Morrow vs. Hajduch: Bongripper’s Satan Worshipping Doom

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Bongripper: Satan Worshipping Doom 2xLP (August 13, 2010)

Bongripper: “Hail”

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Morrow: Chicago’s Bongripper makes the type of music that you might glean from its name — bleak, crushing doom metal that’s built on stoner riffs and down-tuned guitars.  I will preface this by saying that I’m not a huge fan of the genre, but the band already has two strikes in my book for the lame pot-related name and the (presumably tongue-in-cheek) Satanism.

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Zine Scene: Pink Noises‘ documentation of female pioneers in electronic music

For the past ten years, Tara Rodgers, a.k.a. Analog Tara, has dedicated herself to studying female electronic musicians and the evolving dynamic of gender, creation, and community. With her website, PinkNoises.com, she publishes interviews, investigates the supposed dearth of women in electronic music, and develops collaborative relationships with the many fascinating women that she finds.

In a new book, Pink Noises: Women On Music and Sound (Duke University Press), Rodgers republishes and expands 24 of those interviews (including Ikue Mori, Le Tigre, and DJ Rekha), along with some striking black-and-white photographs and academic meditations on the meaning of her project.  Along the way, she tries to address some of those big questions of gender and music with what she has learned in the past decade.
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Brandt Brauer Frick’s revealing “Bop” video

Brandt Brauer Frick is a German avant electro-pop trio, combining techno and neoclassical music in an organic way.  Its debut full-length, You Make Me Real, is being released on !K7 in November, but be sure to check out this video for “Bop,” the album’s second track.

The video visualizes every looped, polyrhythmic layer of a weird but danceable style — one that should be impressively recreated live as the trio tours as a 10-piece ensemble in the future.

Spandexxx Beauty Bar residency in Chicago on Friday, Sept. 17

ALARM, in conjunction with UR Chicago and electronic duo Moneypenny, presents the Spandexxx Beauty Bar residency in Chicago on September 17.

The event will feature live shows by Mic Terror, Vic Mensa, the20fours, and DJ sets by Adulture and Moneypenny. In addition, the HEY! Cliché! video club will be screening visuals.

RSVP now at UR Chicago’s website to secure free admission to the event.

The Guest List: YACHT’s five favorite natural phenomena

According to its website, “YACHT is a band, belief system, and business conducted by Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans.” Moreover, “YACHT encourages online dissemination of all things.”

The band’s latest release, See Mystery Lights (DFA, 2009) was recorded in Marfa, Texas, a place famous for unexplained “ghost lights.” With this and the band’s straightforward mission statement in mind, ALARM asked the band to make a list of its five favorite natural phenomena.

1. Ball lightning

“Ball lightning is the true unknown — never verified, rarely photographed, used always as a catch-all for paranormal events that defy any other explanation. It’s the ghost in the machine. The great beast himself, Aleister Crowley, reportedly experienced a “dazzling globe” of ball lightning during a thunderstorm on Lake Pasquaney in 1916; he is one among many a hundred humans beings to ever see the phenomenon first-hand.”
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Gallery Spotlight: Flatcolor Gallery

When Cris Cook was out of a job last May, the freelance art director / graphic designer decided that it was the perfect time to start up a gallery, and soon after, Seattle’s Flatcolor Gallery was founded. “It was in the back of my mind for a while,” he says, “and this situation kind of came up where I was like, ‘Do I go get a full-time job right away, do I freelance and start something of my own, or do I sit back and relax for a summer?’  I guess I decided to take the difficult route and just try to create something new.”
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Morgan Lehman Gallery’s Opening Ceremony Sep. 9 – Oct. 9

New York’s Morgan Lehman Gallery recently moved to a 2,000-square-foot space, located at 535 West 22nd Street. To celebrate the grand opening of the new space, the gallery will hold a month-long event called Opening Ceremony, exhibiting work from 18 artists.

Participating in the show is Andrew Schoultz, featured on the cover of ALARM 17, alongside artists like David S. Allee, Laura Ball, Jaq Chartier, Emilie Clark, Alix Smith, Frohawk Two Feathers, and Paul Villinski.

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Contest: Win tickets to all-day showcase of Sonic Circuits Festival

The 2010 Sonic Circuits Festival, taking place in Washington, DC from September 18-25, is a veritable experimental music extravaganza.

If you’ll be in the area and wish to attend, we may have you covered. ALARM has a pair of tickets to give away for the jam-packed, all-day showcase at Fairfax Old Town Hall on Sept. 19.

The live music starts at 11 a.m. and doesn’t stop ’til 11 p.m. The Cornel West Theory, Astma, Corridors, Colla Parte, Matta Gawa, Kingdom of Sharks, Dave Vosh, and Borborites are scheduled to play. Plus, progressive, ambient improvisers the Nobu Stowe – Lee Pembleton Project will perform “Confusion Bleue” with special guest Andrea Centazzo.
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Contest: Win tickets to Champaign-Urbana’s Pygmalion Music Festival

Held in Champaign-Urbana, IL (the home of the University of Illinois), the Pygmalion Music Festival 2010 will take place September 22-25, showcasing rock stalwarts like Built to Spill alongside up-and-coming acts like Janelle Monae.

There are loads of big-name performers, including Fang Island, Cut Chemist, Holy Fuck, Of Montreal, Roky Erickson & Okkervil River, Caribou, Cap’n Jazz, Ted Leo, Emeralds, and Owen. That list hardly scratches the surface, though. To see the full schedule, click here.
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Updated edition of American Hardcore: A Tribal History to be released Nov. 1

First released in 2001 and later made into an acclaimed documentary, Steven Blush‘s definitive text of the early 1980s hardcore-punk scene, American Hardcore: A Tribal History, is set to be released in an all-new, updated second edition.

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