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September 11, 2001: MOBILIZATION founder survives World Trade Center Attack on Sept. 11, 2001
Ethan Port survives WTC attack - was in the WTC #3
Marriott Hotel when the first plane hit at 8:44 AM. This link has two first hand accounts of what happened.

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How to Destroy the Universe
Extreme Music, Art and Performance Festival Series



"We intend to Destroy all dogmatic verbal systems..."


--William S. Burroughs RE/Search interview

Destroy the Universe...
Save the World!!!

  • Coming Soon
    • Video downloads
    • Audio downloads
    • Festival DVD Info

How to Destroy the Universe - Part 5
Extreme Music/Art/Performance Festival
North West US Tour
Jan 26 - Feb 6, 2006

 

Intelligent, Dynamic Entertainment
BLIXA BARGELD * The LIVING JARBOE
F-SPACE * SAVAGE REPUBLIC**
RED SPAROWES * SIXTEENS * SORIAH
SUB ARACHNOID SPACE * The CENTIMETERS WALDTEUFEL
BLACK ICE * SCOTT ARFORD
SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY

Re-Education Aktion for
Chinese New Year 2006
!YEAR OF THE FIRE DOG!

  • VOLUNTEERS needed!
  • Thanks to our Sponsors, which include:
    KFJC, Lighthouse Promotions, SF Guardian, KALX, Laughing Squid, 2Gyrlz.org, Fireball Productions
RED SPAROWES * SIXTEENS * SORIAH
SUB ARACHNOID SPACE * The CENTIMETERS WALDTEUFEL
BLACK ICE * SCOTT ARFORD
SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY

**SAVAGE REPUBLIC
will only performed at the LOS ANGELES show

 

 

Merchandise available now.


Poster by Mike Klay of the Triple Door
(click to download a hi-res version)

Schedule :
Plus: Video artists - Scott Arford - psychoacoustic videos,, John Law & Flecher Fleudujon's "Head Trip" Savage Republic clip.

  • Thu Jan 26 - San Diego, CA - $15, $25 with merch
    Advance (first 200 tickets)
    at the Casbah Club (Limited Seating)
    BLIXA BARGELD, The LIVING JARBOE, SIXTEENS
  • Fri Jan 27 - Los Angeles, CA - $15, $25 with merch
    Advance (Mobilization discounted tickets SOLD OUT!)
    at the Echo Lounge, 1822 Sunset Blvd (Limited Seating) 18+
    Tickets through TicketWeb.com only
    BLIXA BARGELD, SAVAGE REPUBLIC, THE CENTIMETERS (rare reunion) , SIXTEENS
    email destroy5 at mobilization .com for ticket info or
    SOLD OUT!!
  • Sat Jan 28 - San Francisco, CA - $16, $25 with merch
    Advance (first 200 tickets)
    at Studioz 314 11th St, SF, CA 94103 (Limited Seating) 21+
    BLIXA BARGELD, F-SPACE, SIXTEENS, SORIAH, BLACK ICE,
    NF-ORCHEST
    SOLD OUT!!
  • SUN Jan 29 - San Francisco, CA - $8 Adv
    at Bottom of the Hill 21+
    Local artists and after festival party.
    The LIVING JARBOE, RED SPAROWES, SUBARACHNOID SPACE
  • SUN Jan 29 - San Francisco, CA -FREE!!
    $5 to $15 sliding scale donation requested
    at Studioz 314 11th St, SF, CA 94103 21+
    F-SPACE, SORIAH, RICHARD BITCH, FEAST, more TBA
    Local artists and after festival party.
    TBA
    (Free with Sat admission)
  • Portland WED/THUR Festival Pass: $19, $29 with merch -
    admission to both shows
    email "payme 'at' mobilization.com" for availability.
  • Wed Feb 1- Portland, Oregon - $5-$15 sliding scale
    2Gryls presents: at Sabala's, 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 97215
    8pm-2am ALL AGES!!!
    F-SPACE (rare full fire performance), SIXTEENS, SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY, WALDTEUFEL - Markus Wolff of CRASH WORSHIP), video art
  • Thur Feb 2 - Portland, Oregon - $15, $25 with merch
    Advance (first 200 tickets) 8pm-midnight
    Festival pass for Wed-Thur available
    2Gryls presents: at the Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave, 97201
    ( 300 Cap.) ALL AGES!
    BLIXA BARGELD, The LIVING JARBOE,
    SORIAH (w/ Scot Jenerik)
    SOLD OUT!!

  • Fri Feb 3- Seattle, WA - $20, $30 with merch
    Advance (first 200 tickets)
    at the Triple Door, 216 Union St, 98101 (downtown)
    ( 300 Cap.) ALL AGES!
    BLIXA BARGELD, The LIVING JARBOE,
    F-SPACE, SIXTEENS
    SOLD OUT!!
  • Sat Feb 4- Vancouver, BC - $20, $30 with merch
    Advance (first 200 tickets)
    FIREBALL PRODUCTIONS presents
    at the Richard's on Richards
    1036 Richards St., Vancouver, BC V6B 3E1
    ( 300 Cap.)
    BLIXA BARGELD, The LIVING JARBOE, F-SPACE, SIXTEENS
  • Sun Feb 5 - Calgary, AB Canada - $20, $30 with merch
    BLIXA BARGELD


 
 
 



BLIXA BARGELD * The LIVING JARBOE
F-SPACE * SAVAGE REPUBLIC**
SIXTEENS * SORIAH
The CENTIMETERS * WALDTEUFEL
BLACK ICE * SCOTT ARFORD
SYNCHRONICITY FREQUENCY

"How to Destroy the Universe - Part 5"
Extreme music/art/performance festival
U.S. West Coast Tour!
cataloging various genres and methods of rebirth and renewal

Press Kit
pdf files
 

Info: Destroy 5 festival

Featuring a very RARE
Blixa Bargeld
solo concert
neubauten.org or from
www.BrownPaperTickets.com
Any problems or questions:
email: destroy5 att[NOSPAM] Mobilization.com

or mail $15 (Seattle: $20)
(cash or money order made out to Mobilization) per ticket to:
Mobilization
Att: Destroy 5 Festival
2538 3rd St
San Francisco, CA 94107-3131

If you have any questions, email
destroy5 'et' mobilization.com
or call 650 619 3695
and we'll help secure tickets for you.

Limited Editions Destroy 5 Tour Merchandise:

  • Tour T-Shirt - screened to your size ($10 adv.)
  • Tour 3/4 Raglin shirt - screened to your size ($20 adv.)
  • Tour CDR - signed by the artists ($10 adv.)
  • Photo quality Tour Poster - Optional: signed by the artists ($10 adv)

 

Limited Edition Destroy 5 Festival
Tour Merchandise

  • Tour T-Shirt - screened to your size ($10 adv.)
    Size

  • Tour "Grrls" 3/4 Raglin shirt - screened to your size
    ($20 adv.)
    Size


  • Tour CDR - signed by the artist ($10 adv.)
    Inscription Request


  • Photo quality Tour Poster - Optional: signed by the artists ($10 adv)
    Inscription Request


  • All 3 items: T-Shirt, CDR, Poster: $27
    Size
    Inscription Requests


  • All 3 items: "Grrrls" 3/4 Raglin Shirt, CDR, Poster: $36
    Size
    Inscription Requests
 

 

Related Festival Links:

http://www.BLIXA-BARGELD.com

http://www.TheLivingJarboe.com

http://www.SavageRepublic.com

 

 

 

 

Past appearences of Blixa Bargeld's "Rede/Speech" conert:

Rede/Speech XXXVI/01 Coimbra, Teatro Gil Vincente
Rede/Speech XXXV/01 Porto, Hard Club
Rede/Speech XXXIV/01 Paris, Fondation Cartier
Rede/Speech XXXIII/00 Bologna, Link
Rede/Speech XXXII/00 Venedig, Teatro Fondamente
Rede/Speech XXXI/00 Dortmund, LesArt Festival
Rede/Speech XXX/00 Erlangen, Hörkunstfestival
Rede/Speech XXIX/00 Krakau, AudioArt/Hügel Festival
Rede/Speech XXVIII/00 Hildesheim, Kulturfabrik Lösche
Rede/Speech XXVII/00 Innsbruck, Voices Festival
Rede/Speech XXVI/00 Prag
Rede/Speech XXV. / 00 Hörspieltage SWR, Freiburg
Rede/Speech XXIV. / 00 Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut, Heidelberg
Rede/Speech XXIII. / 99 Jazzfestival Saalfelden
Rede/Speech XXII. / 99, Wortkom, Komed Saal, Köln
Rede/Speech XXI. / 99, Södra Teatern, Stockholm
Rede/Speech XX. / 99, CELL, t'Paard, Den Haag
Rede/Speech XIX. / 99, Rosebud Red Festival, Schloßpark Belvedere, Weimar
Rede/Speech XVIII. / 99, art is ego, Erfurt
Rede/Speech XVII. / 99, Meltdown Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall. London
Rede/Speech XVI. / 99, de Melkweg, Amsterdam
Rede/Speech XV. / 99, Turm, Halle/Saale
Rede/Speech XIV. / 99, Muffathalle, München
Rede/Speech XIII. / 98, Moritzbastei, Leipzig
Rede/Speech XII. / 98, Theater Neumarkt, Zürich
Rede/Speech XI. / 98, Theater Neumarkt, Zürich
Rede/Speech X. / 98, Komed, Köln
Rede/Speech IX. / 98, Frankfurter Hof, Mainz
Rede/Speech VIII. / 98, deNachten Festival, Antwerpen
Rede/Speech VII./ 98, LOT Theater, Braunschweig
Rede/Speech VI. / 97, Göttinger Literaturherbst
Rede/Speech V. / 96, Spoken Word Festival Brüssel
Rede/Speech IV. / 95, Experimenta Mainz
Rede/Speech III. / 95, Crossing Border Festival Den Haag

ARTIST PROFILES


Blixa Bargeld
Rare Solo Concert
Pseudo Scientific Entertainment


Video Sample


Blixa Bargeld's Solo Concert
short description

In his one man performance, Blixa Bargeld explores the boundaries of language and music. The audience bears witness to the metamorphosis of sentences, words and syllables into acoustic architecture, resounding spheres and cacophonous monstrosities.
The equipment used is reduced to a minimum: microphones, effect equipment and foot pedals, monitor boxes and two loud speakers, and a mixing panel with Boris Wilsdorf at the controls opposite the stage. That's all that Blixa Bargeld needs in order to produce a complex sound texture from a simple sentence or mere word with the possibilities of his voice alone.
At the beginning the technical apparatus is briefly explained and demonstrated; the improvisation process then becomes transparent within its definite structure. There appear to be no secrets. The intelligent entertainment in which Blixa Bargeld's listeners become entangled however, develops amazing dynamism and intensity. A peak into the laboratory of a vocal alchemist.

Review by Anna Clare McDuff


The LIVING JARBOE
**NEW CD Release Tour**


photo credit: Jill Williams


Jarboe’s direction with her recorded and performed projects leads towards producing a brand of energy specifically her own. Her delivery can be at turns innocent, knowing, seductive, & vitriolic - contained in melodic as well as experimental compositions. A primary objective for Jarboe is to close in on the gap in the audience/performer relationship via complete submission and vicarious experience through her performance. This is at times done through visceral vocals and music from a variety of cultures and sound
vignettes. She has optimized her repertoire to include a vast variety of voices from the shy schoolgirl to seductress to demon. Jarboe’s private agenda over the course of her life has been to fine tune endurance - physical, emotional, and spiritual. Through efforts in such disciplines as weight-lifting, kick boxing, mountain-climbing, running, role-playing, studies
in meditation and Buddhism, and her intense work with Swans, she has journeyed her body towards exhaustion specifically with the intent of rebuilding / reinventing identity and exploring the structure of persona. Jarboe’s musical explorations have led to select comparisons to other female musicians with regard for their success in penetrating the
otherwise male-dominated “rock” subculture



ALTAR: Robert Scherer
photo credit: Jill Williams

Jarboe's inspiration is drawn from a variety of charged sources, spanning from her early exposure to snake-handling revivals in the Mississippi delta,
to parents who were in the FBI, to participation in a lounge act, experimental performance in gallery & live radio settings, and her 14-year collaboration with worldwide concerts (clubs, theaters, festivals, live radio, European television) and critically acclaimed recordings in Swans.
Featured prominently in Andrea Juno’s groundbreaking book: Angry Women In Rock, and Adele Olivia Gladwell’s women’s studies/cultural theory: Catamania,

Recent live performances have included tours with the Italian avant-garde group, Larsen and the American rock group,Neurosis as well as The Living Jarboe performances in the Baltic region, which included performances in cathedrals. In 2005, an East Coast tour of intense performance pieces involved the renowned San Francisco band, Amber Asylum. A sampling of the eclectic roster of Jarboe’s musical collaborators includes: Michael Gira, Bill Laswell, Jim Thirlwell, Lustmord, PanSonic, Mark Spybey, Steven
Severin, James Izzo, Chris Connelly, Alan Sparhawk, Neurosis, Edward KaSpel, William Faith, David J, David Torn, Paz Lenchantin, Bill Rieflin, Iva Davies, Blixa Bargeld, Kris Force, Nic Le Ban, Julia Kent, Brian
Castillo, Renee Nelson, and Lary Seven. She has worked with visual artists in design / film / photography including: Richard Kern, Beth B, Laura Levine, Wim Van De Hulst, Cedric Victor-DeSouza, and music video
director Chad Rullman. As an “ internet pioneer, “ Jarboe was an invited panelist on “Artists and the Internet” at the CMJ convention in NYC. Jarboe has released 9 solo albums in addition to working on 20+ Swans
albums and 60+ collaborative projects with visual & sound artists all over the world. Her cd, Disburden Disciple contained material she recorded in the Middle East. The Conduit is a collaboration between Jarboe,
poet Joshua Fraser, guitarist Nic Le Ban, and her "Living Rumor" Internet subscriber list. Knight Of Swords / The Beggar is a limited edition project with Nic Le Ban ( October 2005 ). The Men Album ( October 2005 )
features a diverse global selection of vocalists / musicians / producers. In progress is : a collaboration with (core Dysrhythmia members) Byla, and The Living Jarboe European and U.S. concerts.

© THE LIVING JARBOE 2005

F-SPACE
w/ members of SAVAGE REPUBLIC and CHROME


"Some view [F-SPACE's CD] PIR as the statement Savage Republic never made: a vivid portrayal of destruction, beauty, and simplicity" - East Bay Express, August 2004

Videos Here



Photo: Scott Beale (c) 2005
Last F-SPACE Performance - SF, Sept 17, 2005

Camped in the vicinity of SAVAGE REPUBLIC, EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN, THROBBING GRISTLE, ACID MOTHER'S TEMPLE, SWANS and GLENN BRANCA.

"Surprisingly accessible, violently passionate, harmonic noisescapes -- delivered with sonic intricacy and homicidal tendencies."

" The result conjures an apocalyptic, feral, destructive trance state implying a catastrophic act of nature, a march through the desert on the path to war, or an offender's mental state during a crime of passion."

- Camille Taiara, San Francisco Bay Guardian, 2003



A rising blaze of distorted calm quickly washes over you. Then a sudden drop to nothing 42 seconds later as track two begins. A sense of discomfort rises as a bow begins to scrape across tortured strings, and a distorted voice speaks something I'm not able to intercept. I'm reminded of the near-complete absence of music found in a King Crimson interlude. At 2:50 a tribal drum beat begins. Growing intensity follows, brought on by repetition and free-form sonic interpretation. At 6:30 I check the name – Through the Night Softly, 17:29.

As per their website, the goal of F-Space is to devise "an apocalyptic, feral, destructive trance state implying a catastrophic act of nature, a march through the desert on the path to war, or an offender's mental state during a crime of passion." With Preliminary Impact Report, I'm off on a journey that I find necessary to experience.

San Francisco's F-Space consists of Scot Jenerik and Ethan Port of Savage Republic, Aleph Kali of Chrome, and Joel Connell of Man is the Bastard. Their short description is Industrial Pyro Punk. Noise and instruments abound, some of which they have created themselves. F-Space was originally a collective that eventually took a more band-like structure. They won over the Burning Man Festival in 1998 with their bombastic live show, largely consisting of percussive passages and primal pyrotechnics.

Released in late 2004, Preliminary Impact Report is the first studio album from F-Space. The track "Sans Soleil" has a Sonic Youth sound reminiscent of their mid-80s Evol period. "Bombay Blood" has a Middle-Eastern feel. "Charity and Hope," in my opinion the highlight of the album, begins resembling the apocalyptic soundscapes of Times of Grace-period Neurosis, then returns again to echoes of old Sonic Youth in its guitar-driven build to increasing intensity. Towards the end of the nearly 23-minute long track, the group's signature percussion sounds are featured in a crushing battery, and the melodic backing of a single distorted guitar joins the cacophony to move the piece to completion.

F-Space loses some power in the translation to a studio, but Preliminary Impact Report still possesses a lot of intensity. I'm not sure when the best time would be to listen to it. The lengths of the compositions make it difficult to maintain enough anguish to take it all in, but it does seem to have a therapeutic quality to it. When I became depressed as a teenager, I immersed myself in depressing music until the density of it forced me back up to the surface. Perhaps when you are trapped in patterns of anguished thoughts, Preliminary Impact Report can help remind you that there is a better world out there covered up by frustrated thoughts, and that just like the album, they will end.

Written by Daniel Henderson
-East Bay Express, 2005



VIDEO CLIPS:

Play the F-SPACE at ThunderDome (Burning Man) 2003 clip (no drummer)

Play the "Burning Man 2020" film clip

Play the Scot Jenerik solo concert film clip (with THOR)

Dec 4, 2005
"I caught F-Space at their show in South San Francisco a bit over a month ago. i was there to see Babyland perform and was wiped out by these guys playing what looked like a Coleman gas grill. And the music was intense!"

Thanks,

Paul
F-Space: "Preliminary Impact Report"

SIXTeeNS


SIXTEENS is Kristen Louise and Veuve Pauli, with the occasional appearance of guest musicians, performance artists, photographers, projectionists. Originally based in San Francisco, in the last two years' energetic concentration they have become an international band with a support base in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, U.K., Poland, Holland, U.S.A., not to mention other countries where they have yet to project.

Their supporters span a broad range of the post punk musical spectrum. Electro, Deathrock, Synth punk/pop, Minimal electronic, Art damaged, Darkwave, Gothic, Bored E.B. Mers, early eighties casualties, and Indie rockers.

After touring Europe twice in the last year (2004-2005) they are now based in Berlin. Their music has the character of a nicely composed collage where one can see the jagged scissor marks along the edges of transposed magazine paper.

SAVAGE REPUBLIC


LOS ANGELES only:
Rare reunion of this SEMINAL early 80's proto-industrial band. SAVAGE REPUBLIC performed with EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN in 1984 at the Mojave Auszug, an early proto-type for the later BURNING MAN events. The lineup for this reunion is the second generation core repbulic of
THOM FUHRMANN, GREG GRUNKE and ETHAN PORT, with STERLING FOX on drums (FINAL REPUBLIC / WONDER / MOTORMOUTH), performing tracks from all 4 studio albums, plus some new material.

 

 


Reviews, Previews, etc. .

originally published at SuicideGirls Journals Ambrosio

Attended the How to Destroy the Universe Part 5 show, last night, w/ Sixteens, F-Space, Blixa Bargeld, and Jarboe. All good sets, but Blixa was fucking brilliant. The crab cakes and Angkor Wat chicken were pretty good, too.

"The universe is not like a puzzle-box that you can take apart and put back together again and so solve its secrets. It is a shifting uncertain thing which changes as you consider it, which is changed by the very act of observation. A powerful man is not a man who dissects the universe like a puzzle-box, examining it piece by piece and measuring each piece with scientific precision. A powerful man has only to look upon the universe to change it."
--Technomagos Gaelos

A man may die yet still endure if his work enters the greater work, for time is carried upon a current of forgotten deeds, and events of great moment are but the culmination of a single carefully placed thought. As all men must thank progenitors obscured by the past, so we must endure the present so that those who follow may continue the endeavour.
--Technomagos Garba Mojaro

 


Sat, January 28, 2006 - 6:12 PM by AXJ

A condescending, controlling, prima-donna asshole?
Maybe, or partly, but who cares, because he is fukking BRILLIANT!!!!

I just saw him last night do a magnificent, brilliant, riveting performance! It was awesome, in the pure sense of the word.
One-man, one-microphone, a few loop contraptions, one sound engineer nicknamed Mephisto.

I can't describe. It was the most amazing, astonishing, cool, interesting (nay, fascinating) show of any sort that I've seen in years & years & years.
Maybe not since Laurie Anderson (was it the early 80's?) at UCLA doing her "O Superman" show.

Blixa..... and he's absolutely personally riveting on stage.

I'm a bigger fan than ever, now.

- AXJ on Tribe.net

http://www.beyondrobson.com/music/2006/02/spreading_disease_with_noise/

photos

I wrote up a summary of the How To Destroy The Universe 5 show with Blixa Bargeld (of Neubauten), and Jarboe (ex of Swans), F-Space, and Sixteens over on Beyond Robson.

More pictures from the event are available in the gallery now, and more will follow once I drag my Real Film down to be processed.

Oh, and I started displaying obvious cold or flu symptoms 48 hours or so after the show… in which I sat in the front row as a phleghmy German noise maker breathed death in my direction.

The show was still worth it.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the Destroying The Universe 5 show that took place this past weekend at Richard's on Richards. I was attending solely to see Blixa Bargeld who would be performing his solo work REDE/Speech, and I was expecting things to be loud; I tore apart the house that afternoon looking for my industrial-strength ear plugs.

This was not your average Saturday night concert at Richard's on Richards, either. I'm used to attending an early show that's forced out by 11:00 to make room for the DJs and the dancing, but this time the show I was there to see was forcing out the early show, and this wasn't even a show put on by The House of Blues. There were folding chairs all over the dance floor and much of the audience had cameras on full display. The staff at Dicks has never really been as anti-camera as other venues, but it was surprising nonetheless.

I secured a nice seat up front, which was probably a mistake in retrospect; what worked great for photography didn't do wonders for my health. Blixa took a bit of a break after an intensive two year binge with his band Einsturzende Neubauten, and headed for China. On returning to North America to start this tour, he found that he had acquired some virus, and was "mucousy", but being a real trooper he went on with the tour.

On stage, with a microphone, and a set of four foot pedals controlling live-recorded loops, he spoke, told stories, sang, screamed, made noises, and thoroughly entertained a room filled with people there to see him perform. He's charming when he's "on" and has a ton of great stories about travel, people, music, and everything else under the sun. This night, he was definitely on; very charming, very funny, and very loud.

Following was the first of the three acts that I have heard described as 'opening' acts; Jarboe (formerly of Swans) who was better than I had anticipated. Her lyrical content was a bit over the top, but the performance as a whole was solid. There were a couple unplanned noise events here with a malfunctioning guitar cord that was trying to deafen the guitarist, but otherwise a solid, relatively short set.


Burning Man heroes F-Space took forever to setup their kit; much re-wiring, much tuning of the spring-loaded home-made instruments, and general futzing around on the stage. They play long, loud tunes, and unfortunately we weren't able to witness the full show as things were running late and something about the fire codes in Vancouver not allowing for 30 foot jets of fire shooting out the end of an instrument. This was so loud that it likely should be played in the open air. Solid set, if too long for the last band's good...

F-Space used up the last minutes of the liquor license, and played on until nearly 3:00am. Three o'clock, and there was still a band left over; things didn't look good for Sixteens. F-Space wrapped up their third 15-minute long song, and announced that unfortunately there just wasn't time enough left for the Sixteens to setup and play a set. There was too much band and too much setup to fit into a four hour slot, and the band at the end of the night gets screwed. Instead we were 'treated' to a spontaneous collaboration between Sixteens' Kristen Louise and F-space's Ethan Port. I've heard Sixteens' recordings, and I much prefer that to the performance art style approach taken with this last little bit of improv; I'd like to have seen a real Sixteens set.

So, the question remains, did I catch Bird Flu from Blixa Bargeld? I've been sneezing, sniffling, and feeling like crap in the days since the show. I've been infected by an industrial noise maker from Germany by way of Beijing, and I'm sure he'd find that fact to be most amusing; bringing an aspect of ongoing performance art to his piece.


Comments
I think it's Blixa that stars in a hardware store ad campaign. It's him reading from the catalogue and it gets pretty loud. The ad campaign got a gold prize (or maybe it was a silver) at last year's Cannes Advertising awards ceremony.

Posted by: ariadna at February 7, 2006 01:14 PM

Those were excellent commercials. The hardware company likely went after him initially because of just how much hardware the guy's band uses on stage; grinders, compressors, jack hammers, etc.


Posted by: Richard at February 7, 2006 03:13 PM


SeattlePi

 

Friday, February 3, 2006

The Club Scene: Conventions fall by the way at 'Destroy' fest

By TIZZY ASHER
SPECIAL TO THE P-I

A more descriptive name for the "How To Destroy the Universe" festival might be the "Destroy Everything You Think You Know About Music" festival.

The festival, founded by the San Francisco-based experimental music label Mobilization Records and now in its fifth year, focuses on experimental noise, industrial sounds and avant-garde visual art. Its founders claim it aims to expand the parameters of what we file under the terms "art" and "culture."

What this means in practice is that the bands who play the event, including Blixa Bargeld of Einsturzende Neubauten, the Living Jarboe of the Swans, F-Space and Sixteens, are all interested in exploding conventions around song structure, melody and rhythm and then reassembling the parts. The past four tours have included fire-art, multimedia performances and throat singing.

That sounds like a negative thing, but there are moments on the limited-edition tour CD that actually are quite beautiful. Harmonic chanting, scraping rhythms and non-traditional instrumentation combine in eerie soundscapes.

In short, if you have Uncle Joe and Aunt Shirley visiting for the weekend from Topeka, tonight is not a good night to show off the Triple Door (8 p.m.; $20 for a ticket only or $30 for a ticket plus either a T-shirt, poster or CD at brownpapertickets.com). Or maybe it is, if you take the festival's aim seriously.


San Francisco Chronicle

CLUBLAND
LISA HIX

Sunday, February 5, 2006



More...
Printable Version
Email This Article


It's a complicated business, destroying the universe. You would assume it requires a certain amount of chaos and nihilism. But sometimes, it just involves folding chairs: You have to sit down if industrial music pioneer Blixa Bargeld is going to lecture you on the intricacies of the destruction process.

In fact, Bargeld, front man for Einsturzende Neubauten, a German band at the forefront of the industrial sound in the '80s, has insisted that the audience sit down and pay attention to whatever he is about to do at the first San Francisco show of the How to Destroy the Universe Festival. And the sea of devotees, a collection of '90s goths and bookish types who sold out the Studio Z in SoMa last weekend, obliged him.

As soon as Bargeld hit the stage, all chitchat came to a halt. A former guitarist with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bargeld cuts a striking figure in an all-black suit, his severe haircut grazing his cheekbones. Standing in front of a mike on an otherwise bare stage, he addresses the crowd: "Good evening. I am going to tell you some airport stories." Bargeld is surprisingly warm and charming; his thick German accent just makes his jokes funnier. After flying from Beijing to San Francisco, he explains, you might, say, go to a farmers' market. "It is entirely possible to be in two places at the same time," because of the time difference, he explains deadpan. When someone at the farmers' market stops and asks you, 'What are you doing?' You can say, 'I am entering the Beijing airport,' and you would be telling the truth.

"This is not a stand-up comedy," Bargeld allows. "I manipulate time." He has a couple of delay pedals, and he is going to use them, layering one sound onto another. With that, he launches into an arty/dramatic performance, throwing his head from one side to the other -- to make a sound like a car speeding by his mike. He makes another pass at the mike, layering the first sound onto the second.

He keeps this up, altering his pitches, until he has what sounds like a symphony orchestra tuning up, morphing into Gregorian chants in a cathedral, then a frightening cello soundtrack in a silent horror film. At this point, he starts to sing in an eerie, cracked voice, and make smooth, fluttering gestures with his long hands and fingers. Before long, he beatboxes into the mike, laying down an industrial goth dance beat, and, with a few jabs at his pedals, he brings the piece to a cacophonous end.

Before he begins his next vocal-feedback symphony, Bargeld gives a brief lecture about reducing the orbit of the solar system to 32 seconds. This time, audience members are eager to interact with their hero, asking him questions, and giving him not-so-helpful tidbits from history. To create the foundation of his "universe," he requests the audience sing a loop of "Ahhhhs" for him. Then he named the planets, stepping to their relative location on stage, "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn ..."

"Let's add some stars." He walks around the stage, miming decorating the sky with stars "Ping ping ping, ping-ping-ping." "The comets are more complicated." That's when he proceeds to screech like a Saturn missile, prompting several crowd members to put their hands over their ears.

In the back, a heckler complained loudly, "We need to destroy the universe -- by sitting down!" Oh the dilemma: What to look at? Someone making a scene or the strange German man screeching like a banshee onstage?

After a piece on DNA sequences ("G T A A T C C A G"), his finale is a comment on the mind-numbing techno of "The Sunshine Station" he heard on the Autobahn. To give us an idea of what the music sounds like, he set up a 4-4 beatbox, and a "diddly diddly" sound.

"This being a German station, of course, the lyrics are in English." He intones, in a ridiculous monotone: "Hey cosmic baby, do you want to dance? Hey cosmic baby, let's meet at the edge of the galaxy where we can live in peace and harmony. Good night!"

With that, Bargeld disappears. Once the clapping and cheering has died down, the majority of the crowd hits the doors, and organizers make clumsy attempts to put away some of the folding chairs. They clang to the floor in piles -- cranky machines.

For the past four years, Mobilization's How to Destroy the Universe Festival, borne out of the "post-punk/industrial underbelly" of Burning Man, has thrown elaborate visual-and-sound spectacles where man wrestles with machine to make clanking, crashing, fire-spewing art. This year, the festival -- which is all about smashing "preconceptions and assumptions," according to founder Ethan Port, of San Francisco -- moved indoors, cut out the fire works and hit the road, managing to annihilate expectations of what would go down, once again.

Before Bargeld, when F-Space -- formed by Port, of the influential band Savage Republic, and conceptual artist Scot Jenerik -- played, the chairs seemed like more of a hindrance to the celebration. Crammed together, they killed the feng shui of the party flow and discouraged dancing. Between sets, no one danced to the industrial dance music, even with the lights turned low and the video art lighting up a white brick wall.

After Bargeld's theatrics, Soriah takes the stage with costumes that would make a peacock envious. An imposing man in a white faux-fur coat and fat beads, he and a goth girl in dreads and a candy-striped dress play four theremins. As he sings into a headset vocalizations based on Tuvan throat-singing and Indian raga chanting, he gestures dramatically, as if the music-making process is making him flinch in pain before filling him with joy. But for the most part, his universe-destroying goes unnoticed. The party is decimated, although not yet obliterated.


Photos by Jonathan Christ


Portland Mercury News

We Know Where the Action Is! • Feb 2 - Feb 8, 2006

The Devil's Diva
Jarboe's Dark Path
BY JOSH BLANCHARD

MOST SINGERS are an easily classified lot. There are the Crooners, the Screamers, the Showboaters, the Rappers, and the Yarlers (i.e., post-grunge, post-Eddie Vedder vocal manglers), and that's pretty much that. Well, then there's Jarboe.

You would expect one of America's most brooding and versatile vocalists to have lived quite a colorful life, and you would indeed be correct. The offspring of a duo of FBI agents, Jarboe was drawn from the South to New York City in the '80s—which was, at the time, home to a bubbling cauldron of no-wave experimentalism, including a young musician named Michael Gira. Jarboe and Gira found kindred spirits in one another, and their musical partnership, the Swans, became one of the most respected cult bands on Earth: successfully bridging the gaps between scorched earth brutality, cloudy space dirges, and trembling folk meditations for over a decade.

Years later, while Gira plays label boss at Young God Records and jams with Akron/Family, Jarboe soldiers on, continuing down the dark path forged by the Swans. Her new double-length, The Men Album, showcases her sonic diversity for both good and ill. The record, divided into two volumes, "Guitars" and "Rhythms," fluctuates between searing vocal exorcisms and goth/world music fusions á la Dead Can Dance or Cocteau Twins. Any potential self-indulgences are more than offset by her revolving cast of all-star collaborators, including Legendary Pink Dots, Edward Ka-Spel, Low's Alan Sparhawk, and Bauhaus bassist David J.

As if you needed more examples of the woman's inspirational taste in company, look to her current cohorts in the How to Destroy the Universe Festival. Based out of the Bay Area, the festival has become a touring sideshow dedicated to "extreme music, performance, and art" that includes such luminaries as Blixa Bargeld and Savage Republic's torchbearers, F-Space. It's rare that such art-rock royalty makes it to our neck of the woods, so come and get it while the getting's good.


-Portland Mercury


LACityBeat

7 Days

Jungle Love
~ By DR. REBECCA EPSTEIN ~

1-26-2005

Friday 27

BANG BLITZ

One way to obliterate mainstream ideas is get rid of this damn world and start all over. Such is the conceptual dream behind “How to Destroy the Universe: Part 5,” an art and music festival featuring “a virtual who’s who of the best industrial, noise, punk, and left of center culture currently touring North America.” Lofty self-praise, indeed, but perhaps deserved, and the organizers are so confident, this year they’re doing away with outrageous stunts in order to focus on the music, plus the “psychoacoustic/video works” by multimedia and sound installation artist, Scott Arford. Acts include Blixa Bargeld, Savage Republic, SIXTEENS, and a reunion of L.A.’s The Centimeters. 8:30 p.m. $17; $15 advance. The Echo, 1822 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, (213) 413-8200. Mobilization.com.


 

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Recent News


NEW
Preliminary Impact Report
(Second pressing now available)
$9.98 Post Paid US

 

(Editors Note: The model's arms and legs are not tied.)

***The first CD from proto-industrial pyro-punk transformers:
F-SPACE
-- SCOT JENERIK and ETHAN PORT (SAVAGE REPUBLIC), ALEPH KALI (CHROME) & JOEL CONNELL (MAN IS THE BASTARD)
Six massive, surprisingly accessible tracks of violently passionate, harmonic noisescapes -- delivered with sonic intricacy and homicidal tendencies. Camped in the vicinity of EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN ,THROBBING GRISTLE, ACID MOTHER'S TEMPLE, SWANS and GLENN BRANCA. The result conjures an apocalyptic, feral, destructive trance state implying a catastrophic act of nature, a march through the desert on the path to war, or an offender's mental state during a crime of passion.

"Some view PIR as the statement Savage Republic never made: a vivid portrayal of destruction, beauty, and simplicity" - East Bay Express, August 2004

 

Filed under: A Library CD— frahm de future @ 11:44 pm KFJC.org
F-Space – Preliminary Impact Report A-Library {Mobilization}

Conceptual / visual artist Scot Jenerik and ex-Savage Republic guitarist Ethan Port are the proficiently preternatural, prodigiously provocative, and pungently primal pyro-perpetrators who primarily manifest F-Space’s seething sepulchral sound of post Industrial-Punk. Densely subterranean tribal percussion, resonating Middle Eastern guitar, atmospheric ambience, and dissonant metallic clanging reminiscent of Einsturzende Neubauten and Throbbing Gristle immerse you into a cataclysmic realm of subtle beauty and extreme chaos. As the consummate performance artists, F-Space is the mastermind behind the optically enchanting and aurally subversive How To Destroy the Universe Festival (as co-presented by KFJC)! The self-proclaimed “Led Zeppelin of Noise” is a violent sacrificial escapade well worth the adventure.


 



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Bruce Licher, Greg Grunke,

Snack Sac presents Festive Meltdown 2003

SPINDRIFT (w/ members of Brian Jonestown Massacre & Warlocks), F-SPACE
LOS CREEPERS, JET FUEL (ex-Astrum), Ink

DJ SL Duff (Knitting Factory, Sweet Justice, Messiaz)
DJ Jason Moore (Dura Delinquent)

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Mission is Terminated
GEFF RUSHTON (JOHN BALANCE) 1962-2004

August 20, 2004

Ethan
Got the round robin. Sleazy just said to me as I showed him the interesting title and idea behind it that the first 2 festivals must have failed then, in their intent.ie How To destroy The Universe.Nontheless COIL would be very interested to do something NEXT YEAR if events are planned for then. please let us know more.This year if far to late for us to try and be involved.we are moving house,recording and so on.
please be in touch
blessed wishes
Jhonn Balance of COIL