New England Music News

Best week ever!

Edgy gigs likely to be booked solid

By SUSANNA BOLLE | November 11, 2008

Cooper-Moore

Boston is bursting at its very seams with strange and unusual sounds this week. The sonic overload begins with two nights of experimental music and dance in Cambridge. The annual "4 x 4" concert at the Dance Complex pairs four composers with four choreographers. This year's edition has everything from toy pianos to robots, Haitian dance to butoh; the four pairings are JANE WANG with DANNY SWAIN, DARREN BEAUDET with DARYA MUSARA PINTON, JULIET CASE with JOY MADDEN, and MAX LORD with ELLEN GODENA.

The banjo is an under-represented instrument in avant circles. One of the finest (also one of the few) experimental banjo players I know of is PAUL METZGER, who's in town this Tuesday: he'll be picking serpentine ragas and extended improv jams at P.A.'s as part of a Weirdo Records showcase.

That same night, the ferocious Boston free-jazz/noise ensemble the LAURENCE COOK DISASTER UNIT reunite in celebration of their 10th anniversary. They're legendary for their searing shows (which have been known to include a little Sawzall-on-sheet-metal action — complete with showers of sparks); the Middle East line-up will comprise drummer Laurence Cook, cellist and cracked electronics maestro VIC RAWLINGS, trumpeter GREG KELLEY, and reel-to-reel tape specialist JASON LESCALLEET. (And please note the ace supporting act.)

Finally, on Wednesday, jazz musician, composer, and instrument builder COOPER-MOORE will perform at Longy. Expect a wonderfully strange conglomeration of instruments and a near bottomless reserve of irreverent anecdotes and stories.

The best is noise
One night last winter, Thurston Moore and Swedish sax kingpin Mats Gustafsson popped into the Middle East upstairs for an off-the-cuff performance together. The loose group arrangement — Bill Nace and Chris Corsano joined in at the last minute — made for a thrill that you hardly ever get in rock-music circles.
Rare Frequencies: Callithumpian Consort, Thurston Moore and Bill Nace
Although composer JOHN CAGE is best known for 4'33" of silence, he could raise a ruckus when the mood struck.
Fortunate one
It was no surprise to find Chris Brokaw in Hawaii last week, just two Saturdays before he’s due back in Cambridge to pull a double shift upstairs at the Middle East.
High dives
Dive bars. Where the drinks are cold and stiff. Where the air wafts with the unmistakable but not-altogether-unpleasant tang of suds long since spilled. Where the neon shines bright and true and the jukebox plays good and loud.
Crank it up
Turning 21 was supposed to be the best thing ever, but the upgrade brought with it significant disappointment. Just as I achieved the required maturity for admission to grown-up clubs, the Marvels went and broke up.
Wonderdrug wonders reunite
Are you ready for COLEPITZ to be back?
Boston's Best City Life 2009
There’s so much to love about Boston, it’s hard sometimes to know where to start. Traffic? Obnoxious Sox fans? Irritating students? Norway rats? Inflated rents? An inferiority complex unlike any on the Eastern seaboard?
Boston's Best Food and Drink 2009
The danger of doing an annual Best issue is that readers could well screw up the whole thing, especially when it comes to eating out. It would suck if they voted for the too-familiar national-chain eateries. Best Hamburger: McDonalds?!
Boston's Best Arts and Entertainment 2009
We are a culture-rich city — a veritable cauldron of talent and fun, and have been so since Anne Bradstreet inscribed the gates of Harvard. In Boston, the arts never stand still.
Gift rap
Boston hip-hop promoter Edu Leedz celebrated his 29th birthday in carnal mediæval-king fashion. The only thing missing was a three-pound turkey leg for Leedz to gnaw on.
San Francisco treat
The SF-based Deerhoof performed at the Middle East a week ago Thursday with the amusingly repetitive precision of a puppet show or an assembly of wind-up toys.
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ARTICLES BY SUSANNA BOLLE

ASSAULT AND BATTERIES | February 20, 2009
After a brief stint in Pittsburgh, guitarist and electronic musician GEOFF MULLEN is back in his native Rhode Island, and the New England music scene is so much the better for it.

SO MUCH IN STORE | February 10, 2009
Australia's the NECKS are the sort of band who thwart classification.

A COMPROVISATIONAL WHAT? | February 02, 2009
Local saxophonist and electronic-musician JORRIT DIJKSTRA combines a variety of styles ranging from jazz to electro-acoustic improv and noise to create his own emotive and often idiosyncratic music.

WINTRY MIX | January 26, 2009
There are so many interesting and unusual musical happenings this week, it's almost more than this little column can bear.

RARE FREQUENCIES: CALLITHUMPIAN CONSORT, THURSTON MOORE AND BILL NACE | January 20, 2009
Although composer JOHN CAGE is best known for 4'33" of silence, he could raise a ruckus when the mood struck.

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