[NewMusic] Tom Nunn in today's Chron

[jacob felix heule]

You can judge the inanity from the subtitle: "Inventor left academia
to pursue a career in experimental music. He's crafted a variety of
odd instruments, and now has gigs and a CD."

"Music" writers rarely write about music (actually, this doesn't even
claim to be about music - it's "nightlife"). Usually they just write
about hype and bullshit. Since there isn't even any hype surrounding
Tom Nunn, this guy just wrote a bunch of boring historical facts
relating to other musicians nobody knows about (present company
excluded). I guess it's easier to copy this shit down from some one's
bio than to listen to a disc or actually go to a show, think about it
a little bit and write something relevant.

I'll put my money where my mouth is. Not that this is exemplary
writing or anything. But name dropping is kept to a minimum. Brought
to the forefront is discussion of music & musicians' afflictions,
obscure references and inside jokes. If nothing else, it's really
long.


A bunch of memories of recent shows:

Stopped by the Knockout last night and caught the last 10 minutes of
the Weasel Walter Trio. Sounded just like them. Gruntfest on alto sax
playing a lot wailing altissimo shit, as usual. I think he's my
favorite of the rotating saxophonists that play with the group, but
even he has a strong tendency to play notes (listen to Ettrick to hear
my preferred alternate approach). I came in pretty late and these guys
were pretty much soaked in sweat. Some shit had gone down. They told
me the end was the best part, but I would have appreciated it more had
I seen the build-up. Damon showed me his oozing poison oak welts but
said they didn't affect his playing. Check them out Friday night when
Weasel Walter's Cellular Chaos plays with Flaming Horse at 21 Grand.

Tuesday at 21 Grand I saw the Gowns. Their new album, Red State, is
pretty fucking great. I think it's probably my most listened-to album
of 2007. Pushed Willie Nelson right off the charts. Anyway, it was
really cool to see those songs performed live. I enjoyed the addition
of live drums spanning the range from scraping and rattling to awkward
polyrhythms to hard rocking. One or two songs weren't as dense as the
album, but I think that was due to equipment/PA trouble. I'm trying to
think of a highlight and all that comes to mind is the intro of one of
the songs where Erika played a guitar line, then her looping pedal
played it backwards, in which form it fit even better with the rest of
the music. They're about to go on tour, so go hear them if you live
somewhere other than the Bay Area, and buy their album wherever you
may be.

Marnie Stern sounded like a poorly mixed indie rock CD being played
too loudly. In fact, that's what it was. Barr was indie rock too... I
can't get into that stuff, but evidently a lot of people can. 21 Grand
was packed, and it was a damn Tuesday night. Had to leave before Old
Time Relijun started, but I heard a second or two of good throat
singing in their sound check.

Sergio Iglesias & the 69 Beers, Sunday at the Knockout, was complete
stupidity, as usual. I can't say objectively whether it was funny or
not. My bootleg recording sounds like a big mess, which I think we can
be certain it was. Lots of booing.

Noise Pancakes, earlier that day. All of the sets were pretty
middle-of-the-road. Pretty palatable brunch music, but nothing
mind-blowing. Horseflesh had a nice drone guitar thing going. Hora
Flora had a bunch of speakers laying on objects with vibrations
controlled by a sampler. The best sound was a sheet of paper on a
little subwoofer. It seemed a little half-baked, but it was already
miles ahead ahead of his G3 performance from a month or so ago.
Interesting ideas with shaky realization. I'm thinking that this shit
might really gel in about 6 months as sampler button pushing because
less frantic and more controlled, and knowledge of acoustic properties
of resonating objects is solidified. Co(sine) was harsh table pedal
noise. Reminded me of some other guy I saw play at ArtSF, but I think
that was a night noise. Lots of twisted faces and weird postures. I
guess a lot of guys do this, though. I think someone shouted out "Will
Ferrell!" at the end of his set. Brizbomb had a weird mad scientist
set-up. 6-foot tall rack of gear – space echoes and such. White lab
coat, smoke machine, flashing DJ lights. A little corny, but maybe it
would have looked less screwy in a darkened room rather than broad
daylight. Elise Baldwin laptop stuff. I don't really remember what she
did, but I kind of liked it. Maybe my favorite set of the day, but
then why don't I remember anything other than the caricature of her
that adorned her name tag?

Compound Saturday night. Wow. Big bass tones from Damion Romero shook
the fuck out of that room. Speakers were literally falling over and
the poor sound guy had to quick draft people to hold the room
together. If the "predicted" earthquake really did try to strike,
Damion counteracted it, and sent it right back to the earth's core.
About half the sounds (probably every sound above 200 Hz) were
generated by parts of the room shaking. I'm not sure if I would've
liked the clean version better, but the Compound is a pretty
nice-sounding building to shake if you're gonna be shaking a building.
It might have even sounded better outside. I caught a little bit of
the sound check from out there. John Wiese had a brutal white noise
attack. Kept me interested for 20 minutes, or whatever it was, but I
have trouble describing it. Man, my ears didn't want to hear any more
after that set. There was a suitably (probably overly) long
intermission and the two played duo as Waves. They pretty much did the
same thing as their respective solo sets, Damion covering the low end,
and John on the high end white noise. Maybe it was the power of
suggestion, but John really seemed to be going for more of a new age
ocean sound this time – white noise wave swells. Really great. He
dropped out for the last 6 minutes or so while Damion rode out some
really fantastic bass tones. I think this was the sound he was trying
to discover all night.

16 Bitch Pile-Up on Friday was good. Kind of like a reunion, but it
really hasn't been all that long since their last show. They took it a
lot of different places, from quiet solo trumpet to full-on walls of
noise. That was a long time ago at this point, so don't expect any
more talk. They too have a new album which you should listen to. Or
just buy the poster and hang it up over your bed.

One more show brings me all the way back to last Thursday. My first
time seeing Costes. It seemed really stupid at first. Some French
people doing mildly transgressive things while shouting unintelligibly
in French to a pre-recorded sound track with lots of dancey tracks.
Somehow it maintained my interest for the whole show. Perhaps the
escalation of transgressions was perfectly paced. Can't really say I
liked it, but I kept an eye on the freak show the whole time. Had to
take cover when the fake poo started flying. A nice blob ended up high
up on 21 Grand's wall. Before that was Mr. Natural with that
SAXOPHONIST WHO PLAYED ON FUN HOUSE guy. Harsh noise with weird sax, I
think. I don't think I was into it too much. Omnivorous Sinsillium had
their dual analog modular weeding out session. This was the first time
it ever made any sense to me, but still I think those guys are on a
different wavelength. I liked some of it, then I couldn't figure it
out. That almost seems like a good thing – like maybe I'll learn to
love it in 3 years. That's optimism, though. Ill hits from Count Loach
all night long. Any DJ who wears a cape is okay by me. The outstanding
set of the night was Core of the Coalman. Different approach than
usual. The majority of the set was a massive viola drone – brutal and
melancholy, sentimental and cathartic. Just what I wanted to be
hearing. Echoed two days later by the massive walls erected the
Compound. Ended up in something like a pedal noise fury. I was still
riding high from the drone, so I don't really know much about that
part.

The merciless schedule of shows I want to hear and am obligated to
play at continues this week. Never had this problem in Wisconsin. It's
a bit like how the Amish kids always end up hooked on crack during
Rumspringa (see Devil's Playground [2002]... actually, I just told you
the only thing worth gleaning from that movie).