Kayo Dot's Toby Driver has curated the entire month of February at New York avant-garde rock venue, The Stone.
Full February 2010 show listing for The Stone:
MONDAY FEBRUARY 1-STONE SEMINAR 5
BUTCH MORRIS: The Principles of Conduction®
7PM to 10PM-TWENTY DOLLARS: Open to all
For the 25th Anniversary of Conduction, Butch Morris presents a special lecture/ demonstration, a concert featuring a string octet and a Q&A on the methods and principles of Conduction.
2/2 Tuesday (NY)
8 pm
Sugarlife
Christian Dautresme (vocals, etc.)
Sugarlife explores notions of performance art, identity, and sexuality with an entertaining and often absurd live performance interaction. It tends to be hilarious as well as scary. Whether charging the air with electronic blips or singing a celestial soprano over acoustic guitar blossoms, Sugarlife becomes a sonic shaman where change is the only constant. Neo-Fluxus freak out? Absurdist action art? The ghost of a soft G.G. Allin as a drag queen from a distant planet? Sugarlife transcends any movement classification.
10 pm
Scrambler/Seequill
Michael Gamble (Guitar, Keys, Bass, Vox) Devin Febbroriello (Vox, Guitar, Bass, Kaoss) Conor Elmes (Drums) Ari Folman Cohen (Bass)
Scrambler/Seequill is the collaborative music and production project by Michael Gamble (scrambler) and Devin Febbroriello (Seequill). Coming from different backgrounds, Scrambler and Seequill have found a meeting place to channel their visions and voices dualistically. Drawing from various experiences, inspirations, and influences a certain sound and message is earnestly delivered. Songs written under covers, at night and at dawn over coffee, during good years and bad years.
2/3 Wednesday (JC)
8 pm
Terran Olson - "Nevsky Prospekt"
Terran Olson (piano), David Bodie (drums), Toby Driver (guitar)
Multi-instrumentalist known for his work with Kayo Dot, maudlin of the Well, and Autumn Tears premieres a new ensemble and long-form composition based on the story by Nikolai Gogol.
10 pm
Mick Barr
Mick Barr (electric guitar)
2/4 Thursday (NY)
8 pm
Larval
Bill Brovold (guitar) plus guests
Bill reunites with the original lineup of Larval
10 pm
Stern
Chuck Stern (vocals)
Stern is Chuck Stern, formerly of New York art/prog abstractionists Time of Orchids. The music is dense and cinematic, occupying its own late-night vacuum - a haze of brooding, Shostakovian synth and angular guitar work, laced with trumpet, industrial noise and Chuck's unique, haunting vocals.
2/5 Friday (YT)
8 pm
Baby Dee
Baby Dee (piano, vocals) Matthew Robinson (cello)
Baby Dee will sing about slugs and play classical music for cowboys with cowboy hat-hair.
10 pm
Sword of Exactly
Evelyn Davis (piano, vocals) Joe Kiplinger (guitar), Joey Molinaro (violin), Rob Funkhouser (percussion, mixing bowls), plus guests
New music composer Evelyn Davis conflates influences of art rock, metal, prog, and opera to create extremely subtle, thoughtful, microtonally oriented works which are viscerally emotionally expressive. Her recent work includes a song cycle, "From the Bath", for countertenor, alto, viola, and alto flute, which is based on her own text, and which expresses issues such as loss, bisexuality, masturbation, and abortion through the mouthpiece of effeminate masculinity.
2/6 Saturday (JM)
8 pm
Kayo Dot plays Choirs of the Eye
Toby Driver (guitar, vocals) Mia Matsumiya (violin, keyboards) Terran Olson (keyboards, woodwinds) Daniel Means (guitar, woodwinds, bass) David Bodie (percussion) and special guest Greg Massi (guitar)
Kayo Dot plays the entirety of their 2003 Tzadik debut, which has made many "Best Albums of the Decade" Lists, with special guest former KD guitarist Greg Massi joining for this performance only!
10 pm
Kayo Dot plays Coyote
Toby Driver (bass, vocals) Mia Matsumiya (violin, guitar) Terran Olson (keyboards, tenor sax) Daniel Means (alto sax) David Bodie (percussion) and special guest Tim Byrnes (trumpet)
Kayo Dot plays the entirety of their forthcoming Hydra Head release.
2/7 Sunday (JB)
8 pm
Tartar Lamb II
Toby Driver (bass guitar and vocals), Terran Olson (alto sax), Jeremiah Cymerman (clarinet), Dan Means (alto sax), Tim Byrnes (trumpet and french horn)
Modern-classical electroacoustic doom lattices and wall-melting balladry. Questionable tonality. Gradual development, immediate descent into hell.
10 pm
Bauder/Cymerman/Evans/Wooley AMPLIFIED QUARTET
Matt Bauder (amplified sax) Jeremiah Cymerman (amplified clarinet) Peter Evans (amplified trumpet) Nate Wooley (amplified trumpet)
MONDAY FEBRUARY 8-STONE SEMINAR 6
ELLIOTT SHARP-Music in the Post-Digital Era
7PM to 9PM-TWENTY DOLLARS: Open to all
Composer Elliott Sharp discusses and presents scores and audio examples of his work, past and current, in the context of biological and mathematical models of musical organization, an evaluation of computers and new media in performance, algorithmic composition vs improvisation, and the question of smell. Compositions to be discussed include the orchestral works "Larynx", "Calling" and "On Corlear's Hook"; selected string quartets including "Dispersion of Seeds", "Tessalation Row", and "Seize Seas Seeth Seen"; "SyndaKit", "Polymerae" and other algorithmic works; electroacoustic works such as "Cryptid Fragments"; solo approaches including Tectonics and Velocity of Hue; and the music-theater works "innosense", "EmPyre" and "Binibon".
(MP)
2/9 Tuesday (NY)
8 pm
Jason Byron
Jason Byron (voice)
Former lyricist of Kayo Dot and maudlin of the Well Jason Byron, an Initiate of ______, offers a brief talk on modern ceremonial Magick, and will perform a personal ritual, with musical accompaniment. A once in a lifetime experience not to be missed!
10 pm
NYMPH
Matty McDermott (guitar, organ, voice, percussion) Eri Shoji (voice, percussion), Nickle Emmet (bass, percussion), Jesse Stathos (congas, percussion)
NYMPH is a Brooklyn-based psychedelic shred/avant garde outfit whose tempestuously transcendent music has penetrated the New York music scene with bared teeth. The duo-plus-two's orgiastic din is composed & orchestrated by the nucleus of MATTY & ERI. His inner animal comes mostly to bear in his monstrous guitar sound; echoed, reverbed, distorted, slack-jawed, claw-toothed & sharp as lethal icicles, it is equal parts Greg Ginn and Erkin Koray & is complemented by the thundering harmonic prowess of NICKLE on bass. ERI relies on intuitive vocal expression largely free from the semantic bounds of lyric; her mode finds form in a cavalcade of orgasmic yelps, howls & piercing screams.
2/10 Wednesday (NY)
8 pm
Josh Roseman Trio with Guests
Josh Roseman (trombone) plus guests
10 pm
Electroputas
Joe Frivaldi (guitar) Patrick Holmes (clarinet) Akio Mokuno (bass) Jaiko Suzuki (drums)
From a storm of musical chaos emerges the quartet Electroputas with chunks of noise, large swathes of psychedelic fervor, and large dashes of complete freakout fever.
2/11 Thursday (TD)
8 pm
Maureen McElheron and Nicole Renaud
Maureen McElheron (piano, vocals), Nicole Renaud (accordion, voice)
Maureen McElheron and Nicole Renaud compose and sing the music for the super-bizarre animated films of Bill Plympton, whose cartoons have been featured on MTV, BRAVO and Cartoon Network. Tonight they'll also be showing some of Bill's films while they perform.
10 pm
Jessica Pavone - Songs of Synastry and Solitude
Toomai String Quintet - John Popham (cello), Andrew Roitstein (bass), Emilie-Anne Gendron (violin), Erin Wight (viola)
Songs of Synastry and Solitude is a collection of songs for string quartet influenced by an interest in the simple beauty of folk songs, the ghosts of all things lost and Leonard Cohen's encouragement to live outside this world.
2/12 Friday
8 pm
Lavigna
Lavigna (voice, guitar) Alain "Astucieux Coquin" Halimi (saxophone, flute) Olivier Pelletier (clarinet) Antoni Cionci (balafon, guitar) Damien Girot (drums)
Lavigna is an intense free punk grind French band coming to The Stone all the way from Mediterranée. Absolutely mindblowing.
10 pm
Gnaw
Alan Dubin (voice) Carter Thornton (guitar, bass) Brian Beatrice (guitar, bass) Jun Mizumachi (laptop/fx/noise) Eric Neuser (drums)
Gnaw viciously assaults listeners with their unique brew of ultra-depressive, scathing, slug-paced extreme metal.
2/13 Saturday (DS)
8 pm
Steeve Hurdle and Craig Taborn
Steeve Hurdle (guitar) Craig Taborn (piano)
Hailing from Montreal, Steeve Hurdle is best known for his ingenious guitar playing on the greatest creative extreme metal album of all time, Obscura by Gorguts. Steeve currently plays in NEGATIVA.
10 pm
Steeve Hurdle solo
Steeve Hurdle (el. guitar)
2/14 Sunday (NY)
8 and 10 pm
ANNUAL VALENTINE'S DAY IMPROV NIGHT-A Stone Benefit
John Zorn (sax) Toby Driver (bass) Steeve Hurdle (guitar) and many special guests
Come out and share the love by supporting the Stone! Perfect concert for a first date! TWENTY DOLLARS
MONDAY FEBRUARY 15-STONE SEMINAR 7
ANTHONY COLEMAN
7PM to 9PM-TWENTY DOLLARS: Open to all.
Tortured Genius and downtown legend Anthony Coleman, who now teaches at New England Conservatory speaks about the nexus of composition and improvisation in contemporary music.
(DB)
2/16 Tuesday (NY)
8 pm
Kevin Hufnagel solo
Kevin Hufnagel (guitar)
Guitarist Kevin Hufnagel is perhaps best known for his work in forward-thinking instrumental rock band Dysrhythmia and wall-of-sound guitar duo Byla. Tonight, Kevin plays some of his compositions for solo guitar.
10 pm
Yoshiko Ohara
Yoshiko Ohara (voice) Blake McDowell (keyboards)
Yoshiko is known as the vocalist of extreme horror-doom band Bloody Panda. She's joined here by Panda keyboardist Blake McDowell to perform some of her smaller scale darkwave songs.
2/17 Wednesday (JM)
8 pm
Mind vs. Target!
Joseph Burkett (bass) Michael Libramento (drums) Shane Perlowin (guitar)
The music of Mind Vs Target ranges from rich harmonic textures to quick angular twists and turns, from delicate lyricism to cacophonous walls of sound... Though improvisation is prominent, with each member bringing his unique expression to a performance, much of the music is tightly composed and executed. And, though the direction of the group is largely rooted in the jazz avant-garde, other influences are strongly felt.
10 pm
Ahleuchatistas
Shane Perlowin (guitar) Joseph Burkett (bass) Ryan Oslance (drums)
Ahleuchatistas are an instrumental power trio from Asheville, North Carolina, mixing improvisation and tightly controlled jump-cut compositional complexity.
2/18 Thursday (TD)
8 pm
Dilly Dilly
Erin Davidson (multi-instruments and voice)
dilly dilly is Erin Olivia Davidson, a multi-instrumentalist from Portland, Maine, who performs arrangements for ukulele, banjo, guitar, sequencer, vocals, and musical saw. After years playing with Cerberus Shoal and a small stint in Sage Francis's backing band, she'll play solo tonight, with a selection of songs that are part-folk, part-electronic, and entirely other.
10 pm
Yellow Crystal Star
Mark Billings (electric guitar)
Austin-based, infinite drone activation of expanding dimensional perception. Progressive guitar trance, collaged tape prism of portals in/out/in neverending. A seemingly chaotic interpolation of chants, sources, samples, melodies, and lyrics, pieced together as a more complex vibrational language filtering down through the transforming dream
2/19 Friday (SK)
8 pm
Hazel-Rah and Fiver
Tim Byrnes (synth, voice, and horn) David Andrew Moore (drums) Charlie Looker (baritone guitar) Adam Minkoff (guitar)
Come spend an evening with the "beggar from the country of the LORD" as he presents some old and new compositions for small ensembles of synth, guitar, drums, voice, and horn in F. Tim has been in the city for more than 11 years now and has contributed to such exciting musical acts as Candiria, Friendly Bears, Kayo Dot, and Ron Anderson's PAK.
10 pm
Thrones
Joe Preston (bass, drum machines, synths, and voice)
Joe is a rock legend, having been a member of Earth, The Melvins, Men's Recovery Project, The Need, High on Fire, and Harvey Milk. Joe has also played with SunnO)). Thrones is his long-running solo project, featuring Joe on bass, drum machines, synths, and voice, combining all these things into terrifying and progressive sludge.
2/20 Saturday
8 and 10 pm
Evangelista
Carla Bozulich (voice), Tara Barnes (electric bass and voice) and others
2/21 Sunday (YT)
8 pm
Toby Driver and Charlie Looker - Improvised electric guitar duos
Toby Driver (electric guitar) Charlie Looker (electric guitar)
10 pm
Joshua Booth and Merc
Justin Bulava (clarinet with prerecorded electronics) Merc (laptop, joystick, controllers), Dan Peck (tuba)
New compositions by Joshua Booth and Merc (IfWhen).
MONDAY FEBRUARY 22-STONE SEMINAR 8
Greg Cohen-Musicianship
NOTE EARLY START TIME! 4PM to 7PM-TWENTY DOLLARS: Open to all.
Renown Bassist with Bob Dylan, Ornette Coleman, Tom Waits, Woody Allen, John Zorn, Lou Reed, Maryanne Faithful, Lee Konitz and coutless others speaks about the art of playing bass, musicianship, and the role of the bass in music today.
(DS)
2/23 Tuesday (NY)
8 pm
Matthew Welch's Blarvuster - "The Mosaic of Iridescence"
Matthew Welch (bagpipes, sax, voice) Leah Paul (flutes, sax) Max Mandel (viola) Mary Halvorson (el. guitar) Ian Riggs (el. bass) Tomas Fujiwara (drums)
A premiere of a new monolythic, concert length piece called "The Mosaic of Iridescence" -- exploring new subtleties of coloration, increased contrapuntal densities and rhythmic complexities for Blarvuster.
10 pm
Gxxxxn
Kxxa Sxxxo (vocal, guitar, mandolin) Txxxxxxxxi Kxxxxa (guitar, percussion) Rxxxxxe Txxxxxo (drums)
Gxxxxn is a must-see. Kxxa screams like a newly born wild horse and croons like an old man talking to the distant boat fading into the spring haze. The noise from Kxxxxa's guitar, so sensitive and disturbing, breaks your old dream-box into pieces and from behind, Rxxxxxe's strict as well as emotional drums blow them up into the high air. This band from the Far East island will attack you like Tsunami and leave you in the shining debris of pure gold.
2/24 Wednesday (NY)
8 pm
HXXXL
Kxxa Sxxxo (guitar, etc) Axxxa Kxxxxxxa (drums, etc)
10 pm
Enablers
Joe Goldring (guitar) Kevin Thomson (guitar) Pete Simonelli (voice) Doug Scharin (drums)
Enablers have established a new direction for the use of spoken word with music. The prose and poetry of Pete Simonelli is intricately woven into the dynamic guitar interplay of Joe Goldring and Kevin Thomson, punctuated by the compulsive and precise attack of Doug Scharin on drums. Musically, the compositions range from melodic minimalism to heavy, rhythmically challenging thickets of sound.
2/25 Thursday (KR)
8 pm
Not The Wind, Not The Flag
Colin Fisher (tenor sax/guitar) Brandon Valdivia (drums)
Master improvisers from Toronto.
10 pm
Not The Wind, Not The Flag with Sabir Mateen and Alia O'Brien
Colin Fisher (sax) Brandon Valdivia (drums) Sabir Mateen (woodwinds) Alia O'Brien (ney)
2/26 Friday
8pm
Eugene Robinson - A LONG SLOW SCREW
Eugene Robinson (voice), Niko Wenner (guitar), Zef Noi$e (violin), Alice Genese (bass)
Members of OXBOW and Psychic TV present readings from Eugene's new book
10 pm
OXBOW acoustic
Eugene Robinson (voice), Niko Wenner (guitar) plus guests
FIFTEEN DOLLARS.
2/27 Saturday (DS)
8 pm
Andrea Centazzo & John Zorn
Andrea Centazzo (percussion) John Zorn (sax) and special guests
Here on a rare visit from Italy, Centazzo reunites with Zorn after over thirty years! TWENTY DOLLARS
10 pm
Matthew Bourne
Matthew Bourne (piano)
The virtuosic pianist from England. "...characterized by highly personal levels of emotional and physical intensity. Adjectives such as offensive, moving, banal, provocative and breathtaking are among those most commonly used."
2/28 Sunday (YT)
8 pm
Broadcloth
Anne Rhodes (voice), Nathan Bontrager (cello), Adam Matlock (accordion, recorders)
from New Haven.
10 pm
Have a Nice Life
Dan Barrett (vocals, guitar, sampler), Tim Macuga (bass), M. Kestigian (guitar), Will Barrett (synthesizer)
Heavy, droning, and melodic combination of shoegaze, industrial, and new wave, in the vein of Sisters of Mercy, My Bloody Valentine, and Swans.
* Driver talks more about booking The Stone and his band's upcoming new album, "Coyote" (April 2010 / Hydra Head) here
