give me slack or kill me

Yea, my loyal aggregate of visionaries and vagrants,
We approach another weekly equinox wherein joyous noise will accompany a sacrifice of good, decent, common sense. But before I prophesy what conflagrations of entities will accompany myselves for the coming month at the weekly Bickett seance, I will beseech you to attend other events to which I contribute some paltry and insignificant part of a much greater whole.

Such as –
Tonight, Tuesday Aug 31, Nightlight: Mowing Lawns with Ruscha and God Among Men.
The Lawns will be playing last, I’m told. It’s Mike Meyerson and Todd Emmert as a song-writing duo much in the vein of Gilbert & Sullivan, only more post-punk with a touch of Tom Petty. They are augmented by Ryan Martin on electronoise, Clarque Blomquist on drums and me on horns and maybe a little slide guitar.

Saturday, September 4, Nightlight: Cold Sides with Strange and DJ Mothersbrothers.
Cold Sides currently consists of Robert Biggers, Ezekiel Graves, Neill Prewitt and myself. There’s a rumor that this might be one of their last shows for a while.

And now on to the Bickett pronouncements –

Sept 1: Doktors for Brain Powder
Brainwracking gno-core to the hilt.
We’ve added Will Evans to the line up on electric bass. He’s from Umbilical Cord Necktie and Witchcraft By A Picture and Black Castle.
Also performing is Anne Gomez, tenor sax (from Cantwell Gomez and Jordan — cantwellgomezandjordan.com — and Special Agents of Her Majesty’s Secret Cervix and Hotel Motel and Slugworth and lots of other great bands).
As if that weren’t enough we got Dave Cantwell on guitar (another third of CGJ and former member of Razzle, Cold Sides, Analogue and 33 other bands).
And of course Scotty Irving on skins. Who you know from Clang Quartet — sibermedia.com/clangquartet/ — and Bunker and Geezer Lake and stuff.
And I’ll probably join in too on horns and guitar.

Sept 8: Razor Wire Safety Net + Clark Aflague
Clark will be bringing sax and effects to the table. The Wire Safety Net is, as always, Christopher Thurston on basses, Brian Donohoe on drums, me on other junk.

Sept 15: Done With Judgment
This’ll be Rick Lassiter on double bass, Nick Whitley on probably mostly drums, Daniel Vaughn on guitar and keys and myselves on horns and prob’ly guitar.

And so it be thus I spake unto ye. For now and never. Bob bless all you folks.

Robert Chandler Pence
Regional District Managing Consultant Assistant to Religious Programming
Retroactive Dynamics, Inc. (an affiliate of the Thomas Carlyle Group)
“Soul savings that you wouldn’t believe.”

the indomitable wednesday witness

Glory be, brothers and sisters.
Come and hear testimony at the Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting every week at Bickett Gallery. Spreading the good word of electrical soul scuttling. Feel the nervous rays of the upper and lower god spread through your pore-palpitant vessel.

First, non-Bickett-Wednesday events:

Thursday, Aug 26, Bickett Gallery: Kolyma and Phon
Kolyma is a soul-destroying rock and roll outfit. This will be our debut after months of practice. It’s Russ DeSena on bass/vox, Jennifer Thomas on vox/percuss, Mike Eisenberg on drums and Crowmeat Bob on guitar/sax/vox. Mike’s the primary composer, but we all contribute.
Phon is sort of like hearing the sound of your own nervous system in an isolation tank. It’s Drew Robertson and Dustin Dorsey on guitars — sometimes they have a guest or two.

Tuesday, Aug 31, Nightlight: Mowing Lawns
This is songwriting duo Todd Emmert and Mike Meyerson on guitar and vokes, augmented by Ryan Martin on electro-freakishness and Motecraw Bob on freakophones. Sort of punk folk free jazz noise.

Now the Wednesday stuff, all at Bickett:

Aug 25: Ian Davis, Jason Bivins, Crawmote Bob
That’d be Ian on percolution; Jason on skittar; Crawmote on sussurophones and maybe some skittar.
This will be hypermolecular improv, lots of tiny sounds and probably few straightforward rhythms — but you can still dance to it if you’re not a total square.

Sept 1: Brain Powder
Anne Gomez of Cantwell, Gomez and Jordan (cantwellgomezandjordan.com) and Special Agents of Her Majesty’s Secret Cervix will be on tenor sax, maybe some electric bass too, who knows. Dave Cantwell of Cantwell, Gomez and Jordan and Analogue and Cold Sides and Razzle will be on guitar. Scotty Irving of Clang Quartet (http://www.silbermedia.com/clangquartet/) and Geezer Lake and Bunker will be on drums. I will be on horns and guitar and maybe even some bass.
This will hopefully be like broken punk jazz. Dance at your own risk.

Sept 8: Razor Wire Safety Net + Clark Aflague
As always, the Net is Brian Donohoe on drums and Christopher Thurston on basses. Clark will bring his tenor sax and effects pedals. Yours duly will be on horns and guitar.

Sept 15: Done with Judgment
Nick Whitley and Danny Vaughn of Mothlight (http://futurock.com/mothlight.php) and Nicky Band (http://futurock.com/nicky.php#) will be playing probably drums and keys/electronoise/guitar, respectively. Rick Lassiter (http://www.ricklassiter.com/) will play double bass. Ventriquolizor Obb will play horns and guitar.

See you there.

—Venquilotizor DL
Regional Nomad-in-the-Field
Retroactive Dynamics, Inc. (an affiliate of the Thomas Carlyle Group)
“Building you a better yesterday.”

hive hoedown

Right.
Here’s the skinny.
I’m including non-Bickett-Wednesday shows in among the dates, so pay attention.

August 18, Bickett: Razor Wire Safety Net + Jay Winfrey
Jay will be doing some throat singing and beat poetry and other mind-spifflicating stuff. You remember Jay as the former mayor of Raleigh. RWSN is of course Brian Donohoe, Christopher Thurston and Slew-Mo Elbo.

August 21, Martin St (Saturday): Odd International Show Band (opening for Oedipus Dick)
Odd is sort of a funkyass party band, but I try to make as much ridiculous noise as I can with it. That’s C Thurston on bass, Parish Anderson on alto sax, DJ Krazerock on vinyl and samples, Eric Broadway on drumset, Q Jones on congas and Crawmutt Bob on guitar, alto sax, trombone.

August 25, Bickett: Jason Bivins, Ian Davis & Cratemow Obb
Ian on percolussion, Bivo on skittar, Obb on sussurophones.

August 26, Bickett (Thursday): Kolyma
Kolyma is a sort of rock band that will be debuting this night. Mike Eisenberg on drums and primary composition, Russ Desena on bass and some vocals, Jennifer Thomas on vocals and extra percussion, Motecraw Bob on guitar and some sax and vocals. There’ll probably be an opener, though I don’t know who at this point.

August 31, Nightlight (Tuesday): Mowing Lawns
The Lawns is guitar songwriting duo Mike Meyerson and Todd Emmert augmented by Ryan on synthnoise and yrs trawley on horns. Not sure what other acts is playing that night.

September 1, Bickett: Brain Powder
This’ll be Anne Gomez on tenor sax, Dave Cantwell on guitar, Scotty Irving on drums, me on a bunch of junk and possibly David Jordan on who knows what.

Yup. ‘m busier’n a beehive full of top quarks.
Stay evil.
—Ventilator DL

midweek maelstrom

howdy fiends and nearborns,
Another week of impending doom in the form of freeform pre-formance. Put on your tinfoil hats for this one.

All shows start in the neighborhood of ten pm. CDRs are free or if you got five bucks to spare.

August 11: Tripwire Trio
Come and listen to us as we prepare to conquer the Red Room in Baltimore this Saturday. Chris Eubank on cello and microKorg. Chuck Johnson on electro-acoustics and strings. Myselves on alto sax, trombone, bass clarinet, guitar and calculus.

August 18: Razor Wire Safety Net + Jay Winfrey
Yep. You heard right. Jay’s adding some vox to the mix. You know Jay as Bluto in Animal House. I imagine his vocals’ll be somewhere between Gibby Haynes and Flannery O’Connor. Plus of course the regular Razor Wire crew: Brian Donohoe on drums, Christopher Thurston on basses, Crawmote Obb on multiplication tables.

August 25: Ian Davis, Jason Bivins and Slew-Mo Oblo
That’s Ian on percolation, Bivo on impaired guitar and Oblo on set theory.

September 1: Brain Powder
With guests Anne Gomez on tenor sax, Scotty Irving on drums and Dave Cantwell on guitar (the three of whom make up an entity called Jazz Brunch). Possibly David Jordan too, but it ain’t for sure. You know Scotty from the Clang Quartet and Bunker and the excellent soundtrack he did for the 1925 version of The Lost World. And of course you know Gomez, Jordan and Cantwell from their tweaky rocknroll band Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe. But they’ve been in a ton of other shit too, like Special Agents of Her Majesty’s Secret Cervix and Razzle and Hotel Motel and Cold Sides and Spacelab and stuff.
I’ll be preforming on fibonacci.

Very well. Enough.

–The Ventriloquizor DL
Regional Marketing Disinhibitor
Retroactive Dynamics, Inc. (an affiliate of the Thomas Carlyle Group)
“Bringing you one step closer to the sweet by and by.”