Fringe Era Mix: El Ingenio

The second mix in our Fringe Era Mix series is by El Ingenio, aka Orr Shtuhl. Besides a great ear for music, Orr also appreciates a good beer and writes the Beer Spotter column for the DC City Paper. One of the reasons I started this mix series was to hear new, interesting music that I may have missed along the way. El Ingenio does not disappoint here. This mix offers up some old favorites and soon to be new favorites.

Download Fringe Era Mix: El Ingenio (zSHARE)

1. The Shadows - Man of Mystery
2. Ariel Zilber - Movie Instead
3. Grand Ole Party - Belle Isle
4. The Sonics - Have Love Will Travel
5. The Cheap Seats - Our Day at the Zoo
6. Jim Noir - Key of C
7. Barbara Howard - I Don't Want Your Love
8. Peter Bjorn and John - Teen Love
9. Ed Harcourt - Hanging With the Wrong Crowd
10. Delta Spirit - Crippler King
11. Jim Croce - Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)
12. Man Man - Doo Right
13. Kelley Stoltz - Ever Thought of Coming Back

35 minutes and 47 seconds
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Sonic Circuits Showcase @ Artomatic on May 30

Sonic Circuits is hosting a very special showcase this Saturday, May 30, at the annual Artomatic in Washington, DC. The event is being held in a building that is atop the Navy Yard Metro Station on Artomatic’s Cabaret Stage 2nd floor. If you have a moment, stop on by the Cabaret Stage for some of the area's most talented experimental noisemakers:

Performer	Time
Robert Blake Highway	4pm
Kingdom of Sharks	430pm
Sean Peoples	5pm
Layne Garrett	530pm
Dave Vosh+Logan Mitchell Sr.	6pm
Nine Strings	630pm
Fast Forty	7pm
RDK	730pm
Soft Pieces	8pm
BLK w/ BEAR+VJ Poppins	830pm
Pilesar	9pm
The Angus Brainpan	930pm
Tone Ghosting	10pm
Twenty-first Century Chamber Ensemble	1030pm
Second Land	11pm
Kuschty Rye Ergot	1130pm
Slug Bait	12am
Aerosolized Mucus	12:30am

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Sockets Records Intern

With a bunch of new releases slated for the end of the summer and late 2009, Sockets Records is looking for an amazing, talented intern. Ideally I will need interested candidates for six to ten hours a week. Although it is not a paid internship, I can offer the entire Sockets back catalog as well as plenty of other goodies as they come, not to mention a killer recommendation. Please get in touch via the email address at the bottom of this website. Also, if you are reading this and know of a person looking for something like this, please pass the info along.
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Culturebot: Emily Krell

Emily Krell is a big part of Representing NYC, the project that curates youth hip-hop records -- the first of which was The Fly Girlz cd put out by Sockets earlier this year. She also manages ZS, another band put out by Sockets. So it was exciting to see Emily featured in Culturebot's "Five Questions" segment today.
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New Chris Lynn - "After the Montreal Rain (Clutter Reworking)"

Chris Lynn just sent over an epic 35 minute piece, entitled "After the Montreal Rain (Clutter Reworking)", from his latest effort On My Way To The Cinema. The piece was remixed by Shaun Blezard, hence the Clutter Reworking. The album is out now on Earth Monkey Productions where it is available for download. Chris is a filmmaker and sound artist in the Washington, DC area. He released his first cd, Audible Landscapes, on Sockets in 2007. Here is a link for the new track (available for the next 7 days!).

Download "After the Montreal Rain (Clutter Reworking)" 34:42 (YouSendIt)
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Cornel West Theory

Back when Sockets started in 2004, one of my favorite bands in DC was the Cornel West Theory. So when I heard they are finishing up their first proper full-length, Second Rome, I got really excited. The band is a unique live experience with a message that challenges conventional political sensibility. With the blessing of Dr. Cornel West, the Princeton University professor and renowned author, the band takes its inspiration from the nation’s capital’s rich musical history and the struggles of poor people worldwide.

Check out the band's performance of "Prophetic Suicide" at the Rock'n'Roll Hotel:

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HUME Performing "Bells Burnt" in India

I met up with Brit, aka HUME, this week at Burritos Fast in Mt. Pleasant, DC. He handed me a dvd with what he said was footage of a song he wrote while in India and performed while floating on a boat down a river in India. The video begins with a montage of sights and sounds from Brit's three month trip and then segues into "Bells Burnt".



Brit's description of the footage gives a lot more insight:

As the sun rose and the chai was guzzled down tired throats we made our way towards an ancient Mahrajahee palace that over looked the Ganges and had been untouched in 700 years. All the musicians jumped on motorcycles and rickshaws in pearl white gowns to arrive to the shoot with a good amount of excited energy. Fifteen of us musicians, friends, and curious onlookers climbed over a chipped brick roof top and slowly made our way to the center of the palace. Five minutes before we were going to roll tape we got shut down. We had caused such a scene that the security (drunk old men) showed up and demanded 10,000 rupees ($200) as a bribe for allowing to shoot. Broke and tired we jet set towards the river, rented a boat and began the morning. The actual performance caught in this video captures a lot of the spontaneous prose I was trying capture within the music. The madness during the morning may be reflected in some of the stills. Dead bodies floating by, engines cutting out,the wind having it's ways and 115 degree sun on the rise. You can see me laugh as one of my friends who got left on the banks comes up towards the boat we were all on nicely bearing gifts of coffee and fruit. Another oddity is you can also see a film crew from Spain whom I later befriended and worked with floating off in the background shooting their flick about an alien. The feeling of immediacy tends to hold you hostage in a city like Varanasi, even when trying to document I was still caught in the flow of the cities will. The song we used here is titled "Bells Burnt" and is an attempt to capture some of the micro vs macro parts of life that I often forget about.

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Fly Girlz CDs Available in Colette

The Paris-based curated boutique Colette now carries copies of The Fly Girlz cd. I have it from good sources that this place caters to the hip kids. For those living in Paris or if you're just passing through, do yourself a favor and stop by Colette to peruse the hand-picked selection of fashion, music, books, art, and the like.
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Layne Garrett Improv Video

One of our favorite musician/artists, Layne Garrett, recorded a prepared guitar improvisation a couple of years ago. Enjoy:


Also, check out a great live recording Layne posted from January 2009.
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ReadysetDC Interviews DC Mini Gallery

Two weeks ago some of the All Our Noise crew and I attended the opening of the DC Mini Gallery. It's an amazing space in the 14th Street Heights section of DC that will be an eclectic boutique of awesomeness. I just read an interview with the brains behind the operation, Michael Harris and Lindsay Hart, over at one my favorite new blogs ReadysetDC. Make sure to read the interview and then head over to the Mini Gallery as soon as you can.

(Photo by Raul De Leon)
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Fly Girlz Freestyle on WFMU

Check out WFMU's Beastin' the Airwaves with Keili for a mini set of freestyle rhymes by Nine-11 Thesaurus and The Fly Girlz. You can purchase the new Fly Girlz cd Da'Brats From Da'Ville for $12 through Sockets Records online via Paypal.

(Nine-11 Thesaurus pictured above at New Museum Fly Girlz Release Party)
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Fringe Era Mix: Occupational Athlete

Sockets Records is pleased to announce a new mix series that highlights pop music from the fringes. We asked Patrick Connolly, aka Occupational Athlete, to compile some of the songs he’s been listening to lately for the inaugural mix. Patrick didn’t disappoint – this is a great collection to usher in the summer. Enjoy:

Download Fringe Era Mix: Occupational Athlete (zSHARE)

1. The Monks - Blast Off!
2. Guv'ner - Baby's Way Cruel
3. Daniel Higgs - Skull Song
4. Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell - Ramblin' Man
5. Then Ten – Untitled
6. Racooon - On The Roof
7. The Pastels - Firebell Ringing
8. El Perro Del Mar - Can't Talk About It
9. Arthur Lee - Everybody's Gotta Live
10. Holy Modal Rounders - Cocaine Blues
11. Steps - Ibu Kota
12. Harumi - Hunters of Heaven
13. Incredible String Band - Lover Man
14. Judee Sill - Emerald River Song

38 minutes and 6 seconds.

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Big Gold Belt

One of my favorite new DC bands is Big Gold Belt. Began as more of a recording project, Christina and Luke started playing a few shows around town late in 2008. Christina's early 4-track forays provided the basis for the unique sound the two describe as "glitzy dance and VHS noise dreams." Check out the tracks they have up on the band's Myspace page - "Wait" and "Ice Cream" are my two current favorites.
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Hume Videos up at All Our Noise

The good folks over at All Our Noise just posted two videos by Britton Powell's band Hume. This is some beautiful stuff:

AON Sessions: Hume, "Grip" from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

AON Sessions: Hume, "Wise Light Born" from All Our Noise on Vimeo.

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Little Women

I just found this video of Little Women playing at Death by Audio in NYC. Wow. If you need anymore convincing this should do the trick:

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DC Mini Gallery Launch Party Tonight

The new DC Mini Gallery will be doing a launch party (sort of) and seems like a really cool space where you will be able to do things like:

buy vinyl records
buy vintage clothes
buy art
make art
make love (hugs!)
see music
eat cupcakes
watch movies
sit on a couch
drink tea


The space is located at 4702 14th Street NW, Washington, DC.

Tonight there will be performances by:

DJ Natty Boom
Pree
Br'er
The Laughing Man

FREE, but donations approved!
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Blues Control | Protect-U | Chandeliers Show @ Kansas House

Do your ears a favor and head over to the Kansas House next Friday, May 15th, to experience the heady vibes of Blues Control, the double-rainbow-esque-ness of DC's Protect-U, and the visceral weirdo-jungle-dub of Chicago's Chandeliers. I've just spent a better part of the day soaking up all of the goodness from each band's myspace pages and have determined that it's going to be a really awesome show.

The Kansas House was one of the most consistent DIY show venues in the DC area in the 90s and early 00s. Luckily, they are scheduling shows once again. Located in Arlington, VA the inhabitants of the house do this area a service by allowing complete strangers to come in and soak up the sounds of local experimental/punk/indie bands.
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Britton Powell Update from India

I just received a pretty inspirational update from Bitton Powell who is still in India, but coming back to the District soon:

I just returned from the peaks of the himalayas where silence took on a whole other meaning. Guided by the bells of ponies we climbed and climbed and climbed and then took rest. When we reach villages all the rocks and trees I've been climbing past turn into to children who swarm the camp. The five old year mountain kids seem wiser then I'll ever be, though the they're so fresh with youth you can still feel how weatherd there souls are. I arrived in rishikesh last night and I'm currently on the look out for where george harrison dropped his roach clip. A town like rishikesh is for travellers who want to see the himalayas but don't wish to experience them, I'd say the ocean city of india. Places like rishikesh remind the beauty and uniqueness of a place like Varanasi, where I've spent the previous 2 1/2 months. It's a city on a river. The holiest river in the world. It's believed to actually be a crack in shivas head and the blood the pours from it is actually the ganges. The city is lined with millions of mazed alleyways that one could get lost in for days. Every corner you turn makes you feel like your walking through the pages of a national geographic. Truly a place to mark down on your list of where to go next. While there I studied with a sarangi teacher and wroked on some of my own compositions with local college students. Though the langauge and time barrier was steep we were able to climb over it. The way they twist riddims is mind boggling and there inate sense of melody just flows and flows. Every rehearsal was accompanied by gallons of tchai,street sounds that never cease, and power outages that steamed the music quite a bit. I remeber during one passage the violnist and I were locked in an improvosation and the energy kept rising and rising in his counterpoint and I couldn't help but burst out laughing professing how much he would love bach. It's been unbelievable experience thus far and I really can't wait to share everything that we've worked on when I return.

We have a bunch of copies of Brit's amazing LP Hume Presents the Phat Daughter String Quartet that you can purchase from us!

Hume Presents the Phat Daughter String Quartet LP - SCKTS006 $12ppd
(International orders add $3)

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Many Hills Massive Sound System

Many Hills Massive, the creative/zine publishing/noise/sound system moniker of Bob Doto (also co-founder of SPRCSS) just sent us a couple of goodies. First, I'll post the dancehall mix he sent over that you should download as soon as possible:

"Many Drop Ram Jam" - Many Hills Massive Sound System (zSHARE)








Stay tuned for another mix, but in the meantime, check out New Summer -- a dub-text/aural-crust mini-zine with four blistering, focused noise compositions on a 3” mini-cdr released by Sockets last summer for Many Hills Massive. The release is still available for $8 postage paid via Paypal.

Bob's band SPRCSS were filmed last year at DC's Lighthouse. Here's the video:

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Sonic Circuits at Artomatic

Sonic Circuits will be curating a stage at this year's Artomatic. A bunch of local DC sound artists will be performing Saturday May 30 and it looks to be a great lineup. I will be performing along with a few Sockets Records alumni including Layne Garrett and Tone Ghosting. The flier is pretty awesome:


It's all free and will take place between 4pm and 1am.

Sonic Circuits at Artomatic
Cabaret Stage, 2nd Floor
55 M Street SE
Washington, DC

For more info head over to the Sonic Circuits site.
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District of Noise

District of Noise documents Washington, DC's experimental sounds by offering up free mp3s of local performances by musicians and sound artists. Check out the new Vector Trio recording from early April. Or watch Layne Garrett live out the Lighthouse. District of Noise provides a home for some of the most interesting sounds DC has to offer and fosters a community of like-minded noise explorers.
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