Had a great time building a cigar box guitar under the direction of John Nickel at Nickel Cigar Box Guitar.

Here’s a detail of the piezo pickup that we installed in the cigar box. The small block of wood on the left is later glued to cover the piezo element.

Cycling ’74 has posted a new video from the Science Fair they hosted as part of the recent Expo ’74 event in Brooklyn. I show off my extended banjo instrument (along with my unashamedly geeky enthusiasm). My segment runs from 2:16-3:13, but watch the whole thing and marvel at the wonderful, strange things people do with Max (and their own geeky enthusiasms). Other videos in the series can be found here.

And a big shout out to Eric Prust who built the fine fretless banjo (minus the electronics) in the video.

Wednesday 11/30/11 @ 8pm
51 3rd St.
Troy, NY (former Troy Bike Rescue)

KEIR NEURINGER
composes & improvises acoustic & electronic music, writes socio-political performance texts & essays, & creates interdisciplinary artworks. Keir will play farfisa organ & drums (at the same time!), sing, and play saxophone & electronic…s. intense post-punk songwriter, playing songs off the new Afghanistan album Conquistadors.

HOLLAND HOPSON
is a local avant-gardist and member of the Albany Sonic Arts Collective. Well-versed in a wide variety of musical styles, from the most traditional to the most experimental, Holland will sew together these different musical worlds with pieces for solo banjo and electronics (off his 2011 release Post & Beam), as well as pieces for solo saxophone and electronics.

RAMBUTAN
is local noise/drone wizard Eric Hardiman, member of the Albany Sonic Arts Collective, local psych-rock collective Burnt Hills, and proprietor of TAPE DRIFT records, Albany’s most experimental music label. Eric will be performing a mind-bending set of improvised solo electronics…

intermission videos by LIVING THINGS

Hopson similarly has no fear of manipulating sound with anything near at hand, be it fingerpicks or a laptop computer.

On “Post & Beam,” however, he actually hews closer to Alan Lomax than Kraftwerk, with a haunting, often mesmerizing album of old songs and new sounds.

Throughout, he plays the banjo straight, with a gentle claw hammer behind his fragile-but-captivating voice. There are aspects of Sam Amidon and Chris Whitley at work here (especially in the original tunes), but Hopson’s individuality shines.

What pulls “Post & Beam” out of folk festival mode are the murmurings behind the songs. Atmospheric tangents (including the voice of NOAA weather radio) bubble and squeak without ever distracting. Oddly, they put an even tighter focus on Hopson’s vocal delivery, especially on appropriated chestnuts like “East Virginia,” “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” and “Bowling Green Green.”

There’s a tendency in freak folk towards atmosphere, a wind-blown, gauzy lope. Hopson certainly has it on “Post & Beam,” but his relaxed stride has a purpose, a goal, a destination.

It’s a fascinating journey.

Read the entire article here. And check out Mathew Kane/Disposable Rocket Band’s “Apocalyptic Propulsion Unit” and Kevin Bartlett’s “Songs for the Big Kablooey“

photo: David Garland

I’m a longtime fan of David Garland and his Spinning on Air show on WNYC, so I’m delighted to see the lineup announced for tomorrow night’s show, “Hot Air,” includes some of my music. Tune in tomorrow to WNYC or wnyc.org for the torrid details.

One from the archives: James Keepnews taking us to school in 2002. Photo: Chris Funkhauser

I’m super excited to reunite with partner James Keepnews for this duo show at Backstage Productions in Kingston on Friday June 3. We’ll be performing duets for saxophone, guitar and lots o’ electronics. There may be a banjo piece in there, too.

Our hosts for the night are the Woodstock Quantum Ensemble featuring Johnny Asia (guitar), Damon Banks (electric bass), Joakim Lartey (percussion) and Gus Mancini (reeds).

Fri, June 3, 2011 7:30 pm
The Woodstock Quantum Ensemble &
Holland Hopson/James Keepnews
Backstage Productions
Kingston, NY
$15
$10 students/seniors

Find all the info at AllAboutJazz.com

Jackie describes the “The Observers”:

The land and sky of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire form a frame for a meteorologist as she goes about the solitary and steadfast work of measuring and recording the weather.   Inspired by the Nathaniel Hawthorne story  “The Great Carbuncle,” this film features the extreme and varying beauty of the windiest mountain in the world.

Shot on 16mm film over the course of a year, “The Observers” is based on the actual work of the crew of the Mount Washington Weather Observatory — one of the oldest weather stations in North America where staff members have taken hourly readings of the wind speed, visibility, barometric pressure, and temperature since May 1932.  In 1934, the staff measured a wind gust of 231 mph, which remains a world record for a surface station.

I’ve been privileged to be part of the production of “The Observers” along with Jesse Cain, Dani Leventhal, and Katya Gorker. I posted here, here, here and here about our experiences shooting at the top of beautiful Mt. Washington, NH. Since then I’ve composed music for the film, assisted Jackie with recording foley and worked on sound design. This has been a great project!

“The Observers” screened on the closing night of the Crossroads Festival in San Francisco, and will be shown again in early June at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. I’ll post details when I get them.

The Albany Sonic Arts Collective presents their first concert of 2011 with performances by some of the Capital Region’s most exciting experimental musicians including Century Plants with Matt Weston, Holland Hopson, SoundBarn and Insect Posse.

DEEP FREEZE: Experimental Music for Snowy Times
Saturday, February 19
8:00 pm
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St.
Albany NY
$5 suggested donation

This will be my first Albany show of 2011 and my last performance before heading to the Atlantic Center for the Arts for a residency with David Behrman (more on that later…). I’ll be performing a set of music for soprano sax and computer. My current plan includes a piece using a DIY plate reverb as the primary electronic sound source.

More about the artists after the jump…

About Century Plants:
ASAC members Eric Hardiman and Ray Hare have been collaborating for years as Century Plants, utilizing voice, guitar, and complex electronics setups to create haunting, evocative works.  For this performance, they will be joined by Matt Weston on percussion and electronics, sure to add a new layer of intrigue.
For more information http://www.myspace.com/centuryplants and
http://www.mattweston.com/

About Holland Hopson:
Named by Metroland as the area’s “Best Retro-Futurist,” composer Holland Hopson will present a set of his typically challenging work in a rare solo appearance on soprano saxophone and electronics. Holland is preparing for an upcoming three week residency with composer and live electronics pioneer David Behrman at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna, Florida.
For more information http://hollandhopson.com

About SoundBarn:
soundBarn (Thomas Lail and Patrick Weklar) use heavily processed and prepared guitar to construct ad-hoc compositions that span the space from spare, minimal soundscapes to full-on noise with ever-shifting rhythms, pace and moods.

soundBarn has recently collaborated with Albany Sonic Arts Collective on full-length performances of Rhys Chatham’s famed “Guitar Trio” as well as performances at The soundBarn—a project of artist/musician Lail and artist/gallerist Tara Fracalossi located on what was once Heald Orchards in Valatie, New York.

Lail formerly performed with the experimental trio Lukomski/Majer/Lail  whose improvised sound Metroland weekly recommended ”for those who are turned way on by the gloriously weird guitarscapes of Sonic Youth’s late ’90s SYR recordings, or the dreamy, sometimes atonal soundwaves of Hovercraft…”  Both Lail and Weklar were founding members of the long-ago Albany post-punk band The Fauves.
For more information http://www.soundbarn.blogspot.com

About Insect Posse:
Insect Posse are the prolific and inscrutable Mark Lunt and Chris Bassett, purveyors of noisy yet hypnotic hymns to other worlds of nothingness. This will be their first official ASAC appearance.
For more information http://www.myspace.com/insectposse

About the Albany Sonic Arts Collective:
The Albany Sonic Arts Collective (ASAC) is a grassroots organization dedicated to building a thriving community of listeners and performers of music that exists outside of traditional boundaries. The Collective supports a wide variety of music and sonic art forms, with an emphasis on those that stress freedom and exploration of new ideas. Styles include free improvisation, drone, noise, electroacoustic improvisation, electronic music, avant jazz, and many others. ASAC have been presenting regularly since November 2007. In 2008 the Albany Times Union called ASAC a “sonic bright spot” of the Capital District arts scene.

Swallowtail

I think the piece sounds like a huge train barreling straight at you in slow motion. The performance of Rhys Chatham’s “Guitar Trio” went swimmingly. We’ll be performing the entire program again Saturday, November 20 at the Arts Center Saratoga. Hope to see you there.

Saturday at the Flywheel was an outstanding lineup. Christoph Heeman played a beautiful set, but Son of Earth stole the show, in my opinion. They performed delicate yet far from fragile percussion music–bells, chimes, and pillowy bass drum.

Friday October 8 @ 8pm
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St.
Albany NY
$5 suggested donation

Robert Millis of the Climax Golden Twins will perform solo, and will also present a brand new Sublime Frequencies film, called “This World is Unreal Like A Snake in a Rope.”

Parashi is the solo project of Mike Griffin–microphones, pedals, tapes, synthesizers, guitar, metal bowl, washboard, tin box, tin whistle, noise generator, and more.