TONIGHT @ 8pm: Nautical Almanac, Normal Love, Bhob Rainey, and Bring It Inside w/ Jive Nation
GATE
NAUTICAL ALMANAC
NORMAL LOVE
BHOB RAINEY
BRING IT INSIDE w/ JIVE NATION
TONIGHT - Friday, August 17 - 8pm
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia
FREE
For more info, please visit gatephilly.net or bowerbird.org
*****
Philadelphia Weekly says:
Wielding two electric guitars, amplified violin, bass and drums,
Philly's Normal Love are a breed apart, ripping through hypercomplex
scores with the chops of a chamber ensemble and the intensity of a
metal band. Sure, they're "loud and brutal," ultradissonant, but
darned if they aren't poised and polished. The bandmates are
independently busy as well, so this summer tour is an event, marking
the impending release of a self-titled debut on the High Two label. At
the Rotunda drummer Eli Litwin and guitarist Alex Nagle will also
appear with Bring It Inside and Jive Nation: two bands uniting for a
sprawling set of percussion and electronics.
*****
NAUTICAL ALMANAC
twig harper - electronics,etc
carly ptak - electronics, etc
baltimore
There are colors everywhere, smells, sounds; chaos. And it is the most
fun you have ever had. This is what listening to Nautical Almanac is
like. Spastically heavy guitar parts. Pounding bass riffs. Amazingly
on-point drumming. Actual keyboard parts (none of that
one-note-hold-it stuff here. This two-piece from West Side Baltimore
has been combining metal, melody, and general mind-blowing
musicianship into one incredibly intricate and threatening package for
five years now, marching to the beat of their own otherworldly
drummer. With their 10th full-length, Death Metal for Pussies (Heresee
Records). Nautical Almanac exhibit the ability to go back and forth
between heavy driving riffs, quirky time changes, and euphoniously
quiet thoughtfulness. All within the same track. And they record on a
16 track! As is reflected in reviews by the likes of
indieworkshop.com, expedia.com, moviephone.com,Transworld Surf,
pitchfork.com, zombierobotmonkeyninjapirate.blogpspot.com and Popshot
Magazine, Nautical Almanac do indeed kick ass. In the early 90s,
chanteuse Carly Ptak was the "Janey Appleseed" of west coast
neo-psychedelia, sending former band members and pals out to form the
Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Slogun. Upon moving to
Chicago to check out the rave scene, she met Twig Harper, founding
member of Usaisamonster and Burning Star Core, two bands who continue
on to great success to this day. It becomes fitting, upon listening to
"The Nautical's" music, that the band hails from Chicago. When
Tortoise and their contemporaries ushered in a new wave of
instrumental music over a decade ago from the Windy City, it was a
pastiche of genre-defying sound, simultaneously cohesive and expansive
in influence. Since moving to Baltimore on Sept. 11, 2001, Nautical
Almanac has spanned the gamut of inconsistency. On one album they ould
be lavished with frothy critical adoration, the next the band would be
torn apart, barely understood, everything but spit upon. One album
they would be lauded as one of the greatest American avant-garde /
acoustic-electronic bands in years, the next they'd be misappropriated
as "arty-emo." In a recent interview with popular rock critic Brian
Coldly, Ms. Ptak was heard to remark "Our "sound"... If you ever use
the terms "Jazz Punk", "Art-Damage" or "Post-Hardcore Stew", I will
personally come to Chicago and hang you by your soul patch from the
Sears Goddamn Tower. That'll be some REAL Art-Damage. I don't know
what to call it, but I fucking know what not to call it. " Harper
chimes in, "Fifteen years after people like Derrick May and Frankie
Knuckles kicked off the first surge of electronic mayhem in Detroit
and Chicago, a varying spectrum of junk-harvesting Midwesterners like
our "godfather of garbagtronica", MAGAS, constituted a whole new
"savant garde. Climb onto this Crisco-coated locomotive and get the
real deal of steel." With their upcoming tour they are hoping to wave
high the flag of the current crop of "freak funk" bands who are all
the rage in the British music press these days, but with their own
flavour which is as American as chocolate chip biscuits and mom's
apple tart. Their "take no prisoners", "no hold's barred", "whiskey
drenched", "straight up rock and roll no chaser" brand of carnage will
leave their audience utterly spent...And hungry! So why not order a
Papa John's pizza on your Cingular Verzon phone on your way home from
the venue? And if the show lets out early, and you need more
entertainment, be sure to stop by Blockbuster and pick up the smash
hit movie Ghostrider, now on DVD.
*****
NORMAL LOVE
carlos santiago - violin
evan lipson - bass
eli litwin - percussion
alex nagle - guitar
amnon d freidlin - guitar
philadelphia
Stoking the community since '06, NORMAL LOVE is a Philadelphia based
quintet comprised of amplified violin, two electric guitars, electric
bass, and drum set. Their music generally has a loud and brutal
aesthetic with compositional influences ranging from african
minimalism to serialism to death metal, but rarely within the same
piece.
Normal Love's performance is funded in part through Meet The
Composer's Creative Connections program.
*****
BHOB RAINEY saxophone
boston
Bhob Rainey, a Boston-based soprano saxophonist, is best known as a
solo artist and as one half of nmperign, with whom he plays alien
extended technique effects that are influenced by electronic music,
environmental sounds and free improvisation. Rainey studied at the New
England Conservatory of Music with free jazz saxophonist Joe Maneri.
Rainey's music during his early- to mid-twenties was, like Maneri's,
characterized by long microtonal lines. Rainey's first CD, Ink,
featuring Dan DeChellis, was released in 1997. After a controversial
1998 solo concert in Washington D. C. attracted a considerable amount
of attention to Rainey's music, he and trumpeter Greg Kelley formed
nmperign with the goal of avoiding linear approaches to form and
melodic contour. nmperign, including Rainey, Kelley and Tatsuya
Nakatani, recorded its first CD in 1998. Since 1998, Rainey has
recorded extensively, including a number of projects with nmperign
(minus Nakatani) and collaborations with improvisers like Jack Wright,
Fred Lonberg-Holm and Jason Lescalleet. He continues to pursue a more
sound-based (as opposed to note-based) approach in his work with
nmperign, whereas his solo work, while far from traditional, often
involves the use of more traditional melodic lines. Since 2000, he has
also led the BSC, a large ensemble that uses both acoustic instruments
and electronics.
*****
BRING IT INSIDE with JIVE NATION
pete angevine - percussion
eli litwin - percussion
with
charles cohen, buchla music easel
richie morseberger, electronics
brian morseberger, electronics
davey harms, electronics
alex nagle, e. guitar
tyler weaver, electronics
dave smolen, electronics
BRING IT INSIDE
One day, Eli and his roomate Pete were "hangin out" when Eli stumbled
upon an idea which turned into "Bulgarighana." A combination of "gaida
orchestra - bagpipe music from the rhodope mountains [of Bulgaria]"
and "drums of death - ghana funeral field recordings" by way of
magical computer technology. This was the birth of Bring It Inside. A
few month later, their friend Dustin asked if the two would like to
play a Bowerbird show together, suggesting a drum set duo or possibly
trio. As luck would have it, that same show was to include a
performance by Dynamite Club, whose drummer, Mike Pride, was the
perfect choice for 3rd drum set. Bring It Inside with Pride. A few
more months later, Pete and Eli decided that the next Bring It Inside
would be with their new friend and recent Philadelphia resident,
Ricardo Lagomasino (Capillary Action, Pads & Steel). Bring is Inside
with Ricardo. Eli and Pete then decided to branch out into playing
with pitched instruments. Bring It Inside w/Amnon (Amnon Freidlin,
guitar - Normal Love, West Philly Orchestra, Breakfast?) was planned
and then Carlos Santiago (violin, Normal Love) was added as a special
guest.
JIVE NATION
The group consists of mostly various electronic musicians from around
Philadelphia, with the exception of Nagle on guitar, who have played
several shows together as separate groups or solos for the past couple
of years. It was formed because basically we thought it would be a
good idea to play altogether for once. Jive Nation instrumentally
covers a wide range of high,mid and low pitches with brutally
sustained intensity, offering a taste of what each musician does on
his own and a demonstration of the differing musical approaches to
electronics in Philadelphia within a group performance. The group
consists of members involved in several groups in Philly such as Drums
Like Machineguns, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Satanized/Normal Love,
Snowstorms, S2B, and Flittermice of Eld.
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