what's happening
5 Bands for 5 Bucks
Saturday November 21, 7:30pm, $5 as if you didn’t know …
Gaetana Brown
Bringing music back to its roots.
www.myspace.com/airmatressmadge
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Alto Cock
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itheye
Spaced out noise bringing joy to every brain it touches.
www.myspace.com/itheye
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Ununi
Jazzy, noisy, rock and roll with more energy than their amps.
www.myspace.com/ununi
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Kermit’s Finger
Loud Boston punk with none of the fashion traps.
www.myspace.com/kermitsfinga
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Black Steel Peacock
Confrontation pushed out of a speaker.
www.myspace.com/blacksteelpeacock
Todd Merrell + Jack Wright Group
Friday November 20, 8pm, $5 donation requested.
Todd Merrell - short wave radio
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Jack Wright Group:
Jack Wright - sax,
Kevin Frenette - guitar,
Kit Demos - bass,
John McLellan - drums
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Marc Bisson - prepared guitar,
Mike Funaiole - analog synth
Todd Merrell was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1967, he spent his early years in isolated, remote areas of New England and New Mexico, and found deeply human connections through radio transmissions, and inspiration from music synthesis. In 1978 he discovered the imperceptible environment of electromagnetic radiation that shortwave radio and processing can capture, and transform into an immersive, musical environment. Todd studied music composition and voice at Berklee College of Music, and with James Sellars of The Hartt School. A 2008 New Boston Fund Individual Artist Fellowship recipient, AIRtime resident artist and transmission artist at free103point9, his work has been performed by many ensembles, including Chicago A Capella, Jan Williams Percussion Ensemble and The New York Festival of Song. He has contributed live and recorded work to festivals and exhibitions throughout the world, from MACBA (Barcelona) to The New Museum (New York), and Orange 94.0 (Vienna) to The New American Art Union (Portland, Oregon, USA). His work has been reviewed in The Wire, Signal To Noise, and The New Art Examiner, and he has been interviewed for Monitoring Times, as well as WBEZ and WFMT in Chicago, East Village Radio in New York, and WWUH in Hartford. He has performed at many venues, including The Guggenheim Museum, The Stone, Issue Project Room, Knitting Factory, and HotHouse, collaborated with BT, Aidan Baker, and bassist Robert Black, and recorded for the Whirlybird, Dreamland, Archive, Mode and Mille Plateaux labels. He makes his home in Connecticut, New York, and the rest of the world.
Jack Wright, following an academic career and then radical politics, in the late 1970’s directed his energies into playing the saxophone, and is today one of the few musicians that has played improvised music exclusively since that time. Through years of touring in Europe and North America, often performing for audiences in towns where improvised music had never been heard, he came to be regarded as the “Johnny Appleseed of Improvised Music”, inspiring countless others. He has deliberately avoided the socio-aesthetic limitations of musical careerism, yet at 67 he is unquestionably an original and virtuosic saxophonist.
www.springgardenmusic.com
Kevin Frenette, a Boston area guitarist, has performed throughout the Northeast USA making music that is inspired by both avant-garde jazz and contemporary improvisation. He studied guitar, composition, and music theory at UMASS-Dartmouth where he received a BA in Theory/Composition. He has performed and/or recorded with such artists as Tatsuya Nakatani, Jack Wright, Joe Giardullo, Pandelis Karayorgis, Daniel Levin, Forbes Graham, Luther Gray, Harvey Sorgen and Dan DeChellis.
www.myspace.com/kevinfrenette
John McClellan, born in 1968 in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Massachusetts, has a resume that is expansive and varied, including work with Joe and Mat Maneri, Roswell Rudd, Berne Knicks, Roy Cambel, William Parker, Ken Vandermark, Denman Marone, Ben Monder, and the Either/Orchestra. He has performed at festivals throughout the country, including the Newport Jazz Festival, the Iowa City Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival at Sea and KMB Jazz Festival. John has also performed internationally at the Munster Jazz Festival.
Kit Demos on upright bass lives in Parsonsfield Maine, performed at the Munster International Jazz Festival in Germany, and regularly performs throughout New England and New York with other free-improv, free jazz, and electronic music performers. He has recorded with Jim Hobbes, Daniel Carter, Timo Shanko, Jeff Platz, and provides session support for a host of others. Kit continues to explore extended techniques in playing and composing while he teaches Physics and Chemistry by day.
www.myspace.com/chrysdemos
Lowell Poetry Network
Thursday November 19, 6:30pm.
Reading by featured poet Mark DeCarteret followed by an open mic. Brought to YOU by E W Hoyt’s German Cologne, FRAGRANT and LASTING, manufactured in LOWELL Mass. Isn’t that a mushroom he’s sitting on?
Mark DeCarteret was born in Lowell. He is the Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH. He has been the featured poet at many local and regional poetry events including the Portsmouth Poetry Hoot and Jazzmouth: The Seacoast Poetry and Jazz Festival.
A graduate of Emerson College, DeCarteret earned his MFA at U of New Hampshire in 1993. He currently serves on the faculty of the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, NH.
Boston Poet Laureate, Sam Cornish describes DeCarteret as “a poet of considerable intellect” and having “the possibility of becoming a major American poet.”
$3 donation cover the cost of the snacks.
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Call for entries: Fifth Annual Juried Exhibit
DEADLINE
Tuesday November 17, 5pm
Phone: 978-452-8138
THEME
Material is Language is open to all media. The theme is the media or materials. 119 Gallery’s artists and exhibits blur the line between traditional and non-traditional media. None-the-less the material is the language. How do your materials articulate your idea?
JUROR
Nick Capasso, Senior Curator, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden, Lincoln, MA.
DATES
November 25- December 20, 2009. Reception Saturday December 5 3-6 pm.
ELIGIBILITY
Open to 119 Gallery members, Creative Level and above.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND FEES
If you are not a gallery member, the entry fee is $40, which entitles you to Creative Level membership. See our membership page to join the gallery at the Creative Level Membership with PayPal.
Actual works will be judged. All media accepted. Limit 2 pieces. Wall pieces must be neatly framed, wired and ready to hang. Entries must be accompanied by entry fee. Work should not exceed 4 feet wide. Each piece should be labeled with artist’s name, title, medium, date and price. Unless otherwise specified, all art in the exhibit is for sale and 119 Gallery takes a 30 percent commission on pieces sold.
Download entryform.pdf
Please bring membership check with submission if you have not already paid. Please attach entry form to each piece submitted.
DEADLINES
Work to be delivered by hand between Saturday November 14 thru Tuesday November 17 12noon - 5pm. We will be open this Sunday and Monday. Pick up unaccepted works on Saturday November 21, 1-5pm.
PRIZE
A Solo Exhibition at 119 Gallery, date to be determined.
Adventures of Prince Achmed
Monday November 16, 7:30pm, $5 donation [UML students free]
Durgin Concert Hall
35 Wilder Street, Lowell MA.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed - Live Photoplay by the Andreas Kapsalis Trio
Andreas Kapsalis Trio provides live musical accompaniment for this classic silent German animated film. Taken from The Arabian Nights, the film tells the story of the noble Prince Achmed and his series of wondrous adventures.
Brought to you by Lowell Film Collaborative, UMass Lowell Music Dept, and 119 Gallery.
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Slasher Risk + Grasshopper & more …
Saturday November 14, 8pm, only $5 donation at the door!
Slasher Risk, photo by Nakata Kinuko, UFO Club Tokyo
birdorgan [Manchester NH]
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Kominas [Boston]
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Slasher Risk [Brooklyn]
is the improvisational duo of Sara Cavic and Andy Borsz. Primarily using guitars, drums, and electronics the two have forged a noisy and multifaceted psychedelic sound among the New York experimental music scene. Since inception in 2006 the duo has performed nearly 100 live shows across the Eastern United States, Europe, and Japan. They have played shows and festivals with Nihilist Spasm Band, Suishou No Fune, Excepter, Sightings, Magik Markers, Blues Control, Skaters, Axolotl, and members of Mouthus and Double Leopards.
www.myspace.com/slasherrisk
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Grasshopper [Brooklyn]
is Jesse DeRosa and Josh Millrod’s behemoth answer to “jazz infused” experimental electronic music. Using trumpets, EVI, and a modest amount of electronics the duo warp classical and traditional instrument sound sources into otherworldly drones and peaking waves of pulsating electric mire. They have shared stages with the likes of Graveyards, John Wiese, Noveller, Ducktails, Nonhorse, John Fell Ryan, Grey Skull, and Telecult Powers among others. The two have performed in classical ensembles across the U.S. as well as in Canada, Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Africa.
www.myspace.com/karlmalonelarrybird
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Hermit Thrushes [Philly]
are one of those refreshingly unclassifiable bands, using mishmash to their advantage and taking “experimental” to mean free-for-all. There are definitely threads of psychedelia in their tunes, as disorienting tempos and trippy found-sounds blend with overstimulating instrumental bits and parts. Fittingly, the members themselves are known for their wacky antics – live shows often feature zany behavior and outfits, and frontman Yianni Kourmadas is said to have gained inspiration and field recordings from a mystical journey through Greece.
www.myspace.com/hermitthrushes
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Ladderlegs [Lowell] is whatever it is ….
www.myspace.com/ladderleg
Make a Wish …
Denise Dumas: Make a Wish
Tuesday-Saturday October 20 - November 14, 12noon-5pm
Reception: Saturday October 24, 3-6 pm
Artist’s Talk Saturday November 14, 2pm
Installation View, Coffee 2009
A three-channel video projection, Make a Wish combines images of thunder storms and water with an accompanying soundtrack of voiced concerns to envelop the gallery in an electrical storm of uncertainty. Watery surfaces spill with a myriad of visions that form a layered collage of contemporary troubles. Mixing real and virtual imagery, Dumas creates multiple points of view that redefine domestic, political, ecological, social, and economic ideas.
“My work addresses psychologically charged situations, while exploring the language and its inventive uses, to visually translate aspects of human behaviour and consciousness. This takes form in the metaphorical situations I create, in which I perform, film, or use my sculptures as theatre or as actors.” — Dumas
Dumas’ installation is intended to empower us eliciting our resolve in the face of real and conjured threats. Like the artist, we are to summon our own sense of individual identity as a rudder to navigate through confusing circumstances and environments.
A Canadian sculptor and multi-media artist, Denise Dumas investigates boundaries and identity. As an immigrant, she is keenly aware of the borders and intersections of cultural, social and political interaction. Dumas believes that reality changes according to the environment and social context that we inhabit. She finds that current economic ills and political fears have created an insidious climate of insecurity that permeates our daily lives. Dumas’ video installation is a metaphor for this troubled climate, her stormy environment mirroring the unsettling times in which we live.
After graduating from Quebec Beaux-Arts, Dumas attended the Sir John Cass College of Art in London, and Saint-Martin’s School where she studied Anthony Caro, Tim Scott, and Philip King. She has an MFA in Creation from the University of Quebec. Dumas has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in Canada and in the United States and has received grants and awards from the Canada Council and the Quebec Ministry of Communication and Culture, the SODAC, and from the New Hampshire Council on the Arts. She lives in Wilton, NH, and teaches at UMass Lowell.
denisedumas.wordpress.com
Thanks to the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts 
Noise Action
Friday November 13, 8pm, $5 donation appreciated.
Diagram A
Brandon Terzakis & Benjamin Nelson
Ichorous
A Snake in the Garden
Jamesamoeba
plus perhaps a special guest or two…you never really know!
www.myspace.com/diagramagreenwood
www.myspace.com/brandonterzakis
www.myspace.com/asnakeinthegarden
www.myspace.com/jamesamoeba
Produced by Vanessa LeFevre and Andy Phelps.
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Life.Support.Music
Thursday, November 12, 7pm, free admission
UMass Lowell O’Leary Library, Room 222, 61 Wilder Street, Lowell
In August 2004, one of New York City’s most sought-after guitarists, suffered a brain hemorrhage during a concert in Manhattan. That night at the hospital, the doctors told Jason’s family — if he makes it through the night, there won’t be much left of him. Jason’s wife, Monica, pregnant at the time, froze. “Everything completely stopped. I forgot all about the pregnancy. I think I left my body. I remember thinking, ‘This cannot be true. I cannot go on without Jason.’” Days passed, and Jason’s family was forced to accept the new dark reality at hand. But they refused to accept the dark future described by doubtful doctors. So in the face of wrenching despair and horrifying odds, the Criglers made a resolution — Jason will make a full recovery. And thus began the long, grueling, implausible and mystifying journey chronicled in his friend Eric Metzgar’s film Life.Support.Music.
We encourage everyone to see this remarkable documentary, which has won award upon award. Jason Crigler will make a guest appearance to answer questions and to perform.
Presented as part of the Moses Greeley Parker Lecture Series in partnership with Lowell Film Collaborative and UMass Lowell.
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True Story Theater Workshop
Sunday November 8, 3:30-6pm, registration info below
The mission of True Story Theater is to promote social healing by listening deeply to people’s stories and transforming them spontaneously into theater. Our events create a respectful atmosphere where every voice can be heard and any story told — however ordinary or extraordinary, difficult or joyful. True Story Theater offers audiences fresh perspectives, deeper connections, and a renewed appreciation for our common humanity.
www.truestorytheater.org/
Registration $50-30, sliding scale, contact jeanwinslow.
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