Bang on a Can is a collective of composers and musicians who, since 1987, have been writing and performing avantgard/experimental/new music. Their approach somehow speaks to a more “ordinary” and less “niche” audience and so, to some extent, they have succeeded in reaching larger audiences where others might have failed (or, depending on who you ask and where you stand, might have deliberately chosen to keep it a bit less accessible to filter out the casual listener from the really dedicated and interested followers).

The Bang on a Can marathon is a 12 hour concert (from noon to midnight) which takes place every year and presents pieces from a number of experimental music composers performed by musicians from anywhere around the world.

I’ve stayed for about 4 of the 12 hours and in that time caught Buke and Gass (a vocal+guitars duo with foot-operated tambourine and bass drum who played some interesting stuff and had a very powerful sound); german piano player Moritz Eggert (who played a few of his compositions based on falling fourths and fifths which were interesting in concept but at times felt a bit forced in their presentation); dutch performer Slagwerk Den Haag (four people writing and drawing with chalk on four amplified blackboards – see picture); Vernon Reid (who presented a piece based on the recordings of voices of some of the last people born in slavery – accompanied by Mazz Swift on violin and Leon Gruenbaum on Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeeee); Bang on a Can All-Stars themselves (performing a pretty powerful composition by Kate Moore – see picture); Mira Calix (doing some live laptop improvisation); Kyrgyzstan-based players (playing traditional pieces on traditional instruments); french upright bass player Florent Ghys (who performed a nice piece on his double bass playing along with two or three tracks of himself from a laptop and a video in sync with his playing – see picture); Burkina Electric (which consisted of three dancer/singers and a guitarist from Burkina Faso accompanied by two american composers/performers on electronics, mallets and drums; – the musical results were not always as interesting as the authentic dancing and singing); and finally the ensemble called “Signal” conducted by Brad Lubman who performed the BAM-commissioned piece “Shelter” in seven movements. Composed by the Bang on a Can founders Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, this piece reminded me at times of Glass, at times of JG Thirwell, at times of Zorn… I thought it lost some steam in the middle but I really enjoyed the last and the first two movements, especially the second one, my favorite; the piece featured a libretto sang by three great singers and some film projections by Bill Morrison and Laurie Olinder (for the video too, I thought the first and last movements were the most interesting).

Very interesting event all in all. I wonder how many people stayed for the whole thing, but it’s definitely an interesting event and it’s great that it is free, which further lowers the barrier of entry if you are trying to bring this music to the masses. I still prefer to see this kind of music in the quiet and dedicated confines of the Stone, but nevertheless I enjoyed it.

Yesterday night after Laurie Anderson’s record release party I had dinner with some friends and some new people, one of whom was this nice cool dude from Alaska who dresses like a rock star and has jokes and opinions about everything. Gabe (was his name) told me his band would perform the following midnight at the East Village rock’n'roll glamour striped-ceiling venue called Ella. The band (Dog Soldier) is a high energy quartet. They are kind of hard to describe but are a bit of a mixture of seveties rock, irish/british punk and metal. Gabe with his ripped shirt (at least while he actually had it on), low jeans, leather boots, blue eyes, thick beard and long blonde weavy hair looks like Zakk Wylde meets Chris Robinson and is a magnet for grabby groupies (most of the crowd tonight). His energetic stage presence and punk moshpit attitude reminded me of Iggy Pop but his voice is growly like Lemmy’s or Billy Gibbons’. Some of the band’s choirs sounded almost like the faster episodes of Type O Negative, but when they went all Irish on the crowd they echoed Dropkick Murphy’s… Other times thy sounded a bit like Big Elf or the Damned. Or was it just their looks? Who knows. What matters is I had planned to stay a few songs to check them out but ended up staying the whole show. They are a riot to watch! They have another gig next week at Roseland and then they are off for a few months on tour so catch them in town while you can.
I turned out to be an eventful night which included an industry party on a west side rooftop, a nice dinner and a movie, so adding a concert to top that all off made perfect sense to me, a real NYC night out! I love this town!

Thanks to my AES membership I’ve had the chance to take a tour of the factory that produces one of the most beautiful instruments around. Seeing how 12′000 parts come together over the course of 9 months to create a single grand piano was definitely a treat and was worth getting up at 7am and taking 4 trains. It was fascinating and amazing to see it all happen in real life and equally interesting were other facts, such as that the original founder created the US-based company at age 50 as a European immigrant; that he was illiterate and yet his son created one of the largest libraries in the US; that his grandson helped design the NYC subway system to help the workers get to the factory (now remotely located near La Guardia airport, but once spread around in Manhattan).

During the tour I was able to observe all the stages of the making of a piano, including the wood carving by Santos and the final inspection by Willy Boot (picture), who’ve been with the company for 31 and 48 years respectively.

The artistry and craftsmanship that goes in a Steinway piano are incredible and truly make it a work of art, which is why by the end of the tour it was pretty clear why at Steinway they refer to the mass-produced instruments of the competition as “piano shaped objects” ;-)

I strongly recommend taking a tour of the facilities when you get a chance. I believe the tours are free and take place once or twice a week.
Even if you are not the lucky owner of such a gorgeous instrument you are sure to appreciate the process.

Sad news for industry professionals came today when it was announced that the legendary Walter Sear passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting him briefly at AES in New York a few years ago but unfortunately I never had the chance to work at his beautiful facility.

In the news: Studio Legend Walter Sear Passes at 79

NYC is extraordinary and out of the ordinary.
Need further proof?
These are two things I randomnly run into today within minutes and within 14 blocks.
No idea what either of them try to accomplish and whose idea they were, but I think they qualify for an “only in NY” kinda moment. No?

Amazingly creative! I hadn’t walked down this block in a long time and was glad to see ABC No Rio was still around and making music (and art!). This bike is completely covered in yard and not just wrapped around but knitted around every part of the bike! Amazing!

Amazingly creative! I hadn’t walked down this block in a long time and was glad to see ABC No Rio was still around and making music (and art!). This bike is completely covered in yard and not just wrapped around but knitted around every part of the bike! Amazing!

After a few days in sunny LA for a benefit gig at the Red Cat with Laurie Anderson, I’m off to (hopefully) sunny Austin for 4 days of music and networking craziness and an interview on South By’s own SX Studio radio station.
It’s gonna be wild!

Unless you have lived under a rock for the past week you have heard about the terrible earthquake in Haiti and how it killed more than 200′000 people. The numbers are staggering and hard to comprehend. The poorest island of the Carribean sea, flattened beyond what I’m afriad we can’t even begins to comprehend.

The easiest and most immediate way for you to help is to text the word HAITI to the phone number 90999 and let’s hope that the Red Cross bureocracy won’t delay the arrival of this money to the people who need it the most!

My friend Bridget O’Neill has always been a comedian but as far as I know this was the first time she took the stage (the Moth at the Bitter End in NYC) for more people to appreciate her hilariousness… This is the PG rated version and it’s funny already, but I hear she’s got a rated R version that she performs privately for friends… I’ll have to ask her next time I see her.

P.S.: She’s funny and nutty alright, but did I mention she is single? I guess if you look like a firefighter and you think like an artsy person you stand a good chance with her ;-)