Seen and Heard Last Night

I attended a really nice show at Enemy last night made up of three sets by interesting configurations of avant-garde musicians -- each group of which contained local performers that I find to be extremely compelling:

set 1:
Joseph Clayton Mills, electronics
Jason Stein, bass clarinet

set 2:
Asimina Chremos, movement
Carol Genetti, voice
Aaron Zarzutzki, acoustic turntable

set 3:
Olivia Block, electronics, prepared materials
Adam Sonderberg, drum, tone generator
Christian Weber, contrabass


Joseph's delicate use of oscillations and controlled feedback worked extremely well with the wind - not really notes - passing through the clarinet. I could listen to hours of just the electronics...

Carol's vocals are always interesting to me. Last night, she performed un-amplified, against Aaron's minimalist turntable/CD player set up. Her delivery was pretty disturbing, actually, and out of the context of this event and this space, she could easily be viewed as a mentally ill person off her meds. Excellent stuff! The dance/movement element seemed to work pretty well but it was Carol's simple performance that held my attention.

Olivia and Adam created a really nice fabric of electronic and acoustic sounds (Snap and Pops!) that did play well with the strings, even if I could easily do away with the contrabass. Weber's scraping on the ground with the instrument's floor peg at the end was actually a pretty cool touch.

S.O.S. Out

The various artists "The Sound Of Sadism" CD is now out of stock via the BloodLust! catalog. Please check with Malsonus for availability.

Plague Haus Interviews Mark Solotroff

The Plague Haus website kindly just posted a brand new (yet long-overdue) interview with me (as Pieter would say, "Very Rare"). Please check it out, here: http://plaguehaus.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=211&Itemid=26

Status - 11/04

- All paid orders (individual/distro, Discogs, etc.) from the last few days were mailed out tonight. Thanks to everyone who has supported the newest releases!

- I returned home from practice tonight to a neighborhood filled with an astounding amount of police cars, riot police, a police helicopter overhead shining a search light down on the streets, and non-stop fireworks and explosions... Luckily, I got a ride home from the rehearsal space. Intense!

Short 36

(Photo courtesy of Blake Edwards)

The Fortieth Day + Noise Crush
November 2, 2008
Cobra Lounge
Chicago, IL

Last night was definitely an odd one... a strange way to end a busy year of shows. Thanks to Heber and Señor Decker, for including us in the Dia de los Muertos event. Thanks to our friends - especially the Milwaukee crew! - for supporting. Thanks to Jon S., for videotaping, and thanks to Blake for the video clip and the still shots. Particularly with Al-Thawra canceling, we felt like the odd men and woman out on a night of "high energy" rock, punk, and metal. Aside from it feeling a bit awkward, and not having a soundcheck, things went relatively well. I detected a few glitches in the sound -- and the MiniDisc recording is useless, unfortunately -- but Lisa's video seemed totally flawless. And who would have thought that a Misfits cover band without costumes and with only minimal eye makeup would end up being so much fun. As soon as "Goat's Head Soup" ends I am digging into the coffin...

Here is a clip that Blake shot, right at the beginning, with synth throb coming through loud and clear:

Tonight's Show

The Fortieth Day is expected to go on second - at 11:00 PM tonight.