As anyone reading this almost definitely knows, Levon Helm and Adam Yauch recently died. I like The Band and The Beastie Boys, but I'm not one to fully assess either artist's lives or cultural impact or anything too big picture. Instead, I want to share a little about how they each affected me and my listening experiences and also learn what they meant to all of you.
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This Friday May 11th the Atlantic Guitar Quartet will be hosting a concert event at the prestigious Engineer's Club at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion in Baltimore MD where they are the artists in residence. The concert promises to cross artistic genres as the quartet mixes live music with live visual art. AGQ is pleased to be sharing the stage with dancers Maia Draper-Reich and Gabriela Santos of Peabody Dance as well as Junichi Fukuda. Each of these performers will be presenting their settings of Olivier Bensa's Ecolsion from La Grand Terra with AGQ accompanying. The soundcloud file below is a recording of that piece by the quartet.
Additionally, quartet member and visual artist Jonathan Zwi will be showcasing his newest paintings and light sculptures during the concert. Musically the concert will consist of works from Olivier Bensa, Arvo Pärt, Fred Frith, and Ronald Pearl, with two world premier performances of compositions written for the quartet from Christopher Gainey and David Smooke.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door with a discounted rate of $5 for students with ID. The concert begins at 8:00 and doors open at 7:30 with a cash bar available before and after the performance. As always the dress code at the Engineer's Club is business casual. Tickets can be purchased in advanced here and you can stay in touch with AGQ via their webpage, facebook, and twitter. We hope to see you there.
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This performance of Carrie Manolakos performing Radiohead's infamous tune Creep came my way via Gawker and my ears were completely stunned. This beautiful performance showcases not only her obvious vocal talent, but her Broadway experience allows her to draw out the drama in the songs narrative. The performance was done at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village in promotion of her forthcoming debut album Echo. Gawker called this performance upsettingly good and I'm inclined to agree. You dig?
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Good morning Dig Nation and good morning Baltimore. Last week Steve hooked up the Brooklyn readers with several fantastic Gigs We Dig. This week it is my pleasure to hip the Baltimore crowd to a couple of off the beaten path concerts that promise to work your ears, your eyes, and your thinking caps. If that sounds like your kind of deal pay attention this week and come out to two performances from TWD's own Atlantic Guitar Quartet at both the Evolution Music Series as well as at Baltimore's Engineer's Club.
First up is Wednesday May 9th's Evolution Music Series Concert entitled Sounds and Sweet Airs at An Die Musik. Read on for a full description of the concert program or just trust my judegment and dive in – tickets can be purchased here.
The soundcloud file below is the first of a five movement Ronald Pearl piece to be fully premiered on that concert. This portion of the composition is titled Sometimes a Thousand Twangling Instruments. You dig?
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This was a busy and enjoyable weekend. Hope it was good for everyone else. In its waning hours under the glow of the supermoon, we have a brand new Weekly Roundup for you all to enjoy.
As if today wasn't already packed with exciting things like Cinco De Mayo festivities and the Kentucky Derby, tonight promises at least one spectacular show in the city: the great dual bill of NYC-based, atmospheric, coed duos at Le Poisson Rouge: EXITMUSIC and School of Seven Bells. Read on for more details.
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Quite the double bill this evening at the Mercury Lounge: Miracles of Modern Science and Conveyor. Read on for the details.
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If you are looking for a good, actually let's say great, show to go to tonight, we strongly recommend seeing Field Mouse, one of our favorite Brooklyn bands, at the Rock Shop. Read on for all the details.
This may be shocking, but I lived the first twenty-seven and a half-plus years of my life without having ever seen Saturday Night Fever. That changed recently and I want to talk about the film, disco, and more in this latest Scenes and Songs.
The Avalanches released their only album Since I Left You in the year 2000 (cue my best La Bamba singing voice) and caught lightning in a bottle with their single Frontier Psychiatry. From what little I've read about the bands compositional process it sounds to me like the greatness of this song came into the world in the same way penicillin did – accidentally. The band makes heavy use of the sampling, DJ scratch-fests, and imagery to sew together nonlinear sound bites into a linear tune. Additionally, the video boasts a large cast of characters who reenact all of the samples in a very Michel Gondry kind of way. The directors were Kuntz and Macquire.
This video has been around for a little while but I've recently become smitten with it and wanted to make sure that no one in the Dig Nation missed it. Aside from the ghost choir and monkey drummer I dig the shout out to the Baltimore County public education system in the song's introduction.
That boy needs therapy. You dig?
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