ticktock

Fellow employees:

In our experience of duration, we intuit that time cannot be segmented into discrete moments. It is fallacious even to conceive of duration as succession, because there is an implication of one distinct event succeeding another.

Or, as Tom Waits said, “Time is just memory mixed with desire.”

That having been said, I’m sure you realize you were ten minutes late this morning. Here at the Company we pride ourselves on our punctuality. If this happens again we will have to take steps.

10 pm (unless elsewhither writ):

Wednesday, June 29, Bickett Gallery, Raleigh: The Blue Rose Case
We will be preforming a piece by Nino Rota and some original material and some improvisations.
Chris Eubank - cello, upright bass (SharkQuest). Carrie Shull - oboe, english horn (pulsoptional). Brian Donohoe (filling in for Dan Hall) - drums (Strange). Torquemaw Bob - guitar, bass clarinet, alto sax.

Tuesday, July 5, Nightlight, Chapel Hill: Urnack with Glen or Glenda? and Justin Clifford Rhody. (nightlight.dyss.net)
Urnack is John Hubbard (Black Castle) on tenor sax, Phil Martelli (Dudegarden) on electric bass, Peter Lamb (Countdown Quartet) on tenor sax, Mike Isenberg (Kolyma) on drums, TorqueMaw Bob on guitar, alto sax, bass clarinet.
We will be playing stuff by Duke Ellington, Duane Eddy, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, many others, and maybe if you’re lucky a piece by the Melvins.
Glen or Glenda? have been described as “kind of like if the Melvins had listened to Sun Ra or Frank Wright instead of Motorhead.” hmmm. They are from France on their first visit to the states.
JCR is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter.

Wednesday, July 6, Bickett Gallery: The Numen
with dancers:
Alexis Mastromichalis, Renay Aumiller and Cara Clark
This will be a part indoor, part outdoor show with improvised dance and music.
Musicians will include: Chris Eubank - cello; Dan Partridge - singing saw, slide whistle; Amy Wilkinson - clarinet; Carrie Shull - oboe, english horn; Mike Isenberg - percussion; Christopher Thurston - double bass; Cortmaw Bob - horns, guitar.

Friday, July 8, Percolator Lounge, Raleigh, 7 pm: Razor Wire Safety Net. (percolatorlounge.com)
That’s of course Brian Donohoe on drums, Christopher Thurston on basses, Slowfoot Bob on horns/guit. Possibly other guest/s.

Kill your boss.

–The Ventriloquizer DL

Weanmile, back at the brickbat cave

Nei’er a preponderance o pliny-eared mudmen nor a confabulum o critterwailin catfish could crick a cramp in our craw once’t we gets to bein borne along again alone aloft away, far from fear, fare for four, fair and foul.

Lots of ins and outs, lots of interested parties. 10 pm or so, ‘lessin contrariwise colloquized –

Wednesday, June 22, Bickett Gallery: a variation of Mowing Lawns.
If you be one among the legion who rather prefer the early period Mowing Lawns, then this might be your chance to relive those moments of ecstatic dread. Mike Meyerson on guitar, Todd Emmert on guitar and probably vox, Crowmeat Bob on reeds & guitar.

Friday, June 24, Nightlight: Tom Whitelock & Crowmeat Bob with Neil Feather.
For them what missed our previous duo preformances, we’ll be blistering your cortex in prep for Baltimore instrument inventor Neil Feather. (neilfeather.org)

Wednesday, June 29, Bickett Gallery: The Blue Rose Case
Out of the blue. Chris Eubank on cello and upright bass, Carrie Shull on oboe and english horn, Dan Hall on drums, Robert Pence on guitar and reeds.
You of course know Chris Eubank from his many side projects, including but not limited to Ugly Americans, Spatula, SharkQuest, Tidal Giant, Micro East Collective, Defenestrator.
And Carrie Shull of the Micro East also, and Eugene Chadbourne’s Insect & Western ensembles, and collaborator with John Tesh and Kathy Lee Gifford. ‘Collaborator’, with all its historical connotations.
Dan Hall of Django Haskins’ band, Countdown Quartet and Defenestrator.

Tuesday, July 5, Nightlight: Urnack with Glen or Glenda? and Justin Clifford Rhody.
Urnack is the band formerly known as Negative Nancy and Prima Facie Evil. Apparently there’s some punkrock band called Negative Nancy. Had to happen. Bet there’s no punkrock band called Urnack.
Mike Isenberg on drums, Phil Martelli on electric bass, John Hubbard on tenor sax, myselves on guitar and reeds. Possibly other guest(s).
With French band Glen or Glenda?, who also claim to be influenced by the Melvins and Sun Ra…
and, presumably, Ed Wood, whom we consider both a saint and a martyr.
Also spectral-pop guy Justin Clifford Rhody and his band.

Or you can skip it all and bury yr head in the sea and sand whilst the whirld spins round you.

Fuck it, dude. Let’s go bowling.

–The Ventriloquizer DL
Chief Pharmaceutical Advisor
Retroactive Dynamics, Inc. (an affiliate of the Thomas Carlyle Group)

betwixt the nixt

We begin in-between. There are already forces, sonorous and non-, at work in the atmosphere; prior relations that establish a field of enunciation and exchange. Musical axes in the hands of pathological artisans are provoked into action, translating the nonsonorous forces into a perceptible medium – a macrological duration that constitutes a spontaneous composition. This occurs in any space whatever: a friendly home; a swanky or seedy club; an industrial warehouse; a lived-in loft; a makeshift recording/broadcasting studio; a bourgeois gallery; a bookstore; an underground, concrete room. It can become the equivalent of an emergency room or a greyhound bus station at 4 am: every moment of human contact is crucial yet surreal. Invested with a meaning irreducible to anything but its own expression. A slice of space/time isolated yet extending in contact beyond its perimeter into the world-at-large through various molecular social mechanisms. It is an event both local and global. It is both an event and an unstable relation between events, or a digression from the network of events that constitute history.

Be there at 10 pm:

Wednesday, June 15, Bickett Gallery: Plausible Denial
Ultra-finesse free jazz with Tyson Rogers (tysonrogers.com) on keys, Tom Whitelock on guitar, Rick Lassiter on double bass, Rob Koegler on drums and Robert Pence on alto sax, bass clarinet, alto sax, guitar and trombone.

Sunday, June 20, Kings Barcade: Another Tombstone Dream with Federation X and Green Milk from Planet Orange.
In the long, noble tradition of bands named after Sonic Youth lyrics. Though if it were my band, I might’ve gone for “Big Fake Bitter Love Underbelly Freezing Jungle” or “I Can’t Get Laid ‘Cause Everyone is Dead”. Well, okay, those aren’t as concise.
But I kinda prefer bands named after Captain Beefheart lines anyways. Exemplia gratia:
http://www.beefheart.com/datharp/albums/related/connection2.htm

Wednesday, June 22, Bickett Gallery: Mike Meyerson, Todd Emmert and Robert Pence.
The Mowing Lawns guys on guitars in a noise-improv scenario. With myself on horns & guit.
Kinda droney, kinda hectic.

Friday, June 24, Nightlight: Tom Whitelock and Crowmeat Bob with Neil Feather.
We are the same duo that destroyed your brain at NoFuture Fest. Now we continue in the No Future continuum. Will it ever get here?
Check out Baltimore instrument inventor Neil Feather’s webpage: neilfeather.org

Until tomorrow’s marrow makes its merry way through the brittle bones of our becomings,
The Ventriloquizer DL
Extra-Regional Organizizer of Immanent Emanations
Retroactive Dynamics, Inc. (an affiliate of the Thomas Carlyle Group)
“Your Window to the Geistwelt.”

lee harvey osmosis

So we have come to realize that, ultimately and for all practical purposes, it makes no difference whether or not JFK’s assassination was the result of a conspiracy in actual fact. The reality is that there may as well have been a conspiracy. All the factors were there. Everything was ready and in place. To speak of bullet trajectories and puffs of smoke over grassy knolls is to miss the point.
The conspiracy was there whether or not Oswald acted alone. To deny this is akin to denying the holocaust or evolution, albeit on a different scale. So get real, you innocent-of-clue pink boys.
Or do you think the Warren Commission really dug deep for the facts?
Discuss.

Pre-formances begin around 10 pm unless udderwise knotted.

Wednesday, June 8, Bickett Gallery, 10:30 pm: The Feraliminal Lycanthropizers
We are starting late because of an earlier show scheduled at Bickett with des ark and some other out of town bands but I don’t know who because Bickett’s online calendar seems to have ossified.
This is the same Feraliminal Lycanthropizers who conquered Germany and Sweden some years ago (including an appearance at the Nozart festival). Our drummer Will is visiting from his ethnomusicological studies in Hawaii. Guitarist Clare Quilty is taking a brieft respite from his duties as Slash in Appetite for Destruction. Cellist and soprano/tenor saxophonist John Randall Pelosi is our Gedanke Fuhrer. Susan Humphries, formerly of Quilty’s band Baaamphf!!!, will be joining on electric bass.

Thursday, June 9, Kings Barcade: Kolyma with Melt Banana and Vaz.
Make sure you have a designated sane person for the evening.

Wednesday, June 15, Bickett Gallery: Plausible Denial
Tyson Rogers on keys (who just cut a record with Cecil McBee for chrissakes), Tom Whitelock on guitar, Rick Lassiter on double bass, Rob Koegler on drums, Robert Pence on alto sax, bass clarinet, trombone, guitar.
This line-up is liable to burn you.

Sunday, June 19, Kings Barcade: Another Tombstone Dream with Federation X and Green Milk From Planet Orange.
I believe I’ll be sitting in with the Dream on a couple of numbers with the alto saxophone. We’ll be playing hits by Jack Rubinstein, George White, James Angleton, Carlos Marcello, Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante.

Yrs, etc, etc,
The Ventriloquizer DL
Chief Liaison, Orgone Dispersal/Retrieval
Retroactive Dynamics, Inc. (an affiliate of the Thomas Carlyle Group)

the new myth

Probably the question I get asked most frequently is “How could consciousness have arisen by mere evolutionary chance? Mustn’t there be some design at work, whether it be an all-knowing deity or a malicious alien intelligence?”

Well, perhaps design there is, in this melange of interconnected disparities we call the world. But speak not to me of gods or unifying intelligence, you sad meaning-seeker. The design is inherent in the living matter itself and is far from pre-destined. The flower is contained in the bee and verse visa. Consciousness arose because the conditions were there in the fabric of living matter. All matter has consciousness. It was a simple leap to the self-consciousness of what you call human life.

Life, free will, is the principle of indetermination in its most random aspect. Such as will be borne witness to in the following chapters of sonic expulsion:

All shows start around 10 pm.

Wednesday, June 3, Bickett Gallery: Mother Cock
Jason Bivins - guitar; Bill McConaghy - trumpets; Robert Pence - alto sax, guitar, bass clarinet, trombone.
Susurrations and sharp reports.

Monday, June 6, Kings Barcade: Negative Nancy with Oedipus Dick and Princess (?).
The Nancy, formerly known as Prima Facie Evil: Mike Isenberg - drums; Phil Martelli - electric bass; myselves - guitar, alto sax, bass clarinet. With fill-in guest Peter Lamb on tenor sax.
We will play stuff by Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Archie Shepp, Duane Eddy, James Blood Ulmer and original material.
Party band pranksters Oedipus Dick will make you swoon. Not sure what’s up with Princess, ’cause they’re listed on the Kings website and advert but the Independent says they’re playing at Nightlight that same night with another band. W. T. F.

Wednesday, June 8, Bickett Gallery: The Feraliminal Lycanthropizers
The original line-up: Clare Quilty - guitar, electronoise; John Randall Pelosi - cello, soprano sax, tenor sax; Will Connor - percussion; Susan Humphries - electric bass.
If you’ve ever wondered whether those humming, grinning pinheads knew more than you do about the best way of lookin at life, then wonder no more after this.

Thursday, June 9, Kings Barcade: Kolyma with Vaz and Melt Banana.
This show will tear you a new one. I first saw Melt Banana when they opened for Mr Bungle on the Disco Volante tour. Spirited, they were. Still are.
Kolyma will be Mike Isenberg - drums, Russ DeSena - electric bass/vox, Jennifer Thomas - vox, percussion, Robert Pence - guitar, alto sax.

Want you to grab that gal and shake a foot and moan.
Don’t you let ‘em dance on your new carpet, you make ‘em roll it up.
God bless all you folks,
The Ventriloquizer DL
Regional Station Chief and Division Head of Divided Heads
Retroactive Dynamics, Inc. (an affiliate of the Thomas Carlyle Group)
“There’s no tomorrow.”

apologies to Gid Tanner and Henri Bergson.