Haiku Review: The BSC - 23% Bicycle And/Or Ribbons Of The Natural Order (3P, 2010)

The BSC - 23% Bicycle And/Or Ribbons Of The Natural Order


The BSC
23% Bicycle And/Or Ribbons Of The Natural Order (download)
/mice squeak, floorboards creak/
/your hidden ghostly chaos/
/antique resonance/

The BSC & Ophibre at The Piano Factory

The BSC at The Piano Factory
Ophibre at The Piano Factory
Last night was my first time at The Piano Factory and for being a gigantic building, that shit is hard to find. Well, finding the room where the show was going down was tough, anyway. Thankfully the security dude at the front office was nice and helpful. Apparently (just for future reference) you have to go around to the back of the building, through the parking lot, down some stairs, through a door propped open with a rock, up some dirty stairs, around the corner and voila! You just found the place where magic happens.

Seriously, The Piano Factory is gonna be the new CBGB's of Boston for experimental music. Take a look at the shit they (they = Ricardo from Semata Productions, who owns/rents the room...or something) got lined up in the next couple of months. I'm not gonna write it all here 'cause it's a lot of stuff, but everything's in the "Shows" section over on the right. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to at least some of those. Like John Wiese. Can't believe he's playing Boston, that's so fucking rad.

But hey ho, onto the show. Last night was awwesoooome. First off, I was like the youngest person there and that was a little weird. There were people there my grandparents age. And that makes those people there the coolest grandparents ever (unless your grandparents are Bjork and Matthew Barney). So I got to talk to Ben (aka Ophibre) before the show. Very cool guy who has good taste in gloves. He went "on stage" and did his thing. It was low end droney stuff that was slightly pulsating, kind of like if an organ had a heartbeat. And then there was this noise on top of it all that sounded like a microphone being dragged through a gravel driveway. Totally awesome. At 20 minutes or so, though, it was a little too short for me. I definitely could've listened to that for another 20 minutes at least. It was one of those things you just want to go on forever.

Then The BSC came on and just blew my mind. Sadly, they were missing two people (Liz Tonne's voice and Mike Bullock's double bass) but being new to the whole BSC thing made it not really matter to me. The first set was really weird because it was a bunch of guys making lots of noise, but it was so quiet. And wonderful. It never once felt chaotic. But oh boy, their second set was nuts, especially compared to the first. They started out full blast, banging and clanking, making a beautiful cacophony. I'm really glad I got to hear both sides of The BSC, it definitely enhanced the experience.

I must say, though, there was a slight downside to seeing them play live. Maybe it was just that I've never heard them before, but it was very difficult for me to absorb the music while watching them play. It was a dark room, with 6 people making all sorts of bizarre sounds with traditional instruments, and I was really focused on figuring out exactly what they were doing. I saw the guitarist doing something with tuning forks, the cellist had weird electronics alongside his cello, and the guys playing the theremin, trumpet, and saxophone were making noises I've never heard come out of those instruments. So yes it was the coolest fucking thing to see live but it also distracted me from the music itself. What this means is that I need to track down some recorded BSC material and throw on the headphones. And when that happens, I will be sure to let you know how amazing it is.

The BSC ≠ Burning Star Core

So...I'm an idiot. I saw a concert listing on a couple of websites saying something along the lines of "8-26 The BSC, Ophibre at The Piano Factory" and got all excited because I thought The BSC stood for Burning Star Core (even though there's no "the" in front of the latter). Well, I went to make a post just now about the upcoming show, possibly showcasing a video or mp3 of Burning Star Core, only to find out that an entirely different band is playing.

If you happened to be in a similar position to me, let me bring you up to speed. The BSC is a somewhat local, large group of people led by Bhob Rainey (and includes Howard Stelzer, yay!). There doesn't seem to be a lot of info about them. Like, anywhere. Bhob has a website, a MySpace, and a blog (that hasn't been updated since 12-07). The most info I can find is from the Semata Productions blog (the people putting on the show) where it says, "The BSC generates consistently fresh and compelling work through innovative rehearsal techniques and long-standing musical collaborations between individual members of the group."

Well there you have it. This Tuesday night, Ophibre (who recently e-mailed me because he saw me writing about him on my blog, which means I'm famous, again) and The BSC will be playing at The Piano Factory at 791 Tremont Street in Boston. The BSC will be playing two, yes two sets. Sounds like a good time to me. I'll be there. And maybe I'll write about it afterwards.

The best I can do for a song to hear is this sample found on Bhob's website. It's the only track I've found labeled specifically as The BSC (instead of any individual's solo work). So if you like what you hear, maybe you should come to the show. Come on. There's gonna be two sets of awesomeness plus Ophibre. That's pretty hard to pass up.