Toledo Bellows is hosting a house concert this Friday (December 12, 2008) at the Robinwood Concert House in the Old West End of Toledo with a crew of experimental poets, musicians, and sound artists from the Language Foundry (Cleveland) and local hosts KBD.

The evening will feature:

• J Guy Laughlin - controlled snare drum feedback and bowed metal
• Fluxmonkey - electronic and electroacoustic improv using mostly homebuilt instruments
• Jose Luna - strings and electronics
• Tom Orange - language, sound, and poetics
• J.S. Makkos - sound, language, and poetics
• KBD - improvisational sonic manipulation

The evening begins at around 9:30. The event is free and BYOB, but please bring a few bucks to donate to the out of town musicians and poets. The Language Foundry makes their own books, so they’ll probably have some stuff to buy as well.

The Robinwood Concert House is located at: 2564 Robinwood Ave, Toledo OH 43620 (Phone: 419-654-5544)

Come one, come all to the Secor Gallery/Studio in downtown Toledo for the 2008 “‘Tis the Secor” event. KBD will be playing at around 9 pm, but there is music and open studios and galleries all night. The event is free.

From colinhelb.com pictures

http://www.archive.org/details/TwoFace

Recorded by Anton Jessberger and compiled for the Fall 2008 Mini Tour, here is TWO FACE by KBD.

01. Battleground State
02. Unbecoming
03. Black Anemones
04. Throwback
05. Trichrotic

All music improvised by M. Kimaid, G. Beam, and C. Helb. 
Recorded at the Robinwood Concert House, Toledo, Ohio, September 2008.

(from Mike, more at KBD’s MySpace)

(from C. Randolph C.)

The mini tour ended on extreme high notes. Due in part to the hospitality of Soundlab in Buffalo, we were able to leave our equipment in the space over night and pack up leisurely in the morning. So, following our breakfast, during which Mike ran into an old friend randomly on the street (a member of the newly-reformed Earth Crisis), we headed over to Soundlab to pack and prep for our drive. It was a nice quick drive.

We did an early, all-electronic show at Bella Dubby (their coffee is fantastic and the muffin I ate was pretty spectacular as well). Afterwards, we high-tailed it over to The Language Foundry, a pretty amazing non-profit poetry, art, and music, collective run by a guy named Joseph. The show went well, the poetry was wonderful and delivered without pretension, the soup prepared by Jose was inspirational*, and the evening seemed to be endless.

The Language Foundry is a great example of a young and working non-profit. Joseph makes his own books, is really interested in creating an active dialogue between Cleveland and other “forgotten cities” such as New Orleans, and really knows how to make traveling musicians, artists, and writers feel welcome.

* Jose’s soup inspired me to make my own day-long-cooking vat of bean soup (pictured above) in celebration of the autumnal weather outside and as a rather tasty tool of procrastination.

Tomorrow, I work…

From colinhelb.com pictures

We had a beautiful drive from the weird and gross motel we stayed in outside of Bard. We found a diner we liked so much, we ate there twice. Once at 3 am and again at 11 am. Thankfully, we visited during two different shifts and didn’t have the same waitress.

Early fall in upstate New York is something pretty spectacular.

Mike is from Buffalo, so we got a fifty-cent tour of the city as we rolled in.

Soundlab is an old Cheer’s chain bar with great black and white tiles. Nice space.

The guys from Tentet/Octet (old touring buddies of Gabe and Mike) met us and helped us load in and/or ate some dinner with us.

Unfortunately, no one really showed up for the gig. Seriously, like 6 people or so.

Fortunately, we took the opportunity to do a little experimentation within the experimentation. 

We decided to try playing with five of us (the three of us and the two from Tentet/Octet) to see what it sounded like. Before we knew it, more than two hours had passed in which we somewhat organically morphed between different configurations of the two bands.

1st: KBD + Tentet/Octet
2nd: KBD
3rd KBD to Tentet/Octet transistion
4th: Tentet/Octet
5th: Tentet/Octet + KBD
6th: different and ever-changing versions of the above, complete with interpretive bar stool tossing and manipulation by Michael the bartender.

Stayed up far too late, crashed at the Tentet/Octet house, and now we slowly make our way to Cleveland for two gigs in one night and the final leg of this Mini Tour.

(added October 29, 2008: the above picture is from the Sonic Circuits Festival in Washington, DC. Taken by Joe Smith)

If you are a young man or woman in charge of booking independent, experimental, alternative-venue, free, avant garde, and/or non-commercial shows with at least one out-of-town group on the bill, or you hope to be such a person, let me offer a dime’s-worth of advice.

1. The band coming in from out of town probably has no idea where the venue and/or the town is. This becomes increasingly so as the venue and/or town is more obscure and more non-traditional. Guide them in.

2. If you are aware of approximately what time the band is getting to the venue, make sure someone is there to meet them or try to get to the venue to meet up with them as soon as humanly possible following their arrival.

3. The band does not know anyone there. Try to be friendly and cordial and encourage others to do the same. 

4. The band has likely been in a van and/or car for the better part of the day. Offer them something to eat and/or a beer. A clean bathroom. A glass of water. 

5. The band is likely on tour first and foremost because they want to do what they are doing. If they weren’t enjoying themselves, they wouldn’t be doing it. This is specially true in regards to playing in alternative and non-commercial venues. The band does not expect to make much money, but they likely spent a fair amount of money to get to the gig and expect to get something. “Indie Rock Rule of Thumb” states you give the out-of-town bands something for their troubles. If there is a cover, this goes to the out-of-towers. If there is not a cover, other methods of compensation should be sought. This may include, but is not limited to: something towards gas and tolls (this can be as little as forty or fifty dollars and can be accrued by way of passing a hat around the room, purchasing some of their merchandise, and/or paying out-of-pocket), a place to stay (in the form of a cheap motel room, a guest bedroom, or some floor-space), a meal, a sandwich, and an attentive audience.

Karma is a bitch and word gets around. Most touring bands also have some pull in their respective home towns. 

Alternative venues are a rarity in this country. Interesting and unusual places are usually a joy to visit and to perform in, but just because something is non-commercial and free to attend, does not mean that the performance is also free. 

Lesson over.

Our set went real well. We played third. We contact mic’ed the steel cables of the garage doors and had fun playing with the lively and active room. 

Paul Goodwin is a good guy and does some interesting stuff. If you are in or near Brooklyn tonight, go see him at a place called something like The Dead Herring. 

The duo that did the tapes and guitar work was very cool too and Scott (right, Scott?) did some interesting stuff to open the show.

“My Old School” has new meaning to all of us following our first trip to Annendale-on-Hudson.

Last night’s show was a lot of fun. We played first and shared the bill with primarily more jazz oriented groups. In other words, we were the only group without a horn to be found amongst us. 

Gabe and I took the metro into DC around three, while Mike and his friend Joe met up with another friend in College park. Gabe and I had an overpriced, but delicious, late lunch at an open air french place in Dupont Circle. We asked the waitstaff for a place with good beer. The directed us towards a place called the Something-skeller or something like that. After walking around for a while we found it, unfortunately it wasn’t open.

We walked took a cab to the Velvet Lounge, which was also closed, and had a beer at a place we are pretty sure was a gay sports bar. Not in the sense of a derogatorily referred to bar (ala “this place is gay”) but an actual gay sports bar. Interesting. Flat screen tv’s with sports on every wall, sports memorabilia, coupled with seven dollar Stellas, two kinds of toilet paper in a bathroom with fancy fancy fixtures and full-doored bathroom stalls, and a large amount of gay men working and drinking.

We found a dumpster full of broken drum gear and invented a back story involving a drunk and ornery heavy metal drummer who was fired mid-set. Gabe got himself a new drum stool potentially covered with the ass sweat of said heavy metal drummer.

The doors to the bar opened far later than we had hoped, but we got to meet Paul Flagherty and a few members of Fight the Big Bull from Richmond, Virginia while waiting outside. 

Our set went real well — especially for my first set with KBD in its “orthodox” trio formation. We set up in front of the stage and played while Marty McCavitt from Fight the Bull fiddled silently with his gear behind me. It was an interesting sensation and caused a bit of welcome urgency and anticipatory expectation to the set (for me, at least).

Fight the Big Bull were monsters. Real interesting big band stuff. Two trombones, two saxes, a drummer, bassist, guitarist (who also appeared to be the band leader), and the afore mentioned keyboardist who, among a gaggle of gear, had a sort of deconstructed autoharp sitting atop his Rhodes.

Next up, was a free improv group with Elliot Levin from Philly. I re-introduced my self to him before the gig and mentioned some common folk we know from Philly. He filled me in on some of the latest from home. The group was the creation of drummer, Scott Verrastro, who also booked the show that evening. 

Last up for the evening was the duo of Paul Flaherty and Randall Colbourne. For those who stuck around, they were treated to some real pros of free improv. Just a sax and drums. Real expressive and real cool.

We left the Velvet Lounge following the sets only to have to return in order to rescue Gabe’s forgotten credit card.

Next, off to Bard College.

Taking advantage of my “open invitation” to perform with the mercurial KBD over the next few weeks, if you are interested in seeing Mike, Gabe, and I play guitars, pedals, objects, “the rage,” springs, drums, radios, feedback, no-input mixers, contact microphones, and other stuff, please venture to one of the following locations:

Friday, September 26, 2008
Mickey Finn’s (Toledo, OH)
A “Table Top” performance
with Gabe, Mike, Colin, and Jason Zeh
also performing: Sword Heaven (Columbus), Ripped Krampus II, and The Seven Deadly Five 

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Velvet Lounge (Washington DC)
Sonic Circuits of Festival of Experimental Music
also performing: Paul Flaherty/Randall Colbourne, Elliott Levin/Dan Scofield/Aaron Martin/Britton Powell/Scott Verrastro, and Ride the Big Bull w/ Marty McCavitt

Thursday, October 2, 2008
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)

Friday, October 3, 2008
Soundlab (Buffalo, NY)

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Bela Dubby (Lakewood, Ohio)

Thursday, October 16, 2008
Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (Detroit, MI)

Saturday, October 25, 2008
House Party (Toledo, OH)