Moon & Moon: "Act II: Hands of a Man"

“I want to trick people into coming to a regular show and then be like, ‘Ahhh! You’re at a musical! Oh, shit. You’re fucked now,’” William Lemon III explains when describing his ultimate vision for his band, Moon & Moon. “I’ve always been into the idea of musical theater. It encompasses so many things.”

“If someone gave me a million dollars [for a production],” Lemon continues, “I would have hors d’oeuvres, I would have smell-o-vision, I would have projections in the background, I would have moving backdrops, and I would have dancers that would go and — depending on the song — caress or slap the audience on the ass, or feed them, or goose them, or some shit to get people completely immersed in every single sense. Eventually, it will happen. I have faith that it will happen.”

Lemon is the driving force behind the theatrical rock of Moon & Moon as well as the group’s only official permanent member. Including pianist Lou Rogai (Lewis & Clarke), drummer Stephen Kurtz, bassist Jay Hudak (An Albatross), vocalist Stephonik Youth, and percussionist Edward Klinger, a circle of friends and collaborators appear on Moon & Moon’s debut album, VII Acts of an Iron King, and assemble for live shows. That’s not to say that the other musicians are hired guns or one-offs. In fact, plans are already in motion for a second album.

Lemon’s faith is the crux of the album. “The record is more or less a religious exorcism of beliefs that were holding me back,” he says. “The archetypes that I was doing battle with, with my religious upbringing, are archetypes that everybody can see in every single human conflict. There were these characters inside of me, fighting with myself and creating this anxiety. I got to name them and then describe their imperfections and why they were fighting.”
 

“I want to trick people into coming to a regular show and then be like, ‘Ahhh! You’re at a musical! Oh, shit. You’re fucked now.’”

Each song, or “act,” represents these archetypes as characters in an epic story. An iron king sails on the ocean with no real destination in mind, and suddenly sets his sights on a woman who he decides that he wants as his queen. He launches an attack on her city, sending in an army of boys to attack the populace. Ultimately, he gets his queen, but while surveying his new “accomplishments,” he realizes that he was only at war with himself.

As seven-year-old Olivia Galarza’s narration guides the listener, different sounds and voices evoke specific emotions: a baritone saxophone represents a wild-eyed celebration of murder, and an echoed trumpet blasts a war cry and levels a city. The music, storyline, and varied textures alone create an enveloping atmosphere on record, and if Lemon ever puts on the live show that he would like to, the experience would be overwhelming. “The whole thing is like a hyper-art project,” he says.

Lemon is fairly new at creating music, more or less getting started when his friend Devendra Banhart gave him a flute leftover from a video shoot. “I took it home, I looked at it, and I was like, ‘I’m going to learn to play this fucking flute,’” Lemon says. “So I taught myself how to play flute.” After a learning curve that involved basement jams with Banhart, members of VietNam, and other friends, he began working on putting together an album, a three-year undertaking.

“I am the worst musician on the album,” he says while praising his collaborators. “Instead of giving [the musicians] a note structure, I would play a little melody, we would jam out with it, and then I would say, ‘Okay, now you are this person.’ Not unlike a play, like a theatrical thing — like they were acting through their instruments.”

The resultant album represents the emotional shedding of beliefs with which Lemon grew up. He still has faith, but it no longer involves “massively organized religion with no focus on personal enlightenment.” Concluding about his new spirituality, Lemon says, “Religion is a beautiful thing. I still have a tremendous amount of faith, but now my faith is directed toward the entire human race as opposed to a fraction of it.”

Maybe heads nod, maybe even feet tap. But the distance between band and audience is vast, sometimes continental. Even the heaviest of metal bands and the peppiest of dance groups may fail to get a reaction.

An Albatross may be the last in a rare breed of acts that surpasses the stage and immerses itself in the crowd in a communal art experience. Or its members may be the architects of a new movement, considered dangerous by many authority figures, who constantly try to shut An Albatross shows down prematurely after watching kids lose their social inhibitions and come together in an apparently confusing and unexpected departure from the dreary standard prevalent in today’s world.

With a dominant stage presence and a Mick Jagger strut, founding member and vocalist Edward B. Gieda III exemplifies An Albatross’ audacious and addictive formula.

Known for frenzied noise rock and grind-core foundations, beyond the dissonance and shattering momentum of its recordings, the band really comes alive on stage. The songs are so fast and chaotic that any number of spasmodic movements is appropriate. More than an avenue for outbursts of energy, the Wilkes-Barre, PA quintet excels in creating a psychedelic, visionary mood with a chaos anchored by tight rhythms and conceptual gems.

Gieda discusses his band with a dedicated and genuine sentiment. “A band simply playing music without trying to apply something a little bit broader and greater to it is really a shame,” says Gieda from his home, unwinding from a long Monday at work. “It’s the responsibility of the musician to use that as an art form and a tie that combines the human experience.” This idea of a shared experience as a universal goal is a weighty and recurring theme with An Albatross.

“We are desperate to put our connectors out there and have a meeting of the minds on a nightly basis with people who feel as if they can really relate to what we’re putting down,” says Gieda.

If this sounds a bit normal, the front man points out that bringing people together in a real-time scenario and sharing in the collective experience is becoming less and less a spoke in the societal wheel. The need for this collection is essential to the daily ritual of touring and living in general.

Including Gieda, An Albatross is made up of five very strong individuals who function quite wonderfully as a single unit. Bassist Jason Hudak and organist Philip Reynolds Price are also founding members; drummer Stevie Vaiani and guitarist Daniel Schlett are the two latest additions to the kin.

Gieda proudly points out that there are also several extended members. In fact, the credits of musicians on their newest album runs almost twenty names deep, incorporating artists from the greater Northeast, now finally and rightfully declared a family.

All of this collective spirit is encapsulated on the band’s latest full-length, An Albatross Family Album (Eyeball Records). The nine-song, thirty-minute carnival is the most complete and true expression of An Albatross ever put to tape. Full of the signature bedlam and devotion to performance that has defined the group, this record captures the band in a new space, full of chemistry and community.

An Albatross, in one incarnation or another, has been producing music together since 1999. The childhood friends and communal souls began amassing cassette demos quickly after forming, with morphing lineups and extensive touring bringing new perspectives to each recording.

Their first proper release, Eat Lightning, Shit Thunder (Bloodlink), was less growling grind-core and more prog-rock, speed-metal mayhem.

The next album came after more than a year of intense tours and was a much more complex and erratic piece. We Are the Lazer Viking (Ace Fu) marked an entrance into the realms of so called Nintendo-core, as synths and organs vamped the sounds of an electronic tremor over the noise rock.

The group’s 2006 release, the exhaustively titled Blessphemy (Of the Peace Beast Feastgiver and the Bear Warp Kumite) (Ace Fu), again changed the sound just enough to represent the new members while still staying true to the essence of An Albatross, sometimes nightmarishly so.

An Albatross Family Album has a slightly more melodic feel. The songs are longer and more accessible to the ear. There are more definitive structures, and some songs come complete with breakdowns and building rhythms.

Gieda acts as ringmaster in a more noticeable way, allowing for spoken-word moments of vivid narration. With the organs grinding at impossibly fast speeds and the dominant wall of sound reverberating through the background, it’s still a very traditional An Albatross expression.

“I think it’s a compound of where we were at the time and what we were doing,” Gieda says. “We were really interested in elongating parts and building repetition, and it’s an interesting conglomeration.”

This mixture of 1970s psychedelia and modern rock (Gieda cites acts ranging from S.O.D. to Queens of the Stone Age as influences) brings an even representation of modern and classic approaches to heavy and discombobulated music.

The new album opens with “Neon Guru” and “…And Now Emerges The Silver Pilgrim,” two blistering and intense pieces, simultaneously aggressive and playful, almost inviting in tone.

Then things get a little out there. In “The Hymn of the Angel People,” the normal tempo is slowed and dismantled while a woman gently recites a poem, spoken through an Asia-meets-Led-Zeppelin psychedelic landscape, of pilgrims with visions, winged two-headed beasts, and all sorts of trippy imagery.

The album continues as more swirling, frenzied songs, strained through Korgs, Moogs, and other prog standbys, bring the energy to full tilt before another epic, “3,000 Light Years By Way of the Spacehawk,” closes it out.

And the album is epic, with more fury and depth than anything An Albatross has put forth before, very much departing from the minute-long eruptions heard on earlier albums. And yet this album best translates the group’s live energy, a feat not before adequately accomplished. All the members have been somewhat displeased with every previous recording, and have been disparaged by devoted fans for not holding up the live sound and energy.

“We decided to take it upon ourselves to bring that in the studio with meticulous recording and mixing,” says Gieda. “We spent more time than all previous recordings combined together, almost limitless studio time, with über-meticulous, massive tinkering.”

An Albatross produced the record itself, bringing a new and challenging task. “We all lost a little bit of weight from it, especially towards the end, but ultimately, it paid off because we’re all happy with the way it turned out,” Gieda says.

Layers and layers of strings, horns, flute, organs, and Gieda’s raw and stunning vocals complete the sweltering and thundering rhythms. The guitars are furious while staying afloat in fuzzed riffs and piercing fretwork. This is a vision accomplished.

“We’ll definitely be on tour forever after the album drops,” Gieda jokingly confirms. In this respect, the real nature of An Albatross comes out. It tries to ensure that the experience is massive and inclusive, which actually seems to be the more natural state for the band.

Though recording can be turbulent, Gieda describes the hours on the road as truly life affirming. Being in the groove, on the road, entrenched in the now, not thinking of the past or the future really lends itself to getting on stage and unleashing one’s self with the music.

Gieda credits everything from the hum of the road to the typical intoxicants as an inspiration for performing, but more or less, their band’s energy has a lot to do with the luxury of performing music nightly in front of friends and loved ones.

“The true language is not what we speak, our verbal language, but the intrinsic rhythms felt in live performance,” says Gieda. “Having played 800 shows plus has gifted us with a cultural capital that is unparalleled, and we’re very appreciative of our position. We haven’t been on the road for months, so my brain feels like it’s mush. I don’t feel alive until I’m actually on tour, stirring up some kineticism.”

Dorothy Hong opens her solo exhibition today at the Vision Quest Contemporary Photography Gallery in Genoa, Italy. Entitled Introductions, the exhibition features a collection of portraits and will remain open through July.

Hong, who photographed Les Savy Fav, Steve Moore, and Vietnam for past issues of ALARM, has been preparing for the big night by "consuming excessive amounts of espresso and pasta." See her photos of An Albatross in ALARM 34.

Dorothy Hong: www.dothong.com
Vision Quest Contemporary Photography Gallery: www.visionquest.it

1. Subtle: "Nomanisisland" (For Hero: For Fool)

One of the melodically and structurally odd songs from this album, "Nomanisisland" isn't a great starting point for Subtle's idiosyncratic indie hip hop, but it's a great mid-album respite on the group's best album.

2. An Albatross: "Cosmic Gypsy" (Blessphemy [of the Peace-Beast Feastgiver and the Bear Warp Kumite])

Here we have 1:19 of organ-fueled shredding.  An Albatross' newest album, The An Albatross Family Album, is more epic and twists many different ways, but this song's album takes no prisoners with its unadulterated force.

3. Phosphorescent: "Wolves" (Pride)

As the third track on Pride, Phosphorescent's beautiful and minimalist 2007 folk album, "Wolves" has prime sonic real estate.  Though we're not major folk fans, Pride is so pretty that it made ALARM's Top Ten Albums of 2007.

4. Tomahawk: "Sun Dance" (Anonymous)

Wow…another entry from ALARM's Top Ten Albums of 2007.  This song's album, Anonymous, was a spectacular homage to Native American material that was re-imagined by the lineup of Mike Patton, Duane Denison, and John Stanier.  "Sun Dance" is one of the most rock-driven numbers on the album.

5. Genghis Tron: "I Won't Come Back Alive" (Board Up the House)

From melodic new wave to crushing metal breakdowns, "I Won't Come Back Alive" is a great track to experience this trio's musical dichotomy.  The song's album, Board Up the House, is an extremely unique album and one of the best of 2008.

6. Luis Bacalov: "Suspense" (The Italian Western of Luis Bacalov)

First, this piece from the soundtrack of 1972 spaghetti Western film Si Può Fare…Amigo revisits the main melody of "Can Be Done," a preceding piece that features vocalist Rocky Roberts.

Shortly, however, the tune shifts to an upbeat theme that recalls the circus or a cheery old-time saloon.  "Suspense" then fittingly moves to a dramatic string passage before the main melody is revisited once more.

7. Amon Tobin: "Marine Machines" (Supermodified)

The deep sea beckons on "Marine Machines" with countless samples, including dark brass accents and creature-like gurgles.  This song's album, Supermodified, is the best album from this big-beat DJ.

8. Femi Kuti: "Wonder Wonder" (self-titled)

As group vocals join Femi in the song's pensive but sunny chorus, the opening track from his 1995 self-titled album brings a great live feeling to a studio recording.  Following in his idolized father's footsteps, Femi uses his funky Afrobeat to raise political awareness.  Here he asks, "Will Africa ever unite?"

9. Secret Chiefs 3: "Hypostasis of the Archons" (Book of Horizons)

Entirely composed by multi-instrumentalist Trey Spruance, the creations of Secret Chiefs 3 span an incredible range of beautiful, cinematic, and heavy sounds, often working with Indian, surf, and spaghetti Western styles.

This track, however, showcases another of Spruance's loves: rapid-fire, end-of-the-world death metal.  Otherworldly screams, demonic vocals, and quick-twitching strings join to make this unlike anything on the album other than "Exterminating Angel."

10. Matt Ulery: "Would You Remember my Song?" (Themes and Scenes)

The 1:48 closer to this great chamber-score album uses harmonium, toy piano, and whistling to create a quirky, merry romp.  A one-time refrain from the composer gives an Old World feel to the album's final seconds.

(To hear one of his creations, check out my Q&A with Matt Ulery.)

- Scott Morrow

Before recording a new album this spring, Converge will play a handful of shows, mostly during a week in March. Head to Deathwish Inc. for the full list.

Norwegian jazz/Balkan/surf group Farmers Market will perform with the Stravanger Symphony Orchestra for the country's MaiJazz festival in May.

A seventh album from Sunn O))), titled Monoliths & Dimensions, will be released May 18 on Southern Lord. The album includes guest appearances from Eyvind Kang, Julian Priester, Oren Ambarchi, Jessika Kenney, and Dylan Carlson.

Ethnically inspired electro-acoustic arists Balkan Beat Box are issuing a remix album, Nu Made, through JDub Records on April 7.

Tombs has posted its entire Relapse debut, Winter Hours, online to be streamed at www.winterhours.info.

Jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas will release a new album with his Brass Ecstasy group, titled Spirit Moves, later this spring.

The Brooklyn studio of Daptone Records, home of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and The Budos Band, was robbed on Monday. A list of stolen or damaged items can be seen here, and if you see this stuff online somewhere, holler at Daptone.

Brutal hardcore group Ed Gein is practicing again after a year and a half of inactivity. The group plans to start writing new material and play some scattered shows.

Long-form UK rock experimentalists Crippled Black Phoenix will tour the US for two weeks at the beginning of April.

Jaguar Love is no longer playing with drummer Jay Clark (former guitarist of Pretty Girls Make Graves). The band currently is a two-piece with a drum machine and will debut this new lineup for an Australian tour.

An Albatross still needs a guitarist to tour this summer! Get in touch if you're talented, friendly, and can travel to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless and Witch begin a nine-day tour of the Northeastern US and Canada today.

Here's the list in alphabetical order:

1. An Albatross: The An Albatross Family Album (Eyeball)

For a decade, An Albatross has blurred the lines between psychedelic rock, synthesized circus sounds, tech riffs, and grind. Building on the group's adventuresome past, this thirty-minute sonic carnival is the most complete expression of An Albatross ever put to tape.

Progressive, epic, trippy, and heavy tunes commingle with layers of strings, horns, flute, and organs — as well as a lengthy spoken-word narrative. The An Albatross Family Album is the band's magnum opus.

2. Dub Trio: Another Sound is Dying (Ipecac)

From the moment that each of us heard the Brooklyn trio’s third studio album last January, we were in love.

A mix of rock, metal, punk, electronica, and of course, dub, Another Sound… is the group's most audacious album to date, speaking to fans across genre lines while pummeling them with the heavy riffs from opener "Not for Nothing" and the rippling low end of closer "Funishment." Mike Patton provides guest vocals on “No Flag.”

3. Firewater: Golden Hour (Bloodshot)

The Golden Hour is the product of one man’s personal and musical odyssey over land from India to the Mediterranean Sea. Firewater’s Tod A. blends his punk roots with field recordings of musicians in five countries, resulting in a mix of past and present, familiar and exotic.

Tod A.’s pairings of music samples recorded in nations that are in conflict with one another shows that “sonic harmony” can be produced even where personal harmony seems unobtainable. The Golden Hour is an ambitious recording that remains intensely personal while encouraging the listener to think about a greater picture.

4. Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)

To us, Fucked Up was one of the most successful bands of 2008, and we were thrilled by The Chemistry of Common Life. With this album, the group has brilliantly drawn from the traditions of hardcore and created something comfortably familiar and powerfully new.

5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! (Anti-)

Influenced by the stripped-down rock of Cave and company's 2007 Grinderman project, and inspired by both the biblical story of Lazurus as well as Harry Houdini, (whom Cave dubs as the world’s first- and second- greatest escape artists, respectively), Dig… finds a modernized “Larry” sprung back to life in the seamy underworld of 1970s New York City.

Each expertly crafted, hook-driven song provides vivid imagery to add to the story. “Today’s Lesson,” “Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl),” and “Midnight Man” are particular highlights.

6. Rodriguez: Cold Fact (Light in the Attic)

On first listen, the psychedelic folk styles of Detroit’s Rodriguez sound so familiar, it’s as though you’ve known his songs your whole life.

Originally released on the Sussex label in 1970, the album was largely overlooked in its home country, but unbeknownst to the inner-city troubadour, it grew an international cult following of millions (Rodriguez even became known as “Jesus” to many South African fans).

Upon its 2008 resurrection, Cold Fact became an instant classic, with tunes like “Sugarman” and “Hate Street Blues” still hitting a personal chord with every listener.

7. Roky Erickson and the Explosives: Halloween Live 1979-1981 (SteadyBoy)

Released on the heels of the decade’s most exciting and miraculous rock 'n' roll comeback, Halloween Live showcases the rock icon’s stunning voice and talent for songwriting, despite his then-fragile mental state.

Comprised primarily of material from the sci-fi-laced, psychedelic hard rock of 1980 album The Evil One (Roky Erickson and The Aliens, 415 Records), Halloween Live is perfect for fanatics and newbies alike with tracks such as the eerie “Creature with the Atom Brain” and “Bloody Hammer” and a ferocious rendition of “Stand For the Fire Demon."

8. Secret Chiefs 3: Xaphan: Book of Angels, Vol. 9 (Tzadik)

Led by multi-instrumentalist/composer Trey Spruance, Secret Chiefs 3 has re-imagined Masada material for Zorn's Book of Angels series. The group's use of Indian instruments and melodies, combined with surf rock, cinematic flourishes, African guitar, bits of electronics, and bursts of death metal, is unparalleled in execution and contemporaries.

Used here with Zorn's material, the outcome is magnificent.

9. Torche: Meanderthal (Hydra Head)

Meanderthal, the second full-length from Miami-based Torche, is in essence, a big “fuck you” to naysayers who would have you believe there is nothing fresh to be heard in rock 'n' roll.

Between the driving rhythms of “Speed of the Nail,” the punk-pop blend of “Healer,” and undercurrents of sludge, the album is accessible without losing any of its punch (these ain’t no “monster ballads”). Meanderthal is a wholly original, powerful album that will resonate with listeners for years and will undoubtedly mark a turning point in the band’s career and musical legacy.

10. Why?: Alopecia (anticon.)

The love- and death-riddled lyrics, shuffling snare drums, devious scenarios, and strangely un-pop hip-hop sound of Alopecia is somehow relatable.

It's evasive, but tempting, and acceptably poetic. With quirky wordplay and creative rhyme schemes from frontman Yoni Wolf, Alopecia slowly unfolds and then devours you into its own neurotic world.

In an interview with Billboard, bassist Doug McCombs shared details on the upcoming album from jazzy post-rock instrumentalists Tortoise — its first full album of original material since 2004. Still untitled, the album will be released April 21 on Thrill Jockey and feature layers of synthesizers as well as "unconventional drumming and percussion."

The release date for the new Isis album, Wavering Radiant, has been set for May 5 via Ipecac.

Italian sludge-jazz trio Zu has announced the first of its dates for a world tour, which stretches from the end of January through April. Mike Patton (who sings on a pair of tracks from the band's great new album, Carboniferous) joins Zu to perform as the Zu / Mike Patton Quartet for a pair of dates in March.

More bands have been confirmed for the newest incarnation of Neurosis' three-day rock festival, Beyond the Pale at Roadburn 2009. The concerts, from April 23-25, will now include Grails, Earth, and Tribes of Neurot.

Get a free download of Busdriver's song about Obama, "Will He (Inaugural Tribute)," at his website.

Mastodon will debut a new track ("Divinations") from its upcoming album, Crack the Skye, on next week's installment of the BBC Radio 1's "Rock Show."

After 25 years, founding member and multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey is leaving Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

The An Albatross Family Album, one of our favorite releases from 2008, is now available on (white) vinyl from the Eyeball Records webstore.

Long-form psychedelic collective Dark Meat, with its 17 members, has announced a string of concert dates that cover the West and the South. The group also has a pair of new 7" records for sale; one is a split with Long Legged Woman.

Ches Smith's Congs for Brums began a two-week European tour on Tuesday. Smith lends his percussion skills to Secret Chiefs 3, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant, and Xiu Xiu.

An interview with Italian prog-metal group Ephel Duath can be streamed here. In the twelve-minute clip, the group discusses its new album, Through My Dog's Eyes, which will be released on Earache next week (January 26). The band, essentially a duo, recently replaced long-time singer Luciano Lorusso George with Guillermo Gonzalez.

Experimental folk group Akron/Family (now a trio) has announced that a new album, Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free, will be released on Dead Oceans on May 5.

Prog/math rockers Stinking Lizaveta have a new album, Sacrifice and Bliss, that will be released on March 31.

Theater director Richard Foreman is staging a presentation of Astronome, the second album from John Zorn's Moonchild quartet, to run at New York's Ontological-Hysteric Theater for two months, starting on February 5. The Moonchild quartet consists of Zorn, Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, and Joey Baron.

ALARM’s ongoing series exploring the best grassroots, non-traditional music venues

Name: 1919 Hemphill
Founded: 2002
Location: 1919 Hemphill, Fort Worth, TX 76109
Booking contact: Rick: rick@1919hemphill.org
Q&A With: Al, The loudmouth, website, and flyer guy and Rick, the event coordinator, guy to ask about 1919, and bad communicator.

What type of bands do you book?
Al: All kinds, but mostly DIY punk and hardcore bands.

Why did you want to open a DIY venue?
Al: Well, we didn't, but this guy Cri did. He wanted to have a DIY safe space for artists, musicians, activists — basically anyone — to call home.

What kind of crowd do you attract?
Al: Depends on the show, but mostly young people, punks, and non-punks.

How has the venue been an attribute to a community?
Rick: We are located in a kind of poor area, and we allow people to wander in and watch shows if they want. Sometimes they are drunk and rowdy and we have to tell them to leave.

We also have a room full of donated clothes and household items. People will sometimes drop donations for people outside 1919 when we're closed and it will be gone before we get there.

I was told by a neighbor once that somebody dropped off like a hundred cans of food outside of our space. It was picked through and cleaned out in less than an hour. Our neighbors (community) love us.

Have you been met with any challenges running a DIY venue?
Rick: Yes. People straight up not giving shit seems to be the main challenge. Trying to convince people that it's not just another club is kind of hard.

Al: I think it's people thinking that we're something that we aren't. We get complaints from certain aspects of the punk community that get angry at us for sticking to our ideals (i.e. DIY, no drinking or smoking at shows, not tolerating intolerance, etc.). We occasionally get accused of being PC fascists or "crusty hippies," and neither of those things are even close to true.

Aside from live music, do you host any other events or programs in your space?
Rick: We have a lot of different on-the-road acts come through. We have also hosted a freak show, a play, several film fests, some art shows, and fun skill shares / workshops.

Are there any significant musical acts or artists that have drawn a crowd or have had a significant performance?
Al: This Bike is a Pipebomb, The Bananas, An Albatross, Best Fwends, Japanther, Hot Cross, Brickfight, Matt & Kim and Iron Lung.

Rick: Kimya Dawson, Blueberry Fist, O' Pioneers, Boogdish, Can Kickers, World/Inferno Friendship Society, Surrender and Ooga Booga.

Do you have a favorite anecdote regarding your venue?
Al: Keith Morris talks a lot about boring stuff.

Rick: The night that someone went into our parking lot and smashed a bunch of people's windshields for no reason. Wait, that wasn't funny at all!

Do you plan on expanding or modifying your venue in the future?
Al: Right now we're in the process of trying to get more diverse events going on. Eventually, we'll fix the leaks too.

What advice could you give to those who are interested in opening their own venue?
Al: Don't, unless you have a person that's ready to spend about 15-20 nights out of the month doing stuff related to the venue. Also, if you are going to let people drink, then you are up for a real challenge.

Rick: Don't let anybody tell you how you should be doing things, and don't let the lack of interest get you down. It took five years for people to start going to shows that I set up.

What events do you have coming up?
Check out this link.

1919 Hemphill: www.1919hemphill.org

Shining (Norway)

Thursday, October 23

Pillars and Tongues, Remindring @ The Hideout

Somber vocal harmonies emanate from aptly named Pillars and Tongues, an experimental trio whose creations exhibit mystical influences. As Remindring, multi-talented bassist Josh Abrams (Town & Country, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble) lays out looped soundscapes with Emmett Kelly and Frank Rosaly.

Fucked Up @ Reggie's Rock Club

Punk-rock misdirection artists Fucked Up hit Chicago two weeks after the release of The Chemistry of Common Life, the group's follow-up full-length to Hidden World. This time around, Fucked Up's material moves through more variety of atmosphere than your standard punk/hardcore, with peaceful, otherworldly intros and layers and layers of guitar. There's less stop-start fury than Hidden World-more sheets of sound-so it will be interesting to see how this vigorous live act performs.

Coliseum starts North American and Japanese tour dates

Louisville hardcore staples Coliseum begin five weeks of performances today, hitting many cities in the USA as well as a few in Canada and Japan. The group doesn't hit Chicago until Nov. 15, but there's a good chance that it will be your city in the near future.

Friday, October 24

Ears & Eyes Festival @ The Hideout

With three outstanding weekend shows at The Hideout, independent jazz/avant-garde label Ears & Eyes Records celebrates its third annual Ears & Eyes Festival. The performances feature groups on the Ears & Eyes roster as well as other local standouts and friends of the label, and one such outside artist, Brooklyn's Parts & Labor, headlines this first night with a catchy mix of indie rock and electronics.

The six-artist, six-hour show also includes bass-and-drums rock duo Black Ladies and free-rock guitarist Tobin Summerfield, but the biggest highlight might be the collaboration between Sunfish Ensemble guitarist David Daniell and Tortoise cofounder/bassist Doug McCombs.

Voodoo Experience begins @ New Orleans' City Park

With a massive three-day lineup that can only really be explored at thetenthritual.com, New Orleans' Voodoo Experience celebrates its 10^th anniversary. If you're in the Big Easy on Friday, the fest's first day, be sure to catch DeVotchKa, Reverend Horton Heat, The Gutter Twins, Man Man, Extra Action Marching Band, and Andre Williams.

Shining (and other picks) at CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival

There are hundreds of bands playing at the dozens of CMJ venues on Friday, the festival's second-to-last day, but we had to single out Norway's Shining at Cake Shop (and again at Knitting Factor on Saturday). The post-prog jazz-rock experimentalists return to New York, one of three cities on their first US tour earlier this year, and it might be a while before they return. If you're in NYC, do yourself a favor and check them out (and pick up Grindstone on Rune Grammofon).

The night's other highlights include sBACH, An Albatross, Akimbo, Phosphorescent, Sole and the Skyrider Band, and Broken Social Scene.

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This nine-song, thirty-minute carnival is the most complete and true expression of An Albatross ever put to tape.

The band's trademark mixture of 1970s psychedelia, hardcore, modern rock, and synthesized circus music is most realized through the progressive, epic, trippy, metal tunes on this third full-length album. Layers of strings, horns, flute, and organs-and a lengthy spoken-word passage-make this more than your father's An Albatross.

Sao Paulo Underground: The Principle of Intrusive Relationships (Aesthetics)

Led by composer / cornet player Rob Mazurek, the mastermind behind Exploding Star Orchestra, this Brazilian version of Chicago Underground focuses more on rhythm for its second full-length.

The echoing, delayed cornet of Rob Mazurek and the boundary-less beats of drummer Mauricio Takara are augmented by a pair of additional percussionists as well as space-age electronics. This was overlooked last week, but we don't think that you'll mind us adding it seven days late.

Sao Paulo Underground: "Pulmões"
Sao Paulo Underground: \"Pulmões\"

RTX: JJ Got Live RaTX (Drag City)

Led by Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux fame, RTX's second full-length amplifies the band's trademark blend of psychedelic rock and late '80s LA metal. Over the haze and arena-ready riffs, Herrema snarls her way through blistering tracks like opening number "You Should Shut Up" and the swaggering "Birthday Song."

RTX: "Cheap Wine Time"
RTX: \"Cheap Wine Time\"

Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping [Dig] (Polyvinyl)

From lo-fi indie pop to gender-bending glam rock, we've learned to expect the unexpected with Of Montreal, and with its sunny, eclectic dance pop, the group's ninth album has proven no exception.

There are furious hammered dulcimer riffs that give way to hazy psych-pop dissonance and multi-tracked vocal ululations ("Nonpareil of Favor"). There are heartbroken piano ballads ("Touched Something's Hollow") that shift into celebratory horn riffs and twin-lead-guitar arena rock ("An Eluardian Instance"). It's abrupt and jarring, and that's the whole point.

Pit er Pat: High Time (Thrill Jockey)

Poly-genre minimalist three-piece Pit er Pat weaves through indie rock, dub, haunting grooves and much more on High Time, the group's third full-length for Thrill Jockey. Traditional instrumentation is mixed with modern electronics and a rock base, and a talented guest panel of Dylan Ryan (Bronze, Herculaneum), trombonist Nick Broste (Mucca Pazza) and flutist Nate Lepine lends its talents.

Pit er Pat: "Evacuation Days"
Pit er Pat: \"Evacuation Days\"

Night Horse: The Dark Won't Hide You (Tee Pee)

Comprised of members of LA-based epic-metal quintet Ancestors and psych rockers Bluebird, Night Horse presents a Southern-rock-tinged boogie — one that is the perfect soundtrack for downing numerous shots of whiskey and dancing your ass off.