Using just a beat-up old Rickenbacker and a slew of effects pedals, he fills the room with beautiful sound textures -fitting, given that his day job encompasses sound and installation art. I find it a lot more thoughtfully-paced and palatable than what little I’ve heard of Blevin from Blectum -which I describe to a friend as “like being stuck in a centrifuge with a bunch of ping pong balls.”Įrik Carlson’s solo project Area C is unhurried and pastoral. Billed as a “MixedMediaMultiMonsterMusicMonstrosity for light, sound, people, & shadow,” it lives up to its billing as a wild, enthralling ride - equally chaotic, surreal and hypnotic. Tonight she unveils “Beast 6,” a trippy, collagist mashup of medieval Tolkein mythos, absinthe-soaked visuals and snakelike beats. Tonally it’s well-orchestrated, upending the usual ascend-to-the-crescendo cliché by being alternatively high-energy and reflective.Īs one half of barmy SF acid-techno duo Blectum from Blechdom, Blevin Blectum’s OG persona was Gidget-Goes-Psych-Out, but these days, with her stick-straight black hair and pale, painted face, she’s affecting a more intense pagan techno goddess vibe. The show turned out to be a refreshing hybrid of extended DJ set and traditional concert, where each group’s music flowed fairly seamlessly into the next. But the vibe is friendly, the drinks are delicious (The Bushwick, I’m looking at you) and the acoustics surprisingly sharp. Maybe “see” is the wrong word: the Salon’s subterranean music space is dark and cavelike. Much love into the ether, Susan - we all love you and miss you.įriday I went to The Salon to see Area C, Blevin Blectum and tfo do their thing. I’m thankful for all those wonderful memories now as I contemplate a Susan-less future. But we still found the time, whether it was spending New Year’s Eve in Paris with Susan and her husband Matt or meeting up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to attend the first-ever Smorgasburg, we MADE the time. Once we graduated from college and settled into careers, those spur-of-the-moment adventures became fewer and far between. Take two weeks to go to London for the 1st time and celebrate 4AD’s 13th anniversary? What the hell.

Travel to Glasgow to see Prolapse and Arab Strap at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut? Why not. Usually, music was the spark but we loved seeing the world together when and where we could. More than that, we were best friends who had more adventures than I can count. And we unfailingly trusted one another’s creative judgment and advice in all things: editorial, aesthetic and personal. The two of us had a kind of wonderful mind-meld: each of us spurred the other to greater creative heights. Susan started WARPED REALITY with me and rapidly became someone I considered an essential collaborator.

It hasn’t sunk in and probably won’t fully for a long time to come. Damn it, who’s going to see the 20th anniversary LAST SPLASH shows with me?!”īut she didn’t, which seems radically unfair. Now that she’s passed away at the untimely age of 41, I want to say, “We’re NOT old, and you had way too much time left. Just days after she had received the diagnosis for the cancer that would end her life, my best friend Susan Curran gifted me with a magnet that proclaimed (in a jokey retro font): “I may be old, but I got to see all the cool bands.”Īt the time it was a joke between us, since we were both reaching “that age” where early shows are a blessing and SEATING is a fucking godsend.

Warped reality rooms