EXTC w/ Bud Collins Trio 4/16/25 Space Ballroom

 Bud Collins Trio haunted juke joints near UConn when I was there in the 80s. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a Bud Collins, and I seem to recall more than 3 members though that might be collegial double vision. Noodly, guitar centric jams dominate their output. Guitar, drums and bass make the trio on this evening. The guitarist singer had wire rimmed glasses that slid down his nose in a Schumeresque fashion. BC3 are about my vintage and you can sense they were gushing to open for any incarnation of the 80s-90s punk pop powerhouse known as XTC.

EXTC is Terry Chambers, original XTC drummer, joined by guitar and bass to stroll through the XTC catalog. Few bands have a flawless record, in my opinion, XTC has two. English Settlement from 1982 and the Todd Rundgren produced Skylarking from 1986. The original band was fronted by singer songwriter Andy Partridge, bassist Colin Moulding, guitarist Dave Gregory, and Chambers. Injecting art-pop sensibility with a decidedly British punk ethos, XTC were college radio darlings. Partridge was quirky, he suffered from severe stage fright, quashing any notion of a tour. Adding to their appeal, the band served up the single Dear God which riled the censorship police in Britain. Maintaining a small cult status, Chambers convinced his ex-band mates to allow him to tour the material after all these years. The setlist was stellar. This is Pop, No Language in Our Lungs, Ball and Chain, Real by Reel, Towers of London, Senses Working Overtime, Burning With Optimism’s Flames, The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, King For a Day, The Mayor of Simpleton, No Thugs in Our House, Sgt Rock, Respectable Street, Living Through Another Cuba/ Generals and Majors, Making Plans for Nigel, Stupidly Happy, and closed with Life Begins at the Hop. Listening to these songs, I wonder if Partridge realized how hard they would be to recreate live. While there is no substitute for the campy Parttridge, the stand in guitar and bass tag teamed vocal duties to great effect. The guitarist even enlisted the crowd to sing backup on Ball and Chain and Nigel. Chambers was a force on drums. Ball and Chain, Living Through Another Cuba showcase a tribal backbone. 80s XTC caught lightning in a bottle and the flame still burns for a new audience. Glad that Chambers finally got a chance to tour this classic back catalog.

Alan Sparhawk w/ Circuit Des Yeux 4/4/25 Space Ballroom

 Glad to have entered early enough to catch a couple of tunes from CDY. Circuit Des Yeux from Chicago has one member, voice and electronics artist Haley Fohr. Armed with an otherworldly vocal range, effects table with voice manipulator and drum machine, Fohr applies her voice to clubby, industrial slices of her catalog. I saw her about ten years ago in the back room at Bar. On that evening she knelt in the corner and growled into the microphone for her set. Perennial critic’s darling, Fohr exudes uncompromising artist vibe. Look her up on Spotify and notice an intriguing side project, The Ballad of Jackie Lynn, where Haley inhabits the persona of a coked-out country singer and performs a song cycle about her dysfunctional fictitious life. Her booming low register is sampled and processed to produce a club choir amalgam.

Alan Sparhawk is adrift. Duluth resident started the critically acclaimed indie band Low in the 90s. Sparhawk formed Low with childhood friend and eventual wife Mimi Parker. Parker played drums and sometimes bass while Sparhawk played guitar. The real treat was their vocal duets. The voices chillingly complemented each other. Listen to under the radar records like The Great Destroyer or The Invisible Way and I dare you not to become a Low fan. In 2022, tragedy struck when Parker died of cancer. One can only imagine the personal and artistic devastation that resulted. Burying himself in his craft, Alan’s output has been uncompromising and wide ranging. On one recent recording, he puts his voice through some ultra pitch tuned modulator that sounds like a cross between Alvin of Chipmunks fame crossed with Laurie Anderson in a helium chamber. Largely unintelligible vocals set to dance beats are an unusual extension of the lyric heavy crescendo slowcore known as Low. His most recent record, backed by the Americana group Trampled By Turtles, is a delicious collection of literate songs. Unsure what to expect on this evening, the show starts with a set from the Chipmunk recording. Sparhawk joined by bass, and drums jumps around maniacally, like some kid that just raided the Molly cabinet. Perhaps dance therapy is one way to shake off the grief. The drummer even has red plastic rimmed glasses as if he were trying out for the Buggles. Alan switches to guitar for the second half and pulls from the other excellent recording. The versatility is amazing, at one point doing a cover from the recently departed Roy Ayers. Finishes the set with a nod to another recently deceased hero, David Lynch. While chatting with Manic Mark, I got a funny story about seating requirements from Low, we both resolve that Sparhawk is a true artist and can do whatever the fuck he wants. This evening will go down as a showcase of the resilient wide ranging artists on the scene. From the modern composition activism of Raven Chacon, to the vocal creativity of Haley Fohr, capped by the grief release of Alan Sparhawk…..wow.

Raven Chacon 4/4/25 CCAM

 Raven Chacon is a multidisciplinary artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation outside of Albuquerque. He graces Yale for a mini residency, interacting with students, having his chamber compositions performed at Schwarzman, and tonight’s stop at  the CCAM  clubhouse for some Q and A and a noise performance. Speaking with lead CCAM wrangler Ross Wightman, we learn that as a young Native American headbanger, Raven and a drummer friend spent time in the desert making some unholy racket, no parents or neighbors to file a noise complaint. Given his answers to Ross’ questions, seems that Raven’s forays came with some peyote buttons. He started with a bass, but the strings broke ,then the neck, and he was left with a bass pickup and a desert generator. The next step was noise. His mother urged him to higher musical education. Given the lack of like-minded noiseniks in town, Raven enrolled in the prestigious CalArts program to study with James Tenney. A new world opened up, Cage, Cardew,  Riley and other West coast modern composers mentored the young Chacon into the Pulitzer Prize winning artist he is today. Ushers passed out earplugs knowing the squall that was about to ensue. A table of effects pedals and iPads unleashed a torrent of white noise. The beauty of a noise performance is that different sounds emerge and fade. One sequence sounded like a beating heart, another sounded like squeaky bus brakes morphing into birdhouse at the zoo territory. The shades were not drawn, at one point a Bernoulli effect ambulance siren drove down York street, forcing a wry smile from Chacon. The Pulitzer was won for his piece Voiceless Mass written for church organ and choir. Raven also plugged the upcoming NYC End Tymes Festival, highlighting noise artists performing in churches, abandoned subway tunnels and the like. Raven’s social activism frequently puts him in the cross hairs of the political steamroller, land rights, indigenous peoples rights, he even obtained grant money to stitch together sounds from J6 (the current administration pulled that funding lickety split).  Cage’s infamous composition 4’33”, four and a half minutes of complete silence,  sparked a young Chacon.  The reaction to his people being silenced informs his art to this day. Another great performance at the hands of Yale’s Center for Collaborative  Arts and Media (CCAM).

Charlie Ballantine Trio 3/29/25 Firehouse 12

 Guitarist, composer, educator Ballantine  is a young guitarist from Indianapolis. Listed in the top 200 of living guitarists chronicled by All About Jazz magazine, Charlie makes a stop for the Firehouse spring series. Accompanied by standup bass and drums, the trio plow through a groove-based workout for a sparse second set crowd. A departure from the usual improv fare usually on display, this trio cooked. Ballantine’s agile runs seemed frenetic and effortless, the setlist pulled from his modest but tasteful catalog. Original works Love Letters and Graffiti, Falling Grace, and Cold Coffee are balanced by reverential releases Life Is Brief (Dylan), Vonnegut, and a tour of  Thelonious Monk chestnuts. Tunes like Love Letters, and Blues for Baltimorrow were expertly delivered. Excellent version of Monk’s Off Minor was a highlight. The reverence toward the Firehouse was also notable, Charlie did some homework as to the many greats that have graced this space over time. To quote the late great Captain Beefheart describing Yale graduate Gary Lucas playing “Flavor Bud Living”, …… “ man can play guitar.”

Light Upon Blight Ensemble W/ Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps 3/5/25 Cafe 9

 Got off the couch early for local noiseniks Doc C. Helmed by renaissance man Adam Matlock on accordion, keytar and vocals with Brian Slattery on fiddle and Cajun field holler, they are joined by standup bass and drums. I enter the club to a straight up Zydeco number, accordion and field holler were so expertly delivered, it sounded like I was in Baton Rouge. Matlock and company are such musical omnivores that the Zydeco number seemed effortless. Next up Adam switched to the unusual keytar, a portable keyboard with a guitar neck allows for bent notes and a funky jazz number. Adam then sings a soul/ blues number about music “that will make you shake”. Final tune seemed like opera, with Adam on booming vocals, because, why not?  Matlock has sung in Anthony Braxton large groups, plays avant garde, metal, and everything in between.  These guys have other lives and have limited live dates but I urge any local music fans to seek them out. Each show is like a box of chocolates.

Light Upon Blight Ensemble is the brainchild of local guitarists Bob Gorry and Jeff Cedrone. Bob is leader of NHIC ( New Haven Improvisers Collective) a loose group of likeminded music weirdos that was home to some of the Doc C players. LUBE has just had a cd release Century which is on Spotify and bandcamp. On this evening they play one long form piece It’s Dark Now an homage to the late great David Lynch. The guitarists are joined by sax, electric bass, and two drummers. The music goes in many directions, with Cedrone’s guitar giving him trouble at one point. The beauty of improv was that it moves to the “next man up” while Jeff fiddled with his rig. Gorry had a stabbing section that sounded like he was channeling Sonny Sharrock. This music is challenging but worthwhile when viewed live. Nice to see a good group of appreciators on this rainy evening.

Echo 3/2/25 AFAM Center at Yale

 The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective teamed up with a local group of poets known as Word to present an afternoon mashup of the two art forms. First piece was a young black woman talking about her complicated relationship with the South. Georgia, to be exact, she alluded to her birth and viewing the state as a parent. She was joined by a sax and trumpeter that gave a NewOrleans feel to the piece. Next up was a bleached blonde Asian woman whose piece was erotic. Imagery of hands on her throat toggled between sensual and strangling. She was joined by piano and flugelhorn. The musicians played snippets of My Funny Valentine during her piece. A young man took the mic and had a two part recitation. The first part was a rant about the state of our society for a person of color. He played with the words hopeless and hope less. The second part seemed to be about a relative, a younger brother maybe. He spoke of the future and what lies ahead for the youngster. He was joined by guitar, sax, and a young woman on wordless vocals. The final poet was a young man whose piece was about love and the cosmos. Common tropes for the poet, he was joined by guitar and piano. His delivery was not as assertive as the others which detracted from the musical backing. It sounded like he was mumbling his piece while walking by a Tower Records that had Windham Hill bumping out the door. I give credit to both groups of artists, they seemed to genuinely revel in the mashup. The trick was the sound, you needed to hear the words and the music which was tricky. Enjoyable afternoon show.

Yale Percussion Group 2/28/25 Sprague Hall

 February is a down month. Sure, it only has 28 days and Valentines Day, but when you realize it’s only 6% shorter than most months and Valentines Day is the New Years Eve of romance, you’re left with the misery known as shoveling and scraping. Thankfully, Robert van Sice, director of the heralded Yale Percussion Group, has chosen February for the annual recital. The program starts with “Threads”, a 2005 composition by Paul Lansky. Four musicians each with a marimba or vibraphone and some sort of drum set. As with the annual bassoon recital, I will describe the students. Lanky white guy, could be a great great great grandson of the revolution, starts by bowing his vibes perpendicular to a drone effect. His drum set is a collection of snares and toms as well as a shelf of junkyard objects that gives off a cartoonish vibe. A young asian woman played marimba and large kettle drums, when struck forcefully, they sounded like traditional Taiko. Another young Caucasian man played vibes and congas, the latter sounding like a blaxploitation film alley chase. The final player was a young Asian man with toms and kick drum to add to the marimba. They played in a close circle, watching each other through the piece. Threads was a collection of mini pieces that returned to a soothing almost Mike Post theme vibe. The second piece, Ouroboros was a marimba duet written by the lanky player, a 22year old composer, overachiever. He notes that the piece was designed with palindromic runs, like an Escher snake eating its tail. The final piece of the first set was a marimba duo with the young Asian woman and a new to the stage white guy. The intermission is a chance for the players to clear the stage and set up for the finale. The second set was the 30 minute piece Dressur by the Argentinian composer Mauricio Kagel. Introduced byVan Sice as the intersection of Fellini and Cage, the piece was as much performance art as it was music. Three players, two guys and a girl, took their places at wooden desks and tables flanking a circular wooden platform. Turns out that all the “instruments” were wooden and handcrafted by the crew. Van Sice urged the crowd to laugh when things got funny and appreciate the theater involved. Like an opera in a foreign tongue, you had to discern, what was happening by tone, timbre, and facial gesture. Seems that one male was the aggressor, loudly stomping his chair at the cowering others. The oppressed signaled confidence by joining forces and clapping back with the guy lifting his shirt over his head and clomping his bare torso with coconut shells. At one point, the female put a bamboo wind chime on her head and mounted the round platform. The aggressor played 2x4s, 1x3s, and crown molding slapping and scraping as he went. Torso guy took the circle and donned some wooden clogs which he played and clomped. The piece is available on YouTube, and I urge readers to check it out. I likened the experience to Waiting for Godot with drums. February may be boring, but leave it to the Yale Percussion Group to lift you out of the drolldrums.