Bringing word of the Ende Tymes here... not the radio preacher last month, his gospel was false. This is the good news about next weekend, where hundreds of sound weirdos from across the planet will descend on The Silent Barn and bring warnings of plagues or whatever the hell else they do...
Here I am doing my part, asking three of the Ende Tymes prophets a few questions, first Bob Bellerue because this is his creation, second GX Jupitter-Larsen, who has performed as or with The Haters since the dawn of time, and Chicago's Jason Soliday.
Bob Bellerue
When you were first exposed to experimental music was it in a live setting or via recordings? Do you remember what it was?
i think it was "Reality Asylum" by Crass off of "The Feeding of the 5000" which was the first extended music techniques i'd heard (around 1984). i'd been exposed to much of Jimi Hendrix' catalog by then too, and the Electric Ladyland became sacrament to me (it was released the same month i was born).
the first live experience of real out-there music i had was Crash Worship (1988) when i was in San Diego. i got turned on to some amazing music down there, and scored my first Merzbow record around 1992, and was heavily influenced by running sound for extreme bands like Zeni Geva, Crossed Out, Man Is The Bastard, and Drive Like Jehu. but i don't think i saw any true noise performances until 1998 when i moved back to LA and started witnessing Damion Romero, Bastard Noise, etc. i'd been making noise starting in 1992 but hadn't ever been to a thinking-person's noise show until then
lyrically Crass had a big impact on me, the whole punk rock thing for me about sonic extremes and lyrical criticism. tripping on acid to Crass and Hendrix were some of the origins of my spiritual awakening. Crash Worship was highly influential, cos they combined hard-core drumming (which was my passion, junk metal and hand drumming being my specialty 1986-1994) with experimental noise guitar and ecstatic vocals. i just wanted to jam and howl (and trip) all the time. running sound and getting into recording definitely set me on my path. watching people make extreme noise out of home-made equipment, but with precision technical planning and execution, really defined me in my pursuit of new sounds.
This is a ridiculously expansive festival, wondering if there is a running theme with any of the performers? Any artists that you dig that just didn't fit?
the only theme is i invited a bunch of people who i wanted to see play, and 99% of them said "fuck yeah i'm there" and then a ton of people asked if they could play, and i had to fit some of them in cos they were also people i wanted to see play. the only people who didn't fit were the ones who couldn't fit it into their schedules, or who had to cancel. the only artists that i dig which wouldn't fit would be large complicated ensembles, drama queens, and people who asked for outrageous guarantees. luckily, i didn't have to deal with much of that, as these are almost universally friends of mine who i have presented before, gigged with, who have slept on my floor or i've slept on theirs, traded albums with, partied with, or have a kindship where we know each other through the scene already.
So you must be excited, the fruits of your labor are about to ripen, what do you have planned after the fest?
i'm not planning anything for a while. but i'm going to Poland for a month mid-July to meet my wife's extended family, see some friends, hike and camp, leave my phone at home, and play a couple of gigs.
Anything non music related that you hope that performers coming in to NYC for the ETF get a chance to check out?
a gallery called Live With Animals in Williamsburg has a show up called Foggy Notion with artwork by Ju Suk Reet Meate and Oblivia (both from Smegma) among other people. it's closing on June 26 so the timing is perfect for people to check it out before the screenings and performances each night. http://www.livewithanimals.org
there is an amazing and free durational performance by Lisa D'Amour, Katie Pearl, and Shawn Hall at the Kitchen Fri-Sun from 2-10pm each day. Tthey build a "forest" and take it down each day, with an amazing soundtrack mixed live by Chris De Laurenti. http://www.thekitchen.org
of course there is the Dreamhouse, open Thurs-Sat 2-10pm. http://www.melafoundation.org/dream02.htm
there will be a bunch of radio activity this week, all of which will be streaming. WKCR will be hosting myself (6/19 10-11pm), Twisty Cat (6/20 3-6pm), ISA Christ (6/21 3-6pm), Phill Niblock (6/22 3-6pm), and Postcommodity (6/23 1-4am, ie late on Weds night). i will also be playing live and talking on East Village Radio (6/19 4-6pm), and actually the same day from 10pm-12am the Tenses (with members of Smegma) will be playing on EVR so you can jump between the stations, tho their show will be archived but the WKCR stuff will not. (only in New York do you have simultaneous scheduling conflicts between live noise performances on different radio stations.) WKCR can be found streaming at http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/wkcr/ and 89.9FM in New York, and East Village Radio can be found at http://www.eastvillageradio.com
Earlier in the week Phill Niblock is hosting a record release party for Charlie Morrow at Experimental Intermedia on Tuesday eve, 9pm, 224 Centre st some of the Ende Tymes artists are playing a show at Port d'Or Thursday night with some other awesome touring bands.
https://www.facebook.com/portdor
the Bent Fest is happening June 23-25. http://bentfestival.org/2011/
the beach at Fort Tilden (or anywhere out on the Rockaways) is pretty cool. and Coney Island has some new amusement park rides
now i'm just fishing for ideas. i dunno - people should post them.
GX Jupitter-Larsen
When you were first exposed to experimental music was it in a live setting or via recordings? Do you remember what it was?
Picking up a copy of Silver Apples of the Moon by Morton Subotnick. Still love the b-side.
You have been in the noise game for a long time. Is it still exciting for you as it was when you started?
More so. When I started back in the late 70s there really wasn’t much of a real noise scene to speak of. I think the best noise any one has ever done is being done now.
Hater is a popular term, defined by the Urban Dictionary as a "person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person." Is that the general idea of the name of your band The Haters? You guys have been around for a lot longer than the term, sure, but is it coming from the same place?
Wow. Is that what it’s suppose to mean these days?! That’s pretty weak. No, the basic idea behind the name was for the project to take the offensive, instead of being on the defensive. I wanted to celebrate entropy, not protest it. Fixing a problem by adding to it. To fight fire with fire by making the biggest mess possible. It’s been a ton of fun so far.
So what do you love? More than anything else in the world?
Beauty. Albeit, my idea of beauty may not conform to most peoples’.
From what I can tell you are always switching up what The Haters shows are all about. What ties them together?
Regardless what’s going on; be it smashing, grinding, or drilling, it’s always meant to be a celebration of entropy.
Anything non music related that you are excited to check out while visiting NYC?
Looking forward to hanging out with my NY friends. I don’t get over here nearly as often as I’d like.
Have you ever met Ralph Hausmann's mom?
No, but I hear she’s a wonderful woman.
Some Haters from last year's Neon Marshmallow Fest, featuring Steve Makita on sparks:
Jason Soliday
When you were first exposed to experimental music was it in a live setting or via recordings? Do you remember what it was?
Wow, that could be a long story... but let's see... in the fall of 1990, just after starting college, I joined what was basically a Scratch Orchestra (though I had no idea what a Scratch Orchestra was at the time..) called Regular Guy that had been organized by one of the grad students there, a guy named Don DeLeva. It was a revolving cast of about 4-10 people who met every Friday afternoon in front of the school's art department and made a hell of a lot of noise, usually for about three to four hours per performance. The ability to actually play an instrument wasn't a requirement, in fact playing instruments you didn't know how to play was actively encouraged. Amazingly, over the roughly three years we did it we were only shut down once, during an epic 'cover' of Suicidal Tendencies "Subliminal" Apparently six people chanting "they're fucking with me subliminally" over guitar feedback for a good fifteen minutes straight didn't go over that well with campus security...HA! Around that same time after one of the early Regular Guy performances Don asked me if I had heard of Throbbing Gristle.. he wouldn't tell me what they sounded like, just that I needed to find a copy of 20 Jazz Funk Greats. Once I did, a lot of pieces fell into place, though it was probably a few more years before I realized the path I was on. At that time I was still thinking of the noise I was making as a not very serious extension of the visual art I was doing. A few years later, fall of '95, I had just moved to Chicago, and was rapidly becoming disinterested in making visual art, but really didn't know where to go from there. Then in October of that year, I came across a flyer for a festival called "In the Eye of the Ear" at a theater a couple doors down from where I was living. On the bill were a bunch of names I didn't know, but it said that the festival was "dedicated to the promotion of artists that use sound as their primary medium" That weekend I was introduced pretty much every facet of experimental music, from text based work to noise. TVPow, Metalux, Steve Barsotti & Eric Leonardson, Philp von Zweck and a host of others played that fest. From that point on I was hooked. I left it thinking that the sound side of things was really what I should be doing and the painting was the not very serious diversion, and I've been making noise ever since...
You probably aren't going to haul that pile of gear I witnessed last week all the way to NYC, how is a Jason Soliday gig in Brooklyn going to be different than one in Chicago?
Ha! Yeah, I guess I do have a reputation for dragging out a lot of stuff to gigs.. though I don't think I've ever drug that whole pile of gear you saw at my place on stage at once.. there's an idea for a future Enemy show: "Jason Soliday plays everything in the house" which of course would include that huge pile of speakers, the cat, and the washing machine has been making a rather nice high pitched screech lately so... uh, yeah...
Over the last few months I've actually greatly reduced the size of my live rig, so I'm not sure that the show at ETF will be that much different than one I'd play in Chicago right now. I'm pretty much down to a very small modular synth and delay box built by Tom Bugs, and a couple of outboard effects. I recently built a small switch box to go along with the modular that lets me do a lot of the quick change/cut-up style stuff that I used to need a ton of gear and a much larger mixer to do.
You run Enemy, an experimental music venue in Chicago, have many of the performers performing at the ETF have played there?
I've been running Enemy for almost seven years, though I shouldn't take all the credit. I've been the one constant here, but I've had tons of help from numerous other people over the years including Eric Leonardson, Geoff Guy, Brent Gutzeit, Ryan Dunn, Omar Gonzales... the list is long. We've had a ton of people play here in that time, including a large number of the acts playing ETF. Two of the ETF acts, Vertonen and Mike Shiflet, played the first show I hosted at Enemy! Looking at the schedule, there's about eleven acts that have played here under the same names they're playing under at ETF, add a couple more if you count people that have played under other names (BWT as Is, Bob Bellerue of KILT as Redglaer), and if you count the artists in the video screening part of ETF, three more (Z'EV, Lucas Abela, and Francisco Lopez). On top of that both Pharmakon and Opponents are playing here in coming months so that list keeps growing!
Any acts playing the fest that you are particularly excited for?
Hmm, that's a tough one. Honestly, I'm really excited for the whole thing. Bob's pulled together a pretty impressive lineup. There's a few folks I've never seen perform before though that I'm looking forward to including AMK and Damion Romero. IDM Theftable blew me away when he played at Enemy last November... Opponents are pretty high on my list too, their CD has been on heavy rotation here since I got it... love that Westworld creep vibe they've got!
Are you planning on doing any tourist activites while in NYC or that shit strictly for chumps?
Well, I'm visiting WFMU on the 30th... that's high on the list of tourist destinations, right? HA.. I'm not much for the whole tourist thing, though I will probably be a bit of the art tourist at some point while I'm there. I'm mainly coming to play and hangout with friends. I'll be sticking around for about a week after the fest, performing at Port d'Or on the 29th, on My Castle of Quiet on the 30th, and at RLD on the 1st with Camilla Ha, continuing the duo project we started last summer before she moved to Brooklyn. I'm also going to be doing some recording with Camilla, and with Mister Matthews of Telecult Powers & High School Confidential fame.
Please note that Jason Soliday is not three people in one, that's him on the floor, Mike Shiflet sitting and Mr. Matthew's legs.
Shivering Disorganizer by JSoliday
The Ende Tymes Fest runsJune 24, 25, 26 @ The Silent Barn, Ridgewood.
For more information hit: http://halfnormal.com/endetymes/
Phill Niblock (NYC)
GX Jupitter-Larsen / The Haters (CA)
Gen Ken Montgomery (NYC)
AMK (CA)
Damion Romero (CA)
The Rat Bastard Experience (FL)
Tom Grimley (CA)
Vertonen (IL)
MV Carbon (NYC)
Mike Shiflet (OH)
Crank Sturgeon (ME)
IDM Theftable (ME)
Bran(…)Pos (CA)
Work/Death (RI)
Andrew Coltrane (MI)
Novasak (CO)
Fatale (IL)
BWT / ex-Is (IL)
KILT (NM/NYC)
Monsturo (CA)
Page27 (CO)
Postcommodity (OK/NM)
Brown (OR)
Jeff Carey (MD)
Liam Mooney (CA)
Twisty Cat (NYC)
Hex Breaker Quartet (NYC)
Kyle Clyde (NYC)
ISA Christ (NYC)
EID (NJ)
Rust Worship (NYC)
Thanks, Bob, for all the great recommendations.
Posted by: boil | June 22, 2011 at 02:42 PM