Thursday, December 01, 2005

B.C.'s Classic Albums Live presents the Rolling Stones' and Liz Phair's Exiles

Boog City's Classic Albums Live presents

The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street

and

Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville

Wednesday, Dec. 21, 7:00 p.m., $10

The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
NYC

Liz Phair wrote her record Exile in Guyville as a track-for-track response to the Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street. We'll have 12 NYC musical acts reinterpret these rock classics--in order, answering each other track-for-track. The albums will be performed by:

Dan Fishback
Randi Russo
The Sparrows
The Domestics
Sean T. Hanratty
Schwervon
The Trouble Dolls
Limp Richard
Hearth
The Marianne Pillsburys
Chris Maher & Criminal Bones
Genan Zilkha

Hosted by Boog City editor and publisher David Kirschenbaum

Directions: F train to Second Avenue, or 6 train to Bleecker Street. Venue is at foot of 1st Street, between Houston and Bleecker streets, across from CBGBs.

Call 212-842-BOOG(2664) or email editor@boogcity.com for further information

www.danfishback.com
www.randirusso.com
www.thedomestics.com
www.olivejuicemusic.com/schwervon.html
www.troubledolls.net
www.hearthmusic.net
www.mariannepillsbury.com
www.chrismaher.net

artist bios are at the end of this email

--
David A. Kirschenbaum, editor and publisher
Boog City
330 W.28th St., Suite 6H
NY, NY 10001-4754
For event and publication information:
http://boogcityevents.blogspot.com/
T: (212) 842-BOOG (2664)
F: (212) 842-2429

bios:

*Dan Fishback

Raised on a steady diet of showtunes and secular Jewish leftism, Dan Fishback was destined to be gay and loud. In 2003, he moved to New York City, where he promptly became a fixture in the legendary Anti-Folk community. As half of the indie-pop duo Cheese On Bread, Dan saturated the Lower East Side with his signature blend of coy spunk and fierce progressive ideology. It was his solo work, however, that established him as more than a girly-voiced pop singer.

Hailed by Next Magazine as an "anti-folk genius," Dan's songs of frustration and fear provided a welcome change to the vacuous vamping found in most "queer art." His performance art, too, has attracted the attention of intellectual young homos thirsty for thoughtful discourse. Ironic without being nihilistic, passionate without being annoying, Dan writes outside of and against consumerist mainstream gay culture.

His debut album, SWEET CHASTITY, is a frantic, schizophrenic exploration of virginity in a culture that commodifies the human body. From the twisted electro-pulse of the title track to the Carpenters-esque croon of "Kiss and Tell," SWEET CHASTITY blends at least a dozen musical genres into an anti-pop mission statement of bitter wit and seething optimism.

You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll break up with your boyfriend.

*Randi Russo

Mixing indie rock, New York garage rock, and singer/songwriter sensibilities, Randi Russo has drawn comparisons to fellow New Yorkers Patti Smith, the Velvet Underground, and Sonic Youth for her chaotic and pensive songwriting.

Growing up in Long Island, Russo briefly flirted with the violin, piano, and amateur turntable scratching until her early adolescence. Concentrating on visual arts in her teens, she eventually went on to study painting in St. Louis, where she began to fully explore the indie rock, grunge, and punk of the early '90s while working at a college radio station. Purchasing an electric guitar at the age of 19, the left-handed Russo found playing right-handed unsatisfactory, eventually playing left-handed but keeping the instrument strung the same as if it were being played right-handed. This technique created a distinctive form of chording and riffing, and Russo soon formed her first band with a bassist and a percussionist under the guise of Raizel. The trio recorded one single but disbanded in 1996, leaving Russo to hone her craft in relative seclusion until she emerged as a solo artist following her return to New York City in 1999.

After about a year on the solo circuit, Russo formed a band and recorded an admittedly chaotic live EP that captured only their second show with Live at CBGB's 313 Gallery. Following being approached by Olive Juice Records, Russo entered the studio to record her debut, 2001's intensely focused Solar Bipolar. Although it was released at roughly the same time other New York garage-influenced bands were again rising to prominence, Russo and her band stood out from the pack as the vehicle of a tough-minded female singer/songwriter and successfully avoided being categorized as a bandwagon jumper. -- The All Music Guide

*The Domestics

During a brief stint as an A&R assistant, Alina Moscovitz (ex-Bionic Finger) spent her days listening to piles of less-than-stellar demos. She decided she could do better, so she left the corporate world and returned to songwriting. She then hooked up with music supervisor and drummer Eric Shaw (fresh from the break-up of Conquistador which featured Sam Endicott of The Bravery). They soon lured Evan Silverman (ex-Rosenbergs) away from his jazz bass lessons in Paris and gigs at the Rainbow Room back to the world of rock. All that was missing now was crazy lead guitar energy. Thankfully, they found it in playwright Todd Carlstrom who was last seen writing in blank verse about women giving birth to rabbits. Finally, The Domestics line-up was complete.

As a quartet, The Domestics morphed into a potent combination of blazing pop-punk energy, sickeningly catchy hooks, and lyrics that have a sharp wit and intelligence seldom heard inside of a three-minute song. If Debbie Harry shoved her way onstage during a Green Day show, the result might sound something like this.

Besides constantly playing live shows, the Brooklyn-based band wrote the closing credits song, "Girl I Never Kissed" for the film The D Word, "Anorexic Love Song" appears on the X-Girls DVD and "Fire Hazard" was included in the "Say It Don't Spray It" compilation CD packaged with the Warped Tour DVD. The band has participated in MEANY Fest, International Pop Overthrow and LadyfestEast festivals. The Domestics are currently recording a full-length album for release in Fall 2005.

*Schwervon

Only a couple months into their coupledom, Major Matt Mason and Nan Turner began jamming. Nan's prior music experience was playing guitar and sometimes bass in the all-girl punky pop band Bionic Finger. Matt's experience included playing guitar in noisepop bands in Kansas, but he was mainly doing solo acoustic shows in New York when he met Nan. In the honeymoon of their romance, Matt brought his electric guitar out of hibernation and Nan started banging the drums. Schwervon! was born. Their first album was called Quick Frozen Small Yellow Cracker, named after a mysteriously labeled box in the hallway of their NYC apartment. This cd solidified their sound as a "Sonny and Cher meets the Pixies" garage rock couple who who weren't afraid to get down to their dirty truths.... and let you into their living room with ruminations on love, food, money, and their urban surroundings. Their second cd, titled Poseur, found them kicking up the volume and production a notch, tinging their songs with some psychedelic frustration, while continuing to hone their bittersweet "Who's Araid of Virginia Woolf " pop narratives. They are currently working on a new cd.
 
*The Trouble Dolls

The Trouble Dolls' roots go back to Kudzu, the cowpunk band formed by singer Cheri Leone and guitarist Matty Karas in 1986, when both were attending high school in Huntington Beach, Calif. Three months after their formation, they recorded a demo in the garage studio of reclusive pop genius Emitt Rhodes and sent it to legendary KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer ("Rodney on the ROQ").

Rodney fell in love with the tape, becoming one of Kudzu's first and biggest supporters. One song from the demo, "Death Valley Girl," was Rodney's most-requested song for three weeks running -- managing to hold off the Bangles and the reunited Monkees. The song subsequently appeared on the Frontier Records compilation Thangs That Twang.

In 1988, Kudzu toured up and down the West Coast as the opening act for Rank and File. Later that year, following an appearance on MTV's "The Cutting Edge," they signed to Restless Records. Their Ray Manzarek-produced debut album, California Scheming, came out in 1989, but few copies made it into stores, due to the financial difficulties Restless was undergoing at the time. However, the album did not escape the watchful eyes of lawyers for United Features Syndicate, which syndicated John Neale's comic strip "Kudzu." They promptly issued a cease-and-desist order, effectively putting the last nail in the album's coffin.

Although Kudzu had in fact taken their name not from the strip, but from the Georgia weed depicted on the cover of R.E.M.'s Murmur, they decided that, rather than fight, they would call it a day. Matty and Cheri moved to New York City at the suggestion of a former schoolmate who offered them work writing and recording music for the Cartoon Network. However, the work proved to be something less than steady, and the pair separated for a time to pursue "real world" careers. Cheri studied film at New York University --while there, she directed the Gutterball video "Trial Separation Blues" -- while Matty became the pop music critic for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press.

In the summer of 1995, Matty and Cheri reunited to form the Trouble Dolls with guitarist Michael Taylor, a New Jerseyan who was in an early version of Monster Magnet but was unceremoniously fired when he refused to learn any more Hawkwind songs. Michael provided the band's name after discovering trouble dolls, a Latin American charm, on a trip to Guatemala; but he left the band in 1998 to pursue a career in television (Trekkies will recognize him as the writer of some of the best episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager"; they will also probably be angry at us for calling them Trekkies).

For the first two years of the Trouble Dolls' existence, they were solely a studio group, recording soundtracks for spaghetti-westerns-that-never-were on Matty's cranky four-track and making up bios about themselves that seamlessly blended fact and fiction (a practice which continues to this day). One of their bargain-basement epics found its way to the BMX Bandits, who covered the Trouble Dolls' "Love Isn't for the Lazy" on the B-side of a fan club 45. Another track, "Planet Robin," found its way onto the soundtrack of the 1996 indie film "Ed's Next Move". Still another, "Ice Cream Cow," reached WFMU DJs Belinda and Hova, who continue to play it on their Saturday morning show "Greasy Kid Stuff."

On their way to becoming a proper band, the Trouble Dolls recruited Gabe Rhodes, a filmmaker and one-time member of the San Francisco band Scenic Vermont, to play drums after he moved to New York in early 2001. Later that year, they met Pam Weis while sharing a bill with her band, Bionic Finger, at the Ladyfest East festival. When Bionic Finger broke up shortly afterward, Pam became the Trouble Dolls' bassist.

The Trouble Dolls play their aphasic melange of prepackaged, post-Madonna chanson and bubblegum at New York City clubs such as Luna Lounge, Arlene Grocery and the Sidewalk Cafe. Their (they can't believe it's their first) EP, I Don't Know Anything at All, was released in June 2002 on their own label, La La La Unlimited, and their debut album will follow later in 2002. They also recently completed the score for the Tony Daniel-directed indie film "Ame rican Bohemian," in which Matty and Cheri have (totally out of character!) cameos as musicians who wear silly clothes and smoke.

*Limp Richard

Limp Richard needs no introduction whatsoever, considering his work with his seminal outfit Limp Richard and The Disappointments. However, his longtime A & R rep/art therapist has recommended that he try to work some things out alone, leading to his current style, which Carter Buddlesby of the Entirely Fictional Times would refer to as "a demented alloy of Sonic Youth and Michael Penn" if he, in fact existed. Limp is also known by his alter ego, Todd Carlstrom, who plays lead guitar for The Domestics and writes and produces theatre with breedingground productions. Limp is managed by the beautiful and cultivated Remorah.

*Hearth

Hearth is a black heart folk rock band from New York City. They come jangled and direct, cryptic and depressed.

Virginia natives and cousins Scott Loving and Dan Penta have been playing together since middle school when the discovery of late-Seventies punk rock originators gave them the confidence and the drive to start their own band.

Later, recovering from a year long habit, Dan began writing songs on an old acoustic guitar left behind by Scott who was living in Colorado. These compositions were minimalist and painfully personal.

Dan relocated to New York, performing alone in the cafes and bars of the East Village and Williamsburg. A handful listened.

Among them were Kimya Dawson and Adam Green of seminal antifolk group the Moldy Peaches. They took Dan out with them as an opening act on their first headlining U.S. tour. On the road Dan got to know their drummer Strictly Beats a/k/a Brent Cole.

Sometime after the tour, with a newly transplanted Scott Loving on lead guitar and Dan Penta on rhythm guitar and vocals, Larval Organs was formed with Brent Cole on drums and Scott Fragala on bass.

Larval Organs gained a following in New York and Brooklyn. An e.p. entitled Schwag was released on Tuolumne Records. They toured the United Kingdom.

The band came to an abrupt end when Dan was institutionalized following a psychotic breakdown.

After being released and spending months on Virginia couches, Dan was invited to play a summer music festival in New York. Performing songs old and new, he was joined by Scott Fragala on upright bass.

Over the following months the act expanded and changed. Brent was there again locking down the backbeat. Harmonies were layered by vocalists Amy Hills and Angela Carlucci. Scott Fragala was replaced by Scott Loving on electric bass, making everything grounded and full. Cello was added first by Crystal Madrilejos of the Babyskins and later by Benjamin Kalb who performs also with Regina Spektor.

They called themselves Hearth and they rose from Avenue A. They have since taken the stage at Pianos, Sin-e, Bowery Poetry Club, and more.

Recently a three song e.p. was completed with producer Mark Christensen at Engine Room Audio in Manhattan. The recordings are a conscious movement towards high fidelity - too tortured and too bizarre to be pop, too tender and too polished to be punk. Hearth continue to define their sound and direction. They reach. The high is to play. Everything else remains.

*The Marianne Pillsburys

Maine native Marianne Pillsbury writes pop-rock songs with cleverly-crafted, hook-laden melodies and brash, witty, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Released in 2004, her debut album The Wrong Marianne has received enthusiastic reviews from The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Boston Herald and The San Francisco Chronicle and elicited comparisons to the best work of Liz Phair, Juliana Hatfield and Jill Sobule. The album was named a Top 12 DIY Pick in Performing Songwriter Magazine. The song "Boo Hoo" won Best Alt/Rock Song in The Great American Song Contest 2004 and was also selected for inclusion on ROCKRGRL magazine's Discoveries 2005 compilation CD.

Her Brooklyn-based band The Marianne Pillsburys bring Marianne's songs to life with a raw punk-pop vibe. Think: Blondie, Elastica, Liz Phair fronting The Rolling Stones, or Juliana Hatfield singing lead for The Pixies. The band has played NYC venues like Mercury Lounge, Luna Lounge, Pianos, Arlene's Grocery and Southpaw, out-of-town venues in Boston, DC, LA and San Francisco, and festivals like M.E.A.N.Y. Fest (Musicians & Emerging Artists in New York), International Pop Overthrow and the Millenium Music Conference.

In April 2005, the band released a 3-song demo called "The Hot EP" produced by the fabulously talented Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller, Ben Lee).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEET THE BAND:

Sandy Brockwell (bass & backing vox) Hailing from the grande state of Tejas, Sandy B. Rock-well certainly lives up to her name. Besides rocking well, her interests include surfing, horror movies, economics and tequila.

Mitch Distefano (lead guitar & backing vox) Mitch enjoys his role as the whipping boy of the band. Being a Brooklyn native, he can of course hold his own. In addition to being a rock star guitarist, he also gives rock star guitar lessons.

Dawn McGrath (drums) Queens native Dawn (pronounced "dwon") has earned her black belt in drumming by eating, breathing and sleeping drums while surrounded by her 700 bald Cabbage Patch Kids.

*Genan Zilkha

Genan Zilkha, guitar/vocals, was a classically trained pianist until she found that she had a taste of rock and roll. Since that didn't work out, she now spends her time writing folk songs with titles such as "I Think I Might Be Food Poisoning (But it could also be love)" and "I Know What Will Make You Not A Dyke". Genan is also known for her unique takes on Britney Spears songs, in particular her version of Britney's Version of "My Prerogative". She has performed at the Knitting Factory, as well as at venues throughout Rhode Island and Binghamton, NY.