Banging On: Plots and Plans

With the melting of winter’s ice and snow, Matmos will soon emerge from its studio hibernation to commit a bewildering variety of public outrages.

03/02 – Baltimore County – The atrocities start on Wednesday, March 2nd, when we will speak on the campus of UMBC (that’s University of Maryland, Baltimore County) in lovely Catonsville.

04/06 – Baltimore –  Compounding the damage, on Wednesday April 6th we will lecture at the Mattin Center on the Homewood Campus of Drew’s very own Johns Hopkins University, a few blocks from our house. At both of these “lectures” you can expect to hear examples of our work, spicy personal stories, and theoretical and technical digressions. Snacks are often served at this sort of thing, but we make no guarantees.

04/09 – Birmingham, England –  Sometimes people come up to us after our shows and ask “Who makes your videos?” The answer is M. C. Schmidt, and it’s a real honor to transmit the news that somewhere in the vicinity of Saturday April 9th M.C. will have a special screening of his video work in Birmingham, England at the IKON Gallery. This event is part of a festival in which a personal favorite of ours, Martin Creed, is rumored to perform. Someone tell us if this is true.

04/09 – Brooklyn, NY, on April 9th Martin’s improv-unit side project INSTANT COFFEE! will be performing at an event hosted by the Issue Project Room but held at Little Field, which is near by. INSTANT COFFEE! will be joined on the bill that night by our frighteningly awesome pal, Marcus Schmickler, and and and C Spencer Yeh, Carlos Giffoni, CoH, and Robert Piotrowicz! Golly! http://www.issueprojectroom.org/music/unsound-new-york-littlefield-coh-carlos-giffoni-robert-piotrowicz-c-spencer-yeh-marcus-schmickler-instant-coffee/

04/16 – Pennsylvania – Every so often Matmos has had the honor of being offered a residency at an institute of higher learning. Harvard and Oxford are now joined by an institution much closer to home, Haverford College in Pennsylvania. As the concluding event of a weeklong “residency” (no, not couch-surfing) there, on Saturday April 16th we will do a special performance on the campus of Haverford College in Stokes Hall at 8 P.M. The event will be the premiere of our first chorale (which is, no doubt, not technically speaking a chorale, but who’s keeping score?).

05/06 – New York City – People who read Matmos liner notes will no doubt recall the gorgeous and spooky string arrangements that the composer Jefferson Friedman created for the Matmos track “Semen Song for James Bidgood” on The Rose Has Teeth album. On a forthcoming CD for New Amsterdam , Jefferson’s string quartets have been recorded by The Chiara String Quartet and paired with some Matmos remixes of same, and the release of this work is the occasion for two East Coast concerts featuring both ensembles. On Friday the 6th of May Matmos will play together with The Chiara String Quartet at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Following from this, there are rumors afoot that we might also present this double header in Philadelphia on Saturday, May 7th too, so be on the lookout. Buy tickets here: https://secure.gigmaven.com/events/4644/orders/new

05/14-30 – EUROPE – Once we’re really warmed up from all of that, and once Drew has taught the final installment of his graduate seminar in the Department of English on “Early Modern Literary Ontologies” and M. C. has finished his fledgling semester teaching video at MICA, it’s time to get in a van and punish the people of Europe with a quadrophonic Matmos / John Wiese tour! We’ve loved John Wiese’s approach to sound design and noise forever, and Drew and John have been kicking back and forth a collaborative project for many years too, so it just makes sense to join forces and blow eardrums together. Adding immeasurably to the festivities, San Diego’s brightest hope Jay Lesser has agreed to be in Matmos for this tour too, so expect gnarled synthesis and bloodstained video cameras (a long story . . .).

14/05/11    Glasgow (UK), Old Fruitmarket
15/05/11    Birmingham (UK), MAC Art Centre *
16/05/11    Dublin (IE), Button Factory *
17/05/11    Belfast (UK), SARC *
19/05/11    London (UK), Auto-Italia *
–>21/05/11    MILANO (IT) Leoncavallo*  THIS  IS  A  CHANGE!
–>23/05/11    Rome (IT), Circolo degli Artisti *  CHANGE OF DATE!!
–>24/05/11    Bologna (IT), Scuderia *  CHANGE OF VENUE!
26/05/11    Paris (FR), La Gaite Lyrique *
27/05/11    Brussels (BE), VK *#
28/05/11    Metz (FR), Les Trinitaires *
29/05/11    Berlin (DE), Hau1 *
30/05/11    Leipzig (DE), Centraltheater *

* w/ John Wiese
# w/ Oval

Drew is very sad that he will be missing Maryland DeathFest this year, but touring Europe with Jay Lesser and John Wiese will make up for  missing Corrosion of Conformity’s reformation of the “Animosity” lineup.

06/04-05 – Los Angeles – This sounds like a lot already. But it’s not the end! We are pleased to be able to cryptically hint that we will be in Los Angeles on Saturday the 4th and 5th of June to participate in a very ambitious but top-secret event called “Art&Politics”, a two day combination of academic talks, dramatic and musical performance which Drew is in the middle of planning with Professor Kenneth Reinhard of UCLA. When the time is right, you’re going to hear a lot about this, as some pretty incredible people have agreed to take part. But that time is not yet upon us.

06/08 – San Francisco – If our gear holds out, we will play a show at our Alma Mater, The Bottom of the Hill. I believe our pal Wobbly will open for us…and probably play with us for a reunion of Simultaneous Quodlibet lineup. Did you buy that, by the way? You really should. It’s very dense, it’s sort of like three records in one…at the same time!

posted by mcess at 5:48pm| 3 Comments »