Memorize The Sky 5/24/13 Firehouse 12

Aaron Siegel, drums and percussion: Zach Wallace, standup bass: and Matt Bauder, clarinet, sax, flute, and electronics. Odd trio of jazzbos. Siegel played drums, bells, and a tiny xylophone with roofing nails as mallets. Wallace spent alot of time bowing drone backdrop to the four tunes that comprised the second set. The real attraction was Bauder who approached playing his wind instruments from five inches away from reed or mouthpiece as if the instruments were whispering. Circuit-bending electronics from Bauder offered weird textures and waves of staccato percussion. At one point, these bleeps and blaps sounded like a metronome humping a geiger counter, go figure.

Peter Case 5/7/13 Cafe 9

Peter Case has been around. Born in Buffalo, got into his first band Pig Nation and lived in a house with 20 other hippies. Hitchhiked to Boston and saw Lightnin Hopkins. Moved on to the Nerves, then the Plimsouls. These bands have cobbled an excellent career of guitar-based indie rock. Was a shame that only 20 people came to this show. Peter's hobo look and voice have not changed over the years. "I hear your voice everywhere I go", "Who's gonna cure your crooked mind?", "Poor Old Tom", "Words in Red". Closed with "Saw you in the first light"

David Rothenberg 5/1/13 Peabody Museum

As part of the celebration of the 17yr cicada emergence, sound artist and author Rothenberg sets up in the hall of dinosaurs to play looped whalesongs and cicada drones while playing clarinet or bass clarinet. Not sure if an entomusicologist is a real vocation, but this guy is it. Spoke of the origin of these natural sounds. The whalesong, sung exclusively by males, is just assumed to be an attempt to attract females. Rothenberg points out that there is no evidence showing that whale females have any interest in these songs. I purchased a whale re-mix disc where Rothenberg sent whalesongs to world renowned sound artists (dj spooky, scanner, warren burt, stephen chopek and others) to re-mix. With penpals like that, well you know.

Slobberpup 4/23/13 Cafe 9

Slobberpup, a free jazz skronkfest had Joe Morris on guitar, Jamie Saft on keys, and frenetic drummer. Morris is a local axe-wielder who is on top of the improviser food chain. Saft, whose beard stretches to below his knees, was reviewed in  this blog with his dub trio last year. If you plug Saft's name into pandora, you're likely to get dub, metal, free-jazz, or movie soundtrack music. This music was difficult listening and came to the same sheets of sound as my previous blog entry. While the Akron Family aimed from rock, Slobberpup lasered from jazz.