Check out May It Please Heaven here.

Red Sparowes Get New Guitarist

By Black Bubblegum for Brooklyn Vegan:

Red Sparowes have announced a new axe-wielder to their ranks, replacing the departed Josh Graham. The band comments:
I think it's safe to announce our new guitar player is Emma Ruth Rundle. She's an unbelievable guitar prodigy. A better guitarist than any of us. And, she works building and repairing guitars. Pretty awesome.
What role Rundle will play on the bands upcoming full-length is not known, but the band have completed seven demos to be recorded in August for release on an upcoming LP due in 2010. Look for some of those tracks to surface while the band plays a few dates "in Oct/Nov" including a date at the Fun Fun Fun Fest with the previously announced Jesus Lizard. More details about FFF Fest and the Red Sparowes tour are forthcoming. The band plans a full US tour, followed by a European tour in spring 2010.

Red Sparowes next release isn't that LP follow up to Every Heart... though, it's the Toshi Kasai co-produced (with the band) Aphorisms DVD+12" which is due this fall. That EP along with the entire Red Sparowes catalog is now available for download as "pay what you want" (over $2.50 that is) from the band. Check that out here.

Red Sparrowes hit Soundlab with Daughters and Versoma on 08/20/06.

Grizzly Bear Debut at No. 8 With Veckatimest

Posted by Ryan Dombal for Pitchfork:

With the space between major and indie continuing to dwindle, a top 10 indie rock showing on Billboard's Top 200 album chart isn't the kind of seismic event it once was. But still, this week's no. 8 triumph for Grizzly Bear's BNM'd third album, Veckatimest, is kinda like a big deal.
According to Billboard, the record sold 33,000 copies-- 40 percent via downloads and 24 percent via indie stores-- which was good enough to beat Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, and almost every other band/artist selling music on this earth. Kudos.

Grizzly Bear opened for Lichens and Soft Circle at Soundlab on 11/06/05.

The National, Breeders, My Brightest Diamond Team Up for Multimedia Piece

Posted by Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

Aaron and Bryce Dessner, the guitarist twins from the National, are not content to rest easy after jointly producing the twin triumphs of the Dark Was the Night album and concert. Come October, they'll present a brand-new multimedia piece called The Long Count at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The piece, done in collaboration with visual artist Matthew Ritchie, will include guest vocals from the Breeders' Kim and Kelley Deal (also twins!), My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, and the National's own Matt Berninger. The Dessners will perform it with a 12-piece chamber orchestra. And it sounds really cool.
BAM commissioned the piece as part of its Next Wave art festival, and the Dessners will perform it on October 28, 30, and 31. The Long Count somehow involves both a Mayan creation myth and the 1976 World Series. Here's how the Next Wave press kit describes it:

"Jointly conceived by the collaborators as a one-hour immersive multimedia experience exploring ideas of symmetry and creation, The Long Count weaves together disparate themes ranging from the hero twins of the Popul Vuh (a Mayan creation myth) to the epic 1976 World Series victory of the Cincinnati Reds over the New York Yankees (which occurred in the year of the Cincinnati-born Dessners' birth).

"Ritchie's large-scale sculptural environment frames a one-hour animated film made from the artist's intricate, biomorphic drawings. An evocative, complex score and song cycle composed and performed by the Dessners and a twelve-member chamber orchestra will be illuminated and sung by guest artists."

Ritchie's website doesn't offer much more in the way of details, but it does include this image, which is like whoa.

So, uh, yeah. Sign us up.

The National performed at Big Orbit Gallery on 5/30/01 with Mia Doi Todd and Clogs. My Brightest Diamond visited Soundlab on 11/02/08.

Mount Eerie Preps "Black Metal" Album

Pitchfork reports:

The music Phil Elverum has made over the years hasn't been that far removed from that of, say, Xasthur. The man behind the Microphones and Mount Eerie shares a few predilections with underground black metal: creeped-out lo-fi atmospherics, otherworldly despair, the sense that we're dealing with a fragile loner desperate to keep the rest of the world out. Doesn't hurt that the man's last name sounds like some Lord of the Rings sub-species, either.

Last year, Elverum made the connection a little more concrete with his Black Wooden Ceiling Opening EP, the first release where he explicitly experimented with black metal dynamics. The result, especially the bottomlessly sad opener "Appetite", made for some one of the most hypnotically wracked music of Elverum's career.

On August 18, Elverum will blow that experiment out to album length when P.W. Elverum & Sun releases Mount Eerie's Wind's Poem, which is being touted as his "black metal album." Elverum recorded the album himself in various locations around his hometown of Anacortes, Washington. Nick Krgovich of No Kids dropped by to add some harmonies, but as with most Microphones/Mount Eerie releases, this is basically all Elverum here.
The album will be available on CD, digital download, or a clear vinyl double LP in "a gatefold jacket with bronze foil stamping and a pull out lyric poster". One of those options sounds slightly cooler than the others.

When Mount Eerie tours this autumn, Elverum will bring a full band with him, including two drummers. A press release promises gongs and walls of amps. This is going to rule.

Mt Eerie played Soundlab on 10/31/07, with Privacy and Al Larsen.

Book Review: "Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen," by David Stubbs

From the Signal to Noise blog:

David Stubbs is a wide-ranging cultural commentator; he writes about sports, film, and literature as well as music. Stubbs' book Fear of Music discusses the perception gap between modern art and modern music. Why is it that collectors will shell out millions of dollars for avant-garde visual art while avante-garde music is still so widely derided?

The old saw regarding the issue of art vs. music appreciation is that time is the deciding factor. Stubbs acknowledges the potency of this argument; as he points out, one can look at the Rothko Room for five minutes and then head off to a café, but many Stockhausen works requires hours of a listener's time. But the author also crafts a persuasive case for consumer consumption of art objects as increasing their palatability with the public. With no easy way to create coveted musical artifacts in this era of file-sharing and digital distribution, it's easy to see music being increasingly thought by the masses of as free, disposable, and even 'unnecessary.” All the while, visual artists are able to monetize their wares with, in some cases, alarming audacity. Stubbs is able to negotiate the delicate issues of the duality between visual and performing arts with deft, knowledgeable, and subtle commentary.

Fear of Music also serves as an excellent primer on music outside the mainstream. At 135 pages, the appearance of this slender volume is deceiving. Stubbs covers a tremendous amount of musical terrain, eloquently expounding on such varied subjects as post-punk, futurism, Dada, Sun Ra, free jazz, Derek Bailey, and Webern. Indeed, the book is an excellent primer for anyone looking to take a subscription to avant-garde music journal The Wire, a periodical to which Stubbs frequently contributes. Indeed, Fear of Music is apt to bring more than a few music lovers further outside the mainstream in their listening habits.

This Week at Sugar City: Put Your Record On

Tuesday June 16 9-11pm @ Sugar City 19 Wadsworth.

Put your records on. A monthly community listening party. Bring your favorite records and play us all a song! We will be making a mix of the music we play. Bring a CD or cassette if you’d like a copy. There will be refreshments too! Donations welcome to keep Sugar City sweet.

Paul Sharits Video Interview with Gerard O'Grady (1976)

1976 Interview with Gerard O'Grady
28 minutes.
From the series Film-Makers, WNED Buffalo.
Via Ubuweb.

This Week at Soundlab... Disco Bisquits Afterparty

June 4, 9pm--The Official Disco Bisquits Thurs in the Square Afterparty feat. Pnuma Trio, Fourem (live electro-glitch-pop), Big Basha (dubstep). Discounted advance tickets available at the Biscuits merch booth at The Square!

Dynamic, scene-setting electronica youngsters The Pnuma Trio have been known for their forward-thinking compositions and moving, powerful improvisations since their explosion onto the scene in 2004. Not so young anymore, Ben Hazelgrove, Alex Botwin, and Lane Shaw are proud to call STS9's very hot 1320 Records their new home as they release their debut studio album, 'Character'. With a defined, glitch-informed electro/hip-hop feel and all the dynamic energy of their DJ-killing live show, this new album represents a significantly evolved version of Pnuma's futuristic sound; tighter, more focused, and higher resolution. The long synth solos have been replaced by careful layering; instead of building each song to it's climax the band percolates on hot remixed urban ideas, letting the production create the spacious atmosphere. Self-produced by the band and sporting a special bonus track that features Crown City Rockers MC Rashaan Ahmad, 'Character' is ready to take the scene by storm with it's vast, open feel and deep 808-driven grooves. The rest of the world can only watch and listen as these talented artists come of age and discover the depth of their 'Character'. Download the new album now from 1320records.com and hear the future as it happens!

http://www.myspace.com/pnumatrio
http://www.pnumatrio.com

This Week at Soundlab... DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer

Tuesday, June 2, 9pm--DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer Turntablist/Sax Duo with short opening sets by Novelist and the Voidologists

DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer share a passion for expanding their instruments beyond cultural preconceptions & musical conventions. In their duo they access, examine, cross-reference & play with complimentary & contrasting techniques & artefacts from their musical histories. Their performances move sometimes capriciously, other times unnoticeably between elements of free jazz, hip hop, & ambient plunderphonics, placing turntable & saxophone virtuosity amidst vinyl & cassette tape playback, looping & scratching in the context of custom hardware & software & old guitar pedals. As a duo, DJ Sniff & Keir Neuringer involve themselves in a new musical paradigm free from the constraints of genre, academia, or commerce.

http://keirneuringer.com/djsniff.html
http://djsniff.com
http://keirneuringer.com/

Arrington de Dionyso Exclusive MP3 Downloads

Arrington de Dionyso is best known as frontman for K records ecstatic rockers Old Time Relijun, but he is also an accomplished experimentalist, devoting a significant amount of his time to furthering the cause of free improvisation. He is the founder and curator of the Olympia Festival of Experimental Musics, in its twelth year. He explains his submission in response to The Wire's request for free giveaways this way:

One project I have in mind is called "Yamaneko Improvisations", it was recorded while touring Japan with Tori Kudo and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. It's a very strong, drone based duo improvisation between me on voice and bass clarinet and Tori Kudo playing a nineteenth century pump organ. Would something like that be of interest? It would also be easy to put on selections from either of my most recent albums but it would probably be more fun to include something "impossible" to find anywhere else. (The only people who have copies of this music are people that I have personally given a disc to, as far as I know! Meaning- about twenty people in the world!).

Excerpt 1 & 2 from Yamaneko Improvisations. Arrington de Dionyso- bass clarinet, voice; Tori Kudo- pump organ. Recorded February 11th 2007 at Tsuru's House in Matsuyama JAPAN. Released only as private CDR from "Pine Cone Alley"

Arrington de Dionyso performed with Old Time Relijun at Soundlab on 05/26/06.

This Week at The Tralf (Avant-Indie)

Friday, 5/29, 8pm--legendary post-rock stalwarts Tortoise.

From Thrill Jockey:

Tortoise is a group that resists easy metaphors and analogies, who can be described as sounding like only themselves and no one else. Twenty years after its founding, the band’s signature and singularly inimitable sound—a fluid intersection of dub, dance, jazz, techno, rock, and classical minimalism, with no part overwhelming or dominating the whole—remains an American and international original. Even more unusually, they seem to have arrived at their sound with almost no apprenticeship to speak of; to judge from their early singles and albums alone, they seem to have come into being with their musical identity and DNA fully formed, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. Further, while the group has spawned countless imitators, heirs, and followers—sincere, flattering, and otherwise—Tortoise remains unique in the world of contemporary music for their boundless intellectual curiosity, their unmistakable compositional voice, and their synthesis of seemingly contradictory sound worlds far from their doorstep.

This Week at Buff State (Multi-Media)

Friday & Saturday, May 29 & 30--IUDCC: The Future of Journalism Conference.

By Geoff Kelly for Artvoice:

This weekend an army of radical media theorists and activists converge on Buffalo State College for the annual International Union for Democratic Communications Conference IUDCC) If that name seems opaque, think alternative news and media criticism or, better yet, look at the roster of speakers and presenters: Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, which each year highlights the most important and underreported stories of the year; Geoff Millard, chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Danny Schechter, the documentarian and author whose films include Counting on Democracy and WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception; and Buffalo’s own Steve Kurtz, whose federal prosecution became a cause célèbre. They join more than 100 alternative media scholars and activists in arguing over the current and future state of media.

Programs begin at 9am both days. Only selected events are open to the public. Visit www.buffalostate.edu or Buffalo State’s Bulger Communication Center (1300 Elmood Ave) for a conference schedule.

This Week at UB (Art/Improv)

By Jan Jezioro for Artvoice:

June in Buffalo, the long-running new music festival at the University at Buffalo, returns to the Amherst campus for an event-filled week, beginning Monday, June 1 and ending Sunday, June 7, with a concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in Slee Hall.

Long recognized nationally as one of the premier new music venues in North America, the June in Buffalo Festival featured in a special “Summer Stages” supplement this past May in the New York Times. The Times noted, “Composers have flocked to this festival since 1975, when Morton Feldman founded it as an American version of the Darmstadt festival in Germany. A bevy of young composers will hear their works performed alongside those of established masters like Martin Bresnick, David Felder and Harvey Sollberger.”

Read more here.

This Week at Soundlab... Video Hippos

May 28, 9pm--Baltimore's Video Hippos ("hyperbeat keyboard hardcore/pop, melding morose melodies to contoured 'n' spazzy noise bursts in songs that stick quick and generally quit within 150 ticks" says Streogum), with Voulez Vous Danser Avec Moi (Buffalo, Alfred Brown and John Valenti), Communication Hymns (Jax Deluca/Tristan Trump Collab)

Video Hippos
http://myspace.com/videohippos

Voulez vous danser avec moi?
http://myspace.com/alfredbrown
http://john.fmgreen.net/building/

New Yacht "Psychic City (Voodoo City)" MP3

From Pitchfork:

YACHT's new album, See Mystery Lights, will get stuck in your head in more ways than one. First, there's that album cover-- a brain-melting image in "special holographic foil" that just won't leave your synapses alone. Then, there's the music. Check out the beach party jam "Psychic City (Voodoo City)", and just try to stop humming it.

YACHT members Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans took the lyrics to "Psychic City" from Two Million Years, an early K Records cassette tape release by Rich Jensen, then added a synth part inspired by Althea and Donna's "Uptown Top Ranking".

See Mystery Lights is out July 28 on DFA. The duo is on tour with Patrick Wolf in the UK right now.

Yacht played Soundlab with Dirty Projectors and Vampire Weekend on 8/27/07.

New Oneida 3-Song Sampler

If you aren't familiar with Other Music, New York City's most adventurous record store, this giveaway might give you a reason to get acquainted.

Click here for a FREE SAMPLER from Oneida, a/k/a the best psychedelic rock band in America! While these Brooklyn pranksters have been known to spin a few tales (how about the one about the warehouse-sized music box, or the dub version of their 2005 album "The Wedding," titled "The Weeding"?), it turns out that this rumored triple album they've been working on is the real deal, set for release on July 7. Here's a little three-song preview of the forthcoming opus, "Rated O." Enjoy!!

Oneida visited Soundlab on 08/03/06.

This Week at the Castellani (Multi-Media)

This Sunday, May 31, The Castellani Art Museum's TopSpin Series continues with Tom Holt: Test for Echo. An opening reception with artist's talk will be held Sunday, 2-4 at the museum on the Niagara university campus.

A highlight of Test for Echo will be a multi-media graffiti mural that Holt is creating especially for the TopSpin exhibition. The spray painted work that will cover one wall of the gallery is also going to incorporate projected video images.

The artist will host a Blackbook event at his home Friday, July 10, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Graffiti artists regularly carry black sketch books and bring them to each other's homes to pass around and draw in. For more information, directions, and to RSVP, please contact Curator Michael Beam at 716-286-8286 or mjbeam@niagara.edu.

The latest in the museum's series of solo exhibitions profiling emerging artists of Western New York, Test for Echo runs through September 13, 2009. The TopSpin series is sponsored by Tops Friendly Markets. The Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University is open Tuesday - Saturday, 11 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. For more information on the exhibition and its related programming, 716-286-8286.

This Week at Hallwalls (Art/Improv)

Friday, May 29, 8pm--Juini Booth Buffalo Trio
Juini Booth (contrabass); Steve Baczkowski (saxophones, winds); John Bacon (drums, percussion)

From the Hallwalls press release:

Born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y. Juini Booth has been playing professionally since age 16. He has expanded the range of the contrabass into a refined personal language of intense acoustic awareness and spatiality of sound. Firmly rooted in the forefront of the American jazz tradition, which he has helped to shape, Booth's music also integrates influences from world music, emerging beyond the boundaries of categories to express the poetics of universal humanness. His compositions reflect a masterful use of simple melodic themes developed through unexpected harmonies, unusual tonal qualities and time relationships, inviting the listener to a new level of musical perception.

Booth has performed and toured for over 30 years with jazz musicians from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers to Tony William's Lifetime, Coleman Hawkins to Albert Ayler, Chuck Mangione to Sun Ra and McCoy Tyner, among countless others. He received the Mingus-Zimmerman Award sponsored by ISB (International Society of Bassists) for Most Imaginative Performance in the Free Choice Category. He was Music Curator at Hallwalls in Buffalo New York (1981-82) and at NAC Niagara Arts Council in St. Catherine's, Ontario (1991). His compositional work has been supported by an NEA composers' grant, CAPS, and Meet the Composer. Booth is currently focusing on composing new works for contrabass, and collaborative projects with artists of other disciplines, as well as teaching and recording. Recording credits include: Shelley Mann, McCoy Tyner (3 albums), Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Sun Ra, Hamiet Bluiett, and many other artists.

$12 general admission, $8 members/students/seniors

Tonight: WNY Book Arts Collaborative Grand Opening

Western New York Book Arts Collaborative First Annual Members' Exhibition Tonight! WNY Book Arts Center 468 Washington St. Downtown Buffalo

The WNY Book Arts Collaborative exists to promote, encourage and develop Printing & Book related Arts through education and access for individual artists and underserved communities. Through active programs such as lectures, workshops and exhibitions, all facets of the printed word and image -- printmaking, papermaking, illustration, design, writing, binding -- can be explored and made accessible to the public as viewer and participant.

Christian Bök Makes It Sound Easy

From UbuWeb:

In this seven-minute sound poetry tutorial, Christian Bök takes the most difficult things and makes them pleasurable and completely understandable. Produced by Curtis Fox for the Poetry Foundation, Curtis tries — and botches — a snippet of sound poetry. He then hands the mic over to Christian who makes it soar. Bök then goes on to precisely explain the piece and its historic context. I can’t imagine anything better to use as a teaching aid to explain and demonstrate this art form.

On 04/20/01 Christian Bök appeared at Big Orbit Gallery as part of the E-poetry Festival presented by Just Buffalo and the UB Electronic Poetry Center. Others presenting/reading that night included Brian Kim Stefans, Neil Hennessy and Darren Wershler.

Praying for Oblivion: The Cruelest Animal

Although he has mostly flown under the radar of Buffalo's sometimes insular experimental community, Andrew Seal aka Praying for Oblivion has, through his explorations of jarring harsh-noise and post-industrial power-electronics, established a place for himself in the international underground. He has toured extensively in Europe and released split releases with a variety of international acts, including Outermost from Japan, Napalmed from the Czech Republic and Allun from Italy, in addition to an avalanche of straight solo works. Now available from Apocalpytic Radio, out of Saarland, DE is: "The Cruelest Animal" (AR044), "3 tracks of distorted power-electronics/harsh-noise with distorted-vocals, reminiscent of Sutcliffe Jugend, Soldnergeist, Macronympha. This release comes packaged in a clear DVD case with pro-printed blk/wht artwork. It is a limited release of -ONLY- 66 copies, so act quickly."

Buy it directly from Apocalyptic Radio or email Andrew directly at: prayingforoblivion@gmail.com. Praying for Oblivion performed with Aidan Baker and Beta Cloud as part of a night of experimental electronics during the Infringement Festival on 07/28/07.

Dâm-Funk Remix Animal Collective

From Stereogum:

As reported last week, the second single from Merriweather Post Pavilion is the sweaty, sing-songy "Summertime Clothes." A video directed by Danny Perez is on the way along with three remixes. With its retro synths and electro beat, the "boogie funk" adaption by LA's Dâm-Funk is gonna be tough to top. The remix premiered on BBC Radio the other day, but it will also be good for you to spin next time you DJ in outer space. Download the radio rip at Rappcats (H/T GvsB).

The Democracy of Visual Space: Tom Holt in the Buffalo News

Artist Tom Holt is mentioned in Community Canvases, an article by Jane Kwiatkowski exploring the landscape of painted murals in Buffalo. Here's the good stuff:

“Murals do not have to be educational,” said Tom Holt, the graffiti-esque artist whose latest mural will be part of a solo exhibit opening May 31 at the Castellani Art Museum. “They can be just a celebration of color and form.

“It comes down to the democracy of visual space,” Holt noted. “It’s difficult to obtain mural space. It bothers me that Cellino and Barnes and the McDonald’s Golden Arches inundate us with images as large as they want because they can pay for it.”

Holt moved here in 2002 and within months, he and a group of friends opened Kamikaze, a three-story space for performance art on Ellicott Street. More recently, he painted “a giant almost subterranean” mural for Squeaky Wheel that ran 70 feet.

“Murals are all about audience,” Holt said. “You get to share your art in a spectacular way. The scale should not decrease your sense of signature.” Holt’s signature spray paintings take on a sci-fi, almost futuristic look. He breeds cartoon characters.

Holt pointed out the tattered lion mural at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Virginia Street. The mural was painted by graphic artist Frank Cravotta, director of creative services for the Buffalo Sabres.

“I always thought I wanted to fix that,” Holt said. “That’s the type of space I’d be eager to paint on.”

The original murals in the Soundlab bathrooms were painted by Tom, and other pieces have been featured in various Soundlab multi-media events.

This Week at Soundlab... Communist Party feat. Computer Club

Friday, May 22, 11pm
Communist Party 3 Year Anniversary feat. Computer Club

Like the final round of a videogame tournament, Computer Club’s music is loud, aggressive and spattered with grimy funk. A tendency toward the heavy, distortion-tinged sound of electro house is well balanced with his penchant for funk-laden interludes amongst the banger blitz.

The Computer Club sound first emerged from the studio of Mike Diasio in 2007 when System Recordings, one of the largest electronic music labels in the United States, tapped him to sign the single “Load Rocket.” The song, one of the first completed by Diasio under the geeky guise, carried Computer Club’s name into both traditional record label outlets and the burgeoning music blogosphere alike – a trend rarely seen in the heavily populated landscape of today’s dance music. Original songs like “Flat Response” and “Laptop Levitation” showcase Computer Club’s highly honed sound design and audio engineering skills, while his remixes of Nine Inch Nails, Prince and New Order illustrate his ability to adapt the best of the big names to the dancefloor.

Check Computer Club out on myspace.

This Week at Soundlab... Wolves in the Throne Room, Kralice, A Storm of Light

Wednesday, May 20, 9pm, $10/12
Wolves in the Throne Room, Kralice (Mick Barr), and a Storm of Light (Neurosis/Red Sparrowes members)

From Wickipedia:

Wolves in the Throne Room is an American ambient black metal band based in Olympia, Washington. Their sound is influenced by Scandinavian black metal, doom metal, dark ambient, crust punk, and folk music. The band has described their sound as “purifying black metal” or “transformative black metal”, although in interviews the band has shown an unwillingness to be restricted by any musical label.

The band is well known for their eco-spiritual vision, which they consider to be a step beyond the vision offered by satanic, fascistic and nihilistic black metal. They often state that traditional black metal should be seen as a jumping-off point in a process of continual spiritual growth, and not an end unto itself.

The band has expressed bemusement at the myths that have sprung up around its member’s rural lifestyle. It is often said that WITTR live “in a one room cabin in the woods with no contact with the outside world”. Aaron has tried to set the record straight in interviews: “We don’t live in caves and wear un-tanned animal hides."

Sounds like fun! Check them out on Myspace.

This Week with Subversive Theatre Collective (Multi-Media)

By Javier, for Artvoice's Stagefright:

The Subversive Theatre Collective will present Too Absurd!, a double bill of absurdist once act plays, May 21-June 7 at the Manny Fried Playhouse. The bill will include Ionesco's The Lesson directed by Drew McCabe, and Mrozek's On the Sea, directed by Mark Tattenbaum.

Diplo Soundlab Clips on YouTube

Handheld camera documentation of Diplo's performance on 05/07/09. Re-live the magic here and here.

Caralee McElroy Leaves Xiu Xiu

By Tom Breihan for Pitchfork:

According to a post on the band's website, Xiu Xiu multi-instrumentalist Caralee McElroy has left the group. Here's what she wrote, in a post titled "Thanks for the memories":

"I have decided to stop playing in Xiu Xiu for personal reasons. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in the last 5 years. Xiu Xiu is an important and amazing band and will continue to be."

Meanwhile, Xiu Xiu frontman (and McElroy's cousin) Jamie Stewart has a new band called Former Ghosts and he's on a solo tour in Europe right now. And next year, Xiu Xiu plans to release an album called Dear God, I Hate Myself.

Xiu Xiu performed at Soundlab on 10/16/06

Danger Mouse's EMI-Killed CD Will Be Released as a Blank CD-R, Just Add Download

By Cory Doctrow for Boingboing:

EMI has told Danger Mouse that his latest CD won't see the light of day due to "legal issues," so he's responding by releasing the disc as a blank CD-R in a jewel case with art and liner notes. Fans can just download the music off a P2P site and burn it to the CD-R.

Dark Night Of The Soul, a collaboration with rock group Sparklehorse, also features Iggy Pop and The Flaming Lips, along with artwork by David Lynch. It has already been streamed online, but Billboard magazine said a "legal dispute" with EMI derailed the project...

"Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night of the Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is."

He added that the album, which comes with a limited edition, "100+ page book" of David Lynch photographs inspired by the music "will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R".

"All copies will be clearly labelled: 'For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.'"

This Week at Soundlab (Multi-Media)

Thursday, May 14, 7:30pm. Sunday BMX presents Up Up and Away Film Premiere

Friday, May 15, 9pm. Infringement Festival Benefit feat. A Hotel Nourishing, The Grappling Hooks, Pam Swartz and a showing of Jason Klinger's short film "Zombie Loves Vampire"

This Week at Soundlab... Electronic Wilderness

Wednesday, May 13, 9pm--new date! Electronic Wilderness: The Chandeliers, Bev-Beverly. As denizens of a vibrant and eclectic music scene that hinges around the Shape Shoppe recording space on Chicago’s near South side, keyboard-heavy dance rockers Chandeliers hail from the same community that includes the inventive Chi-town entities Icy Demons, Bronze, Killer Whales, Bird Names, and Mahjongg.

This Week at Soundlab... Vetiver

Wednesday, May 13, 9pm--new date! Electronic Wilderness: The Chandeliers, Bev-Beverly. As denizens of a vibrant and eclectic music scene that hinges around the Shape Shoppe recording space on Chicago’s near South side, keyboard-heavy dance rockers Chandeliers hail from the same community that includes the inventive Chi-town entities Icy Demons, Bronze, Killer Whales, Bird Names, and Mahjongg.

Friday, May 15, 9pm. Infringement Festival Benefit feat. A Hotel Nourishing, The Grappling Hooks, Pam Swartz and a showing of Jason Klinger's short film "Zombie Loves Vampire"

Saturday, May 16, 9pm, $12/14 Vetiver, Papercuts. Tight Knit is the fourth full-length album from Vetiver--singer/songwriter Andy Cabic's ever-evolving musical home base. Luminous and surprising, Tight Knit unfolds like a road trip down Highway 1, towards Cabic's home in San Francisco.

Stream Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" Plus the Fred Falke Remix!

Pitchfork reports:

Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2006's Yellow House, will finally see the light of day later this month.

But the first single, the eminently awesome "Two Weeks" (which they've already played live a few times), is going to be available on iTunes starting at midnight tonight. And Warp will release it on 12" on May 18.

Have a listen to the song-of-the-year contender plus the "really fun and TOTALLY different :)" remix by Fred Falke here.

(We're still waiting on the Snoop Dogg remix.)

Grizzly Bear played Soundlab at the bottom of a bill that included Lichens, Soft Circle and Voltage on 11/06/05.

Diplo's Mad Decent iPhone App

Tom Breihan reports for Pitchfork News in Brief:

Diplo's Mad Decent label is about more than music; it's also about wacky sound effects. Mad Decent's new iPhone app is up now on the iTunes store, it's free, and it seems to consist entirely of sound effects: airhorn, elephant, dinosaur. In this video, a Diplo gives us a guided tour of the app without putting down his joint. Random onlooker guy: "Would you ever use that in a set?" Diplo: "Yeah, it's fucking reggae, dude."

Diplo performed at Soundlab last Thursday, and before that, on 09/20/04 with RJD2 and Rob Sonic.

Photos from USAISAMONSTER's "Last Show Ever" Featuring Awesome Color, a Shirtless Juiceboxxx, and A Sweaty Mass of Spectators

By Rebecca Smeyne for the Village Voice's Sounds of the City Blog:

Justin F. Farrar gushed his respects last week to Brooklyn prog-noise stalwarts USAISAMONSTER, who after 10 years, four full-lengths, two EPs, a stack of CD-Rs, and a zillion cold floors around the globe, are ending their long-revered band. Last Saturday at the Market Hotel was billed as their "Last Show Ever" and photog Rebecca Smeyne documented the steam-room of a finale. One kid passed out and to be taken away by ambulance, but the show continued without interruption. More importantly, how was the curry?

Click here to see the photos.

USA Is a Monster played Soundlab on 10/05/06.

New Animal Collective Song "Bleed" (Live In D.C.)

From Stereogum:

Earlier today we posted the complete stream for Animal Collective's show last night at the 9:30 Club, but for those of you who want to cut to the chase and locate the new stuff, here's a stand-alone MP3 for an echoing, cavernous song currently titled "Bleed." It's a brief 3-minute shadowy, clanging, and woodsy transitional piece.

Animal Collective - "Bleed" (Live) (MP3) (Via GvsB).

Animal Collective visited Soundlab on 04/14/05 with Ariel Pink

Akron/Family Live Improv mp3s

This past weekend, Akron/Family recorded a live improv for The Frow Show, which aired 5/11/09 on WFMU (part 1, part 2, part 3). Host Jesse Jarnow writes:

The plans for Cobra-like cues and Oblique Strategies borne from the Love Room loft fell by the wayside, and very quickly Akron/Family shut off the lights in WFMU's Studio B. Literally stumbling in the dark between their usual instruments, upright and toy pianos, Farfisa organ, space blaster, Scott Williams' cigar box guitar, Bryce's accordion, and other toys, the trio jammed for an hour-and-a-half straight, reconnecting with the experimental investigations that run beneath their current incarnation's cosmic folk and Afrodelic dreaminess.

WFMU-FM is a listener-supported, non-commercial radio station broadcasting at 91.1 Mhz FM in Jersey City, NJ, right across the Hudson from lower Manhattan. It is currently the longest running freeform radio station in the United States.

Akron/Family played Soundlab on 3/17/07.

New National Tunes, Peformance On "Late Was The Night" With Jimmy Fallon

From Stereogum:

Hey, it's a blog post relating to Dark Was The Night. Sunday night's live event (NYC) around the indie-scene-portrait compilation was a certain success, and the National's final victory lap came last night with a performance of "So Far Around The Bend" for Jimmy Fallon with woodwinds, strings, and a Nico Muhly. We have video of that, but also and more intriguingly, we have NYC Taper-captured MP3s of the two new tunes performed at Radio City this past weekend: the first is the excellently overcast "England," which I had then mentioned has an intro recalling Sufjan's "Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois" (standing by it) before turning into a The National song, paired with "Vanderlylle Crybaby" which features a smoking guitar-hero solo from the night's MVP, Justin Vernon. Take those, along with the Fallon video and YouTube of Bon Iver and Berninger doing "Big Red Machine" at Radio City.

The National performed at Big Orbit Gallery along with Mia Doi Todd and the Clogs on 05/30/01.

Sunn O))) Full-Length Wire Magazine Interview Transcripts

The Wire has posted a series of full-length transcripts of interviews referenced in its April cover story on drone metal art project Sunn O))). Featured in these fascinating documents are collaborators and members of Sunn O))) including: Stephen O'Malley, Greg Anderson, Oren Ambarchi, Jessika Kenney, Eyvind Kang, Attila Csihar. Interesting stuff even for non-completists!

Sunn O))) performed at Soundlab on July 1, 2004.

This Weekend at Soundlab... Tera Melos

Friday May 8, 9pm--Tera Melos. "A sonic (and literal) kick to the head, Sacramento's instrumental four-piece TERA MELOS fuses elements of jazz and hardcore punk, creating a unique sound that has been described as a head on collision with the melody of Cap'n Jazz and the aggressiveness of Black Flag."

NOTE: the Crystal Antlers show originally scheduled for Saturday, May 9 has been cancelled. They have to appear on TV or record a song or something.

This Weekend at Soundlab... Diplo!

Thursday, May 7, 9pm--Super producer (M.I.A., Santogold), unearther of new dance trends (CSS, Bonde de Role), and DJ sensation Diplo with Paul Devro and Big Basha. SOLD OUT

RIP BPM

By Rob Harvilla for the Village Voice's Sounds of the City blog:

Friend-of-SOTC Dennis Romero reports that BPM magazine is shutting down after a 13-year-run of dance-music coverage that struggled to adapt and evolve without abandoning its roots altogether. Romero, a former news editor and contributor there, offers some context:

In recent years, BPM followed dance music's new generation away from the core superclubs. The likes of Steve Aoki graced the cover, and the nu electro cool kids ruled the roost. It's hipper-than-thou parties seemed geared more towards paparazzi (Paris Hilton was a guest) than dance music fans. I'm not sure if this was its downfall, or if it simply was a victim of falling print advertising and a bad economy - a common ailment for mags across the land (see Portfolio).

Throw it on the fuckin' pile. Avast.