As a promotional activity for our show on March 8, 2002, Robert "Mr. Funky" Press and I talked to a writer from the CityPaper...and it turned out wonderfully. A description of one of my recorded live improvisations is the lead paragraph! While it's apparent that what I'm doing wouldn't be the writer's primary choice of listening material, he does a great job describing the milieu and the overall effect. As the City Paper doesn't keep archives on the Web, here's the full article by Justin Hopper, which appeared under the title Rubber Bands:
Listening to Stoic Sex Pro (a.k.a. Maurice Rickard) go through his 10-minute guitar-and-PowerBook epics is a bit of work. Listening to "It Is Highly Concentrated; It Is Pure" live at Duke's bar in North Oakland must have been akin to seeing Throbbing Gristle open a new Kmart or Tangerine Dream play a frat party. But "...Concentrated..." on SSP's self-titled demo/album was, indeed, recorded live at that venerable dive institution -- all 20 minutes of repetitious movie samples, guitar drones and computer glitches.The photo for the article is one of my favorite doctored photos--it's not exactly of me, since I don't actually appear in it, but one of the 6V6s from my Alamo amp does. It's better than your usual head shot, and quite gratifying for it to be in print.To a certain extent, that click-and-glitch bar-band mentality is what spawned The Elastic Concept, an erratic series of shows at local bars and clubs featuring a diverse, purposefully awkward array of local artists that kicks off this Friday. Joining Stoic Sex Pro are lauded indie newcomers The Count-Ups, barroom-blues outfit The City Slickers, genre-bending improv group Clutter, and Elastic Concept founder Robert Press in his one-man organ-music guise, Unfinished Symphonies.
The Elastic Concept's purpose and future are, even according to Press, a little bit selfish: "When I hear four rock bands in a row, by the middle of the second band I don't want to hear rock music for a week." There's no duty-bound musical mission here -- just an opportunity for Press (a.k.a Mr. Funky of Mr. & Mr$. Funky) to showcase the musicians he himself wants to see play together. And that might get a little bit weird.
Clutter, The Count-Ups, Stoic Sex Pro, The City Slickers, and Unfinished Symphonies play at 9:30 p.m. Fri., March 8, at the Memphis Room at Zythos, South Side. 412-481-2234.
But that's not all! The CityPaper also runs a weekly blind listening/review column, in which they play recordings of bands who will be performing during the week, and some unsuspecting soul is asked to provide comments. Here's what Juli Werner had to say about "It Is Highly Concentrated; It Is Pure" from the Stoic Sex Pro CD:
It's really just lots of different noises -- at some points they sound like they're on the verge of breaking into something else, but then don't. It just changes, very gradually. If I were somewhere, and it was playing, I wouldn't go running out of the bar -- but if someone told me they were going to see them play, I wouldn't exactly go running to the bar! I couldn't deal with a whole show like that -- not that it's bad, just that it's not my cup of tea. I think they're probably doing [this kind of music] well, but I don't have any context for judging it. It's so repetitive; it reminds me of when you have a dream where you keep trying to do something over and over again, but you can't accomplish it.While it isn't her thing, I quite enjoyed her comments, for some reason. Her site's swell, too.
As a promotional activity for our show on March 8, 2002, Robert "Mr. Funky" Press and I talked to a writer from the CityPaper...and it turned out wonderfully. A description of one of my recorded live improvisations is the lead paragraph! While it's apparent that what I'm doing wouldn't be the writer's primary choice of listening material, he does a great job describing the milieu and the overall effect. As the City Paper doesn't keep archives on the Web, here's the full article by Justin Hopper, which appeared under the title Rubber Bands:
Listening to Stoic Sex Pro (a.k.a. Maurice Rickard) go through his 10-minute guitar-and-PowerBook epics is a bit of work. Listening to "It Is Highly Concentrated; It Is Pure" live at Duke's bar in North Oakland must have been akin to seeing Throbbing Gristle open a new Kmart or Tangerine Dream play a frat party. But "...Concentrated..." on SSP's self-titled demo/album was, indeed, recorded live at that venerable dive institution -- all 20 minutes of repetitious movie samples, guitar drones and computer glitches.The photo for the article is one of my favorite doctored photos--it's not exactly of me, since I don't actually appear in it, but one of the 6V6s from my Alamo amp does. It's better than your usual head shot, and quite gratifying for it to be in print.To a certain extent, that click-and-glitch bar-band mentality is what spawned The Elastic Concept, an erratic series of shows at local bars and clubs featuring a diverse, purposefully awkward array of local artists that kicks off this Friday. Joining Stoic Sex Pro are lauded indie newcomers The Count-Ups, barroom-blues outfit The City Slickers, genre-bending improv group Clutter, and Elastic Concept founder Robert Press in his one-man organ-music guise, Unfinished Symphonies.
The Elastic Concept's purpose and future are, even according to Press, a little bit selfish: "When I hear four rock bands in a row, by the middle of the second band I don't want to hear rock music for a week." There's no duty-bound musical mission here -- just an opportunity for Press (a.k.a Mr. Funky of Mr. & Mr$. Funky) to showcase the musicians he himself wants to see play together. And that might get a little bit weird.
Clutter, The Count-Ups, Stoic Sex Pro, The City Slickers, and Unfinished Symphonies play at 9:30 p.m. Fri., March 8, at the Memphis Room at Zythos, South Side. 412-481-2234.
But that's not all! The CityPaper also runs a weekly blind listening/review column, in which they play recordings of bands who will be performing during the week, and some unsuspecting soul is asked to provide comments. Here's what Juli Werner had to say about "It Is Highly Concentrated; It Is Pure" from the Stoic Sex Pro CD:
It's really just lots of different noises -- at some points they sound like they're on the verge of breaking into something else, but then don't. It just changes, very gradually. If I were somewhere, and it was playing, I wouldn't go running out of the bar -- but if someone told me they were going to see them play, I wouldn't exactly go running to the bar! I couldn't deal with a whole show like that -- not that it's bad, just that it's not my cup of tea. I think they're probably doing [this kind of music] well, but I don't have any context for judging it. It's so repetitive; it reminds me of when you have a dream where you keep trying to do something over and over again, but you can't accomplish it.While it isn't her thing, I quite enjoyed her comments, for some reason. Her site's swell, too.
