Emma Bistro » Theatre Intangible

FMRL Arts Fall Lineup includes Michael Chapman, Lakha Khan, Father Murphy, Paul Metzger, and Tim Kaiser

Sep 262014

Michael Chapman

Chris Davis and Tate Eskew’s experimental arts organization FMRL Arts recently announced their fall lineup, and it’s spectacular. The season kicks off with Michael Chapman and William Tyler on Monday, September 29th. Shows in October and November feature Lakha Khan, Paul Metzger, Tim Kaiser, and “Italian occult psychedelia” band Father Murphy. All shows take place at Emma Bistro located at 11 Lea Avenue, Nashville, TN 37210.

Here’s the schedule so far. Check out FMRLArts.org for more info.

September 29th, 2014, 8 p.m.
Michael Chapman & William Tyler

October 10th, 2014, 9 p.m.
An Evening with Lakha Khan

October 26th, 2014, 8 p.m.
Father Murphy

November 13th, 2014, 8 p.m.
Paul Metzger & Tim Kaiser

<a href="http://fathermurphy.bandcamp.com/album/pain-is-on-our-side-now-2">Pain is on our Side now by Father Murphy</a>

Tonight at FMRL Arts: Sir Richard Bishop, Tashi Dorji, Tate Eskew 08-31-2014

Concerts No Responses »

Aug 312014

FRML Arts is presenting a hell of a show at Emma Bistro tonight, featuring Sir Richard Bishop, Tashi Dorji, and Tate Eskew.

The FMRL Arts blog has the details:

Sir Richard Bishop, like Cameo, is a knight of the sound table. Comparisons to Larry Blackmon end there. His discography is both diverse and extensive in a variety of contexts–as a member of psychedelic ethnic forgers Sun CIty Girls with his brother Alan and Charles Gocher; in VU-related garage band Paris 1942 with brother Alan and drummer Moe Tucker; creating Arizonan laundryroom exotica with Eddy Detroit; reprising Square Nine’s strange surf-bowed tsunamis with Maybe Mental’s David Oliphant; creating blistering trio improvisations with Chris Corsano and Ben Chasny in Rangda; and performing nimble-fingered hothouse jazz tinged with eastern modalities as a solo artist, owing as much to Django Reinhardt as to Omar Khorshid.

Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese free improvising guitarist based in Asheville, North Carolina. While attending high school in Bhutan he saw the movie, “The Thing Called Love,” set in Nashville at the Bluebird Cafe. Years later, he came to Nashville and tried to go to the Bluebird Cafe, where songwriters go to get discovered, only to find it was closed that day. Tashi Dorji’s guitar improvisations are spontaneous responses to a wide range of music he’s absorbed from around the world, but transformed into a personal style that avoids referentiality and folk-underpinnings. You won’t likely hear overt traces of Bhutanese folk melodies, but you may hear a six-stringed mockingbird fly nimbly with fingers stretched wide as Derek Bailey or Lenny Breau.

Tate Eskew has more than 20 years experience as a sound engineer, musician, and software engineer. He uses this experience and his fervent interests in ecology, regenerative design, and reconnecting with his own Cherokee ancestry to create a linkage between technology and nature through music. His process employs code-writing to create his own unique guitar sounds; using the studio as an instrument to create timbrally rich sonic building blocks; and finally playing the guitar to combine these units into delicate, occasional textures, which change with every performance.

Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Purchase advance tickets here.

<a href="http://tashidorji1.bandcamp.com/album/tashi-dorji-3">Tashi Dorji by Tashi Dorji</a>

<a href="http://music.tateeskew.com/album/oldowan">oldowan by Tate Eskew</a>

FMRL Presents a Spectrum of Guitar w/ Sir Richard Bishop, Tashi Dorji, and Tate Eskew
Sunday, August 31, 2014, doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.
@ Emma Bistro, 11 Lea Avenue, Nashville, TN.

Tuesday at FMRL: Dark Tips (Jessica Pavone, Raquel Bell), Haint Whoop (Evan Lipson, Bob Stagner) 08-19-2014

Concerts No Responses »

Aug 182014

Chris Davis and Tate Eskew’s FMRL arts series is proving to be the best thing to happen to the Nashville arts community in … well, a long dang time. Not even a month out of the gate, they’ve hosted heavy hitters like Jason Lescalleet and Jeremy Bible and booked upcoming shows with Sir Richard Bishop, Lakha Khan, and Father Murphy. Tuesday, August 19th, they’re hosting Jessica Pavone and Raquel Bell‘s band Dark Tips and Evan Lipson and Bob Stagner‘s band Haint Whoop. By the way, these are officially my two favorite new band names.

The FMRL blog has the details:

Dark Tips conjure advice from the underworld through Jessica Pavone’s processed viola and Raquel Bell’s analog organ and both performers’ vocals.

Jessica and Raquel performed together (with Evan Lipson) in the incredible art-noise-punk group Normal Love, named for Jack Smith’s 1963 underground masterpiece of indeterminate cinema. Jessica has performed in groups led by Anthony Braxton, Lawrence “Butch’ Morris, Matana Roberts, Henry Threadgill, William Parker, Taylor Ho Bynum and in a remarkable duo with guitarist Mary Halvorson. She is also an accomplished composer, having received grants and commissions from the Aaron Copland Recording Fund, American Music Center, The Jerome Foundation and more.

Raquel is a visual artist and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, keyboards) with a stunning voice, most evident perhaps in her rock band Mesiko. Raquel also has extensive experience in live theatrical soundtracking and sound design having worked on productions including Harry Partch’s “Oedipus Rex”; a Louisville adaptation of Hamlet set in a 1920s river town and featuring music by The Slow Charleston featuring Bonnie Prince Billy; and installations and performances by visual artist Daphane Park.

FMRL will host the premiere performance of Haint Whoop, a duo comprised of Evan Lipson (acoustic upright bass) and Bob Stagner (percussion). Evan Lipson is a monster on the upright bass as anyone who attended his trio show with Jack Wright at Betty’s a few years back can attest. He’s an integral part of the vibrant arts community in Chattanooga where he moved to start a tiki bar with the late Dennis Palmer of Shaking Ray Levi Society. As mentioned above, he also played bass in Normal Love. Bob Stagner is an inspiring drummer and force of nature in the Chattanooga arts community. Through his pioneering free improvisation duo Shaking Ray Levi’s Society, he and Dennis Palmer created a distinctly Southern axis of activity bringing high level musicians like Derek Bailey, Borbetomagus, and more into the region. Bob doesn’t just play ‘free’ as his background playing hard country and honkytonk with Roger Alan Wade and his current regular gig as drummer with Annie Sellick in the Uptown Big Band will attest. He also works with The Rhythmic Arts Project, a music therapy organization which uses percussion instruction to empower disabled individuals to succeed in other areas of life.

Advance tickets are only $7 at the FMRL Arts site. $10 at the door.

FMRL presents Dark Tips and Haint Whoop
Tuesday, August 19th, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show
@ Emma Bistro, 11 Lea Avenue, Nashville, TN

Weekend Shows: Suzanne Thorpe, Bonnie Jones, Jeremy Bible, Silent Film The Temptress w/ Live Dulcimer Score

Concerts, Visual Arts No Responses »

Jul 242014

Just a few short years ago, it was really difficult to find experimental programming in Nashville. But now our city has one of the most active experimental scenes in the country, thanks to the hard work and passion of people like Chris Davis, Leslie Keffer, Brady Sharp, Greg Bryant, Cody Bottoms, and Crom Giguere.

Take for example the evening of Friday, July 25th. Nashville hosts two must-see experimental lineups. At the new Wedgewood/Houston arts venue abrasiveMedia (I wrote about the space in Nashville Arts here), we have the duo Suzanne Thorpe and Bonnie Jones. Thorpe performs on flute, electronics, and laptop, and Jones performs on circuit-bent electronics and spoken word. They’re in town for an electronics workshop at Southern Girls Rock Camp, which I think is fantastic.

Stephen Trageser did a wonderful job of describing the event over at the Nashville Scene. Here’s an excerpt:

If you’ve ever been interested in experimental or improvisational music but found yourself intimidated by technology, jargon, or the prospect of successfully navigating a male-dominated field as a woman, don’t miss this show featuring cutting-edge female performers. Besides having several shelves of awards and advanced music degrees between them, Suzanne Thorpe and Bonnie Jones founded Techne, an organization that offers young women workshops in DIY electronics and instrument design.

The Voight-Kampff Duo (Brady Sharp on prepared guitar and Stephen Seifert on synthesizers) will open. The event, which begins at 8:30 p.m., is organized by Brady Sharp.

On the same evening at Emma Bistro, Chris Davis and Tate Eskew’s experimental art company FMRL is presenting Jeremy Bible, Derek Schartung, Coupler, and Tate Eskew. Bible is an Ohio sound artist and founder of the label Experimedia. Here’s what Aquarius Records had to say about him:

Bible’s jittery splutter of tone into jagged sawtooth patterns and erratic squiggle recalls some of the polydactyl, generative work from Keith Fullerton Whitman or the scabrous digital errata of Florian Hecker. At times, it’s a frenzied, furious work; and at others, it can be austerely designed in the vein of Tietchens.

Derek Schartung, Coupler, and Tate Eskew are all amazing local musicians. Dig Deep Light Show will provide the visuals. The FMRL show begins at 9 p.m. I recommend starting the evening at abrasiveMedia and then high-tailing it over to Emma to catch as much of this as you can.

Over at Cult Fiction Underground, they’re screening the silent film The Temptress, starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, and Lionel Barrymore. What makes this a must-see is the live hammered-dulcimer score by Ricko Donovan. The Temptress is playing at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Of course, I recommend seeing the abrasiveMedia and Emma shows on Friday and catching this Saturday night.

An Evening with Suzanne Thorpe & Bonnie Jones, w/ The Voight-Kampff Duo
Friday, July 25th, 8:30 p.m., $6 – $10 donation.
@ abrasiveMedia
434 Houston St. in Houston Station, Nashville, TN 37203

FMRL Presents Jeremy Bible, Derek Schartung, Coupler, and Tate Eskew
Friday, July 25th, 9 p.m., $7. Purchase tickets at http://fmrlarts.org.
@ Emma Bistro
9 Lea Ave, Nashville, Tennessee 37210

Cult Fiction Underground: The Temptress Feat. Live Score by Ricko Donovan
July 25th & 26th, 8 p.m.
@ Logue’s Black Raven Emporium
2915 Gallatin Pike, Nashville, TN

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