Action Research Show #24 on June 13

I went to the show not knowing what to expect. Supposedly, even veterans of Action Research shows do not know what to expect.

Both Action Research, headed by Andrew Chadwick, and Alternative SubSouth, a similar movement headed by Chris Miller, have been gaining steady popularity as an alternative to the “guitar hegemony” of Gainesville music.

An article I wrote in “The Alligator” describes Action Research.  Here, I wanted to further describe my experience in detail and paint a picture of what the show was like.

I was initially going to use samples of the bands that I recorded on my cellphone, but after being notified of the YouTube videos available, have inserted them where appropriate.

Hal McGee performed first at Action Research #24, playing synthesizer as part of a duet with trumpet player, Jay Peele. McGee has been described by Miller as the “Bo Diddley” of experiential music.

Royallen was next. His music was described on the promotional posters as “records and tapes on a play date.” The description is quite accurate. He is a solo act, switching between a record player and a tape player, both which blast out children’s songs, books on tape and other assortments of sound clips. One of his machines broke at the end of the show and he frustratingly threw it down, ending his performance on a happy hoe down.

In the same dimly lit back room as Royallen, Kane Pour under the performance name, Pospullen, looped his guitar, bass and synthesizer into beautiful symphonies. He was one of my favorite live performances of the night. It was a like a cartoon, one-man band on psychedelics.

Andrew Barranca, under the name GayBomb, was probably the best known performer at Action Research #24. In his performance he used two Califone Magnetic Card Readers: devices originally intended to help children read. Sitting on the floor and using his spidery limbs, Barranca frenziedly swiped cards through the machines in order to play prerecorded samples of piercing distortion and thunderous wailing. The sound was akin to urban myths of what Satan would sound like communicating through a Led Zeppelin record played backwards.

Dave Armitage, a UF graduate student who performed under the name, No Limit Cycle, gave one of the most intense performances of the night. The whole thing sounded like a soundtrack from a suspense thriller. His voice echoed into a vocoder and he switched between tweaking knobs on foot pedals, clicking mysterious icons on his computer and playing heavy metal riffs on his untuned guitar.

Later, sitting on an old pew and a couple of chairs, Glockenshock, a glockenspiel quartet, played their hand-held mallet instruments in synchronized patterns. It reminded me of the simplistic band class exercises in third grade.

Towards the end of the night, prowling through the audience on ten gallon buckets, spreading yarn and eventually spasming on the concrete floor, was the dance duo known as Triscults.

All together, there were ten performances at Action Research #24, with two collaborations – and most importantly, it ended at a reasonable time. The show was like a sample disc of all the experiential bands in the area. I wish more shows would follow their example.

I am very disappointed that I missed their July 12 show, as I was not only looking forward to it, but desperately wanted to prove that I did not only attend the other show in order to write a story. The concept of the last show was interesting in that it pitted Action Research against Electronic SubSouth in a semi-collaborative match up. A great idea and great combination.

Visit Action Research and see their upcoming shows at: http://www.myspace.com/actionresearch.

Action Researchness = Weirdness = More words that end in “ness”

I suppose I will mention my last article.

It came out well — to say the least. That last part was unnecessary.

Anyways, it was an interesting process. I discovered a new stereotype: experimental musicians are even more awkward than “normal” musicians. Imagine that.

I interviewed a lot more people than were in the story, but maybe the extra bodies were unnecessary.

There is an interesting documentary about the Action Research movement, which I will put here (as well as a link to the story).

Action Research story

That is it for the night. I started too late. Vague promises of more later.

Ongakuga keko edu (That may or may not mean something)

So, this has been quite a long hiatus. Part of the time I have been in Japan; part of it has been spent laying around being lazy.

I now write for “The Alligator” doing mostly music related stories. My last published story was a local album review on The Early Twenties. I hope to do more local albums reviews in the future.

The Early Twenties review

A story about Glypher — the man behind Gainesvillebands.com

A series of reviews that was published while I was in Japan

I like listening to rap while writing stories. I imagine it looking funnier than it probably does. I make playlists based on what I think will go well with my keyboard tapping and then wonder how it effects my writing — if at all.

Lately, I have been working on a story about experimental music and an organization trying to gather experimental musicians in Gainesville. It has been a leisurely pursuit with a far off deadline.

I listened to a lot of Japanese music while out of the States. I find that most genres in Japan seem to be tainted by the corny earnestness of pop music. Permed and straightened hair, bland cliche beats catered to every type of song, voices that fluctuate at the exact right moment, etc. Just the way the culture views music seems different. In Japan, you can rent CDs like movies. I see the industry there as attention defect, with the market moving quickly and the devotion of the audience fleeting. It is amusing to see covers of American songs translated into Japanese.

I sang in a  karaoke booth. I had watched my family before, but had never participated. “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles and some Talking Heads songs were among the selections. My uncle sang some hair metal band he remembered from his youth. My mother and him sang a pretty duet together. My little cousin sang his favorite theme songs from cartoons and children’s television shows. I drank melon soda out of a tiny cup and my youngest cousin attempted to stick his hand in it to grab ice. The microphone tended to exaggerate lows and highs, making my mother sound like Barry Manilowe at times and like Alvin the chipmunk at others. It had a lot of reverb on it to mask any bad voice, but to me that tended to make it worse. I was never a karaoke person, but I guess I can say I have done it now — in the true form before it was popularized, butchered and repackaged in the States.

Back in Gainesville: one bandmate has left and one has returned. I hope my band takes off in some respect. I just want to play shows again. I am thinking that this will happen in the fall, when everyone is conveniently here and less flighty.

And those are my musical shenanigans. Later, I will write about some new artists I have found along the way.