Upset The Rhythm presents....
SPAGHETTI TREE _^_^_^_^_^_^_
April Fools' Day is an often maligned time of the year. Since the times of Chaucer the day has persisted in the unravelling of sanity, practical jokes and tomfoolery, even though nowadays we're lucky to notice a hoax in the papers before all fun is culled by noon. This is why we have decided to celebrate the day in style, restoring the event to its anarchic origins with a 48 hour spectacle of fun and music taking place in Peckham Rye's old cricket bat factory, The Bussey Building. The two day event is entitled Spaghetti Tree in homage to the 1957 Panorama broadcast which fooled the nation.
On Friday 1 April we're lucky enough to have US sonic eccentrics Dan Deacon and John Maus throwing down the gauntlet to the UK's finest keyboard-weirding acts including PLUG, Munch Munch and Design A Wave. After the revels we'll lead a procession into the darkness of the Rye in an attempt to see one of William Blake's childhood visions of an angel in a tree. The next day things get blown further apart as logic continues to be defied, this time with No Age, Japanther, Ducktails, Ignatz, Please, Peepholes, Hygiene, Woolf, Smack Wizards and Eternal Fags all performing across the space's several rooms.
So yes, we're guaranteeing the most fun April Fools' Day ever, along with it's confused Saturday brother. Feeling hungry? Let's reap the Spaghetti grove!
*SPAGHETTI TREE - DAY 1*
DAN DEACON
JOHN MAUS
PLUG
MUNCH MUNCH
DESIGN A WAVE
+ 20 JAZZ FUNK GREATS DJs
+ WFMU DJs
Friday 1 April
Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, Peckham, SE15 4ST
(1 min walk from Peckham Rye Overland Station)
8pm | TICKETS> http://www.wegottickets.com/f/2301
DAN DEACON is an absurdist composer and electronic musician based in Baltimore, Maryland. Musically influenced by Devo, Talking Heads, Scratch Orchestra, People Like Us, Raymond Scott and Conlon Nancarrow, Dan's music strives to take modern experimental composition and electronic music out of the circle of the esoteric intellectual gangs and hipster communities, placing it into more informal "fun time". Dan's music is about community and how to organise and inspire it. From founding the well-known Wham City art collective, to organising and running an annually sold-out DIY music festival called Whartscape, to conceiving, planning and curating the massive 60 person / 30 band Baltimore Round Robin Tour, it's clear to see that bringing people together is the major theme of his work, only exemplified further by his gameplay with the audience. Dan's recent album 'Bromst' embodies the same energy and excitement as the previous melting pot 'Spiderman of the Rings', however the craftsmanship and composition have a wider scope and richer palette. Bromst overflows with a mixture of acoustic instruments, mechanical instruments, samples and electronics. The piano, marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone, live drums, winds and brass give the album a much richer tone and skillfully weave together into a rich, dense, noisy dance pop that has become Dan Deacon's signature sound. This is only UK show Dan is playing on this quick trip over to Europe, so let's make it special!
http://www.myspace.com/dandeacon
JOHN MAUS lives and works in Minnesota. Although first drawn to our attention as a member of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Maus has proved himself to be an extraordinary musician with a distinctive sound in his own right. Perhaps co-conspirator and collaborator Ariel Pink perhaps has the definitive insight into the talents of the man... "John Maus is a maniac on a bloody crusade - a tortured evangelist on a mercenary quest to rid our world of villainous defilers of The Gospel of True Love. By turns shockingly infectious and disarmingly unpredictable, his music conflates a perplexing marriage of Moroder's 'Never Ending Story' and classical 12-tone renegades of 20th century past, harking the new path which resurrects romance from its post-modern shackles, and reignites the promise of a better world." John has two albums entitled 'Songs' and 'Love Is Real' available through Upset The Rhythm now and a new album coming in June entitled 'We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves'.
http://www.myspace.com/johnmaus
PLUG are an articulate drums-and-also-bass duo from London who deal in heartily-voiced, compulsive melodies married to an incessant nodding groove. Comprising Sian Dorrer (vocals and drums) and Georgie Nettell (bass, keys and vocals) PLUG construct minimal pop vignettes with bright, sumptuous basslines locking indelibly with crisp, taught drumming - a deceptively simple yet driving combination owing as much to hip-hop and dance as the sparse clatter of post-punk. Songs are handled deftly with Sian's strident, powerful vocals augmented by Georgie's more subdued whisper. PLUG play a sophisticated kind of post-something pop with a brisk intensity, a wry sense of humour and a canny knack for a memorable hook. PLUG's self-titled debut album is out now through Upset The Rhythm.
http://www.myspace.com/plugddd
MUNCH MUNCH are a kaleidoscopic pop group from Bristol who write ecstatic, elliptical songs that burst with creativity and restless energy. The band are four friends: Tom, Richard, Jack and Sarah Louise. Their songs swim deep only to breach the waves in spectacular style. Concerned with shivering eternity, rusting history and touching upon the many vistas and dead-ends of love, Munch Munch are constantly trying to catch up with the uncertain moments which most validate our lives. The band have toured the UK and Europe, playing with the likes of Dirty Projectors, Why?, No Age, Ponytail, Clues and Hot Chip. Along the way they have recorded a BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale session for Huw Stevens, and played festivals including Lovebox, Truck, Tanned Tin in Spain, and Imago in Portugal. Recent album 'Double Visions' is out now on Upset The Rhythm.
DESIGN A WAVE is one-man recording machine, Tom Hirst, sometimes in solo musical guise, sometimes with added choreography. Design A Wave have perfected an emotive, melancholic synth pop which nods towards the eccentricity of artists like Snakefinger and Tuxedomoon, the synthetic slickness and charity shop glamour of Italo Disco, and the misery of coldwave. Design A Wave have a brand new 12" record entitled 'Live On Your Yard' released through Alter Records now. This is the first vinyl release in Design a Wave's 10 year history, following on from a slew of humble and privately distributed CD-Rs, and also the first Design A Wave recording to feature external musicians - Melissa Osborne on synth and Will Saunders on bass.
www.myspace.com/designawave
*SPAGHETTI TREE - DAY 2*
NO AGE
DUCKTAILS
JAPANTHER
PLEASE
PEEPHOLES
HYGIENE
WOOLF
IGNATZ
ETERNAL FAGS
SMACK WIZARDS
+WFMU DJs
+ UTR DJs
Saturday 2 April
Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, Peckham, SE15 4ST
(1 min walk from Peckham Rye Overland Station)
3pm | TICKETS> http://www.wegottickets.com/f/2301
NO AGE is Randy Randall and Dean Spunt – two heavyweights from the Los Angeles punk / skate / art underworld. A crashing collision of sweetly shouted ditties, ecstatic crunch feedback and violent bouts of percussion, the NO AGE sound is abound with pop songs fighting to break through a mist of white fuzz. In March 2007, the band released a set of five vinyl only EPs across five different labels, including their debut ‘Get Hurt’ 12″ on Upset The Rhythm, some highlights of which have since been compiled for Fat Cat CD ‘Weirdo Rippers’. The duo’s debut album proper ‘Nouns’ was released in 2008 on the rather epic Sub Pop imprint to much acclaim and was followed up with the dreamy, more-sampled based ‘Losing Feeling’ EP last year. This show sees No Age playing with recently added third member on sound sources/electronics called Cundo Bermudez and performing a ton of new material from their excellent new album ‘Everything In Between’.
http://www.myspace.com/nonoage
DUCKTAILS is Matt Mondanile, a New Jersey resident whose pop is drenched in a warm drone. There is an amazingly realised aesthetic running through this stuff, with all its plastic nostalgias - like Ninja Turtles pizza, fake palm trees and sugary cereal - and the lo-fi tape fuzz that also permeates his other projects, Predator Vision, Real Estate and Dreams In Mirror Field. It's home recording with one of the most embracing feels you'll find - reminiscent of Ariel Pink, but with a weird-out exploratory nudge. Matthew prefers cassettes as scuffed-up homes for this stuff, but a vinyl full-length on LA DIY label Not Not Fun and a new LP on Olde English Spelling Bee and Woodsist are more widely come by. This show sees Matt teaming up with Spectrals as his backing group, to expand the music into new realms.
http://www.myspace.com/ducktailss
JAPANTHER is an art project established circa 2001 by Ian Vanek - who plays drums, cassettes and sings - and Matt Reilly - who plays bass and Casio SK-1, and sings. The explosive, unapologetically punk power duo have collaborated with a variety of artists including Penny Rimbaud, Dan Graham, Eileen Myles, Ninjasonik, Anita Sparrow and Spankrock. They have made a name for themselves through their energising live shows, sometimes in unique performance situations - alongside synchronised swimmers, a top the Williamsburg Bridge, with giant marionettes and shadow puppets, and from the back of a moving truck in SoHo, with giant dinosaurs and BMXers flying off the walls. Last year saw them release their wildly awesome album 'Rock N Roll Ice Cream' on Menlo Park.
http://japanther.com/
PLEASE are a trio conceived in London in 2006, comprised of duelling guitarists and an activated drummer. Thus far one 10" exists in the Please cannon courtesy of Ouse Records, which is an excellent introduction to their wayward psych-garage stomp. The band feature members of The Lowest Form, Cleckhudderfax and Isambard Kingston Brunel, so it comes as no surprise that Please also sound completely different. Together the threesome offer up ramshackle rhythms and trippy aerobic guitars played alongside unmannered vocals. Delivered with the heady rush you'd expect of punk, Please race 60s garage slap and wrong-footed prog through an obstacle course. Look out for an upcoming split 12" with Spin Spin The Dogs on Upset The Rhythm soon!
PEEPHOLES are Katia Barrett and Nick Carlisle who take turns singing, drumming and synth-prodding whilst smiling a lot and running back and forth on stage. Their songs, often cloaked in a cloud of echoing atmospherics, throb with raucous beats and jab you in the eye when you're not looking. It's party music for the lost at sea - sometimes tribal, sometimes soaring, never boring. Peepholes have a number of self-released EPs available through their website, a brilliant record on Hungry For Power and, most recently, a split 12" EP on Upset The Rhythm.
http://www.wearepeepholes.co.uk
HYGIENE take the listener on a post-pub stagger through the concrete walkways and underpasses of Britain's decline. Daydreaming at their offices on a weekday or at home with their record collection on a Saturday night, the members of Hygiene are dislocated in both time and space. Their new LP 'Public Sector' (La Vida Es Un Mus) has one DM boot in the past and the other longwing brogue firmly up the backside of the present. 'Public Sector' hearkens back to a time of Polytechnic radicalism, Special Patrol Group repression and O Level temptresses yet evades the pitfalls of vapid historicity and pastiche. Hygiene see historical continuities and follow them to their logical conclusions, reducing their influences down to their essential constituent elements and reassembling them into now music for now people.
http://hygieneband.blogspot.com/
WOOLF are slowly playing faster. Formed at the Lambeth women's project, Woolf feature members of Gender Fascist, Schneaky Tigers, Corey Orbison and Roseanne Barrr. Their songs an energetic fistfights of tumbling drums, heavy guitar noise and blasting vocal assaults. Female fronted, female backed queer Wollstonecrafts, Thomas Beattie & Maria Beatty are their flawed mentors. Milk Records have just released a new split 7" with Woolf and Trash Kit!
http://www.myspace.com/
IGNATZ is named after the vicious mouse that would throw bricks at Krazy Kat's head in the 1910s comic of the same name, Ignatz is the one man band of a young guy called Bram Devens from Brussels, whose futuristic folk / blues inspired chanting and rambling might fit in the "New Weird Belgium" or freak folk movement. Stunning rootsfolk, but played by a lost and unworldly creature, his sound is a mix of fingerpicked guitar music in a cloud of effects, electronic noises and scarce lyrics - a mixture of broken English and unintelligible mantra-like repetitions. Check Devens' albums on Kraak for more, 'I Hate This City' being his most recent record..
http://www.kraak.net/en/
ETERNAL FAGS are Chris White (Guitar,Vocals) and Rob Alexander (Drums) from Glasgow. They blend punk, pop, rock, angular, and whatever else vibes with limited frills, straining vox, bedrock basslines and drums, and sweet guitar lines. They're rock punk, in the sense of how the way they sound meets what they are. Turns out it's a really cool idea when somebody makes a band of it. Check out Winning Sperm Party for related releases!
http://winningspermparty.com/projects/eternal-fags
SMACK WIZARDS are also from Glasgow, specialising in overdriven improv noise pop and consisting of Claire O'Brien (drums), Waldo (bass) and Jack Mellin (guitar). Semi-improvised loosely written pop songs par excellence from the Winning Sperm stable again.
http://winningspermparty.com/projects/smack-wizards
