Where Have I Been? ugEXPLODE update

Hello friends. I haven't upped anything to the blog in a while because I've been busy doing some other stuff. One of my major projects right now is the memorization of all the notes for the Behold...The Arctopus February 2012 live sets. The band - with me as new drummer - has been rehearsing for a solid two years now and we're getting ready to finally bring our hard work to the stage. The material is a step forward in gnarliness for the band and I think people who dug the late Luttenbachers material will hear a lot of interesting things in it. It is definitely more cruel and dissonant than the previous material by the band. I will be playing my ass off like never before on this stuff. It should be good. When you hear it, you will understand why we had to rehearse for two years straight!

I recently did a spate of local gigs, including a trio set last night with Henry Kaiser and Elliott Sharp. The video below is an excerpt from the opening of the concert. Fans of these guys' most intense work will enjoy the music we made. We were loud and showed no mercy. Both guitarists got space to show off some of their sickest chops. A good time was had by all.



There are two great shows this Monday and Tuesday at Death By Audio in Brooklyn. The Monday show will feature the debut of a new group of mine featuring Matt Nelson on tenor saxophone and Evan Lipson (Satanized/Normal Love) on contrabass. We play kick-ass free jazz with composed elements. The other acts on the bill are a first-time pairing of Mick Barr and Marc Edwards (neither of these guys are strangers to the ugEXPLODE roster) and headlining act Dan Peck Trio, featuring Dan on tuba, Tom Blancarte on contrabass and Brian Osbourne on drums. Expect some serious abstraction and a LOT of notes at this gig!

On Tuesday, Talibam! headlines. Jon Irabagon/Mike Pride/Mick Barr will also tear up the stage. Cellular Chaos will reveal their new secret weapon on this night. I promise New York will never be the same after this. Also on the bill are a new project with ex-Liturgy drummer Greg Fox as well as intermission music by the loveably jingoistic, old-timey patriot-rock band American Liberty League (featuring Tim Dahl, Kevin Shea and David Earl Buddin). This show will be quite novel and irritating. Attendance is mandatory.

There are a lot of releases brewing for this Winter and next year. ugEXPLODE will be issuing excellent studio releases from Philly/NYC brutal prog artists Normal Love as well as the Pittsburgh based future-skronk duo Microwaves. The rumored End Result compendium is still on the table - it will probably be a massive two-disc set and we still have to go through the selections, master it all and create the artwork, so it has been a bit slow going. I guarantee this release will blow minds though. It will be worth the wait! Next year will probably see studio debuts by QUOK (feat. myself, Tim Dahl and Ava Mendoza) as well as Forbes/Young/Walter. I have some ideas for more archival No Wave releases, but I'm going to keep that stuff on the down-low until it's all properly negotiated. There will probably be a Cellular Chaos single soon too.

Non-label stuff coming soon includes a killer live release featuring myself, Paul Flaherty, C. Spencer Yeh and Steve Swell on Not Two Records. Weasel Walter/Mary Halvorson/Peter Evans will track a new studio album next year (featuring some compositions) and will appear in Europe in May 2012.  The Flying Luttenbachers' epic, penultimate album Cataclysm (featuring Mick Barr, Mike Green and Ed Rodriguez) will see its first ever vinyl issue as a 2LP set next year on Gaffer Records. The package will be special and there will be some bonus live tracks. I recently played bass on a marathon session of the band Scarcity of Tanks featuring Matthew Wascovich, John Morton (Electric Eels), Jim Sauter (Borbetomagus) and some other heavy hitters. Two albums worth of material will be issued on January 22, 2012 and another full-length release produced by myself will follow later in the year. The stuff is brutal improvised rock with more character than you can shake a stick at, topped by Matt's oblique texts. It's the most out and frenzied stuff the band has made and it will definitely appeal to those looking for some high-energy rock weirdness.

Okay. Enough for now. Back to work!

- Weasel Walter, 12.04.11

Time To Suck #1 + Music I Played on the Radio Earlier Tonight

Tonight I hosted the WKCR Musicians Show from 6-9 PM. I got there early so I could take in a little bit of the staggering archives at the station. Just browsing the spines of the tape reels made my brain hurt. It was utterly insane what they had on file there. Extremely rare recordings from the classic Free Jazz eras, with insane, once-in-a-lifetime line-ups. It was a bit overwhelming. I honestly couldn't concentrate hard enough to take very much of it in. Ultimately, I wound up playing some old favorites, some upcoming new releases involving myself, some unreleased live stuff I play on and a few solid chunks from three archival reels. Here's how it went down:

Albert Ayler "Holy Ghost" from "The New Wave In Jazz" (Impulse, 1965)

Joseph Jarman "Little Fox Run" from "Song For" (Delmark, 1967)

Marshall Allen/Weasel Walter - untitled, live performance (unreleased, 2008)

James Blood Ulmer "Revealing" from "Tales of Captain Black" (Artists House, 1979)

Eric Zinman/Mario Rechtern/Weasel Walter - untitled studio track (unreleased, 2010)

Ric Colbeck Group "Highlands"/"Lowlands" from unreleased Pixie Records session (1966) w/ Benny Maupin, Byard Lancaster, Sunny Murray, Joel Freedman, Sirone, Sunny Murray

Keshavan Maslak Trio "Buddha's Hand" from "Buddha's Hand" (Circle, 1978)

QUOK (Ava Mendoza/Tim Dahl/Weasel Walter) "The George Russell Lydia Lunch Mode" from unreleased studio album (ugEXPLODE, 2012)

Jimmy Lyons Ensemble - untitled studio session (1975) w/ Andrew Cyrille, Karen Borca, Raphe Malik, Hayes Burnett

Forbes/Young/Walter - untitled piece from unreleased studio album (ugEXPLODE, 2012)

Sam Rivers "Tranquility" from "Crystals" (Impulse, 1974)

Marion Brown "QBIC" from "Porto Novo" (Freedom, 1967)

Ted Daniel's Energy "Giblet" from unreleased live recording (1975) w/ Oliver Lake, Daniel Carter, a.o.

Evan Parker/Peter Evans/John Edwards/Weasel Walter - untitled piece from unreleased live performance (2009)

Arthur Doyle Group "November 8th or 9th - I Can't Remember When" from "Alabama Feelings" (AK-BA, 1978)

Cecil Taylor Unit - side 2 of "The Great Concert of Cecil Taylor" (Prestige, rec. 1969)

So, as you can see, I played tons of HARDCORE free jazz. At a certain point, I gently provoked the listeners and the phones rang off the hook with positive comments. There are still people out there who want to listen to this stuff. I'm glad I had a chance to play it all.

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And for something completely different, here is a feature I like to refer to as "TIME TO SUCK":

Time To Suck, Volume One:
The songs I love to hear, at your expense.
Grow A big mustache, quit Spirit, then go to Japan and play "Thunder Island".