Friday, 22 Aug


Non Sequitur 2008 happened last week, with the theme “Rejection: a series of slips and falls,” bringing five composers and five poets together to pair up and turn rejection into art.  Presented by ComposersCollaborative, inc. and The Flea Theater, and performed by the avant-garde and amplified ensemble Newspeak, the program for this year’s event was a collection of edgy and divergent works. 

Bookended by compositions from Sima Wolf, both of which drew aesthetically from jazz, the concert started off with “The Key,” whose bellicose music accompanied Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s rally-cry spoken word.  Wolf’s second piece and the concert’s finisher, “What Remains,” sultrily accompanied poet Regie Cabico’s “make you want to buy a stiff drink” brooding.  Jed Distler’s music for poet Cheryl Burke’s spoken word in “The First Two” matched the mix of gravity and humor in the poem, using a decidedly retro synth patch on the keyboard to help set the scene in the recent past.  “Let Us Sample Protection Together,” by composer David First and poet Anselm Berrigan, found female vocalist Melissa Hughes alone onstage with a pulsing and swooping electronic track, and correspondingly vivid lighting design, to accompany her.   

Chaotic and disquieting, “Morning Branch” by composer Kate Soper and poet Bakar Wilson followed, with Hughes joined by the rest of the ensemble in convulsive mutterings and outbursts as portions of Wilson’s own recorded reading of his poem boomed through the speakers at key moments in the music.  The fifth piece on the program, “In E,” involved not only Newspeak, but also four readers, who spoke Douglas A. Martin’s poem mostly simultaneously but at different intervals as Jennifer Griffith’s aloof but sensual music acted as sometime accompaniment, sometime interlude.

Rejection, accepted. 

Wednesday, 20 Aug


Sexy and infectious, the music of Brooklyn-based duo Comandante Zero injected life into a plush but sleepy Crash Mansion on Wednesday evening.  Their music, generally described as a blend of electronica and funk, transcended these genre-boundaries---there was more to their songs than the words electronica or funk generally connote.  The lead singer, whose low and paroxysmic voice sounds like a mix of Ian Curtis and David Bowie, brought to the sound a touch of post-punk, while his five-string bass playing provided the expertly executed funk/disco bass line.  The drummer, who brought to the sound the precise and extremely danceable beats of electronica, also controlled a synth trigger pad that filled out the sound in such a way that meant the subtle difference between standard electronica club-filler, and indie-electro along the lines of Junior Boys.  Check out Comandante Zero, with live artist 0h10M1ke (who also joined the band at Crash Mansion) and dancers at Monkeytown this Wednesday, August 27th. 

Sunday,
17 Aug







The graffiti-covered stone walls of Alphabeta reverberated with the intense sonic wall that is the music of Extra Life on Sunday night.  Performing as a duo in a pared down version of the band, the guitarist/singer (who played part of the set on a baritone guitar) and the violinist used a variety of pedals to create a wash of sound out of which emerged a style of music that hit the ears as emo-minimalist (to quote a friend) medieval-metal.  The audience stood remarkably still, quietly attentive to the nuances in the music as the sound hit them like a brick wall.  The set was not without its quieter, tender moments, as in the song “Black Hoodie,” where the singer’s Morrissey-esque voice shined out particularly clearly.  For loud and recondite music, look no further than Extra Life.    

Friday, 15 August


Depression was given an official soundtrack Friday night at Rose Theater with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s staged work La Passion de Simone, which tells the story of the inner torment of a woman, mourning the tragic life and early death of philosopher/activist/mystic Simone Weil.  The staging of the piece played an integral part in communicating both biographical narrative and psychological turmoil: a solo soprano as tormented narrator, sitting alone in a small room and reading Weil’s notebook; a male dancer as the shadow of Simone and sometime companion to the narrator; a disembodied female voice heard through speakers quoting from Weil’s writings and thereby speaking as Simone herself; a choir, singing from above the orchestra in a balcony, echoing statements from both the narrator and the disembodied voice.  The orchestra’s role was to move in a series of sound-gestures, communicating musically the inner thoughts and emotions of the narrator, at times intensely loud and violent, at others quiet and moribund.  All in all, a beautiful downer.

From Rose Theater to Bed-Stuy, to see the two core members of The Debutante Hour give a private show.  With a playful demeanor and dulcet voices, the two delighted their audience with a set of originals (“Hammer Hatchet Chainsaw” is particularly catchy) and a couple covers (including “Be My Baby” and “Just What I Needed”), all played on accordion and mini drum-kit.  The blend of polka instrumentation, girl-group harmonizing, and the overall originality characteristic of the indie-aesthetic, makes for oddly charming music.  Check out The Debutante Hour at Freddy’s in Brooklyn August 23rd.

Saturday, 9 Aug


Brooklyn-based Nutria N.N. brought their moody brand of Chilean indie-folk/rock to Pete’s Candy Store on Saturday night.  Fans and strangers alike crammed into the small Williamsburg venue to witness the fairly impressive live recreation of meticulously orchestrated songs.  The mix of acoustic (guitar, violin, field drum) and electric (synth, bass) instruments made for a genre-bending sound, the prevalence of pretty melodic lines and retro synth patches pushing indie. 

Pensive and dark, the music inspired contemplative silence from the audience for most of the set, though an enthusiastic and boisterous round of “otra” was given after the final song.  The first half of the set centered on the singer (who’s also the songwriter) and his acoustic guitar---like the breathy and ethereal “Una Mas, No Mas”---while the last half featured songs with a fuller sound and faster tempos.  The bluesy “Tristeza de Lota” was one of these, whose abrasive harmonica loop gave the song a raw feeling.  By contrast, the song before “Tristeza” employed the high vocals and steadily building-in-energy piano line characteristic of Sigur Rós.  Differences in style like these notwithstanding, the singer’s clear voice and the attractive wonted harmonic language nicely unified the overall sound of the set.

Check out Nutria N.N.’s music at www.myspace.com/nutriamusical  

Saturday, 2 August


The Mercury Lounge played host to an eclectic collection of bands on Saturday night.  It all started with North Carolina’s The Never, an earnest threesome with delicate and charming indie-rock songs crafted to show off their multi-instrumental talents.  Deleted Scenes (who claim both D.C. and Brooklyn as home) were up next, with a harder, rawer sound that came across as an odd and compelling mix of Pink Floyd and Do Make Say Think.     

Most odd and compelling of all, however, were NYC’s The Childballads, in their Cheekbone Hollows configuration (guitar/organ/drums).  The music was blues and rock-based, appropriately and effectively presented with maudlin ingenuousness on Saturday night.  The stage presence of the lead singer (no stranger to the NYC indie scene), and his banter with the organist/back-up singer bordered on theatrical, he presenting her with flowers in what came across as drunken flirtation, she humoring him in a benevolent manner and, at one point, asking him politely not to curse when he spoke to her.  The attractive combination of his throaty and her smoky voice managed to captivate an audience otherwise uncertain what to think of (and perhaps a little frightened by) the self-deprecating and glib-seeming front-man.