About Wave Farm
Stars Like Fleas/William Hooker/Shanghai Tourbus
Aug 22, 2006: 8pm- 11:59 pm
Tonic
Stars Like Fleas w/15-piece Shape Note singin
william hooker will go first at 8 then slf/shape note at 9 then shanghai tourbus at 10.
Shape-note music was composed by farmers, tavern keepers and other non-musician types in early 19th century New England (and later the rural South), who wrote 4-part choral music, breaking every rule of classical composition in the process. The resulting sound is a stark blast of noise that to our ears has more in common with drone minimalism and abrasive guitar textures than with any choral music. A group of shape-note singers is an anti-choir. A singer in a choir tries to blend his or her voice into the whole, to create one group voice. A shape-note singer, by contrast, sings loudly and in such a way as to make his or her voice be heard clearly above all of the other singers who are all doing the same thing! But at the same time, there is a total collectivity about it, because everybody is singing that way, and because it has always been a totally social activity, not performed for audiences until very recently. We all feel like this music has the same chaotic collectivit y, abrasive community on the edge of collapse thats part of what we try to do with Stars Like Fleas .so we've written a set of material that burrows into all that. We will also still do some Fleas songs from the next record with the choir joining us in their own way. So its time to explain this right and give the rumors some shape. Next Tuesday at Tonic were doing this thing in conjunction with the Freezone Music Series --- a one-time collaboration with a 15-piece Shape Note singing choir. It will be short, early, hugeiferoursly big sounding, and I promise that for most of you it will be unlike anything youve seen. And it will be a blast for everyone. Very excited. If it sounds like were just plugging a choir into a typical Stars Like Fleas set ( if we had a typical Fleas set), thats not what is happening here. Nothing precious, heavy-handed, no wallpaper. Please tell anyone and everyone you think should see this. Its only coming around once.
william hooker will go first at 8 then slf/shape note at 9 then shanghai tourbus at 10.
Shape-note music was composed by farmers, tavern keepers and other non-musician types in early 19th century New England (and later the rural South), who wrote 4-part choral music, breaking every rule of classical composition in the process. The resulting sound is a stark blast of noise that to our ears has more in common with drone minimalism and abrasive guitar textures than with any choral music. A group of shape-note singers is an anti-choir. A singer in a choir tries to blend his or her voice into the whole, to create one group voice. A shape-note singer, by contrast, sings loudly and in such a way as to make his or her voice be heard clearly above all of the other singers who are all doing the same thing! But at the same time, there is a total collectivity about it, because everybody is singing that way, and because it has always been a totally social activity, not performed for audiences until very recently. We all feel like this music has the same chaotic collectivit y, abrasive community on the edge of collapse thats part of what we try to do with Stars Like Fleas .so we've written a set of material that burrows into all that. We will also still do some Fleas songs from the next record with the choir joining us in their own way. So its time to explain this right and give the rumors some shape. Next Tuesday at Tonic were doing this thing in conjunction with the Freezone Music Series --- a one-time collaboration with a 15-piece Shape Note singing choir. It will be short, early, hugeiferoursly big sounding, and I promise that for most of you it will be unlike anything youve seen. And it will be a blast for everyone. Very excited. If it sounds like were just plugging a choir into a typical Stars Like Fleas set ( if we had a typical Fleas set), thats not what is happening here. Nothing precious, heavy-handed, no wallpaper. Please tell anyone and everyone you think should see this. Its only coming around once.