Clavius Productions presents:
Thursday, July 26
611 Florida Ave NW WDC
http://www.claviusproductions.org
8pm, $5 suggested donation
202-360-9739 for info
BYOW!
Thee Ultimate VAG (DC guitar/percussion improv duo, mem. of Kohoutek/To Live and Shave in L.A.)
Neg-Fi (NYC experimental/noise duo, mem. of Branca-Bloor Quartet)
This Is My Condition (one-man band from Lawrence, Kansas)
FFFFs (DC solo guitar/electronics, Sockets)
Thee Ultimate VAG
http://www.claviusproductions.org
http://www.myspace.com/accidentswithmagnets
Dreamy moonlit melodies as imagined by axeslinger Chris Grier (To Live and Shave in L.A./Sean McArdle Band/ex-Mungo Jerry) and skinpounder Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek/Insect Factory/Sequence Chair/ex-Ozark Mountain Daredevils). Setting a course for the heartland of America, this duo contructs ribald ditties derived from ancient Lithuanian ballads translated to these modern, not-so-chaste times. Bring your lambskin.
Neg-Fi
http://www.myspace.com/negfi
sounds like: a burlap sack of tin and aluminum scraps falling down a cast iron spiral staircase, highly amplified.
"In the '50s, a time of postwar optimism and faith in science, there was Hi-Fi. In the '90s, an era of slackers and diminished expectations, there was Lo-Fi. In the '00s, a time of neanderthal government and outright contempt for the arts, there is Neg-Fi. A watershed moment in the history of art and music -- some might say sub-nadir... " (Tom Moody, art guy)
"One very memorable one for me was a presentation by a group named Neg-Fi, and it was great because I forget who was on either side of them but it was some fairly high-tech sophisticated stuff, and what they brought in were these little cardboard boxes they had assembled that sort of crackled if you plugged something into them. And their band is named Neg-Fi, which is a pretty great name. So they just put these little boxes on the table and sat behind it and it was very stark and they were very kind of serious and they made these little crackles and they were being serious on purpose because it was funny." (Douglas Repetto, founder of Dorkbot and Artbot, in an interview in WIRED NEWS)
This Is My Condition
http://www.thisismycondition.com/
This Is My Condition is a one-man band in which Craig Comstock plays guitar, drums and sings all at the same time. In the tradition of noise rock this music is heavy, tough and intense, while at other times very free and unstructured. This Is My Condition deals in power, spontaneity and passionate lyrics. Coming from a background of experimentation, repetition and angst in Many Series and Black Calvin, Craig takes things in a new direction by going solo and performing on-the-spot improvisations of the same ilk.
Craig was working on a new project after his trio with Brandon Brown (guitar/vocals in Teriyakis) and Ryan Johnson (drums in Floyd the Barber and others) fizzled out. His search for a drummer who had the desire and skill to play improvised hardcore and art rock failed to succeed. He started applying himself to learning how to be the drummer he was searching for. In the midst of this, somehow, he placed his guitar over his drums and found he could actually play both at the same time. This resulted in his first show at the Replay Lounge with Pixel Panda and My Name Is Rar Rar (who failed to show due to a broken down van in Utah). A day or so before the show he went up to KJHK and played a song acoustically on Plow the Fields and billed himself as Comstock, in the tradition of Dokken, Dio, Bon Jovi and Van Halen. And while the phrase "Less Talk, More Comstock" was screamed by the crows at several of the first shows, it was not to stick. Feeling a bit overly egotistical Craig decided to change the name to This Is My Condition, knowing that the name would always apply regardless of his current condition.
When TIMC opened up for Lightning Bolt in Kansas City, this was a defining moment. Craig challenged Lightning Bolt to a duel. Of course, it was not a duel of volume, Lightning Bolt clearly had the advantage there. Unfortunately the duel didn't happen, but TIMC got to play to a large crowd of enthusiastic kids from KC and learned that the bass player from Lightning Bolt secretly wished he could do something similar.
TIMC took a hiatus from shows during Winter 2003 and found time to record several songs at Chubby Smith's studio in a barn in the countryside outside of Lawrence.
After a couple more shows and delving into more of the experimental improvisational side of TIMC, Craig was invited to play a Seminar at the UMKC school of Music. He played to a group of 30 or so Music Composition students and played just as loud and as intense as at a normal show. Most everyone covered their ears and nodded in approval. The discussion centered around "context" in the music, something that doesn't get discussed much at a regular venue.
Currently Craig has his sights set on playing in far away cities with old friends and honing his skills of improvisation, song-smithing and rocking.
FFFFs
http://www.myspace.com/scdr
FFFFs is Sean Peoples' solo project. Non-ornamental, melodic loopworks, pure and clean. It explores the various impact of vocal loops and otherwise unconventional noise loops in a controlled and song-based environment. Songs contain atmosphere usually tending toward ambient but also including beat and minimal synth-oriented material. I also use found sound recordings. My music taste is all over the map -- beat-oriented, tape loop noise, accessible, experimental. The music tends to reflect that wide-reaching map.