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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
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.
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.)
Tour
"Grrls" 3/4 Raglin shirt
- screened to your size
($20 adv.)
Tour
CDR - signed by the artist ($10
adv.)
Photo
quality Tour Poster - Optional:
signed by the artists ($10 adv)
All
3 items:
T-Shirt, CDR, Poster: $27
All
3 items:
"Grrrls" 3/4 Raglin Shirt,
CDR, Poster: $36
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.
Jarboes 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. Jarboes 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. Jarboes musical
explorations have led to select comparisons
to other female musicians with regard
for their success in penetrating the
otherwise male-dominated rock
subculture
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 Junos
groundbreaking book: Angry Women In Rock,
and Adele Olivia Gladwells womens
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 Jarboes
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.
"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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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 '80swhich 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.
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 whos 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 theyre 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.
!Communicate
and Network!
Please sign our Global Guest Map
For
recent news, gossip, fabrications and discussions,
join the F-SPACE
Tribe on Tribe.net. This is a context related discussion group
that does not need to use your email address, so it is SPAM free.
There
is also the
"Procession" discussion group that includes the
F-SPACE
and Savage Republic Discussions.
(Note: You can join this group and view the messages in
a web browser at the site, without having any Email sent to yourself.)
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-Spaces 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.
Video
Clips
Scot Jenerik
(F-SPACE) playing "Volatile"
Scot Jenerik's performance of extremely
harsh noises is torture of the worst kind. Mothers grabbed their children
and ran screaming in fear and pain..."
Jos Frusch, Limburgs Dadblad. 21 Agustus 1999
Mobilization.com
is an SF company promoting
music/art/performance that "Launches". Home of Savage Republic,
Scot Jenerik, F-SPACE,
How_to_Destroy_the_Universe Festival
Top 20 of 361 Total Search Strings: January 2005
# Hits Search String
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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
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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