TETUZI AKIYAMA
(from tokyo, performing LOUD boogie set)
8pm
monday, june 12
FREE
tequila sunrise records
525 w. girard avenue
(btwn 5th & 6th st.)
philadelphia, pa 19122
01.215.965.9616
Tetuzi Akiyama has for years been a household name on the Tokyo improv scene, with appearances on dozens of releases on labels such as Improvised Music from Japan, For 4 Ears, Erstwhile, Corpus Hermeticum and Tzadik. But it was when he put out a boogie record in 2003 on the Texas based Idea records that we really pricked up our ears. Entitled "Don't Forget to Boogie," it's a full-on tour-de-force of mesmerizing minimalist boogie improvisation, hammered out on loud, solo electric guitar, which Tetuzi calls "the greatest invention of the twentieth century."
Well, shucks, in our alphabet, "B" always stood for "boogie!" And looking
around at the blasted void of Bush-era kultcher, it's plain to see that we're all in need of some reminding, and if it takes a Japanese dude to pull us up by our own roots, that's fine with us. We fully agree with that guy from the Weather Underground who told an interviewer in the 1960's "our political goal has always been the destruction of honkiness!"
But if you, too, need to be reminded, the Merriam Webster dictionary defines boogie as "earthy and strongly rhythmic rock music conducive to dancing," and ideally it's insanely repetitive, too. Oh sure, Sigmund Freud said that a repetition compulsion only keeps us from experiencing new sensations, but Freud also said that "a cigar is sometimes only a cigar" and then proceeded to suck himself to death on them, so what did he know?
Anyway, Tetuzi is now touring the states, with support from The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS) and the Japan Foundation, through the Performing Arts JAPAN program. Well, we asked around, and it turned out he was free one night, and he agreed to play in Philadelphia, at Tequila Sunrise. When T/A asked us whether we would prefer an acoustic improv set or an electric boogie set, the choice was obvious. A date was set, a phone call was made and a Marshall stack was secured, The rest is up to you - earplugs optional, bring plenty of liquid refreshments. This'll get that crimp out of your face, we guarantee it. And in case you need some more persuading, here's the most recent email we've received: "Anyway… looking fwd to playing in your shop so much. I was making some new riffs today. All the best, T/A"
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
TETUZI AKIYAMA (guitar)
Tetuzi Akiyama plays the guitar with primitive and practical implications, by adding a desire of own to the instrument's characteristic nature in minimal and straight method. He delicately and sometime boldly controls the volume of the sound from micro to macro level, and tries to quantize his physical system.
Akiyama released his first solo album Relator (slub music) in 2001. Mixing feelings of country and blues with free improvisation, Akiyama began to perform solo with greater frequency playing both acoustic and electric guitars, turntables without records and other effects. Using a prepared resonator guitar with a Samurai sword, Akiyama recorded his second solo album Resophonie (a bruit secret, 2002) which can be described as sonic sculpture with guitar. In 2003, his third solo album Don't Forget to Boogie! was released. Performed in a minimal one chord Boogie/Rock/Blues style with vintage electric guitars, Akiyama sees this LP as a tribute to the guitar. A live album from 2005, Route 13 to the Gates of Hell: Live in Tokyo (headz) was selected in the 50 albums of the year by The Wire magazine. Pre-Existence, an album of acoustic guitar solos, was released on Locust Music in the winter of 2005. Recently Akiyama started releasing an "official bootleg series" with the labels Esquilo (Portugal) and Utech Records (Milwaukee).
Akiyama is a frequent guest at international music festivals and in recent years has performed at What is Music? (Australia, 2002), Alt Music (New Zealand, 2002 & 2004), Amplify (Tokyo, 2002 & New York, 2003), Musique Action (France, 2003 & 2005), Musiques Innovatrices (France, 2003), Uchiage (Berlin & Vienna, 2004) and Instal (Glasgow, 2005).
Tetuzi Akiyama is presented with support from The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS) and the Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program.
photograph by shin sakai
TETUZI AKIYAMA NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:
June-
6 SAN ANTONIO; solo and duo w/Alan Licht, Salon Mijangos
8 AUSTIN; solo and duo w/Kurt Newman, Little City Downtown
12 PHILADELPHIA; Tequila Sunrise Records
14 NYC; solo and duo w/Loren Connors, Tonic
15 BROOKLYN; + Jaime Fennelly/Chris Forsyth/Shawn Edward Hansen, Free103point9 Project Space
17 MONTREAL; The Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival, La Sala Rossa
20 SAN DIEGO; venue tba
24 LOS ANGELES; Schindler House
25 LOS ANGELES; Eagle Rock Cultural Center
29 SAN FRANCISCO; venue tba
TOUR W/JEFFREY ALLPORT (6/30-7/5)
30 SEATTLE; Gallery 1412
July-
1 VANCOUVER; Western Front
3 VICTORIA; Open Space
5 PORTLAND; venue tba
6 CHICAGO; Empty Bottle
8 MILWAUKEE; Hotcakes Gallery
11 BOSTON; venue tba
TOUR W/HARRIS NEWMAN (7/14-7/19)
14 MONTREAL; Casa del Popolo
15 OTTAWA; venue tba
17 LONDON; Dissent
18 TORONTO; Tranzac Club
21 JACKSON; venue tba
22 NEW ORLEANS; solo, duo and trio w/Donald Miller and Rob Cambre, The Big Top
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lsd march- empty rubious red lp (TS-12006)
back cover image for the forthcoming vinyl release
of this most excellent recording. cd out soon on
archive. check back for more information.
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available now on tequila sunrise records
MICAH BLUE SMALDONE- HITHER AND THITHER LP (TS-12002)
SIDE A
swamp of the swan
coal black crepe
more than I can bear
sporting sorrow blues
grim
summerbelle, winterbelle
SIDE B
tatterdemalion stomp
a winter's truce
funny farm
all shut of you
new Orleans bump (jellyroll morton)
a little at a time
deluxe 180 gram vinyl pressed at record technology, inc., with an 8 page booklet, housed in a beautiful full color "old style/tip-on" jacket printed at Stoughton printing. limited edition of 500.
$24.98 postage paid/north america
$34.98 postage paid/rest of the world
available now at:
www.tequilasunriserecords.com
Micah Blue Smaldone. A distinctive name, no? Micah? A minor Hebrew prophet. Blue? A hippy-ish middle name. Red white and? Moon of Kentucky? Smaldone.could be Italian, or Old English. I understand his grandfather (on his mother's side) fought with the John Brown Battery in the Spanish Civil War and taught young Micah plenty of the old songs - but don't ask him to play Jarama Valley in Catalan. It's just too sad. His grandfather never got over it, and the whole Comintern business still sticks in his craw. His great grandfather (on his father's side) was the local IWW guy who saw to it that a little bit of Joe Hill was scattered in the Pine Tree State.
Well, I just want to say to the country that this is a real decent, fine boy. Micah Blue's got an original voice, reedy and spare, and he's a virtuoso ragtime finger-picker, too. His songs are charming, antique ditties - austere Tin-Pan Alley tunes with lyrics by Soren Kierkegaard. Like a single bright light, his music illuminates much while also casting a lot of sharp shadows, lovely, dark and deep.
When he plays live, he tenses up his whole body - tenser than you'd expect for a folk musician, like he might snap the strings, or snap the neck of his guitar, or just snap. But there's not a trace of irony in his music or in his performance, and I guess that's the Yankee in him.
See, it gets cold at night up there in Maine, where he's from, and when you got the blank eye of god bearing down on you, and you got the Jukes and the Kallikacks next door getting high on Freon or something, it just makes a man think seriously about where he fits in. Willem de Kooning, gazing up at the star-spangled sky over Black Mountain in the forties, remarked "the universe gives me the creeps," and I imagine Micah might agree.
Human consciousness may be a makeshift contraption held together with bailing wire and duct tape, but it will have to suffice. And it may well be true that regret and loss are inescapable human conditions (if you marry you will regret it, and if you don't marry you'll regret that too). But it is also true that music is a bulwark against such notions of human frailty, and Micah Blue's music does more than suffice. It offers balm and succor to a weary soul.
"Micah is so good," Jack Rose told me, "he'll make you throw your dick in the dirt!" I certainly agree with the spirit, if not the letter, of Mr. Rose's sentiments. I'll have to let you personally be the judge on that score, though you ladies will have to determine some sort of equivalent for yourselves, assuming you concur.
-- John Jacob Niles
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jack rose- untitled (parts I & II) (TS-7002)
proposed cover image for jacks new single. the plan
is to have this out in time for terrastock.
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if you only knew how much i love blonde chicks screaming
at me...
this weeks top ten (shop)
dinosaur jr.- green mind/whatevers cool with me
the jesus and mary chain- psychocandy
the legends- up against the legends
padingtons- first comes first
raw power- screams from the gutter
bad brains- roir cassette
black sabbath- sabotage
free- tons of sobs (japanese version)
entombed- left hand path
napalm death- from enslavement to...
this weeks top ten (office)
the avengers- 12" ep
the professionals- 1 2 3
generation x- first lp
boy kill boy- suzie
morning runner- burning benches
bettie serveert- tomboy
prince- raspberry beret
prince- i could never take the place...
antisect- in darkness, there is no choice
ultraviolent- crime... for... revenge
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JACK ROSE // CHRIS CORSANO UK TOUR: February 9-23, 2006
02.09 THR –LONDON, Luminaire
02.11 SAT –NOTTINGHAM, Bunkers Hill
02.12 SUN –CAMBRIDGE, The Portland Arms
02.13 MON -tba
02.14 TUE –CARDIFF, The Buffalo Bar
02.15 WED –BRISTOL, The Cube Cinema
02.16 THR –COVENTRY, Tin Angel
02.17 FRI –MANCHESTER, tba
02.18 SAT –NEWCASTLE, Modern Tower
02.19 SUN -tba
02.20 MON -GLASGOW, Volcanic Tongue in-store
(w/ Keenan) @1pm
02.20 MON -EDINBURGH Henry's Cellar Bar 7.30pm
02.21 TUE -STOCKTON, The Georgian Theatre
02.22 WED -SHEFFIELD, The Cricketers Arms
JACK ROSE ITALIAN TOUR: February 24-March 2, 2006
02.24 -Torino, tba
02.25 -Mogliano, Filanda Motta
02.26 -Ferrara, Zuni (w/h Forge / Ephinant duo)
02.27 -Bologna, Larkin Grimm
02.28 -Marina di Massa, Tagomago + Vialka
03.01 -Roma, tba
03.02 -Salerno, Mumble Rumble
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