lawrence_kumpf (Curator)

We had a great show last night with Lary 7 and Eran Sachs.  Eran opened up with a solo set followed by Lary and then followed by a duo.  The excerpt below is from Lary's set dedicated to the late Les Paul.  The performance was run through our multi-channel speaker system designed by Stephan Moore.  Truely killer set.

James Toth aka Wooden Wand aka Wand recently released a super-limited LP of early material titled Born Bad, check out a few tracks here.

ISSUE had a great show with him and Michael Gira (who will be putting out Wand's next album on Young God) last weekend out in our courtyard.

Look for more upcoming courtyard shows in the future, including Jandek on Septmeber 6th with the amazing Susan Alcorn and Ryan Sawyer.

Here’s a couple samples from the Exact Change 20th Anniversary Celebration ISSUE hosted last month.  Performers included Joan La Barbara, Loren Connors, Alan Licht, Till by Turning, Alex Waterman, Barbara Epler, James Hoff and Kenneth Goldsmith responding to and reading the work of Joseph Cornell, Franz Kafka, Morton Feldman, Stefan Thermerson, Leonora Carrington, Unica Zurn and John Cage. 

Exact Change publishes books of experimental literature with an emphasis on Surrealism, Dada, Pataphysics, and other nineteenth and twentieth century avant-garde art movements.

The press was founded in 1989 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, known outside publishing as musicians from the bands Damon & Naomi, and Galaxie 500.

Exact Change authors include Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Antonin Artaud, John Cage, Leonora Carrington, Giorgio de Chirico, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dalí, Morton Feldman, Alice James, Alfred Jarry, Franz Kafka, Lautréamont, Chris Marker, Gérard de Nerval, Fernando Pessoa, Raymond Roussel, Philippe Soupault, Gertrude Stein, Stefan Themerson, Denton Welch, and Unica Zürn.

Many Exact Change titles were originally published by larger houses, especially in the 1960s, but had more recently been left out of print; some were previously published in the U.K. but not in North America; others are new publications initiated by Exact Change. But in all cases these are books that we believe should be kept available always. We think of our list as a looking-glass version of the Penguin Classics or the Library of America, drawn from works that are equally important but have in general been neglected in the U.S.

Thanks to Damon and Naomi for helping to put together this event!

ISSUE Project Room presents an afternoon with Michael Gira (Swans/ Angels of Light) and Wooden Wand on July 25th at 6PM in the Can Factory Court Yard.  Tickets 15$. After the show Rooftop Films will present Stars Like Fleas and Screen Stay the Same Never Change.  Buy tickets together for 20$ at: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/7426375

Michael Gira founded the seminal NYC band Swans in 1982. Quickly infamous for their punishing, brutal and repetitive onslaughts of sound, extreme volume levels, and the self-abusing, abject shouts and growls of Gira’s sloganeering vocals, Swans gradually transformed over 15 years, ultimately venturing into harsh mechanical proto-industrial rock, to sprawling shifts of texture and perspective  (see the bucolic atmospheric folk idles and martial stomps of their much heralded Children of God double LP from 1987), to gentle acoustic-based songs, and finally on to their ultimate statement, Soundtracks For The Blind (1997) which somehow incorporated all of these elements at once, across well over 2 hours of music in one album. At this point, Gira called it quits after 15 years of relentless touring and productivity, and disbanded Swans. Since 1999 Gira has released his music under the name Angels Of Light. He writes the songs for Angels Of Light on acoustic guitar and orchestrates them using a shifting cadre of musicians, employing a wide variety of instrumentation such as strings, wind, brass, electric guitars, electronics and choral vocals. The songs are often eccentric and extreme, in keeping with Gira’s love of soundtrack music. Though nominally more traditional than Swans, Angels Of Light is often just as hard hitting through different means. The most recent album by Angels Of Light is We Are Him. Though Angels Of Light recordings are often elaborately orchestrated, Gira has recently chosen to tour exclusively solo, using acoustic guitar and voice. The performances are raw, to the point, and emotionally powerful. When not recording, writing music, or touring, Gira spends his time producing and releasing music through his label Young God Records. He’s been responsible of late for such notable talents as Devendra Banhart, Lisa Germano, Akron/Family, Fire On Fire, and most recently, Larkin Grimm. In early 2009 Young God released the YGR debut by the acclaimed composer/guitarist James Blackshaw.

NNCK has played an important role in the New York (and international) music scene for the last 15 years.  Defining new territories of practice not only as a band but also offering a collective space for fostering relationships with a wide variety of musicians from Mike Cooper to John Fahey, NNCK has created a system of collaboration and improvisation that extends beyond the performance.

Fortunately we were able to save a couple snippets of audio after Keith Connolly’s hair dryer blew out the power from the last NNCK show at ISSUE.  Enjoy.

And check out some more recordings from NNCK:

CLOMEIM (Locust Music)

And the Soundtrack to the new film documenting the early years of NNCK, ‘At 6am We Become The Police’ (Locust Music)

The new film screens at Anthology Film Archives on November 1st (More Info)

Last week ISSUE hosted Rob Millis and Jeffery Taylor collectively known as Climax Golden Twins. Climax Golden Twins is a Seattle, WA based experimental collage outfit originally consisting of Rob Millis and Jeffery Taylor, then picking up Scott Colburn in 1996 (not included on this posting). The group’s earliest material was recorded in 1993 but wasn’t released until their 1996 album Imperial Household Orchestra. In 1994 they started Fire Breathing Turtle to distribute their work along with audio exotica, especially their ongoing “Victrola Favorites,” complations of rare 78s from around the world. With numerous tapes, CDRs, mini-CDs, singles, side and solo projects, audiophile records and other aural collectables, being a CGT fan is no simple, or inexpensive, task.

In addition to an amazing performance Rob also screen some Sublime Frequencies films: Indian at 78, My Friend Rain and Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan. Both projects, CGT and Rob’s films, offer a new approach to the field of ethnomusicology one which squarely roots the subject within the practice of observation.  During Phi Ta Khon, a film documenting a three-day party in Isan, Thailand, you often see the hand of the cameraman reaching around from behind the camera for shots of rice whiskey as well as festival-goers engaging directly with the camera.  Much like the CGT project, which gains its sound from a wide array of musical traditions and then uses college to reorder them, Rob’s films refuse an objective documentary approach.