Fluxus Saturday: Fucks Us- Matt, Anyway

To be clear, Fluxus Saturday was two things:

#1. Rad City

and

#2. A long time ago


Well, I haven't posted anything for a while but who likes apologies? I've been busy with other stuff, but now I'm back and ready to roxx 'n roll! Speaking of roxx, Fluxus Saturday! The matinee show started around five, which was too early for some people, but the devout came out as they properly do to see the incandescant Jesse Cooper Levy play the arcade (?) at the Stood. Jesse sang his songs, some with the accompaniment of a small chord organ, and some simply a cappela. He read some poetry as well- it was very relaxed and fun- *intimate*.


After Jesse some more people showed up and packed the newly refurbished Sellar for Cameron Wisch Upon A Star's inauguratory set. Cameron recently redecorated and/or "fixed up" the Cellar at the Stood, and boy, is it tight. Physically, it's tiny, but it's also awesome, so it's okay. The walls are adorned with blue splatter, and the rafters (mere feet above yr head) are ramshackled with blacklights and a greenlight. Cameron capitalized on the room layout in key areas, and overall, it was a STRATEGIC and DYNAMIC performance! By harnessing the power of the black light through fluorescent paint and stardust, Cameron grew lumiscent, and came to know the meaning of AWESOME POWER! And he shared that knowledge with us- through math rock!! Also note: Cameron was recently part of the insane Gamehenge '09 collaboration, which is a reimagining of Phish through the eyes of over 100 musicians. Needless to say: check it out!


After we had all been enlightened, Cameron ushered us all over to the Whitson's Grand Cathedral where a pyschadelic performance was soon to be undertaken by the Pete McAwesome, with the help of a few of his dearest friends. There were three drummers; two were playing conventional drum kits and a third was banging soup cans and stuff. It was a really big production with some upperclassman whizkid running projections and about 10 people on the stage. The songs were really great and unlike anything I had heard from Pete before. Pete's music is really diverse; I've seen him singing sorrowful, alcohol-soaked acoustic ballads, and I've seen him as the frontman of huge musical enterprises, such as the one on Saturday. It was really impressive to see that many people coordinated together for the sake of one really epic jam. But all jams end, no matter how epic, and so too did Pee's set :(



But onwards and bloodwards to Landlords! I've seen them a bunch lately, but not always with the whole band intact. That wasn't the case for Fluxus and the vibes were as weird as ever. They too played in the Sellar, though they chose to forgo the blacklights, opting instead for a single green bulb. A trumpet made a short cameo, and it was totally overblown and distorted and sickk.


I saw Landlords this past Thursday on SUNY PURCHASE!!'s television channel PTV 69. They played WhaleHammer, a really gnarly/laffs talkshow on at 11 PM e'ry Thursday (sans singer). It was awesome though. Whalehammer is awesome.

*Sigh* Back 2 Fluxus :/


Well, Ghost Mall played in the Sellar too, and they were a cool electro-rocky band that got everyone singing along, even tho it was their first show ever! Great job guyzz <3> I only saw two-thirds of their three song set, but it was pleasant enuff.


There were also tons of awesome art installations as well. There was some artwork by Luke Anderson, a SUNY Purchase college student recently featured in the Submission. I especially enjoyed his stuff, which is really rich in iconic American imagery and stuff.

Now here: Tonz of videos pertaining to the evening.

Cameron Wisch


Elemeno Pete (FROM FLUXUS)


Landlords (FROM FLUXUS)


WhaleHammer

Christianity::Skinnerbox from Benjamin Korman on Vimeo.

Ghost Mall (FROM FLUXUS)

New Videos

With the help of my generous roommate Cam Kafura, we have created two new videos showing the individual music we make when we're not writing this blog.

Here's Matt's video, accurately portraying the dark, winding, reverberating staircase of his oedipus complex. For more, check out Weird Korea.

Also:

My video is essentially an ode to Take Away Shows, I played a one-shot take of one of my songs in the rain outside the music building. For more of my music, click here.

SUNY Purchase!! Honorable Mentions

Last week, I put up my top 5 bands list, and this week, Nick "No-Nonsense" Corbo, put up his. Now that we have had time to digest and sort through your overwhelming feedback, we are both ready to present our "Hon. Men." list; in my case, right now, and with Nick, who f-ing knows, right? But sorry to keep you waiting, germs- let the games begin!

BATTLE AVE TEA CLUB

Battle Ave Tea Club is a great bizarro-pop group that makes a really nice Canadian indie  type of music. Influenced by Frog Eyes among others, the lead singer has a fairly idiosyncratic voice, but if you can get past that (and you should be able to), there is lot to like about this Purchase band.

LANDLORDS

Landlords are a very weird/shitty/dead kind of band. As a three-piece industrial noise outfit, this isn't yr typical Rihanna by any means. They're more sweet 'n sour (like Plain White Tees) and they can be 'lil ruff at times ;) Most of their songs just consist of a fuxx bass farting out long ominous notes to a death march drum beat while feedback screeches in from the guitar amp. It's very thick and swampy. It's sticky like mucous, and makes you feel weird about yourself. <3

TAMARIN

I've seen a couple of Tamarin shows lately, and, truth be told, they've all been pretty great. I saw them the other week headlining a show at Whitsons, and then a couple days later, performing songs by The Band, for the Greatest Show Ever, sponsored by the one and only Sam Schachter. Tamarin has a couple members of The Shakes in it, but is more country than those guys. They did a great version of a number of The Bands songs, and rly captrd the spirit of the whole thing.

SUNY Purchase!! Top 5 Bands!!

Well, me and Nick are on spring break right now, and have been feeling pretty lazy 'bout blogging ya know? We decided that during this week-long hiatus from school we would take time to reflect and pontificate upon our experience with muzack thus far this year. We now emerge from the first few days of meditation and ponderance and offer up a list; a list that has names; and these names are BANDS, ladies and gentlemen. So now, without further ado, my (Matt Palmer's) list of the top five SUNY Purchase!! bands!!

1. The Shakes- a fantastic organ-driven rockabilly punk band with two panty soaking singers that croon and swoon and play awesome Sam Cooke covers.



2. Screwed Again- a clean cut bunch of 'prep-city rockers' that really know how to shake, and even roll! a little bit. Srsly tho, a really great nu-wave band that creates sing-a-long anthems out of the mny injustices of the MTA.



3. Twin Sister- a really very pretty band that combines chimey gutairs with the beautiful voice of a beautiful, blue-haired angel. There are other instruments (assuredly), but I've only got eyes/earz for you... O TRUE BLUE!!



4. Vince Vonnegut- a very interesting artist who, through his many delay pedals, drum machines, and rolling papers, creates expansive sonic landscapes with only his voice and his wazzle-twads.



5. Nick Corbo- singer songwriter, sweetheart, sincere student, honest citizen, passionate lover, righteous writer, hallowed heart-tamer, dragoon warrior, fire mage, LVL 70 Gnome on the Aleddriss server (PM him), and faithful LARPER.


Nick Corbo: EP Release on SA Records from James Madejski on Vimeo.

P.S. Other list cumming tomorrow!