In case you missed it: Weirdomusic.com is ten years old this year. A good reason for a party, don’t you think?
We will celebrate 10 years of Weirdomusic on March 3 at Cultuurhuis Heerlen (The Netherlands) with The Spinshots, Fusée Dorée, DJ Natashka and DJ King Mobe.
Tickets are available here [info in Dutch].
“The Cacophony Society Zone Show” is a retrospective look at the Cacophony Society, a national collective of guerrilla artists, dada pranksters, and various eccentrics pursuing “experiences beyond the mainstream.” Dedicated to activities mocking societal expectations, sacred cows, and good taste, The Cacophony Society evolved from the San Francisco Suicide Club and its members were chief organizers of the Burning Man Festival in Northern Nevada.
The Society’s pranking served as inspiration for the activities of Project Mayhem in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. The exhibition transforms the museums main gallery into a wildly immersive environment filled with photos, graphics, video, props, costumes, and original art from Society events. The exhibition runs through April 15 and admission is FREE!
The Feburary 4th opening will be celebrated with a block party featuring carnivalesque music and performance from artists associated with the Society including Fancy Space People (featuring Don Bolles and Nora Keys) art cars, competing protestors, dangerous stunts, an on-call ambulance, and other surprises.
Check here for all info regarding the exhibtion, block party and preview screening of the documentary “Into the Zone: The Story of the Cacophony Society”.
Sometime in january 2002 a young man from Heerlen, The Netherlands got a brilliant idea: he registered the domain name Weirdomusic.com and began a website. The rest, as they say, is history.
The 10th anniversary of Weirdomusic.com will be celebrated on March 3 in our hometown Heerlen [buy tickets], but for all you fine folks who can’t attend we have something else in mind: why don’t you celebrate with us from your own cosy homes?
Here’s the idea: send us your birthday wishes in a video message and we’ll publish them here and on YouTube! Talk, sing or dance, whatever you like, as long as you mention Weirdomusic.com.
Some rules:
- Your clip should be no longer than two minutes.
- Please don’t use any exotic file formats. Use something we know, like mpeg or wmv.
- Please use a service like Sendspace.com or WeTransfer.com to send your video.
- The e-mail addres to use is marco@weirdomusic.com.
- Don’t forget to send us your name and contact details. We may want to give away some presents.
- We will publish your video on Weirdomusic.com, our YouTUbe Channel and our Facebook page.
So, hook up your (web)cam and get to work! Questions? Just drop us a line.
Musical legend Russ Garcia – whose 70-year career in jazz and film saw him work with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Walt Disney and Clint Eastwood – has died at his home in Kerikeri, New Zealand aged 95.
Garcia died on November 20 after a short illness. He had been in good health until a few weeks ago, when illness forced him to cancel a series of concerts in the US.
A jazz composer and arranger, Russ Garcia was born in Oakland, California, but left at the height of his career in 1966 to sail around the Pacific. He and his wife settled in the Bay of Islands in the 1970s.
His CV includes a list of jazz and Hollywood greats, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis jnr, Walt Disney, Orson Welles, Judy Garland and Charlie Chaplin.
He got his first break from former US president Ronald Reagan, then a radio show director, but was writing music even as a child. The Oakland Symphony Orchestra played one of his arrangements when he was 11 years old. Even at the age of 95 he remained in demand and travelled regularly to the US for work. He also volunteered as a music teacher at primary schools around New Zealand.
Grammy award-winning guitarist Steve Vai will hold a master class at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg, PA on Sunday, September 25th beginning at 2:30pm.
This 3 hour unique musical and educational event will provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Steve Vai’s amazing talent as he demonstrates and discusses guitar techniques, music theory, the music business and methods to discover and unlock an individual’s personal musical identity. A question and answer session will be included, as well as the opportunity for several of the attendees to jam with Steve on stage.
Sponsored by the Perfect 5th Musical Arts Center, located on the Carlisle Pike in Mechanicsburg, the master class will culminate the school’s grand opening weekend.
The Perfect 5th is a new music school in the Harrisburg area that will offer a wide variety of private lessons, along with clinics and master classes. A “rock school” will be included along with classes in songwriting, theory, audio and video production and music business education. Some private lessons are already being offered – check the website for details.
Steve is taking a break from recording his current album to appear in Harrisburg, largely because of his strong belief in music education. Steve’s father, seeing the passion and potential in his son, sold his own life insurance policy in order for Steve to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1998, Steve created the Make a Noise Foundation and is also currently on the board of Hollywood Arts.
Vai’s first professional gig was as a member of Frank Zappa’s legendary band. Those familiar with the popular music of MTV’s early years will remember him from David Lee Roth’s band and Whitesnake. But his creativity and virtuosity are most evident in his solo work, beginning with 1990′s groundbreaking release Passion and Warfare up through his most recent album and DVD project Where the Wild Things Are.
Steve has career sales exceeding 15 million units with 3 Grammy awards and 12 nominations to his credit. He has his own record company – Favored Nations. He also helped design his signature Ibanez JEM series guitar and recently launched GuitarTV.com. A quick YouTube search returns many Steve Vai videos with well over a million hits. In 2000 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from his alma mater, Berklee. His breathtaking facility on the guitar is acclaimed in the rock world and beyond.
Tickets will be available Monday (8/8) at the Whitaker Center box office and online at ThePerfect5th.com. Ticket prices are $45 and $65, along with a very limited amount of $200 VIP packages which include front and center seating, a signed poster and a meet & greet with Steve backstage after the master class.
This is a special opportunity for musicians throughout the mid-Atlantic region, and a truly unique event for the Harrisburg area. It is open to all ages and skill levels.
More info at whitakercenter.org.
Complete casting has been announced for The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, featuring book by Joy Gregory, music by Gunnar Madsen, lyrics by Gregory and Madsen, and story by Gregory, Madsen and John Langs, with direction by Langs. Co-presented by Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop, this new musical will play Playwrights’ Mainstage Theatre, May 2-July 3, with an opening on June 7.
Based on a true story, the show is about a working class dad who believes his vision of rock n’ roll destiny for his three talentless daughters will be the family’s one-way ticket out of hardship and obscurity.
Set in Fremont, New Hampshire in the early ’70s, The Shaggs is based on the true story of a working class dad (Peter Friedman) who has a vision of rock n’ roll destiny for his three talentless daughters, convinced they’re his family’s one-way ticket out of hardship and obscurity. But the girls have ideas of their own – and as their father’s ambition turns to obsession, the price of familial obligation becomes all too clear.
In addition to the previously reported Peter Friedman and Kevin Cahoon, the cast will include Annie Golden, Jamey Hood, Steve Routman, Cory Michael Smith, Sarah Sokolovic, and Emily Walton.
The production will feature choreography by Ken Roht, scenic design by Mimi Lien, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Geoff Korf and sound design by Darron L West. Orchestrations are by Madsen and musical direction is by Aaron Gandy.
On Monday, April 11, the cast and writers of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World met with members of the press at thier first rehearsal. Co-presented by Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop, this new musical will play Playwrights’ Mainstage Theatre, May 2-July 3, with an opening on June 7.
Based on a true story, the show is about a working class dad who believes his vision of rock n’ roll destiny for his three talentless daughters will be the family’s one-way ticket out of hardship and obscurity.
The show features a book by Joy Gregory, music by Gunnar Madsen, lyrics by Gregory and Madsen, and story by Gregory, Madsen and John Langs, with direction by Langs.
The cast will feature Peter Friedman as Austin Wiggin, Jamey Hood as Dot Wiggin, Sarah Sokolovic as Betty Wiggin, and Emily Walton as Helen Wiggin, as well as Kevin Cahoon (Charley/Bobby), Annie Golden (Annie), Steve Routman (Hank), and Cory Michael Smith (Kyle).
More info: www.playwrightshorizons.org
Musicians Ben Folds, Damian Kulash, Amanda Palmer and author Neil Gaiman are joining forces to write and record eight songs in eight hours. The group will work on the material at Berklee College of Music from 4 p.m. until midnight on April 25, releasing the album’s worth of music 10 hours later during Rethink Music in Boston.
The collaboration will be broadcast live from the recording studio at Rethink-Music.com, and the album will be released via Bandcamp.
Proceeds from the first week of downloads will be donated to Berklee City Music, an organization that provides free music education to underserved teens. On April 26, the group will give a presentation on the recording project and give a private performance for conference registrants.
“Can the album cycle actually be reduced to a single day?” Damian Kulash said. “If the recording industry is supposed to be a means of connecting musicians to music listeners, well, then, here it is — spontaneous and circular. They send us ideas and a day later we have an album, a show, and some semblance of a documentary. And then the next day (we hope), a big public flameout and a battle over rights and the release of competing slanderous autobiographies.”
On Thursday, May 12 at the annual Association For Recorded Sound Collections conference, Gail Zappa and Joe Travers will provide an in-depth discussion on the legendary composer Frank Zappa’s bountiful archives.
Hosted by the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive at The Wilshire Grand in downtown Los Angeles, Zappa and Travers will talk about their respective roles in preserving the archive, take questions from the audience and present rare material.
You can register to attend the conference by visiting the ARSC website: http://www.arsc-audio.org/conference/
Gail Zappa is the daughter of a rocket scientist, wife of composer Frank Zappa, mother of Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva Zappa, writer, art director and provocateur. She has changed a million diapers and a few minds – including her own.
Joe Travers is eerily gifted, being from Erie, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of the Berklee College of Music. He is the official “Vaultmeister,” archiving and co-producing material from the Vault for the Zappa Family Trust since 1995. He has also been Dweezil Zappa’s choice as drummer for 18 years, from Z to ZPZ.
Event Details
WHAT: “Preserving and Protecting the Frank Zappa Archives” / 45th Annual Association For Recorded Sound Collections
WHO: Gail Zappa and Joe Travers
WHEN: Thursday, May 12, 1:45pm EST
WHERE: Wilshire Grand / 930 Wilshire Boulevard / Los Angeles, CA 90017
Berkleemusic, the online education division of Boston’s renowned Berklee College of Music, along with Grammy-award winning guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, have announced a call to action for guitarists around the world to join forces and set the Guinness World Record for the largest online guitar lesson on March 3, 2011. This first-of-its-kind initiative will bring together the worldwide community of guitarists in an unprecedented online celebration of music education.
Vai, who is currently recording a new album and preparing for an extensive world tour, is a Berklee alumnus with a devoted fan base in over seventy countries. Although he is not a guitar instructor, Vai is a passionate advocate for music exploration and hopes the event will encourage players to continue to cultivate their own unique style and spirit on the instrument.
The World’s Largest Online Guitar Lesson is a one-time event that takes place Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. EST. Berkleemusic has partnered with Livestream, the pre-eminent live streaming video platform, to host this event in their New York City studio.
Vai’s free online lesson will last 30 minutes, and will provide a look into Steve’s technique with a focus on how guitarists can develop and gain insight into their own playing. In order to further engage with his fans, Steve is also encouraging participants to submit questions to him online, which he will answer onstage at the conclusion of his online lesson. Interested participants can submit questions to Steve on the event’s web page.
As a gesture of its commitment to music education, Berkleemusic will donate one dollar for every person that joins the online lesson to the Steve Vai Online Scholarship Fund at Berkleemusic, which is designed to reward and assist outstanding students studying in Berkleemusic’s multi-course certificate programs.
More info at www.berkleemusic.com/vai-live.
Brooklyn’s Northern-Spy Records is proud to announce the signing of Rhys Chatham, post-minimalist composer and punk-rock luminary, to a two record deal. As one of the innovators of the New York downtown scene, Rhys has pursued a 30-year career that has altered the very DNA of rock music by fusing 60s avant-garde minimalism with the fury of punk. His signing is a crowning jewel to N-SPY’s growing roster of artists who are tenacious, forward-thinking and making devil-be-damned fine music.
Though well-known for his guitar work, Rhys fell in love with the trumpet in the early 80s, a passion he developed secretly for almost a decade. His first Northern-Spy recording, Outdoor Spell, to be released April 12th, 2011, is his first solo trumpet record since the 90s. In his hands, he expands on the spaces explored by Jon Hassell and Don Cherry, creating a new language of spacious droning lines punctuated by lush harmonic shimmers.
In support of the album release, Rhys will play a limited number of dates in select cities in the U.S., Canada, France and England.
