Since Justice loosed its sophomore effort Audio, Video, Disco upon the world in late 2011, over four years after the release of its infamously foreboding debut album † (also: Cross), there has been a lot of conjecture about where the duo is headed musically. There has also been a lot of surface-level chatter about the most recent album’s influences, which seems to range anywhere from Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” days to the ubiquitous electronic stylings of the now-iconic French electronic duo Daft Punk. Indeed, these influences shine forth in almost gratuitous ways on many of the album’s tracks. However, a closer survey of the duo’s musical projections finds an even deeper spiritual affinity with the progressive–namely, the progressive rock albums of the 1970s, and particularly the epochal 1974 double concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis.

While some may find the comparison to be far-fetched, or perhaps too “obscure” a comparison to result in any revelations of particular value, I feel that it’s important to understand how the genesis of both albums (no pun intended) correlate with and reflect the times in which they were written. On a purely thematic level, however, both albums deal in large part with the process of finding or coming to terms with one’s own identity and finding a place for oneself in the world.

In the case of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Peter Gabriel’s lyrics weave a tale of heroic proportions in the vein of Joseph Campbell’s seminal theories regarding the “monomyth.” To oversimplify the scholar’s already terribly oversimplified ideas, a hero receives a call to adventure, journeys with or without the aid of others, confronts an arch-nemesis (archetypally representing the masculine “self” or the “father”), obtains the ultimate reward and faces the hardship of bringing this trophy back home.

Gabriel’s more or less autobiographical “fairy tale” follows the life of a delinquent of half-Puerto Rican descent named Rael (a name, like much of the lyrics, steeped in Joycean wordplay and hidden meaning) who finds himself at the mercy of New York City and the incredible hardship of finding himself in a place where everybody struggles to belong. The album takes the listener on the various twists and turns of Rael’s journey–from his real life troubles in the city to a psychedelic fever dream where he is expected to overcome himself, realize his own identity and return to his once-unsavory life reborn without the aid of his supernatural keeper, the mysterious “Brother John.”

Justice’s Audio, Video, Disco doesn’t necessarily take a cue from Peter Gabriel’s long-winded surrealistic storytelling. In fact, some songs barely have lyrics, or rely on the repetition of only a few words, such as the album’s eponymous track. Of the remaining tracks that have a full set of lyrics, such as “Civilization,” “On’n'On” and “New Lands,” the words, though somewhat uninspired, do tend to follow the same world-weary vein of Rael’s many diatribes against the unwelcoming system he is tasked with conforming to, overcoming or being swallowed by.

In essence, the lyrics hint at an entire generation’s acute realization that there is something terribly wrong with the world, while at the same time laying bare the struggle one faces when finding the motivation to change it. This is particularly difficult when history teaches us that we are merely living in the winter of yet another cycle–a realization of what Friedrich Nietszche called the “Eternal Return”–an idea that is showcased effectively on the track “On’n'On” and throughout the album as a whole.

“On’n'On” is also a learned synthesis of contemporary electronic dance music with a deceptively complex progressive rock aesthetic. Even the brief flute interlude harks back to the preoccupation that many of the stalwarts of progressive rock had with the instrument, such as Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and perhaps more appropriately, Peter Gabriel himself on virtually all of the Genesis albums he contributed to. “On’n'On” also showcases a relentlessly syncopated beat that more or less relates to a rhythmic leitmotif played by Phil Collins (drums) and Steve Hackett (guitar) at several points throughout The Lamb. I’ve included two instances of the motif being played on the Genesis album below for comparison:

In both examples from the Genesis album, the beat correlates with Rael’s immersion into darkness (a dark cloud overtaking Times Square in “Broadway Melody” and “Lilywhite Lilith’s” dark tunnel of death in the second featured track) and the subsequent irony of his ability to see things the way they really are. To simplify even further, the motif marks the character’s transition from one world to another–one that was shrouded in darkness only because it had yet to be disco(vered). This paradoxical treatment of revelation through obfuscation is not lost on Justice’s “On’n'On,” which approaches the biggest mystery there is–the cyclic nature of life, death and rebirth–with an almost refreshingly indifferent sense of amor fati. 

While the overall essence of the two albums seems markedly similar, there is still quite a large divide between the two musically and structurally. By the time The Lamb was released in 1974 and Genesis began touring the album with an elaborate show featuring Peter Gabriel as black leather jacket-clad Rael, there were already sharp divisions within the band about where it was going musically. Tony Banks (keyboards), Mike Rutherford (bass), and Phil Collins were attempting to bring the Genesis sound “up-to-date” by incorporating many of the electronic pop/dance elements becoming popular in Britain and the US at the turn of the 1970s. This directly conflicted in many ways with the band’s previous aesthetic led by the fairy tale surrealism of Peter Gabriel’s lyrics and the classical/folk musical influences of Steve Hackett–both of whom were becoming more and more estranged from the band for mostly unrelated reasons. Therefore, The Lamb stands as a flawed masterpiece that attempts to temporarily patch back together a rift that would eventually transform Genesis into a pop sensation that would rival even Michael Jackson in record sales and overall world popularity.

Although Justice doesn’t seem to be experiencing the same crises with competing talents as Genesis did in the early 1970s, there is something definitely building and shifting where the duo’s future musical trajectory is concerned. Unlike Genesis, whose roots were unequivocally progressive despite its burgeoning expansion into the much more lucrative pop/rock scene, Justice is a heavy hitter on the pop music charts looking to expand into more esoteric musical territory. However, the duo seems to be a bit too cautious when dipping their feet in the treacherously deep swimming pool of progressive rock. What results is a somewhat watered-down mishmash of prog flourishes within a booming structure that remains purely dance oriented. One could argue that this was done so as not to alienate existing fans with the pretentiousness so inherent to full-on prog, particularly since the duo has little to no previous experience with the style.  Moreover, despite building a pristine reputation as virtual paragons of the contemporary French House scene, Justice has a long way to go if it wants to truly dig into the subtleties and complexities of the progressive rock genre. As it stands, Audio, Video, Disco manages to combine some of the more superficially ingenious aspects of prog with some of the worst to come out of a whole generation of quasi-prog crooners from the late-1970s, such as Queen, Led Zep, Yes and, of course, post-Peter Gabriel/Steve Hackett Genesis.

To me, both albums are a purgatory of sorts where both bands sit and review what they’ve experienced and learned thus far in an attempt to synthesize it all into a work that somehow opens up a brand new path for their future artistic endeavors. What both The Lamb and Audio, Video, Disco represent is an almost brooding dissatisfaction on the part of these artists with the status-quo that exists with their music, their personal identities, and macrocosmically, with the world-at-large. While both fall short in terms of their overall quality and consistency, one definitely gets the sense that some major things were being worked out by both groups during the process of putting these albums together. If The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway can be seen as a Dante-esque adventure of sound, sight and self-discovery, then so too can the underlying narrative of Justice’s Audio, Video, Disco. Moreover, despite its flaws, this rather enjoyable album is a welcome relief after the hellish psychological stresses of the duo’s inspired debut. Let’s just hope they manage to sense and learn enough to create a follow-up that takes us that much closer to paradiso.

Did we miss an announcement? Let us know what you think. Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and give us a shout. You can also stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android, iPhone or Ovi.

On May 18 I was one of the lucky witnesses to GaNaDa, a performance by South Korean-born, Bay Area-based artist (and also professional vocalist, musician, and dancer) Dohee Lee. The event, which took place at SOMArts, was part of San Francisco’s first Asian Contemporary Art Week. GaNaDa was a long and intricately crafted piece, which took the viewer down into a deeply personal realm. Lee claimed that the work (chiefly influenced by her native mythology) was a “cleansing/ purging ritual,” and the piece was structured like a journey, during which the artist inhabited a variety of female persona and presented several strong, resonating images.

The performance started unexpectedly in the SOMArts lobby, with a “prologue” that muddled the boundaries between theatre and ritual. To the recorded sounds of a voice counting quietly in Korean, the diminutive Lee came out right into the audience, dressed in white and donning an enigmatic mask. Her body movements were slightly Butoh-like. Studying the audience, the masked character had her hands doing an agile dance with huge knitting needles and thick white thread. All of a sudden, Lee approached an audience member and made a movement as if she were pulling something unseen out of his chest. It looked like she was capturing his soul or his energy. She did that with several other spectators, including (to everyone’s delight) someone’s baby. The “ritual” was mysterious and almost comical.

Photography by Jason Lew. Courtesy of the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.

After the artist disappeared behind the curtain, we got an “official welcome”–a screening of a video in which Lee danced to GaNaDa’s theme song. Footage of her was interspersed with shots of drawings, which probably were preparatory to the piece. When the video was over, we moved into SOMArts’ little auditorium, where we took our seats. The most prominent decorative element on stage was an enormous white dress. It did look like a wedding dress, but it probably wasn’t, since the project didn’t seem to be about femininity or man-woman relations at all. It presented all of Lee’s characters as simultaneously feminine and universal. Flanked by musicians Adria Otte (laptop and violin) and Tatsu Aoki (double bass), she performed the first half of the piece as a curious frilly creature dressed in everything white.  Her headdress was seemingly made of styrofoam, and extended over the back of her head to create a second mask-like face. Her outfit, as well as her catchy songs interspersed with more abstract music bits and vocalizations, made me imagine we were watching a performance in some future world, something like The Fifth Element. But there was also that lo-fi influence–the costume lovingly composed of scraps and pieces, the intimacy of the auditorium–a “poor,” salvagepunk feel. That might be the entertainment of the future: the cozy darkness of a little bunker, the audience enchanted by a cheaply constructed fantasy world. And enchanted we were. At one point, crude, garish, pop-expressionist animation came into the picture, projected on the enormous white dress. These projections of animated laughing mouths eventually chased Lee off stage, her hyper character wallowing in fear, as if her head was about to explode. Yes, GaNaDa as a whole had an invigorating dose of the absurd and grotesque in it.

Photography by Jason Lew. Courtesy of the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.

The next “act” had Lee, long disheveled black hair hanging over her face like a curtain, standing on a ladder behind the white dress/screen so as to look like she was wearing it. The dress had footage of an ocean beach projected on it, and Lee seemed to be hovering and embracing the land and the sky. This part of the piece created an extremely powerful image that stuck in my mind, of the force behind the world being an enormous sweating, swelling woman, almost about to collapse or explode due to the intensity of her work–but still going, living on, emitting tortured screams. When Lee finished singing, she spread her huge wings, upon which we saw more projected animated forms, some of which seemed vaginal, ovarian, umbilical, supporting the theme of “universal female.”

It looked like what Lee wanted to do with her “characters” is to drive them (and herself, through them) to the state of being overwhelmed. Her third and last persona was a glittery, sportswomanlike one, who attempted to transcend herself by manic drumming. With her, she had an army–the all-girl drumming trio Jamaesori. Their drumming performance was fascinating to watch and to listen to, but it was very long, and there was even a feel that it outstayed its welcome–but it was supposed to be like that, since GaNaDa was not a music concert to entertain the audience’s ears, it was performance art work, which aimed to be a ritualistic exercise for the performer herself. “Performance art” and “entertainment” are two separate fields, and even though they sometimes fly together, they are not supposed to be bedfellows–by the end of GaNaDa I felt that quite acutely.

RELATED LINKS

Dohee Lee Official Website

SOMArts Official Website

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Folks, today is May 25, so that leaves us with only one week of May to go, and if you haven’t noticed, the summer festival season is getting into full swing. As a result, we uncovered some tour news that you might want to take note of. Peep it below!

Made in America

This year, Made in Amerca, a new two-day music festival, will be held in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park on September 1 and 2. This Budweiser-sponsored festival has tapped none other than Jay-Z to curate the event. Thus, it makes sense that Hova will close out the second day of the festival while Pearl Jam will close out the first day. The initial lineup includes D’Angelo, Skrillex, Rick Ross, Passion Pit, Santigold, Miike Snow, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA), Janelle Monáe and Dirty Projectors. Also part of the phase one announcement is Calvin Harris, Afrojack, Wale, Meek Mill, X, Prince Royce, Rita Ora, Savoy, and The Knocks. Expect the lineup’s second phase to be announced soon.

Source:

Consequence of Sound

Austin City Limits

The Austin City Limits music festival held annually in Zilker Park in Austin, TX will take place this year on October 12, 13 and 14, and just this week announced its lineup. The Black Keys, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers get top billing with Jack White, Florence  & the Machine, the Avett Brothers serving as sub-headliners. Other names on the lineup include Avicii, Childish Gambino, The Roots, Weezer, Iggy and the Stooges, Bassnectar and M83. Unfortunately, general admission three-day and single-day passes are sold out, but V.I.P. passes and travel packages are still available.

Check out the festival’s profile page on eventseekr for the full lineup!

Source:

Consequence of Sound

Holy Ship!!

After its maiden voyage this last winter, Holy Ship!! will set sail yet again for the Bahamas beginning January 4-7.  After much anticipation, the lineup announcement finally came this week. Justice, Boys Noize, Knife Party and Major Lazer are among the headliners. Skream & Benga, A-Trak, Crookers, Busy P, Dillon Francis and other dance music heavyweights round out the bill. Pre-booking reservations have already sold out, but you can still register to be put on the waiting list. More info on that can be found here.

Source(s):

Consequence of Sound

Twitter

The XX

While we impatiently wait as The XX puts the finishing touches on the long awaited follow-up to its much-acclaimed self-titled debut album, the band has started to perform at festivals and clubs throughout Europe. The group has even performed new songs at these performances, and now fans in the U.S. can look forward to a few dates in late July. Scope  out the info on those dates, and the rest of The XX’s tour schedule on its eventseekr profile.

Source:

Consequence of Sound

RELATED LINKS

Made in America Festival Official Webstie

Austin City Limits Official Website

Holy Ship!! Official Website

The XX Official Website

Did we miss an announcement? Let us know what you think. Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and give us a shout. You can also stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android, iPhone or Ovi.

In recent years, interest in art in San Francisco has boomed to the point where the city now plays host to three art fairs. It all started in 2010, when the San Francisco Fine Art Fair was launched. Last year SFFAF was joined by artMRKT and ArtPadSF, both of which returned in 2012. They have divided the turf, so that each one of them would offer something different. ArtPadSF is the “sexiest” one, while SFFAF is the most “conservative,” and artMRKT is somewhere in between, but it leans towards the SFFAF model.

ArtPadSF. Photo by Cherri Lakey.

It has to be said that an art fair is not where you would expect to find groundbreaking contemporary art. The pulse of the art world beats elsewhere, and a fair is what it is–a marketplace–where artists and gallerists can promote themselves to earn a living. Smooth business here is key, so you won’t find artworks that are too provocative, too political, or tough to sell–no massive participatory projects, no video installations. Nevertheless, a good art fair should still contribute to the healthy cultural process–that is, exhibit not only edgy decoration and technological gizmos (which, sadly, is what many people take for “contemporary art” today), but also works that are intelligent and meaningful. Another function is to show interesting historical works. That is especially important in the case of California, because, as last year’s “Pacific Standard Time” exhibition series demonstrated, the Golden State is a treasure trove of amazing art, most of which remains underappreciated.

All three fairs tried to cultivate the community by organizing various talks and performances, as well as by honoring outstanding local artists. In artMRKT’s case, the spotlight was on photographer Richard Misrach, while SFFAF greeted viewers with a large display of complex, poetic, and engaged pieces by legendary conceptualist William T. Wiley. The problem with the fairs was that not much work on view could pack a punch the same way Wiley’s paintings did. I’m not talking about the level of skill, since the majority of the pieces were well-made and pleasant to look at. But the choice of them, the dealers’ overwhelming bias towards themes that have no connection to “the real world,” was disappointing. I am not saying that all art should manifest engagement, or point to the actual conditions in which people live, but the lack of such “realist” works was palpable.

Ubiquitous at the fair were abstracts of all kinds, collages with vintage illustrations, celebrity-based artworks, serene landscapes, paintings and drawings of animals, and tasteful pictures of beautiful ladies. Since ArtPadSF was targeted at a hipster audience, it also had a lot of pop surrealism, day-glo colors and gothic motifs. SFFAF had a noticeable presence of Asian dealers, who were selling work ranging from ceramics to contemporary pop art pieces. All in all, there were few blatantly inane works. A lot of the displayed pieces could acquire new meaning if placed in social/historical context within intelligently curated exhibitions. If you consider the archetype of “the artist” projected by the three fairs, you would envision something childlike, an individualistic being who has a rich imagination and a lot of inventiveness, but who shuns “grown-up” issues like the economy and his/ her own place within it. Of course, artists and dealers are free to do what they want, but let’s not think that the aforementioned artist archetype is all there is. With so many issues that need reflecting upon, such as globalization, the rise of the right-wing, “creative capitalism,” etc., it is to be hoped that the Bay Area galleries will be more sympathetic to artists who tackle such issues.

Virat Rungpayak, “Harmony.” Oil on linen. Courtesy Asian Art.

There were a few pieces that caught my attention. At artMRKT, San Francisco’s Gallery Paule Anglim was, as always, great, showcasing collages by Enrique Chagoya, Jess, and Bruce Conner. One piece by Conner, Ricky Williams and De Detroit at Mabuhay Gardens, July 11, 1997 was particularly insane: it was made of messily stuck together pieces of punk photographs or posters. Kudos also to David Lusk Gallery from Memphis, for bringing enigmatic and unconventional photographs by William Eggleston, and to Aperture Foundation from NY, for displaying interesting works by a number of contemporary photographers. At SFFAF the small and fragile works by Kat Flyn (George Krevsky Gallery, San Francisco) were impressive. In them, various ephemera such as souvenir New Orleans salt and pepper shakers were used to speak about racial inequality. Also, quite memorable were Virat Rungpayak’s paintings of immensely fat tattooed men in the midst of cornucopias (asart, London/ Bangkok). It seemed to me that at SFFAF there was a bit more “spiritual” and visionary art, which was good, even though such art falls outside the sphere of my interests. ArtPadSF impressed with a large amount of video art pieces (almost every booth had one), as well as the special showcasing of works by straight-out-of-school artists. The setting was also cool: the fair took place not at a convention center, like the other two fairs, but at a real hotel, where you could hang out by a pool in between visits to galleries (which occupied the hotel rooms).

RELATED LINKS

artMRKT Official Website

ArtPadSF Official Website

San Francisco Fine Art Fair Official Website

Let us know what you think. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to give us a shout. You can also stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android, iPhone or Ovi.

This Thursday, May 24, Danger headlines at San Francisco’s Mezzanine with a dazzling new live show. The Frenchman, known as Franck Rivoire, has a sound that consists of multiple influences. A raw, textured mix of electro and rock, his music is also heavily influenced by dynamic video game sounds. Also, expect some stirring visuals to complete the live show experience.

When performing on stage Rivoire dons a black mask, and Danger, his alter ego, takes over. This particular stage motif draws inspiration from both Daft Punk as well as the Black Mage character from the Final Fantasy video game series.

Besides making his own music, Rivoire has produced impressive remixes for the likes of La Roux, Estelle and Kanye West, The Crystal Method and Nero.

Opening up the night will be San Fran locals, Niteppl, whose own sound crosses multiple elements including progressive house and rock music. Expect the energetic duo, Gage Seber and Alton San Giovanni, to debut their new live show.

RELATED LINKS

Danger Official Facebook

Our House Records Official Website

Purchase Tickets for Danger at Mezzanine [5/24/2012]

Are you ready for Danger? Let us know! Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to give us a shout. You can also stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android, iPhone or Ovi.

It’s Friday–’nuff said.

SF Fine Art Fair

If you’re in San Francisco this weekend, hit up the SF Fine Art Fair. The exhibit floor will feature many different galleries showcasing many different forms of high-caliber fine art. Besides the exhibiting galleries, look out for the art installations, live performances, indoor and outdoor art sculptures, and so much more. The fair runs through this Sunday, May 20.

Bonnaroo Schedule

The small little four-day music festival known as Bonnaroo will take over that 700-acre farm in Manchester, TN on June 7-10 with Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phish, and the Beach Boys serving as headliners. This week, the festival released the day-by-day schedules.

Joey Ramone

Gabba Gabba HEY!

May 22 will see the release of …ya know?, a posthumous Joey Ramone album. Mickey Leigh, the brother of the iconic Ramones lead singer, has spearheaded this project, which has been eight years in the making. Leigh culled his brother’s demos and unreleased recordings, and completed the songs by enlisting help from the likes of Joan Jett, Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye, Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos, E-Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt, and Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken.

May 19 is another date to keep in mind. In addition to being Joey Ramone’s birthday, it’s also the 12th Joey Ramone celebration concert to occur in New York. To be held at Webster Hall, Leigh will perform the new album in its entirety. He will be joined on stage by many of the collaborators who helped bring the album to life including Jean Beauvoir, Richie Stotts, Ed Stasium and many others. Tommy Ramone, the only surviving original member of the Ramones is expected to be in attendance as well.

VooDoo Experience

Just this week, VooDoo Experience announced a few of the musical acts performing at this year’s edition of the festival, which will feature Green Day, Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Justice. Peep the festival’s eventseekr profile for the rest of preliminary lineup.

COACHELLA 2013 POSTER LEAKED!!!

Gotcha there, didn’t we? This recent mock poster made by Funny or Die contributor Dahiell Driscoll has more truth to it than you’d probably care to admit.

RELATED LINKS

SF Fine Art Fair Official Website

Bonnaroo Official Website

Joey Ramone Official Website

VooDoo Experience Official Website

Did we miss an announcement? Let us know! Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for updates on what we’re covering. You can stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android or iPhone.

In a venue of less than a thousand people, deep in the heart of a converted Freemason temple, St. Vincent unleashed a sonic fusillade that nobody present for the show is going to forget any time soon. The venue, Deluxe at Old National Center (formerly the Murat Shrine), is laden with the intricate mysticism of the Freemasons, and in a lot of ways is a perfect reflection of St. Vincent’s music style. Annie Clark, who goes by the stage name St. Vincent, has developed a unique sound over the course of three studio albums. These albums showcase the singer/songwriter blending her beautiful and delicate voice with dense collages of drums, synths, electronic effects and expert guitar work.

After a warm-up from the opening act Shearwater, a band that seems to be one breakout song from really making its presence known, Clark took the stage along with her touring band. Without introduction, they launched into “Marrow”, from 2009’s Actor. The song is a perfect distillation of what makes St. Vincent so great, with heavy guitar riffs and a pace that transitions seamlessly from the serene to the chaotic at a moment’s notice.

One thing about Annie Clark that may not come across in her cool, detached singing style is how enthusiastic and passionate she is about making music. On stage, she shines, singing and performing with a wide-eyed fury that captivates. She has a natural, welcoming charisma that, when coupled with her art school darling good looks, makes her irresistible to watch. When she paused for a couple minutes before one of her singles from last year’s Strange Mercy, “Cruel,” to tell a story about the music video she shot for the song, that charisma showed even more.

The show was furious and energetic, with the standout song of the set being “Black Rainbow”, which has a building sense of dread to it. Starting off with fragile woodwinds, the work culminated into a massive wail of strings, electronic groans and apocalyptic guitar riffs. The resulting wall of sound continued to build, layer upon layer, until the sound couldn’t get more intense. Then suddenly, the music dropped off into complete silence. Even after the song ended, where applause was in order, the crowd remained silent as the chaos subsided, finally erupting into thunderous applause.

Other highlights of the show included “Northern Lights” and the lingering drone of the night’s only encore, “Your Lips Are Red.”

Throughout the night, there was the frequent refrain from the crowd chanting “We love you Annie!” every few minutes. The audience did love Annie Clark, and that love was well-founded, because Clark gave them an intense and passionate show that is rarely seen. In a venue that forced intimacy and coziness, it was a love letter from Clark herself that will stay with us forever.

RELATED LINKS

St. Vincent Official Website

The Deluxe at Old National Centre Official Website

Have you seen St. Vincent live? Let us know! Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to give us a shout. You can also stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android, iPhone or Ovi.

When I was living in Russia, I frequently came across the opinion that art made by women is inherently subpar. And not only art–there is a woeful tendency, even by educated people (including educated women, no less), to use the words “female” or “feminine” as an indelible stamp of lower quality–a stigma, in other words. In the United States I have the impression that such opinions have been not so much extinguished as swept under the carpet, delegated to the margins. Expressing them openly is “bad manners.” Nevertheless, patriarchy in culture is alive and well–just watch any Hollywood movie if you want proof. Therefore, even though cultural events dedicated solely to work by women are problematic from a feminist point of view (critics speak of “female ghettos”), they are still needed. Women’s Voices at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was such a “lady-focused” project. It featured Kronos Quartet‘s enthusiastic treatment of works by three female composers as well as two collaborative pieces with maverick female performers, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ and Tanya Tagaq. Both concerts–on May 11 and 12–were nothing short of stellar.

Kronos Quartet. Photo by Jeffe Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The program both nights was identical. The evening started with the performance of young Canadian composer Nicole Lizée’s 2010 piece Death to Kosmische, dedicated to German psychedelic music of the late 1960s–early 1970s. Kosmische holds a particular resonance today, since it marks the moment when pop music started becoming electronic. Of course, the sound of early electronic instruments is now deeply nostalgic, and Lizée is part of a current of composers and music-makers who summon that era’s ghosts (the latter word was not used accidentally, since the figures of “ghosts” and “haunting” are very important in that current’s discourse). In Death to Kosmische the strings of Kronos Quartet imitated electronics and combined with primitive machines (also played by the band) to create an enchanting retro-futuristic soundscape with breathtaking glissandi.

After the second work, a slow, gooey piece by Laurie Anderson, Kronos performed its first tribute to a composer whose work influenced Lizée decisively: British electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire. Nowadays the interest in her music, as well as the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where she worked, is resurgent, thanks to the aforementioned “hauntologists.” In the 1960s and 1970s Derbyshire experimented in the studio to create soundtracks to TV programs “set in the distant past, the unseen future or deep in the human psyche.” For Women’s Voices, short fragments of her output were put together (by arranger Danny Clay) to create Mosaic. Some parts were for strings while some were for unusual instruments like children’s toys, and that, combined with the intentional cartoonishness of several motifs, provided for a playful effect. Several of Kronos’s moves, such as their use of whistles and howling tubes, made the audience giggle happily.

Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ. Photo by Jason Lew. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

With Mosaic, the retro-futuristic part of the show was over, and the “ritualistic” part began. Vietnamese-born Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ came on stage for a meticulously choreographed performance that starred instruments like đàn Bầu (a one-string guitar) and đàn Tranh (a plucked zither) and a variety of artillery gongs. The performance also incorporated Võ’s singing, recorded sounds and various percussion “instruments” such as stones, seeds poured into a basket and what looked like giant bamboo trunks, which made a thunderous sound when hit against the floor. Võ’s work, called All Clear, was dedicated to the suffering of the victims of the Vietnam War, and at the center of it was a solemn ritual of lighting incense inside an American soldier’s helmet, which had been hidden behind a red curtain (red–a reference to communism?). The composer said that her perspective was “that of someone who was not on any side,” but nevertheless, the intense and dramatic, even tragic mood of All Clear did not hint at any reconciliatory sentiment. No, the work wasn’t bellicose, but it presented the past as a gaping wound, and that is the right tone in which to speak about war.

Tanya Tagaq. Photo by Pedro Usabiaga. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Women’s Voices was “headlined” by Tanya Tagaq from the Canadian province of Nunavut. Since I had never heard traditional Inuit singing before, her voice turned out to be the main surprise (and even shock) of the show. She emitted rhythmic guttural sounds that some would definitely describe as animalistic, but for me they bore as much affinity with the machinic. It could be thought that Tagaq’s performance, in contrast with the “futurism” of the first part of the evening, might have meant to exemplify the “traditional,” but in fact the singer is also an innovator. Throat singing in Inuit culture is a form practiced between two women (it developed from a breathing game which lasted only several minutes), so Tagaq’s brand of performance is fairly new. Granted, the “traditionalist” mood was set by composer Derek Charke’s having chosen Arctic nature as a theme for accompanying music, as well as Tagaq’s telling of the Inuit origin myth. But overall, just like the works by Lizée and Võ, Tundra Songs was a hybrid in which markers of a particular tradition were used only as starting points. Let us hope we will hear those works again soon, and not in the framework of “women-only” and “ethnic” events.

RELATED LINKS

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Kronos Quartet

Let us know what you think! Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to give us a shout. You can also stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android, iPhone or Ovi.

Coachella has just announced that the 2013 edition of the festival would once again take place over the course of two weekends. Weekend One will be held on April 12, 13 and 14, while Weekend Two will be held on April 19, 20 and 21.

As has been the case for the last few years as well, festival passes will be sold exclusively through Front Gate Tickets. There are no hidden fees in this year’s ticket options. So the $349 general admission, $399 general admission/shuttle pass combo, and $799 V.I.P. wristband pricing that you see, is what you pay–prices reflect all the various fees included.

The advance sale will start this Thursday May 17, 2012 at 10:00am PDT, and conclude next Thursday on May 24, 2012 at 10:00 am PDT. The general on-sale will happen early next year, but the Coachella Payment Plan is only going to be available during this advance sale period. A 20% minimum deposit will be required at the time of purchase, and then seven monthly installments to follow. Check out Coachella.com for the rest of the fine print.

Pro tip: if you have not already, now is the time to create a Coachella/Front Gate Tickets account for the weekend you wish to attend. This will save you some time come May 17. Surely, these passes will sell out quckly, so get your trigger fingers ready!

RELATED LINKS

Coachella Official Website

Coachella – Front Gate Tickets – Weekend One

Coachella – Front Gate Tickets – Weekend Two

Are you planning to attend Coachella in 2013?  Which weekend? Let us know! Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to give us a shout. You can also stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android, iPhone or Ovi.

Full Flex Express Tour

This July, Skrillex, Diplo and Grimes will hit the road together for dates in Cananda. Pretty Lights, KOAN Sound and Tokimonsta will round out the tour. The Full Flex Express Tour takes its name after the Festival Express tour that featured The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and the Band, whom also toured Canada in the 1970s.

Bumbershoot Music & Arts Fest

Now in its 41st year, 2012′s Bumbershoot Festival promises to be the best ever with a lineup that is sure to impress both fans and newbies to the Seattle-based music and arts extravaganza alike.

This year, some of the greatest acts from the past, present, and perhaps the future will make an appearance. From famed dubstep maven Skrillex, to 1980s alt-rock sensation Jane’s Addiction, to even the legendary jazz crooner Tony Bennett–Bumbershoot’s got something for everyone to love this Labor Day weekend.

Get the line-up here!

Blink-182

Sad news for Blink-182 fans. The 1990s pop-punk sensation was slated to headline New Jersey’s annual Bamboozle Festival before drummer Travis Barker’s most unfortunate run in with a tonsillectomy. I guess even drummers need their vocals to be in tip top shape before performing in front of fans. Unfortunately, fans and newcomers to the band alike will need to wait a while to get their Blink fix–as in addition to Bamboozle, a majority of the band’s scheduled US tour dates have also been cancelled.

Get well, Travis!

Young the Giant

Whether it be such celebrated acts as Foster the People, Portugal the Man, or Young the Giant–there is definitely no shortage of up-and-coming indie pop/rock bands with names that follow the strangely popular formula of “(subject) the (object).” However, as it always should be, a band’s name always take a backseat to the quality of music it produces, and Young the Giant’s inspired take on the genre has catapulted the band to fame and stardom.

Although Young the Giant originated in sunny Irvine, California, the city of San Francisco holds some of its most die-hard fans. So it seems only natural that the band will be performing at the city’s annual Oysterfest being held this year in Golden Gate Park, and Young the Giant will be headlining on June 30th. If you’re a fan or even if you’re not quite sure yet, you owe it to yourself to check out this SoCal indie rock sensation.

André 3000 as Jimi Hendrix?

Although the iconic member of the dialectic hip-hop duo Outkast is certainly not the only hardcore Jimi Hendrix fan left in this world, he certainly wants to be the one to portray him in an upcoming biopic. André Benjamin is typically known as the more “progressive” aspect of the Outkast dyad–often incorporating elements of progressive and psychedelic rock into his act, in stark contrast to Antwan “Big Boi” Patton’s often heavy-handed hip-hop style. So it seems only natural that one of the proponents of Jimi Hendrix and his style of music in the hip-hop/rap medium would want to don the facade of the guitar god and portray him in an upcoming film about Hendrix’s life (without the support of Hendrix’s estate, however).

No matter how you look at it, with André 3000′s involvement, the film just got that much more interesting.

That’s it for this week’s “Best News Ever”–tune in next week, because you know the news just never stops!

RELATED LINKS

Full Flex Express Tour Official Website

Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival Official Website

Blink-182 Official Website

Young the Giant Official Website

Did we miss an announcement? Let us know! Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for updates on what we’re covering. You can stay on top of exciting events from around the world by downloading the eventseekr app for Android or iPhone.