Wild in the Streets, Calm in the Seas
Posse on Broadway, Busywork Turns 1, and Super Minerals Get Oceanic
A THREE-WAY ON BROADWAY
Strength lies in numbers, and three is the magical one, as they say (“they” are rarely wrong, even if they often go heavy on the clichés). That's how you can view Posse on Broadway, a new collective effort geared to liven up a two-block stretch of downtown Santa Ana's Artists Village on the third Friday of every month, starting June 20.
Mute 97's Joseph Wilsonand Ralph Milan instigated the idea to link three of this SanTana hood's hippest haunts for some nightlife synergy to burn. With assistance from B! Productions, as well as participating venues Memphis Café, The Crosby and Proof Bar, Posse on Broadway hopes to shine klieg lights on the music, fashion, art and general partying skills that swirl within their establishments and typically spill onto the namesake street itself.
Wilson says that POB's goal is “to get up to 1,000 people to visit these establishments on this night and return as customers in subsequent visits.” Toward that end, the triumvirate of locales will execute a different theme for their music, art and fashion.
The inaugural POB stacks up like this: DJ Nobody and Roam N Urth spin their usually brilliant mishmash of non-obvious gems at the Crosby; at Proof Bar, Wendy City, Nate Day, Billy Noorlag, Ana Calderon, DJ Legit, Ben N and Rockberry spin bold-faced/italicized, electro-fried cuts while SPRFKR and Twelvayem provide live art and The Chimera Project snap photos of the action for eternal bloggish glory; over at Memphis, able selectors GMO, Mr. White and No MSG throw down party jams that have been tested to get you moving on the dance floor—and perhaps even to the boudoir.
Posse on Broadway is a multidisciplinary ménage à trois that's been a long time coming. Three cheers for everybody involved.
For more information, visit www.mute97.com, www.myspace.com/thisisthecrosby and www.myspace.com/muteoc.
BUSYWORK'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY
Meanwhile, the tireless Dan Sena's Busywork marks a year's worth of weekly parties that bring a heady collision of rock and high-energy dance music to Detroit Bar. Dude puts in mad hours (and more MySpace bulletins than you can believe) to realize his vision, and it's one worth supporting. On Wednesday, you can get your raucous groove on to the selections of Thee Mike B, GMO, Public (from San Francisco),Clifford Lidell, Damager, Faded Tequila Wormz(from Elsewhere), Yooks, Louisahhh!!! and Sena himself. Don't forget your sweatbands, playa.
AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF SUPER MINERALS
Regular Sprawl of Sound readers know that this columnist has a lot of time and love for Long Beach quintet Magic Lantern. One of the great things about Magic Lantern is that their members often break off into satellite groups or solo projects, which results in yet more aural sweetness being released into the atmosphere.
Case in point is the new CD-R by Super Minerals titled The Pelagics (on ML multi-instrumentalist Phil French's Stunned Records). Super Minerals (French and Lantern guitarist William Giacchi) have the audacity to think you have the patience to listen to five wordless songs (averaging nine to 18 minutes in duration) that attempt to reflect the “five classified depth zones of the ocean,” as the label website describes it. You probably don't possess that long an attention span, but if you can somehow summon it, you will be rewarded.
“Photic” begins the disc with 11 minutes of Giacchi's contemplative, glistening guitar tones that just sort of revolve in space like a bejeweled mobile dangling in a cathedral far off the grid. “Mesopelagic” mutates metallic sonorities into mournful whale bellows for some anti-new-age, ambient agitation. “Bathyal” (the shortest track at 8:47) recalls some of Bardo Pond's aqueous space-outs in which time seems to be suspended and the whole world appears to be enclosed inside a tolling bell. This music is dazed and glazed, and I wish it would go on for days. “Abyssal” is fainter, its attenuated drones seemingly emanating from a seashell. This effect lends the track an alienating poignancy. The 18-minute closer “Hadal” sounds like a lot of the beatless soundscaping issued by the Kranky label (Christopher Bissonnette, Tim Hecker, Lichens, Loscil, Stars of the Lid, etc.). Forlorn foghorn moans, distant wind chimes and faraway chants coalesce into a threnody for Earth's bodies of water. It's deep—maybe too deep.
Word from Mr. French is there's one copy left of The Pelagics.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/magiclanternmako and www.stunnedrecords.blogspot.com.
