November 8, 2020
Galactic Zoo Dossier, The Singleman Affair, and ESS Present: Million Tongues Festival Part 4: Hazy Autumn Rituals
With mastermind Plastic Crimewave at the helm, The Million Tongues Festival continues in an online fest fashion--in the past MT has hosted folks like Terry Reid, Tony Conrad, Bert Jansch, Mark Fry, Acid Mothers Temple, Simon Finn---and now we can again feature incredible artists like Ed Askew, as well as new ensembles such as Waxwing, 8 Point Star, Magick Brother Mystic Sister and legendary artists Kath Bloom and Tom Carter! This will be a fully happening live event, so tune in for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see some of these mythical and truly legendary artists...
Stay tuned for Part 5!
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Waxwing (Asheville, NC) - 2:00pm CT
Waxwing is a newly formed quartet playing lush, improvised, acoustic trances. Inspired by avant garde, traditional and microtonal music from around the world, it features four musicians each with a strong rooting in experimental forms of music: Ed Yazijian (collaborator with Sir Richard Bishop, Glenn Jones); Liz Payne (founding member of Town and Country, and collaborator with the likes of Ken Vandermark, Pillow, Charles Rumback and Jim Elkington), Sally Anne Morgan (Black Twig Pickers, House and Land), and Andrew Zinn (bluegrass and old time banjo and mandolin player, frequent Black Twig Picker collaborator). Together the four weave together any number of acoustic instruments, from violin and bowed bass to tanpura and steel guitar, forming organic movements of sound that ebb and swell and may cause the listener to grow a third ear.
Joost Dijkema (Holland) - 2:30pm CT
https://joostdijkema.bandcamp.com/
Hailing from Groningen, Holland, Joost Dijkema picked up guitar as a teenager, determined to develop the fingerstyle guitar technique after hearing Leo Kottke and Michael Chapman. His first solo guitar record ‘Sacred Revelations’ appeared in 2016 on the local record label Twin Dimension Records, and the colorful follow-up 'Time Thief' (2019) expands the horizons of Dijkema’s music with meandering and intense guitar explorations on acoustic (6- and 12- string) and electric guitar, revealing mutated bluegrass and lazy yet lingering folk-rock.
Eight Point Star (VA) - 3:00pm CT
Eight Point Star is Mike Gangloff and Matt Peyton, and often Isak Howell and Tim Thornton. Pared down here to a quarantine duo and playing in the old “shred shed” in Ironto, Virginia (home to many Jack Rose, Charlie Parr, Black Twig Pickers, and Spiral Joy Band sessions back in the ‘Oughts) Mike and Matt revisit acoustic fiddle and dulcimer sounds they last explored in detail during shows in the UK a few years ago. A few brand new songs written during the isolation months make first appearances as well.
Magick Brother Mystic Sister (Spain) - 3:30pm CT
https://magicbrothermysticsister.bandcamp.com/album/magick-brother-mystic-sister-2
Magick Brother Mystic Sister from Barcelona, Spain, owe their name to a Gong album--their somewhat folky debut adventure, before the band so magnificently morphed into punky discordancy with ‘Camembert Electrique’. The band’s two main members Eva Muntada (keyboards/vocals) and Xavi Sandoval (bass/guitar) are in fact inspired by that same pastoral-psych Canterbury Scene of Gong, Caravan and Soft Machine and their new s/t Lp has gotten rave reviews for transforming the genre. For this set, Muntada and Sandoval will take on pagan covers and a stripped-down take on their sun-kissed psychedelia.
Tom Carter (TX/GA) - 4:00pm CT
https://tomcarterguitar.bandcamp.com/music
In his solo work and as co-founder of iconoclastic acid-folk improvisers Charalambides, Tom Carter weaves intricately detailed electric guitar improvisations and instant compositions from strands of melody, drone, fuzz, and charged silence. His Three Lobed 2LP Long Time Underground was selected as the number-one experimental album of 2015 by Pitchfork.
Sir Plastic Crimewave (Chicago) - 4:30pm CT
www.plasticcrimewave.com
Chicago-native Plastic Crimewave aka Steven Krakow is known for being a "psychedelic guru" of sorts, and is the creator of the Galactic Zoo Dossier, a hand-drawn magazine published by Drag City since 2001. From 2001-2011, PCW headed up Plastic Crimewave Sound, legendary space-punk ensemble that recorded 5 LPs, toured nationally with Acid Mothers temple, Comets on Fire and The Ponys, and whom Julian Cope described as "outtasite." PCW currently leads Plastic Crimewave Syndicate (who have opened for Hawkwind, Keiji Haino, Chrome, Loop, Josefus, Purling Hiss, and Woods and have released 3 albums on UK labels); conducts the Plastic Crimewave Vision Celestial Guitarkestra of up to 70 guitarists (performed in NY, Hyde Park Arts Center, and yearly at the Hideout block party), plays banjo/guitar in the spacey duo Spiral Galaxy, and has DJ-ed all over the world--from London to Tokyo. For this short set, Sir PCW will do a porch-filmed acoustic raga type sesh.
Ed Askew w/Jay Pluck (NYC) - 4:45pm CT
https://edaskew.bandcamp.com/
The underground singer-songwriter/painter moved to New York for a few months in 1967 where he met Bernard Stollman of ESP-Disk record label, who offered him a contract. Askew recorded the brilliant, immortal, edgy, queer-folk masterpiece "Ask the Unicorn" while living in New Haven in 1968 (the excellent unreleased 2nd LP, "Little Eyes" would eventually see a release on Destijl Records). In 1987 Ed moved to New York City, recording the excellent, hushed "Imperfiction" album (reissued by Drag City) and the man continues to perform with a full band or his multi-instrumentalist sidekick Jay Pluck aiding.
Kath Bloom w/David Shapiro (CT) - 5pm CT
https://chaptermusic.com/artist/kath-bloom/
Born to a musical family, Kath began with prolific relationship with Loren Mazzacane Connors in the 80s, producing a body of work beloved by generations of avant-folk luminaries. In 2007 Chapter Music released a tribute album to her songs from that time recorded by Bill Callahan, Meg Baird, Josephine Foster and others, while Bloom continued to quietly write, perform. and develop careers in music therapy for children and horse training. In recent years she has toured regionally from her home in Connecticut and has been invited several times to tour internationally, honing her current musical partnerships with David Shapiro (guitar, vocals) and Flo Ness (percussion, vocals). Her current LP, “Bye Bye These Days” is the first to document her current band’s sound, which harkens back to the avant leanings of her work with Mazzacane, but the tension now is joyful and expert--the sound of a practiced life, learned in all stages of love and loss, and resolute to keep going, like a locomotive deep into the night.