Neon Marshmallow is upon us! The Chicago experimental music festival returns for its second summer, promising a mix of drone and buzz that will startle and compel. This year’s edition takes place Friday June 10th through Sunday June 12th, and continues Neon Marshmallow’s penchant for juxtaposing accessible, “low art” pop (Cults) with avant-garde, “high art” composition (Morton Subotnick), and hitting every iteration in between. Add to that a bracing array of experimental film, visual arts, DJ sets, and probably one of the most exotic merch tables you’ll find this summer in Chicago. It’s all happening at the Empty Bottle, instead of last year’s Viaduct Theatre, which means, among other things, there will be a real bar this year, instead of a stack of PBR 30 packs behind a folding table. Joy!
QRO has highlighted a few acts we’re especially excited about and included the line-up below (current as of 6/5/10). Head to the Neon Marshmallow site for the latest information, and stream Morton Subotnick’s "Touch" above while you read.
You’ve heard the buzz, but have you heard the band? The jangly, Wall of Sound Cults should stick out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of long-form drone/noise artists like Lucky Dragons, Spiral Joy Band, and James Plotkin, among others – but for whatever reason, it works. Look for the pop duo to be a nice palate cleanser during an opening night of mantric mewing, inter-galactic shoe-gazing, and sugary séance.
Saturday
There’s something elemental about the wide-ranging ambient electronic pieces by Dylan Ettinger. As if the compositions were cut out as raw chunks of the world, fed through a synthetic gastro-intestinal tract, and released back into the world like humming, neon offal floating along a conveyor belt, headed to market. The songs can lean on “found sound” samples, as you hear in the EP Cutters; or the sounds can be built up from nothing – the New Age Outlaws LP sounds like the birthing pains of an entire universe flickering into existence. Powerful stuff.
Sunday
The inclusion of Morton Subotnick on the bill is part of what makes Neon Marshmallow stand apart from your average summer music fest. More than a legacy act, the work of Morton Subotnick is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s when he first began developing his live/electronic hybrid compositions. A piece like “Then Now And Forever” or “The Other Piano” pairs a live instrument score with real time sound processing. Alternately, the quadrophonically-recorded “A Sky of Cloudless Sulfur” is an absolute polyglut of electronic beeps and bloops, marimbas from Mars. Presently the composer is developing a music curriculum for young children. School is in session Sunday night at Neon Marshmallow – attendance is mandatory!
FRIDAY NIGHT, JUNE 10, 2011 (BUY FRIDAY NIGHT TICKETS)
DOORS AT 6 P.M.
Michael Zerang | Michael Colligan | Jim Baker Trio
film: Experimental 1/2 Hour
DJ sets by: Beau Wanzer
Visual projections by: Loo Tapes
SATURDAY NIGHT, JUNE 11, 2011(BUY SATURDAY NIGHT TICKETS)
DOORS AT 6 P.M.
Outer Space
Leslie Keffer
film: Selected animated works of Alice Cohen
DJ sets by: John McEntire
Visual projections by: Theodore Darst
SUNDAY NIGHT, JUNE 12, 2011 (BUY SUNDAY NIGHT TICKETS)
DOORS AT 6 P.M.
Beau Wanzer
film: Selected works of Amy Ruhl
DJ sets by: Massacooramaan (Dave Quam)
Visual projections by: Aaron Zarzutzki
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 12, 2011(BUY SUNDAY AFTERNOON TICKETS)
Sonic Celluloid at Neon Marshmallow:
DOORS AT 2:30 P.M.
Zac Davis
Tickets are selling now: visit the Neon Marshmallow site, buy individual day passes, or a weekend pass, to make sure you’ll get through the door for one of the premiere events in experimental music this summer. Cheers!
BUY THE NEON MARSHMALLOW COMPILATION TAPE
SIDE A
Beau Wanzer “Rhythm Track #46” /// C V L T S “White Cluster” /// Dylan Ettinger “Being Boiled” /// Leslie Keffer “Luna Loblolly” /// Lucky Dragons “Up and Down” /// Mike Shiflet “They Sold Us Everything And We Begged Them For More” /// Outer Space “Draw a Door and Knock Twice (‘86 mix edit)” /// Pulse Emitter “Pool” /// Rene Hell “Automated Drowning Tank” /// The Rita “Women Killed in the Sea”
SIDE B
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe “Bulles” /// Sick Llama “Leave Earth” /// Sickness “The Human Condition” /// Spiral Joy Band “Seven Horses” /// Telecult Powers “A Tale From the New Crow Hill Gnostic Lodge” /// Tiger Hatchery “Blue Aiwass” /// WHITE RAINBOW “TDK SUPA HIGH” /// Zac Davis “Live 8/7/08
