Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Monday September 28th thoughts

Monday September 28th. A rainy Yom kippur and i  was a bad jew and ate a big salad. Declan Zimmerman started  the night off to an empty room(marc, jesse and me) he played catchy fun original pop tunes. as he played a bunch more people showed up. Still not enough to make the owner happy a suppose. But it was a fun night none the less. Everyone listened well and played at a reasonable volume.

When playing a lot of notes, one should play them low in volume so as to make a bit of a drone out of it . when playing loud notes, one should play them sparingly so as to create space for the lower drone to live in. With these as suggestions(not rules) I think the music should be a lot more dynamic. Another suggestion i have and mind yo it is only a suggestion, is to not play the same thing for too long. Often when youre really feeling a groove you tend to play it out til its boring and then move on.....my suggestion is that before the groove gets old, use its energy to plunge your moment into something different, it could be  anything from a completely opposite dynamic to something very similar but in a different tonal mode. or even just stop and fade yourself back in slowly. the point here is to keep it moving, dynamic and fun. With that said, I am all for complete done fests where nothing drastically changes ever. I am merely making suggestions here.

Next week Mothguts is playing a set, they play crazy free jazz mixed with crazy metal, a combo from heaven, i'm pumped for them. 

Raj made a suggestion to do an acoustic set, so next week we will start the night with a mellow acoustic set........

thank you to all who came out and played or supported, it was a blast.....special thanks to Declan, totally rocked it and brought a great vibe....til next week!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Monday September 21st thoughts

This Monday I tried some different programming for Clutter. I think it would have worked out a bit more smoothly if ordered the performers better.

We started the night with the Savage Thearter company performing a reading of the play "Savage in limbo". They were very well rehearsed and it was agood performance, there were laughs and intense moments, i love the theater vibe. A great way to start the show,.

Next up was The Fiction Circus. They are a group of short story writers who perform with crazy background music. They were very good as well, the only problem was that when they went on there was a lack of focus in the room, I think people were still feeling that after performance glow that the theater often provideds. Justin from the fiction Circus adapted brilliantly by silently mouthing and performing his story, that got a nice reaction as he rolled around on the floor animating the story he was reading to himself. John was up next, he asked for everyone to for a semi circle around and he told a delightful about a girl and a skeleton, great story. I feel that if Clutter had performed after the Savage Theater company, it would have made a nice sonic backdrop and tension relieving vibe so the room could properly come down from the intense focus of the reading. After Clutter , there would be a new need for some more intense focus a la The Fiction Circus and they would have gotten the proper attention, or so i think. Either way it was great to have them, I love what they do and I hope they come back.....

Next Chris D played his I say Fuck(myspace/sayfuckoutloud) set, which was mesmerizingly beautiful, ambient hypnotic, dynamic, just awesome. The owner of the bar told me during his set that it was "too experimental" and that the regular folk off of the street were scared of it. I told her that music like I Say Fuck is why I'm doing this night in the first place and that I needed to give him his time...a few people in the bar reacted in a very negative ignorant manner by playing pool really loudly and banging their sticks on the ground as a protest or something inane like that, most of  the other people seemed blissfully mesmerized by the sound, i know i was. these two opposite reactions really made me feel that something special was happening although i was a bit thrown off by the negative reaction, too experimental for freakin williamsburg!

Clutter went on next, it was a good set, i was a bit down from what happened.

Next week Declan Zimmerman is performing (declanzimmerman.com)

Thank you to all who participated and supported last night......

Brett

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

CLUTTER 9-14-09 north 4th bar

our 5th monday in the bag...thank you to all who came out and/or supported.

Blurple opened up the show with their quirky acoustic quasi-political catchy, fun, spirited vibe. They were a perfect beginning to the evening, infusing the room with good cheer.
After a sgort set up break for Clutter, Blurple returned to the stage to perform "the blurple song" with Clutter as their backing band. This collaboration worked out beautifully, I would love for it to happen again........

from "the blurple song" Clutter took over. The early part of the set was LOUD but very energetic. I personally put ear plugs in which made me play louder. We kept at a pretty high volume for a while until Cameron told me to tone it down because we were blasting out the neighbors. This was a welcome suggestion because i felt we were losing a sense of dynamic with everyone going full force for that long. From that point on, I was extremely volume conscious and was directing peoples volume, if they were too loud i asked them to lower a bit. This can be a touchy thing to do with a room full of musicians who are there to express themselves, I'm trying hard not to sound authoritative or controlling but sometimes people just need to be lower because the sound can quickly get way out of control. This has taken me a lot of time to get to the point where i can control the volume without completely killing the spirit of freedom, it will be a lifetime of work and development but I like the steps that it is taking at this point, and i feel it can only improve and become more of a natural gravtation towards reasonable volume and dynamics. Loud is really good, but there need to be a balance of soft for it to really have a great effect. Dynamics are key to this situation and being able to hear nuances is also very important, it makes for a more uplifting unifying experience. What i want to master is the art of lowering the volume but not lowering the intensity. 
   Last night once the volume was a bit more in control, there were some very epic moments, it made space for some very beautiful vocal drones and textural atmospheres. 
After a 20 minute break Chris D. took stage to start he next set with solo music called I Say Fuck. His muic was dark, hypnotic, repetitive and beautiful. I had a bit of trouble getting his sound through the PA but once it was there, it soothing the whole room. Wonderful job of controlling dynamics. When joe A added some droning on top of Chris,  I was in pure heaven. I Say Fuck eventually morphed back into Clutter for the remainder of the evening. There was some cool drum n' bass type moments in  the second set................

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who was a part of this last performance. 
I am looking for bands and performers of any kind to  book for monday nights to come. 

Brett

Sunday, September 6, 2009

CLUTTER Mondays at North 4th Bar......

Mondays at the North 4th Bar have been amazing. We are playing every monday night at the North 4th Bar 160 north 4th street btwn bedford and driggs in williamsburg brooklyn. 

Clutter is looking for video projectionists and artist of all kinds, painters dancers performance art etc......help us make this weekly event magical....thank you so much.



show starts at 8. no cover. $5 suggested donation.

Friday, August 28, 2009

CLUTTER Mondays at North 4th Bar......

Please join us every monday at North 4th Bar. 160 north 4th street between Bedford and Driggs. L train to Bedford. Bring an istrument, a canvas, a projector, cards, a board game, come celebrate creatinfn and life with the good vibes of CLUTTER!!! 8pm....every monday!

Friday, July 3, 2009