Xela, Perispirit, Brendan Murray & Noell Dorsey at The Piano Factory

Brendan Murray & Noell Dorsey: whales, monkeys, & ghosts singing in an occasionally treacherous river of echoes & footsteps

Brendan Murray: hummingbird heartbeat pulse blast, murky sonar blip feedback, laser tag in space haze

Perispirit: I really don't remember, my mind kinda melted, there were birds & water sounds, CRAZY volume cuts, the end was bordering on black metal, and it seemed to last foooorevverrrrrr

Xela: Jim Siegel (Ning Nong) on drums, synthy sci-fi arpeggio/tremolo tape weirdness, fallen angel choir harmonizes with itself, spontaneously combusts, treads on static circuits & tribal clouds, all the while firmly rooted in euphoria

More photos on Flickr.

Xela

Xela

Perispirit

Perispirit

Brendan Murray

Brendan Murray & Noell Dorsey

Regression, Dog Lady, Spykes, Zerfallt at The Piano Factory

Regression: pathetically filthy depressed underground sloth grime
Dog Lady: throbbing warped violin tape chaos
Spykes: fractured diy industrial noise
Zerfallt: white hot scorching bleak primal abyss

More (and larger) photos at Flickr.

Regression

Regression

Dog Lady

Dog Lady

Spykes

Spykes

Zerfallt

Ten Thousand Things, Stillbirth, Ouest, Ricardo Donoso at The Piano Factory

After a brief silence from Semata, they're back with a couple of 7 inches, one from label head Ricardo Donoso and a split with Stillbirth & Prurient. Last night was the record release party and it seemed like everyone who was available and gave a shit showed up.

Ricardo Donoso: mixed up chronology, staring in awe at the majesty of the perfect storm

Ouest: all the infinite sounds that could possibly come from your broken radio, TV, lawnmower, fire alarm, and washing machine

Stillbirth: sweet guitar drone lullabies, processed to hell and back

Ten Thousand Things: delicate almost blissful canvas with smatterings of nothing, eventually encrusted in thick static

Ricardo Donoso

Ouest (Howard Stelzer, Brendan Murray, Jay Sullivan)

Stillbirth

Ten Thousand Things (Geoff Mullen)

Ten Thousand Things (Scott Reber)

More pictures on Flickr.

Lord & Karlheinz, Audrey Chen & ID M Theftable, Jajuno Trio at The Piano Factory

Karlheinz
Lord
Audrey Chen & ID M Theftable
Jajuno Trio
More images on my Flickr page
I went to this show having not heard any music by any of the performers beforehand. But I had heard plenty about ID M Theftable and the Lord & Karlheinz duo, not to mention that fact that Semata Productions hardly ever puts on a bad show so I knew the likelihood of an epic night was pretty fucking high.

This show could be likened to the month of March in reverse. In like a lamb, out like a lion. The Jajuno Trio (James Coleman on Theremin, Jules Vasylenko saxin' it up, and Noell Dorsey "singing") started things off with a whisper, literally. Noell was audibly breathing, Jules looked like he was working on the saxophone but I couldn't necessarily hear anything, and Coleman was being very delicate with his Theremin. Super minimal, super quiet, and super awesome. At first, everything they played kind of melted together so you couldn't discern one instrument from the other. And I love shit like that. Is that coming from the sax or the Theremin? Who knows, man!

Although billed to go on last, Audrey Chen & ID M Theftable played right after Jajuno Trio and it was definitely my favorite set that night. Chen played her cello with some added electronics and Theftable stayed mostly on the electronic side of things. Pretty straightforward. Except when they opened their mouths. Both Chen & Theftable conjured some of the fucking craziest sounds to ever come from humans. I would not have been surprised to be told those noises came from shrieking cats, moaning monks, evil demons, pissed off gorillas, ancient witches, or anything else. It was completely off the wall and totally fucking amazing. I loved every second of it. The best part was how well they improvised together. It seemed like they knew exactly what the other was about to do and everything sounded so perfect. I've seen a lot of live collaborative improvisations but these two are easily the best. It couldn't have been better if it was planned.

Then Lord & Karlheinz came on and it sounds like it should be pretty easy to describe. Power electronics with live drums. Done. But this shit was so much better than that. Karlheinz looked so fucking angry the whole time and Lord was whooping and smiling and having the time of his life. Complete opposites, these guys. But totally amazing. And there was really dramatic lighting that made everything look wicked cool. At the end of the set, Karlheinz grabbed all two racks of pedals and electronics and just fucking smashed it into the ground. Total badass.

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.