In a happy coincidence, during the year-long celebration of Cuneiform Records' 25th anniversary, one of the our very best friends and one of the Baltimore-Washington new music scene's VERY, very best friends, ORION SOUND STUDIOS, will be hosting three Cuneiform artists during the month of April!
ALL at
ORION SOUND STUDIOS 2903 WHITTINGTON AVENUE - BALTIMORE, MD. 21230
Saturday, April 4
G U T B U C K E T
Destroying walls between art-rock, avant-squonk, jazz-core and beyond, the decade-old New York quartet Gutbucket is not only equally comfortable playing in front of 900 sweatily pogo-ing teenage skate- punks, a crowd of cosmic indie-psych freaks, or on an anarchist German art collective’s house-boat, but most importantly, their music fits right in. Called “stomprovisors” by the Village Voice, the band has spent the past 10 years injecting a shot of exuberance into the minimalist cool of the New York downtown scene. The group attacks their music with the ferocity usually reserved for punk, and the humorous abstraction of art-rock, despite having earned their jazz bona fides. Founded by bassist Eric Rockwin, saxophonist Ken Thomson, guitarist Ty Citerman, and drummer Paul Chuffo, Gutbucket built their all-important live rep in New York clubs before spreading across east coast college towns. Trips to Europe soon followed, with over a dozen tours in 19 countries. “They think we're jazz over there,” Ty says of the trips. “We like to go there. We're art over there. I'm not sure what we are over here.” And then there are the master classes, in schools around the United States and Europe, where they teach everything from how to book a gig to 'what is a B- flat?' to the relationship between composition and improvisation.
Joined in 2007 by longtime friend Adam D Gold on drums following Chuffo's departure, Gold's musical voice was quickly deemed a necessity. A close friend, he's also good for van conversation. Which is good. Because there are miles to go before Gutbucket sleeps.
In mid January, Cuneiform Records released their fourth album, “A Modest Proposal". A Modest Proposal solidifies Gutbucket's place at the forefront of a revitalized avant-garde music scene in New York, where sparkling new venues pack in 20-somethings at Steve Reich gigs and Bang on a Can's all-night music marathons draw crowds for Stockhausen at Sunrise. In orbit around the venerable Bang on a Can collective--for whom Thomson composed “seasonal.disorder,” performed at their 2008 People's Commissioning Fund Concert-- Gutbucket's downtown pedigree is vast. Before their two discs on Bang on a Can's in-house Cantaloupe imprint, they made their 2001 debut on the Knitting Factory's house label. “Gutbucket continues to play with the frantic intensity of a punk band while exhibiting dazzling turn-on-dime chops." – JazzWeek
“A classic case of a band that defies categorization.” – The Washington Post
“...teeming with a certain benevolent mania, a clearly discernible sense of humor, considerable virtuosity, and not a little imagination...." – San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Like any self-respecting jazz-thrash-rock-latin-noise band from the dark underbelly of New York, Gutbucket have a peerless way.... There is something smart, sleek and assured about Gutbucket, and when they begin firing on all cylinders it makes for an exhilarating, intelligently performed racket." – The Guardian (UK)
Friday, April 17
B E A T C I R C U S (opening with be: Fern Knight)
Beat Circus (Boston MA) was formed in 2002 by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter. The first incarnation of the band incorporated instrumental circus music and group improvisation in the 2004 release of Ringleaders Revolt. In Summer 2006 Beat Circus began recording Dreamland, a radical shift in direction, the first part of Brian Carpenter's Weird American Gothic trilogy. Dreamland was released by Cuneiform Records in January, 2008.
In Summer 2007 Brian Carpenter debuted the third incarnation of Beat Circus in Boston and NYC with a new concept and sound to develop the second part of the Weird American Gothic trilogy, Boy From Black Mountain, personal songs about family and fatherhood in the tradition of Southern Gospel songwriters and Southern Gothic literature.
Brian Carpenter is a composer, singer/songwriter, multi- instrumentalist, and filmmaker who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has collaborated with many artists nationally and locally in music and film including trombonist Roswell Rudd, guitarist Marc Ribot, comic book writer Harvey Pekar, filmmaker Lorelei Pepi, and musician/multi-media artist Brian Dewan. His composition credits include a score for acclaimed animator Lorelei Pepi's film Happy and Gay and a song cycle about turn-of-the-century Coney Island entitled Dreamland. In addition to Beat Circus, Carpenter also leads the 9- piece Ghost Train Orchestra in Brooklyn.
The group has toured a number of times since the release of their Cuneiform album “Dreamland" and the band currently consists of:
Brian Carpenter - vocals, harmonica, accordion, harmonium, trumpet, musical direction Jordan Voelker - viola, vocals Paran Amirinazari - violin, vocals Andrew Stern - electric guitar, tenor banjo Paul Dilley - double bass, acoustic guitar Gavin McCarthy - drums Ron Caswell - tuba Doug LaRosa - trombone
As anyone who has seen them can attest, their performances are not only a great concert featuring a unique mixture of instruments and styles, but it's a crazy and wild show.
“Beat Circus has created a singular intriguing sonic identity by filtering certain bizarre old-time American and European pre-jazz styles through a progressive contemporary fearlessness" -- Weekly Planet
“Their narrative songs evoke cabaret, Wild West saloons, circus sideshows, and Old World gypsies...but the prodigious musicianship and stylistic miscegenation is all modern; the results, refreshingly entertaining." -- All About Jazz
“A fantasy locale of carnival nostalgia and Victrola nightmares..." -- Philadelphia City Paper
“Beat Circus could be the house band for the dark carnival in Ray Bradbury's “Something Wicked This Way Comes", the accompaniment to some faded old black-and-white cartoon..." -- Creative Loafing
Sunday, April 26
C H E E R – A C C I D E N T
Chicago's Cheer Accident have been at the edge for over 20 years now and have an impressive track record of great music. They constantly strive to surprise their audience and themselves with constant reinvention. Their debut Cuneiform album, “Fear Draws Misfortune" is their 16th and arguably their best release and their album which strives the furthest towards a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio techniques and the excitement of a visceral, live, well-honed rock band. It is a strongly compelling and high-reaching album that uses a wide variety of ideas, styles and studio techniques, resulting in a cohesive and ambitious album of art-rock. Fear Draws Misfortune reveals a fortuitous intersection between Cuneiform and Cheer-Accident, both of whom have long admired the other and both of whom finally decided to do something about it! This long overdue marriage, which neatly coincides with a timely (and quite lengthy) cover-feature article in December 2008's Signal To Noise magazine, promises to hurl Cheer-Accident into wider recognition. “ I could easily fill a page talking about any given minute of this album, but suffice it to say that if you’ve ever loved Magma’s apocalypticisms, Neu!’s ghosts in the machine, or Beefheart’s Dada boogie—or at least dreamed of watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir fall down a very long flight of stairs—it might be for you." — Monica Kendrick/Chicago Reader
“...[Cheer-Accident] meld difficult, angular rock with absurdist lunacy in intentionally disturbing ways that are just brilliant." – Alternative Press
“There are few ensembles that can make noise sound both as mysterious and as strangely inviting as Cheer-Accident." – Delusions of Adequacy
“If, in twelve months time, this isn't in the Organ's top three of our 100 best albums of 2009, then we'll be looking back at a pretty extraordinary year." - The Organ
Driving Directions:
I95 to exit 50A, Caton Ave South. Take Caton Ave south to the third traffic signal and turn left onto Washington Blvd. Take Washington Blvd. about 1/4 mile until you see a big “U-Haul" sign, on your right. Turn just before the sign onto Inverness Ave. Take Inverness to its end and turn left onto Whittington Ave. Take Whittington to its end and turn right, into our lot. Enter through door “B" in the building on your right as you enter the lot.
ALL at
ORION SOUND STUDIOS 2903 WHITTINGTON AVENUE - BALTIMORE, MD. 21230
Saturday, April 4
G U T B U C K E T
Destroying walls between art-rock, avant-squonk, jazz-core and beyond, the decade-old New York quartet Gutbucket is not only equally comfortable playing in front of 900 sweatily pogo-ing teenage skate- punks, a crowd of cosmic indie-psych freaks, or on an anarchist German art collective’s house-boat, but most importantly, their music fits right in. Called “stomprovisors” by the Village Voice, the band has spent the past 10 years injecting a shot of exuberance into the minimalist cool of the New York downtown scene. The group attacks their music with the ferocity usually reserved for punk, and the humorous abstraction of art-rock, despite having earned their jazz bona fides. Founded by bassist Eric Rockwin, saxophonist Ken Thomson, guitarist Ty Citerman, and drummer Paul Chuffo, Gutbucket built their all-important live rep in New York clubs before spreading across east coast college towns. Trips to Europe soon followed, with over a dozen tours in 19 countries. “They think we're jazz over there,” Ty says of the trips. “We like to go there. We're art over there. I'm not sure what we are over here.” And then there are the master classes, in schools around the United States and Europe, where they teach everything from how to book a gig to 'what is a B- flat?' to the relationship between composition and improvisation.
Joined in 2007 by longtime friend Adam D Gold on drums following Chuffo's departure, Gold's musical voice was quickly deemed a necessity. A close friend, he's also good for van conversation. Which is good. Because there are miles to go before Gutbucket sleeps.
In mid January, Cuneiform Records released their fourth album, “A Modest Proposal". A Modest Proposal solidifies Gutbucket's place at the forefront of a revitalized avant-garde music scene in New York, where sparkling new venues pack in 20-somethings at Steve Reich gigs and Bang on a Can's all-night music marathons draw crowds for Stockhausen at Sunrise. In orbit around the venerable Bang on a Can collective--for whom Thomson composed “seasonal.disorder,” performed at their 2008 People's Commissioning Fund Concert-- Gutbucket's downtown pedigree is vast. Before their two discs on Bang on a Can's in-house Cantaloupe imprint, they made their 2001 debut on the Knitting Factory's house label. “Gutbucket continues to play with the frantic intensity of a punk band while exhibiting dazzling turn-on-dime chops." – JazzWeek
“A classic case of a band that defies categorization.” – The Washington Post
“...teeming with a certain benevolent mania, a clearly discernible sense of humor, considerable virtuosity, and not a little imagination...." – San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Like any self-respecting jazz-thrash-rock-latin-noise band from the dark underbelly of New York, Gutbucket have a peerless way.... There is something smart, sleek and assured about Gutbucket, and when they begin firing on all cylinders it makes for an exhilarating, intelligently performed racket." – The Guardian (UK)
Friday, April 17
B E A T C I R C U S (opening with be: Fern Knight)
Beat Circus (Boston MA) was formed in 2002 by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter. The first incarnation of the band incorporated instrumental circus music and group improvisation in the 2004 release of Ringleaders Revolt. In Summer 2006 Beat Circus began recording Dreamland, a radical shift in direction, the first part of Brian Carpenter's Weird American Gothic trilogy. Dreamland was released by Cuneiform Records in January, 2008.
In Summer 2007 Brian Carpenter debuted the third incarnation of Beat Circus in Boston and NYC with a new concept and sound to develop the second part of the Weird American Gothic trilogy, Boy From Black Mountain, personal songs about family and fatherhood in the tradition of Southern Gospel songwriters and Southern Gothic literature.
Brian Carpenter is a composer, singer/songwriter, multi- instrumentalist, and filmmaker who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has collaborated with many artists nationally and locally in music and film including trombonist Roswell Rudd, guitarist Marc Ribot, comic book writer Harvey Pekar, filmmaker Lorelei Pepi, and musician/multi-media artist Brian Dewan. His composition credits include a score for acclaimed animator Lorelei Pepi's film Happy and Gay and a song cycle about turn-of-the-century Coney Island entitled Dreamland. In addition to Beat Circus, Carpenter also leads the 9- piece Ghost Train Orchestra in Brooklyn.
The group has toured a number of times since the release of their Cuneiform album “Dreamland" and the band currently consists of:
Brian Carpenter - vocals, harmonica, accordion, harmonium, trumpet, musical direction Jordan Voelker - viola, vocals Paran Amirinazari - violin, vocals Andrew Stern - electric guitar, tenor banjo Paul Dilley - double bass, acoustic guitar Gavin McCarthy - drums Ron Caswell - tuba Doug LaRosa - trombone
As anyone who has seen them can attest, their performances are not only a great concert featuring a unique mixture of instruments and styles, but it's a crazy and wild show.
“Beat Circus has created a singular intriguing sonic identity by filtering certain bizarre old-time American and European pre-jazz styles through a progressive contemporary fearlessness" -- Weekly Planet
“Their narrative songs evoke cabaret, Wild West saloons, circus sideshows, and Old World gypsies...but the prodigious musicianship and stylistic miscegenation is all modern; the results, refreshingly entertaining." -- All About Jazz
“A fantasy locale of carnival nostalgia and Victrola nightmares..." -- Philadelphia City Paper
“Beat Circus could be the house band for the dark carnival in Ray Bradbury's “Something Wicked This Way Comes", the accompaniment to some faded old black-and-white cartoon..." -- Creative Loafing
Sunday, April 26
C H E E R – A C C I D E N T
Chicago's Cheer Accident have been at the edge for over 20 years now and have an impressive track record of great music. They constantly strive to surprise their audience and themselves with constant reinvention. Their debut Cuneiform album, “Fear Draws Misfortune" is their 16th and arguably their best release and their album which strives the furthest towards a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio techniques and the excitement of a visceral, live, well-honed rock band. It is a strongly compelling and high-reaching album that uses a wide variety of ideas, styles and studio techniques, resulting in a cohesive and ambitious album of art-rock. Fear Draws Misfortune reveals a fortuitous intersection between Cuneiform and Cheer-Accident, both of whom have long admired the other and both of whom finally decided to do something about it! This long overdue marriage, which neatly coincides with a timely (and quite lengthy) cover-feature article in December 2008's Signal To Noise magazine, promises to hurl Cheer-Accident into wider recognition. “ I could easily fill a page talking about any given minute of this album, but suffice it to say that if you’ve ever loved Magma’s apocalypticisms, Neu!’s ghosts in the machine, or Beefheart’s Dada boogie—or at least dreamed of watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir fall down a very long flight of stairs—it might be for you." — Monica Kendrick/Chicago Reader
“...[Cheer-Accident] meld difficult, angular rock with absurdist lunacy in intentionally disturbing ways that are just brilliant." – Alternative Press
“There are few ensembles that can make noise sound both as mysterious and as strangely inviting as Cheer-Accident." – Delusions of Adequacy
“If, in twelve months time, this isn't in the Organ's top three of our 100 best albums of 2009, then we'll be looking back at a pretty extraordinary year." - The Organ
Driving Directions:
I95 to exit 50A, Caton Ave South. Take Caton Ave south to the third traffic signal and turn left onto Washington Blvd. Take Washington Blvd. about 1/4 mile until you see a big “U-Haul" sign, on your right. Turn just before the sign onto Inverness Ave. Take Inverness to its end and turn left onto Whittington Ave. Take Whittington to its end and turn right, into our lot. Enter through door “B" in the building on your right as you enter the lot.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
