top ten transbaynian moments of 2007

transbay
the
Creative Music Calendar
FEBRUARY 2008
from matt davignon
11/24/07: Even Steven
I paid $10 for Polly Moller to get into an
ensemble show, after she gave me a ride to
the venue. At the end of the show, I get my
share of the door: $10.
3/15/07:
In a duo at the Luggage Store with Jordan
Glenn, Mills student and tabla player
Anantha Krishna plays an unmistakable
walking bass line on the bayan drum.
and tom duff
new exhibit bisects the performance space
with a glass gazebo. In addition, the artist
demands that all the lighting used by the
music series be removed from the gallery
and replaced by a single dim fluorescent
light, and that a gallery window be left open
in the middle of the (cold) winter. Reports of
an upcoming art exhibit in which musicians,
audience members, and series curators will
be sprayed with a hose or given electric
shocks at unexpected intervals turn out to be
just a rumour.
continued on page 5
2007:
Gain One/Lose One
Longtime laptop composer Marielle
Jakobsons rediscovers the joy of guitar
pedals. Meanwhile, longtime acoustic bass
improviser Damon Smith starts using a
laptop computer in performance.
The top ten mp3s on my iPhone that might
or might not be music (in Letterman order):
10.Excerpts of two performances of Gino
Robair’s opera I, Norton (featuring me
as the emperor.)
9. John Bonham drum outtakes
8. Robotron samples
7. Terrestrial and Jovian atmospheric radio
sounds
6. Red-tailed Hawk calls
5. Eddie Cantor singing “The Only Thing I
Want For Christmas”
4. A foghorn
3. Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate
performed by the composer
2. Assorted hard drive head crash sounds
1. A 1916 recording of the Hallelujah
Chorus, accompanied by a brass band.
3/17/07:
CJ Reaven Borosque is unable to play her
scheduled set at Noise Pancakes because
someone the venue’s doorbell depends on
the telephone, and nobody thought to leave
the line open.
1/2007:
Where art meets music...
Just a few months after the Luggage Store
Gallery Music Series had to work around an
art exhibit that involved filling the gallery
with a maze of wall-to-wall scaffolding, the
HOLY SHIT IT WUZ A GREAT YEAR • GNOME SAYIN?
photo by Tim Perkis
top ten transbaynian
moments of 2007
the san francisco bay area monthly publication for
experimental/improvised/noise/electronic/freejazz/outrock/21st century transgenred music and sonic art
FEBR
transbay
the
Creative Music Calendar
Thu 1/3 8pm $6-10 • Luggage Store Gallery
Outsound Presents New Music Series
8pm: Jen Baker (Trombone) and Damon Smith
(Double Bass)
9pm: Les Hutchins (Electronics) and Polly Moller
(flutes)
Fri 2/1 7:30pm $4-6 • University of the Pacific
Music Beyond Performance
In its sixth season Music Beyond Performance
presents work that is created through technology
and can only be experienced in a unique
performance setting, blending sound and
visual image in an experience often described
as intermedia. Artists to be presented include
Bret Battey (UK), Ivan Elezovic (US), Celia Eid/
Sebastien Beranger (France), Matthew Dotson/
Bart Woodstrup (US), Orlando Jacinto Garcia/
Jacek Kolasinski (US), Ge-Suk Yeo (Korea/
Germany), David Morneau (US), and Daniel
Blinkhorn (Australia).
Fri 2/1 8pm $6-$10 • 1510 8th St Performance
Space
Damon Smith- contrabass, Weasel Walterdrums, Paul Hartsaw= saxophone plus TBA
Fri 2/1 8pm $5 • Kimo’s
Ton Trio
Aram Shelton: alto & soprano saxophones
Kurt Kottheimer: bass
Sam Ospovat: drums
Fri 2/1 8pm $10 / $5 • Meridian Gallery
Jen Baker will demonstrate her wide palette
of solo literature with self-composed,
commissioned, and other works. In addition to
a set of Lyrical Vibrations (partially composed/
improvised pieces), she will perform OneSided Window, a collaboration with her pen
pal in prison. Other work will include Patrick
Muchmore’s THS, a commissioned solo with
electronics, and Three Pieces for Trombone by
Giacinto Scelsi.
venue information
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street, San Francisco
1510 8th St Performance Space
1510 8th Street, Oakland [West Oakland BART]
21 Grand
416 25th Street, Oakland [at Broadway]
24th Street Theater Works
2405 24th Street, San Francisco [at Vermont]
5lowershop
992 Peralta Avenue, San Francisco
Anno Domini Gallery
366 S. 1st Street, San Jose
artSF
110 Capp Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco [at 16th]
Black Gate Code 500
Artists Television Access
992 Valencia, San Francisco [at 21st]
Berkeley Arts Festival
2213 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
Berkeley Piano Club
2427 Haste Street, Berkeley [at Dana]
The Brainwash Cafe
1122 Folsom St. San Francisco
Chapel of the Chimes
4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland
Climate Theater
285 9th Street, San Francisco [at Folsom]
CounterPULSE
1310 Mission Street, San Francisco
The Exploratorium
3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco
First Church of the Buzzard
2601 26th Street #150, Oakland [at Adeline]
Freight & Salvage
1111 Addison Street, Berkeley
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk Street, San Francisco [near Post]
Hotel Utah
500 Fourth Street, San Francisco [at Bryant]
Hunter’s Point Shipyard
Innes Street Terminus, San Francisco
Jazzschool
2087 Addison Street, Berkeley
Jewish Community Center of the East Bay
1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley
Johansson Projects Gallery
2300 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland
Kimo’s
1351 Polk Street, San Francisco
The LAB
2948 16th Street, San Francisco [at Capp]
Luggage Store Gallery
1007 Market Street, San Francisco [at 6th]
Mama Buzz Cafe
2318 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland [at 23rd]
Maybeck Studio
email gm@handprintseries for location
Meridian Gallery
535 Powell Street, San Francisco
Mills College Ensemble Room
5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland
Sat 2/2 3pm free • KFJC 89.7 FM
Polly Moller & Co., consisting of Polly Moller,
Jim Carr, Amar Chaudhary, and Bill Wolter will
perform live in the Pit. The words are composed,
and the music improvised. 89.7 on your FM dial...
or www.kfjc.org...
Sat 2/2 8pm $15 • Recombinant Labs
Compound
Activating the Medium
23five presents the first night of its annual
Activating The Medium festival with an
international cast of sound artists, including
Zbigniew Karkowski, Jason Kahn, Tim Catlin, and
Francisco Meirino.
Tue 2/2 8pm $7-12 • Climate Theater
Golden Melody Band
Sun 2/3 9:30pm $6 • Hotel Utah
Ozmadawn
You Will Taste the Teeth in Our Mouths (Jacob
Felix Heule & Jay Korber of Ettrick)
Ku/Dryer
Musicians Union Hall
116 9th Street, San Francisco [at Mission]
Noe Valley Ministry
1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco
NOHspace
2840 Mariposa Street, San Francisco
ODC Dance Theatre
3153 17th Street, San Francisco [at Shotwell]
Pearl Alley Studios
120 Pearl Alley, Santa Cruz
Piedmont Piano Company
660 Third Street, San Francisco
Project Artaud Theatre
450 Florida Street, San Francisco
Recombinant Labs Compound
1070 Van Dyke Avenue, San Francisco
RX Gallery
132 Eddy Street San Francisco
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak Street San Francisco
Starry Plough
3101 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley [at Prince]
Temescal Arts Center
511 48th Street, Oakland [at Telegraph]
The Toad in the Hole Pub
116 5th Street, Santa Rosa
University of the Pacific - Recital Hall Conservatory
3601 Pacific Avenue Stockton
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
700 Howard Street, San Franciso [at 3rd]
the san francisco bay area monthly publication for experimental/improvised/noise/electronic/freejazz/outrock/21st cen
RUARY
n
the persistent caveat Schedules are subject to change, and the reasons can be totally appalling, flying in the face of human reason.
Please confirm details provided in this publication by visiting transbaycalendar.org.
Tue 2/5 8pm $10 • 1510 8th St Performance
Space
8 pm: Matt Davignon/Les Hutchins duo
9 pm: Polly Moller & Co.
Wed 2/13 8pm $10 / $5 • Meridian Gallery
Meridian Music: Composers in Performance
present Three Trapped Tigers (Tom Bickley and
David Barnett, recorders).
Thu 2/7 8pm $6-10 • Luggage Store Gallery
Outsound Presents New Music Series
8pm Karl Evangelista - solo guitar
9pm Polly Moller & Co.
Thu 2/14 8pm $6-10 • Luggage Store Gallery
Outsound Presents New Music Series
8pm Phillip Greenlief - solo saxophones
9pm “Duology” Michael Marcus/Ted Daniel duo
CD release tour (NY)
Fri 2/8 8pm Free, Donations Encouraged •
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
New American chamber music for voice and
instruments. Vartan Aghababian, Jacob Bertrand,
JooWan Kim, Liam Wade, and arranger Patrick
Lawrence. Ann Moss, soprano; The Yeager
String Quartet; Steven Bailey, piano; Kristal
Sccwartz, harp.
Sat 2/9 Noon, Donation/NOTA • ArtSF
gOdwaffle Noise Pancakes
R H Y Yau pancake special, Andrea William’s
Anais Din, Rhiknoberus
Sat 2/9 8pm $6-10 • 21 Grand
Unofficial Tribute to Paul Burwell
featuring recorded performances by Anne
Bean, David Toop, and Elliot Sharp, and live
performances by Mark E. Miller, Henry Kaiser,
Aurora, and Weasel Walter.
Mon 2/11 • Totally Intense Fractal Mind Gaze Hut
Club Sandwich
with Pocahaunted, Pukers, Barn Owl, Vis Viva,
Crystal Village
matthew goodheart
solo piano
1510 Performance Space
Sunday, Feb. 17
8 pm
Fri 2/15 8pm $7-20 • Artists’ Television Access
21 Grand Benefit
K.I.T., Face, SL Morse and more
Sat 2/16 Noon, Donation/NOTA • ArtSF
gOdwaffle Noise Pancakes
Eyelenz
Sat 2/16 8pm $6-10 • 1510 8th St Performance
Space
A trio performance with: James Fei
(saxophones), Damon Smith (bass) and Charity
Chan (piano) plus TBA
Sun 2/17 3pm free • NOHspace
Worklights
Edward Schocker, Suki O’Kane and Jonathan
Segel present work-in-progress with glass, bass
drum, and electronics.
8pm Lords of Outland - “You can sleep when
you’re dead!”
9pm Eddie the Rat - “Insomnia Sound Bible”
Two explosive sets of freakish thematic sounds
on the fly!
Fri 2/22 8pm $5/$10 • Berkeley Arts Festival
Daniel Popsicle plays, with a strict admonition
that no children, especially children who
might run around and around and around the
performance space during the performance, will
be allowed entry. Meanwhile, Dan’s plan is to
include some earlier pieces like “My Version” and
“Superhero of Shirts,” and some which aren’t for
the full ensemble. Dan thinks they’ll do some of
the Color Music, and maybe just one or two parts
of Hockey Season.
Sat 2/23 8pm free • The Brainwash Cafe
Mika Pontecorvo, Cartoon Justice/Theory
Gareden and friends Grooming the Crow and
Del *.* ... a fusions of noise, free improv, with
elements of psychedelic rock, ameri-kinda,
americana,...a post-industrial tribal sounds.
Sun 2/24 • Artists’ Television Access
Club Sandwich
with Tik//Tik, Xrin Arms, Nero’s Day At
Disneyland
Sun 2/17 8pm $5-10 • 1510 8th St Performance
Space
Matthew Goodheart - solo piano
Tue 2/26 8pm $7-12 • Climate Theater
8:00pm Bill Hsu w/ James Fei and Moe Staiano
9:00pm VidyA
Tue 2/19 8pm $7-12 • Climate Theater
8:00pm Rova Saxophone Quartet
9:00pm Henry Kaiser and Healing Force
Thu 2/28 8pm $6-10 • Luggage Store Gallery
Outsound Presents New Music Series
8:00pm Cerebral Roil
8:30pm Jolthrower
9:00pm CJ Borosque
9:30pm XOME
Wed 2/20 • Fort Gallery
Club Sandwich
with Anni Rossi, Mad Greggs, Joe Davances,
Some Dark Holler (Erika of Gowns) & Dannie
Murrie
Thu 2/21 8pm $6-10 • Luggage Store Gallery
Outsound Presents New Music Series
Double CD Edgetone Release Performance
YOU NEED TO KNOW MORE
augment your understanding by visiting
these additional calendar listings at
bayimproviser.com • brutalsfx [yahoogroup]
club-sandwich [googlegroup] • fecalface.com
foopee.com/punk/the-list/ • OutSound [yahoogroup]
$5 - 10
sliding scale
music.mills.edu/mailman/listinfo/newmusicevents
1510 eighth st.
0akland
transbaycalendar.org • zumonline.com/shows/
m@ ingalls
davignon [continued]
1. Tim Perkis’s NOISY PEOPLE
Well worth the wait!
9/6/07:
May or may not be in the hizzouse
2. Lê Quan Ninh + Frédéric Blondy @
CMC
Intense acoustic sound exploration - far
from “lowercase”.
3. Graeme Jennings, Christopher Jones,
and Leighton Fong playing Ives @
Revolution Cafe
The perfect venue (and tuning of the
upright piano) for Ives.
4. Erik Ulman, Leighton Fong, and Florian
Conzetti performing David Coll’s “19561958” @ UCB
Coll is one of the more promising
composers I’ve heard recently from the
Bay Area’s academic scene.
5. 7th Annual Transbay Skronkathon BBQ
@ 21Grand
Probably the best Skronkathon to date!
While headlining at the San Francisco
Electronic Music Festival, Montrealean
glitch/noise musician Tim Hecker requests
to play at the mixing console rather than the
stage. He also asks the festival presenters to
not give any indication that he’s actually in
the room. (Giving several audience members
the impression that SFEMF was playing his
piece “from tape”.)
5/2007:
Tuning into this year’s internet fad, Polly
Moller and Travis Johns submit photos of
LOLImproviserz to a blog titled “I Can Has
Newmuzik?”
http://newmuzik.blogspot.com
6. Caroliner Retrospective & Homage to a
19th Century Singing Bull @ CCA
A rare chance to see all of Caroliner’s
shit accumulated over the past 23 years.
suki o’kane
7. Lucky Dragons @ 21Grand
60s-flashback-max/msp-with-touchyfeely-group-sensors-for-twentysomethings. Man I feel old!
23 Years of Hernia Milk and Ergot Dreams:
A Retrospective of Caroliner and its Homage
to 19th Century Singing Bull
8. Graeme Jennings, solo violin with
San Francisco Contemporary Music
Players performing Brian Ferneyhough’s
“Terrain” @ Yerba Buena Forum.
Good performance despite the group
being under-rehearsed - they don’t call it
“new complexity” for nothin..
9. Tarpita Fleisch & Rubber (0) Cement @
21Grand
Was that a “vagina controller”? -Woops - where’d my chair go?
10.James Fei, John Ingle, Damon Smith,
and Weasel Walter @ 21Grand
The strangest (in a good way) improv set
i heard in 2007.
best shut out ranting
Although it was possible to pick from a
dozen empty seats at the Luz Alibi and
Georgio Marauder, Theremin Barney and
Ploc Munster portion of this event, the
closing Caroliner performance involved
funneling audiences into a narrow aisle
against the wall opposite the insanely great
installation... if you got in at all, which many
didn’t, leading to a cascade of highly-trained
cultural consumers slowly descending the
staircase while intiating conversations on
their cell phones about how the work wasn’t
worth seeing anyway.
10/20/07:
After much discussion on the newmusic@
music.mills.edu discussion list about the
pain-inducing qualities of very loud, very
hi-pitched sounds, the loud, hi-pitched
ensemble Tinnitus Insect Volume Knobs has
its debut performance.
4/25/07:
“Noisy People” opens to a packed theatre at
the Pacific Film Archive. The movie features
clips of many shows that had 4 people in the
audience.
5/26/07:
1 day after the Moe!Kestra! 10th anniversary
show at the LAB, several separately posted
clips on youtube show dozens of audience
members diving into the piano wreckage to
get the best splinters for souvenirs.
have been nostalgia, or perhaps worse:
educational, but the live performances
proved otherwise: many notes, tightly
played, joyful, exhausting.
most unlikely, but now that we think
about it, best ever house band
Big City Orchestra backing
Daevid Allen at the Starry Plough
It seemed a gig gone out of control, but
for none of the typical reasons gigs go
out of control when BCO is involved.
There appeared to be five acts that bore
absolutely no relationship to one another,
cosmically galvanized by Daevid in his
white graffitti’ed tyvek coveralls with uberprofessional knitting activity by Jonathan
Segel on guitar and violin.
longest waits drawn to a close
with incendiary performances
best band that returned in 2007
and should return again in 2008
The Molecules: Friends
Splatter Trio +n: Clear the Club
Compomicro-Dexall
In a world now pockmarked with
instantaneous mp3 releases of last night’s
work, two remarkable releases in 2007 told
a sonic (and in the case of the Molecules, a
visual) story of what a ten- or twelve-year
interval can do. Prying the cover off this
cornerstone of Bay Area new music might
Brief and intense appearances at 21 Grand
(back corner, people fell down in recognition
of what this duo was capable of doing) and
G3 (with Matt Ingalls, forshadowing tinnitus
reeds) filled many with hope and longing.
Things change. And continuing on that
subject, long live The Flying Luttenbachers.
the san francisco bay area monthly pu
michael zelner
(in date order):
1. Jan. 27 - The Molecules (Ron Anderson,
Tom Scandura, and John Shiurba), and
Compomicro-Dexall (Mike Guarino and
Jake Rodriguez) @ Hemlock Tavern
2. Feb. 5 - Lawrence “Butch” Morris:
Understanding Conduction; with
string octet (George Cremaschi, Tara
Flandreau, Jess Ivry, Dina Maccabee,
Hillary Overberg, Jonathan Segel,
Damon Smith, and Theresa Wong)@ SF
Performing Arts Library & Museum
3. Mar. 2 - Dan Plonsey String Ensemble
(Myles Boisen, Merlin Coleman,
George Cremaschi, Jeff Hobbs, Marielle
Jakobsons, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jonathan
Segel, John Shiurba, and Bill Wolter),
Shudder (Kyle Bruckmann, Lance
Grabmiller, and Phillip Greenlief), and
myrmyr (Marielle Jakobsons and Agnes
Szelag) @ West Grand & Valley St.
rooftop
and the top ten sounds of 2007
10.Nigerian spam in Morse code
9. Trunk Boiz Scraper Bike in the mix at
Radio Great Wall
8. “That is totally inappropriate.”
Comment made by Noel Lawrence upon
hearing the PornOrchestra Chamber
Ensemble improvise a speed metal song
to a vintage stag film.
7. The results of Peter Nyboer’s Prelinger
code that mapped imagery pixels as
sonic information
6. Weasel Walter
5. Shudder
4. Liz Allbee from the kitchen of Maybeck
House starting a conversation with Jason
Levis as a way of telling the audience
her performance had concluded
3. Gold Record Studio: Live at Laney Flea
Market on shuffle play
2. Arctic seals below the ice
1. >1kHZ tones from Tinnitus Insect
Volume Knobs
4. Apr. 1 - Anthony Braxton (septet) @
Iridium
5. Apr. 25 - Noisy People world premiere
@ Pacific Film Archive
6. May 25 - Moe!kestra! 10th Anniversary
Concert @ The Lab
7. Jun. 26 - Weasel Walter Clarinet Choir
(w/Alan Anzalone, Jacob Lindsay, Aram
Shelton, David Slusser, and Damon
Smith) @ 21 Grand
8. Jul. 13 - Kiki & Herb: Alive From
Broadway @ A.C.T.
9. Sep. 14. - Sweeney Todd: The Demon
Barber of Fleet Street @ A.C.T.
10.Oct. 7 - Steve Swell’s Slammin’ the
Infinite (w/Sabir Mateen, Matt Heyner,
and Michael Wimberly) @ 1510 8th St.
Performance Space
and a year of
most excellent
posters
Most often from the creative associates
of Club Sandwich. View the archive at
myspace.com/clubsandwichsf.
about
this
thing
The Transbay Creative Music
Calendar is a volunteer-produced
free monthly journal for noncommercial creative new music
in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In addition to our comprehensive
listing of upcoming events, we
publish articles and reviews about
local music and the people who
create it. We talk about a wide
range of modern music, including:
experimental, improvised, noise,
electronic, free-jazz, outrock, 21st
century compositions, and sonic art.
Each month, 1,000 copies of the
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ublication for experimental/improvised/noise/electronic/freejazz/outrock/21st century transgenred music and sonic art
transbay
the
Creative Music Calendar
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february 2008
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