Tag Archives: rock

EVENT
Audition for Hedwig and the Angry Inch!

hedwigMaia Golden ’17 writes in:

Calling all singers, actors, drag queens, rocks stars, and musical queers! This is a 2 actor rock musical/concert, and we need your help to bring its gender-bending-glam-rock glory to life!

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a 2 person rock musical which takes place entirely at Hedwig’s (and her band, The Angry Inch’s) concert. It’s beautiful, sexy, fun, punk, glam, and everything in between. Written by a Wes alum :o Stephen Trask ’89 and John Cameron Mitchell, this little show has some big ideas about theatricality, gender, pop, punk, rock, and roll, and we want YOU to come audition for it!

WHAT WE’D LIKE FROM YOU:
-16-32 bars of a rock song of your choice!
-An optional 1-2 minute monologue of your choice (sides will be provided)
-A little familiarity with the show–literally just skim the wikipedia.

SIGN UP FOR A TIME:
Walk ins are welcome too, you may just have to wait a second longer. Sign up for a slot here.

***THIS SHOW IS GOING UP AS A WINTER INTENSIVE. WE WILL REHEARSE OVER WINTER BREAK (not all of it, don’t worry) AND PUT IT UP WHEN WE GET BACK TO SCHOOL NEXT SEMESTER***

If you have questions, comments, concerns, or jokes, please direct them to:
Maia Golden – mnellessager[at]wesleyan[dot]edu
Cheyanne Williams ’17 – ctwilliams[at]wes
Chloe Briskin ’18 – cbriskin[at]wes
Simon Korn ’18 – skorn[at]wes
Nola Werlinich ’17 – nwerlinich[at]wes

Yours in aesthetic solidarity.

Date: Friday and Saturday, October 14-15
Time: 5-7PM and 4-6PM respectively
Where: Boger Hall Room 114

Facebook Event Here

EVENT
Speedy Ortiz / Lame Drivers / O Presidente @ Earth House

Andrew Zingg ’13 writes:

Oh u liek rawk’n’roll? Last day of classes, I got some bands for you!

SPEEDY ORTIZ

Featuring Wes alum Dan Ferm ’12, this Northampton band is certifiably
blowin’ up. Poopfork recently big up’d not one, but two tracks off
their new 7″ and they also got nifty articles written about them in
Spin and on MTV.com. Next stop TRL, amirite? I’m not gonna say they
sound like Dinosaur Jr or the Breeders because, contrary to popular
belief, they’re not like totally in love with 90s. If having one bro
from Wesleyan on bass counts, then they are our school’s Next Big
Thing. Wisen up! Wesleying coverage here.

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EVENT
Tonight: Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star:” A Psychedelic Lecture by Dr. Graeme Boone

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Mickey Capper ’13 reminded me to post about this. Here’s the blurb from the official Facebook page for this event:

Born and raised in San Francisco—the home of the Grateful Dead—Professor of Music Graeme M. Boone attended the University of California at Berkeley, the Universite de Paris, and Harvard University, where he taught before joining the faculty at Ohio State. Following an overview of the band’s early history and style, Dr. Boone’s talk includes the showing of a “mandala movie” which helps elucidate the Dead’s open-ended song “Dark Star,” conveying a holistic, organic analysis of the tune, and incorporating every salient element in the extended, psychedelically evocative improvisations of its first 150 recorded performances.

With lyrics by Robert Hunter and music by Jerry Garcia, “Dark Star” can cover a broad spectrum of moods and musical ideas—incorporating anything from R&B cover songs to outer-space apocalypse—but the attentive listener can also hear lines of force binding the jams together: structuring devices, strategies, and trajectories that direct each improvisation and also serve as fundamental guideposts. An animated movie with changing colors and annotations follows two specific performances of the song, recorded in London on 4/8/72 and 5/23/72 during the band’s European tour that spring (the original 16-track analog tapes of the entire Europe ’72 tour were remixed, mastered in HDCD format, and released by the band in 2011).

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FEATURED
R. Stevie Moore to Eclectic: “This Is the Best Crowd and the Worst P.A. System Ever”

Perhaps the only time Wes students have moshed to a 6o-year-old legend in Mickey Mouse pajamas.

 On Saturday night, in one of the most bizarre, captivating, and intense performances I’ve witnessed at Wesleyan since Lightning Bolt or perhaps Už Jsme Doma, a golden nugget of blue-bearded wisdom reigned down on Eclectic. It came clad in Mickey Mouse-patterned pajamas and a yellow baseball hat. Its name was R. Stevie Moore.

Backed by three tireless touring musicians, whose articles of clothing came gradually unglued throughout the night, the grandfatherly lo-fi legend performed about two-and-a-half sets of lo-fi pop merged with noise rock, punk, metal, krautrock, avant-garde, and generally ranting into a microphone, telling the young’uns to shut up and listen. Between growling obscenities (“WTF! GTFO!”) and shouting out “all the bitches in the house,” Moore also described Eclectic as “the best crowd with the worst P.A. system ever.” If the P.A. malfunctioned, no one noticed. Moore’s music was too loose, too noisy, too weirdly infectious.

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MUSIC
An Assortment of Crayons Produce “Epic Musical Excursions of Synthesized Shredding Funk

“Swung Funk Rock with a touch of Math and the kitchen sink”

An Assortment of Crayons, otherwise known as “those dudes who were going to open for Ishmael that one time when ‘bureaucratic bullshit’ got in the way,” has an album out. Though plagued by misfortune, that lineup made good sense. Like Ishmael, AAOC favor jamming over jangly guitars, and they’re unafraid list Phish as a key influence (“The Shelf” and “To Trust a Stranger” are especially indicative).

If those elements sound innocent enough to you, check the album out on SoundCloud, where it’s available for free streaming. It’s titled Styles, and members have labeled it “EPIC MUSICAL EXCURSIONS OF Synthesized shredding funk soulful space odyssey of jazzy rock.” Jack Singer ’15, the only WesKid in the band, emailed me with some further information on the history of the band:

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FEATURED
BandCampWes: Speedy Ortiz Seeks Funds for Summer Tour

Speedy Ortiz is the project of long-time Sound Coop member Dan Ferm ’12 and a bunch of other friends from Northampton, MA. Appropriately, the band sounds a whole lot like fellow western Massachusetts noise-makers Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, plus others from the early ’90s indie/lo-fi cloth—earnest melodies swamped in dense, fuzzy overdrive, with melodic vocal lines and inventive guitar tuning. Don’t believe me? Listen to “Taylor Swift,” which sounds not very much like its namesake at all:

Speedy Ortiz plans to release a 10″ EP on vinyl, CD, and hopefully tape at the end of the month, so start dusting your cassette players. The band has been spotted performing in various houses on campus, and hopefully more before graduation. The band is also planning to tour cross-country this summer, so members have set up one of them fancy Kickstarter thingamajigs to raise $4,000 to bring noise to your freaking hometown:

VANS ACROSS AMERICA! Speedy Ortiz wants to bring our rock show to a city near you this summer, and we can’t do that without a van! And hopefully a van with decent gas mileage since gas just might cost more than ever this year. But if we can bring the rock out on the road to you, it will be totally worth it!

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MUSIC
Ishmael Finally Drops New EP, Plots Return to Wes

“We’ve been pregnant with this record for nine months, but this baby couldn’t wait any longer.”

When I caught up with Ishmael last month to talk about the band’s brand new EP, I asked about recording the whole thing in the dead of night at New York’s Tarbox Studios. “There was something indescribable about being so creative, and loud, while most of New York slept,” the band told me, “and it freed up our inhibitions so we could try some weird stuff.” “Feet Stomp,” the first tease from that EP, hinted at some weird stuff. It also hinted at the catchiest—and shiniest—pop music that the prog/funk/rock/whatever outfit has written yet. Who says 9/8 time signatures and Tool covers aren’t sexy?

This week the band, which includes Jordan Lewis ’13 and Andy Werle ’12 plus non-Weskids Nick Otte and Aaron Silberstein, finally delivers the goods. The EP, creatively titled Ishmael the EP (and previewed on the WEUS airwaves a few weeks back), is available online for $3.96 at iTunes (and coming soon to Spotify and, eventually, physical formats). At just over twenty minutes, it consists of four of Ishmael’s most diverse tracks yet, including

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EVENT
Ishmael @ Earth House

Exactly three months after its triumphant rising from the ashes in the hollowed halls of Psi Upsilon Dormitory for Men, and approximately two weeks after announcing its upcoming EP (which was later previewed on the WESU airwaves), famed progalicious funksters Ishmael return to its native habitat: Earth House. Fabulous details from the band itself:

We will be giving a concert of music. Come listen to the music and to the other sounds. There shall be head banging aplenty.

As always, Ishmael is Jordan Lewis ’13, Andy Werle ’12, Nick Otte, and Aaron Silberstein. The show is free as funk, and there are no openers to be had.

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MUSIC
Get Rooks Or Die Trying: Campus Funk Act Plots Mini-Tour

The Rooks, everyone’s favorite on-campus intergalactic funk sensation, are going on tour! Sort of. The post-Mad Wow outfit is embarking on a mini-tour of sorts through the northeast this week (they might snag more exclusive concert footage at these shows), and frontman Garth Taylor ’12 has the details. (As always, The Rooks include Garth Taylor ’12, Nate Mondschein ’12, Spencer Hattendorf ’12, Graham Richman ’11, Louis Russo ’11, and Gabe Gordon ’11.)

NEW YORK CITAAAAY:

  • Date: Thursday, January 12, 2012
  • Place: Sullivan Hall, New York, NY.
  • Time: 8 PM
  • Tickets? Tickets $10 at the door or can be reserved online.
  • Facebook link: !!!!!
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EVENT
Tomorrow: White Fence, Grass Widow, The Appledaughters @ Eclectic

APPLE WHITE WIDOW DAUGHTERS TOMORROW (THURSDAY) NIGHT ECLECTIC LAST CHANCE LIVE MUSIC FALL BREAK CHELSIE GREEN ’14:

The last show before break. Doors at 8:30, show at 9.

White Fence: You’ll probably wonder if you went back to the 1960s. White Fence will give you semi-deranged and distorted psychedelic garage rock that is definitely influenced by that decade. Tim Presley and his touring band work together to create something that is not really like that of the present. No obvious bleep bloops, just some good ol’ rock n roll, ya know?… With some strange sensibilities. Sometimes.

Grass Widow:Grass Widow is an all-girl band comprised of three members who share vocal duties, and individually play guitar, bass, and drums. With these instruments, they create lo-fi post-punk with ethereal vocal harmonies. If you liked Wild Flag (or missed them), you’ll probably want to come to this. Or even more if you wish Dum Dum Girls or Vivian Girls were a little more melodic–here’s your band.

The Appledaughters: Opening the show will be Wesleyan’s own Appledaughters, made up of Sam Long ’12 and Howe Pearson ’12, bringing their unique rock/folk/electronic blend. How do I even describe this? Listen to them, it’s pleasant.

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