R.I.P. Enemy

Enemy was a fantastic venue in Chicago. In fact, it is one of my favorite venues that I have encountered during my travels. Here is an article discussing the death of Enemy after its 7 year run of setting up great performances of experimental music. As the article notes, Mike Shiflet, Jesse Kudler, and I played their inaugural show in 2005. Also at that show, LSDuo and Jason Soliday played. It happened that we performed in the un-air-conditioned space on one of the hottest days of that Summer. I played an un-amplified set huddled over on the floor. Sweat was dripping off of me to such a degree that I clearly remember sliding around in a puddle on the wooden floor while playing. After the show, Shiflet and I slept out on the roof. We were at eye level with the train tracks, rolling around in the dirty, black, roofing all night as the train passed periodically, waking us. At least it was cooler than sleeping inside. It was a terrible night's sleep, but an awesome and weird memory. Shortly after that night, the access to the roof was closed off for safety reasons.

I played there a number of other times over the next few years: with KBD, Soliday, Olivia Block, Adam Strohm, Startless (my Duo with Blake Edwards), and a number of others. Most recently, Shiflet and I drove out to play a fest that soliday set up this past Spring.

Chicago will miss Enemy I am sure. The rest of us will miss the familiarity of stopping there on the road. I feel fortunate to have been given the opportunity to spend so much time at this beautiful venue.

Thanks, Jason, for the good times.

I expect to be rich any day now.

Noise Park on Boing Boing

Woah!

This is a fantastic review of the new Shiflet LPs. "There is no overt passion of any sort in Shiflet’s extreme close-ups of harsh textures, no drama in the churning, processed strings, no sentiment in the long pans over softer-textured aural surfaces, just as there is no emotion in the beautifully rendered close-ups of somebody’s palms on the front and back sleeves." Awesome!

Riso Print Gocco

Mega bummer. I had a project idea for the Summer that requires me to break out my Riso Print Gocco.

If you are unfamiliar, it is a small and simple home screen printing kit. A friend once described it as the Easy Bake Oven of screen printing. I first learned about it from Twig Harper of Nautical Alminac who used it to print tape covers. I got one in college and used it to make arm bands, t-shirts, art, and tape covers. A few years ago, I used it to make the invitations for my wedding. It is a great tool with a lot of possible applications.

With this Summer project in mind, I checked my supplies a few weeks ago to find that I am out of bulbs and screens. The bulbs are single-use flash bulbs that expose the screens, burning the image into them. I finally got around to checking the internet today to see about ordering some supplies. To my horror, the company has discontinued all of the Gocco supplies. They sent out the last of the supplies to retailers in 2009: the year I made our wedding invitations.

Crazy!

Anyway, here is some info on the Print Gocco as well as resources for people who are attempting to keep it alive.

Pitchfork Review

Here is a new review of Shiflet's new records on Type. I am honored to have been a part of these releases.

New Startless Reviews

The new Vital Weekly features reviews of the two new Startless releases.

Overall, Frans doesn't seem to like them that much, but does refer to them as "intelligent noise matter." I appreciate the sentiment. Given that he doesn't completely bash them, I think that his evaluation is based on personal taste rather than anything else. So, I will take the criticism with a grain of salt. He knows what he likes and he doesn't like it when music moves into more harsh or chaotic territory.

Noise Park

Ok, I have finally "made it." Check out this Noise Park Blog.