Reich @ LPR

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Tonight’s the last chance to catch “NYC’s new music supergroup” SIGNAL performing You Are Variations and Music for 18 of Steve Reich @ LPR, my home away from home this past week. Last night was pretty magical, despite how long the set change took. There was one guy heckling about a sound issue before we began, and I admit he was really getting to me, but he was quiet once we started, and was actually one of the first up on his feet as soon as it was over. I’ve never performed a one hour piece of that intensity before, combine that level of concentration with literally hundreds of people standing or sitting on the floor, completely surrounding the ensemble, it was pretty freaking awesome. The music itself is not so much difficult, it’s just really taxing (there are three movements where I sing the same pitch for five minutes each, not hard, just EXHAUSTING) and, even scarier, it can unravel at the slightest waver in concentration. I worked my ass off on that piece. I can’t remember the last time I was left speechless after a performance, just emotionally, physically, mentally spent, and in desperate need of a beer, well several of them. I grabbed the one pic I could find on the web this morning for ya. So Percussion lays down a mean groove, and groove we do. My friend commented that it was the best performance of 18 he had seen yet, and that Europeans need to hear this type of Reich as their performances tend to be highly accurate but square. Plus, when you’re playing with 18 (technically 20) of your bad ass friends, it’s hard not to groove your ass off. My God, this group needs to tour!!

Tix are $25, I know, I know… And there are 27 of us playing You Are, so no comps, but come on, it’s Music for 18, how often do you get to see that live?? Steve Reich will be in attendance this evening, so come on out!!!

My Vag and I will NOT be makin’ Biscuits anytime soon…

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Elroy Riggs, esteemed op-ed writer for the Central Kentucky News Journal has unlocked the mystery of the rising divorce rate…. The Pillsbury Doughboy.

He harkens to a time when good little wifey’s rose early to make homemade biscuits for their husbands…. now the saddest sound in the world is the pop-pop-pop of the perforated can as “apathetic” women allow a plump doughboy to fulfill their wifely duties.

It is time, women of America, to come to your senses. Halt the alarming increase in the divorce rate. Bring the homemade biscuit back to your breakfast table. We can all work together. You make ’em, we’ll eat ’em. What could be more fair? I must insist on taking a hard line on this matter.

Fair? What could be more fair?? Hmmm.. how about Elroy making breakfast more frequently than Mother’s Day? That might be the inklings of the utter beginnings of fair. He then goes on to list several cookbooks he’s found that seem to have decent authentic biscuit recipes, and exclaims how inexpensive and relatively easy and quick they would be to assemble…. Only 12 minutes to bake!!

Who has 12 minutes to bake biscuits every morning? Maybe on Christmas morning, or your birthday if biscuits are your kind of thing, but every morning? Perhaps Elroy should try making them himself, and experience first hand the joys of cooking with yeast, which can be real finicky. My guess, Elroy’s wife (assuming he has one) has some very good reasons for not rising early to make the biscuits…

Growing up, the toaster was my best friend at breakfast time, and my sis and I packed our own lunches as soon as we were old enough (around 9 I think). This was mainly to give my Mom a break because my father to this day *can’t* fix anything for himself, so my she rises early and makes him breakfast, packs his lunch (usually leftovers in tupperware) and makes dinner when she gets home from work. I’ll say that again, when SHE gets home from work.

When I’m home, I cook dinner to make things run smoother for everyone, and because I LOVE cooking in Mom’s kitchen, (my vagina is agreeing with me as I type) but I would have clubbed my father over the head with a griddle a decade ago, and he knows it. He is one of many men out there who are still mystified by the kitchen. Elroy, I’m guessing, like my folks, is of the mindset that women keep the home, even if a large number of those women are also working…It’s just soooo outdated, even if it is somewhat cutesy.

You make ’em, we’ll eat ’em Mr. Riggs???? Dude, you want ’em, you make ’em!! Honestly, what could be more fair than that?

A Beatiful show indeed….

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Below is an excerpt from Jacob Cooper’s TimberBrit, recorded at the Tank in May of 2008, with the help of Ted Hearne, David Skidmore, Trevor Guereckis, James Moore and JJ Lind. Come check out a staged performance of it August 16th as part of the East River Music Project, in which I’ll also be performing in Matt Marks’ The Little Death…. that nihilistic post-Christian pop musical I’m always talking about. Very exciting times indeed….

Every time I talk about TimberBrit I feel an explanation is needed. What you are listening/viewing are time stretched samples from pop songs that have been re-orchestrated for rock band and superimposed with highly tragic lyrics. Stupid-titles, as I’ve always lovingly called them, are in this case very helpful!! A beautiful show/TimberBrit’s melodies are derived from the choruses of Brit’s Hit me baby,one more time, and The Killer’s Mr. Brightside. So follow that bouncing ball everyone!!

Autism Douchebaggery

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Radio personality Michael Savage stated this week that Autism is ‘a fraud, a racket. … I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”

I’d like to see Michael Savage transport a five year old autistic boy on the F train on Friday evening during rush hour, and see who’s screaming and crying like an idiot…. my guess, and from personal experience, it would be him. Asshole.

Full scoop here, and thanks to Gurf for the link.

El Salto

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While I was at Yale I participated in a project entitled El Salto, or The Leap. My co-collaborators and I chose pieces of music and literature which, when stripped from their original purposes and placed next to other forms of media resulted in a new experience for the listener.

For me, as a student of the Institute of Sacred Music, I was in constant contact with music, art, and writing which I found to be both beautiful and challenging, but I was not a firm believer in the Christian faith. I found as much aesthetic value in a Nick Drake song as I did with an aria from Bach’s St. John Passion. Finally, we were working on a non-churchy non-preachy venue for experiencing ‘new’ music in a completely new context.

Robin McClellan, fellow composer and collaborator has uploaded a video on El Salto. The video is not of the highest quality, but he gives a great explanation into the motivation behind this idea. We’re hoping to start it up again in the city, now that we’ve all left the ivy-league nest. I’ll be sure to keep you posted. (And the singing you hear is me, including a segment of my loop pedal performance of Bjork’s Desiring Constellation- which I STILL don’t have a decent recording of!!! And be sure to check out Robin’s El-Salto song at the end, inspired by Gaelic congretational Psalm singing.)

Yikes!!!!!

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Psssstt….. someone remind McCain that he voted AGAINST requiring insurance providers to cover birth control costs. You can see he’s kind of scratching his head there…didn’t I vote on that, wait,did I even attend that vote?…..Errrr