As Tom details here, The Stumps are playing on Saturday night at Happy with Elise&Jem (from Melbourne) and Black Boned Angel.


I don't know Jem, but Elise (originally from Palmerston North) is from such notable Melburnian acts as On, and BadCopBadCop.

Labels: black boned angel, gigs, stumps

Just over the brow of midwinter and the days are getting coooooooold. And it was bloody cold on Saturday night, when I was roaming around Mt Victoria trying to find a friend's place to which I had only been once before, and in quite a state.

Earlier at Happy, whilst sound-checking with Black Boned Angel, Sunken and The Bad Statistics, I found evidence of a Serious Artist in the gents':

Fueled by gin, tequila and beer, we made quite a night of it watching sport and telling tall tales. Go Rodders! Make that 50m break which leads to the try which is the turning point in the match. Go!

And even later, in town, it was a delight to discover a bar from whence one can still obtain a nice beer or two at the relatively late-ish hour of 0430.

Sunday was spent in the embrace of sleep, delicious sleep.

...

Speaking of Black Boned Angel (Myspace), Philip Matthews has written an interesting feature on metal in this week's NZ Listener, including an interview with Black Boned Angel's founder, my mate Campbell Kneale.

...

At the railway station this morning, a deputation of sparrows was dispatched to inquire about the availability of muffin crumbs:

...

NP: Anthony Braxton - - Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 (Church number 9)

most of you will probably have it already. those who don't: get it now!! this would be my first choice for an introduction to braxton, especially for those who are sceptical - who think ab's music is too cerebral, too dry, too humourless etc etc - it annihilates all those objections (braxton and george lewis even blow each other kisses with their mouthpieces at one point!). the all-round playing is fantastic, and as for the horn solos... hey, no less an authority than graham lock regards this album as a highpoint in braxton's recording career, the only question is therefore WHY it has been allowed ONCE AGAIN to lapse out of print... but the comedy prices being quoted by the few retailers who still have it make it clear that's the case.

Thanks..

Labels: black boned angel, music, photos

Post-rock is a done-to-death description but as a semaphore of intent it still serves a certain purpose. First coined by music-journo Simon Reynolds as a term to describe progressive music "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords", it's use was rapidly spread during the 90s by breathless writers suddenly overwhelmed by seemingly-infinite possible music-futures. Reynolds further expounded:

perhaps the really provocative area for future development lies... in cyborg rock; not the wholehearted embrace of Techno's methodology, but some kind of interface between real time, hands-on playing and the use of digital effects and enhancement.

... which in itself has turned out to be suitably ambitious, as in general attempts at an amalgam of real-time instrumentation and digital frippery have turned out to be a big horrible mess (with notable exceptions, of course).

However some have managed to find a kinda cautious way-forward through this experimental minefield, and on Saturday night four progressive musical groups take four individual post-rockin' approaches to deconstructing sound within the codified meta-language of rock music:

...some of Wellington's greatest rock explorers...

The Postures will have you shakin' yer booty and shaking in your boots with their disco/doom rhythms combined with piercing tones and a punk delivery. The Stumps are quite possibly the Grateful Dead for the 21st century... noxious jazz-fusion is administered a good spanking to within an inch of the (current) law. Join The Dukes of Leisure on an idler's stroll through huge spaces of gentle melodies surrounded by walls of violent and engulfing noise. And Black Boned Angel is uber-ambient doom-metal created from massively overdriven instruments... the aural equivalent of a tequila and opiates-bender followed by a five-day crying jag.

SATURDAY APRIL 14th
SAN FRANCISCO BATH-HOUSE
10$

The last Black Boned Angel performance:

Labels: black boned angel, gigs, music, promotions, youtube

On Saturday night, I chugged along to see Wellington's own world-famous doom-metal outfit Black Boned Angel (at Scottish mailorder outlet Volcanic Tongue; Salient review) at a little venue in Newtown called Uproar.

Here is a little animation of "lead guitarist"* Campbell Kneale playing his guitar during the show. It runs at about 4x speed (yes, that does mean he was "thrashing" really really really slowly).

The venue is actually underground, in a local grindcore band's practice space. It has a 'stud' of about 6'5" and is the coolest practice space I've ever seen. The entire place is thoroughly soundproofed with mattresses, old couches, egg-trays and the works, all painted black and stapled or otherwise affixed to the wall; very professional.

My ears are still ringing, though.

*a little joke: as in he leads, and James (right) follows.

(click to enlarge images)

Labels: black boned angel, music