The Monday Night Ramble at Branded Saloon

This Monday I played a set at Branded Saloon in Prospect Heights which is hosting a weekly music series curated by Martin Urbach and Zach Brock. I played my beloved Yamaha organ and sampler with Jonathan Goldberger on baritone guitar and Ryan Ferreira on guitar. Jonathan and Ryan have such a great command of the sonic possibilities of the guitar and electronics and they achieved a pretty dizzying array of textures.

Unfortunately Ryan is cut out from most of this clip...



We were sharing a bill with trumpeter and composer Josh Deutsch's group Pannonia. It was a great band, really cool writing and interesting instrumentation with Brian Drye on trombone, Zach Brock on violin, Gary Wang on bass and Ronen Itzik on percussion.

A short clip before my camera battery died!

Abby Payne in the NYC Blog-o-Sphere

Before and during our Arlene's Grocery show in July, Abby was interviewed and filmed for the Lower East Side blog The Neighborhood. The resulting film was beautifully produced by Dig for Fire and is presented by Audyssey.
Abby is playing at Rockwood Music Hall on August 15th, and then we're heading upstate for a short tour. Check Abby's website for more details.

The Neighborhood + Dig For Fire present Abby Payne from Dig For Fire on Vimeo.

21st Century Rock and Roll Spectacle: Sufjan Stevens at Prospect Park

Last night I saw Sufjan Stevens perform at the Bandshell in Prospect Park as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn series. My mind was thoroughly blown. I was simply not prepared for the level of sensory stimulation at work in this concert. The large band (pairs of drummers, trombones, guitars, backup singers, dancers, keyboardists, flutists) were decked out in space-age neon garb and the stage props included giant angel wings worn by Sufjan.
Before I go on about the theatrical nature of the show, I should mention that the music was GREAT! They mostly played music from Sufjan's latest record, The Age of Adz, which is one of my favorite recent albums. The music is very epic with a futuristic electronic sound, and meticulously arranged.

Here's a trailer for the tour.

Sufjan Stevens Concert Trailer: Age of Adz / Prospect Park from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

The visual art element of the concert was very impressive. There was a lot of great video art synched up to the songs and much of it was breathtaking. I think Wagner would have approved, this was definitely a 21st century indie-rock equivalent of Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art, or synthesis of the arts. The show also reminded me of seeing the Flaming Lips for the first time, another group that makes very creative use of video art. Sufjan mentioned briefly that the album was inspired largely by the artist Royal Robertson, and the video art in the show incorporated a lot of his images. Here's a description of Robertson's work.

"The Age of Adz refers to the Apocalyptic art of Royal Robertson (1930 –1997), a black Louisiana-based sign-maker (and self-proclaimed prophet) who suffered from schizophrenia, and whose work depicts the artist’s vivid dreams and visions of space aliens, futuristic automobiles, eccentric monsters, and signs of the Last Judgment, all cloaked in a confusing psychobabble of biblical prophecy, numerology, Nordic mythology and comic book jargon. Portions of the album use Robertson’s work as a springboard into a cosmic consciousness in which basic instincts are transposed on a tableau of extraordinary scenes of divine wrath, environmental catastrophe, and personal loss. In Robertson’s imagination, guns, lasers, gargoyles, and warring battleships upend the sins of mankind with the pageantry of a Hollywood B-movie. (A selection of Robertson’s work adds extraordinary color to the album art as well). "

This is a video that Sufjan made using Robertson's art for the song "Get Real, Get Right."

Get Real, Get Right from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.

New NOOK album in the works!

This past weekend I spent two days recording with NOOK at Motherbrain Studio in Brooklyn. We're all very excited about the music and about the sounds we were able to get at this great studio. We were also very fortunate to have Jon Anderson working with us as engineer. Stay tuned for updates about the new album!

Here's a little documentary video collage.

Upcoming Recording Projects

The next few weeks are going to be a little intense, as I am embarking on two recording projects with bands that I've been playing with for a while.
NOOK will be recording our long-awaited 2nd album following our debut CD in 2008, Captain Momentum (Himself). Much has changed with the band since our last record. We have two new members, Jeremy Viner on saxophone and clarinet, and Ben Gallina on electric bass. The sound of the band has also evolved but needless to say, we still ROCK. Here's a live clip of one of our new songs.




And then Old Time Musketry is recording our debut album! We've been playing for about two years and we've amassed quite a bit of material. This recording is being funded by the generous and saintly people who contributed to our Kickstarter project back in June. We're very excited to document this music that we've been working on for so long!
We're also playing this Sunday at the Local 269 on Houston St. at 9pm.

Here's a live clip of a song we'll be recording.

The Two Of Anything Band and Niggenkemper/Takeishi/DiMeglio at I Beam

Here's some live clips from the aforementioned double bill at I Beam featuring the Two of Anything Band and DiMeglio/Niggenkemper/Takeishi.

This trio sounded great, playing compositions by each member of the group. There were some really nice 3-part chorale-type pieces with Satoshi Takeishi playing melodica. This was the first time I've ever seen Satoshi playing drum set, instead of his usual percussion set up.





You can see a few more Two of Anything clips here.

Kalashnikov : Jamie Saft and Mike Pride at Korzo

Until last Tuesday the only context I'd seen Jamie Saft in live was with John Zorn's Electric Masada, a large group that performs with Zorn conducting, leading the band through rapid stylistic changes like someone turning the dial on an FM radio.
It was great to see him playing acoustic piano in an intimate setting like Korzo, improvising with drummer Mike Pride. In addition to piano, Jamie played two Casio keyboards through effects and at very high volume. It was easily the loudest performance I'd seen at Korzo. Another notable feature of the performance was how Jamie kept a three note motif going for almost the entire set. It kept reappearing first in dramatic minor chords on the piano, later on the crazy Casio organ sounds, then again on the plucked strings of the piano. The music was also very grandiose and tonal, really reveling in the power and beauty of two chords and diatonic harmony. I always find this refreshing. The harmonic language of modern free improvisation and also in the compositions of improvisors is often too gray and atonal for my taste. It's nice to take a long bath in C major every now and then.
Here's a little clip, including the 3 note motif!