Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'm promoting a concert and I figured I might as well stop uploading illegal downloads for the time being. If you are anywhere in the metropolitan DC area, please come to the show
Avant Fairfax festival. It's got a lot of great music with a lot of great stuff happening upstairs as well. Check out the line up at the link. A unique psychedelic music experience will be achieved by all.
April 25th, 2009
5pm-1am
Old Town Hall
3999 University Dr.
Fairfax, VA 22030.
Also, check out
District of Noise a few fellows are uploading a lot of the great performances that happen here in DC. Check out the Hawkwind tribute night recording of Kohoutek, and the amazing Han Bennink recording.
Another show coming up I'm excited to see::
Chromatic Mysteries w/ Marshall Allen
When:
Wed, Feb 18, 2009 8:00 PM - Wed, Feb 18, 2009 11:00 PM
Where:
Twins Jazz, 1344 U St. NW, Washington DC
MapMarshall Allen- Alto Sax, EVI
Elliott Levin- Tenor Sax, Flute
Michael Gibbons - Electric Guitar
Ed Ricart- Electric Guitar, Processing
Scott Verrastro- Drums, Percussion
Chromatic Mysteries is a new ensemble comprised of members of such sonic explorers as Sun Ra Arkestra, Bardo Pond, and Kohoutek. Horns collide with guitars that melt with percussion to create alien emissions that communicate with man's primordial ooze.
As a young musician, Marshall Allen (b.1924) performed with pianist Art Simmons, Don Byas and James Moody before enrolling in the Paris Conservatory of Music. After relocating to Chicago, Allen became a pupil of Sun Ra subsequently joining the Arkestra in 1958 and leading Sun Ra's formidable reed section for the next 40 years. Marshall, along with John Gilmore, June Tyson and James Jacson, lived, rehearsed, toured and recorded with Sun Ra almost exclusively for much of Sun Ra's musical career. As a member of the Arkestra, Allen pioneered the Free Jazz movement of the early sixties, having remarkable influence on leading voices in the avant-garde. He is featured on over 200 Sun Ra recordings in addition to collaborations with Phish, Sonic Youth, Digable Planets and Medeski, Martin & Wood. Allen assumed the position of maestro in 1995, following the ascension of Sun Ra in 1993 and John Gilmore in 1995. Allen continues to be committed to the study, research, and developmentof Sun Ra's musical precepts.
Elliot Levin is a Philadelphia born and based jazz musician and poet. For ten years he toured the world with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, as saxophonist in The Sound of Philadelphia band. He regularly performs jazz and poetry with Cecil Taylor's groups Phthongas and Unit Core Ensemble and Odean Popeʼs Sax Choir. His original music and poetry was recorded for and broadcast throughout the USAas part of the New American Radio Series. He is also currently a member of drummer G. Calvin Weston's Big Tree, The Philadelphia Phenomenon (w/ Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Rick Iannacone, Calvin Weston); and the West Philadelphia Orchestra.
Born in 1878 to a Madagascar whaler and a Nepalese snake charmer, Outer Philadelphiaʼs
Michael Gibbons has been tantalizing intoxicated audiences for well over a century. In 1989, after decades roving the southern seas as a pirate, inventing cures and pharmaceuticals as a mad scientist, and designing top-secret UFOs as an astrophysicist during the Cold War, Gibbons, at the age of 111, along with his brother and one-time cellmate John, formed the well-regarded and mightily feared improvising space rock combo Bardo Pond. Armed with electrified guitars and almost as many pedals as hair follicles, The Brothers Gibbons kidnapped Swedish debutante Isobel Sollenberger, Japanese samurai dishwasher Clint Takeda, and some shlub named Joe, licked a few toads and conquered the Psychedelphia scene. Gibbons decided to unleash his solo machinations upon the unsuspecting public, in the form of kosmische raga folk (according to one victim, Ed Hardy), as 500mg. Gibbons continues to emit fuzzed-out washes of meditative drone, squealing feedback, and chemically-influenced riffs in such socially unacceptable configurations as Alasehir, Vapour Theories, Alumbrados, Baikal, Third Troll, and Curanderos, with records released through indie institutions Matador Records, Important Records, and ATP Records. Bardo Pond also performed this past December at the famed All Tomorrow's Parties festival, held in upstate New York.
Drummer/percussionist Scott Verrastro utilizes a plethora of sticks, brushes, bells, shakers, cymbals and gongs, metal, contact mics, and household items – in addition to a traditional drum kit – to coax a wide palette of sounds. Verrastro received a degree in music literature from Northeastern University in Boston and continues to examine many forms of music, including all styles of improvisation and traditional folk. His main percussion influences are Milford Graves, Rashied and Muhammed Ali, Sunny Murray, Han Bennink, Jaki Liebezeit and Bill Bruford and yes, even John Bonham, Bill Ward, Keith Moon, and Nick Mason. His improv psych band Kohoutek explores all of this territory, veering from drony Krautrock-inspired psych to abstract noise freak-outs and everything in between. Verrastro also plays in a duo with guitarist Chris Grier (of To Live and Shave in L.A.) called Thee Ultimate VAG, a trio with guitarists Anthony Pirog and Ed Ricart called PRV Trio, often accompanies guitarist Jeff Barsky in Insect Factory He has also performed with Damo Suzuki (of Can), Richard Pinhas (of Heldon), numerous Bardo Pond projects, and multi-instrumentalists Mike Tamburo and Little Howlin' Wolf.
Born in Ancon, Panama, Edward J. Ricart began his studies in Prague with Tony Ackerman, a student of the the great Bill Dixon. He's opened the book to his very own chapter of 'avant' guitarring, combining the ferocity of no wave and vintage hardcore with the endless spiritual possibilities afforded by free jazz and free improvisation. In the process, he's unleashed a fire music fit to score the technological developments and social unrest of this modern age. He currently performs as a member of DC's avant-rock PRV TRIO. He can occasionally be seen onstage with DC space rock stalwarts KOHOUTEK, and noise troupe SONIC SUICIDE SQUAD, who will be touring in support of Acid Mothers Temple this coming April. In the past year, his ensembles have supported Sabir Mateen, Eugene Chadbourne, Elliott Sharp, The Convocation, Toshi Makihara, Uri Caine, Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone. Equally likely to perform everything from math rock to modern classical.
